“You sick fuck,” he hissed out. “Jesus Christ, Dylan, you’re in the military and you’re telling me you’re…that you’re…a fucking faggot?”
Dylan flinched.
Claire gasped.
The breathy sound seemed to remind Chris of her presence, because he was spinning around again, looking at her with such malevolence she started to feel queasy.
“I am so happy I didn’t marry you.” His voice was low, ominous and dripping with hatred.
She gave him a tired look. “Right back atcha, Chris. In fact, I’m convinced now more than ever that I dodged a bullet.”
Rage erupted in his eyes. “You have the nerve to tell me I wasn’t good enough for you? You stupid little bitch—”
In the blink of an eye, Chris was on the floor.
Claire hadn’t even seen Dylan strike, he moved so fast, and now he was straddling Chris’s torso and jamming his elbow into his brother’s windpipe. “Don’t you ever talk to her like that,” he said in a soft but deadly voice. “Say whatever the hell you want about me, or about Aidan, but you speak to Claire with respect.”
Chris sputtered, tried to shove Dylan off, but the SEAL’s body was inflexible, a rock-hard wall of muscle that refused to budge.
Wide-eyed and a little bit frightened, Claire watched as Dylan dug his forearm deeper into Chris’s throat, nowhere near done raking his brother over the coals.
“And you know what? I’ve had it up to here with your homophobic bullshit. Jesus Christ, so one of your buddies made a pass at you in high school. Big fucking deal. Get over it already.”
The revelation left Claire dumbfounded. Chris had never shared that piece of information with her, but the moment she heard it, so many things clicked into place. Like why Chris had always been so rude to Natasha, or why he’d cringed every time a gay couple passed them on the street.
Unwelcome sympathy washed over her, which only pissed her off even more, because why the hell was she feeling sorry for this man? He wasn’t worth the energy it took to pity him.
Dylan must have agreed, because he abruptly released his brother and stood up. In nothing but his boxers, he made a formidable picture, gleaming muscles and sleek sinew and raw power.
The moment Dylan stepped away, Chris bolted to his feet, eyes blazing with indignation. “Don’t you ever lay a hand on me again, little brother. If Mom ever found out you did that—”
“You really want to have a conversation about Mom right now? Because I’d be fucking happy to do that, man. I’d love to know why you chose to lie to me about her gambling problem and the fact that we almost lost our fucking house!”
Chris didn’t even have the decency to apologize. “I’m the man of the house, Dylan. I take care of Mom, not you.”
“The only person you take care of is yourself,” Dylan retorted. “And now if you don’t mind, I’d like you to leave. Maybe one of these days we can sit down and have a mature conversation about all this, but right now, I can’t stand the sight of you.”
“Believe me, I feel exactly the same way.” Chris spared one last look in Claire and Aidan’s direction, then spun on his heel and marched out.
A few seconds later, the front door slammed with so much force the living room walls shook.
Aidan, who hadn’t uttered a single word during the exchange, gingerly touched Claire’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”
Letting out a shaky breath, she met his worried eyes and managed a nod. “Yeah, I think so.”
They both turned to Dylan, whose face had a vacant look to it.
“Shit, man, I’m sorry,” Aidan said roughly. “That was…brutal.”
Dylan didn’t respond.
As concern tugged at her heart, Claire hurried over to him and grasped his chin with both hands. His five o’clock shadow scraped her skin, and she rubbed her palms over the bristly dark-blond hairs in a soothing motion.
“Hey, it’s okay,” she murmured. “You know everything he said was out of anger, right? A knee-jerk reaction to seeing…what he saw.”
“I’m not upset about what he said,” Dylan muttered. “I’m upset about who he is.”
The pain in his eyes made her chest ache. “He’s not a bad person, Dylan. He’s just…ignorant. And selfish. But he is capable of love—I know he loves your mom, and I know he loves you. He’ll come around eventually.”
Claire couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth. After everything that just happened, she shouldn’t be defending Chris or rationalizing his behavior. She should be suggesting they throw a party to celebrate his departure, maybe pop open a bottle of champagne and propose a toast.
Still, no matter how hurt and angry she was, Chris was still Dylan’s brother. He was family. And if she and Dylan and Aidan were ever to have a real future, she knew they’d have to mend fences with Chris sooner or later.
But it wasn’t going to happen overnight, so when Dylan brushed off her words with an unintelligible mumble, she didn’t push him. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tight.
And kept holding on until, finally, he lifted his arms and hugged her back.
* * *
Claire couldn’t believe how fast the next two weeks flew by. Terrifyingly fast. Heartbreakingly fast. As she parked her rental in the visitor’s parking lot behind the Savvy Tech building in Oceanside, she couldn’t help but bite her lip in dismay. The only thought that had been running through her mind all day was, now what?
What happened now that the assignment was wrapping up? What happened to her relationship with Dylan and Aidan when she returned to San Francisco?
And it was a relationship. She was no longer fooling herself into believing this was nothing more than a brief fling between three people in lust with each other. She cared deeply for both men, and the mere thought of leaving them made her feel like someone was scraping a dull blade inside her chest and slicing her heart to jagged ribbons.
