Conflict of Interest (Employee Relations Book 1) (52 page)

“I’m sorry I wasn’t honest with you.” His gaze lifts to mine.

With the pad of his thumb he lightly strokes the puffy skin underneath my eye. “You were crying,” he states.

“Is that your way of telling me I look like hell?”

Does he really want to know I spent most of the flight home sobbing?

He shakes his head. “You’ve never looked more beautiful,” he says and then adds, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

I look away and we’re both silent for a long time. I half expect him to excuse himself so he can get dressed and leave but he surprises me again.

“The summer after I graduated high-school I walked in on my dad and his mistress having sex in his office,” he begins. “He was pissed. Flipped out on me for intruding. I couldn’t believe it. I’d always looked up to him as a role model of the kind of man I wanted to be. Successful but focused on his family.” He shakes his head. “I left his office and was halfway to my car when he caught up with me. Told me if I said anything to my mum he’d cut me out of his life both personally and financially.

“Even as a kid I knew he meant what he said. Still, I couldn’t condone what he was doing to my mum…to our family…so I told him I didn’t care, that I’d make it on my own.” Lucas pauses and sucks in a breath. “He hit me. Twice. Said everything I had was because of him, that I’d never earned anything on my own.”

“Lucas, you can’t believe that’s true.”

“He’s a powerful man, Gabriella. Money isn’t a problem and his resources are endless. If he’d wanted me to be the best and I wasn’t he would have made it so and I never could have proved he hadn’t. Part of me believed him. Still I didn’t let it stop me from doing what I knew was right.”

Now his reaction when I accused him of sleeping his way to the top makes sense.

“I drove home and found my mum right away. I explained to her what I saw and repeated my father’s words. She was crying in my arms when he walked in.”

“What happened?”

“He told her she had a choice to make. Basically ignore his indiscretions and they’d work it out.”

“Or,” I prompt.

“Or take my side and be cutoff as well.” Lucas looks off into space as he strokes his thumbs over my hips. “She chose him. Didn’t care that part of the ultimatum was having nothing to do with her only child. As long as she didn’t lose his money and status she’d survive. I was given two hours to pack my belongings and get out. All I had were a few suitcases full of clothes, a couple hundred dollars I had in my wallet and copies of my transcripts from school. That’s it.”

“Lucas,” I whisper. It breaks my heart.

He kisses my forehead. “The reason I tell you this is because I had no idea about the promotion when I returned to my room and I promise it has nothing to do with me being here now. I ran into my father in the hotel lobby. He’d seen me at dinner and followed us back to the hotel and decided to wait around for me. I’d already bought the condoms and was headed to the elevator when he stopped me. I was pissed, Gabriella. I wasn’t thinking straight. I don’t want to get into it now but I needed to process what he’d said to me and knew that if I went to your room I’d finish what we started. But in the frame of mind I was in it wouldn’t have been fair to either of us.”

“Why not just tell me that?”

“Next to hurting you, talking was the last thing I wanted to do last night. I’d planned on telling you this morning…some of it at least, but I never got the chance.”

I bite my lip and move to get up. Lucas holds me firmly in place. “I don’t blame you. I put the seed of doubt in your mind by not being open.” He leans forward and kisses me tenderly on the lips. “Give me a chance to erase that.”

I imagine after the two people who were supposed to choose you no matter what, let you walk away without a care I’d be a little hesitant to get close to anyone too.

I lean my forehead against his and smile against his lips. “You’re off to a good start.”

He laughs. “If you doubt me it’ll just make me try harder.”

I push off of him and run my hands over his chiseled chest. “All this stuff with your father. That’s why this promotion is so important to you.”

He nods.

Lucas is competitive and I bet he always has been so proving his father wrong is understandable. It also makes sense that he’d view relationships of any kind as a distraction from his goals.

“That’s not all,” Lucas says. “At dinner last week you asked if I had any siblings. If you’d raised that question a week before that I would have told you no without question. Stupid really, considering my father’s transgressions. It never occurred to me that he could have fathered another child, but he did. I have a sister. I’d never have left her to figure out all this shit on her own if I had known. It probably comes as no surprise that he abandoned her, never had anything to do with her other than a monthly check to keep her mother quiet.”

Talk about piling it on.

“Tell me about her.”

“Her name is Serosae. She just graduated from University in London and I guess her mother felt she was old enough to know about her father and me. She’s staying in New York and happened to reach out to me when I was there on business. We were taking the subway and I lost my phone. I would have told you all this sooner but I’m still trying to process it.”

I study his features. It’s obvious this has been weighing on him.

“I’m sorry,” I tell him. “For not giving you a chance to explain and for what your family has done. You deserve better than that.”

“I’m a better person without my parents in my life. Regardless of what happened in the past at least I know I’ve earned everything I have now. He can’t take that from me.”

“You’re right,” I whisper and lean forward to kiss his nose. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For sharing that with me.”

Lucas doesn’t reply as he slightly pulls me up his body so that his hard length rests against my wet folds and urges me to move.

“Lucas…”

“Don’t overthink this.”

“I can’t help it. This isn’t me, Lucas. I don’t sleep around.”

“Who said that’s what I want?”

“That’s the problem; we didn’t discuss anything ahead of time. I have no idea what you want. I’m not sure if it even matters what either of us want given that we shouldn’t be doing this to begin with.”

He takes hold of my chin with his thumb and side of his pointer finger. “Despite what I said this was never going to be a onetime thing. At least not for me.”

“If anyone found out we’d both lose our jobs.”

“No one has to know. We’ll be discreet.”

“Even if I thought that was true it’s not enough. You don’t want a distraction and I want more than that.”

“Whether we pursue something or not, you’ll always distract me.” He chuckles into my neck and playfully bites my earlobe.

I jab him in the stomach.

“I don’t want to define this because I’m not sure what it is yet and starting out with titles and expectations seems unfair to both of us.”

“I don’t know if that’s enough,” I admit.

“At least give me the rest of the weekend,” he pleads as he pulls on my hips.

I acquiesce to his request, rocking my hips back and forth, coating him with my arousal. Lucas bends down to grab his pants and pulls out another condom and quickly rolls it on. He watches as I position him at my entrance and sink onto him, both of us groaning with pleasure.

Placing my hands on his shoulders I close my eyes and concentrate on circling my hips in slow movements. “That’s less than forty-eight hours to convince me.”

“What did I tell you about doubting me?” he asks gripping me tighter.

“It’ll make you give up,” I tease and squeal when he flips me on my back and pins me to the mattress.

“Harder,” he says, hooking me under one knee and begins moving in and out of me at a faster pace. “It’ll make me try harder.”

Panting, I raise my hips to meet each thrust and tell him, “I doubt you, I doubt you.”

Lucas was true to his word. I’d never been more sure.