by Bella Court
While John was visibly angry, his face flushed and his voice rose to convince everyone of his plan, what was more frightening was Connor. Outwardly, he displayed signs of tenseness, but what made everyone nervous were the sheer waves of raw anger that emanated from Connor like radar.
"Well, I think we should rethink it. I don't think you properly went over the options with Mr. Garrison," John snidely replied, and several of the men sucked in their breaths at his accusation. Connor could swear his vision just went red.
John had clearly implied in front of everyone that Connor was incapable of doing his job.
The board members looked back and forth, most feeling too uncomfortable to voice their concerns and protests.
His eyes skimmed over the board members knowingly, and Connor's fists clenched tightly against his side, his short nails making red half moons in his palms in his struggle to remain calm.
Unclenching his jaw, Connor said slowly and quietly, "Gentlemen, would you excuse Mr. Wilde and I for a moment? We'll return shortly."
Knowing the inevitable battle had come; John stood and followed his brother to the double doors of the boardroom. Connor continued down the corridor, employees instinctively clearing the way for Connor, and Connor stepped into an empty office that had yet to be occupied.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Connor growled, his fists finally uncurling, coming dangerously close to making contact with the side of John's face.
"I'm making the decision I think is right,” John replied.
"You are undermining my authority, and you know it." Connor's voice shook slightly, his anger palpable.
"Fuck you and your authority!" John exploded, "You are not the only one who makes the decisions around here. Who the hell do you think you are talking down to me like that in the board room?"
"I am the C.E.O of Wilde Finances, little brother. In case you've forgotten, I run this company. Remember your damn place or I'll–”
"You'll what?" John scoffed, his eyes meeting Connor's for the first time in days. Identical gray gazes collided, fury overflowing in each of their eyes.
John and Connor both knew that John wouldn't be going anywhere. In their father's will, he explicitly stated that the two brothers had to run the company together, or Wilde Finances would be dissolved. Connor being the eldest had taken on the more difficult role. John wouldn't have been able to handle the sheer intensity of the workload Connor had to deal with.
"You have a fucking problem with me, John? You take it out on me, you don't cry about it in front of other men who are our colleagues!" Connor furiously yelled.
"You are a disgrace to the company when you act like that, and I'm not going to have it. I'm not going to accept it. Do you understand me?" Every syllable shook with intensity, and Connor's eyes burned through John's.
John knew he had picked the wrong time and place to fight with Connor, but it wasn't over. "Yeah, I understand you, but this isn't over. None of this is."
They were at a standstill, and what was left was the widening distance between the two brothers.
A knock at the door broke the silence, and ever so slowly, the door opened.
"Look guys, Garrison's board members have decided they're going to reschedule for a better time. They're leaving, as we speak." Reece filled the doorway with his broad frame, his eyebrows furrowed at the two.
Silence crept over the trio once more.
Finally, John broke it, "How'd you know we were in here?" John asked wearily.
Reece snorted. "I could hear you. Great job, guys. I didn't realize it was our new policy to drive away our clients with our own personal issues. They're muttering beneath their breaths that maybe they should switch to another company."
"Shut up, Reece," John muttered.
"It's the truth. Look Connor, you were wrong, okay? For whatever reason, John really wanted you to come eat lunch with him and Melissa, and you should have been there. He's your brother, man. And John, you're making a mountain out of a molehill. It was one time." Reece shook his head, his exasperation giving him a migraine.
Connor still didn't get it. He never would, maybe. John could feel the pent up anger roll within him, but he held it back. Perhaps he had more in common with his brother than he thought. "It's more than that. As far as I'm concerned, Connor isn't my brother, and I'm not sure he ever was."
With those parting words, John left the room, leaving a befuddled Reece and a guilty Connor. John's callous last words had sliced a bit closer to home than he would have liked.