The last two weeks had been the happiest of her life, filled with endless laughter and lively conversation and wild, passionate sex that left her breathless.
Aidan’s intensity thrilled her; Dylan’s lust for life inspired her.
Aidan’s serious, closed-off nature brought out a nurturing, sensitive side she hadn’t known she’d possessed, while Dylan’s openness and unceasing optimism gave her a sense of soothing comfort she’d never felt before.
How could she ever say goodbye to either one of them?
The sound of a car door slamming jerked her from her thoughts. She glanced over and noticed that a silver Lexus had just parked in the space beside hers. When the driver stepped out, Claire blinked in shock.
She hastily grabbed her laptop case and leather portfolio from the passenger seat and slid out of the car just as her boss approached.
“Barb,” she said uneasily. “What are you doing here?”
Barbara Valentine looked as elegant as always in her tailored black pantsuit and dove-gray Louboutin pumps. Her black hair was twisted in a neat bun, and the string of pearls around her slender neck sparkled in the morning sunshine.
“I thought I’d sit in on your meeting with Sanders,” Barb answered smoothly.
Although unexpected, Barb’s being here was not unusual—Claire’s boss often sat in when her consultants presented their findings to a client. Nevertheless, Claire felt apprehensive about Barb showing up out of the blue.
“Are you prepared for the presentation?” the older woman asked, oblivious to Claire’s growing agitation.
She managed a smile. “Of course.”
“Good. Let’s go inside.”
They walked into the building and informed the lobby receptionist about their meeting with Bryant Sanders. Five minutes later, the two women were being ushered into the conference room where Claire had spent quite a lot of time over the past few weeks.
She was still unsettled by Barb’s presence, but she forced herself to concentrate on her job instead of her nerves, setting up her laptop and loa
ding the PowerPoint presentation she’d slaved over last night.
“Claire, good to see you again.” Savvy Tech’s CEO strode into the room and greeted her with a warm smile. Sanders was a lanky man with a head of salt-and-pepper hair and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses resting on a thin nose, and he’d been incredibly accommodating throughout Claire’s assessment of his company.
They shook hands, and then Sanders turned to Barb. “I’m glad you could join us, Barbara. And I must say, I’ve been very impressed with Claire’s diligent observations and insightful analysis.”
“Claire is very good at what she does,” Barb agreed with a smile.
The compliment eased some of her nerves, and a few minutes later, the presentation was underway and Claire didn’t have time to feel nervous. In a brisk voice, she presented her findings to Sanders, going into detail about every aspect of his company and every flaw she’d discovered during her evaluation. Several times, the CEO interrupted with questions that she answered readily and knowledgably. When she outlined the solutions she’d come up with in order to make the company run more efficiently and increase its profits, Sanders looked more than pleased.
The meeting lasted a little more than an hour, and after it wrapped up, Sanders took the thick report Claire had prepared and thanked her profusely for all her hard work.
And through it all, Barb gazed at Claire in approval, squashing any notion that something was amiss.
At least until the two women were alone again.
The second they were back in the parking lot, Barb’s eyes took on that odd light again. The look was impossible to decipher, and the longer Barb stayed quiet, the more uncomfortable Claire became.
“Is everything all right?” she asked her boss.
Barb donned a thoughtful look. “Let’s grab a coffee, darling.” She took off walking.
Confused, Claire fell into step with the other woman. Five minutes later, they were seated at a corner table in the Starbucks across the street from Savvy Tech.
“You did a fabulous job in there,” Barb told her.
She tried to ignore the queasy churning of her stomach. “Thank you.”
“I mean it, darling—that was a thorough, well-prepared assessment.”
She murmured another thank you and brought her cup to her lips. The coffee was way too hot to drink yet, burning her tongue the second she took a sip. Wincing, Claire set down the cup and ran her tongue over the roof of her mouth in an attempt to ease the pain.
Barb continued to watch her. “All right, let’s not waste any time. Something has been brought to my attention, and since you know I’m a woman who doesn’t like to beat around the bush, I’d like for the two of us to clear this up right here and now.”
A sick feeling crawled up her throat. “Okay. What is it?”
“I’ve been informed that you’ve spent the last two months involved in a polyamorous relationship.”
Claire flinched as if she’d been struck. “W-what?”
Barb rephrased her previous sentence. “A relationship with two men.”
But Claire didn’t need a fucking clarification. She knew exactly what her boss meant—and she knew exactly who her informant was.
That bastard.
The goddamn bastard.
Pure blind rage whipped through her like a loose cable in a storm, and it took every ounce of willpower to keep it from showing on her face.
Chris.
Chris had gone to her boss.
He’d told Barb that Claire was sleeping with two guys.
The sheer audacity of his actions left her speechless. Was he insane? How could he do something like that? This was her goddamn career he was messing with!
God, and to think, she’d been biting her tongue for the past two weeks, urging Dylan to consider making things right with his brother. She’d assured him all this would blow over, that Chris would eventually calm down and realize as unorthodox as the situation was, the three of them were happy and weren’t doing anything wrong. Aidan had concurred, speculating that Chris would come to accept it sooner or later.
