Winston Brothers Box Set

by Lewis, Stacey

  I know she understands what I’m going through because she had that kinda feeling once before. I still don’t know what happened with her and Derek, but it’s been almost two years and she’s not over him yet. Sometimes, I think they’ll work it out, and then other times I think Marie would be better off with someone else.

  “He was that guy for me.” I flop down on the bed, lying back to stare up at the ceiling with a sigh. “I couldn’t have asked for a better guy to lose my virginity to. Even if we both had too much to drink, he was perfect. Not knowing his name didn’t matter to me. It makes the moment we had together that much more perfect.” And I had never said such truer words before.

  “Well how was it? Did he take care of you? We might not know his name, or who he is, but we could track him down, if he did you wrong.” Marie laughs, her eyes softening, but her eyebrow lifting in warning. She’s serious though. She would hunt him down and beat his ass if he hurt me in any way.

  “It was good. We screwed, cuddled, and I fell asleep for a few hours before slipping out of the hotel before he woke up.” Regret that I hadn’t left my number surged to life. I wanted to see him again. Hell, I wanted to see him now and it had only been a few hours since I last seen him. What was he going to think when he got up in the next couple hours?

  “I’m telling you, Marie, the guy was sex on a stick. Dark, demanding, and possessive. He had my body shaking with need, and he wasn’t even looking at me,” Gabby professed. “They literally eye fucked for two hours before hooking up. It was like a sexual game of cat and mouse.”

  Laughter erupted from deep inside me. “We didn’t eye fuck, Gabby. I just felt drawn to him... He compelled me in a way no man ever had before.”

  My two roommates share a look, and knowing they’re having some sort of silent conversation about me is the last straw. They don’t get it, they don’t understand, and I’m afraid they never will.

  “You’ve been with one man, and you feel this way? Was his penis magic?” Marie jokes, and a tiny smile pulls at my lips.

  “It felt that way.” I sigh once again, feeling as if I’m floating on cloud nine all over again.

  “No rest for the wicked…” Gabby pokes, “You missed the workout this morning because of this guy, and you know what that means?” She winks, and I hope like hell she’s just teasing me. Buying lunch for these two is going to leave my already pitiful checking account that much more pitiful.

  “Oh my gosh, whatever. Let me shower and I’ll take you assholes out for lunch.” I shove from the mattress, grabbing some clothes off my dresser, while the two of them sit back and watch.

  “Alright A, we’ll be here waiting when you get out.” Marie giggles, lying down on my bed as if it’s her own. Gabby chirps in with laughter, and I flip them both off over my shoulder.

  As best friends, they aren’t doing a very good job of being supportive or of convincing me that I shouldn’t try and find out who Mr. Serious is.

  Chapter Four

  Ryker

  I'm a fucking mess. Then again, spending the entire weekend drowning yourself in whiskey will do that to you. It doesn’t help that my entire day has gone from controlled chaos to out-of-control hot mess the second I step foot in my office.

  I can’t actually believe what I’m hearing when I walk into the boardroom. Both of my asshole brothers are forcing me to get an assistant to help manage the workload for when Reed takes off for the birth of his son. I’m not one bit amused by it, not even as Reed stares at me, a stern look on his face, while Remy twirls a pen around his finger, neither of them caring how pissed off at them I am.

  “This is for your own good. You skipped out on the funeral, and I can’t have you doing the same to the company while I’m gone. It’s business, nothing else,” Reed insists, trying to fool us both into believing the crock of shit he’s telling me.

  “I didn’t skip out on the funeral,” I answer with a heavy sigh. “I just wasn’t going to stand around and mourn the loss any longer than I already had. Dad’s gone. What else do you want me to do?” Anger fills my words.

  Reed sags down into one of the rolling chairs and looks out over the Chicago skyline. He’s grown quiet, and that kind of scares me. If he’s quiet, he’s thinking, and if he’s thinking, well shit is about to go down.

  “You know Dad loved you too,” he says quietly.

