Fascination Series Boxed Set: Books 1-3 Page 13

  “He’s not alone. He has us, Jeremy. I’ll let you sleep and then I’ll check on him tomorrow. I may even dress up in one of your suits, and take one of your clients to dinner.”

  “Don’t do that shit unless you let me know. I have to get you acquainted with my firm. Remember Max still has a big stake.”

  “Oh, Max. I would never do anything to harm him. I still have feelings for him. I know what you’re thinking, Jeremy, but I’ll never do anything to hurt Max, or his marriage.”

  “Just so you realize that if you fuck with him you’re fucking with me.”

  I’d fallen asleep on the sofa, and when I woke Jack was gone. When I glanced at the clock, it was two o’clock in the afternoon.” I called Jack before I took a shower.

  “Where have you gone to now, Jack?”

  “First of all you need to thank me for calling into your firm since you said that you didn’t want me to go in until you’d given me instructions. I’ll have you know that I’ve researched your people. I called in and said that I had a family emergency. I mean you had an emergency and your secretary never knew the difference in our voices.”

  “That’s because there isn’t a difference. How did it go?”

  “It went well. And now I’m pulling into this wonderful seafood restaurant at this hotel.”

  “What? Trying to pick up someone, and then take them to a room.”

  “I’ll have you know I keep a suite here,” Jack said. “I’ve been living in Seattle for a while now.” I didn’t know that. “But I’m in Europe most of the time so don’t worry, no one can connect me with you. Oh, by the way, since I’ll be assuming your identity, I took the liberty of confiscating three of your suits, shirts, and a pair of your shoes. The underwear is mine, we may be twins, but I can’t wear those boxers. And I have your credit cards—the black ones of course.”

  “I hope you didn’t take my best suits.”

  “I’m sure I did. You wouldn’t want me traipsing around in store-bought suits now would you?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “Oh, I neglected to tell you that I know everything about your company. I’ve been studying it for a long time. I can tell you everything about your employees. Which ones are gay, bisexual, and straight?”

  “I’m sure that was the first thing you found out.”

  “I can tell you who is fucking who, and what their blood type is, and even what they like to eat. Do you want to know more?”

  “No.”

  “Good, because I’m hungry and since I’m going to be staying at your place for an unknown length of time, you should have something in your fridge, and you should be at the hospital seeing about your daughter. When I leave here I’ll go to Carter’s. Maybe I can talk to him and help him. He probably needs a therapist or grief counselor.”

  “You can try, Jack, but I don’t think that will help. He needs more than they can give him, or us.”

  “I’m in the restaurant, Jeremy, and I’m next to be seated for a table. Talk to you later.” I hung up with Jack and stepped into the shower.

  Chapter 15

  Dorian

  “Are you alright?” I glanced up to see Phillip standing at my door. He strolled in and stood behind me as I sat at my desk. “Put those plans aside. I want to speak to you.”

  “If it’s about me coming to your home the other night, I apologize for that. I was out of order.”

  “Eric said that you drove around again and parked outside and he didn’t feel safe.”

  “He didn’t feel safe?” I yelled. “Now that’s a joke. Did he tell you of his conversation with me? Did he tell you that I’d better not come around unless I came for him to fuck me? Is that what you’ve gotten into Phillip?” When I didn’t get an answer, I’d made my own assumptions about Phillip, and I was seldom wrong. He’d let Eric convince him that they should have a threesome.

  Phillip strode in front of my desk. “You keep a neat desk, everything in its place. Your basket is overflowing with drawings. You know you have the largest office in the firm,” he said with an envious eye.

  “That’s because you gave me the larger office, because I do all the work around here and have full ownership in our firm, and I was always neater than you.”

  I stood and met Phillip eye to eye. Looking into his brown eyes reminded me of when we were friends before lovers, before partners. He couldn’t meet my eyes and turned away. I placed my hand on his chin and brought his face back to me.