But she and Aidan had been wrong.
“I can see from your expression that it’s true.”
Barb’s voice, which had grown considerably cooler, penetrated Claire’s incensed thoughts.
Taking a breath, she curled both hands over her coffee cup. Not just because they were shaking, but because she feared she might accidentally mistake Barb for Chris and strangle the life out of her.
“I have been seeing two men, yes,” she answered in a careful tone. “However, I don’t see how my personal life has any bearing on my professional relationship with you, or my position at this firm.”
Barb’s cheeks hollowed as she tightly pursed her lips. “But I’m afraid it does. In fact, your personal life directly affects your professional one.”
“I disagree. And I have to be honest, Barb, but I don’t feel comfortable discussing this with you. Who I date is none of your concern and—”
“Actually, it is my concern,” her boss interjected. “I hate to do this, but I must refer you to the contract you signed when I hired you five years ago.”
Barb bent over and snapped her briefcase open, then extracted several sheets of paper stapled together. She set the stack on the table and slid it over to Claire, who immediately recognized the standard contract every consultant at Smart Solutions was asked to sign.
“Turn to page five.”
Clenching her teeth, she flipped through the contract and found page five.
“Paragraph three,” Barb prompted, tapping a red-manicured fingernail on the tabletop.
Claire felt all the blood drain from her face as she read over the morality clause imbedded into the contract. She remembered reading it five years ago, and every subsequent year when her contract had been renewed, but she’d never in a million years dreamed she’d be accused of breaching that clause.
“As you can see, you agreed to conduct yourself in a certain manner, and that any behavior reflecting negatively on the company would be grounds for termination.” Barb paused. “I’m afraid that openly living and engaging in a sexual relationship with two men reflects negatively on the company. We have an image to maintain, Claire. The clients who hire us expect qualified, upstanding professionals to assess their business needs.”
She felt numb. And nauseous. And her fucking tongue still throbbed from that burning-hot coffee.
Swallowing hard, she met her boss’s eyes and spoke in a dull tone. “What exactly are you saying, Barb?”
“What I’m saying, darling, is that I’m going to have to let you go.”
* * *
When Aidan got home from the base that evening and saw Claire’s face, he immediately knew something bad had gone down. Even from across the room, he could see the tears clinging to her thick eyelashes.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded.
Since Dylan was behind him and had yet to glimpse Claire’s expression, the SEAL thought Aidan was talking to him and replied in a bewildered tone. “What are you talking about, man? Everything’s fi—” He halted when he spotted Claire, then said, “What’s wrong?”
“I just got fired,” she said flatly.
They were at her side in an instant, sandwiching her on the couch, bodies angled so they could both see her face.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Dylan asked.
She opened her mouth. Then closed it. Then opened it again and a whole lotta words poured out. Aidan listened in stupefied silence as she told them everything her boss had said. He wasn’t prone to violent thoughts, but at that moment he wanted to rip Chris Wade’s head right off his shoulders and punt it into a tar pit.
Too far. Dylan’s brother had gone too fucking far by speaking to Claire’s boss, and Aidan’s vision turned into a red mist of fury as he listened to her soft sobs.
“My brother told your boss you were engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship?” Dylan’s voice was harder than
steel, eyes glittering with the same rage boiling in Aidan’s gut.
She nodded wordlessly.
Raking both hands through his hair, Dylan released a string of curses that finally ended with, “I don’t even know who he is anymore. I never dreamed he would stoop this low.”
“What am I going to do? I can’t believe I lost my job,” Claire moaned.
As she buried her face in her hands, Aidan’s heart cracked in two. He wasted no time drawing her close, while Dylan stroked Claire’s back in reassurance.
“It’ll be okay,” Dylan murmured. “Everything will be okay.”
Aidan’s heart splintered a little bit more each time Claire let out another quiet sob. He tightened his grip and held her against his chest, and in the back of his mind he wondered why it was so damn easy to show her physical affection when he kept everyone else at arm’s length. Including Dylan. Especially Dylan.
Inhaling an unsteady breath, he met the other man’s gaze over Claire’s head and saw his own concern reflected back at him. But he also discerned a flicker of longing, which only deepened when Dylan’s eyes rested on the hand Aidan was using to stroke Claire’s hair.
Damn it, he hated seeing that look of yearning on Dylan’s face. He knew the other man was unhappy with his inability to vocalize his feelings, to be tender and affectionate outside the bedroom, but every time he opened his mouth to try to tell Dylan how he felt, his throat closed up and he couldn’t get the words out.
But now was not the time to dwell on his own inadequacies. Claire needed him. Claire needed them.
It was a while before she finally calmed down, and when she lifted her head, Aidan was floored by the intensity blazing in her big brown eyes.
“I’m fine. I’m going to be fine,” she said firmly, but he knew she was trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince them. “I’m smart and ambitious and qualified, and I’ll be able to find another job, no problem.”
“Or—” Dylan spoke tentatively, “—you could open your own consulting firm.”
She faltered. “I…don’t know if I’m ready for that.”
Out of Uniform Box Set: Books 4-6 plus 2 Bonus Novellas Page 50