Adored: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella (1001 Dark Nights)

by Lexi Blake

  He’d tried to bother her. He’d called and sent her e-mails, and all he’d gotten back was one terse reply.

  Thank you for you concern, Mr. Bradford. I’m quite well, but under the circumstances, I think it would be best for both of us if I quit. I’m attaching the resumes of two paralegals who would do quite well in my place. Please know I don’t blame you. You were never anything less than honest with me. I was only fooling myself. I beg your forgiveness for quitting in such a cowardly way, but find I can’t meet with you again. Also, you don’t have to worry about meeting up with me again in a social fashion. I’ve let Mr. Taggart know I’m no longer interested in his club.

  Yours,

  LD

  An e-mail. He’d gotten an e-mail from her. He had to guess that was better than the divorce papers he’d gotten from his last two women.

  “I’m having lunch with my sisters, but I can call and tell them I’m running later than usual if you need to talk. I could buy you a drink.” Will gestured to the bar across the street. It looked like exactly the type of seedy place that fit in this part of town. Legal Defense Aid wasn’t exactly a money-making venture, so their building wasn’t in an upscale neighborhood.

  He didn’t like to think about Laurel here at night, but he doubted she would care that he was worried. And Will didn’t have to worry either. “No need, buddy. I should get back to the office. She looks like she’s settling in nicely. Like I said, I won’t bother her again.”

  He turned to go, but Will stuck to his side like glue. “Yes, you said that. Tell me something. Did she finally push you too far and you fired her? What did she do? Go behind your back and change your lunch order? Because she’s so good at that.”

  He’d had two weeks of getting to eat whatever he wanted. Two weeks of no one bugging him about his cholesterol or working too long.

  It kind of sucked.

  “She quit. She decided I was too surly to deal with.” He was surprised she hadn’t told her brother, but now that he thought about it, maybe he shouldn’t be. She wouldn’t want him to know any more than Mitch did. He wasn’t about to tell his best friend that Laurel had taken exception to his lack of romantic tendencies.

  He definitely wasn’t going to tell anyone that he’d shown up on Monday morning and placed a dozen red roses and a box of her favorite Danishes on her desk.

  And then waited. And waited. And at ten o’clock, he finally found her letter of resignation in his inbox.

  No. He’d go to the grave with that information.

  “Did something happen between the two of you?” Will asked. His voice was deceptively soft.

  Mitch knew him well enough though. “I told you I didn’t think a relationship between Laurel and I would work. I think she finally understood that I was serious and she chose to cut her losses.”

  And he would go to his grave remembering the feel of her wrapped around him. He would remember that for a moment he’d been bigger than himself, larger than he’d been before he’d taken her. For that one moment he’d been a part of her, and it had been the single most intimate episode of his life.

  It had terrified him.

  Will put a hand on his back as they made it to Mitch’s SUV. “I told you she could be tenacious but once she’s done, she’s done. So you shouldn’t have to worry about her any more.”

  “I like your sister, Will. I’m going to miss her.” He already did. He felt alone without her. He was a man who craved solitude, but over the months Laurel had taught him he wanted a partner in his self-imposed bubble. He wanted her.

  He simply shouldn’t.

  “Laurel is amazing, but she’s so young. She’s just starting out. I think you made the right choice. Mitch, you’ve done so much for her. She never would have gone back to school if it hadn’t been for you. She’s found a real passion and it shows. I don’t think she ever would have found out how much she loves legal work without you.”

  “She would be a good lawyer. Encourage her to give law school a try.” He had his keys in hand, ready to make a swift getaway, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. “Are they paying her at the new place?”

  Will chuckled. “Not much, but she’s one of the few paid positions. She’s doing a ton of the up-front work so the lawyers who are working pro bono don’t have to.”

