by M. G. Morgan
"Right you need to get dressed and find Matt. We have a huge problem." Brody strode into the apartment and handed me a Styrofoam cup filled with steaming coffee.
"Do whatever you have to, get ready, but we need to be out of here and searching for Matt in the next half hour."
"Searching for me why?" Matt appeared in the doorway. He crossed his arms across his naked chest but that didn't do anything to hide the scratch marks there. Scratch marks I had left on him.
Colour flooded my cheeks and I sipped the coffee Brody had brought, keeping my head low in an attempt to hide from him.
"I see." Was all Brody said as he glared between Matt and me. "And when were you planning on telling me about this mess, Katherine?"
"Mess?" I stared up at him genuinely puzzled. Why was it a mess? People had sex all the time. It wasn't strange or unusual.
"Yes mess. What do you think the press will do with this? Your face will be plastered all over the media. Just like all the others. And what do you think that will do to the company’s reputation? Who will want to work with us when they find out our employees will sleep with just about anyone with an inch of fame?"
Shock made me stare at Brody with my mouth hanging open. He had never spoken to me like this. Even when I'd told him about my criminal record he hadn't seemed to care all that much. And now, this? It didn't make any sense.
Matt strode into the room and grabbed the front of Brody's shirt, lifting him from the floor until just the tips of Brody's shoes remained on the ground.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Speaking to her like that? We're both adults, entitled to a life of our own."
Brody turned pale, the colour leaving his face as Matt held him as though he weighed nothing at all.
"Look, I'm not saying you're not adults... But it is a mess... When the press get wind of it... They'll use it against you. This isn't something you can be reckless with. Think of your career."
Matt dropped Brody suddenly and strode from the room. "My career, everyone is always so worried about my career. All it turns out to ever be is worry over the cut they can get. I've found no one ever worries about me."
Brody watched him leave before turning back to me. I'd watched the entire situation with a sort of frozen shock. Brody shook his head and straightened his shirt.
"It's not just you two... There are other people in this company, Kat. I won't let you jeopardise their jobs for some fling with a rock star. I can't. I need you both to come in... The manager of the Monkey House wants your head after the other nights little stunt."
"Brody, if I hadn't brought him to the hospital he'd be dead. I did the right thing. The only thing."
The look in Brody's eyes was one filled with sadness. "And on any other day I'd gladly take your side, Kat. But not today... Not after this."
He turned and walked to the door.
"Brody?" I called after him. He gave me one last look over his shoulder before tugging the door open and disappearing out into the hall. I watched him leave and my stomach dropped. I didn't know why. But I had a terrible feeling that I was losing something. Something I hadn't even known I'd had.
Chapter Nine
Getting Matt to agree to go to the office had almost proved impossible. But once I'd explained about the manager of the Monkey House he'd agreed there was nothing else we could do but face the music.
Standing in the office and listening to the manager's angry tirade was something else altogether. Brody simply sat behind the desk listening patiently as the manager tried to make it look as though I'd simply stolen Matt from the club.
When he finally finished I stood to leave but Brody sat up a little straighter.
"What are you doing? This is your mess. You need to clean it up for your client."
"She's telling the truth, Brody. I needed to go to the hospital. I have the records to prove it." Matt answered before I had the chance.
The manager scoffed at his answer and sat back in his seat. "You would have been fine to perform, Mr Henley, but your personal assistant seems to be prone to hysterics."
"Look, I said we could come to some sort of arrangement. But after your behaviour here today, I'm not sure there is any point. You accuse both me and my client of some sort of misconduct. The only misconduct here is your clear dismissal of my client's well being. For future dealings I don't think we could trust you to have my clients wellbeing at the forefront of your mind."
Brody shot me a look, one filled with some sort of admiration and it lifted the horrible feeling I'd been left with, ever since he'd walked out of the apartment. He nodded and turned back to the manager.
"Miss Faulkner is correct, and I'm afraid I'll be siding with her on this matter. You do whatever you feel is necessary but we look after our clients."
The manager's face turned red and he stood and glared at me. "You've made a big mistake here today. No one simply dismisses me. No one."
He stormed from the room and I let out a sigh of relief. Brody smiled at me, the look softening his entire face. Matt stood and grinned down at me.