* * *
Reece was leaning nonchalantly against the wall, a pose that seemed a bit too casual and forced. He still had a migraine from the debacle earlier between Connor and John, but his anticipation overrode it. He was listening to some girl or another, nodding his head, and interjecting the right words at the right times, but his eyes were focused over her shoulder.
"What are you looking at?"
"Mm-hmm," Reece replied, not even looking at her. He was staring a bit too hard at John's office.
"Are you even listening to me?" The girl demanded, just as John's door swung open, and Jade walked out, sketches in hand.
Reece ignored that last comment too, and instead turned directly to the girl and said in a loud voice, "Do you know how beautiful you are?"
Needless to say, she was more than a bit taken aback.
Reece didn't care, his eyes were settled on unnamed girl, but he was trying his damned hardest to locate Jade out of his peripherals. She had stopped to talk to Nell, and distantly, he heard her laugh, a light sound that made his eyes involuntary snap to her.
She looked too cute today. Dammit. She was wearing a crochet knit top that was demure in the front but when she turned around, Reece could feel his mouth go dry. Her back was bare, the fabric draping low on her back. Paired with her denim mini skirt that made her legs look long and lean, Reece wanted to go over and press his lips over every single inch of her.
For the past week, Jade had been acting like Reece didn't exist. Every comment he said to her, she would ignore or reply with a short, brusque answer. It drove him crazy, and he couldn't remember the last time he tried so hard to get a woman's attention.
What made it worse was that whenever she mentioned that bastard Walter or any other guy for that matter, Reece could feel himself flaring up. This was not normal behavior for Reece, and as strange as it was, Reece could feel himself not caring.
"I'm gonna go," the girl said loudly, after several attempts at conversation, only to find that Reece wasn't even looking at her. He hadn't even acknowledged what she just said, so wordlessly, she picked herself off the wall and left Reece.
"Uh-huh, I agree," Reece muttered in response to unnamed girl's comment. He still hadn't noticed she was gone. He was still staring a hole in the back of Jade's head, and finally, she turned around and noticed him.
She gave him a slow, sultry smile and he returned it with an arrogant smirk of his own.
She was so damn sexy. Any second now, she would come over to him. And there she goes, walking that walk, her little flats skimming the floor delicately.
Reece waited patiently. She was closing in, and Reece opened his mouth to say lowly, "Hey there, gorgeous," just as Jade walked right past him.
"Kristen!"
Oh hell no. There was no way that little sexy smirk she gave was for Kristen.
Well two could play that game; Reece turned back to his girl, and shot her a dazzling smile. Well, actually, he shot the air in front of him a dazzled smile. Where did nameless girl go?
"I think Stacy left you five minutes ago," Jade informed him sweetly, her smile sugary.
"Yeah, I told her that I had some business to attend to," Reece said smoothly, but it didn't fool Jade.
"Mmm,” she replied, making a move to follow Kristen when Reece grabbed her hand and stopped her from leaving.
"So what're you doing tonight?” he asked, tossing her a smile that made Jade's toes curl. She might be actin
g like she didn't care, and that may have fooled Reece, but she couldn't fool herself.
She opened her mouth, but before she could get a word in, Reece leaned in close, his peppermint aftershave overwhelming her senses in a good way. She closed her eyes for a second, letting his scent and heat wash over her, and opening them before he could see how much he affected her.
Placing his lips near the shell of her ear, the vibrations from his voice sent a chill up her spine, "Meet me at Maggiano's tonight at seven, and if you don't come, I'll just have to come find you."
Pulling away, he brushed his lips deliberately but gently across her soft cheek, and she couldn't stop the blush from rising in her cheeks or the quick little breaths coming from between her parted lips.
She shot him the sultry smile that she had practiced with Kristen in front of the mirror and blew him a kiss before making her way over to Kristen.
She didn't miss the satisfied look on Reece's face, and she wished she could wipe that confident grin off his face. He knew all too well that he had affected her, and dammit, up until this point, she was doing so well.
