by Claire Adams
“Get the suit. The green looks fabulous, find one more dress shirt with a tie that looks good. Maybe blue. That’ll bring out your eyes. I have to go.”
“Stella, wait just a second.”
“See you at the office,” she said, sniffling.
And with that, she was gone.
Chapter Fourteen
Stella
After thinking about the phone call for a couple of days, I finally decided to confront Greyson. He was dodging my calls and not returning my text messages, so showing up at his home was the only option I had. My mind was spinning with every single excuse I could concoct: maybe the woman’s voice I heard was on the television. Maybe he was in a meeting with a woman. Maybe he was helping a woman who was in labor or in pain.
But deep down, I knew what I had heard. And I wanted to see if Greyson would be man enough to admit it to me.
I pulled up to his home at 7, an hour before I was due at the office. We needed to talk. In my heart, I wanted him to look me in the eye and tell me it was all in my head. That the butt-dial phone call where I heard his grunting and a woman’s panting was nothing more than a workout partner or him saving someone’s day.
I wanted him to tell me he wasn’t cheating on me.
I’d spent the past two years of my life loving him. Despite his downfalls and all the cocky arrogance he possessed, he understood me in ways no one else did. He wasn’t always there when I wanted him, but he was there when I always needed him.
Well, except at the funeral. But, I understood that work came first sometimes.
When I pulled up to his house, I saw a car I didn’t recognize in the driveway. I felt my stomach drop to my knees, so I decided to call him one last time. This was his last chance to pick up the phone and explain to me what was going on. One final opportunity to explain himself and let me know he cared about me as much as I cared about him.
But when it rang once then went to his voicemail, I climbed out of my car and used my key to get into his house.
“Greyson?” I called out. “You here?”
I heard shuffling around in the bedroom before a door opened up, and Greyson stumbled out into the hallway in his boxers with disheveled hair. I had always loved the way he first looked thing in the morning. He was always disoriented before his coffee, but he always had the best sexual stamina in the morning also. I loved his coffee-tainted breath on my lips.
He was always the gentlest when he was first caffeinated and waking up.
“Stella?” he asked. “Hey there, sweetheart. Everything alright?”
“Are you aware you butt-dialed me a couple days ago?” I asked.
“Uh, really?” he asked. “I didn’t realize that.”
“Are you aware that I just called you?” I asked.
“Actually, no. I wasn’t. I was in the bathroom,” he said.
“Then, who shot me to voicemail?” I asked.
Just then, I heard more shuffling in his room. My mind was yelling at me, knowing full good and well what was going on, but my heart didn’t want to admit it. My pride wanted Greyson to say it, and my feet wanted to turn and walk out of the house.
Walk out before my worst nightmare officially proved true.
“Who’s in your room, Greyson?” I asked coolly.
“Stella, this isn’t what it looks like,” he said.
“I’m not looking at anything. Just my boyfriend of two years looking wonderful in his boxers. What am I hearing?” I asked.
I started down the hallway, and he stepped in front of me to stop me in my tracks. I tried to sidestep him, dodging his arms and body, and finally pushed past him before I threw his bedroom door open. The darkness of his room shrouded a figure moving underneath his sheets, so I reached over to turn on the light.
But, his hand caught me mid-air before I could.
“Stella, just listen,” he said into my ear.
“You are such a little fucker, Greyson,” I whispered.
I flipped the light on and saw exactly what I knew I would, and she was beautiful. Exotic tanned skin with long, curly brown hair. Her deep brown eyes twinkled with his bedroom lights as my eyes drifted over the dark hickeys on her neck and chest. The sheet fell from her breasts, full and perky and red with his teeth marks.
My vision tunneled as my heart shattered into pieces.
“You are such a sack of shit!” I yelled, throwing my fist into Greyson’s stomach.
“Stella, come on,” he said. “Let’s be reasonable.”
“Reasonable? Reasonable! My father just died, and you missed the fucking funeral, and you want me to be reasonable? You’re fucking around with some bimbo! Were you fucking her during my father’s funeral?”
“What? No! Stella, what the fuck.”
“So, you didn’t ditch my father’s funeral so you could get some pussy? You didn’t leave me high and dry when I needed you most so you could get your kicks since I wasn’t giving you any?” I yelled.
“Stella, let’s sit down and talk. Surely we can work this out.”
“I’m done,” I said.
“What?”
“Greyson, I’ve defended you for years. Every single person in my life, including the man I just buried, can’t stand you. They think you’re elitist and an idiot. Pompous and aristocratic. They say you live with your head in the clouds, and I defended you. For two solid years, I defended why I wanted you by my side. And this is how you repay me?”
“Well, it’s not my fault they can’t see the value in me,” he said.
“Are you fucking serious?” I asked, my fingernails digging into the skin of my balled-up fists.
“People are always intimidated by those they can’t surpass. It’s really a compliment,” he said.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked.
“Stella, can we please just sit and talk? I’ll tell Brianna to go home, and we can have a discussion.”
