Mine to Protect

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “Yes, I will, thank you,” Rose replied.

  “Could you two get to researching how we can possibly let Ms. Anderson be the CEO of a company without publicly admitting that she isn’t dead? I can’t see a way around it, but maybe there is something we are missing.”

  “Sure, we will get right on it,” Bronx replied as he and Rose made their way out of the office. “You really should try and hold your tongue around Elaine—she doesn’t like emotions,” he said to Rose when they made it to the elevator.

  “Noah was being a total asshole.”

  “Noah?”

  “Oh, shut up; it’s just the two of us in here. What the hell was that? He berates me right in front of Elaine like I’m a child, and I’m not supposed to say anything?”

  “Rose, what you’re forgetting is that if you didn’t know Noah, you wouldn’t have said a damn thing to him. Your familiarity with him is making you think it’s alright to question his authority, and he’s not going to let you do that in front of other people.”

  “I didn’t question his authority,” she protested.

  “Oh, really? Would you have ever said any of those things to Elaine?”

  Rose stopped and quickly realized that Bronx was right. She never would have dared to talk to Elaine in such a way. Noah was her friend, or at least use to be her friend, and she felt comfortable having an argument with him, but if he had just been her boss, she never would have spoken to him like that.

  “You’re right. I’ll apologize to him tomorrow when he cools down.”

  “What? Oh, I think I’m dying. Oh, my, please help me,” Bronx joked as he stumbled out of the elevator. “Rose just admitted I was right about something. I must be imagining things, please get me a doctor.”

  Stewart and Shamus laughed as Bronx stumbled into the office with Rose behind him. They knew Bronx was right on the money with Rose, she never admitted she was wrong about anything, and they all couldn’t help laughing at the idea she could possibly be admitting to being wrong.

  “Oh, stop. I’ve admitted I was wrong before.”

  “No, that has never happened. And you certainly haven’t admitted I was right about anything.”

  Rose knew that Bronx was right about both her need to apologize and her willingness to say when she was wrong. She had never been a fan of admitting her mistakes, and it wasn’t going to become a habit. It took all she had not to laugh at Bronx as he displayed his dramatic account of Rose being wrong. But she wasn’t about to let him know that he was funny; Bronx was already pretty full of himself.

  “Maybe you’re just never right about things? Did you ever consider that?” Rose said as she sat down at her desk with a stern expression.

  “It’s no use guys, she’ll never admit it, but you two are my witnesses. For one moment in time, Rose said I was right,” Bronx said dramatically as Rose ignored him.

  Rose sat at her desk and pretended to work as she thought about everything that had happened in their meeting. It was Noah’s reaction to her that really had her feeling horrible. There was so much emotion in how Noah had treated her, and as much as Rose had tried to pretend like it didn’t matter, she really did care what Noah thought. She wouldn’t purposefully hurt him—she would never do that. But she knew that he was hurt by the way he reacted toward her, and she thought it would be best to address it with him so they could move forward.

  Chapter 22

  “There’s no way to make this happen,” Bronx said out of frustration as he threw his papers across the table.

  “I don’t see that it’s possible either.”

  After six hours of reviewing every possible legal case, Bronx and Rose were at a standstill as they tried to come up with an answer to the president and first lady’s case. It wasn’t just that they were trying to write the new articles of incorporation, but also trying to figure out how to let a dead woman run a non-profit; it was impossible.

  Rose couldn’t help thinking about Elizabeth and her relationship with the president and the first lady. They all seemed so close to one another; it was weird for Rose to watch. If the president had indeed slept with Elizabeth and possibly fathered a child with her, why was the first lady being friendly to the woman? It was crazy, and the more Rose tried to think about it, the more she couldn’t wrap her mind around the details.