"Well?" Kristen asked, not even turning around from her laptop, as Jade approached her breathlessly.
"It's working. The plan's working. He asked me out," Jade breathed.
"You didn't have to do all this, you know. He would have come running after you one way or another because he wants you." Kristen told Jade, her eyes never leaving her screen.
Jade's lips upturned in an elfish grin. "Yeah, but its so much more fun this way."
Kristen had to agree. She tore her eyes away from her laptop to stare at Connor's closed door. Ever since the meeting earlier that morning, he had locked himself in his office, not even coming out to say hello to her.
"I'll be back," Kristen chimed to Jade, making her way over to Connor's office. She knocked hard upon the door several times. "Connor? It's Kristen. I need your input on something regarding the office."
He grunted noncommittally, and arching a delicate eyebrow, Kristen assumed it would be okay for her to come in. "Everything okay?" Kristen asked as she opened and closed the door behind her, but immediately, she could sense that everything was not all right. Connor had his head in his hands, quite clearly brooding over something.
Connor shrugged wordlessly. He hadn't even looked up at her. "What is it?" Kristen, asked, more concerned, sitting on the corner of his desk, placing a hand on his shoulder. He shrugged her off, and Kristen felt just the tiniest bit hurt at his cold action, but none of it showed on her face. "What is it?" She repeated once more, softer, hoping that she could get something out of him, the way he so easily got things out of her.
"It's nothing," Connor grumbled. She didn't leave. Instead, she sat on his desk, waiting patiently. There was something wrong, and she wasn't going to leave.
"You can go," Connor said coldly, still not meeting her gaze. Kristen bit her inner cheek, to keep from lashing out at him. She knew this technique all too well. Be cruel to keep them away. When Kristen had used this on Connor, he had kept forging ahead, pushing past her barriers until there were none. Well, it worked both ways. She could do it just as well as he could.
"I'm not leaving,” she said simply, and taking a hold of his face, she pressed a brief but hot kiss to his lips. She smiled triumphantly when she felt his firm lips begin to respond to hers in the form of communication she knew he understood best.
She ran a soothing palm down the lapel of his business suit, and it was like all the tension he had been feeling from his argument with John ebbed away with her single touch. He kissed her hard and passionately, to get out all the anger that was within him until there was none.
Finally breaking apart for breath, he leaned his head against the hollow of her neck, taking in her scent. She made him feel better by just being here, and she would never know how much that meant for him.
"I am a terrible brother," Connor finally said, his breath fanning against her neck, and soothingly, she ran her hands over his back, kneading his shoulder blades through his jacket.
"John still mad?" Kristen asked, her voice holding no condemnation.
"It's more than that. He's angry about something else. Something bigger. I don't know what it is, and it wasn't until he told me he didn't consider me to be his brother that I realized how bad this has gotten."
Kristen sucked in a breath at the last part. Did John really say that? Sweet, sensitive John who hardly ever raised his voice? This man sounded like no one either Kristen or Connor understood or knew.
"Can you talk to him about it?"
Connor let a cold chuckle escape him. "Does it look like he and I are on the best of speaking terms? Or that even if we were, we'd sit around and talk about our feelings?"
She didn't know what to tell him, so she just held him until Connor pulled her into his lap. He seemed quiet and contemplative, and finally, he lifted his stormy gray eyes to meet hers, and Kristen was once again struck by how intense they were. One glance made her shiver.
"You cold?" Connor noticed her shiver. He wrapped his arms around her, his eyes never leaving hers. "Would you ever make me choose between you and John?” he asked her seriously, and Kristen could feel another shudder go through her, but for a completely different reason.
She was completely silent. She chewed on her lower lip. There was no doubt in her mind that she wanted nothing to do with John, but that wasn't exactly something Connor could do. She disliked him with an intense passion, but it was no longer hate. When she realized she had stopped loving John, putting in all the effort of hating him seemed to not be worth it. After all, there was such a thin line between love and hate.
