The Merger

by Loni Ree

  When we get to his car, he says, “You look beautiful as always.”

  After helping me into the low sports car, he leans in and hooks my seatbelt. As he is leaning over me, his arm brushes against my breast. Smelling his cologne, mixed with the masculine scent I know is all him, causes my core to clench and my panties to get wet, and I hope he misses my reaction to him.

  Once we are on the road, he takes my hand and kisses the back of my knuckles. He places my hand on his hard thigh before asking, “Is Italian okay?”

  While concentrating on his powerful thigh moving under my hand as he drives, I have a hard time replying. “Um, yes, I love Italian.”

  He shifts gears, and I lose track of the conversation again. “Good, I made reservations at Carmine & Frankie’s.”

  At the restaurant, we are taken to an intimate table on the back patio. After we are seated and we order, Drew tells me, “I’m so fucking nervous. I didn’t sleep last night, and I’m running on caffeine and adrenaline.”

  As I sip my wine, I laugh and agree. “I feel your pain. I always run on caffeine, but the last week has been awful. With Madison out, things are crazy, and now my long-time assistant decided to quit to stay home with her kids. I’m only getting about five or six hours of sleep.”

  Looking at me seriously, he leans over and utters, “I know your business is important to you, but you can’t fuck around with your health. We need to hire you more help. You need to get sleep.”

  After taking another large gulp of wine, I agree with him. “Believe me, I’m looking for someone, but I have huge trust issues after Lukas’ experience with Marta.”

  He sits back and rubs his chin. “DRS will investigate anyone you consider hiring. I promise you, if they have any secrets, we will find them.”

  “Drew, I can’t afford your services.” Shaking my head, I decline his offer. My business does well but nowhere near his level.

  “I would never charge my girlfriend for using my services. I’m worried about you, and you need to find a new employee now.” Leaning over, he kisses my cheek, and we finish our dinner.

  Later, he walks me to my door, and after opening the door, he leans down and softly kisses me on my lips. Then he kisses the tip of my nose softly. “I have to go so I can keep my promise to take things slow with you. Goodnight, baby doll.”

  Drew

  My cock is going to fall off from the loss of circulation. The fucker has been constricted in my goddamn underwear all fucking night. I promised to take this relationship slow with Annie, but keeping my promise is killing me and my hungry dick. Seeing her, touching her, and smelling her is fucking torture. I may not survive. My goddamn forty-two-year-old ass may be in great shape, but this shit is testing me.

  I jack-off morning, noon, and night. The only motherfucking commercial that ever seems to be on TV is the one warning about the dangers of an erection lasting over four hours; well, my monster has lasted four goddamned weeks, and the fucker won’t be going anywhere until Annie is once again mine.

  Tonight, I’m bringing her to my new home for dinner. She insisted on driving herself, so I check the food for the thousandth time and do just about anything to keep myself busy until she arrives.

  When the doorbell finally rings, I command my stirring flesh to behave, since I don’t want to walk around with an uncomfortable bulge in my jeans all night long. After opening the door, my mouth drops open at the sight in front of me. The moment I see her, my shaft hardens and leaks cum in my fucking pants. Annie is wearing a tight pair of jeans and a form-fitting shirt that does not quite reach the top of her jeans, so her flat stomach is bare and her gorgeous breasts are outlined perfectly. Her hair is pulled up in some kind of messy bun on her head, and she looks like she is twenty years old. I feel like I am robbing the cradle.

  “Did you dress like that to torture me?” I growl while taking her hand and leading her inside.

  “No, you said to dress casually in jeans. This is my casual. Here’s the wine I brought,” she sasses as she leans up to kiss me on the cheek and hands me the wine.

  “By the way, I was carded when I bought the wine. I almost kissed the kid at the checkout.” She laughs, and I pull her up against my body and devour her saucy mouth.

  “Glad you resisted. I would hate to hunt down some poor kid because your ego was stroked.” I growl into her sassy mouth. After filling up on her amazing taste, I move on and nip at the side of her neck.

  Soon, we are both breathless, and I need to slow things down a little, so I touch my forehead to hers and offer, “I’m gonna check on dinner. Why don’t you take a look around now that the house is finished?”

  She smiles and gives me one more kiss. “I would love to go explore.”

  “I’ll let you know when dinner is ready,” I call after her as she disappears around the corner. After I finish getting our meal ready, I find her in my basement gym.

  32

  Drew

  Over the next couple of weeks, I search until I find the perfect assistant for Annie. This girl should take a significant load off of Annie’s shoulders at La Femme. We continue to date, and I use the time to show Annie that I am determined to make our relationship work. The slow build-up is killing my fucking cock, but I know Annie will be worth the torture in the end.

  When Annie finds a tenant for her apartment, I persuade her to move in with me instead of living with one of her brothers. Things are going well between us, but the fucking cat is another story.

  “Annie, that fucking menace pissed in my shoes! Look, I know you love the furry shit, but if he is going to stay, teach him some mother fucking manners,” I angrily warn her while reaching in the closet for my travel bag.

  “Are you threatening to throw us out? After only a week, you want me to move out.” She picks up the little terror and gives him a scratch under the chin.

