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  If it weren’t for the state that I was in, I might have paused and considered why his mood was so damn good, especially after what had just happened. “Not good,” I admitted. “I’m slammed today. Absolutely against it.”

  “Oh, no,” he gasped. “Do you want me to make a call, about easing your workload? I am the one in charge, you know.”

  “No, it’s fine but… hey, I was wondering if you might do me a favor? Just for tonight, I promise.”

  Ever since moving to New York, Brian had actively been trying to take a bigger interest in Aaron. I didn’t know why exactly, but assumed it had something to do with how much he had changed since having his own son. It was because of this that I felt surprisingly comfortable with asking him to look after Aaron that afternoon, until I could pick him up.

  Brian leaped at the idea.

  That was the first day. The second day followed the exact same pattern, as did the day after that, and the one after that. Every single day that I got to the firm, I’d find a mountain of fresh workload for me to finish. And each time this happened, Brian would call to see how I was, and I would ask him to look after Aaron. He never argued or complained, sounding like he actually relished the idea. I figured it had something to do with him having withdrawals from not being able to see his own son.

  The other obvious drawback to this situation was that I wasn’t able to see Matt. It was usually well past ten when I was finished work, and by the time I swung past Brian’s to pick up Aaron, and then got home, there was barely time for me to eat and put him to bed, let alone see or talk to Matt.

  It was so hard too, especially after all the progress that we had made. He’d finally met his son, and the two had gotten along like a house on fire. On top of that, we were just starting to explore our feeling, and if the past was anything to go by, we were both going to like what we found. Everything was going perfectly… only to be halted by the two weeks from hell.

  It was the first night that I was seeing Matt in what felt like forever, and I could not be more excited. Aaron had a sitter ready, and there was nothing to stop us. My only fear was that I wouldn’t be able to get through dinner without wanting to tear his clothes off.

  There had been a minor misstep earlier when Matt texted and asked me to meet him at the restaurant, rather than him picking me up. And he also pressed that I get there thirty minutes later. When I asked why, he didn’t respond.

  With a cab on the way, I would be arriving right on time… maybe even a little early if I was lucky. A final look at myself in the mirror, and little nervous shudder, and I was headed for the door—

  My clutch vibrated in my hand. Frowning, I reached into it and pulled out my phone.

  And my heart sank when I read Matt’s message.

  Nineteen

  Matt

  “So, are you going to tell me who this girl is?” Brian asked as he followed me down the hallway and toward the elevator.

  “Just a girl, no one that you know,” I said dismissively. I reached the elevator and pressed the ‘call’ button. To my displeasure, Brian pulled up next to me, looking like he intended to catch the elevator down with me.

  “Just a girl, he says.” Brian chuckled and shook his head. “If I know you, she’s going to be a woman by the time you’re done with her.” My eyes flicked toward him, but I said nothing. “The way you treat girls—women, I mean. Heck, I’m just glad that you never got those mitts on anyone I know.”

  I said nothing, watching as the elevator slowly crept toward the floor. Brian was still watching me, almost analyzing me as if looking for a reaction of some kind.

  “I still think you should cancel,” he continued. “Let me take you out.”

  “Shouldn’t you be trying to see Megan,” I asked without looking at him.

  “I’m seeing her in a couple of days,” he said coldly. “And she’ll wish she didn’t try and leave me—but enough of that. This is you that we’re talking about.”

  The elevator arrived, and the doors parted. I stepped into it, hoping desperately that Brian would say goodbye and head to his office. But I didn’t get so lucky. He followed me right in, even hitting the button for the parking garage.

  “I told you,” I said again. “You don’t know her.”

  “She sounds like a real whore, if you don’t mind me saying.” He chuckled and shook his head as if it were funny. “I still think you should ditch the bitch and hang with me.”

  I was almost certain that Brian knew about me and Amanda. That was the only reasonable explanation to how he was acting and how he had been acting for the better part of two weeks. His mood swings seemed to disappear overnight, replaced with an overly-friendly, almost endearing attitude. It was as fake as they came, which was how I knew something was up.

  Furthermore, I was only too aware of how busy Amanda had become with her work load, and was pretty sure it was because of Brian. He was feeding her boss work, insisting that it be given to Amanda to handle. This kept her late at the office, and away from me.

  If I objected, he would’ve wondered why cared so much and I’d be forced to admit it. Instead, I had to sit back and let it play out, hoping that my instincts were wrong and he was as ignorant as he had been all those years ago when we had first slept together.

  That night was supposed to be our first date in almost two weeks. I had it all planned out perfectly too. She’d hired a sitter and I was going to pick her up and take her to one of the fanciest restaurants in Manhattan. It was one of those places that you needed to book months in advance, but, as with before, I had done the owner a favor and he owed me.

  But Brian seemed insistent on not letting this go as planned and had spent the entire afternoon trying to convince me to cancel the date and hang out with him instead.

  He followed me across the parking garage and to my car, continuing to press his case. Every time he referred to my date as being a ‘slut,’ he’d make my blood boil and I very much felt like hitting him in the face. It was only through pure force of will that I resisted.

