DYLAN

A hotel?!

Now don’t give me a disappointed look or anything… I had promised to investigate my father’s clandestine meetings, and I was just delivering on that promise.

I however didn’t like my findings so far… desperately wanted to be proven wrong in fact, because if what I was seeing was true, then Brielle was the mysterious woman my father was cheating with.

A very disappointing development.

But then again, they were possibly just having a business meeting in one of the many conference rooms the hotel had to offer, and I was just jumping into conclusions.

I mean, it happens to the best of people, right?

Either way, I wasn’t leaving until I discovered the truth.

I waited for them to exit the car and watched them walk into the impressive building before following after them.

I wanted to give them –no to give Bree- the benefit of the doubt.

Because let’s face it, I really liked the woman, and a part of me was hoping she wasn’t the very woman I had painted her out to be the very first time I met her;

A social-climbing gold digger.

I entered the elegantly designed reception just in time to see them take a key card from the receptionist. Hiding behind a gigantic marble statue, I watched them round a corner… probably going to the elevators or something like that. 

I came out of my hiding place, all of a sudden feeling like Jason Bourne on one of his many secret agent missions. The receptionist was all alone, and thankfully female.

Time to turn on the charm.

I calmly approach the receptionist, a warm smile in place. I had come to learn that though girls liked cockiness, it really wasn’t a good idea to throw it in their face at the first meeting. I mean, it usually worked on all of them… all of them except Brielle, but still.

Better safe than sorry.

“Hello uh,” I glanced at her name tag. “Chloe.” Her eyes lit up like she had just won the lottery. My guess was, not a lot of people deemed her important enough to call her by her name.

“Hello sir, welcome to the Windsor Court hotel, how can I be of service to you?” The double entendre in her tone was hard to ignore, but I pretended not to notice. Going straight to the point, I asked. “So, an older man just checked in with the younger woman, could you tell me their room number?”

She gave me a suspicious look.

Oh no, this wasn’t going well.

 “I’m afraid I can’t divulge such a confidential piece of information.” She confirmed my fears. 

“Fuck.” I bit my lip in frustration… an action that quickly turned into an inward smile when I noticed how she suddenly leaned in, her glance sweeping over my features appreciatively. “But all I can tell you is that, it’s a private suite.” 

A private suit huh?

I nodded and gratefully thanked her, my smile still in place. It wasn’t until I was back in my car that the smile fell off and the information sunk in. 

That was enough confirmation, right? 

I mean what else did I want?   

Did I want to actually catch them in the act before believing that they were having an affair?

All the signs were there, it was about time I accepted it… accepted the fact that Bree –no Brielle- was just like the other women. 

Even as I tried to will myself to accept the fact, I felt an aching feeling in my chest… an ache that felt almost impossible to ignore, like it wanted to drown me under.

Was I dying or this was how a broken heart felt like?

I sat in the car for what felt like ages, but probably was only a couple of minutes or hours. By the time I pulled out of the car park, the unbearable ache was gone. All I felt was a sudden emptiness, coupled with anger and what I identified as unbridled resentment.

BRIELLE

I was exhausted.

So, exhausted that I had dropped Shawn off at the office after our secret meeting, and rushed in quickly to tell Sloane I was leaving early. 

I wasn’t really needed at the office today and I must say, the thought of having a very much needed sleep and if I got lucky, some Silvie-fussing-over-me time completely sealed the deal.

I drove home, grateful for the light traffic, and suddenly appreciative of the nice weather and the soothing soul music blasting from my speakers. I guess work stress sometimes made you fail to appreciate the beauty in things.

I got home earlier than I had expected, locked up my car, made my way to the elevators and trudged tiredly down the hallway to my apartment while simultaneously fishing through my bag for my keys. 

Unlocking the door, I let out a blood curdling scream and dropped my bag at the horribly disgusting sight that met my eyes. 

Silvie and my older brother Nick, seemingly going at it like a bunch of horny rabbits.

“OH GOD, MY EYESSSSSS!” I shrieked, hastily shut the door behind me, and sped to the elevator, trying very hard to erase the nasty image from my memory.

