by K. D. Black
If I look down to see deep, bloody holes spreading stains across my white shirt right now, I won't be surprised in the slightest, because it feels like my heart fractured and sent shards of betrayal straight through my vital organs. “You… you what?” I just sound dead inside. Not angry, not… anything. Like her words lit a fire and burned to ashes whatever was inside me.
“Yep. There you go.” She laughs, high and desperate. “So take your letter.” She throws the envelope with its folded contents at me, and it bounces off my chest. “Call the cops if you like. I don’t really care anymore.”
“Tell me why.” A deadly calm structures the short sentence as I try to process what she told me.
“What does it matter? I’m a horrible, terrible person and I don’t deserve to—”
“Tell. Me. Why.” The anger, a hot, bubbling force of rage deep within me, begins to burn white-hot. I’m scaring her again, but this time I don’t care. I’ll pin her against the door if I have to, because I deserve to fucking get an answer.
“NYAR. New Yorkie Animal Rescue,” she says miserably.
The fuck does an animal shelter have to do with anything? I can feel myself losing any patience I have to listen to her explanation. Veins work in my neck.
“The rescue is going under. Ashley—the director and founder—doesn't think we’ll even be able to stay open a few more months.” Brooke’s tears begin anew and she gulps in a breath. “M-my fath—Brett said that he didn’t think you were a good CEO, and if I could get a job as your assistant and dig up something that could prove it, he’d be able to get the position and save NYAR.”
Now it’s her turn to step forward, and she takes my unresponsive, stiff hands, tearstained face looking up at me imploringly. “I never meant things to go this far! I never wanted to be anything but your assistant and find something in company files. I didn't mean to—”
“To what? Sleep with me so you could ruin my life?” Now I just sound too exhausted to even be angry.
“No, t-to—to fall for you.” A blush turns her puffy cheeks even redder, but nothing but self-loathing clouds her eyes. “I used to believe my father when he said you were bad for the company. I don’t anymore, on a professional and personal level.” Brooke shoots a glance at the door. “So, I’m sorry. I’m so, so incredibly sorry for everything I did, and I’ll go and you’ll never have to see me again—”
“I just said that isn’t what I want,” I interrupt her. “Do you even know what that letter is?”
She looks down at the envelope lying on the floor. “N-No.”
“I had a Russian exchange student named Zavrazin as my roommate when I was in college. He taught me most of the language, and we were pretty good friends by the time he went back. He still sends me letters occasionally.” I gesture at the letter on the floor. “There’s nothing but throwbacks to college in there.”
She stares at it. “Oh.” An interminable silence stretches between us. “If you don’t want to never see me again, what do you want?”
Good question. Brooke tried to steal from me, and she would have ruined my life if I hadn't stopped her—well, she wouldn’t have. The letter is harmless. She didn’t know that, though. She was fully prepared to destroy everything I’ve worked so hard for just to, what, save a few animals? “Do I mean anything to you?” I ask, and I’m able to speak calmly.
“Yes,” Brooke says immediately before I finish. “I never, ever intended to use sex as a way to get to you. I wanted everything that happened that night because I wanted you, Hayden, and you’re all I was thinking about.” She waits disconsolately, but my expression doesn’t change. “I just… I just didn't know what to do. I practically grew up at NYAR, I had to do something.”
“Brooke.”
She wipes tears, sniffs loudly, and asks, “What?”
“I’m a billionaire. I could buy NYAR if I wanted. Donating enough to save it would be nothing.”
Despair transforms into disbelief and the slightest glimmer of hope, but also caution. She settles on disbelief. “You don’t have to rub it in my face.”
“I’m not. I’m offering to help NYAR.”
Chapter Fifteen: Brooke
Help NYAR. What, help it burn to the ground? “What are you talking about?” I ask, wishing fresh tears would stop putting aching pressure behind my eyes.
“I’m a businessman, Brooke. I can understand why you were going to do this, and I’m saying there’s another way.” He smiles, and his eyes are like moons emerging from behind storm clouds. “Stay on as my assistant, and let me help NYAR.”
He can’t be serious, he can’t be—oh, he’s not serious at all. This is some cruel trick, an offer he’s making so he can snatch hope right out of my heart as punishment for what I was going to do to him. “Just stop,” I beg him, releasing his hands and turning away. “If you want me to keep being your assistant, I can—”
Hayden’s hands clamp around my shoulders and spin me around. “Brooke, I’m serious. You….” He trails off and coughs uncomfortably. “You drive me insane. Every day at HQ, watching you drives me insane because I know I’m a CEO and you’re an administrative assistant.” Intensity dreeps into his voice, but not the focus he gives to his work. This is the intensity of desire, and I’m the object of it. “I’m tired of being professional and holding back.”