  “I know what I did was stupid, and I will never do that again. You know me better than that fucking doctor of yours, Phillip. I was upset about being stood up by Jeremy, and I didn’t know what to do, and you were the only one I could turn to. My first thought was to look for Jeremy, but that was an idiotic idea. I didn’t know anything about Jeremy, where to find him, except what they had on the search engine—”

  “Which is a lot. You must have found his address.”

  “That I did, but I didn’t follow through on my plans,” I admitted.

  “So you decided to fuck up my life,” Phillip quipped.

  “Oh, you can fuck up my life, but I can’t fuck up yours for a night? We were happy until you found that fucking Viking.”

  “Look, Dorian,” Phillip took a step back. “We can’t go on like this. We have to work together.”

  “I agree. What do you say if I take you to dinner? Your doctor works late at night and when you get home, you’ll be hungry and too tired to cook. Remember when you used to take me to dinner? Well, let’s do that now and try to remember when we were just friends and not lovers.”

  “Yeah. You warned me. You did say that once we fucked each other it would ruin our relationship, and it did. But, it hasn’t fucked up my love for you as my friend,” Phillip admitted. “Come on let’s go.”

  “It would do my head good to get out of this office,” I said.

  “WE TOOK A SHORT WALK to the hotel where we’d had many a happy night after working long hours in the office. Phillip would take me there at one of their posh restaurants for dinner when he’d been more interested in me, but after the bud was off the flower, and he’d lost interest and found a new one with Eric, everything was over. I’d known that Phillip was flighty and a cheat. I could kick myself for falling for him, and into his trap, and yet, what a wonderful trap he’d set for me.

  He made me a partner in his architectural firm after college. I thought the sun rose and set on his handsome face, and when I found myself in his bed, I thought I was in heaven. No heaven on earth could ever have been as glorious as it had been between us. I’d confused friendship and fucking with love.

  Before I lived in a small apartment no larger than a closet, but with rent the size of a mansion in Seattle. After Phillip and I became partners and lovers, I moved into Phillip’s condo. The one he sold his half to me so he could buy a larger one for Doctor Kevorkian. I’d been entitled to make that one mistake. But, never again would I travel down that road to nowhere.

  We sauntered into the restaurant and were seated quickly when Phillip said, “Would you please not refer to Eric as Dr. Kevorkian. He’s a bit skittish about that name.”

  “As well he should be. I bet he put many little dogs to sleep by just being incompetent.”

  “He’s not incompetent, Dorian. He’s a very good animal doctor and passing that around Seattle could ruin his practice.”

  “It’s not like I wrote a bad review on Yelp, or one of those sites, although I’ve been tempted. I wanted to bad-mouth him on Twitter, but I never did. I can’t say I haven’t thought about it though.”

  “Please, Dorian, can you just lay off of Eric for a few minutes. He’s not responsible for our breakup, and if you’d met someone you wanted to spend your life with, I’d be a fond memory and you’d be off on some cruise, or island lying around fucking the man of your dreams. But you’re here trying to fuck up my relationship. For what I don’t know. You even admitted that we were a bad match.”

  I’d been thankful th
at the waitress came quickly and stood in front of us to take our order. I needed a drink like yesterday. I was sober and I didn’t want to be. To be sober was to think about Jeremy Westbrook, and how I wanted to scream at Phillip that I didn’t want to think about him. Jeremy made me feel. I felt something for him I’d never felt for any man, not even Phillip.

  I felt love for Jeremy, and I wanted to punish myself for even allowing him into my mind and heart. It was cruel what Jeremy did to me. Sucked my cock knowing that I would never have him, asked me to hold him, which I did. How fucked up could that be?

  When I glanced up we had our drinks in front of us and I downed it and asked for another. Phillip glared at me.

  “Slow down. You have a few more hours before you go home, and you can’t drive if you’re inebriated, and I can’t drive you home tonight. I have to meet Eric. We’re going out dining and dancing.”