Suffice to say, it wasn’t working.

Silvie caught up with me before I could make the trip, her shaky hands trying to complete the process of tying her bathrobe around her body. “Lucia, wait up, come on.”

I stopped in my tracks, and spun around to face her. “Did you guys have to have sex in the hall? I mean, of all the damn places... like your room for instance, and oh, did I already mention your room?”

“You know in our defence, it just kind of happened-”

I cut her off, “Even elsewhere, somewhere far away from the apartment, like… I don’t know, a god damned hotel for instance? Literally anywhere else, yet you guys settled for the most conspicuous place ever and now, my brother’s butt is going to be haunting me in my nightmares for God knows how long.”

She ignored my ramblings and sheepishly grinned at me. “We absolutely didn’t get that far, trust me. We almost did, but the good news is… we didn’t.”

“How did you guys even get there?” I voiced out in confusion, sweeping my hair away from my face.

“I mean the answer to that is quite easy, I’m shocked you’re even asking me in the first place. It started with just a kiss, and then somehow got out of hand after that.” She explained innocently, like she was talking to a confused two-year old.

I rolled my eyes at her wit, reluctantly smiling in the process, then I took a long hard look at my best friend. 

The beautiful redhead was practically glowing. I was happy for her, but still very much confused as well. “So… does it mean you and Nick are together now?”

The smile vanished off her face somewhat. “I don’t know, does it?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know, but only one way to find out right?” I reached for her hand and dragged her back to our apartment. 

“Nicolas Cage Renaud! Is that anyway to greet your long-distanced sister?” I asked in mock anger as I inched closer to him menacingly. He was thankfully fully clothed now. 

I observed with interest and a little bit of satisfaction how he seemed to take unconscious steps back in what was obviously fear.

Good. 

I was a force to be reckoned with in the tickling department.

And, it seemed he still remembered that fact pretty well.

“Hey Lu, it’s been so long, you know.” He smiled his normal charming smile and engulfed me in a hug. “How are you?”

I shrugged, stepping back after we had broken apart. “Well, a little scarred for life, but I’ll live. What are you doing here?” I sashayed towards the couch to take a seat and backed away quickly when I thankfully remembered that, that was probably not a good idea.

“I was just you know, in the neighbourhood?” He stated, well more like asked, but you get my drift. “Dad asked me to pass by and check up on you, since you haven’t been calling home and all.” The accusation in his tone wasn’t lost on me, but I brushed it off… hell, there was really no need getting all defensive, especially when they were right.

Silvie sat in the corner, twiddling her thumbs, suddenly nervous, and back to the usual demeanour she had on whenever Nick was in the vicinity. 

The two needed to talk, that much was obvious. 

“You know, I’ll just go in and get changed, and call Dad too while I’m at it.” I shot a discreet look at Silvie, whose wide eyes practically screamed ‘do-not leave-with-your brother’ and turned back to Nick. “Make yourself at home… you know how dad is, this call is probably going to take hours so…” I trailed off, but hopefully he was smart enough to get where I was heading with the conversation.

Grabbing my handbag that had dropped by the front door, I proceeded to my room, locked up, and plopped on my wonderful bed with a thud, moaning at the instantaneous way my sore muscles relaxed at the taste of comfort.

I guess wild thoughts do find away into your mind when you’re at your most comfortable, for my brain just decided to think about Dylan.

Just perfect.

But the wild, lusty thoughts made me realize one thing;

Maybe two.

That one, I may have overreacted a tad bit much after the kiss,

And two, perhaps I needed to give us a second chance.

Of course that meant apologising, and possibly revealing who I really was.

But was I ready to do that?

You see, Dylan invoked feelings in me that scared me… feelings that I didn’t allow my past flings to unleash. I didn’t do attachments, or sleep overs or romantic vacays, and yet, I wanted to try them out with him, which said a whole lot.

A part of me was convinced that this want had something to do with my childhood crush on him, and another part was sure it was something more, but I wouldn’t know until I tried something with him.

Right?

Which brought me to my other question.

Was it such a good idea?