  He watched as I closed the door and went to turn the car on.

  Only it wouldn’t start.

  “What the hell,” I moaned, flicking the bonnet.

  “Do you know what you’re doing?” Brian chuckled.

  I didn’t.

  “Shit,” I muttered as I stared blankly at the engine. “You don’t know anything about cars, do you?”

  “About as much as you,” Brian admitted. “Where’s your date at? I’ll give you a lift.”

  I paused, looking at Brian as I tried to read through his intentions. He looked genuinely like he wanted to help, which was the first indication that something was up. I loved Brian, I really did, but he was also one of the most self-centered men I had ever met. He only ever did something nice if he knew it would benefit him in the long run.

  “It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll call a cab.”

  “Don’t be an idiot!” he exclaimed, laughing as he did so. “My car is right over there. I’ll drive you. Now, come on!” He then grabbed me by the arm and dragged me toward his car. I wrenched myself free in order to shut the bonnet and lock my car up, but the second I had done that he grabbed me by the arm again.

  My mind raced as we got into his car and took off. I whipped out my phone and texted Amanda, asking her to meet me at the restaurant, and thirty minutes late. The last thing I needed was her turning up, looking like she was on a date, and seeing me and her brother waiting. That was a confrontation that didn’t need to happen.

  “You haven’t spoken to Amanda recently, have you?” Brian asked as he kept attempting to race his car through the traffic.

  “No,” I said quickly. Probably a little too quickly.

  “I thought you two were close?” he said without looking at me. His eyes were trained on the road as he continued to push the car faster than before.

  “Not really,” I said, trying to lie convincingly.

  He nodded and pulled down on the wheel, swerving ar
ound a semi-trailer that had come to a sudden stop. The car moved in beside it, missing clipping the tail by inches.

  “Do you want to maybe slow down?” I asked.

  “I think she’s seeing someone,” Brian continued, ignoring my question. “In fact I know she is.”

  “Oh.”

  “She has always been a slut,” he spat. He pulled on the handbrake, spun the wheel, and turned the car around into a corner. I gripped the seat, my head pressed back as the car whipped around, only for him to then slam his foot back on the accelerator. “What kind of whore has a baby with a man that she can’t even remember?”

  “Things happen.”

  “They do,” Brian nodded. “Like me finding this guy one day. And Matt, I promise that when I do, he’s going to be sorry.” There was a bite behind his words; a seriousness that couldn’t be ignored. I dared to look at him, and when I did, his eyes met mine, staring me down.

  A pause. A beat. The moment seemed to last forever.

  He then slammed on the breaks, snapping me from the moment as the car came to a sudden halt. “We’re here,” he said with a smile, climbing out of the car.

  He handed his keys to the valet and began leading me inside the restaurant as if he were my date.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, glancing around the restaurant and double checking that Amanda hadn’t arrived. There was another twenty minutes until she was supposed to, so the odds were slim.

  “I’m going to chill with you until your date arrives,” he said casually, leading me toward the bar.

  “You really don’t have to,” I said hurriedly as I came to a stop. “Seriously, I can wait by myself.”

  “Dude,” he laughed. “You’re being weird. Now come on, the first drink is on me. In exchange, I want to hear all about this girl that you’re seeing. Leave nothing out!”

  I allowed myself to be dragged as I quickly pulled out my phone and sent Amanda a quick text asking her to not show up.

  Twenty

  Amanda

  Matt’s tongue glided along my lower lip as if to beg entrance, and I granted it without hesitation. My back slammed into the wall behind me with a force that caused me to exhale my breath forcefully. It was the first time he had touched me in over two weeks, and it felt just as good as I had expected it to.

  We were in Matt’s office and he multitasked as he kissed me, removing my clothes, and keeping me locked onto the wall with no measly force. My head clouded in a way that had me forgetting to breathe as he pulled his own pants down just enough to reveal his full erection. He leaned back and grabbed my arms, pressing them onto the wall. I tried to lean forward and devour his lips, but in vain.

  I watched as he smirked and shoved his full length inside of me. I groaned, and my vision exploded into stars as he filled me completely. He gave me only a brief second to situate myself around him as he used the entirety of his body to thrust inward repeatedly. With each thrust, I unwound until I forgot about our position and everything but the pleasure raking through every inch of my body.

  It had been so long since he we had been together. Two weeks, that had felt like two years.

  “I’ve missed you” I moaned and shuddered once again. “So much.”

  He pushed a strand of hair away from my face. Right beside us was Matt’s work desk. All in one motion, he shoved me over the side of it, my face mere inches from the wood, and my ass in the air. “You are mine,” he roared, and I melted beneath him.

  As always, Matt did not disappoint. In fact, when he turned me to face him, and shoved my ass back into the wall, no longer holding himself back, I saw the wild animal beneath the tattooed and composed businessman. He didn’t bother with pleasantries as he looked into my eyes and thrust himself into me with such force that my lower back pounded into the wall.

  I moaned his name without realizing what I was saying. The sound on my lips was habitual and instinctive, as our breaths intertwined and mended together.