"The girl I knew in high school would never have done that..."
"Well I had to grow up sometime."
Matt draped his arm over my shoulder and the look of desire in his eyes sent a shiver through me.
"Do you think we could get some lunch and maybe discuss some scheduling?"
I turned to Brody and the look he gave Matt and me made me squirm. Why he had such a problem with us I couldn't quite grasp.
Stephanie stuck her head in the door at that exact moment cutting off whatever Brody had been about to say.
"There's a woman here. Says she has to see Matt... I've left her in reception but she is adamant that she see him. Says she knows him."
Brody rolled his eyes and turned to me. "He's your client, you deal with her."
Crazy fans weren't anything new. And as word got out about Matt's representation with us more and more fans were bound to show up. Just that morning I'd hired two bodyguards. They sat outside Brody's office door looking menacing. I gestured for them to follow me as I walked past them and they fell into step behind me.
Matt meandered along behind us and I stopped.
"You can't come out here. You need to stay in the office, secure. What if she's a crazy?"
"What if she's crazy and she takes a dislike to you?" He countered. "I can take care of myself."
I smiled and pushed him a little shoving him back into the office. But he caught my hand and drew my body in towards his.
"Matt, people will see. People other than Brody."
He shrugged and bent down over me, his lips grazing against mine. My body instantly flamed to life and I remembered his promise from earlier. A delicious punishment.
"I don't care who sees us... I'm tired of always having to worry about who will see me..." He kissed me again and I melted against him.
A strangled cry had us both jerking apart. Stephanie sat in the open doorway and another woman was striding towards us. The look on her face was one filled with pure rage. But I recognised her face instantly. She hadn't changed that much...
"Angela?" The name left my lips before I had a chance to react. Her hand reached out and the slap she gave me left my ears ringing. I staggered back from her clutching my cheek.
That one slap brought it all flooding back to me. It was the same as the slap in the hall of the high school. But the look in her eyes, that was different. She turned her attention from me and back to Matt. But the guards reacted and grabbed her before she even had a chance to get near him.
"I call and call you, and this is what you're doing? Since when did becoming rich and famous make you too busy to answer the phone to the mother of your child?"
Her words washed over me, staggering me for a second time. Mother of his child? There had to be a mistake. There was no way Matt had a child. He'd have told me. I looked over at him and the look of shock on his face told me this was the first time he'd heard of it.
"What are you talking
about?" He spluttered pushing his hands back through his hair.
"Your son, Connor, wants to meet his daddy. I've been calling you for months... Trying to get through to you, trying to track you down. I've even hung outside some of your gigs and I know you saw me... I know you've been ignoring my calls." Angela struggled against the guards who held her. "You're turning out just like your father, Matthew Henley. A good for nothing bastard!" She spat the insult at him before shrugging free of the guards and running for the door.
Matt started after her and I followed him. It was like a terrible car wreck that I couldn't take my eyes from. He ran out onto the street and tried to grab Angela before she hopped into her car, but he narrowly missed her. She tore out of the parking lot, leaving a spray of gravel in her wake.
"Matt, this can't be true? Can it?"
He turned and the look in his eyes told me everything. It could be true, and he was going after her.
"I have to know, Kat. I have to see him. I can't become my father, I won't make the same mistakes he has..."
"But, Matt..." I didn't finish my sentence, after all what claim did I have? We had sex. That was it. Sex didn't mean anything. Least of all to Matt...
He jogged down to his car and jumped in behind the wheel. I watched him pull out without a backwards glance. I knew what my place was. What we had shared hadn't meant as much to him, as it had to me... And really how could I blame him? If someone came in and dumped a bomb on me like that... I wouldn't know even where to begin reacting.
Tears ran down my face. When Brody touched my shoulder I jumped. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me close.
"Kat, I'm sorry. He's not worth it..."
I didn't answer Brody, but he was wrong. That was where he was wrong. Matt was worth it. He was the one thing in this world truly worth fighting for. But how could you fight against something like that? The simple answer was, you didn't. All I could do was wait and see if he came back to me... And if he did, would I like what he had to tell me? Who knew? Only time would answer those questions.
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