Hayden’s… serious. All the time I spent working for him, conversing with him, getting to know him—everything is telling me that Hayden’s really serious. “But… after what I d-did? Was g-going to do?”
“You were going to save a business you care about over a man you met a few weeks ago.” Hayden smiles wryly at me. “I understand that a little too well.”
“You… you really want to help NYAR?” Twice, I’ve heard the words come from Hayden’s lips, but I need to hear them again.
“Yes.” So often, his voice lacks patience, but not now. Not with me. “Riley would be sad if I didn't. And you’d be sad if I didn’t.”
He still cares about me. After all this, after I betrayed him and the company, he can just forgive me.
Suddenly, I throw myself at Hayden and press my lips to his. Through the passion, adoration, and energy I pour into my kisses, I try to tell him how incredibly thankful I am and how much I care for him.
Finally, I pull away slowly, reluctantly, half afraid that when I meet his eyes, I’ll see that same terrible anger and hurt that I caused him minutes ago.
The skin around his eyes crinkles with his smile, and relief lingers in the set of his mouth. Did he actually think I could reject or refuse him?
We can sort everything out tomorrow. Tonight… well, we’re both a bit tipsy and no more secrets cloud the air between us.
In between kisses and murmured words, we make our way back to Hayden’s room. I sit on the bed, fingers gripping his shoulder blades as he sucks at a spot on my neck. Somewhere during the trip down the hall, I lost my heels and my tight skirt.
A quick pull from Hayden, and my blouse follows. He’s already bare chested, and I dimly remember practically ripping his shirt off. Hard, tense muscles press against me as he scatters kisses across my neck and chest. Hayden slips one hand under my bra and takes my breast into his hand, squeezing and teasing my nipple.
I gasp, leaving fading white fingerprints on his arm and bunching the bedsheets into my fist. I look down, and Hayden is looking up at me, head turned slightly sideways as his lips leave little wet trails on my stomach.
It’s so hot I wonder that my heart doesn’t burst into flames.
Suddenly I can’t stay still anymore. I pull Hayden’s shoulders forward so he collapses against me, then shift a little out from under him so we’re both lying on our sides. Against my thigh, I can already feel him getting hard.
Purposefully rubbing my thigh up and down, Hayden and I share another kiss. When I say kiss, I mean lots of heavy, needy breathing, sloppy tongue, and wild abandon for any kind of restraint. My lipstick smears across his face, and I have to giggle
at the pink smudges when we break apart. He starts to wipe it off, but I grab his hand and throw it back to the bed. “I've got it,” I whisper into his ear.
I finish flipping us over and end up with me on top. Slowly, seductively, I unclasp my bra, letting it glide down to reveal my nipples ever so slowly. I can feel his crotch through my own throbbing heat, and the effect my little display has on his body makes me feel so sexy.
But after the bra is off, I’m still not done. I use one strap to wipe away the lipstick, then toss it across the room.
I lean down to kiss his chest, gasping into his skin whenever he gives my little hanging nubs a pinch. My hand creeps lower and lower, then I use two fingers to walk my hand under his sweatpants and boxers.
He tenses under my tongue when I find what I’m looking for. I excite him with slow, full-length strokes, until I can feel the wetness at his tip that tells me how eager he is for more.
Then, I sit up, lean on one arm draped over his body, and take him into my mouth.
“Fuck, Brooke, that feels so good.” His chest vibrates beneath mine, hitching when I begin to pump my other hand up and down on the base that I can’t quite reach with my mouth.
I raise my head for a moment to breathe and readjust my hair, and Hayden flips us over again while I'm distracted. “My turn.”
Is it possible to orgasm from a sexy voice? Hayden’s is low, deep, filled with passion and excitement, and contains just the slightest undertone of a growl. The expectant mound between my legs gives a twitch and immediately becomes twice as wet just from those two words.
Then, I’m even more wet because Hayden divests me of my last piece of clothing and slips his tongue inside me. I let out some sort of strangled combination of “oh” and “ah”, and my hips immediately start to move with pleasure.