  Remy chimes in with, “You didn’t have to skip out on the dinner party after his funeral. We could’ve used your support.” His words practically pour salt into my wounds.

  Reed doesn’t sound mad, but he definitely sounds disappointed, but I shake off the guilt trying to fill the empty space in my chest.

  “I didn’t want to be there celebrating at some dinner party when we lost the most important person in our lives.” That’s the truth. The bottle of bourbon and the blonde bombshell, whose name I never did get, more than made up for the grief I was feeling.

  If only she were here now.

  Slamming a fist down on the table, Reed ignores the way Remy and I both jump. “I know you’re going through shit, but I need you to pull your head out of your ass and take this assistant position seriously. You don’t see the rest of us losing ourselves at the bottom of a bottle.” My head spins at how fast he changes the subject. And he thinks I’m being bipolar with my mood swings lately? I learned from the best.

  “I don’t need an assistant,” I growl, but if I’m honest, I’m just pouting. I know I’m not getting out of this. They’ve already hired this person, it can’t be undone. “Having one is more of a hassle than I need, and I refuse to have some pain in the ass following me around while I try to get work done.” I can feel my molars grinding together. If they force this, I won’t make it easy for whoever they’ve hired.

  “You might not need one now, but you will,” Remy announces, agreeing further with our brother, which only enrages me more. “It’s better to bring someone in now, so they’re ready when you do need them. You can’t expect to do everything yourself, Ryker.”

  I roll my eyes, unable to hold back the insanity of these two any longer. “The answer is no, and that’s final.”

  How do they expect me to deal with this right now? I’m still reeling from Dad’s death, not to mention the one-night stand I had over the weekend with a woman I can’t even try to find. I’ll be the first to admit my emotions have been all over the place due to my father’s death, and the fact that I let that woman walk straight out of my hotel room without getting even the most basic information from her has me off-balance. All I have is her memory, and that’s a bit blurry after all the whiskey I drank. I need to make better choices, that much is certain.

  “The answer is whatever the fuck I say it is,” Reed informs me, like I’m a small child, his eyes glowing with disappointment. It doesn’t matter to me that he’s been running the company for a few months now, even before our father’s death. What does matter to me is the fact that he’s trying to run my life, and I’m not going to let that happen.

  Ryker James Winston isn’t easily controlled.

  “Hire her, him, whoever.” I stand, shoving up out of the chair and crossing the small space that separates us. My body pressing up against his, our chests touching and our faces only inches apart. A part of me wants to fight him, to stir the pot. The other part of me—the part I suppress all day long—misses the relationship we used to have. “Hire them, and I promise they’ll quit within the first hour,” I threaten. “Zero fucks given, Reed. If you push the issue, I will push back.”

  I stand my ground, nostrils flaring. The thought of punching him in his smug-ass face crosses my mind more than a few times in that moment.

  Something is wrong with me. I’m changing, and I don’t recognize the man I’m becoming. The words my father said to me a few days prior to his death ring out in my mind. “Everyone experiences grief in a different way. I don’t want it to change you, son. Promise me you won’t let it.”

  “Push back all you want Ryker, but it’s still
happening. I’m the CEO. I’m your boss, the boss of everyone who works here, and I have to do what is best for the company, regardless of whether you like it.” This is insanity at its finest, and Reed and Remy don’t care that they’re poking the bear.

  They want what they want and fuck what I say. I growl, turning on my heel and walking out the door. They let me leave without either of them saying another word, thankfully, because I’m not sure I can hold myself back from saying something shitty.

  Reed thinks he’s such a fucking grown-up now. He has Fallon, the woman of his dreams, a woman that he almost didn’t have because he was too stupid to realize it. Now, he has a son on the way, and a big bright future. All I have is a bottle of whiskey and a list of women to fuck.

  Talk about life goals.

  I enter my office, slamming the door behind me so hard the walls rattle with the surge of energy flowing through them. Pent-up aggression isn’t really my thing, and yet here I am with anger flowing through my veins.

