Nemesis

by Chantal Fernando

  “I brought you some coffee,” I say, smiling sweetly. I place the coffee on his desk, inwardly cheering when I hear his soft growl as I lean forward, showing off my cleavage.

  “You never bring anyone coffee.” He narrows his gaze, which drops to my breasts then back up to my eyes again. “What’s the catch?”

  “No catch, Cohen,” I reply, shrugging. I straighten and wander back to the door with an extra sway in my hips. Closing the door behind me, I check that no one is around then do up two of the buttons I undid. A few minutes later, he comes over to my desk with the coffee in his hand.

  “What are you up to?” he asks, taking a sip but keeping his eyes on me.

  “Nothing,” I say, brow furrowing. “It’s just coffee, Cohen.”

  “And Hell is just a sauna,” he mutters under his breath. “So, you don’t have anything you want to talk to me about?”

  He wants me to ask about yesterday, about the woman who came in, but I’m not going to. He started this game, but I’m going to end it.

  “Like what?” I question, tilting my head like a confused puppy.

  “I don’t know,” he says, clearing his throat. “Thanks for the coffee. Pretty sure it’s the first time you’ve ever brought anyone in the office any.”

  “It is.”

  “Can we have lunch together today?” he asks, studying me. “Maybe we can finally have that long-overdue talk.”

  “I actually have a lunch date,” I tell him, sounding apologetic. “How about tomorrow?”

  “Lunch date with whom?” he asks, gripping onto the edge of my desk, knuckles going white.

  “Just a… friend,” I reply, leaning back in my chair. “So, tomorrow?”

  “Does this friend have a penis?” he asks, jaw clenched.

  “Yeah, why?” I ask nonchalantly. I pick up a pen and start to jot down a to-do list.

  “You’re doing this because of what happened yesterday,” he says after a few moments. “Aren’t you? Jacinta—”

  “What happened yesterday?” I repeat, shrugging. “Cohen, I have to get back to work, and you have to be in court soon. We can talk about this later.”

  He grits his teeth together and leans forward on my desk. “Maybe instead of going to court, I’ll tag along on your lunch date.”

  “Why would you do that?” I ask, blinking slowly. “You’re being ridiculous.”

  He curses under his breath, then snarls, “Fine, do whatever the fuck you want.”

  “Thanks for the permission,” I say cheerily, ignoring his anger. The man who was so emotionless, who swore nothing could touch him, is losing his temper.

  Interesting.

  He storms off into his office.

  Lunchtime comes around, Cohen is in court and Jimmy, Sadie’s little brother, comes to take me out for lunch. Jimmy is like a brother to me, which I really enjoy as an only child. He’s much taller than me, and he’s a personal trainer, so he’s all buff and ripped. He’s also covered in tattoos. Cohen only has one tattoo, between his shoulder blades. It’s for an old friend of his who passed away, his initials in a large, almost gothic font.

  “Hey, Cinty,” he greets, a name he’s always called me.

  “Hey, Jimmy,” I reply, pulling him in for a big hug. “It’s been too long.”

  “I know,” he says. “Let’s go get something to eat and you can tell me everything you’ve been up to.”

  “Sounds good,” I agree, grabbing my bag. We link our arms and head into the elevator.

  Jimmy may be like a brother, but I didn’t lie to Cohen—he does have a penis.

  How he chose to take that is his problem.

  *****

  When Cohen returns from court, he comes straight to me, a determined look on his face. “Did you have your lunch date?”

  “Yep,” I say, popping the P.

  “How was it?” he asks, looking contemplative. “Where did you meet the guy? Don’t you think it’s a little too soon for you to be having dates, especially when you can’t even give me a few solid moments of your time to explain what the fuck went wrong with us?

  “Lunch was really great,” I say, smiling warmly, ignoring the rest of his rant. “How was court?”

  “Shit.”

  Okaaaay then.

  We both stay silent, just staring at each other.

  “She is my brother’s wife,” he says, giving the simple explanation.

  Oh.