  I glared at Phillip and drank another vodka. I didn’t need him acting like a Daddy with me. Those days were over and that ship sailed the minute he met Eric and fucked him. The ship was now in the open sea where pirates the likes of Eric could board and take my treasure.

  A pirate like Jeremy Westbrook has already emptied the treasury, I thought.

  Jeremy sucked me dry, and I loved every minute of it. When the waitress placed my scallops over rice in front of me, I relaxed and ate. Phillip had the lobster tails and bisque. When I raised my hand to get another drink from the waitress, that’s when I saw him. I stabbed at my large scallop, ate one, took a swallow of my drink and glanced over at Phillip.

  “That’s him, Phillip. That’s Jeremy Westbrook, our Mr. Glisson. I need to confront him.” Phillip glanced over at the table across from our booth. The waitress had blocked his view, but when she stepped out of the way, I heard Phillip’s voice catch.

  “He’s gorgeous. And look at that suit he’s wearing. He looks hot without a tie. Now I know why you’ve gone nuts around him.”

  “You don’t know the whole story.” I told Phillip how Jeremy came to my door and sucked me off, then he asked me to hug him.

  “That sounds like a broken heart to me. I bet he caught a man fucking his sweetheart.”

  “Don’t write your story. Look at him, he doesn’t get his heart broken, he breaks hearts,” I barked. “That’s what he did to me. He stood me up and then when I’d vowed never to have anything to do with him, he showed up at my door, and teased me to death with his false weakness. Look at him. He doesn’t look like a man who gives a damn about anything or anyone. I can tell by the way he holds his head. He’s an arrogant bastard if there ever was one. I’m going over there and call him out on it.”

  “Don’t you think that you’re overreacting? He never said that you were anything more than a one-night stand.” Now, that really pissed me off. I narrowed my gaze at Phillip and tightened my jaw.

  “I guess you should know about one-night stands, Phillip.”

  “I didn’t mean anything, Dorian. I just wanted you to take it easy and not get your feelings hurt again.”

  “Yeah, because you don’t want me at your door early in the morning when you and Eric are having a threesome. Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve become, because of your fiancé.”

  “Maybe I was that all along and I didn’t know how to tell you.” At that moment I stood and looked down at Phillip. I realized that I didn’t know him at all. He placed his palm over my hand and I pulled away, then strutted across to stand in front of the table where that impossible handsome man sat enjoying his food.

  When he glared up at me I said, “Don’t tell me you don’t know me?” He raised an eyebrow, slanted his head to the side.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t. But if it makes you feel better, I don’t think I could forget a man like you.” The restaurant wasn’t full because it was about three o’clock, and he’d gotten a table to the side for privacy, I assumed.

  “Are you expecting someone?”

  “That’s none of your business,” My heartthrob said with a curl of his lips, as if he was laughing at me, which pissed me off. I pulled the chair out in front of his table and sat.

  “Do you want a drink?” he asked, raising his glass for another round.

  “No. I think I’ve had enough.”

  “I’d say, because you’ve come to my table after leaving your boyfriend to fuck with a stranger.”

  I leaned in because I didn’t want anyone to hear me, at least not now and not today. I didn’t answer the boyfriend part because for all anyone knew Phillip and I were still partners.

  “If you go to a stranger’s apartment in the middle of the night, and beg to suck his cock, then I guess I’m just one of those strangers.”

  “Was I drunk?”

  “No. You were sober and that’s why you’re pretending you’ve never seen me before.”

  “When did I do this dishonorable deed?” he joked.

  “Last night,” I whispered, locking eyes with him.

  “Oh, last night.” The waitress set another drink in front of him and took his empty glass. He took a sip of his Scotch on the rocks.

  “Do you remember now?”

  “Vaguely. Tell me what I did. I don’t know how I could forget someone like you.” And he smiled. “Those green eyes and dimples would have caught my attention right away. Maybe that’s why I showed up at your door at such an ungodly time of the night. Those green eyes fascinated me. And now I’m fascinated by all of this and I want to know more. Did I do anything to harm you?”