  A good paralegal like Laurel could do a lot of legal work all on her own. “That’s good. If she ever wants to move back into a more lucrative position I can ask around, maybe find her a job.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. So where have you been hiding? You going to Sanctum tonight? It’s the last weekend before the big reveal. I don’t know if you’ve been working on it lately, but Big Tag has got some crazy shit in the new Sanctum. Did you know he put in a human hamster wheel? I’m a little afraid that’s not for subs. I heard him saying something about shoving Adam Miles in it when he pisses Big Tag off.”

  He was certain the new Sanctum was going to be a mind trip. “I’m actually taking some time off. I’m buried in work over this solar deal.”

  He was working on the sale of the company Harvey Dixon had taken such exception to. It was one good thing that had come from Laurel quitting. He no longer had to worry about her getting in his line of fire.

  Dixon was still in rehab, but weird things had started happening. His tires had been slashed three nights before. He’d called Derek, but there wasn’t much he could do. He’d checked in on Dixon and then explained that three other vehicles had been vandalized in the area that very night. Kids?

  He was paranoid, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t out to get him. At least he no longer had to worry about Laurel.

  Except he did. Every single night.

  “Is there something I’m not getting here, Mitch?” Will was staring at him suspiciously.

  Mitch shook his head and put his best game face on. “Nope. This is a very complex contract and I stand to make an enormous amount of money off it. Once this deal goes through, I might think about retiring, maybe go down to the coast and do some fishing.”

  Will’s eyes had gone wide. “You don’t fish.”

  He shrugged. “Just because I haven’t before doesn’t mean I won’t in the future. This deal should set me up for a good long while as long as I’m not stupid enough to get married again. Hence the fishing.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Will said with a smile. “I hope you’ll change your mind. I haven’t seen you in weeks. Kai says he hasn’t either. At least come to poker night if you don’t want to play. Though I have heard there are a couple of new sub trainees.”

  And that was something he took exception to. “Including your sisters.”

  Will had the good grace to blush. His face screwed up as he winced. “That was so not my idea. Laurel and Lisa got interested because of Bridget. They have very romantic notions about D/s. I almost had a heart attack when I found out they’d tried another club. Despite the fact that it’s weird to see my sisters there, I’m happier having them at Sanctum. Thank god, Lila has a boyfriend and neither of them seem to have any interest in kink at all. Although now it seems Laurel has lost interest, too. She turned down her further training but asked if she could keep working there. I guess she likes babies more than Doms.”

  But she wouldn’t always. He intended to leave Dallas in a few months after this deal was done and then everything would be open to her. Her one night with him would be nothing but a much-regretted mistake that would fade away once she found her soul mate. “I think she’ll want to try eventually, but don’t let Taggart put her with someone cold like Smith. Talk to Kai. Get involved. She needs a softer hand. Try someone her age.”

  Will was back to looking suspicious. “For someone who’s not interested in my sister, you seem to have thought this through.”

  He shrugged. There wasn’t much else to do. “She was my employee for…well, for longer than most. I’ve got to get going. I’ve got a couple of interviews this afternoon.”

  “You having a hard time
replacing her?” Will asked.

  “I’ll never replace her.” That was a stupid thing to say. “You know. I’ll never find anyone as willing to argue with me. See you around.”

  He didn’t like the way Will stared at him as he drove away. As though he was a puzzle. Will liked to solve puzzles.

  It didn’t matter. He had things to do and plans to make. Plans that didn’t involve her.

  * * * *

  “Will’s late. It’s the doctor thing,” Lila said with a frown on her pretty face. “They think they’re all gods and we mere mortals should wait at their leisure.”

  Laurel thought Lila had been a nurse for way too long. “Or he’s stuck in traffic.”

  Laurel kind of wished her brother would get here. She thought she’d seen his car pull up a few minutes before, but he hadn’t walked in yet. She’d skipped breakfast and now she was shaky. She was totally ready for her neurologist brother and trauma nurse sister to pay for lunch. Especially since she’d taken a pay cut in order to salvage her pride.

