Liar

And in that moment, I’d envied Daniel and his role that kept him in one place.

“I didn’t yet. But when I go back, I’ll set up a meeting.”

“You sound old, Kent. I mean tired,” he joked.

“Ha. Ha. Fuck you.”

“Why don’t you come by Voyeur tonight? We can have a drink and relax. Sara’s been asking about you.”

“I can’t tonight. I’ve already made plans.”

“Ohh,” he said like he knew it all. “With the mystery woman who’s been stealing all your extra time.”

Just then, a flash of blonde hair caught my eye, and I looked toward the lobby to find a smiling ray of sunshine strutting her way to the elevator. I gripped the chair, fighting the urge to hang up on Daniel and run to her, to take her into my arms and not let go until I could breathe again.

“I care about you.”

When she spoke those words last week, they’d rocked me like an earthquake, shaking something loose—creating a crevasse that exposed something I hadn’t known existed. I’d almost fallen at her feet and confessed how much I cared for her too, but that had shaken me in its own way. Being with her had started as an ache—a desire and inability to say no to something so tempting, but now it was consuming me.

“I told you, there’s no woman. I’ve just been busy.”

“Yeah. Okay,” he mocked before continuing like my denial didn’t even exist. “Why don’t you bring her by,” Daniel suggested. “Let me check out this golden pussy and see if I can lure her away from you.”

His words were nothing new. It was how we talked to each other all the time. We shared and taunted and flirted with each other’s women. Hell, Daniel had even fucked my wife while I watched, and I’d never cared. But with Olivia, something primal beat inside me, bringing out the possessive caveman that had me snapping at my best friend.

“We’re almost forty, Daniel. Do you think we can just keep fucking women together? We have to grow up at some point.”

“You keep denying it and acting like she’s some secret. You never keep secrets from me.” His tone was no longer the playful Daniel I knew so well. “So, what the hell is going on?”

“Well, it doesn’t mean I can’t keep some parts of my life for me. Jesus. I don’t have to tell you every damn thing like we’re a bunch of teenage girls.”

I wished he would have kept arguing back with me. Taken me down a peg. Called me a selfish, pissy asshole.

But he didn’t.

He stopped altogether—shut down—and each second that stretched on, my guilt grew. I never snapped at Daniel. We bickered and even brawled, but now, my words were to push him away and make him stop looking where I didn’t want him to see. He was right, I didn’t keep secrets, and I knew he felt the wall I was erecting between us. Daniel was more than my friend—he was my brother, and I was pushing him away.

“Listen, I’m just fucking tired and snappy. The two hotels and new club expansion are wearing on me.” More silence and I rushed to fill it, to ease the gap widening at an alarming rate. “I’m stressed, and I’m taking it out on you. Probably because I know you’re the only one who can handle my pissy-ass mood. Lucky you.”

He laughed, but it was forced.

I’d take it.

“Yeah, man. Sorry to push. You’re my brother, and I know no one else will take care of your old ass.”

I forced my own laugh like a band-aid on a stab wound. “Thanks, D. I’ll call you tomorrow, and we can meet up with Carina about the club in New York.”

I hung up the phone and slouched back in my chair. “Fuck.” I only took a moment to collect myself, rubbing at my pounding temples before shaking off the shit phone call.

Olivia was waiting, and I hustled to get to her.

I stood outside the room and took one last breath before swiping the card and opening the door.

As soon as I stepped through and let the door close behind me, a beautiful ball of sex and sin barreled toward me. She leaped in my arms and wrapped around me like a barracuda I never wanted to disentangle from. She peppered kisses all over my face, and before I knew it, I was laughing.

With her in my arms, all was right in my world.

19 Olivia

I could’ve spent every morning for the rest of my life this way, curled up in Kent’s arms. My ear pressed to his chest, listening to the thud of his heart as my hand played in the ridges and valleys of his abdomen. I almost purred from the way he pet my hair between fisting the locks and tugging them just because he could, and he liked the way my skin broke out in chills from the light sting.