5. BEN
5
BEN
W hat the hell was Alex thinking?
Actually, scratch that. I knew exactly what my brother was thinking. He didn’t trust me enough to do this by myself. He thought I needed someone to keep an eye on me, and now he sent some doll from project management to oversee me.
The fact that that doll was Sofia was even worse—how the fuck was I supposed to work with her when I knew what she looked like naked? And when I knew what her lips tasted like, what her voice sounded like in my ear when she moaned as she reached her climax… fuck .
I had to stop thinking about her as someone I’d slept with if I was going to get through this project at all. I had to see her as a colleague. Maybe not even that.
We weren’t equals. I was a Blackwood, for God’s sake. And the owner of the company, and she was just an employee.
A hot one, but the fact was, I was her boss.
End of story.
The boss who slept with his employee.
Damn it, my mind wouldn’t leave me alone. No matter what I did, I wasn’t going to be able to work with Sofia.
Fuck this shit.
I got up from my office, where I was going through the documents for the Harborview project, and stormed to Alex’s office.
I didn’t bother knocking. We were equals.
Okay, maybe that wasn’t true either because he was the CEO and technically my boss. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that we were brothers, we were equal owners of the company, and when it came down to it, I was older than him.
Yeah, that had to count for something.
I pushed Alex’s door open despite Marina trying to stop me.
“We need to talk,” I growled.
Alex held up his finger. He was on the phone.
“Will you just hold on for a moment?” Alex hit mute on his phone. “I’m on a call, Ben. Can this wait?”
“No, it can’t,” I snapped. “Time is running out, I have to leave tomorrow, and I’m not going until we straighten this bullshit out.”
Alex sighed. “Fine, just let me handle this, okay?”
He unmuted his call and spoke for a while longer. He typed a couple of things on his laptop while he did, nodding as he listened, and—finally—he ended the call.
Nice of him to have some time for me.
God, I was in a shit mood.
“Okay, what is it?” Alex asked with a sigh. I hadn’t even started yet and he sounded exasperated.
“I’m not going to Harborview with that woman,” I said flatly.
Alex frowned. “We’re not going through this again—”
“I don’t need a babysitter. Why don’t you think I can do this shit? I’m not just a salesman, you know. I can do other stuff, too, without needing supervision.”
Alex shook his head. “This isn’t about your abilities, Ben. Why is everything always so difficult with you? The project needs someone who understands business development and Miss Gallegos is the best we have. She’s outstanding, I pulled her files. You can look at them if you want.”
He opened his laptop.
“You don’t have to—”
“I sent them to you,” Alex said and offered me a level stare. “I know you’re pissed off and you think this is all about you, but it’s not. This is about expanding the company, which is a big step, and I want it to work out right. That’s all. It’s a business move, not an emotional one.”
I shook my head. Alex was so fucking reasonable, it pissed me off. That was why he was the boss. My dad had chosen Alex to be the CEO, and I’d been pissed off when he’d done that all those years ago.
I’d felt like I’d been overlooked, like my dad hadn’t wanted me there because I wasn’t good enough.
But would I have been such a good CEO?
Alex had a way of shutting off his emotions and getting down to business the way I never could. It was these emotions that got me into shit.
“If you have to send someone with me, let it be someone else,” I said tightly.
Alex narrowed his eyes at me. “Why? What do you have against Sofia?”
If I could choose, I’d have liked to have my body against her, but that was beside the point.
“I don’t like her.” Liar.
“This isn’t kindergarten, Ben. You’re going to have to put your big boy pants on and deal with it. Be professional. You don’t have to be her friend.”
Yeah, well… fuck.
“So, there’s no way you’re going to buckle in this?” I asked.
“Not a chance.”
“You can be such an asshole.”
Alex sighed and leaned back in his chair.
“What the hell is your problem, Ben?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re always upset with whatever I say and do, however I choose to do business, and you take everything so damn personally. This world doesn’t need to be such a survival contest, you know. You keep playing life on hard and you really don’t have to.”
I didn’t know how to answer that. If I argued I would prove him right, and I hated that he wasn’t exactly wrong. It wasn’t like I chose it that way. It was just the way it fucking was.
“Look, Sofia Gallegos is good at her job, and this project is something that will be good for you, her, and the company. It’s a triple treat. I know you’ve been going through some shit and I thought letting you get away for a while was something you would appreciate.”
He wasn’t wrong. Damn it, Alex was never wrong. I did want to get out of here and I’d been thrilled when he’d suggested that I go. It was just the fact that I had to go with Sofia after I’d slept with her, and that despite what Alex was saying, I still felt like I was getting a babysitter and Alex didn’t trust that I could do this on my own.