When he looks up, I’m playing with my perky tits, and from the way his eyes burn, I know he finds me just as irresistibly sexy as I find him.
I’m actually dripping now and my entire being aches with need. Scooting my hips away from Hayden, I give him just enough time to wonder what I want before I push him over on his back and position myself above his length.
We gasp together as I slowly lower myself down, filling myself with every inch of him. I work my thighs, starting a slow up and down motion at first. The faster I acclimate to the feeling of fullness, the more I increase the tempo.
His hands grab my ass, squeezing and following me as I fuck him. Slapping sounds penetrate our heavy breathing, and I’m not sure if they come from his hands on my ass or the momentum of my need for pleasure.
My chest starts to crave more air than I can give it, and my thighs begin to burn. A little pain feels good at first, but soon I have to slow my furious search for release.
Hayden feels it too and pulls himself out. We share a long, shaky kiss, then he flips us over yet again. Before I know what’s happening, to my delight, he’s found my open wetness again and pushed himself inside.
Within seconds, the ebbing feeling of need returns like the opening of a floodgate. “Harder, Hayden,” I urge him, grasping at his arm. “Harder, oh, harder….’
He obliges, breath coming in quick pants time with his thrusts. I can tell he’s close, and I’m not far behind.
“Hayden, I’m going to—I’m going to—”
I reach down to touch my sweet spot as he pushes into me one more time, then the world vanishes into a massive orgasm. Everything goes gray and fuzzy as the climax rushes through me, leaving knots of tensed muscles and shaking limbs in its wake.
Finally, my body remembers how to relax and falls back into the bed. Hayden’s right arm gives out and he collapses beside me, and I giggle at the surprise in his face at his own shakiness and exhaustion.
“Hayden?” I murmur, scooting my back against his chest and taking the hand he puts over my side, under my arm.
“Mhm?”
“Thank you.” I hope he can hear all the different ways I mean those two words.
“You’re welcome.”
I go still against his chest, then I flip myself around to look into his eyes. “You… you said it.”
He gives his head a slight, uncomprehending shake. “Yeah, I said ‘you’re welcome’.”
“But you…” I shake my head too and flip back around, a secret smile dragging at my lips. “Never mind.”
* * *
Tears run down Ashley’s face as she shakes Hayden’s hand. “Thank you so much, Mr. Nicholson,” she says, gripping the check in her hand like it might disappear at any moment. “New Yorkie Animal Rescue will put your money to good use.”
“I know you will, and you’re welcome.”
There they are again. Those two words. I wonder if I’ll ever manage to not giggle when Hayden says them.
He quirks an eyebrow at me as Ashley heads off to put away the check. “Are you feeling okay?”
“What? Of course. I’m so much better than okay.” In fact, I kind of want to spin in circles right now. “NYAR is safe, you don’t hate me— but there is still one thing I have to do,” I forestall Hayden’s reply.
I take out my phone, scroll through my contacts to the letter “D”, and hit one. The phone rings and Hayden raises his eyebrows, but I just hold a finger over my lips.
“Hi, Dad? Yes, I’ll be home soon. No, I didn’t get the letter. I spoke with Mr. Nicholson, and he has agreed to donate a sizeable, repeated sum to NYAR. I’ve determined that Mr. Nicholson is an excellent CEO for AutoVS, so if you need any more spy work done, you’ll have to ask someone else.”
I hang up the call, put the phone on silent, and slip it into my pocket. “He’s going to be furious later. But you know what?”
Hayden gathers me into his arms. “What?”
I smile widely. “I don’t care.”
He laughs and we share a long, gentle kiss, reveling in the closeness of each other.
“Oh, and Hayden?” I say seriously after we draw apart, looking deep into those gray eyes I love so much.
“Yes, Brooke?”
“You should adopt a puppy.”
He stares. “I’m not adopting a puppy.”
“Please adopt a puppy? For me?”
“How can I adopt a puppy for you if it’s for me?”
“Just adopt one? Please?”
Hayden smiles, the gray metropolis of Manhattan reflected in his irises with me in the center of it all. “Okay, Brooke. I’ll adopt a puppy.”
A Note From The Author
Thank you for reading I Need To Get Over You. I hope you enjoyed it, and the many other stories that are to come. If you did, please leave a review. I greatly appreciate it, and it keeps me going knowing that so many people take the time to give their feedback.
Once again, I want to thank you for reading my books, and allowing me to let you escape.
K.D. Black
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