by London Casey
“One million dollars…”
“And how does it work?” Liam asked. “You have to play the part, right? So you have to act like you love her and care for her. You can’t go around sleeping with other women. How are you going to function?”
“How do you function being engaged to Miranda?” I asked.
“Don’t tempt me,” Liam said. “I will hit you in front of your wife?”
“Oh, I like that,” I said. “I like the way that sounds. Your wife.”
Liam shook his head. “Sometimes I don’t even know who you are, Jackson.”
“Bullshit. Yes you do. This is the exact kind of thing I would do.”
Liam looked away and sighed. “Yeah, I know.”
“I’m not looking for your opinion on this,” I said.
“I know that. You never want an opinion, unless it’s the one you have.”
“Is that such a bad thing?” I asked.
Liam stepped closer to me. He studied me for a few seconds. “You’re seriously married, Jackson?”
“Yes… I am married.”
“Come on, Liam,” I said as I put my feet up on my desk. “You can tell me anything.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say here,” he said. “I’m happy. I know what I want out of life.”
“What about what you could have had?” I asked.
“Listen, brother, if you’re going to keep chopping into me, I’m going to leave.”
“Right. Sorry. I used up my five minutes of time to explain how messed up your life is with Miranda.”
“Says the guy who’s married to his frenemy,” Liam said.
“No shame here. Once I get my hands on that one million, I’m going to be very happy.”
“How the hell are you going to go without sex for longer than a day?”
“I’ll manage.”
“How long does this happy marriage have to last for?” Liam asked.
“Not sure,” I said. “I’ll give it a little bit and then we’ll go after Vince. It’s not that complicated.”
“If you say so.”
I put my feet on the floor. “Liam. You’re like a brother to me. You think with your heart. You always have. That’s why you’re good at your job. Because you can’t use your heart. Everything has to make sense in your job. There’s no opinion. Just fact. Me? I use my head. I see things on a bigger scale.”
“You’re telling me your father would approve of this?”
My nostrils flared. “Really? You’re going to go there?”
“Why not?”
“I don’t think there’s much of anything my father would approve of around here. Maybe that’s why I want the company so bad. To get what should have been mine after he passed away. And to get things back to his vision. I know how outlandish this office is. I know my uncle is a money whore. And you know what? If Callie rises up above me, it’s going to get worse. Do I want to be married to her? Hell no. But for my father’s legacy and my own, so be it.”
Liam shook his head. “When you put it like that, it almost seems heroic.”
“That’s right. I’m a hero for this. Now I just need…”
My voice trailed off as I looked beyond Liam.
A few minutes ago some blond haired, pretty boy douchebag had gone into Callie’s office. Now this prick was sitting on the edge of her desk. Reaching for her hand.
“What the fuck?” I whispered.
I stood up.
Liam turned his head. “Oh, wow… that can’t be…”
The guy leaned in and planted a kiss to Callie’s lips.
Instantly, fire shot through me.
My hands tightened up into fists and my eyes went wide.
“What the fuck?” I asked again.
“You okay, brother?” Liam asked.
I looked at him. “No.”
“Jealous?”
“Of what? Some guy kissing her? No. If someone sees and our cover is blown, there goes my bonus.”
“You sure about that?”
“Liam. This is about money. Nothing else.”
My eyes moved back to Callie and the guy.
He was kissing her.
I was watching.
This was only about money.
I was angry about the possibility of losing the money.
Nothing else.
Nothing. Fucking. Else.
Chapter Twenty
Callie
Two really bad things happened at the exact same time.
The first was the moment Derrick decided to make his bold statement by sliding his hand to the small of my back and kissing me.
His lips touched mine and it was… oh, fuck.
Goodbye fake marriage to Jackson. Goodbye million dollar bonus. Hello rumors of me being a slut. Hello stories that I can’t hang with the ‘big boys’ and handle myself.
The second bad thing was the moment Derrick’s lips touched mine, I started to compare it to when Jackson and I kissed.
It took me a couple seconds to push Derrick away.
But he wasn’t having my answer of no.
He came in for another kiss, thinking he was doing the right thing. Thinking we were playing that stupid cat and mouse game.
The problem with Derrick (or at least one of many) was that he couldn’t kiss.
He was like an excited golden retriever seeing their owner after a long day of being alone, chewing on furniture and licking his balls.
His tongue was like sandpaper and he acted like it was a damp cotton swab desperate to clean my face of all my makeup.
Kissing him was like getting doused with a dirty hose.
I would usually just gently shake my head side to side and get his focus back to him and I getting naked to get down to business.
Not that that was going to happen on my desk. With the blinds opened. For everyone to see.
Jackson… fuck…
I pushed Derrick away again.
My eyes looked across the hall and both Jackson and his friend Liam were staring at me.
