One
Willow I’m-an-Idiot Tate
I closed my eyes, wishing I could make the email from my boss disappear. When I wearily blinked them back open, it was still there.
Get the Cassel permits pulled for the South Pavillion Rd. property.
He’d attached the necessary reference numbers, and the instruction to make it happen this morning along with who I should contact. Someone who owed him a favor, probably.
It made no sense to me. The Cassels weren’t even direct competitors to the firm I worked for. Not really. Schultz and Schultz specialized in retail properties, like malls and shopping centers. Cassel Brothers specialized in commercial rentals, apartments and condos, and hotels.
There could only be one reason. S&S had decided they wanted the land. Apparently, they planned to play dirty to get it and possibly get the Cassels fined along the way.
I sighed, rubbing two fingers up and down the center of my forehead. I released a long, slow breath through my nose. This wouldn’t go well. I’d known the Cassels my entire life. of them was married to my best friend, and another was my mortal frenemy. The latter would take this as a personal affront and come after me.
True to my word, I’d stayed away from him since that night almost four months ago. It was killing me. As much as we fought, as much as we played at hating each other, I had deep down forever feelings for the asshole. They were the kind that should lead to happily ever after. But it wasn’t meant to be.
Jameson Cassel felt nothing for me, nothing beyond enjoying that I was an easy fuck buddy. Well, those days were long over. My hand pressed over my almost flat belly that looked as if I’d had a little too much pasta for lunch. Over the coming months, it would get harder and harder to hide. I had to figure out what to do soon. New York might be a big place, but the construction industry sure wasn’t. Pretty soon, Jamie would know he’d left a little something behind our last time together. Knowing him, he’d insist on doing the right thing.
Screw that.
After the way I’d grown up, I wasn’t having some man settle for me. I wouldn’t have some man be with me when he didn’t love me. I’d seen that for sixteen years, my mom loving my father and my father being a self-absorbed island unto himself. He’d provided for us physically, but emotionally, he might as well have been a rock. My mom had faded more and more until finally her devastated heart had just given up on him…and me…and life altogether.
I would not be that woman.
Jaw set, I clicked away at my computer keyboard. Quickly, I filed the paperwork and tugged all the right strings to set in motion the process to get the Cassel’s permits pulled on their latest project in Tarrytown, just outside NYC. My stomach roiled as I did it, and it had nothing to do with the bean growing inside me. But it had everything to do with that bean’s daddy.
I knew the Cassel brothers would get the situation worked out. This would only delay them a bit. But Jameson would come find me. He’d have words to say. And as usual, the fire between us would be stoked, and the next thing we knew…
No, no, no! I was not getting naked with him again.
The way I saw it, I didn’t have much choice here. It was time to get the hell out of Dodge. The longer I worked for S&S , the more frequent the chances I’d end up in Jameson’s orbit would become. And like dominoes falling, we’d gravitate, we’d clash, we’d end up in bed together.
Which meant, I needed an escape route. Intent on devising my future, I opened my internet browser and started a search for project management positions, in any field, anywhere in the country but here.
* * * *
“What the fuck, Willow!”
“Well, that was quick,” I muttered as I forked a piece of lettuce. I was on the patio of one of my favorite restaurants and until a moment ago, had been enjoying lunch in the mild weather. Without answering Jameson, I pushed the bite into my mouth and chewed slowly while I raised an eyebrow at him as he towered over me.
“Were you that desperate for my attention?” he growled. “You had to go fuck with our business? Do you know how many guys we had to pay to just stand around a jobsite today?”
“You really think that? That it’s about you? You’re more of a self-centered, conceited asshole than I realized.”
“I’m just saying, it’s been four months. Maybe, you were looking for an excuse.”
“Maybe, I was doing my damn job,” I bristled. This damn man. I could just…kick him in his overachieving balls.
He crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes at me. “Your boss told you to shut down our site?”
I lifted a shoulder in a negligent half-shrug. “If you don’t like it, you only have yourself to blame. You wouldn’t let Bennett hire me when he wanted to offer me a position, so I’m stuck over at Schultz and Schultz working as a glorified clerk.”
He leaned forward, resting his hands on the table. His dark gaze pierced into me, his gorgeous face inches from mine. “You want to know why I blocked it? Because the position you would have found yourself in most often was bent over a desk with me deep inside you.”
I shifted in my seat—because it was hot in here, but not because he made me hot. “Whatever,” I snapped. “Because you couldn’t—or wouldn’t—control yourself and keep it in your pants, now we all pay the consequences.”
In more ways than you even know…
“You know what? I’ve had enough of this.” He stood and walked a few paces away, his hands in his hair, a gesture I noticed was common in all the brothers. I admired his tight ass and wide shoulders. Then, when he turned back to me, my gaze dropped to the bulge in the front of his khaki pants. Holy crap, was he hard now?
He cleared his throat, and I redirected my focus as he took the couple steps back to me. I met his eyes, unashamed that I’d been caught staring at his generous package. It was a gift that should be mine. After all, we’d lost our freaking virginities together. And I hadn’t ever been with anyone else. Just him, pretty randomly over the years.
But no, I couldn’t have him, not a man who didn’t love me—or even like me a whole lot. Tolerance and lust weren’t enough. Jameson didn’t love anyone but himself…and maybe, his business.
“Okay, here’s the deal,” he said, rapping his knuckles twice on the surface of the table where I sat. “Tomorrow morning, you come to Cassel Brothers . You work for us now.”
I stared at him. “What?”
“You’re one of us, and you damn well know it. Get your ass into our office tomorrow morning by eight, or so help me God, I will come and get you and haul you there myself. After I give you the spanking you’ve been begging for, for years.”
“I have not,” I exclaimed, too gobsmacked to even reply to the rest.
“Keep thinking that. But you’re wrong.” He grinned. “Be there by eight. You’ve been warned. See you tomorrow, babe.”