I stared at him like he had a tarantula on his face. This man was in bed with a fucking naked woman, and he wanted to send her home so we could talk. This man that I’d given two years of my life to was fucking another woman, and somehow, he was making me feel like the unreasonable one!
“I’m done, Greyson. Enjoy your slice of regret over there,” I said.
“Stella. Wait. Come on, Stella! Don’t be an idiot!”
“Lose my number, you asshole!”
I slammed out of his home and peeled from his driveway. If I didn’t get out of here now, I’d do something I was going to wholly regret. Tears flooded my face as I raced to the office, my appetite no longer anxious for the cheese danish I always got from the bakery down the street.
I needed to get to my office and sink myself into work before Christian got in.
I threw the doors of the building open and started for my office. My heart was pulsing in my ears, and I couldn’t see straight. I knew my face was flushed, and I could feel my hands shaking. I wiped the tears from my eyes as I approached the door of my office, but the moment I reached for my keys I felt a hand descend onto my shoulder.
“Stella,” Christian said. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, you startled me; not sleeping well is all,” I said.
“Don’t lie to me,” he said. “Don’t back away from me.”
“I need to go prep for this meeting, Christian. It’s in an hour,” I said.
“Then I’ll prep with you.”
“No, let me get myself together, and I’ll be fine,” I said.
“Did Greyson do something?” he asked.
The question stopped me in my tracks, and tears hopped back into my eyes. I unlocked my office door and walked in, feeling Christian hot on my heels. I didn’t want to talk about this, especially with him. But, when I turned around and saw him in his beautifully tailored suit, something inside me felt safe.
And what had happened fell from my lips without me having to think about it.
“The butt-dial that happened a couple of days ago was Greyson with anothe
r woman. I found him with her this morning,” I said.
Christian’s eyes turned from confusion to sympathy, and he drew me into his body in a bear hug. I wrapped my arms around his thin frame, pressing my cheek into his surprisingly strong chest, and all I wanted to do was sob. Everyone had been right about him, but I had been desperate to prove them wrong. I wanted them to see the man I saw when it was the two of us alone — the caring, devoted, passionate man who was driven to excel in absolutely everything he did.
But they were right. They were all right, and I was all wrong.
“I’m so sorry, Stella,” he said.
He rubbed my back while I pulled myself together, then I pushed him away and sat down heavily on my couch. I began pulling files from my briefcase to prepare for the meeting, and I lost myself so deeply into the files, I didn’t realize he had walked away.
“Stella?” Christian said.
“I’ll be ready in 30,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it. I rescheduled our meeting with the doctor for Monday,” he said.
“What?” I asked. “Why the hell did you do that?”
“Because you need time to adjust. I told her there was information we would need from her, detailed information, and she said she could have it ready by Monday. That way, you have time to process, I have more time to learn the tricks of the trade, and we can get her going with orders before we even walk out of that meeting,” he said.
I looked over at him in appreciation and took in the impression he made in his new clothes. The suit fell wonderfully against his shoulders before it tapered at his waist, and I’d never realized until this very moment how long his legs really were.
It took force to rip my gaze from him before I flopped the files down onto the coffee table.
“Thanks,” I said.
“No thanks needed. It’s the smarter choice for the company in the end.”
“When did you get to be so smart?” I asked.
“I’ve always been smart, I think,” he said, winking.
“Stella!”
I hopped up from the couch when I heard Greyson’s voice yell down the hallway.
“Greyson’s here?” I asked.
“I’ll handle this,” Christian said.
“Stella! Get out here now!” he yelled.
Christian stood his entire body in my doorway, and it was the first time I got a sense of how truly tall he was. He pushed his hands into his pockets and stood in the doorway of my office, blocking Greyson from coming in. His shoulders were pulled back, and his head was held high, and that’s when I finally realized that Christian had grown up.
Christian Gunn had become a man, and I had been oblivious to it.
“Can I help you?” Christian asked.
“Get out of my way,” Greyson said. “Where’s Stella?”
“Hard at work helping me run this company. But, I’d be more than willing to take a message for her, if you’d like,” Christian said.
“Stella! You left before we could talk!” Greyson yelled.
“I don’t really believe there’s anything for the two of you to talk about. You cheated on my stepsister. One of the most beautiful, vibrant women I’ve ever known. That’s your fault.”
“No one breaks up with me. We can talk this out. She’s better than this,” Greyson said.
“No,” Christian said. “She’s better than you.”
“Fine. You want to play it like this? That’s alright with me,” Greyson said. “You tell her she’ll amount to nothing. There’s no fucking way she could run a company like this. Hell, she couldn’t even stick out a decent relationship without bitching at every single hiccup we had.”
“Is that what this was? You just hiccupped your dick into the body of another woman?” Christian asked.
“You let her know I stopped by,” Greyson said.
“Not a chance,” Christian said.
I heard Greyson stomp down the hallway, and I sighed as I leaned heavily into the corner. My mind was swirling with a bunch of different thoughts, but there was one that kept running on a loop at the forefront of my mind.
