by E. L. Todd
Charlie studied me for a long time, visibly sympathetic and looking guilty. He bowed his head to the floor and dragged his hands down his face as he released a deep sigh. “Carson, I’m so sorry. I feel like shit for the way this has affected you. I want to say I should’ve listened to your advice and never gotten together with her, but that would be insulting to the relationship we had.”
I grabbed my beer again and took another drink, just wanting to go to sleep and wake up tomorrow to a new day, a fresh start. “For the record, if you and Denise don’t work out and it becomes really tense, I have to choose my sister. I want to say I would remain neutral and close with both of you, but I just learned how impossible that is.” I knew I was just angry and bitter right now, so I should probably go to bed and shut up.
Charlie didn’t respond to that, like he knew I didn’t mean it and let it slide. “You just dropped the news on her. After you give her some time, I’m sure she’ll come around. She’s always been a pragmatic person.”
“And you don’t realize the one thing she’s not pragmatic about is you.” I stared at the beer in my hand, feeling the dread in my heart. Did I just lose a friend? Was there nothing I could do about it? It was so painful, like losing my parents all over again.
Charlie had no idea what to say to that. He stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, watching me as he breathed.
“I guess you can go for Denise now. No use waiting around at this point.”
He still wore that somber look, like going after the woman he wanted was the last thing on his mind. “I really want things to be okay with Kat first—and clearly, they aren’t.”
“You want to know the worst part?” I set the beer on the counter and looked at him again. “She’s not even mad at you. She’s just mad at me. Only me. While I played Switzerland, she was pouring out her feelings to me. All the while, I knew you couldn’t feel more differently toward her.” I shook my head as I replayed her words in my mind. When she put it like that, I really did feel like a bitch. “Who listens to somebody say how much they love a guy and hope they can work it out, knowing the guy is head over heels for somebody else?”
“Don’t do that.” His voice came out quiet. “You’re taking all the blame on yourself, and that’s not fair. I’m your best friend, coworker, and roommate. Kat is your best friend, and to top it off, Denise is your sister. What the hell are you supposed to do?”
I raised my hands in the air in an exaggerated shrug. “No fucking idea. Maybe it’s not me at all. Maybe it’s just the situation. Still shitty, nonetheless. Kat and I will never get over this, and I can already tell she’s going to pull away from all of us, and we’ll stop seeing her altogether. When I run into her at the coffee shop, she’ll duck out and act like she didn’t see me. Time will pass, and it’ll be hard to remember what it was like when we were friends at all.” The emotional, poetic side of me came out, painting a vivid picture of our future and making me sick to my stomach.
Charlie rubbed his fingers across his jawline, his eyes heavy with the weight of the situation. “Let’s not be dramatic…”
“I’m not being dramatic. Just realistic.”
“Give her time—”
A knock sounded on our front door.
Charlie glanced at the entryway before he turned back to me, his eyebrows raised slightly, silently asking if I was expecting company.
I shook my head as an answer.
“Maybe that’s her.” He walked to the front door, checked the peephole, and then opened it to reveal Dax on the other side.
I’d been hoping to see Kat come here to make amends after our fight, but this was a pleasant surprise too.
Dax didn’t even look at Charlie as he came into the apartment and approached me.
I just wanted to be alone to lick my wounds in private, but seeing his handsome face, concern in his eyes, immediately made me feel better, like I didn’t have to carry this alone, not anymore.
I moved into his body and wrapped my arms around his waist. My cheek planted against his chest, and I closed my eyes.
His powerful arms wrapped around me quickly, acting as my crutch so I wouldn’t fall. He squeezed me tightly and showered me with affection, his lips moving to my forehead and then my hairline. “Sweetheart, I’m here.”
“I know…” I never had to be alone again. I always had this man to comfort me, to carry my burden with me. It wasn’t just me anymore, and hopefully it wouldn’t be just me ever again. I completely let him in, let him see all of me, let him be a part of me. “I’m glad you came.”
4
Dax
Carson lay beside me in bed, her body wrapped up in mine, her breathing deep and even now that she was calm.
I didn’t ask for the details because they didn’t matter.
She was sad. That was all I needed to know.
When she told me she wanted to be alone, I knew that was an impulsive response. If I’d really walked in the door, she would want me there. I had complete faith.
And I was right.
My fingers lightly played with her hair as we lay together under the sheets, the sound of traffic, honking horns, and loud ambulances passing in the street below. It was hard for me to sleep in her apartment when I could hear everything because I was used to the insulated silence of my penthouse. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
“Okay.”
“I just want to go to sleep…and leave this day behind.” She pulled the sheets higher over her shoulder and came closer to me, no longer wanting her own space on the bed like she used to. She completely wrapped around me like we were one person.
“It’ll get better, sweetheart. I know it’s hard to believe, but it will.”
The alarm went off the next morning, intrusively pulling us from our dreams.