  “Where are we going?” Lisa asked as she stepped up, settling her purse on her shoulder. Her little sister was a senior in college, and she’d done it the hard way. She’d been working part time and going to school full time for most of her adult life, and it was all going to pay off in a few months. Baby sis was graduating with an MBA, and she was already in talks with Bridget’s sister, Amy, about going to work for Slaten Industries.

  “Mexican, please,” Laurel said. She was totally willing to beg. “I’ve been dreaming about enchiladas all day.”

  “Is that why you didn’t eat breakfast this morning?” Lila asked with a judgmental eye.

  Yeah, it was awesome to live in the same apartment complex with her two sisters. Lila would show up randomly to make sure she was eating right. They’d had to watch out for each other growing up due to their mom’s preference for drugs over parenting, and it seemed her older sister hadn’t gotten out of the habit.

  “Are you on some weird diet again?” Lisa asked.

  “You know how those diets go,” Lila said with a sigh. “You starve yourself and then binge later. It’s not good for you.”

  Said the two skinny chicks. She sometimes wondered who her father was. Not because she had a grand desire to meet the man so much as to punch him in the face for passing on his faulty metabolism. Lila and Lisa were graceful and willowy. Will was lean and athletic. Laurel got teased all through school for being on the chunky side.

  Maybe that was why Mitch hadn’t wanted her. Maybe he’d wanted a slender, graceful sub. She wondered what the two exes looked like. Probably movie stars.

  “I’m not on a diet. I just was a little off this morning.” A bit nauseous, but that could be anything.

  Or you could be pregnant. Because you had sex without a condom. You had crazy, wild, can’t-forget-about-it sex without a condom and Mitchell Bradford’s sperm are probably as masculine and arrogant and aggressive as the rest of him. Knocked up. You’re all kinds of knocked up.

  She shoved that thinking to the side because she was an optimist. She wasn’t late. Her period was coming sometime this week. She’d already felt crampy and had a nice ache in her back and her boobs were slightly tender. All signs that Mother Nature was sending her a monthly package and her egg had been wilier than that army of sperm Mitch had sent her way.

  The nausea this morning could be explained away as nerves about starting a new job. She’d only been here for a week and she got a little nervous about handling cases without having Mitch on call to answer questions. That was all.

  She wondered if Mitch had hired either of the paralegals she’d sent his way. Tom and Cindy were both exceptional. And Cindy was married, so Mitch wouldn’t have to worry about another employee hitting on him and making things uncomfortable.

  Now that she looked back at it, she’d been the one to behave badly and Mitch had to put up with it. Yes, they had chemistry, but he’d been clear about not wanting to act on it. She’d practically sexually harassed the man.

  “Are you all right?” Lila asked. “You went pale. Give me your hand.”

  She didn’t have to. Lila moved in, grasping her right hand and feeling for her pulse.

  “What’s going on?” Will asked, his eyes concerned as he strode in. Her brother was dressed in slacks and a snowy-white dress shirt. He’d likely left his white coat in the car. Sometimes she thought he should wear a Superman shirt under his clothes. Super Doc. That was her big bro.

  “Her pulse rate is high,” Lila said, her voice the same flat monotone she used in the ER.

  “I’m fine.” She pulled her arm out of Lila’s hand, but then Will was checking her. She rolled her eyes and looked to her youngest sibling. “Have I thanked you for not going into the medical field?”

  Lisa grinned. “They would have been bossy either way.”

  Will let go. “She’s fine, though she is paler than normal.”

  “Complain to my northern European ancestors. Can we please get some food now? We’re supposed to be celebrating Lisa passing her classes, not worrying about my health. Which is fine by the way. I’m perfectly normal.”

  Because it was normal to get pregnant when you have sex while you’re ovulating and forget to wear protection of any kind.

  She was done. She was stopping by after work and getting a stupid pee on the stick pregnancy test and putting these thoughts out of her head. Worrying about being pregnant was making her insane. Of course, so was worrying about Mitch.

