“You ready to leave, Isa?” Jerry comes up behind me.
I smile, exhaling a long trail of pent-up anxiousness. “Yes, please.”
After a long scrub in the shower, I pull open the bathroom door to find Bryant sitting on the edge of my bed. “Hey.” I carry on, walking into the room, fluffing my damp hair up. I’m going to regret the decision to sleep with it damp immensely tomorrow.
“Why’d you leave?” he asks me, but his voice is different. Tortured. Confused. The room is dark, and the only light that is coming through is from the city lights that are sneaking through the floor to ceiling windows. He removes his tie and then shrugs off his dress shirt.
“I was just a little tired,” I whisper, feeling the temperature in the room kick up a notch. Shit. Is he mad at me? Or did something happen after I left.
“Come here.”
I follow his orders. He doesn’t look up at me from where he’s sitting, so I wrap my fingers around his chin and tilt his head up to face me, and that’s when I see it. The undiluted confusion in his eyes. “I thought you were mad at me over Hayley.”
I swallow.
Shaking my head, I whisper, “No,” while running the tip of my index finger over the shadow of his beard. “I trust you.”
His arm wraps around my waist and then he pulls me down, rolling his heavy body on top of mine, tugging off his pants and sinking into me with a hiss escaping his lips.
This sex wasn’t fast. It was slow, sensual, and every time he pushed into me it was with a deep thrust. He continued the same torturous pace, locking his lips with mine and never letting up. He rode my body, and I rode his back from under him, all while our kiss never broke. Sweat dripped off of his forehead and would fall onto my face, and it was then I realized this was the first time someone had ever made love to me.
17
I’ve just walked into the apartment after my gym session when I hear my phone vibrating on the kitchen bench. I’m surprised I could swing a gym session after all the love-making Bryant gave me last night.
“That thing has been ringing all morning!” Jessica groans, walking in with her hair all over the place and another man’s shirt on.
“You just wake up?” I ask her in disbelief. It’s eleven a.m.
“Shhh.” She reaches blindly for the pot of coffee. Jeez, I really hope that isn’t another bodyguard’s shirt.
“Hello?” I answer my phone with a laugh toward Jess.
“Isa…”
“Devon?” Shock evident in my tone.
“Devon?” Jessica cocks her head, blowing on her new hot coffee.
“I need to talk to you. Can you come down to the lobby?” I look to a confused Jessica and then exhale. “All right, I’ll be down in a second.” Hanging up my phone, I look to her. “Long story.”
“Is this my cousin Devon?”
I pause for a beat and then nod. “Yeah. It’s a long story, but we’ve been friends for a very, very long time.”
She seems to think over what I’d said, but the morning is obviously kicking her ass and the caffeine seems to be taking too long to take effect. “Just be careful.”
“Why do you say that?” I ask lightly, throwing on my jacket and zipping it up now that my body has cooled back down completely from my HIIT training.
Jessica pauses again and then shakes her head. “I won’t say anything, but just be careful.”
Ignoring Jessica’s warning, I walk down to the main lobby and I see Devon’s lean back facing away from me outside. He looks to be watching all the passing cars. Putting one foot in front of the other, I make my way toward him, pushing the doors open.
“Hey!”
He turns to face me, his eyes rimmed red, his beard a little longer, and his shoulders slack. “I’m sorry, Isa,” he murmurs, pulling me in for a hug. He squeezes tightly—almost too tightly.
I pause before bringing my hand up to his back and patting him lightly. “It’s okay.”
He gestures toward the long limo that is waiting for him at the curb. “I guess I’m using the family money now,” he laughs, but his eyes don’t smile, and his tone is barely above sad. “Want to go for a ride?”
“Sure.” I pat his hand and slide into the backseat of the limo. I feel terrible about the way things Devon and I ended and it has been eating away at me since.
He slips in behind me and drops down on the seat opposite. “I’m sorry, Isa.”
“Devon.” I roll my eyes. “You can stop saying sorry now.”
He shakes his head and looks out the window. “No, Isa, I can’t, because this is the part where they take you.”
18
Bryant
My phone ringing cuts through the boardroom. Twelve sets of eyes all snap toward me. They’re obviously waiting for me to apologize, which is when I decide that they’re all idiots and I need to fire them. Muppets, I don’t apologize to anyone and I especially don’t in my damn boardroom.