  His brother’s wife? I didn’t see that coming at all. Cohen’s sister-in-law is a total babe. Still, he brought her in here knowing that I’d assume otherwise, and make sure he didn’t tell me who she was until I played the same game he did. Am I going to let him out of this, or keep playing? I decide fair is fair; he put me out of my misery, so I’ll put him out of his.

  “Sadie’s brother,” I return.

  He nods and mutters, “Good,” then disappears into his office.

  Well, apparently that’s sorted.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Who sent you those flowers?” Cohen asks, glaring at the sunflowers like they’re his enemy.

  I purse my lips, and am about to tell him they’re from my mother, but I decide to annoy him a little first. Serves him right for forgetting that today is my birthday.

  “None of your business.”

  “Pretty sure it is.”

  “Nope.”

  “Jacinta—”

  “Cohen.”

  I see him look at the card attached to the flowers, and I know he’s dying to read it. His fingers twitch, but he doesn’t move.

  “Sunflowers are your favourite.”

  Oh, so he remembers that but not my birthday?

  “I know,” I say, looking over at them while smiling, then back at him. “They make me happy just looking at them.”

  “I can see that,” he murmurs, then adds, “You promised that we’d have lunch today. So don’t try and get out of it now.”

  “I won’t.” I roll my eyes.

  “Good.”

  He leaves and then another bouquet of flowers arrives for me, this time beautiful pink roses from Sadie. I smile widely and add them to my collection. I love flowers, and everyone close to me knows it.

  Time rushes by quickly and, before I know it, I’m grabbing my bag and waiting for Cohen to take me out for lunch.

  “Hey,” he says, rushing out of his office. “Ready?”

  “Yep. Where are we going today?”

  “Your usual place,” he explains, surprising me.

  The walk there is mostly silent, but I enjoy having Cohen in my presence. Even with all the shit going on, and even with him not even remembering my birthday, there’s no one else I’d rather spend it with. I don’t know if that’s romantic or sad. Probably both.

  Cohen opens the door for me and waits for me to enter first. As soon as I walk in, my eyes widen at the sight before me. “Holy fuck.”

  No one is in the restaurant, and the place is covered in flowers.

  Sunflowers, to be exact.

  On the middle table, there is a wrapped present, red with a black bow, and also two plates and cutlery, obviously where we’re meant to sit and eat. Cohen closes the door and turns the sign to ‘closed.’

  “Cohen,” I whisper, shaking my head in amazement. “It’s beautiful. How did you pull this off?”

  There must be at least twenty bouquets of sunflowers, all in stunning glass vases, with a black bow on them. The vases have leaves artistically wrapped around the inside of the vase, very beautifully done.

  “Happy birthday, beautiful,” he says. “The restaurant owner knows you’re, like, their best customer, and he didn’t mind letting us have the place to ourselves for an hour,” he explains, his chest brushing against my back.

  A waitress comes out from the back, smiling. “Are the two of you ready to order?”

  I glance around at all the flowers, seemingly in shock. No one has ever done anything like this for me before, put in so much effort to make my birthday special. />
  Cohen answers her, and leads me to my seat, pulling the chair out for me.

  I sit.

  He does the same.

  “So, you didn’t forget my birthday,” I say, thanking the waitress as she pours me some water.

  “As if I’d forget your birthday, Jacinta.”

  I smile, and he smiles back.

  “I wanted to talk to you about everything today, but it’s your birthday, so I want you to enjoy it. We can talk later.”

  “Okay,” I say, not wanting to get into an argument on my birthday either. I’d rather just enjoy it, enjoy the peace between us today. It feels like us before everything went down. It feels perfect.

  “Do you want to open your present now?” he asks, nodding towards the gift sitting between us on the table.

  “What is it?” I ask, staring inquisitively at the square-shaped box.

  “Open it and see.”

  I reach out and take it in my hands. It’s almost too pretty to open, but I pull off the bow and rip the wrapping away. Inside is a black box, a jewellery box. I open it, and it contains the most beautiful diamond bracelet I’ve ever seen. Delicate and dainty, I absolutely love it.