  “I never said you have to leave, but the cat might need a new home.” I’m beyond pissed at the fucking cat, and I don’t have time to deal with the shit before getting on my plane.

  “I’m leaving for California after work today. I have a client who has a lot in common with your cat. Hopefully, I will be able to fix the issues within a couple of days. When I get back, I want the issues with the cat fixed.” I keep throwing clothes in my bag.

  After my bag is ready, I turn to leave, and it’s obvious she isn’t happy with me.

  “Call me and let me know how things are going and when I can expect you home,” she insists as I’m walking out, and I nod and leave the room.

  The fucking furball is lounging at the top of the stairs, and his beady little eyes follow me as I walk down the stairs. His days in my house are numbered if he doesn’t fix his shit.

  The flight to LA is uneventful, and I prepare myself to face the fucking airhead and her team. I should quit working for the bitch, but I hate walking away from a job. Spending the next day re-explaining my policies to the brain-dead assholes is exhausting, and when I get back to my hotel, the airhead gets one over on me. One minute, I step into the elevator of my hotel, and the next, Sissy Spain steps in and wraps herself around me before shoving her goddamn tongue down my throat. By the time the disgust flows through my exhausted mind, and I shove her off, some little punk standing outside of the elevator has taken several pictures.

  She quickly slips back through the door and flees with the asshole before I can stop the elevator door from closing. Through the sliver of the door opening, the bitch looks over her shoulder and blows a kiss at me, and the urge to strangle the cunt is powerful. Teddy tries to stop the pictures from going public, but within minutes, they are on social media. I vow to destroy the bitch. In the meantime, my PR group is working on damage control.

  Of course, Annie isn’t answering her phone, and the plane ride home is the longest ride of my life. By the time I get home early the next morning, I’m running on sheer exhaustion and overwhelming anger.

  When I get to the house, Annie is sitting on the sofa with the fucking f
urball curled up in her lap. The tear stains on her cheeks crush me.

  She looks up as I walk in and asks, “Do you fix all your difficult clients by sleeping with them? Is that what I have to look forward to with you?”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Losing all control, I drop my bag on the floor and pace around the room.

  “You don’t even give me the benefit of the doubt. I deal with that fucked-up shit in LA, then I rush home on no sleep because you won’t answer your goddamn phone. When I get here, you fucking blast me without giving me a chance to defend myself. Fuck you, Annie. Either you are in this relationship, or you are out. I’m fucking done kissing your ass. You aren’t worth it. You just reminded me why I stayed single for forty-two years.” As my mouth is running away, I keep telling myself to shut up.

  Her face pales as a hollow look comes into her eyes. When I finish my speech, she picks up the cat and walks away without speaking. My entire body is aching, and I drop down onto the sofa completely deflated. After a few minutes, I hear her moving around in the bedroom, drawers opening and closing. Annie is leaving me. Not fucking again! Racing up the stairs, I throw the door open and stalk across the room to throw her suitcase onto the floor.

  “This is bullshit, and you know it. I don’t want that skinny, doped-up airhead. She set me up because I quit as her security detail an hour before. It was fucking revenge and publicity all rolled into one. The fact I have to explain the situation to you hurts me. You should fucking trust me.” Running my hands down my face, I try to take her hands, but she pulls them out of reach.

  “I’m fucking running on no sleep, and my mouth ran away, but I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry. You have to trust me or we won’t make it.” She sits on the bed, and I sit next to her and kneel in front of her.

  “I want you to treat me as more than just a temporary thing. You act like our relationship is an extended one-night stand,” she cries, and my frustration mounts.

  I drop my head to her knees and plead. “Annie, I’m exhausted. I haven’t slept in over thirty-six hours. After I sleep for a while, we can fight this out. Right now, sleeping and dealing with the shit show Sissy Spain is creating with her stunt is all I can handle.”

  She stands and pushes me out of the way then leaves the room, and I’m too tired to worry about her feelings. After getting a few hours of sleep, I have to deal with the shit at the office.

  When I get to DRS, Blake comes in to give me shit about the Annie situation. After explaining my side of the story, he still sides with Annie.

  “I see. So, you're saying if you saw a picture with some man all over Annie, you would absolutely trust her, no explanation needed? Wow, man, you have changed,” he smarts after barging in and sitting in front of my desk.

  “Fuck you. Annie should have believed me.” I use the same argument.

  “You explained right before you blew up at her. You explained everything,” he again reasons.

  “I shouldn’t have to explain anything. Fuck her. She should trust me.” This fucker is relentless.

  “Yeah, you have such a history of being in trusting relationships. Remember, Drew, this is your first committed relationship. You are asking a lot of her. You treat her like shit, you get her to give you a chance, and then this happens, and you tell her to fucking take it or leave it? I think maybe you should stick to fuck ‘em and leave ‘em. You have treated Annie like a yo-yo from day one. She deserves so much better.”

  The son-of-a-bitch is really starting to piss me off.

  “She is only going to take so much shit from you before she goes looking to find someone who treats her the way she deserves to be treated,” he says as he walks out of my door.

