Twisted knight, p.21
Twisted Knight, page 21
I nod. That’s the first time I’ve noted any kind of doubt from my brother. Or is it regret? Is it finally hitting him, finally breaking through that ginormous ego of his that he screwed over our family business somehow?
Or is he just bullshitting me to get sympathy since he’s not getting the attention he’s used to—in the office and in Westmore in general—with Holden now in the picture.
And just as quickly as the thought comes, as the notion of my brother’s humility hits, it flies right out the door when he continues, “I did nothing wrong as the CEO. Chad did nothing wrong as the COO. Things happen sometimes. That’s it and this is the best way to see the company through.”
“Got it.” Good to see the ego is still there.
“You could be a little less hostile.” Hypocritical advice from the man who has no business giving it.
“Yes. I could. Just like you could be less of a prick. Telling people that I’m the reason for the company’s current situation? I mean, really?”
He stutters in motion. Ah, you didn’t think I knew that you were saying that, now, did you?
“For all you know, Holden may be your saving grace here,” he says in response.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, once you and Chad married, you were going to have to step down here,” he says, to which I stare at him dumbfounded.
“Chad and I, married?”
“Yeah. It would be a conflict of interest having a married couple in two of the top positions here. It wouldn’t look good. That was the plan.”
My laugh drips with sarcasm. “So nice to know you had a plan for me.”
He flashes a condescending smile and then riffles through more pages on the desk. “You know me, I’m always looking out for your best interest.”
“Prick,” I mutter under my breath.
“C’mon, Row. Chad’s an incredible guy. He’s always treated you great. He’s clearly in love with you. You wouldn’t have to worry about our families getting along. And…”
“And what?”
“And I don’t know. It just feels like the two of you were meant to be.”
“That’s comical.”
“Is it so bad that you marry Chadwick and take whatever it is that Gran left you and start something of your own?”
Ah, so that’s why you came in here. He’s desperate to know what Gran may or may not have left me since I’ve yet to say a word about it. My silence on the matter has to be killing him.
“Why would you say that?” I ask.
He shrugs, but the way he’s fidgeting with the paper in his hands tells me he is in fact dying to know. “Just an assumption. I want the best for you. Chad’s a good guy … and whatever with Gran.”
Whatever with Gran?
I’m about to make his fishing expedition even more painful than it already is.
“I don’t know what Gran left me yet,” I lie.
“What do you mean? The will. She specifically says in there that she left you a private letter to explain what she left you.”
“Huh.”
“Stop bullshitting me. What did the letter say?”
I shrug. “Not sure.”
“What do you mean you’re not sure? C’mon, Row.”
“I haven’t opened it yet. I don’t want to. Once I do, it means she’s not here anymore.”
“You can’t seriously believe that, can you? You know she’s not here. Open the damn letter.”
I shrug again and only because I know it pisses him off. “I’ll open her letter when I’m ready to open it. End of discussion.”
Rhett stares at me dumbfounded—eyes wide, jaw lax, shock evident in his posture. “You’re being fucking ridiculous.” He shifts on his feet, impatience emanating from him.
“You see it your way. I see it mine.” And if I’d put my head down and got back to work, I never would have caught the blood suddenly draining from his face. I glance down to the map that has his attention but it’s too far away for me to see what it is. “What’s wrong with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says and reshuffles the papers again before taking a quick step back like the table is lava. “It’s stress. That’s all. Stress’ll do that to you.”
“It will,” Holden says from the doorway. We both turn to look his way, and I swear to god my stomach flips when our eyes meet. The connection is brief and meaningless followed by a quick nod before he waltzes farther into the room, but it does stupid things to my insides.
Things I don’t want it to do.
Scratch that. Things I’m fine with it doing but that only serve to complicate a situation I spent the better part of the weekend telling myself I don’t want to happen when I actually do.
“Knight,” my brother says in a cursory greeting as Holden stops at the table and glances at the array of maps before looking back at him.
“Why’re you stressed, Rhett? I thought I was here to take care of everything for you,” Holden says, yet I hear a mocking undertone and wonder if Rhett does too.
“Land? Property? What’s this all about? We didn’t discuss anything about this.”
“We don’t have to discuss anything when it comes to what I’m doing. Only when it pertains to what you’re doing.” His flash of a smile is anything but warm.
There is a visual game of chicken that makes no sense to me as tension fills the room. Both are standing with their hands on the chair in front of them, both staring at each other across the table.
My brother blinks first.
“Isn’t Rowan’s time better spent doing things for TinSpirits than for you personally? I mean, if we’re looking to turn things around and all, then maybe we should focus on the business and not your personal affairs.”
“Exactly my thoughts. Just like your time is better spent here on-site and in the office than out playing eighteen holes with Chad. There can’t be much you have to talk about that can’t be discussed here.” He knocks his knuckles on the table to emphasize his point. “And I’m pretty sure your sister can speak up for herself. You’ve never done so before, so why start now?”
I worry my bottom lip between my teeth, not exactly thrilled to be talked about like I’m not in the room.