  “It’s beautiful, Cohen,” I say, staring at it in awe. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”

  “I know,” he replies, smiling. “But I wanted to.”

  He’s so fucking sweet. Why is he so sweet? That’s playing dirty. I want to kiss him, but I know now is not the time. Until we speak about everything that happened, there’s no way I can touch him, because then it’s going to be that much harder to take a step back if what we have to say to each other doesn’t work out for us both.

  “Thank you, Cohen,” I say softly, my voice filled with emotion. “Can you put it on for me?”

  “Sure.” He leans over, helping me do up the clasp. “There you go. It looks perfect on you.”

  “It fits perfectly,” I gush, lifting my wrist.

  “I guessed,” he says, looking pretty damn pleased with himself. “Now, we better order or we’ll be late back to work.”

  “We’re going to be late anyway.”

  “I know.”

  Apparently neither of us cares.

  *****

  “Holy shit, look at the bling on your wrist,” Sadie exclaims, looking at my bracelet atdinner that evening.

  “Oh, this old thing?” I say coyly, touching the bracelet with my fingers. “Cohen got it for me. I think it’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever been given. The flowers were more than enough, he didn’t have to get me this.”

  “It’s stunning,” Sadie replies, drinking some of her wine. “You get that when you’ve been nothing but a bitch to him recently? Imagine what you get when you’re actually nice to him.”

  I roll my eyes. “I don’t want anything from him. I just want him. All of him.”

  “You need to tell him that.”

  “I will, as long as his explanation for what Rebecca told me pans out,” I state, scanning the restaurant. “He said it was true, but it isn’t now. I’m hoping that means he stopped all that shit when he met me, but that’s probably just wishful thinking, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t know,” my best friend says, fiddling with her ponytail. “You need to talk to him about it. I don’t think it’s wishful thinking, but I’m a romantic. Maybe you are his exception after all. Maybe when he met you, he changed his ways. Maybe you were enough for him. It’s not saying there’s anything lacking with his past women, but sometimes when you have that connection with someone, everything else pales in comparison. I know you’re not someone who connects with people easily, which is why you’re not letting this go, when normally you would have walked away by now. You want to fight though, because that damn connection is worth fighting for.”

  Her words are all true. I hardly connect to people, and when I do, I never want to let go. All my friends have been friends for a long time. I don’t really add new people into my life much, unless someone amazing comes along. Someone who makes me want to open up to them, someone I crave to be around.

  Does Cohen feel the same way about me?

  “Let’s wait and see what he says, I guess.”

  “I think him doing that for your birthday says he wants you,” Sadie adds, clapping her hands together. “Shotgun bridesmaid!”

  I put my hands in the air. “Okay, you need to calm down. There will be none of that.”

  But she’s now in her own wedding dream land. “Don’t even think about eloping. I’m planning you a huge-ass wedding that everyone will be talking about years from now.”

  I drink half of my glass of wine in one large gulp. “Okay, let’s change the subject. How are things with Ian.”

  “They’re pretty good,” Sadie says, beaming. “Not as intense as you and Cohen, but still great. He’s amazing in bed, infatuated with me and we get along really well.” She pauses. “His cock could be bigger though, but I can’t be so choosy now, can I?”

  I start choking on my wine. Sadie actually gets up and comes over to me, slapping me on the back. “Stop being so dramatic, Jacinta.”

  I glance up at her, flashing her a dirty look. “Really?”

  She grins and kisses the top of my head, then reclaims her seat. “Did you like the roses? I know your mum always gets you the sunflowers, and now Cohen, so I wanted to get you something a little different.”

  “Loved them,” I tell her, smiling. “Thank you, Sadie. You didn’t have to. I thought you taking me out to dinner was going to be my present.”

  She waves her hand in the air. “You’re my best friend. If I can’t spoil you a little then who can I spoil?”

