“Excellent.” My lips stretch into a smirk. “Your scar is healing well.”
“My clinic is pretty high-end,” she quips breathily. “They can work miracles.”
I know they can. I’m paying for it.
Breaking our eye contact, I start up the engine.
Lucy jabs the button to roll down the electric window. “Mind if I get some air in here?”
My smirk widens as I press down on the accelerator and drive out onto Sixth Avenue. “Not at all.”
We cruise down Sixth in charged silence, the sounds and smells drifting through her open window. I’m glad I strapped her in, part of me wonders if she’s planning to jump out of the moving car.
An angry honk makes her jump. Damn, she’s jumpy. That’s a hard pill to swallow. She used to feel safe with me. Used to have her knees up in a lotus position, completely relaxed.
Now, she’s all rigid and tense.
I catch her sneaking sidelong glances at me when she thinks I’m not looking, trying to figure out my next play. If only I knew what was going on in that head of hers.
“I assumed a busy man like yourself would have his own driver,” she says.
“I like my privacy. Driving gives me space to think.”
She reaches out to turn on the radio, but her hand freezes over the button. “Oh, sorry,” she murmurs, her frown deepening. “I don’t know why I did that.”
My heart kicks into high gear. I know why.
“It’s okay.” I chuckle softly, flicking through the settings until my phone connects with the car’s audio system.
The obnoxious bubblegum pop music that blasts through the speakers makes me wince. I hurriedly turn down the volume before my eardrums start to bleed.
I glance at her quickly to gauge her reaction. That ridiculous song on my phone is her fault.
Her lips twitch. “Didn’t figure you for a K-pop fan.”
More like an unwilling hostage to your questionable taste in music.
“I’m not. It’s an assault on my eardrums and sanity. What kind of guy did you take me for?”
“The kind who listens to something more intense.” She glances over shyly. “Let’s see… what would a casino mogul listen to? The Game of Thrones theme on loop, to get you in a conquering state of mind.”
I chuckle. “Definitely not. Despite the fun mental image of me ruling a corporate Westeros, I’ll have to disappoint.”
“That’s funny.” She smirks, and like a pathetic guy, I feel happy that I made her smile. It feels like a victory, small yet significant in the grand battle of bringing her back to me. “All right, how about something more inspirational. Chanting monks?”
“Just regular old rock works for me.”
“I can see that about you. Old school kind of guy.”
My heart thumps heavily in my chest. I have to physically clamp my hands to the wheel to keep myself from brushing that lock of hair behind her ear.
We stop at a red light and I pivot toward her.
Her gaze darts to me. “Seriously, I live near the rough end of Washington Heights. A car like this is asking to be jacked. You can drop me anywhere, here even.”
My jaw clenches, annoyed. We’ve barely covered three blocks. “I’m more than capable of handling myself. I’m taking you all the way home.”
Her eyes pop open. “I mean no disrespect but don’t you have important CEO-y stuff to attend to?”
“Right now, this is the most important CEO thing I have to do.”
“Playing chauffeur for an employee? Isn’t this drive worth like thousands of dollars of your time or something?”
She wriggles in her seat, the movement causing her blouse to pull taut against her chest and reveal a glimpse of cobalt lace. A familiar ache stirs inside me. I bought that set for her. Memories of removing it from her body inundate my mind.
“I needed to clear my head,” I murmur, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel.
“You mean, JP Wolfe’s version of downtime is… driving?” she questions incredulously.
“Whatever it takes to keep me out of trouble,” I reply, unable to shake the thought of how different this conversation would be if Lucy remembered how much trouble I can get into.
She laughs. “It seems I can drive now. Can’t remember when or how I learned.”
A slight smile tugs at my lips. She had indeed taken the wheel of this car a couple of times.
“Driving in Manhattan doesn’t feel like fun to me.” She shifts in her seat, glancing out the window before turning to face me again. “Which do you prefer, New York or Vegas?” Her voice trails off as she sighs dejectedly. “The crazy thing is I don’t remember even being to Vegas for the hackathons. Like, how do you forget Sin City of all places?”
“New York,” I respond, my gaze locked onto the road ahead.
Her eyebrows arch in surprise. “Really? New York? I thought you’d be the last man to ever leave Vegas.”
I chuckle darkly, the sound hollow even to my ears. I thought so too. “Vegas wore me down. I’m trying to move on to the next chapter of my life.” I glance at her, her curious gaze meeting mine.
“That’s… surprising.” Lucy turns her head, studying me with newfound interest.
“I haven’t exactly broadcasted this yet, but we’re planning to branch out into wellness retreats under the Quinn & Wolfe banner.”
Silence engulfs us.
“Wellness retreats?” she asks, smiling. “Really?”
I affirm with a nod, a ghost of a smile on my face. “Yes, really.”
“Wow. That’s… quite a pivot from casinos.”
“Yup. That’s the plan.”
“Do you know much about wellness?”
I chuckle. “Enough to know I need it.”
She falls silent, absorbing my words. “So what’s the unique selling point for these wellness centers? Burnout recovery for high rollers?” She smirks.
“Something like that. Burnt-out bastards like myself who have been looking in the wrong places for happiness,” I explain. “It’s a business venture that echoes my personal wants. I need to put some distance between me and the madness of Vegas.”
Her eyes flicker in surprise. “But you’re the owner. Can’t you delegate the casino operations?”
“I could. But the temptation will always be there, lurking. It’s better if I step away entirely. Truth be told, I’m craving a quieter life now.” I flex my grip on the wheel, my arms taut under the fabric of my shirt. “This is off the record, Lucy. Not many at the company are privy to this plan.”
She stares at me, her eyes wide, her mind ticking. “My lips are sealed. I don’t think anyone would believe me, anyway. So, what got you into wellness?”
“I went to a retreat. As an apology to someone special,” I admit, feeling too close to dangerous territory. “It wasn’t something I thought I would have liked, but I ended up having the best sleep of my life.”
Her eyes flutter wider in surprise, but all she utters is a soft “huh” as she turns her gaze back to the passing cityscape.
“So I was on point about the chanting monks, huh?” she questions after a beat, a playful glint in her eyes.
“Quite possibly.”
“That’s pretty cool. I think I’d prefer that to casinos, if I was going for a weekend away. I don’t think I could ever feel at home in a place like Vegas.”
I know, baby.
“But really, it’s not about the place,” I say, my eyes burning into hers, not missing the slight hitch of her breath. “It’s about who I’m with. The city doesn’t matter if I have the right person in my arms.”
She hesitates, biting her lower lip, as if wrestling with a question. “You’re seeing someone?”