Beautiful, vibrant woman.
“Stella?” Christian asked. “You alright?”
“Did you mean what you said?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“About me. Did you mean it?”
“Of course I did. Every person who comes into contact with you should,” he said.
I felt my cheeks flush, and I chastised myself for feeling this way. In our entire relationship, the only compliment Greyson had ever paid me was how well I sucked his cock in bed. For him, that was a huge compliment. No woman could get him off in bed the way I could, and I took pride in that throughout the entirety of our relationship.
But standing there and listening to what Christian had to say about me felt better.
I didn’t realize men could give those types of compliments to women and mean them.
“Why don’t we go out to dinner tomorrow night?” Christian asked.
“What?”
“Dinner. Tomorrow. You and me. We could prep a bit for the meeting Monday, sit down with the information you're pulling from the warehouses, and we could get your mind off all this for a bit,” he said.
“That sounds nice,” I said, nodding. “Sure. What time?”
“Seven? I’ll pick you up?” he asked.
And before I could allow my mind to jump in with its rational thoughts, I nodded my head and smiled.
“Seven, it is.”
Chapter Fifteen
Christian
I had taken my baggy gray suit to the tailor’s to be taken in everywhere it needed to be to fit properly. I paired it with a dark blue shirt and pale blue tie, thinking that it would be a nice surprise for Stella. I wanted to take her somewhere nice, somewhere no one would ever think to take a woman like her. She had her sophisticated and romantic side, but there were plenty of restaurants like those in town. Low lighting, small talk, long tablecloths to hide the footsies people were playing underneath.
I wanted to take her somewhere she’d never been before, which was why I’d made reservations at Island Prime.
It sat right on the water and had the most beautiful view of the inlet as well as the city skyline, but it was well illuminated. The sunset was beautiful, and it would paint beautiful colors over her skin if we could catch it right at sunset, and that was exactly what I wanted to do.
I wanted her to remember the beauty this world had to offer after it had dealt her such a shitty hand over the last couple of weeks.
I arrived at Stella’s promptly at 7 and knocked on her door. I could hear her heels clicking across her hardwood floor, but never would I have expected the door to open to the woman I saw before my eyes. Her sleek black hair was pulled back into a beautiful updo, with rhinestone accents peppering her hair. Her light green eyes were accentuated by the deep crimson lipstick she had on her lips, and the dress that hugged her body showed me things about her I never realized were there.
She had the most amazing slope to her waist that bloomed into a rounded pair of hips. Her arms were toned and sleek, glistening in the evening sun that was just beginning to sink in the sky. I’d never noticed how beautiful Stella was until this very moment, and I realized that Greyson’s idiotic mistake was my wonderful gain.
I would finally get to know Stella outside of the confines of being fighting stepsiblings, and I found myself looking forward to it.
“Oh my gosh. You got the suit tailored,” she said, smiling.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“I think that blue really makes your eyes sparkle,” she said.
“And those red lips of yours really make your eyes pop,” I said.
“Thanks,” she said, blushing.
“You ready to go?” I asked.
“I’m starving, so yes.”
“Well, tonight’s on me, so get whatever you want,” I said.
“I figured I’d get you those files w
henever we came back to the house. I’ve got the numbers and figures in my head, and the summaries are typed up in my documents,” she said.
“Honestly? I wasn’t even thinking about work,” I said.
“What about prepping for the meeting?” she asked.
“Yes, Stella. We will talk about the meeting,” I said, grinning.
I opened her car door for her, and she slipped in effortlessly. Her legs were toned and muscular, boasting of a gym routine I didn’t realize she had. I drove us in relative silence over to the restaurant, and I watched her face as we came into view.
“I’ve always wanted to come here, but I couldn’t ever get Greyson to bring me,” she said.
“Well, I’ll take you. No questions asked.”
I ushered her into the restaurant with my hand on her lower back, and I could’ve sworn I felt her lean into it. We quickly got seated at a table against the windows overlooking the water, and we sat down just as the sun began to set over the city skyline.
“Holy hell, it’s beautiful up here,” she said.
I saw the sunlight dancing in her eyes while she brought her wine glass to her lips. The sunset reflected in her eyes while we sat there in absolute silence, and I brushed the waiter away when I caught him walking toward us. I wanted Stella to soak up this moment, to be reminded of the joy and wonderment this world had to offer.
She deserved that from someone, and I was more than willing to give it to her.
“This wine is incredible,” she said.
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it,” I said.
“The sunset is beautiful from up here.”
“I figured you might like that,” I said.
“Why did he do it?” she asked.
“Because he’s an idiot, and the only reason he came by the office was because he realized that,” I said.
“Did I do something wrong?” she asked.
I reached over and placed my hand on her arm, and she flickered that beautiful gaze over to me. Her shoulders were pulled back, raising her head high the way a woman of her stature should walk, but her eyes were filled with a pain I couldn’t understand. I’d never allowed anyone I dated to get as close as she allowed Greyson, and I honestly wasn’t sure what advice I could offer her.