  I open my mouth, but she cuts me off. “And don’t say Ian. He’s the one meant to be spoiling me.”

  I shake my head at her. “Poor Ian.”

  “Poor Cohen.”

  “Touché,” I say, raising my glass in the air. “To my ride-or-die bestie, here’s to many more years of friendship to come.”

  “To our friendship,” she toasts.

  We both drink.

  Chapter Twenty

  Cohen comes over the next night; Sadie lets him in then makes herself scarce. I didn’t expect him to drop by, so my hair is wrapped in a towel on top of my head, and I’m still in my bathrobe because I couldn’t be bothered getting changed after my shower. Instead, I’m sitting in front of the TV and eating popcorn.

  “Hey,” he says, sitting down and giving me a once-over. “I decided I’m going to come here and talk, and you’re going to sit there and listen.”

  “Okay,” I agree.

  “Okay?” he repeats, looking suspicious.

  “Yes, okay, I’m listening.”

  He takes a deep breath. “Ever since I started talking to you, having lunch with you even as friends, I’ve never been with anyone else.”

  Relief mixed with pure happiness spreads through me.

  “Really?”

  He nods, reaching his hand out and taking mine. “But yes, what Rebecca said was true. I’d never be exclusive to one woman; I’d be fucking a few on different nights of the week. That’s what I was used to. No commitments, no attachments, no feelings getting hurt. The women knew what they were getting into. There were no lies, just straight-up honesty.”

  “And when we got together, you assumed you could carry on that lifestyle?” I ask, remembering the ‘no commitment speech’ he gave me at the start. I assumed it was just about him being scared of letting another woman in, especially after his ex-girlfriend lied about losing his baby. That has to do damage to a man, and I guess every other woman who wants him has to pay for her mistake.

  “Yes,” he says, and I can feel my chest tighten. “I told myself that nothing had changed, but really everything had. I didn’t want anyone else, Jacinta. I was never tempted, I only wanted you. I still only want you. There is no one else for me now. All that bullshit is over. There’s no point trying to protect my heart anymore when it’s already yours.”

  “Yo
u haven’t been with anyone since we had our first lunch together?” I reiterate, placing my hand on my heart over my bathrobe.

  “Of course not,” he replies, grinning. “I can barely handle you, Jacinta, how the hell am I supposed to—”

  I kiss him.

  He tugs the towel off my head and fists my hair, using it to pull my head back. “I want you, and no one else, okay?”

  “Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?” I tease, my voice coming out breathy.

  “No,” he says against my lips. “I’m telling you that you are. You’re mine.”

  He slams his lips back down on mine and reaches forward to undo the ties on my robe. I suddenly realise we’re on the couch and Sadie can walk out anytime—in fact, she’s probably been listening to the whole conversation—so I stand and lead Cohen back to my bedroom.

  As soon as the door is shut, my robe is on the floor; I have nothing on underneath. My hair is still slightly damp, but I ignore it and concentrate on Cohen, who takes his time taking off his shoes and undressing, while I stand there naked, our eyes connected. He stalks over to me, brushing his fingers over my nipples. I squirm a little, something he doesn’t miss, going by the amusement that dances in his heavy-lidded green eyes. He circles me, stopping when he’s behind me. His hands come around and squeeze my breasts as he kisses up the side of my neck, then down again, concentrating on the spot he knows drives me crazy. I tilt my head to the side to give him more access, loving the feel of his mouth on my skin again. And even better, this time I know he’s all mine. No more stressing about where I stand with this man, because now I know.

  And it’s the best feeling in the world.

  He reaches down and slides his finger against my clit. “Are you wet for me?”

  “Yes,” I reply in a low, husky voice.

  He slides his finger inside of me. “Let me check, just to be sure.”

  I’m wet, I know I am, because I can feel it.

  “Mmmmm,” he moans, then sits down and pulls me so I’m sitting on his lap, his front pressed against my back. He pushes me forward and slides his cock into me slowly. I put my legs on the side of his then push up and down, using the power in my thighs.