“I quit my job,” she whispered, lifting an arm and covering her eyes with it. “I don’t have all that much to go back to.”
“Hannah, I—”
Her cell phone buzzed. Loudly. Too loud for the intimate atmosphere they were lying in. Plus, the glare was horrendous. She reached for it on the bedside table where she’d placed it before, peered at the notification, then let out a short shriek.
Hannah, I need to talk to you. I’m outside. Please, let me in. We need to talk about this. It can’t be over between us.
“Hannah? What the hell’s wrong?” James asked sharply, sitting up beside her and trying to wrestle for the phone when she just sat there gawking at it.
“It’s Mark. He says he’s downstairs.” She scrambled upright and nearly fell out of bed. Crap, how had she failed to realize she was so close to the damn edge?
“Where are you going?” James asked in astonishment.
“I need to talk to him.”
James grabbed a hold of her arm. “Why?”
She stared at him blankly and stopped trying to reach for the shirt that lay beside the bed. “Why what?”
“Why are you going to talk to him? You just said he was a controlling asshat, Hannah. What on earth would you have to say to him?”
“The man just flew across the country to see me, James. I think he deserves a little conversation.” She blinked at him a handful of times, then frowned at his glower.
Mark did, didn’t he?
That was more of a gesture than she’d ever imagined him capable of conceiving. Mark was controlling and domineering but somehow, she’d always been the one to do the chasing. She hadn’t split up with him to get a reaction out of him, but if she had, this was one she’d never have foreseen.
“Are you going to get back together with him?”
“I don’t want to talk about that,” she said softly, then grimaced when she felt his seed start to slip down her inner thigh.
Goodness, what was happening to her?
The thought combined with the past hour had her collapsing on the side of the bed. She hunched her shoulders and covered her face with her hands as her shoulders began to quake when she started sobbing. “What’s the matter with me?” she whispered tearfully.
James was quiet a second, then he reached over and carefully rubbed her shoulder. “You’re just a little confused right now. That’s all.”
“Mark was a good man, James. Sure, he wanted to know what I was doing, but I mean, don’t all women want that? He was interested in me. Interested in everything I had to do,” she tried to reason. “Maybe I just misread that.”
James was quiet through her musings, and maybe that was what gave her the courage to clamber to her feet and pull on some clothes.
“You can’t seriously think it’s a good idea to go downstairs and talk to him, Hannah?” he asked, now sounding beyond astonished at the prospect. He added, “You stink of sex. Sex you just had with me.”
“I don’t need you to point that out, dammit,” she spat at him, the words muffled as she dragged her shirt overhead. When the fabric cleared her face, she scowled at him. “I just… I think I need closure or something.”
She didn’t know what she needed. And that was the honest truth.
Ten minutes ago, she’d have said it was what happened on that bed with James. And damn, she wouldn’t lie, she did feel better.
But this with Mark?
It felt unresolved somehow.
Like she’d needed a reason to dump him so that she could hook up with James or something…
Fuck, she felt like such a slut.
Mortification flooded her, and she ignored James as she turned away from the bed and rushed over to the door. Then, she heard him scampering upright and knew he was going to follow her.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she demanded, her voice less impressive than she’d have liked thanks to the squeak that had found a home in her throat.
“I’m going to make sure you don’t make the biggest mistake of your life,” he replied.
With that warning, and with a sheet wrapped around his waist, he strode ahead of her. And damn, if he didn’t look as regal as Julius freakin’ Caesar as he headed for the staircase and aimed for her ex.
Chapter 8
What was he doing?
What had he just done?
He’d fucked his best friend’s sister. Aidan was going to be more than pissed about that. He’d be more pissed to realize, however, that James wanted to do it again.
And again.
And again.
Once was not going to be enough.
James knew that like he knew his face on a fucking magazine front cover.
He ran a hand through his hair as he strode down the corridor towards the door, and ignored Diana’s shriek of surprise as she saw him walking around half-assed naked with nothing more than a sheet covering all the important parts.
Before she could do more than shriek, however, he heard her demand, “Hannah! What on earth’s going on?”
Hannah made no move to reply, though, she just scampered toward him, and tried to duck around him. He grabbed a hold of her just in time, and frog-marched her to the door.
Before she could do little more than yell, “Dammit, James, what the hell do you think…” James managed to open up and came face to face with Hannah’s ex.
When he saw the supercilious bastard’s smirk fall at the sight of him and Hannah wrapped up together, James wanted to crow. Then, he wanted to deck the son of a bitch. What little Hannah had said about this dick was too much.
He knew the sort.
Hell, he was the son of a man exactly like Mark.
His father controlled his mother’s every waking move—it was why they didn’t get on. Why he spent every holiday with the Sawyers, and barely saw his parents at all.
His mom couldn’t—wouldn’t—see the light, and his father was intent on keeping it that way.
“You need to get out of here before I beat your ass for what you did to Hannah,” he growled out, long and low, watching with pleasure as Mark flinched, taking a few wobbly steps backwards. “That’s right,” he spat. “You’re not so tough, are you, when you’re faced with someone your own size.”