I mean I knew myself, and I also knew that underneath all my tough, impenetrable exterior, I was a hopeless romantic. Could I handle a real relationship and all the problems it came with? What was even the probability that he was going to want a real relationship? And if he didn’t, could I handle a casual, no strings attached arrangement?

Well, it wouldn’t hurt to try.

With a made-up mind to go see Dylan and apologize the following day, I reached for my phone and dialed my father’s number. He answered on the third ring.

“Hello daddy.” I beamed into the phone, truly glad to hear from him.

“Hello munchkin, how are you?”

***************

True to my prediction, the call lasted for an impossibly long time.

Typical dad.

I headed to the hall only to find that Nick had left, and Silvie was watching TV, while angrily shoving popcorn down her throat.

Oh oh, looks like there’s trouble in paradise.

“I can’t believe Nick left without saying goodbye.” I stated as a way of conversation and curled up on the couch beside her, scooping a handful of popcorn in the process.

“Ugh,” She groaned and flicked channels. “Please don’t talk about him now. All I want to do is to watch movies, binge eat and think about myself. Fuck men.”

Wow, it must have gone very bad. I wonder what happened.

I turned to face her. “You know I’m here for you right? Do I have to kill him? Because I don’t care if he’s my brother, if he said or did something wrong, I promise you, I. Will. Fuck. Him. Up.”

And, I absolutely meant it too.

Silvie smiled wanly at me. “I know you would, but I really don’t want to talk about it now.” I nodded in acceptance. “Well, just know that I am here for you whenever you’re ready alright?”

She reached for my hand and squeezed slightly. “I know you are. Now can we please do something fun to take my mind off things?”

I grinned at her. “Why, my middle name is fun. Ready to have the best day and night of your life?”

“Actually, your middle name is Brielle,” She corrected teasingly. “But fuck it… let’s get turnt up!”

“Yasss!” I scooped my phone up to order some pizza and ice cream while my pretty best friend dashed to her room for DVD’s –that girl had any you could ever dream up... and all genres too.

“Ohkayyy, got the movies.” She declared when she returned.

The doorbell rang and I quickly rushed out to pay up and retrieve them.

Delivery was super-fast nowadays.

“Food is… here.” I confirmed, setting the whole bunch of goodies on the table and reaching for a blanket to warm up myself a little bit. It was quite cold. 

“Good. Ready to Netflix and chill?” She asked mischievously, the movie was fully set up, and she had just made herself comfortable beside me. “

I smirked. “I was born ready.”

******

Today was a pretty busy day.

I had been taking calls from back to back trying to establish a meeting with some of the investors and the results had been quite positive actually with about three wanting to see me this week alone.

Impressive right?

The unfortunate thing however was the new assistant sitting across Sloane… an obvious sign that our idea to sabotage Dylan’s plan of action had failed, but looking at it in another light, it was all probably for the best actually.

I mean, I wanted to try out a relationship with the man, and yet wanted to undermine his success too?

Talk about being two-faced.

If I wanted to do any such thing –I meant trying out the relationship, not the undermining part, then I realised that I had to do things in a more fair and square manner… no cutting corners.

The fates probably realised I sucked at doing that, and so had taken measures to handle the ‘problem’ themselves. I guess the least I could do was take advantage of the situation. 

I glanced at my wristwatch.

9:17 AM.

I had gotten to work pretty early today, having so much to do and all, and looking at things, I guess I could use a little break.

Why not go see Dylan and get this apology out of the way instead?

Honestly, that didn’t sound like such a bad idea. 

Retouching my makeup and smoothing my peach-coloured pencil skirt suit, I walked out of my office and crossed the hallway to his. His assistant’s head shot up at my approaching footsteps and an immediate scowl settled on her perfectly made up face.

Wow, what crawled up her ass and died?

I didn’t care though, you know me… ever ready to kill ‘em with kindness. Plastering a pleasant smile on my face, I stopped at her desk. “Well hello, I don’t believe we’ve met yet. I’m Brielle. Is Dylan in?”