  But the fact of the matter was that Rose knew she didn’t know all the details. Maybe that Elizabeth woman had a child with someone else. Maybe the president had a child with someone else. Maybe there were no children at all, and Noah had misspoken. Rose knew that people in the public eye had rumors around them all the time, and the president and first lady were no exceptions. She was just going to have to live with not knowing what was actually going on, and it was killing her.

  “Why do they want a dead woman to be the CEO anyways? There are millions of alive women who could do it.”

  “Maybe they want her to not be dead anymore,” Rose said with a grin.

  “Well, obviously she’s not dead.” Bronx started to laugh hysterically. “Do you think they are keeping her as their sex slave? Why are they friends with a woman who the president was sort of accused of killing?”

  “Maybe this is all really a television show, and we just don’t know about it,” Rose said as she looked around the room for pretend cameras.

  “I think we’ve become deliriously tired. What time is it anyways?”

  “Five in the morning?”

  Rose agreed that they were becoming deliriously tired. They had reviewed all the research they could think of and had even reviewed the hundreds of pages of information that Elaine had given them. They weren’t being productive anymore, and Rose could hardly see straight she was so tired.

  “So we worked all night long, and we have nothing to show for it; that’s just perfect. I’m sure my aunt and Noah will be disappointed in us.”

  “Disappointed? Who the fuck cares. We just stayed up all night long trying to figure this out while they didn’t do a damn thing. They better be grateful we put the effort in,” Rose demanded.

  “That’s not how life works, and you know it. If we didn’t find the solution, it doesn’t matter what we did with our night.”

  “So my neck hurts, my eyes hurt, I stink, and it won’t matter?”

  Bronx stood up and climbed over the conference table in the middle of their office as he sniffed Rose.

  “You don’t stink,” he said before turning over and laying right on the table and closing his eyes. “We should just take a nap before work, come here ...” Bronx held his arm out for Rose.

  “Right on the table?”

  Rose could feel the anticipation of how tired she was going to be for the rest of the day. She wasn’t looking forward to being at work at all. She wanted to grab Bronx and run back to her apartment and have both of them call in sick. They could take a nap and then screw each other’s brains out for the rest of the day. Nothing sounded better than a few orgasms to wash away the stress of life.

  “I’ll set an alarm for seven. We will both do much better with a couple hours of sleep. Trust me.”

  Rose didn’t hesitate and climbed onto the table to lie next to Bronx. She was exhausted, and as much as she thought orgasms were a good idea, she knew she needed some sleep. It had been months since she had pulled an all-nighter, and the last one had been fueled by sex and alcohol. She felt like she was getting too old for staying up all night and knew Bronx was completely right that they would feel better with a couple of hours of sleep.

  “If I weren’t so damn tired, I’d pull those clothes off of you and make you scream,” Bronx said without moving a muscle.

  “I’m tired too, let’s sleep.”

  “Do you think the president and first lady are in love?” Bronx asked sleepily.

  Rose had contemplated that same question many times throughout their meeting the day before and while they were working on the case. Both the president and the first lady were very beautiful people. The president could ha
ve had any woman he wanted and clearly didn’t have to settle for someone his own age. But Rose thought that the first lady was very intelligent for her age. She seemed to hold her own with the president, and they did seem like they had a genuine connection.

  The press talked a lot about Kayla, the first lady as if she was a dumb intern. But Rose didn’t think that at all after meeting her. There was clearly intelligence and street smarts with the first lady. It seemed she even had a propensity for getting herself into trouble, sort of like the president did.

  The legal charges said that the first lady had threatened to kill a co-worker and then tried to bribe a government official who had questioned her. Rose believed the accusations were probably true. Simply by the way the first lady and president had presented the case. But Rose also thought that there was no way those charges were going to go anywhere but into the back of some file in an investigator’s cabinet.

  They simply needed to move the non-profit for a short time while the president and first lady took care of business. It was obvious that the two of them together were very capable at handling controversy, and Rose didn’t expect it would be very long before the first lady would be back running the non-profit she cared about.