She automatically reached across my body to grab my phone and quickly stabbed her fingers into the screen until the alarm shut off. Then she turned back over again, releasing a loud sigh of annoyance.
I watched her rub the sleep from her eyes and run her fingers through her hair, clearly having a rough time waking up.
I moved on top of her and pulled her thong down her legs until she was bare on the bottom. I dropped my boxers to settle between her legs, wanting to wake her up in a much better way than the obnoxious sound of the alarm clock.
Her eyes open slightly, and she released another sigh as I got into position, her hands gliding over my warm skin as her body automatically accepted mine.
I sank between her legs, feeling that slick wetness greeting me with the same enthusiasm as every other time. I pushed until I was deep inside her, our breaths both deep and labored, our minds slowly stirring at the feelings of pleasure.
I gave it to her slow and easy, just grinding against her, my face hovering above hers, watching her slowly become more enthused and feeling her body fully opening to me. Her arms moved under my shoulders, and her nails dug deep into my skin as she held on, gently rocking back with me as we made love first thing in the morning.
My arms were pinned behind her knees, and I barely moved my hips as I ground against her, being slow and gentle because we were both not quite awake enough for something aggressive. I was soaked in her arousal, squeezed by her tightness, and my breathing grew deeper and more ragged because it felt so good. Sex first thing in the morning was much better than a hot cup of coffee.
She came quietly, the only indication of her pleasure the way her nails dug into me, the tightness that increased around my length, and the water in her eyes.
I finished shortly afterward, giving her my entire desire, filling her tightness with my seed. The condoms had been abandoned and it was just the two of us, and goddamn, it felt right.
And the way she finally let me in made everything so much better.
We both groaned together as we finished, wanting to go back to sleep so we could wake up later and do it again.
“That was an improvement over the
alarm clock…”
I kissed the corner of her mouth before I got out of bed and pulled on all my clothes.
She turned over like she was about to go back to sleep.
“Sweetheart.”
She groaned loudly. “Ugh. It’s the one time I wish I were a billionaire so I could just not go to work.”
I left the bedroom and walked into the kitchen to have a cup of coffee.
Charlie was already there, standing at the counter with a steaming cup in front of him. He was looking through his phone when I joined him and poured two mugs of coffee.
One for me and one for my woman.
He slid his phone into his jeans then turned to me. “How is she?”
“Right this second? Really well.”
He knew exactly what that meant and rolled his eyes.
I stood beside him and stared at his face, seeing the bags under his eyes, the tightness in his jaw. “She looks better than you do.”
He rubbed his palm across his jawline, which was getting thick with a beard because he’d skipped the shave a couple days in a row. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
“Did you sleep last night?”
“Not really.”
I brought the mug to my lips and took a drink. “Carson didn’t give me a lot of details, but it sounds like it didn’t go well.”
He shook his head.
“It’ll work out. I know that probably doesn’t make you feel better right now, but it will.”
“I’m not worried about Denise. If Kat doesn’t want to be friends with me anymore, I would understand that. But…I would feel like shit if Carson lost her best friend because of me.”
“Wasn’t that always a risk?” I asked before I took another drink.
“But it didn’t seem likely. Unfortunately, Kat was angrier with Carson than she was with me, which isn’t fair.”
No wonder Carson was in such bad shape.
“I finally got what I want, but at what cost?” He took another drink of his coffee before dumping it out and placing the cup in the sink. “But it’s nice to see the two of you so close. I’m not the one who needs to be there for her. Now it’s you.”
Renee put the various folders on my desk so I could go through them when I had a chance. “Here are all the numbers I pulled. I checked them three times, so they should be right.”
“Thank you.” I grabbed the first one and opened it, going over all the data she’d compiled for me. When I felt her stare on my face, I lifted my chin and looked at her. “Anything else, Renee?”
She beamed brighter than the sun.
“What?”
“You’ve been happy all week. Really happy.”
I closed the folder and tossed it on the desk. “When people look happy, it usually means they are happy.” I wasn’t just happy that I was getting laid, but that Carson had completely opened up to me, had completely given me her trust.
“But you’re consistently happy. Every day, you’ve got that smile on your face, and it never drops. It’s really nice.”
“Well, I’m sure you figured out the reason for my happiness.”
“Yeah.”
I grabbed my folder again and flipped through the pages. When Renee didn’t walk away, I turned back to her. “Yes?”
This time, she looked different, definitely a lot more somber. “Rose is coming in tomorrow…”
We didn’t deal with each other most of the time. She had an assistant who helped her with whatever she needed, but sometimes an interaction was unavoidable. “Whatever.”
“I just hate how she walks in here like she owns the place.”
“Well, she does own half the place.” Because of my stupidity. Because I’d let her manipulate me like a goddamn idiot.
“There’s got to be something we can do, some kind of loophole.”