“Just being a good big brother.”
The last thing I need is these two fighting over me. “You guys—”
“You didn’t answer my question though,” Holden says. “You seem a little pale. Panicked. Not sure why a bunch of maps would do that to you. Or is it the numbers that just came in? I was a little surprised to see our margin had fallen again for last month. I think you really need to get Greatland and their pricing under control. Ironic considering they’ve been a recent topic of discussion.”
“No, I didn’t see the numbers,” my brother says quietly.
“Hmpf. Seems Chad’s holding out on you, then, and coming straight to me. Good to hear.” A muscle ticks in Holden’s jaw, his expression impassive. “But I can’t have the CEO not in the loop. That doesn’t fly with me. Guess that’s another reason why you should be here and not out on the links. Right?” he asks.
“Chad sent them to me. I just haven’t had time to go over them,” Rhett says, and he’s so full of shit. I know my brother and he’s silently freaking out.
“Right. Yes.” Holden knows he’s lying too. “Well, since you and Porter seem to be buddy-buddy, I’ll leave it up to you to address with him why costs rose and the product stayed the same. Doesn’t compute, but I’m sure you’ll get to the bottom of it. And if you don’t…” He flashes a shark’s smile. “Well, that would be a problem.”
Rhett forces a swallow down his throat as he fidgets with the top of the chair. “Sure. Not a problem.”
“Great. I’ll want answers on that in a comprehensive breakdown by Friday.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Don’t sound so enthused, Rhett.” Holden chuckles. “This is the drawback to doing business with friends. It’s hard not to pull punches when you have to see the bruises they leave on your off days at the country club.”
Rhett’s glare in response doesn’t seem to faze Holden and so he continues telling my brother about what he expects in his breakdown of Greatland.
I look back and forth between the two, only to find myself staring at Holden’s hands. Or rather, his forearms and his hands. The cuffs of his dress shirt are folded up to just below his elbows and the ceiling lights glint off the silver of his watch, but it’s the corded muscles in his forearms and his large, capable hands that capture my attention.
Flashbacks hit me from the other night. Him standing between my thighs, his hand on his cock, and his forearms and biceps bulging as he stroked himself.
“Rowan?”
My name breaks through my thoughts and I find Holden looking at me with eyebrows raised and the slightest knowing smirk on his lips.
He knows exactly what I’m thinking about.
Shit.
“I’m sorry, what?” I give the slightest shake of my head and lie. “I was distracted by an email that just popped up on my computer. I apologize. Where were we?”
Holden’s gaze holds mine and there’s amusement in his eyes. “I asked if I should assume Audrey gave you the rundown of what I’m looking for?”
I nod. “Yes. I’m compiling the spreadsheets.”
“With owners and contacts?” he asks.
“Yes. Many are LLCs who are using real estate brokers.”
“If there is a property that looks worthwhile, we’ll do a deep dive on the LLCs and their history. I don’t like going into business or buying something substantial without knowing every deep, dark secret that might come to light later.”
I stare at Holden and chuckle uncomfortably. “Should I be worried that you did the same to us? I promise my deep, dark secrets are rather benign.”
“I know. I’ve seen them,” he says and then laughs, but the thought lingers.
“Funny.”
“I try.” He flashes a smile that holds warmth for the first time since he walked into this room. Our eyes hold a beat too long before he turns to my brother. “Should I be worried about your secrets, Rhett?”
My brother chuckles, but there’s a strain to it.
Here go the games again, and as if perfectly on cue to get me out of their uncomfortable tension, my cell rings. “I’ve got to take this,” I say, holding up my phone and ducking out of the room without waiting for a response.
I welcome the distraction of a simple question from my new graphic designer and hesitate to go back into the conference room until they’re both gone. It’s hard enough to concentrate in this place lately, and it’s even harder to do so when you’re worried that your brother is going to pick up on some ridiculously subtle nuance that you slept with your soon-to-be boss.
So when the call comes in about an issue down in the warehouse, I know it’s out of my realm, but I gladly go to take it.
A little fresh air and a quick walk across the grounds from the office building to our warehouse across the street will give me a break from all this testosterone.
I step into the elevator and seconds after I push the button for the ground floor, I hear, “Rothschild. Hold up.”
I momentarily debate pushing the doors-open button but think better of it. Me. Holden. Alone in a small space like an elevator?
Not the best decision for my sanity.
But of course, just as the doors begin to shut, Holden slips between them. “You’re not trying to avoid me, are you, Sunshine?”
I keep my back against the wall and don’t turn to face him or even give him a welcoming vibe. “Nope. Not at all. Just heading down to the warehouse. Justin needed someone to sign off on something so I volunteered to go.”
“I wasn’t aware ‘signing off’ on warehouse things is part of your job description.”
“Neither is looking for property to buy, but I’m doing it, right?”
Our eyes hold as the elevator begins to make its descent. I can’t decipher what his are saying but when he reaches out to push the stop button on the elevator, it jolts. We’re face-to-face, body to body.