  Had he fired Sharon? She should call and see. Had he managed to turn the office into a fortress yet? She would bet he’d blocked off all the natural light and now the only illumination was fluorescent. And he’d likely eaten like crap and stopped recycling.

  None of that was her concern. She was off the Mitchell Bradford improvement committee.

  “All right, you say you’re fine, I’ll believe you,” Lila said with a nod. “I’m going to run to the bathroom and then I’ll be ready to go.”

  “I’ll go with you.” Lisa followed their sister.

  She was left alone with Will, who was staring at her the same way he had when she’d been fifteen and had snuck out of their trailer to make out with Jimmy Hodges.

  “What happened with Mitch?”

  She rolled her eyes. She’d been playing the brat with her brother since before she knew the word had more than one meaning. “He was difficult, to say the least. He was absolutely the most annoying boss I’ve ever worked for.”

  And weirdly the most thoughtful. He’d been the one to push her to become a paralegal. He’d supported her through all the training. Most bosses would have offered to hire her back when she was done with school, but Mitch had understood she needed the money. He’d let her work part time but never changed her salary and never complained when he had to do things she would have done as the office manager.

  And he’d given her those law books for graduation and told her if she wanted to go further, he would support her through law school.

  He’d actually been a great boss. He simply couldn’t love her.

  “I got sick of banging my head against the massive wall that is Mitchell Bradford. I need a job where I don’t have to fight the boss every single time I need to change something. Back when I was only his office manager, I had the time to plot and plan my way around him. Now that I’m also his paralegal…was his paralegal, I don’t have time to try to make the new copy machine look like the old copy machine because Mitch has issues with change. I had to kick the damn thing in exactly the right place to get it to work, but does the high-and-mighty Mitch see reason? Nope. He liked the copy machine. He brought the stupid copy machine with him from California. He claimed the copy machine had been more faithful than his last wife.”

  Will winced. “I told you not to get him started on his ex-wives. It’s a sore spot for him.”

  It was more than a sore spot. The two ex-Mrs. Bradfords were very likely the reason Mitch had never been willing to give her a shot
. He’d spent his love and affection on women who hadn’t returned it and now he wouldn’t try again. He would hold on to his bitterness the same way he’d attempted to hold on to that rattrap old copy machine. Of course, she’d managed to get around that. While Mitch had been playing poker with the Taggart brothers one Friday afternoon, she’d simply had a new one brought in and the old one scrapped.

  And now he loved the new copy machine.

  “Well, I don’t have to worry about any of it now. I have a spiffy new job.”

  “That pays less than half of what your old job did.”

  She frowned. Where were Lila and Lisa? This was starting to seem very much like a classic Will interrogation. And how did Will know what she was making? “I’m going to get a lot of experience here.”

  “Will they let you go to law school and continue to pay you? Because I believe that was Mitch’s offer. You’re telling me he was so difficult that you would walk away from twice the pay and a boss who supports you financially through school for some experience that won’t mean anything if you don’t go to law school?”

  Yep. This was an interrogation. “It wasn’t working. It was too hard. Look, Will, you know I had feelings for him.”

  “Yes, which is exactly why I had to wonder if Mitch had done something he shouldn’t.”

  She was getting weak in the knees. “No. He didn’t do anything. I decided it was a good time to start over. I like it here so can we stop talking about this?”

  He slanted a suspicious stare her way. “Fine. You don’t want to work with Mitch any more. Is there a reason you no longer want your Sanctum membership? Because the last time we discussed it, you were quite adamant about getting training. You jumped through all the hoops, and you’ve even been spending your weekends watching kids to pay your way. But now, all of the sudden you quit without any better reason than you changed your mind.”

  “I did.” She wasn’t sure what else to say. Everyone had been right. She’d been interested in D/s because of Mitch. She didn’t want anyone but Mitch. Hopefully in a few months she would be able to get the irritating man out of her head. “I changed my mind.”