  With a few last strokes of himself within me, he growled “mine” upon my lips until I believed it with all my heart. No feeling had ever compared to that of being claimed by the man I loved.

  It was well past 9 am when we finished and I sneaked out of Matt’s office, rushing toward the washroom. The last thing I needed was to turn up at work smelling of sex. By the time I freshened up, I was very much late but I didn’t care. Not one bit. My mood was the best it had been in ages, and even the wrath of my floor manager, Denise, would not have been able to change that.

  Or so I thought.

  “You’re late,” she said in her usual no-nonsense manner the very second I had sat down at my desk. I hadn’t even noticed her there. It was as if she had been lurking around the corner waiting for me.

  “Oh, sorry, Denise,” I said sincerely. “The traffic was awful, and my bus was running late.”

  “That’s not good enough,” she continued. “Did you not see the email I sent out earlier about our new zero-tolerance policy?”

  “Ah, no,” I frowned. I looked Denise up and down, trying to get a reading on her. “When did you send it out?”

  “This morning at 9AM, when you should have been here.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I said again. I upped the charm, smiling my most sincere smile in an attempt to show her just how sorry I was. I was actually a little mad, truth be told. When considering all the extra work I had been doing of late, they could have at least given me a little leave-way. “It won’t happen again.”

  “I know it won’t,” she said calmly. “You’re fired. Clean out your desk, I want you gone in ten minutes.” And without another word, she turned and walked away.

  She was kidding. She had to be kidding. I quickly turned on my computer, and opened the email that she was talking about. Sure enough, at exactly 9 am, an email had been sent staff wide, dictating this new policy. If anyone was more than ten minutes late, they were to be fired without recourse. Although the email had been sent to everyone, I couldn’t help but feel that this was directed only at me.

  In fact, I was sure of it.

  I didn’t pack up my desk, and I didn’t leave the building either. Instead I made straight for the elevator and then toward Brian’s office. When I reached it, I stormed in without knocking.

  “You’re firing me?” I blasted, slamming the door behind me as I did.

  “Hello, sis,” he smiled at me. It was a big, fake smile that reeked of ill-intent. “You look well.”

  “You’re firing me?” I repeated myself as I stormed up to his desk. “Thirty minutes late and I’m being fired?”

  He frowned, scrunching his brow up tight. “That is our new policy,” he said. “We’re running a business here, Amanda. Not a daycare center.”

  “You have got to be—and after all I’ve done here over the last two weeks?” My body shook as I struggled to speak

  “My hands are tied,” he continued. The corner of his lips curled in a satisfied, triumphant smile. “I can’t be seen to favor you over everyone else. How would that look?”

  He could not have looked happier with the situation. Now I knew that the email sent out was aimed directly at me. Somehow, Brian had known that I would be late. It was all part of his plan.

  Without thinking, I turned and stormed out of the room, charging into Matt’s instead. As expected, Matt was sitting there, furrowing his brow as he stared at his computer screen. At the sight of me entering his office, he broke into a smile. Well, that was until he saw the look on my face.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked immediately, pushing himself up and rushing around the desk toward me.

  “I’m fired,” I said, my voice shaking.

  “Wha—?”

  “That’s right,” Brian spat from behind. I spun around, not surprised to see my brother, leaning on the doorframe, arms crossed, watching me and Matt with disgust written across his face. “Go running to Matt.”

  “You fired her?” Matt asked, stepping around me.

  “Not me,” Brian
countered. “Her boss did, though. She broke policy and we had to let her go.”

  “What policy?”

  “What does it matter? She broke it and was reprimanded appropriately.”

  Matt frowned in disbelief, as if he was seeing Brian for the first time. He then shook his head and turned back to face me. “Don’t worry, you’re not fired—”

  “The hell she is!” Brian stormed into the room. He was no longer calm and smug like he had been earlier, but shaking and full of rage. It was a terrifying sight, and one I knew too well. “I’m the boss and I say she goes.”

  “What’s the matter with you?” Matt stepped in front of me, blocking Brian. “She’s your sister, for Christ’s sake!”

  “She’s a slut and a whore is what she is. Better off on the streets, putting her skills to real use. Her and that little bastard of hers—”

  In a whirlwind of confusion and distress, I hardly noticed when Brian was no longer standing in front of Matt. I didn’t know what to say or how to react when Matt grabbed his partner—my brother— by the neck, and pinned him to the wall.

  Twenty-One

  Matt

  I was dimly aware of Amanda standing behind me, screaming for me to let Brian go. But like I said, I was only dimly aware of it. In truth, I hardly even remembered grabbing him. One minute he was insulting Amanda, and my son, and the next… well, this.

  Amanda didn’t understand that I wasn’t only protecting her, but also our son. I refused to let Brian speak ill of my family. “I will kill you,” I snarled. “If you ever talk about my son that way again.”

  I tightened my grasp around his throat and, to my surprise, he didn’t fight back or try and stop me. Instead he smirked, looking as if he had won, as if it were me who was pinned to the wall. “Just as I thought,” he chuckled. “You knocked up my whore of a sister and then abandoned her.”