  Why did he have to die?

  My fist lands against the mahogany wood desk without much thought, causing some of the contents to rattle and fall to the floor. I know I’m not handling the loss of him very well, even if he did prepare all three of us for months.

  I told him over and over again there’s no way to prepare for someone’s death. I should’ve taken my own fucking advice. Slumping down into my office chair, I log onto the server to access my emails and try to get some work done.

  “Whatever is going on with you, you need to get it together or swallow it the fuck down.” Remy’s voice meets my ears, and I lift my eyes from the screen and to look up at him instead. Just looking at him, one would never have believed he was our father’s son. He looks more like our mother with his fairer hair.

  Though, he still has the Winston genes, with a perfectly sculpted jawline, and angular features. As egotistical as it sounds, us Winston’s are hot enough to grace the covers of GQ Magazine if we wanted to.

  “Great advice, Rem, I’ll save that for next time. In the meantime, feel free to fuck off.” Neither Remy nor Reed understand how badly Father’s death consumes me. Add that to my obsessing over the woman I spent the night with, and I’m almost too pissed to function.

  “Maybe you won’t confess it to Reed,” he starts, completely ignoring my comment and coming the rest of the way into the office to take a seat in one of the chairs on the other side of my desk, “but you can’t lie to me. I know for a fact there’s something deeper going on here.” His grin is sincere, not because he’s an asshole who likes to wind me up like Reed.

  “How do you do it?” I surprise even myself by asking the question.

  He looks a little confused. “Do what? Move on?” Just the words make emotions tug at my heart. I hate feeling vulnerable. I hate letting people know how I feel because that shows weakness, and weakness is something men don’t show. God knows Dad told us all that enough times growing up.

  “Yeah,” I croak, my throat feeling like a thousand razor blades are tearing it apart.

  Remy shrugs, his eyes showing his own sadness. “I’m not over it, Ry. I haven’t moved on, and neither has Reed. We want to be here for you, but we don’t know how to help you or how to make things better for you. You won’t talk to us, and until you do we have no idea what’s going on in your head.”

  That’s probably the most words he’s ever said to anyone at one time. Maybe they’re right and I am being selfish, but I can’t help the way I feel.

  When Remy realizes I’m not going to respond, he sighs, shaking his head and standing. He comes around the desk and lays a hand on my shoulder, giving it a brief squeeze before releasing me. “Just think about what we said, Ryker. You don’t have to go through all of this alone.” I nod in response, and he makes his way toward the door. Just before he leaves, he turns back to give me a small grin. “And I think this assistant is going to be good for you.”

  Chapter Five

  Ava

  My stomach is in knots. I’m wearing my best business suit and a brand new pair of heels, which are already killing my feet. I should’ve listened to Gabby when she told me to wear them grocery shopping or just out and about before having to wear them through an eight-hour work shift.

  It also doesn’t help that I’m running ten minutes behind to start my internship at Winston Industries today. I barely snagged the job as an assistant to one of the top men in the company, and here I am fucking late. It’s bad enough they pushed me starting back two weeks. Now they’ll probably just fire me.

  Blowing a lock of my blonde hair out of my face, I hustle to the elevator, trying to get there before it closes. I have my purse in my hand and a bunch of papers that a man named Reed told me I needed to bring with me on my first day.

  I eye said paperwork as I stand in the stuffy elevator with a bunch of other people headed to the top floor. For the most part, everyone is all smiles, their faces full of happiness as I pass by them. I, on the other hand, am already miserable. My stomach is churning and I feel like I’m on the verge of throwing up, plus my feet ache like hell.

  Way to go, Ava. Way to fucking go.

  A second later, the elevator chimes, and the door opens onto the floor I need. For a second, as I step over the elevator threshold and onto the office floor, my thoughts slip back to the mystery man I left in that hotel room. Was it really only a few weeks ago? The pleasure he ignited deep inside me is something I haven’t been able recreate, and believe me, I’ve tried.