“James!” Hannah shrieked. “Mark never touched me.”
“No, but that would have come next, Hannah. It always does. First, it’s your movements. Checking up on you. Then it’s your friends, which ones you can and can’t see. Onto your wardrobe, and then your food. Until every part of your day is under his watch.” When she stilled at his side, no longer trying to bow under his arm to get past him, he knew his words had hit home.
Thank fuck, he thought to himself. But as the thought passed through his mind, she whispered, “James, I think you should go.”
“What? Are you being serious?” he demanded, his gaze darting between Mark and her.
“Yes.” She closed her eyes. “Please go.”
The beseeching note hit him hard. It was followed swiftly by anger. She was pleading with him to go, while the bastard who would control her every waking move was watching on… What the hell was that about?
For a second, he was speechless, and then, pride well and truly ruffled, he bowed out. He knew when he wasn’t wanted, dammit.
Retreating down the hall, he returned to her bedroom, grabbed his shit and quickly dressed. On the way down, he saw Diana hovering at the foot of the stairs and noticed the front door was closed. He couldn’t hear voices outside either.
“Where are they?” he asked grimly.
She frowned at him. “What’s going on, James?”
“You’re an adult, Diana, I’m sure you know what just happened.”
“My eyes and my brain don’t seem to be on the same page. Since when were you and Hannah…” She wafted a hand, her cheeks growing pink at the discussion. She managed to find the right words, it seemed, as she settled upon, “...an item?”
“We’re not,” he st
ated gruffly. “By your daughter’s choice, it would seem.” When her eyes narrowed, he asked again, “Where are they?”
“Hannah took off with him in her car. I don’t know where they’ve gone.”
James jerked his chin down. “I’ll see you in a few weeks, Diana.”
Relief had some of the tension bleeding from her. “You’re still coming to Edward’s birthday party?”
His smile was taut. “Of course I am. You’re my family.”
Diana’s eyes softened, and she reached over to pinch his chin. “If it makes it better, James, I’d like to see you and Hannah together. She’s probably the only one who can see past your money.”
“You really mean that, don’t you?” he asked, surprised. Diana knew about his past record with the opposite sex.
“I rarely say what I don’t mean,” came the wry retort. “And yes, you’re a naughty boy, but Hannah’s always been far too much of a prig. You’ll change that. Ruffle her feathers. She needs them ruffling too. Badly.”
He studied her a second, saw yet again how she was like an older version of her daughter. The blond hair was laced with silver now, and the skin beside those magnificent eyes was striated with smile lines, but Diana and Hannah were so alike it was crazy.
“Why,” he asked softly as he studied her, “have you always treated me like family, Diana?”
She blinked at that. “You were good for Aidan.”
He snorted. “I got him into trouble the first month I knew him.”
“You think I don’t know that?” She laughed a little, her mouth quirking to the side in remembered amusement. “When I got the call that night I didn’t know whether to be angry or to laugh. Aidan was always such a serious boy. Just like his sister. To hear that he’d gone joyriding in one of the faculty’s cars with the son of one of America’s richest tycoons? It was like a bad joke. Then, when we video called, and I tried to give him a stern talking to, you popped up. With that cheeky grin of yours.” She patted his cheek again. “I knew you’d be good for my boy, and you were. You always were.” Before he could say anything, her eyes grew worried. “It was never the money. If anything, that always concerned me. I knew you had security, and that your guards would always have you as the priority, never Aidan. That caused a lot of sleepless nights, but as you grew together, I realized you levelled each other out. The crazy stories in the press grew fewer and fewer, and instead, other ones started. About your prowess. You and my son, working together, creating this marvelous technology… I saw how good he was for you.”
“He still is, Diana. I’m so grateful for him.”
She cut a glance to the door. “And yet, I can’t imagine him approving of what just happened.”
James pulled a face.
That seemed to be answer enough. “I can’t help but think you would be good for Hannah, and she good for you.” She pulled in a sharp breath. “I haven’t seen eye to eye with my daughter for a long time. Maybe you can put her back on track.”
Silence fell between them as he saw the sorrow in her eyes. “It’s not my place to…”
She stopped him with a waft of her hand. “Don’t worry about it, James. Go on. Go home. It’s late, and knowing you two, you’ll have some wunderkind meeting to hash out tomorrow.”
Confused and wary, he ducked down when she tilted her chin for him to kiss her cheek.
“Goodnight, Diana,” he whispered softly. She nodded, but watched him leave the house in silence.
As he climbed into his car and looked at the cheery red brick house that had been like a second home to him since college, he hoped to God he hadn’t just wrecked the best thing that had ever happened to him.
Had Hannah been worth such a risk?
As he reversed out of the drive, he had to admit that yes, she had been.
And didn’t that just mess with his fool head?
Chapter 9
One month later.
When the call cut through to the ‘engaged’ tone for what felt like the twentieth fucking time that morning, James slammed the phone against the receiver. If he’d been alone, he’d have smashed the receiver against the desk a few more times for good measure.