  “It seems so. You never know what is going on behind closed doors, though,” Rose replied.

  “I’d like to be in love someday.”

  “It’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. With love comes the possibility of extraordinary heartbreak. Trust me, that’s not fun at all,” Rose said softly.

  The emotion of the moment filled Rose, and she started to count the ceiling tiles to distract herself from feeling. She hated to get emotional and hated that it happened when she least expected it. Rose was an expert at pushing those feelings away when others were around, but she was starting to feel comfortable around Bronx and had let her guard down for the moment.

  “Yeah, I know your heart is broken. I’m sorry that happened to you.”

  Rose turned and tucked herself in next to Bronx. She wasn’t in love with Bronx and certainly didn’t get the wild feelings in the pit of her stomach, but what they had was comfortable to her, and she liked having him around. It was as much as she could offer anyone at that time in her life, and she was glad Bronx wasn’t pushing her for more.

  “I’m not sorry it happened. I was a different woman back then, and losing him changed me. But I’m stronger now than I was back then.”

  “That’s good. I’ve always wondered if you’d change things or do something different if you had a chance. So the heartache of losing your love was worth having him?”

  “I’m not sure he was the love of my life. I loved him, don’t get me wrong. I mean, I’m only in my twenties and have so many more years ahead of me. There’s got to be someone else out there for me. Someone that I will love forever, right?”

  Rose sounded hopeful for the future, and it caught her off guard. She normally couldn’t imagine ever finding love again, but for that brief moment, she did imagine it, and it felt wonderful.

  The problem wasn’t Rose finding love, though, the problem was going to be Rose feeling strong enough to deal with love again. Being in love had been an emotional rollercoaster for her. She fell fast for Derek, and even though they were very happy, she had started to feel distant from him at times.

  Often she wondered if she had rushed into marrying Derek. Of course, she didn’t say those thoughts to anyone else in her life. Derek was gone now, so it didn’t really matter, but when Rose thought back to how quickly she had devoted herself to Derek, she sometimes wondered what it would have been like if she had taken things slower.

  Their marriage hadn’t been perfect, and neither Derek nor Rose had been perfect either. She had a lot of very fond memories of her time with him and wouldn’t change them for anything. But when she was feeling good and thinking positively, Rose hoped that she would find another man someday. A man that would love her with all her faults and make her a better person. She dreamt of a man that she could give her heart to and not constantly feel like he might break it.

  It was hard for her to describe that feeling of what life was like with Derek. When they were together, Rose couldn’t imagine anything else than being there with Derek. But sometimes, when he was away, she got a feeling in her stomach like things weren’t right. She felt like he lied to her at times and then made her feel bad when she questioned him.

  But none of it mattered anymore. Rose was alone and she had the good memories of her husband to keep close to her. She didn’t hold onto the bad memories because there was no need to.

  “Yeah, I think there’s someone out there for you. There’s a man that will make you weak in the knees. Scare the hell out of you because you love him so much. Make you do crazy things you never imagined was possible. But Rose, you’ll need to be willing to have him. You can’t push him away.”

  “Well, he better come later in my life ’cause that scares the fuck out of me.” Rose and Bronx both laughed.

  Bronx knew as well as Rose did that she wasn’t ready for any sort of real relationship. That was the whole reason she had Bronx in her life. He was her stud, there to give her pleasure and make life tolerable as she tried to build a career.

  Sooner or later, Rose would have to let go of Bronx and try a real relationship, but as she cuddled up next to him, she couldn’t imagine letting him go. Bronx was the perfect man for the moment. He was funny, sexy, and totally understood what she needed. He wasn’t pushing her to have a relationship and didn’t ask her questions about what she wanted out of life. He was there for the same reason Rose was; their primal sexual needs.