  Still, it’s a little weird to be thinking of that moment as I’m heading into my first day as an intern. I should have googled the company to see who my potential bosses should be, but I’ve been too worried about everything else–like how to pay my bills while waiting for this job to start. I should just be thankful I scored an internship that pays.

  Goose bumps cascade across my skin, and a shiver runs through me as I head in the direction of the double glass doors ahead. The office is quiet, with a few people looking over their cubicles at me as I walk down the aisle. The place is very pleasant looking, with big bright windows that let the light stream in, and it’s clean and spacious.

  All of those things are nice, but won’t matter if I don’t get my ass to this Reed guy.

  Focusing on the frosted glass doors ahead, I march forward, trying to show confidence and determination in each stride. It’s not until I reach the doors that I spot a woman stepping out from behind a desk that I didn’t notice until now.

  “Hi there. Welcome to Winston Industries. How can I help you?”

  I blink, unable to stop staring at the woman in front of me. She’s breathtakingly gorgeous, with long dark-brown hair and piercing green eyes. Her skin glows and her lips pull up into a smile when she stands to greet me. My eyes rake down her body slowly, and it’s easy to see just why she’s glowing so brightly.

  She’s pregnant. Not quite ready-to-pop-at-any-moment pregnant, but she’s definitely pretty far into her pregnancy. I quickly avert my eyes from her stomach, forcing my attention back up to her face, and smile back at her. “Hi. Um, I’m the new intern. Ava. I’m not really sure where I’m supposed to be going right now?” I swallow hard around the nervous fear in my throat.

  “I’m also late, and it’s my first day.” I huff out a breath, knowing I’ve already said way too much, and yet the woman in front of me does nothing but smile. No worries mar her brow, she doesn’t even seem to care that I was late.

  “I’m Fallon Leary, but you can call me Fal. Please, don’t worry. I’ve been right where you are, and I completely understand. Just take a couple calming breaths and get yourself together.”

  I do as she says and feel my nerves calming, my body relaxing slightly with each breath I take. She gives me a few moments, then points toward the doors behind her.

  “They’re waiting for you inside. Good luck.”

  My eyes go wide, and it feels like my heart is in my throat, making it hard to swallow. I knew when I applied for the job I wou
ld be working for or with one of the owners of Winston Industries, but I never expected to be working for more than one.

  “They… as in more than one?” I whisper under my breath, sweat forming against my brow. Anxiety makes my hands clammy and my stomach twist into knots. This job might be more than I can handle.

  “Yes,” she says with a chuckle, “more than one. Three to be exact. One of them is my husband though, so you should have no worries with him, but the others…” She trails off to snicker louder, and I can’t tell if she’s joking or being serious, which only makes me more nervous.

  Sucking air in so fast I don’t even feel like I’m actually breathing, I contemplate running from the building right then. I don’t know why I’m so frazzled. Actually, it could have something to do with the fact that I’m late on the first day, that parking was shit, and I can’t get the thoughts of Mr. Serious out of my head.

  I exhale, face forward, and straighten my shoulders, readying myself to go inside. Fallon gives me a small smile as I take a step forward and then another… my hand grasping for the door, when suddenly it opens.

  Everything seems to happen so fast. One moment I’m standing there all alone trying to gather my wits, and the next I’m colliding with a very firm chest and stumbling backwards, my legs wobbling like a fawn’s when it’s first learning to walk.

  The air is shoved from my lungs, and my confidence hits the floor and bounces away from me. I can feel the power that radiates from the person, their entire presence literally and figuratively slamming into me.

  “Oh my God,” Fallon whispers under her breath as the chest that smacked into me moves. Firm hands grip my arms and hold me in place, stopping me from falling to the floor. It’s almost like a rom-com, but the moment is anything but romantic as I try my best to stand without wobbling. Air refuses to enter my lungs, and a wave of nausea slams into me at the same time. Dammit, can today get any worse?