“Thanks,” I said gruffly. “I guess I’ll go home. I have some packing to do.”
Alex nodded without answering me and turned his attention back to his laptop. He picked up his phone, dialed a number, and had someone on the line again before I’d properly left his office.
It irritated me that he was so good at his job, so impossible to argue with, and such a pain in my ass.
But Alex and I had never really gotten along. He’d always been better at everything he did than I’d ever been at what I did and that pissed me off.
It was the principle of the thing.
I did leave the way I’d told Alex I would, but I wouldn’t go straight home and pack. I would do that later. First, I needed to blow off some steam.
I drove to Jester.
I didn’t usually go there during the day, but the bar was the type of place that catered to its patrons at all hours. They were open for mimosas after brunch at eleven and served the appropriate alcohol until two in the morning.
That was why they were so popular. It was almost like a twenty-four-hour takeaway place that offered what people needed when they couldn’t find it anywhere else at strange hours.
Jester looked different during the day. The bar in the middle wasn’t brightly lit with its neon lights, and with the paneling on the walls and the blue velvet seats, the place had an almost gentleman-club feel.
“Hey, Ben,” Max said behind the bar, coming to me. He wore slacks and a button-up, even though he was behind the bar as a bartender during the day.
“Max,” I said, nodding.
“You’re not usually here this early,” Max said.
Maxwell Harrington wasn’t just the bartender during the day. He was the owner of the bar and he was the heart and soul of Jester. He was responsible for the incredible cocktails the other bartenders came up with and his passion for spirits and mixology had made this place what it was.
He also had the uncanny ability to remember every patron’s name and what they usually drank, what work they did if someone had told him, and what times they usually came in.
“I need a drink,” I sat down at the bar.
“Your usual?”
I shook my head. An Old Fashioned made with aged rum was something I loved to drink but that was for when I was enjoying myself and today I was not enjoying myself.
“Lagavulin 16,” I said. “And keep it coming.”
Max raised his eyebrows, but he produced a tumbler and poured me three fingers of the fine single malt whisky.
I threw it back in one shot.
Max whistled through his teeth. “That serious, huh?” He poured me another three fingers.
I nodded and took the glass from him, but this time I didn’t down it. I sipped it carefully. Lagavulin wasn’t the kind of whisky I was going to keep downing—that would be a complete waste.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Max asked.
I eyed him. He knew who I was and what I did. He knew a lot of people and what they did, but he was the kind of man who kept his mouth shut. He knew everything but said nothing.
“Did you notice the two brunettes that came in when we were celebrating last week?”
Max nodded. “If I’m thinking of the same girls you’re talking about, I saw them come in when I was on my way out.”
“Right,” I said. “I think we’re thinking about the same girls. Striking, one with eyes like mercury and the other with this motherly warmth.”
Max chuckled. “Yeah, that sounds right.”
I sighed. “I slept with one of them.”
“You’re making it sound like a bad thing.”
“It was if you consider that I have to work with her for the next couple of weeks. Alone.”
Max whistled through his teeth again.
“That sounds… interesting.”
“I don’t want her there,” I said flatly.
“Because you slept with her?”
“Yeah, and the fact that I think Alex is giving me a babysitter. Even though she’s apparently great at her job and that’s what the project needs. I just… I don’t want to have to deal with this shit. I was looking forward to having this project as my baby to do with as I saw fit and now I need to figure it out with her before I can really do anything. I just… fuck. I don’t know how to deal with it.”
“Maybe she really is good at what she does.”
She was fucking good at doing me.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“And maybe she’ll be fun to work with.”
“Maybe,” I said dully.
“I think this has nothing to do with her being with you and your work. Or the fact that you got her horizontal.”
I frowned at Max, who leaned on the bar with his elbows, confiding in me like we were best buds.
“Then what is it about?”
“Well, that’s for you to figure out, isn’t it?” Max asked with a grin. “But if you take those two things away…”
I shook my head, even more confused. “If you take those two things away, nothing’s left.”
Max straightened out. “Then there’s nothing to worry about. You can be professional, she can do a good job. Right?”
“Right…”
“Then the project will be done and dusted and there will be nothing to worry about.”
I stared at Max. He made it seem pretty damn simple, but it really wasn’t that simple. It was…
What the hell was it?
If I took those two things away, there wasn’t nothing. Something else was pissing me off, but I didn’t know what it was.
And that pissed me off even more.
I threw back the second glass of whisky. Fuck not downing the whisky.
The bottle was mine, and I could do whatever I wanted.
I was Benjamin fucking Blackwood and that had to stand for something.