Read Online His to Keep (Beauty and the Brit) by Terri Austin - Free Book Online

advice?”
    “Over half the time.”
    “He seems to have a poor track record then.”
    “He’s more than my advisor,” Iain said with a tight frown. “He’s my business partner and best mate.”
    Propping her elbow on the top of the backseat, Brynn watched him with those large eyes of hers. “But he’s wrong so often. You’re harsh with everyone else. I’m just trying to understand why you give Marc a pass.”
    Iain’s body locked down. “You don’t know what the bloody hell you’re talking about. I don’t give him a pass, yeah? He’s brilliant. He gives good advice—sound advice. He’s just not a risk taker.”
    “And you are?”
    He understood then. She was assessing him , not attacking Marc. He rolled his shoulders forward and his muscles relaxed somewhat. “I am. Wouldn’t be here today if I weren’t.”
    “Maybe other people on your team have valid advice, too.”
    Iain plucked the end of her flowing sleeve. “You mean I should treat all of my employees as though they’re the most important people in the world. Maybe I should start handing out gold stars. What do you think?”
    “I think you’re making fun of me.”
    “I am. A bit. How did you get into the manual writing business anyway?” He already knew the answer, of course. What else would someone do with a degree in literature?
    “I have a degree in English lit,” Brynn said, “and I minored in art history. At TDTC, I can put my skills to good use. I like my job.”
    “That didn’t sound half-convincing, pet.”
    “I do like it.”
    He continued to stare at her.
    “I’m just overloaded right now,” she said, squirming. “Anyway, not everyone likes their job all the time.”
    “I do. I love my job.”
    “Why?”
    “Why?” he repeated. “What’s not to love? I’m my own boss. I shape my own world.” Iain woke up every day with a challenge before him: let the naysayers win or take them down. He took them down with a vengeance. He’d done it time after time and it never got old.
    Iain had opened his first business a year after coming to Vegas—a car wash and detailing shop. The bank wouldn’t loan him a dime. A twenty-one-year-old foreigner with no track record and little education? They’d all but laughed in his face. So Iain had worked three jobs to rent the space. And when he and Marc had taken their shirts off one hot, summer afternoon, they discovered that Vegas mums enjoyed staring at muscular, half-naked men. Their Manc accents didn’t hurt either. Within days, SUVs were lined up around the bloody block. Marc and Iain hired more buff employees to titillate the ladies. In six months, they’d purchased the facility. In a year, they’d opened their second location. By year three, they’d parlayed that money to buy a strip mall, and had kept building from there.
    Through hard work, long hours, and a few lucky breaks, Iain had gotten to know some of Vegas’s heavy hitters. He’d lost tens of thousands in friendly games of poker, all to win the trust of men who had deep pockets. Throwing away money damn near gutted him, but he’d done it with a shrug and a smile. He’d learned to play a decent round of golf, even though he despised the game. But the one thing Iain couldn’t quite manage was kissing ass. Fortunately, Marc excelled at it. “Being polite,” he called it. Together, they had grown their small business into a moneymaking enterprise.
    Iain had created the world he’d envisioned as a lad, where he was the boss, where he called the shots, and where no one—except Marc—could question him. He’d come a long way from that frightened boy who cowered at the sound of his father’s voice.
    There was more to be done, more to create. In this ever-changing town, people would remember his name. Iain Chapman was here, you fuckers. And you’ll never be as good as I was.
    The car pulled up to the hotel. He climbed out and held the door for Brynn. “We opened a Southern bistro a few months back. I think