Aidan’s head popped up at the noise, and James questioned the idiocy in sharing an office with his best bud for the millionth time that week. Aidan saw so little at times, then at others, far too much. He always had.
And for the past month, James knew he’d been acting strangely.
The weird thing was, his ‘best’ friend hadn’t commented on it. Which meant he either knew already what was happening, or he didn’t want to know.
Considering they’d barely brushed upon the huge topic that was Hannah, James had a feeling it was a bit of both. Unless Aidan had spoken to his mother and she’d told him what had gone down the night James and Hannah had spent together.
Scrubbing a hand over his face, he rocked back in his seat and tried to stare at the screen in front of him and make some sense out of the report he was reading. The numbers were a jumble. Hell, even the text was. For the first time in his life, James realized business held little interest to him. Project development, something he went whacko over, bored him. Spreadsheets that literally had dollar bills floating from them they were making so much damn money were a waste of his time.
Hannah.
It all led back to her.
He tried to reason with himself: it was one fuck.
While that was the case… it was the best he’d ever had. She was the best he’d never had.
Because though she’d been in his arms for less than an hour, that hour might as well have never happened because ever since, she’d avoided him.
Where he was the one to usually do the avoiding, she was refusing to answer his calls, and when he’d shown up at her house the other Sunday with Aidan, she’d already been out. Almost like she knew he was coming. He’d even suspected Aidan of helping her with that, but he wasn’t altogether sure and didn’t feel like arguing over it.
“Would you stop sighing? Shit, James, you’re driving me crazy,” Aidan huffed all from way over the other side of the office. Just because they shared a room didn’t mean the room wasn’t huge.
The size of two conference rooms, desks directly opposite one another with a large table between them for brainstorming. His side was red. His favorite color on a car. He had all kinds of models stacked on glass shelves… every one of the prototypes had been miniaturized for posterity. Aidan had a similar get up but with bits of cogs and shit that went inside their babies’ engines.
Not that those cogs didn’t interest James, but they were of less interest.
That was the politest way he could phrase it.
They’d shared a room in college for a year, then when James had finally been allowed to move off campus, Aidan had moved into his apartment. They were used to being together.
Hell, it was a shame they weren’t gay. They’d have made a great couple.
His lips twitched at the thought, but he was too mad to laugh. “How the hell can you even hear me over that racket,” James complained; Aidan was playing Bach, and he hated classical music.
“Aside from the fact I should smash your face in for calling Bach a racket, I can hear you because you keep on doing it.” Aidan grimaced. “I wish you’d get over this infatuation. I’ve never seen you like this before.”
James pounced on the word ‘infatuation’, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Aidan rolled his eyes. “You. My sister. Together. Doing the nasty. Even after I expressly asked you not to.”
Before guilt could flush through him, James demanded, “What the—”
“Don’t even bother denying it. I’d still be pissed if I hadn’t watched you moon over her these past weeks. I’d say I was pleased, but, ya know… It’s Hannah. I don’t want you to hurt her. I’ve never seen you like this before, though. It’s starting to freak me out, dammit.”
Astonishment took over guilt. Then, because he couldn’t lie to
Aidan, James rocked back in his seat once more and admitted, “That’s because I’ve never felt this way before.”
Aidan pursed his lips then got to his feet. As he strolled over to James’ side of the office, he folded his arms then perched his ass on James’ desk.
“Then what are you going to do about it? Because I don’t think I can stand another month of you huffing and smashing phone receivers into desks. It’s already driving me crazy, James.”
“I don’t know what to do, Aidan. Hannah’s not letting me do all that much.”
“She’s not answering your calls, I’d assume?”
“Exactly. No matter what time I call, she always ignores it.” Before James could scowl too hard over that pertinent fact, he demanded, “What’s she doing with her time, anyway? I thought she’d quit. She can’t be that busy.”
“She did.” Aidan grimaced. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this but she’s starting her own marketing company. Getting all the information together for her small business is taking its time.”
The news both floored him and pleased him. Then, terror took its place. “Has she gone back to Florida?”
“No.”
“She’s going to run the place from home?” he asked, astounded by the notion.
“It looks like it. Until I throw some work her way, I guess.”
Aidan’s sheepish retort had James shooting a rueful grin at him. “Nepotism. Et tu, Brute?”
“Like you wouldn’t overload her with work to keep her here!” Aidan shrugged his shoulders. “I never wanted her to go to Florida anyway. If starting her own business keeps her here, then that’s for the good. Plus, I researched her old firm, Hayward & White. She wasn’t lying, James. She’s hot shit down there. They’re majorly pissed at her leaving.”
James processed that and said, “Give her the authority to handle press releases. She was eager when we were discussing our equal rights policies. She’d probably love working on stuff like that.”
Aidan’s eyes lit up. “You wouldn’t mind?”
“Are you for real?” James demanded. “I want her here too, buddy.”
One Kiss: A Brother's Best Friend Romance Page 7
