Slave To Love by Bridget Midway Read Free Book Online Page B

stiff enough to be considered a torture device.
    “Spoken like a true Morton.” Aaron chuckled.
    Jace didn’t. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    When Jace watched the smile dripping from Aaron’s face, he knew his employee understood the error of his ways.
    Aaron held up his hand. “Bad joke about the whole…” He snapped his wrist in the air and made a whipping sound. “You know. Your brother and all.”
    Good. Aaron didn’t know about Jace’s involvement—or, rather, his former involvement—in the lifestyle. It had been a long time since he’d cracked a whip or even been in a dungeon. The little things he did with women he’d dated only stoked the fire in him to do more. He stopped. He stopped going to clubs. He stopped dating. He stopped it all.
    Jace shook his head. “It’s been five fucking years. Won’t people let that go?”
    “Sorry, man. I shouldn’t have gone there.” Aaron lifted his ball cap and scratched the top of his shaved head. “I thought enough time had passed that we could, you know, joke about it.”
    Considering Jace hadn’t made up with Eagan after their father passed away, he really didn’t want to talk about his brother.
    “Did you come in here for something?” Jace went to a window and twirled the wand to the blinds that covered them to open them.
    Workers filled the small subdivision, moving back and forth to the various houses in different states of completion. They all looked great. He needed people to buy them. 
    “Apparently I didn’t come in my office to see you for your wit and sparkling personality.” Aaron stood. “Since you’re here, I can ask you about a couple of things. You have any plans for that building outside of Town Center?”
    Jace turned to Aaron. “The one in Virginia Beach?”
    Aaron nodded.
    Aaron started working for Jace nearly fifteen years ago, when he first started his building company. Back then, he did small jobs: additions, renovations, repairs, handyman work. As he saved money, his business grew and grew until he made C.J. Morton Builders the top residential construction company in the Tidewater area of Virginia. With all Jace had been through to get to this point, he wondered why his employee questioned him on a piece of property.
    “Why are you asking?” Jace rested his hands on his hips.
    Aaron shrugged.
    “No, don’t do that. You asked me for a reason. I want to know what it is.”
    The window unit whistled as it pumped cool air into the small trailer. It felt good in the middle of a hot summer day.
    “Okay, I was approached by a developer. He’s offering top dollar for it.”
    Jace felt like he’d been punched in his gut. “Why would you be discussing my business with anyone else?”
    Aaron took a step back. “I wasn’t. Like I said, the cat approached me. Besides, last I heard, we’ve only sold one house in here, and we’re building twenty. The real estate market is turning, but not that much.”
    Jace took a decided step forward. “Have I ever not paid you or paid you late?” Heat simmered at his feet nestled inside his expensive leather shoes and eased up his body.
    “No.” Aaron shook his head.
    “Have I ever said my business was in trouble or laid anyone off?” The flames licked at his thighs as it made its way up his body.
    “Never.”
    “If you ever come in here with suggestions on how I should run my thriving business, you will be out, understand?”
    Aaron tilted his head back and walked backwards to the door. “Understood. I figured after so many years, you would respect my opinion.”
    Jace didn’t say anything to the man who he’d found as a day laborer in front of a hardware store so many years ago. He should have trusted Aaron. Jace shared with him what he would have told to Eagan.
    Aaron rested his hand on the doorknob. “Since you are in town, Cherryce wanted me to invite you to dinner.”
    Now Jace felt like an asshole. Aaron’s wife had been nothing but kind to him and looked out for