I suck in a quick hiss of a breath. My body is already imagining leaning in and taking another taste of his lips. My mind is saying otherwise.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Excuse me,” Holden says with a mischievous glint to his eyes. To his smile. To the tone of his voice. “I didn’t mean to bump into you … but that’s completely okay because us touching doesn’t make you feel anything. Want anything. Resisting me is easy, right?”
“I can. It is,” I say with a nod, trying to look anywhere but his eyes, and that’s pretty hard when he’s standing right in front of me.
“Right. Yes. That’s why when I was talking to your brother you kept staring at my hands.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“You were imagining my palms running over you, my fingers pushing into you, my tongue … doing tongue things to you.”
“Tongue things?” My own tongue feels thick in my mouth despite my chuckle.
“Would you like me to elaborate? Tongue things. Like what mine plans on doing next time. Licking that sweet pussy of yours. Sucking those pink nipples. If you’re more of a show-and-not-tell kind of girl, I can show you what I mean right here.”
“No. Oh my god. You’re insane.” I push against his chest, but he doesn’t budge and neither does the ache that’s burning sweetly between my thighs.
Holden leans in and whispers in that deep tenor of his that has chills chasing over my skin, “Fear of getting caught heightens the intensity of orgasms.”
“Good. Great. I don’t want to know how you know that.”
“You’re sexy when you’re flustered.”
“Right now I don’t want to be sexy, I just want…”
“Me?” He stands back and mock bows. “At your service.”
I close my eyes for a beat and that’s a mistake because when I do I see him standing like an Adonis at the foot of my bed with his chiseled abs and gorgeous body. I open them just as quickly as I shut them—hating myself for remembering so vividly.
I emit a frustrated huff. “I—”
“Go out with me. Tonight. Tomorrow. This weekend. I’m not picky.”
His words stagger me, and I welcome the disruption to my salacious thoughts. “No. Absolutely not. I said this couldn’t happen again.”
“No, you said we couldn’t sleep together again. You didn’t say we couldn’t go on a date again.”
“A date would lead to sex.”
“Correct. The date’s a ruse to get you under me again. Or on top. I’m not picky.” The grin he flashes is knee bending. “But I forgot. You can resist me. Easily.”
“Look. We discussed this in detail, Knight.”
“I love that you think calling me by my last name is going to make your panties less wet.”
“This has nothing to do with my panties,” I say. “And everything to do with what we talked about.”
“Which part? The one where it’s not against the law to be aroused at work?” he asks.
“How about the ‘we can’t talk about this at work’ part.”
“We’re not talking about anything,” he says and offers me a choirboy expression that is less than believable with his dark looks and dangerous grin.
“I beg to differ. We are at work.”
He laughs. “Nope. We’re between floors, Sunshine. Or we’re more on the third floor than the fourth floor, so technically we’re on Quest’s property,” he says of the company that rents the third and fourth floors of the building from us.
“If you think renters mean we still don’t own the building, then I need to be seriously worried about your business acumen,” I say while fervidly trying to deny every damn way my body reacts to his.
“And here I thought you were good with playing along.” He quirks a brow that has me looking down at his lips and then back up to his eyes. “Don’t you want to play with me, Sunshine?”
“Seriously?” I can’t help but laugh in exasperation. “You’re…”
“I know I am,” he says like it’s a badge of honor. “So where were we?” He leans in, his breath at my ear, his hardened cock against my thigh, his arms caging me against the wall.
I clear my throat. My first thought is to avoid his gaze but then realize that will only let him know he’s getting to me. So I meet him stare for stare. “We were talking about how this isn’t happening.”
He chuckles. “This is all I’ve thought about since Friday night. You. Christ, woman … you know how to make a man replay every single second. Over. And over. And…” He groans.
“Really?” I’m flattered. I’m aroused. I’m … this is not happening.
“My cock in my hand and you on my mind is nowhere near the real thing, but according to you, it’s all I’m going to get, so I’ll take it.”
“You did not.” But didn’t I do the same?
“Would you like me to show you what I did as I thought of you?” He starts unbuckling his belt with one very skilled hand.
“No. My god. No.”
He leans forward and tugs on my bottom lip with his teeth but doesn’t touch me in any other way. And that’s almost worse. Feeling the heat of his body but not touching it. Smelling the mint on his breath but not tasting it. I fight back an involuntary groan.
“What’s wrong? I’m only following your rules.”
“Rules?” I whisper.
“No touching. No dirty talk from office to office on the phone while everyone else thinks we’re diligently working away at our desks. No foreplay beneath the desk despite the very naughty thoughts I had today of crawling beneath yours and licking you until you came. How hard would it be for you to remain silent? To not draw attention to yourself while I licked and sucked and fucked you with my tongue. Do you think you could be quiet? Do you think someone would figure it out? Hmm. Food for thought.”
“I don’t believe we discussed any of that.” I try to sound unaffected, professional, but hell if my body isn’t reacting to his words.
