Chapter 5 #3
The whole time Ross speaks, Missy’s eyes scan me like an FBI lie detector. One I can’t possibly pass. If we don’t sign those papers and get the hell out of here, she’s going to see right through me.
“Of course,” Jeffrey says, but there’s a fresh tension in the room even as he opens the manila folder.
Jeffrey pulls a gold pen from a stand on his desk, signing the last page with a flourish.
He holds the pen out to Ross, who takes the time to read through the contract to insure it’s the same as what we went over with the lawyers, and then he signs too.
Lastly, he hands the pen to me. I read the contract as well, as it’s the first lesson in good business practices, and finding it to be acceptable, I sign.
It’s done.
“One more thing, Jeffrey. You mentioned your umbrella. I was wondering if I could get a few names inside your media conglomerate for marketing opportunities. I figure if we’re spending your investment money, we might as well spend it in your own companies.”
“Of course,” Jeffrey says, standing up. “Melissa will be happy to get that information for you, won’t you, honey?”
“Of course,” Missy replies, standing too. “When would you like them, Ross?”
“As soon as possible,” Ross says with a nod. We both stand, sensing the end of the meeting now that the signatures are done.
Jeffrey shakes hands with Ross and then me. Missy shakes Ross’s, but when she shakes mine, she leans in and holds it a little too long. With a soft smirk on those red lips, she says lightly, “I can’t wait to meet her since she’ll be part of the family now.”
Fuck. Shit. I am so hosed, possibly literally, given the way Ross is glaring at me.
“Thank you, gentlemen. I’ll be in touch.” And that’s it. Jeffrey’s back to work, filing our manila folder in a desk drawer he pulls open. Inside, I can see an entire foot of manila folders lined up like soldiers. One cog in a wheel of companies.
Missy leads us out of her father’s office and into the waiting room where she takes out a tablet and writes down some names on a piece of paper before handing them to Ross. “These’ll get you started. If I remember more, I’ll email them to you.”
“Thanks . . . Missy?”
Missy nods, smiling a true smile for the first time since I’ve ever met her. “Only Daddy calls me Melissa.” To me, she only offers that man-eater grin. “See you at the gym, Kaede.”
“What,” Ross asks after shutting the door to his office at the gym and yanking off his suit coat, quickly followed by his tie, which he throws on his desk, “the actual fuck were you thinking?”
I shrug off my own coat before collapsing into the soft couch Violet chose for Ross’s office, knowing he’d have days where the work and workouts would make him too sore to sit in his office chair.
Running my hands through my hair, I pull at the strands, knowing I’m probably making even more of a mess but unable to stop.
“I don’t know, man. I just . . . fuck. Missy has been throwing herself at me.
Literally!” I groan as I recall all the times she’s hit on me.
“I’ve tried to be polite about putting her off, or at least as much as I can.
But shit, I never dreamed that she was part of Jeffrey’s research team, and you know we both scoured for every morsel of intel on the guy. We couldn’t have known.”
I think back, trying to figure out if I’ve ever been rude, crude, an asshole, or in any way done something that could hurt us. Nope, other than the huge, glaring, big, fat lie about having a fiancée, we’re golden.
Just that.
Ross has moved on to pacing, which is never a good sign. It’s step three of his ‘losing it’ tells. “I know, but fuck, man! Why Courtney? Why my sister, of all people in the whole wide world?”
That question’s been running around in my head ever since we walked out of Jeffrey Sanders's office. Is it that I picked the first person I could think of who could ‘measure up’ to Missy in terms of social clout? Is it that I picked someone who’s just close to me?
Or is it that without my daily dose of her, I’ve gotten more than a little obsessed with each and every moment I might see her?
Is it that I intentionally do walkthroughs when I know she’s here, spying on her class like a creeper and hoping to ‘accidentally’ run into her in the hallways?
Is it that of everyone I’ve ever known, she lights me up in a way I’ve never experienced, making the darkness in my soul less of a void?
Hell, maybe it’s that I jacked off to the image of her ass perched on that stool in the smoothie bar last night and came harder than I have since the last time I used her as my own personal fantasy?
I don’t say any of that to Ross, wanting to keep both of my heads from the guillotine.
“I just panicked. She was the first name that came to mind because I saw her last night.”
I realize my mistake a moment too late. “You saw my sister last night?” Ross growls, facing me fully. I wonder if he knows that his hands are fisted. I sure as fuck do, and though I don’t move on the couch, my muscles coil just in case.
“Simmer down. Not like that. We had smoothies in the café after her class. Purely coincidental, and then she went home and I went back to my office.” It wasn’t coincidental in the slightest, but that confession will go to the grave with me.
And hell, I should tell him to mind his own damn business. He fell in love with his sister’s best friend, after all, and Courtney’s a grown ass woman who can date whoever she wants. There’s just no indication that it’s me.
Ross relaxes and my gut sinks. He was seriously more worked up that I might have been flirting with Courtney than over this mess Missy’s dumped on us?
“You know,” he finally says, falling into his chair, “you could have just taken one for the team.”
“With Missy?” I gawk, shaking my head. “Fuck no. Let’s ignore the fact that she’s obviously playing dirty. We shouldn’t mix personal and professional, and you know that. Other than us, it never works out.”
He cracks one eye, glaring at me because he knows I’m right.
“My trying to date Missy and keep Daddy happy would have been impossible. And I give you shit about Vi whipping you, but Missy would be holding her dad’s money over me at every turn, and it would kill our partnership.
Hell, maybe that’s her goal?” I’m begging Ross to listen to reason and also to move past the craziness of the lie I told and the mess I’ve gotten us into.
“We’re better to go for a short-term, minor disappointment and then deliver solidly on the gym front. We can do that. You know we can.”
He sighs heavily. “Fuck, you’re right. Guys like Jeffrey only speak one language, dollars and cents.
But one thing, Kaede . . . you gotta fix this.
If Courtney finds out, she will skin you alive and feast on your entrails.
If Abi finds out, she’ll have the wedding chapel booked faster than you can say ‘wait’.
” Ross’s other sister is a bit of a schemer-slash-matchmaker and holds herself solely responsible for getting Ross and Violet together.
“And if Missy or Jeffrey find out it’s all a lie, we can kiss the whole deal goodbye. Fix it.”
As he offers that decree, Ross’s phone goes off and he looks down at it. “Fuck . . . I don’t have time for this.”
He gets up, confusing the hell out of me. “Don’t have time for this? What else is there, man? This is everything.”
At least it’s everything . . . to me. But not to Ross. He’s got something more important than any business, any corporation. Violet. I know that.
Hell, I respect that. After the scandals of his and Violet’s early relationship, the heartache, and the insane series of events that can only be described as fate when they ended up at the altar together, I can totally understand.
So I know who it is that just texted Ross and that it’s important. I don’t begrudge him his happiness, but fuck if it doesn’t sting a bit that he’s going home to his everything.
But my everything?
It’s in these walls. It’s in the bars and plates and machines.
“I’ll fix it.”
Ross leaves, and I sit back in the chair, wondering how in the hell I’m going to do it, though.