  I immerse myself in work to forget my problems at home.

  We dance around the issue for a few days until I leave to go on a business trip to Europe. I spend two weeks in Europe trying to tie up a case. Garrett and I work sixteen-hour days getting this shit done as quickly as possible. I call Annie after a few days, and she sounds upset but refuses to discuss the problem.

  I finally get home after two fucking weeks, and all I want is twenty-four hours of uninterrupted sleep and maybe a few hours of sex. The house is empty on a Saturday, and I don’t think much of it until I wake up Sunday morning and realize Annie did not return the night before.

  When I call her, she sleepily answers.

  “Where the hell are you?”

  “What are you talking about?” she replies, and I hear shuffling in the background.

  “I want to know why I’m at home in bed, and you aren’t.” As I explain, I hear more movement through the phone.

  “Shit, I’m at Nikolas’ place in California. You never told me you were coming home, so I decided to visit Nikolas and Gramps George,” she explains.

  “Well, come home when you feel like it.” Getting more pissed by the minute, I hang up the phone. She comes home later that night, and we continue with the chilly relationship for the rest of the week. Neither of us will give in and apologize for our actions.

  We’re barely speaking a week later when I leave for New York to meet with a prospective client. It never occurs to me to ask Annie to go with me. My first night home, she’s pissed, and I finally blow up.

  “What’s your fucking problem?”

  “Did you go to New York to see someone else?” She throws her hands up in the air.

  “Are you always this paranoid? I went to meet with a client. I’m not going to explain myself every time I leave town.” While walking past her to leave the room, she steps in front of me with her hands on her hips.

  “Your picture is all over social media. You danced with the same woman several times at the St Patrick’s fundraiser. I assume that was the reason you didn’t take me with you.” Her eyes flash as she accuses me.

  “I didn’t fucking take you because it wasn’t your business. You have a business to run, and I thought I could go on a goddamn business trip without you stuck up my ass. The woman I danced with was my prospective client. What has gotten stuck up your ass lately?” My yelling startles the cat, and he runs for the door.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  She shocks the shit out of me, and all the fight leaves me as I sit on the bed and stare at the floor.

  “Did you do it on purpose?” My mouth runs away without consulting my brain, and the look of pain and then anger on her face injures me.

  “No, trapping you was the last thing on my mind. With all the shit going on, I accidentally missed an appointment reminder from my gynecologist. The birth control implant in my arm was too old and stopped working.” She laughs without humor and shakes her head as she explains before she walks over to the closet and quickly grabs some clothes.

  “What the fuck? Are you going to throw a temper tantrum like a little kid every time you get mad?” I angrily rub my hands up and down my face.

  “Drew, fuck off. When you begged me to come back to you, you swore you were ready for marriage and a family, but you aren’t. I’ve been living with you for weeks, and you treat me like shit. I don’t think you have any idea what you really want. As soon as I said the word pregnant, you looked like you were going to puke. Instead of being excited, you acted as if I stabbed you in the back.” She throws her hands up in disgust after tossing some clothes into her open suitcase.

  “I wish you the best, and if you want to be a part of the baby’s life, we can work something out, but please don’t approach me romantically again. I’m done.”

  I feel my heart shatter in my chest when I look in her eyes and realize she means every word she is tearfully saying. As she gathers her things, she looks at me like a business associate, cold and professional, without feelings. She rushes out the door with her hastily packed bag before I get my stupid ass in gear enough to stop her.

  33

  Annie

  While Drew is in New York for a business trip, I’m cleaning and going through a pile of junk mail I moved from my apartment that somehow got shoved int
o a drawer months ago.

  As I am throwing away postcards, I see one from my doctor that is a reminder to have the birth control implant in my arm replaced. I frantically call my gynecologist to check the status of my birth control. To my horror, I should have replaced the device four months ago. Oh, God. They don’t have an appointment until later in the week, but I can’t wait so I run out for a home pregnancy test.

  Praying harder than I have ever prayed before, I pee on the stick. After laying the stick on the counter, I pace up and down the hall to calm my nerves. I tell myself over and over that the test will be negative. Positive thinking. Positive thinking. Peeking around the door with one eye, I see two fucking lines on the test. Fuck me. My legs don’t hold me up, and I slide to the floor.

  The only person I can imagine calling is Aiden because he always stands by me. After telling him to get over here now, I hang up the phone and sit on the floor until I hear Aiden burst through the front door of Drew’s house. Looking up, I find Aiden and Lukas running around the corner.

  “Why did you bring him with you?” Pointing to Lukas, I turn to Aiden with shock.

  “We were in a fucking meeting at Sterling-Ryan when you called. You scared the shit out of all of us. Don’t ever do that again,” Aiden answers and sits next to me on the floor. “Now, what the hell is going on?”

  I look between Aiden and Lukas and try to figure out if I should lie or tell them both my secret.

  “I’m going to find out anyway. Just get it out in the open now.” Lukas breaks into my deliberation, and the stress of the situation catches up with me. I start crying hysterically and point toward the bathroom. Aiden looks at Lukas and shrugs then gets up and walks into the bathroom.