He was gazing at her so strongly, and Kristen knew that this question was important to him, but it was important to her, too. Could she see herself with Connor and look past the fact that John had wronged her?
She didn't know the answer to that one, but she knew that she would never ever put Connor in that situation. She wasn't that petty, and she wasn't that kind of person.
"No,” she whispered, and before his mouth covered hers, "Never."
A strong knock at the door broke them apart, but they weren't fast enough.
"Connor, I think we need to talk...” John froze in the doorway, his eyes riveted to the sight of Kristen seated in his brother's lap, his arms wrapped tightly around her.
John was distinctly reminded of the way Kristen would look after they had made love. She looked a lot like she did now. Her perfect black waves mussed, her pliant lips swollen and red, her eyes luminous and bright. She was gorgeous, as usual.
"Holy shit. You've got to be kidding me," John breathed, everything slowly falling into place.
Sensitive John had come a bit earlier than anyone had anticipated, and just like that, his kinder side vanished. Cold hard malice filled his eyes, and he opened his mouth to start the conversation he knew they all would regret.
"What is going on?" John asked slowly and deliberately, the back of his neck feeling feverishly flushed from the scene that was displayed before him.
Slowly, Kristen picked herself off of Connor's lap and smoothed out the wrinkles in her pants. Electricity crackled through the air, as heated glances were exchanged all around.
"What does it look like?” she asked quietly, not able to keep the sarcasm completely out of her voice.
John's gaze hardened, and he shot Kristen the iciest look she had ever seen from him. She returned it with an equally venomous glare. There was no mistaking the immense dislike emanating from the two.
"Connor?" John's tone clearly stated that he wanted to know everything there was to know, and he wouldn't believe it unless it came from his own brother's mouth.
Connor could feel another blinding migraine surface. He still hadn't quite recovered from the shock of seeing his brother in the doorway, gawking at the two of them with…a look of utmost betrayal in his soft gray eyes. Then, those gray eyes had hardened with a hawk-like ferocity, one that Connor often rec
ognized within himself.
Connor didn't know what to say, and he felt completely torn. On one hand, he felt terrible that in all actuality, he hadn't been the brother he should have been to John. On the other hand, he couldn't deny his feelings for Kristen, and the nagging feeling that he would have to choose between the two was growing stronger.
"I'm dating Kristen,” Connor said calmly, carefully gauging John's reaction. John's eyes widened, but otherwise, he showed no outwards signs of anything else.
John swallowed hard. "How did this happen?" So far, his tone was calm, but he had picked up some things from Connor. Beneath the calm, there was an underlying tone of fury that Kristen and Connor could recognize. It only served to make the duo more cautious. John was acting a lot more like the two of them then they had thought possible.
"We met at your wedding," Connor began, cut off immediately by John's sharp gasp.
"What?"
"We met at your wedding," Connor repeated, his voice hard. He straightened, and looked his brother straight in the eye, leaving no room for doubt in his words. He would not throw Kristen to the wolves the way John would.
"That fucking long?" John asked in disbelief, more and more suddenly becoming clear.
"The reason you left my wedding early. It was…for her?" Incredulity laced through his voice, and Kristen could feel herself stiffen. If it was at all possible, Kristen could swear she hated John more than the day he left her. "And the day after, when we were playing basketball. Those marks on your back, they were from her?" His voice was rising, and his face was becoming steadily red, as heat suffused throughout his body. John felt ready to explode.
"Yeah."
Kristen clenched her fists at her side, her eyes narrowed as she watched John's movements. She didn't like the way he was emphasizing any word that was indirectly referring to her. He spoke it with such disgust and revulsion that Kristen wanted nothing more than to throttle him. Squeeze her hands around his neck and throttle him.
"Did you know who she was?" John demanded, his voice no longer calm. He looked and sounded visibly upset.