  As Rose drifted off to sleep, she let her hand slide under Bronx’s shirt and rub up and down his abs. Life was pretty damn good for her at the moment. She had a good job, a fun guy, and not much else to worry about in her life. She was finally feeling like she had control of her world. It had taken months, if not years, to get to that place, and she wasn’t about to let go of it anytime soon. Rose was more focused than ever on her career, and her love life was exactly where she wanted it.

  Chapter 23

  “Get up you two!” a woman’s voice yelled from the doorway of their office.

  Rose and Bronx were in deep sleep as they started to move around and realized where they were and what was going on. Elaine was there in the office, and she didn’t look very happy at all to be staring at Rose and Bronx fast asleep on their office conference table.

  Rose was disoriented as she woke up and started to move off the table. It took her a minute to realize what was going on, and she couldn’t find the words to respond to Elaine at all. The truth was, Elaine scared the hell out of Rose, and she didn’t want her to yell at her about anything. Rose was just happy she had moved her hand from under Bronx’s shirt right before she drifted off to sleep.

  “We were up all night and just shut our eyes,” Bronx said nonchalantly as he climbed off of the conference table and grabbed a glass of water off his desk.

  Elaine didn’t seem amused by Bronx at all as he stood there with his back toward her. Rose stayed still in the chair and didn’t move in hopes that Elaine wouldn’t turn her anger toward her. The last thing Rose wanted was to get on Elaine’s bad side. Rose was trying to make partner someday, and sleeping with Elaine’s nephew wasn’t something she intended to let Elaine in on anytime soon.

  “Sure. Get your asses put together and get up to my office right now. I should have known you wouldn’t take this job seriously, Bronx. I told your mother I didn’t believe you really wanted to be a lawyer, and she’s the only reason I agreed to have you here. You’re such a disappointment.”

  Elaine turned and left the office before Bronx could respond. It was sickening the way she talked to Bronx, and Rose instinctively reached out to comfort him. She couldn’t imagine anyone being so mean to someone they loved. Rose knew that Bronx felt like he didn’t fit in with his family, they had talked about it before, but she hadn’t fully understood what life was
like for him in his family until that moment.

  Elaine had berated Bronx like he was a teenager who had missed his curfew or something. There wasn’t a bit of respect for him as a man or the fact that he had stayed up all night working. They clearly had been working—there were papers all over the office. But Rose wasn’t sure it was her place to say much of anything. Elaine was his family, and Bronx couldn’t change that, even if he wanted to.

  “Does she always talk to you like that?” Rose asked as they gathered themselves to go upstairs.

  “Yea, I’m the family fuck up. It doesn’t matter to them that I graduated from law school. Because I like to climb mountains, bungee jump and wear my hair shaggy, they think I’m always going to be that teenager who skipped school and pulled pranks on my teachers.”

  Rose liked all those things about Bronx. In fact, his carefree demeanor was why she had flirted with him in the first place. When she had almost knocked him off the zip line tower, Bronx had acted like he didn’t have a care in the world. Rose could have seriously injured him, or even killed him from the fifty-foot tall tower, yet all Bronx was interested in was flirting with her. He was a man after her own heart.

  Since Derek had died, Rose hadn’t been nearly as careful with her own life as she had once been. She often didn’t wear her seatbelt, she had sex with random men, and she went zip lining and didn’t listen to the guide. All things that Rose never would have done when Derek was alive; she was a cautious person back then, and losing him had changed that. Well, her grief over being alone and living life without him had changed her perception of the future.

  “I’m sorry. Do you think she’ll tell Noah?” Rose said, fearful of what Noah would do.

  Bronx looked disappointed that Rose had brought Noah up, but he understood that there was something between Rose and him; he had just been hopeful it was over since they hadn’t been talking recently. Rose instantly regretted bringing up Noah, though; she didn’t want Bronx to feel like he wasn’t the one she wanted because he very much was. Bronx was uninhibited and willing to chill and have a relaxed relationship, but she knew that Noah would never be alright with that. Noah was angry with her anyways, so it didn’t really matter what kind of relationship he wanted.