I stepped to the side and pointed to the door.
“You have to go,” I said.
“What? Come on, Callie. Who cares who sees us? Isn’t this what you’ve wanted?”
“No,” I said. “I never said that.”
“You literally told me to step up or stay away,” he said.
“I was drunk.”
“It was over coffee a few weeks ago.”
“I was on a sex high,” I said.
Derrick smiled. “So my sex is that good?”
He had the pretty boy looks and charm down to a T.
The blond hair, blue eyes, white toothed smile thing. He dressed nice but could dress sloppy and make it look good. When he dressed nice he looked like a puppet. And I liked being in control. When he dressed down, he looked like a painter or surfer. Except he couldn’t color a picture and stay in the lines. Speaking of which, his hands were the same. I spent so much time holding his wrist, putting his hand where I wanted it between my legs I could have considered him a sex toy.
“Derrick, I’m busy here,” I said. “You need to leave right now.”
“I’m just confirming…”
“Get out,” I growled. “Or I won’t go.”
He showed his hands and smiled at me.
His shirt was untucked, half unbuttoned. He looked like some douchey frat boy, living on his parents’ money, using that sexy smile to get anything he wanted in life.
So why was I tangled up with him?
Two simple reasons.
I had control. He had a nice dick.
“I’ll call you later, Callie,” he said. “You look really good. Love you all dressed up for business. You can yell at me later. Fire me. I’m a new guy. Trying to make copies and I can’t get the machine to work. So I’m just banging it… and you get angry… but turned on…”
“Derrick,” I growled.
“Right. I’m out.”
He made a peace sign and I cringed.
He left my office and I looked at Jackson’s office again.
He and Liam were no longer in there.
I wondered if Jackson ran to Vince. To work out some kind of deal. I fucked up the marriage but Jackson still wanted the money. Or better yet - he wanted the promotion.
I couldn’t even make it a full day married.
“What was that all about?” Misha asked.
“Why did I open the blinds?” I asked.
“Because you were afraid Derrick would see them shut and get hard.”
“That’s right. Dammit.”
“You’re having a morning here, Callie,” Misha said.
“You think? I made one mistake…”
“I think more than one,” Misha said.
“I’m this close to firing you.”
“You can’t afford to fire me.”
“Good point,” I said. “A few weeks ago during a slip up in the morning, we were having coffee, and it just felt okay. It felt normal. For one stupid second I thought maybe this could be something I wanted. You know? Rolling around the sheets. Falling asleep together. Waking up next to each other. Having coffee.”
“You mean a normal relationship?” Misha asked.
“Right,” I said, taking the hit without fighting back. “And that’s the one time Derrick decides to listen. I honestly thought I had chased him away. I mean, a guy like that wants nothing but free sex. So the second a relationship is brought up, it’s time to bolt. Which didn’t bother me. Except that his rich parents are throwing that charity event and I agreed to go.”
“You can’t bail on him?” Misha asked.
“No. It would look bad to his parents. My name is already on the list. It sounds terrible but I don’t want to get on their bad side.”
“So you’re stuck.”
“Not stuck. Fucked.”
“That too,” Misha said. “Can’t you fake sick? Fake your period? There’s got to be a way…”
I shook my head. “I’m not going to run and hide from problems, Misha. That makes me look weak.”
“Okay. So Derrick showed up today to tell you he wanted a relationship. What did he think when he saw the wedding band?”
“He didn’t even notice it,” I said. “I would have had to have it pierced through my nipple for him to see.”
“Oh,” Misha said. “Wow.”
“Yeah. I could shave my head and draw a mustache on my face and he wouldn’t notice as long as he had a glimmer of hope to see my chest. That’s how his attention span works.”
Misha sighed. “I wonder what your husband is going to think of this.”
“Well… I’m about to find out.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Jackson is coming our way.”
Jackson opened the office door and looked at Misha for a second before looking at me.
“Hey there, honey,” I said. “I mean, hubby.”
I giggled.
“Not funny,” he said. “How’s your morning?”
“Busy,” I said. “Yours?”
“Confusing,” he said. He looked at Misha again. “Don’t you have copies of something to make?”
Misha’s face turned red.
“Don’t be a dick to her,” I said.
Jackson stepped into the office and kept the door open.
We all stood in an awkward triangle.
“I’m going to go,” Misha said. “This is…”
“Go make some coffee,” Jackson said to her.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Don’t talk to her like that.”
Jackson set his sights on me. “Then maybe I should say what I want to say to you, Callie.”
“Go for it,” I challenged.
“I’m not blind to what you’re doing here,” he said. “You want to fuck your way to the top? Go for it. Just spare yourself the wasted time and go ride on Vince for a few minutes.”
“Fuck you,” I said. “That’s not who I am. Ever.”
“Then what the fuck just happened in here?” Jackson asked.
