Page 19 of Austin

I might be a world-class idiot to want to race right now, but I seriously can’t think of a better way to get all this negative energy off my skin. It’s the only way I know how to blow off steam.

Racing cars might seem reckless, but the last time I felt out of control, I went and joined the Marines. I don’t regret it one bit, but the dangers were just the same.

I still have nightmares about the things I’ve seen.

“Mr. Sexton, you have your morning meeting in the boardroom,” Stefanie says, rising from her desk as soon as she sees me.

I want to tell Missy to fuck off, but I won’t do that to Stef. She’s too sweet, and Missy would eat her alive.

Without a word, I do an about-face and head toward the boardroom. Stefanie is in tow with her notepad in hand. As my assistant, she has the responsibility to take notes and be by my side for any requests I have.

This might be a board member meeting, but Bryce, Missy, and I have always brought our assistants with us, which means … Pyle.

She’s already in the room when I enter.

Bryce is in one of the large brown executive chairs surrounding the conference table. She’s in a black chair against the wall behind him. Her head is down, and she has a notebook on her lap. She glances up at me out of the corner of her eye and then darts right back to fidgeting with the damn thing.

When her hand slowly moves to her mouth, I know she’s remembering the way my lips felt against hers, and—fuck me—my cock remembers, too.

Her eyes meet mine, and she flinches, dropping her notebook on the ground. I try to hide my smirk as I take a seat on the opposite side of the table, placing my arms on the armrests of the chair and leaning back in my seat.

I’m swiveling from side to side, watching as Bryce is hunched over, thumbing a text into his phone. Stefanie is behind me, nervously tapping her pencil. These meetings always make her jittery, but she’s been with me since the day I started, so I’m used to it.

I swivel my chair around to her and raise a brow, teasing her nervousness. She scowls at me, and I let out a small laugh.

Turning back toward the desk, I look around the room—the long mahogany table that seats up to sixteen, the beige walls with photos of San Francisco cityscapes, a large television screen on the back wall that’s on with the Sexton logo as a screen saver.

No matter how many things there might be in this room, I can’t help but notice Jalynn. She’s put on a tacky argyle cardigan over her navy-blue dress, which is sexy in the way it hugs her curves, but her sweater looks like her grandmother knit it.

She’s chewing on her pen cap. It’s a disgusting habit, yet the way her lips wrap around the cap as her hair cascades down her shoulders in long waves makes me wonder what it would be like to wrap my hand around that hair and take control. If she has an oral fixation, I can think of a few things she can busy that pretty little mouth with. One of them being my—

“Sorry I’m late. I was on a call with your father,” Missy says as she enters the room, wearing a skintight leather dress that dips low to show off her fake Ds, which my father bought for her as a wedding gift.

If she were anyone other than the money-hungry whore who’s trying to trample over my mother’s memory, I’d think she was hot. But she’s a grade-A bitch, so yeah, she’s as ugly as sin.

Bryce cuts right down to the chase. “Let’s make this fast. I have real business to tend to.”

Missy takes her seat at the end of the table. Her hair is in a tight bun, pulling her skin taut into her Botoxed forehead.

“Bryce Sexton, are you insinuating that this isn’t real business?” she asks snidely.

“If this were an executive meeting, shouldn’t Dad and Tanner be here?” Bryce asks, causing Missy to smile.

Her assistant, Marcus, walks into the room and closes the door behind him. He hands her a binder and then heads back to stand at the door, like a bodyguard.

She slowly opens the binder. “Are you sure you want your assistants in the room? This is confidential information.”

“They stay,” Bryce answers before I do.

Stefanie has signed a nondisclosure agreement, as I’m sure Pyle has, too. Plus, Bryce and I can’t trust Missy as far as we can throw her. We decided early on, the more witnesses, the better.

Missy doesn’t argue with Bryce. Knowing her, she looks down at the girls like ignorant little office wenches when they do more work as executive assistants than she’ll ever do.

Missy crosses her hands over the binder and begins, “As you know, your father has signed over half of his stake in the company—twenty-five percent—to me. With this gift comes great responsibility, and certain changes need to be made in the company. Your father and I have found a buyer for the print and digital properties of Sexton Media.”

Bryce looks like he’s about to pounce, but I chime in first, “Doesn’t matter what you want. It’s a majority vote.”

“We’ve been in discussion with Tanner,” Missy says with a sinister grin. “And he seems like he can be persuaded.”