She sized me for a moment before deeming me well deserving of a reply. “Yes, Mr Thomas is in, but he’s pretty busy right now, I’m afraid you can’t see him.”

“It’d just be for a minute. Let him know, I’m sure he’d want to see me.” I pressed. The beautiful assistant’s eyes shot up in an instant, a condescending smirk on her rouge-coloured lips. “Actually, Miss Renaud… he was very insistent on the fact that he didn’t want to see you. Do you understand where I’m going with this? You, ma’am, are not wanted… at least not anymore.” She stared at her perfectly manicure nails after her statement, while I stood there like an idiot trying to process the information.

He didn’t want to see me?

My reaction to the kiss must have hurt him more than I thought.

I glanced at the bimbo who was still staring at her nails and smiled.

An evil one.

I was done playing nice.

“Oh okay, thank you very much.” I quipped and sashayed past her to her boss’s door. After a quick knock, I barged in.

“HEYY! I thought I told you he didn’t want to see you. I’m so sorry sir, she just brushed past me-”

“That’s alright, Chloe. You may leave us alone.” He cut her off. She brushed past me with a huff, throwing me the dirtiest look she could muster while I gave her a sweet, smug one in return.

I just couldn’t help it.

My gaze shifted to Dylan after the door had been shut, my eyes admiring his navy blue tight suit, while my fingers ached to run through his hair, ruining its sleek laid-back appearance.

I came to when he loudly cleared his throat and shot me a glance. “What do you want Brielle? Get on with it already, as you can see, I’m very busy.”

He was indeed, but there was something about his tone that seemed distant to me. He seemed… closed off.

“I- I- uh came to talk to you… about what happened yesterday.”

“Yes, the kiss.” He stood up and leaned against the wall behind his chair, his arms folded, muscles bulging at the strain. I bit my bottom lip uncomfortably. 

“As a matter of fact,” He continued, “I’m really grateful you pushed me out of your office, Miss Renaud… because it was only then I realised what a huge mistake I would have been making.”

Wait, what?

“You see, you’re not my kind of woman… and why I felt that initial attraction to you in the first place, I have no idea. But I can assure you that after I had gotten a taste, it has been snuffed out entirely, in fact I feel absolutely nothing.”

I couldn’t do anything, and so I just stood there, nodding like a dumb idiot, trying hard to will the tears away, because they were that close to spilling their guts out. 

There he was again, breaking my heart for the second time.

I took a deep shaky breath. “Well thanks for clarifying all that with me. To think I was here to apologise and possibly ask for a relationship, but I guess I just misread things and it turns out you’re what I’ve always thought you were all along;

A two-faced, self-conceited, jerk.” 

He closed the distance between us so fast that for a moment, I thought he was going to hit me or something. His arm clasped around my waist and drew me to him angrily. We were pressed so close together that his angry breaths warmed my skin, and left me wanting more, but I raised my chin up defiantly and gazed into his eyes, my brain mentally steeling me up for whatever reeling comment he was going to make.

The words never came.

Instead, he crashed his lips against mine angrily, and though initially startled and confused, I couldn’t help but lean in more, pressing myself against him… offering myself to him even though he had just rejected me. 

Again.

My hands lifted on their own accord to curl around his neck, a small gasp escaping my lips at how good it all felt. His tongue plunged into my mouth, dancing with mine, stirring the lustful desire that flamed at my very core. 

A moan left my lips when he reached for my ass and pressed me even more to him, I could feel him with every thrust, with every grind, even as he tore his lips away from mine and went straight for the pleasure spot right behind my ear, I swear, never had a make-out session felt this good.

I felt him tense against me for a slight moment, and then he pulled away, a blank mask in place, leaving me aroused and confused, like we hadn’t just been dry humping a few seconds ago.

The blank mask changed to a satisfied smirk that would come to haunt me for days to come. All he said was, “And you have just confirmed, that you’re nothing but a social-climbing, self-centred gold digger. Get out of my office.”

This time, a single tear did slide down my cheek, but I was too vulnerable, confused and emotional to notice. I angrily wiped it away, and without another word or a glance, walked out of his office.