I shook my head. “Renee, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this, spent a lot of money for the best lawyers to think about this. If there were a way, I would’ve found it. Until she allows us to buy her out, we’re stuck with her.”
She released a heavy sigh, like the weight of the situation was just as much of a burden on her shoulders as it was on mine. “I told William if we get married, I need a prenup. Nothing personal. He understood.”
“He seems like a guy who would.”
“Who knew marriage was the most dangerous thing to a wealthy person?”
It really was, at least in a fifty-fifty community property state. “Can be. But if done right, I’m sure it’s the happiest thing in the world. Don’t let my mistake ruin the good things in your future, Renee.”
She continued to stand over my desk and look at me. “Would you ever think about getting married again?”
If she’d asked me this before Carson, my answer would’ve been definitive.
Hell fucking no.
But now that we were officially together, both of our guards down, my answer had changed. “Yes.”
She nodded slowly. “Good.”
“It would be different with Carson.” There was no doubt in my mind that she wanted me for me, not for any other reason. She seemed indifferent to my wealth, seemed to brush over the nice things I could offer her. Her brain simply wasn’t wired that way, to focus on monetary gains instead of accomplishments. She wanted to change the world—not to be rich. She was a special kind of person. The idea of spending my life with somebody like her didn’t seem so scary.
“Yeah, I think it would be too.”
5
Dax
After I left the office, I joined the guys at the bar. The game was on, so we got together in an oversize booth to watch the screen.
Matt and Jeremy were already there, sitting close together, talking about the pads under the players’ uniforms.
Nathan and Charlie walked in together at the same time.
After they each got a beer from the bar, they joined us. We made small talk about the game, threw out some wagers, and then enjoyed our beers and waited for the hot wings to come out.
Jeremy turned to Nathan. “How are things going with Kat?”
Nathan gave a slow shrug. “Pretty bad, I guess.”
Charlie stilled at the response, his eyes shifting to Matt.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. My hand grabbed the bottle, and I leaned against the leather padding in the booth as I stared at him.
Nathan looked down at his beer before he gave an answer. “She ended things yesterday. Just said it wasn’t working. I didn’t ask a lot of questions. We weren’t serious anyway, so…” He gave another shrug.
“Are you okay?” Jeremy asked. “I know you aren’t the commitment type, but you seemed to like her.”
“I did.” He took a drink of his beer. “But when somebody wants to break up, you break up. I have too much dignity to try to talk her out of it, you know?”
Charlie didn’t participate in the conversation and instead stared down into his beer, as if this were another blow to his plan.
I wasn’t sure why Kat would dump Nathan so unexpectedly, but I suspected it had something to do with Charlie and Carson. Maybe she didn’t want to date a guy who was mutual friends with the people she never wanted to see again. Or maybe she realized she needed to find a guy she really liked so she could get over Charlie for good. Nathan just didn’t fit the bill.
“I suggested that we be friends since we all hang out now,” Nathan said. “She seemed fine with that.”
Charlie released a quiet sigh beside me, likely suspecting that was bullshit.
The waitress brought out the hot wings. She handed out the plates, made small talk, and then turned to me. “You come in here a lot.”
It took me a second to respond to her, because I was still immersed in the news I’d just received. I finally gathered my thoughts and addressed her. “Good beer. Good food. I’m a happy customer.”
She chuckled as she slipped her hand into her apron and pulled out a napkin with her phone number written on it. She set
it in front of me and walked away.
The guys all watched her go before turning back to me.
Her name was written on the napkin in pretty handwriting along with a :-). I slid it across the table to Nathan. “I think you can get more use out of this than I can.”
Nathan folded up the napkin and put it in his pocket. “Sounds good to me.”
“Wow.” Jeremy shook his head as he looked at me across the table. “Dax Frawley is really off the market.”
“Yep.” I took a drink as I watched the TV. “And I hope I’m off the market for a really long time.”
“Carson is pretty cool,” Jeremy said. “But she seems to go back and forth a lot… Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Charlie got fired up immediately. “Excuse me? What exactly do you mean by that?”
I gave him an angry look across the table, silently telling him to keep his mouth shut.
“Nothing bad,” Jeremy said quickly. “It just seemed like they had a lot of problems and Carson wasn’t interested. Just don’t want to watch my friend get smashed again.”
“If he doesn’t lie out of his ass again, we won’t have any problems.” Charlie raised his voice a little higher, growing more menacing.
The nice atmosphere had been demolished, and now it was just tense. I tried to smooth it over. “Jeremy is just looking out for me. He doesn’t mean anything bad by what he said. But Carson and I are really happy. It took some time for us to get there, but we made it, and the destination was worth the journey.”
That seemed to quiet everything down, so we went back to watching the game and eating the hot wings.
Charlie was the only one who still seemed angry, but I suspected it had nothing to do with us. He had a lot on his mind and shoulders—and it showed.