“Um, I’ll stop back later,” Misha said.
I was going to tell her to stay but she ran.
Which was probably the smart move.
“Jackson, you don’t know what you just saw,” I said.
“Yes I do. I just saw the million dollar bonus get thrown out of the fucking window. What is wrong with you?”
“There is nothing wrong with me. Stop talking like that right now.”
“This is fake, sweetie,” he said. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. Or what to say.”
“I can kick you out of my office,” I said.
“Try. I dare you.”
We had a mini stare down.
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to do it,” Jackson said. “You’re not built for this, Callie. This proves it. Good luck.”
He turned to walk away.
“You’re just jealous,” I called out. “He was able to make a move and not be afraid.”
“Afraid?” Jackson asked. He looked over his shoulder. Pissed and wildly handsome. “I’m not afraid of anything, Callie. You ruin this for me and you should be afraid. You’ll lose everything. This job. Your reputation. And your new apartment.”
He walked out of the office but I wasn’t done yet.
I went after him.
Fuck him for talking like that to me.
I ran down the hall after him.
I swung my right hand and punched him in the back of his left shoulder.
“Did you just threaten me?” I asked.
Jackson froze in place. “Did you just punch me?”
“Yeah. I did. What are you going to do about it.”
Jackson spun around.
I didn’t cringe or move out of the way.
I stood up to him.
His hands grabbed at my hips and he drove me back against the wall.
I tried to gasp but couldn’t do that because Jackson bent his knees, pressed his body against mine, and he kissed me.
His lips were soft and his tongue fierce. This was a man who knew how to kiss a woman. A man I was married to. A man that I was using just for money. The same way he was using me for money.
There was no need to be kissing right now though.
Nobody was around us.
We were hidden down one end of a random hallway in the office.
He kissed me like the building was going to collapse and our seconds were ticking away.
My toes curled.
His hands pulled at my hips.
His body pressed forward harder.
Harder…
I grabbed at his shirt and kissed him back with the same force.
This was an anger filled, hate filled, but fuck do I need this kind of kiss.
And as aggressive as Jackson was one second, he was calm and soothing the next.
He broke the kiss and took his tongue from my mouth.
He gently kissed over my lips, once.
He inched away but not too far.
His eyes were dead locked to mine.
That kiss was jealousy.
Pure jealousy.
He didn’t like seeing Derrick come into my office and make a move.
“You’re my wife,” Jackson said in a deep and fucking hot voice. “You’re. Mine.”
He brushed his lips to mine again and then walked away.
I stood and put my hands to the wall as my knees started to buckle.
I took a slow and shaky breath.
Well then… this just got a little interesting, didn’t it?
Chapter Twenty-One
Jackson
After a long and confusing day at the office, I cut out an hour early to meet the guys at the gym. I needed a lifting session hard enough so that the pain in my muscles made it impossible to think.
Why the fuck was Callie kissing some other guy?
On the first day we’re married?
Seriously?
If that’s what she wanted or needed…
>
There were ways around everything.
I shut my eyes and curled the heavy dumbbell for one more bonus rep.
My bicep felt like a balloon ready to explode.
I gritted my teeth and let out a groan as I got the weight up to touch my shoulder.
Now this was where a lot of wannabe weightlifters fucked up. They would just quickly curl down and release the weight, letting it slam to the floor. If you wanted to get real results, you needed to work the weights up and down.
I opened my eyes and Liam leaned against the weight rack, arms folded.
In the reflection of the mirror I saw Cole and Lincoln.
Fuck.
I lowered the weight slowly, my arm ready to rip itself off to get some release from the pressure.
I let the weight go at the end of the rep and stood up.
I punched the cracked leather of the bench and nodded.
“That’s how you fucking do it,” I said.
“Back to acting like this?” Liam asked.
“Like what?”
“Like some tough guy,” Cole said.
I grabbed my red towel off the empty bench next to me and wiped my face.
“We’ve been here for two hours,” Liam said. “You good yet?”
“You pussies can’t hang?” I asked. “Leave then.”
“You’re the one hiding your feelings, man,” Cole said.
I looked at Lincoln. “Do you have anything to say?”
“Plenty,” Lincoln said. “I was in the middle of talking to Dax and Finn about a real estate deal when Liam called and said I had to come down here. You’re lucky I didn’t bring the rest of the guys with me.”
The rest of the guys consisted of Dax, Finn, Gage, and Hudson.
They were friends but not close friends like Liam, Cole, and Lincoln.
“What is this?” I asked, looking at Liam. “A fucking intervention?”
“I came to see the wedding ring,” Cole said.
“What about it? I got married. That a problem?” I asked.
“You got married without your friends there,” Lincoln said.
“So what?” I asked. “You’ll have Liam’s wedding. If he ever goes through with it.”