  “The only thing you did was refuse to say that you were gay.”

  “Well, I am if that makes you feel better.” Telling me didn’t make me feel better. Tomorrow he’d deny that just the way he was denying he knew me.

  “No it doesn’t. And you broke a date with me after I spent fifty thousand on you at the auction.”

  “I think I read in the papers that it was a million dollars.”

  “It was a hundred thousand, and my contribution is supposed to be fifty thousand to charity. You didn’t hold up to your bargain, and I don’t see why I should. I’m going to let Maxwell Gold know that he’s not getting a dime out of me. My partner can pay his half if he wants, but I’m not paying shit for a man who thinks he can suck my dick—”

  “Is that all I did was suck your dick? Do you mean you didn’t get to fuck me for all that money?” He smirked.

  “I’m not a top?” I said.

  “Maybe that’s why I don’t remember.” He chuckled. “I was probably drunk most of the night. What reason would I have for going to a man’s house unless I’d let him fuck me, that is, after I sucked his cock. That part you’ve probably got right.”

  “You didn’t smell drunk. You were quite sober from what I remember.”

  “Then how do you account for me not knowing you. I would have remembered a man that makes my dick twitch on looking into those gorgeous green eyes. If you want, I’ll pay the fifty thousand to Max. We have things to talk over anyway, and that would be a good time to talk to him.”

  “You’re not getting off that easy.”

  “I thought you wanted me to pay. I’ve agreed. What more do you want?”

  “I want the date you promised me and dancing. Then you can fuck off and I’ll pay the money.”

  “So, it wasn’t about the money, now was it?” He raised an eyebrow and smirked. I saw the tremble of his lips, the way his mouth appeared when he glanced up at me, and swallowed my cock. If I wasn’t sitting in a restaurant and Phillip wasn’t watching my every move, I’d invite him into the restroom and see what he could do with me leaning over with my palms holding up the wall. But then he’d said he wasn’t a top and he wasn’t a submissive either.

  My thoughts had invaded the moment and I wasn’t focusing. When it became quiet, I realized that it was time for me to speak.

  “It was about you not acknowledging me when I first walked up here, and how after you were down on your knees sucking my cock, before asking me to hold you, you wouldn�
�t admit that you were gay. You stuck by that ridiculous idea that even if you sucked cock, you could consider yourself straight. I don’t know about your world, but that’s gay to me in my universe.”

  Jeremy glanced at me with those heavenly blues, and his lips quirked up to the right as if he’d been laughing at me, and the joke was on me. It might have been and I would have bet that he’d come up with another excuse, but he didn’t. Instead he said, “When will you be ready to go dancing? How about if I pick you up after work... what time do you get off?”

  I thought about his proposal once more, but I didn’t want to go through the same shit again. “I don’t think so. I’m just not up to being fucked over a second time. When you came to my place, you said you were straight. Let’s leave it at that.”

  I took one last look at that man who I would have killed for, turned and walked back to Phillip, whom I wanted to kill.

  Chapter 16

  Jeremy

  “Guess who I ran into?” Jack said with a smirk as he laid a restaurant to-go bag on the table. I strolled over to open the bag, reached inside and removed the carefully packaged seafood container. Leaning down I smelled it. “I brought you lobster, big brother.” I glanced up wondering what that would cost me. Jack knew I had a weakness for lobster tail since I’d gotten over my fear of the poor creatures.

  “Not any lobster, but Maine lobster. I know how you loved this when our parents were alive. Father would boil them and we’d have them for dinner. We never knew how they were prepared until Thomas and Jarrett played a joke and showed us the lobsters being boiled in a large pot. You remembered how you screamed like a little girl and ran away vowing to never eat again.”

  “Yeah, I remember, but I got over that quickly when I got hungry. Thomas and Jarrett told me they were alive first and I couldn’t eat a whole lobster anymore. But the tails are delicious,” I said, licking my lips as I opened the container, leaning over and smelling the aroma.