ROMANCE: BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: The CEO's Game (CEO Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance) (New Adult Romance Short Stories) Read Online Free PDF Page A

down a long white corridor, and Kathleen recognized Hotchkiss as soon as they opened the door. He smiled under a head of snowy white hair, and Kathleen held back a wink as Adam sat by his side and she started to hang at the back.
    “No,” he said. “Take your seat at the table.”
    “Adam, I don’t---”
    “You’ve earned it, Kate. Come on.”
    Assuming the chair at Hotchkiss’ other side, the three of them stared down Walters’ team. A pair of lawyers with slicked back hair and bronzed faces seemed sure that the sky would turn pink if they only stated as much, and Kathleen took a deep breath as Adam laid out their case.
    “Now no one could ever accuse Mr. Hotchkiss here of a lack of enthusiasm,” Adam started.
    “Good thing for me,” Walters said. Kathleen hadn’t liked him from the first meeting in Adam’s office, so smug and sure of.
    “Of course he tried to correct the mistake before he got it too deep.”
    “Mr. Torrance, this thing is binding,” Walters said. “My boys have gone over it until their eyes bled. And what? Your… girl caught something that we missed?”
    Kathleen bristled at the insult, and Hotchkiss started to speak up for her when Adam held them both back and flipped to the third page.
    “I hear that my client was a few sheets to the wind when you guys laid this all out,” Adam continued.
    “My head was on straight.”
    “Was it, Mr. Walters?” Adam asked.
    Walters didn’t flinch when Adam brought Kathleen’s hand to the bottom of the page.
    “What are you doing?” she whispered.
    “You found it,” Adam said. “Take your moment, Kate.”
    She swallowed and started to tremble, but the feel of his hand pushing into her skin brought her body at ease, and Kathleen fixed her lips into a tight smirk.
    “Even if Mr. Hotchkiss was… not in control of his faculties as you say.”
    “Had my own hangover to prove it!” Walters said as he slapped his lawyer’s back and looked at her like a pig happy to writhe in mud stained with his own shit.
    “So you failed to notice that Mr. Torrance’s client added this little nugget to the fine print.”
    Right on cue, Adam offered a magnifying glass, and as Walters’ eyes strained to read the small letters, Kathleen rose to her feet and cracked her knuckles.
    “Hard to see, Mr. Walters?” she asked. “I’ve committed it to memory. And if we’re going to call this the binding contract, then you should be more than happy with your .5 percent of whatever comes next.”
    The color drained from Walters face, and Kathleen took some pleasure in the sight of the man fuming when Hotchkiss turned his head to Adam, his jaw going slack as he started to speak.
    “Did I… did I really know to do that?” Hotchkiss asked.
    “It appears so,” Adam said. “Now let’s just say we---”
    “It’s not the binding contract!” Walters wailed as he pushed to his feet and started to move across the conference table. “And if it wasn’t for this fat bitch---”
    The man’s hands were nearly at her neck when Adam batted him back with a jabbing punch to the jaw and sent the man flying back to his chair.
    “You will watch your words when it comes to my associate,” Adam warned. “I hear that there are other individuals who question your so-called legitimate deals. And Miss Bedford will come after all of you if you don’t take a walk right now.”
    Walters seethed as his lawyers helped him from his seat, and Kathleen couldn’t help but shudder as she watched them go. But Adam’s arm around her shoulders set her mind and her body at ease.
    “Oh well done, Miss!” Hotchkiss said as he shook her hand. “Even I didn’t remember that I---”
    “Good thing that she thought to look then,” Adam said.
    Hotchkiss grinned from ear to ear, and he pocketed the contract.
    “I’ll send you my bill,” he said. “Maybe put in a little extra for your pretty partner.”
    Kathleen started to tell him that she was far from that, yet, when Adam simply