I watch his face when he notices the delivery driver knocking on my door as we pull up to my house.

“Lunch is here,” he says as he climbs out.

He tips the driver, opening the front door for me, and I can already smell the melted cheese on my favorite Italian dish. Lunch has been either waiting or not very far behind our return to the house after my weekly appointments, and it has been all his doing. The man eats as well, but my meals are always something I love, each week a different favorite as if I need the comfort after therapy.

“You’re going to make a mess,” Brooks says ten minutes later while I’m digging into my meal.

He pushes my hair out of my face, tucking it behind my ear.

Fuck. I’m watching, Dr. Kent, but I don’t know if it’s a good thing.

“Do you have anything to do this afternoon?” I ask as we carry our trash to the kitchen.

“Not a thing,” he says, then heads to the living room, grabbing the remote before falling onto the couch.

Normally, I would avoid him. I’d go upstairs with the claim of needing to take a nap. That’s what I’ve been doing, but I know it won’t stop him from sitting in that same spot for the next couple of hours.

He’s been distant, the same as me, but the man hasn’t been absent. If anything, he’s been spending more and more time here, even when I’m not in the room.

I’m so fucking confused, no closer to having my answers than I was before I showed up and word-vomited at Dr. Kent earlier today.

I want to snap at him, demand he tell me why he brushed my hair back, why he smiled at me when he didn’t have to, and more importantly, he needs to explain why he’s watching me right now instead of the television.

But I don’t.

I can’t.

Because I may not like the answer.

But maybe I need the fleeting flutter of hope building in my chest to be smashed once and for all.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I snap.

“Fixing to watch a movie. Would you like to join me?” His words are calm but there’s an edge to it like he’s just as flustered as I am right now. The man has no fucking right to be annoyed.

“Why did you brush my hair back?”

“Because it was getting in your food.”

“I’m not a fucking child. I don’t need to be parented.”

“I’m well aware you’re not a fucking child.” Brooks sits up straighter on the couch, putting the remote back on the coffee table with such precision, it pisses me off even more.

“I want you to stop fucking staring at me.”

“Now it’s disrespectful to look at someone when they’re talking to you?”

I growl. “All the time. You watch me like you’re thinking about choking on my dick.”

He stands from the couch, but he doesn’t cross the room to me.

“And stop smiling at me like we’re lovers. I don’t even want that shit when we’re in public.”

That lie rolls off my tongue so easily, I kind of believe it myself.

He chuckles, a dark, ominous sound. “You must be seriously starved for attention if you’re reading anything further into how I act around you as being nothing more than a kind human. That may need to be your focus at your next therapy appointment.”

I sneer at him. “I want you to leave.”

“Gladly,” he snaps, and then he’s gone.

I miss him before the door closes at his back. Maybe this is exactly what Dr. Kent was talking about when she mentioned my self-destructive behaviors.

Chapter 13

Brooks

“What the fuck just happened?” I mutter as I watch Deacon storm out of the room in one direction and Gaige head toward the elevator.

“Jude’s no longer a virgin,” Ignacio says, as if anyone could have missed that flashing neon sign.

“And Gaige finally let his dick get him in major trouble,” Wren adds.

Parker, the best friend to the woman Quinten recently married, just came in and planted a big kiss on Jude’s lips. They disappeared for half an hour before coming back out, both looking well and thoroughly fucked with smiles on their faces. But before they could make it across the room to leave, Deacon came in with the woman who is supposed to help with building a female Blackbridge Security team, which shouldn’t be an issue. She took one look at Gaige and went off. I don’t have details because it all happened so fast, but apparently, they’ve met before. If I know Gaige, who is a lot like me, they got naked, and now she hates him.

She stormed off, refusing to work with Blackbridge Security. Deacon got pissed and demanded he fix it, and now all of them are gone, leaving the rest of us sitting on the couch with our mouths hanging open.

Tags: Marie James Blackbridge Security Erotic
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