Read His Unexpected Lover (The Thorpe Brothers) Online
Authors: Elizabeth Lennox
His Unexpected Lover (The Thorpe Brothers)
His Unexpected Lover
By Elizabeth Lennox
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Copyright 2013
ISBN13: 9781940134987
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Excerpt from “His Secretive Lover” – Ryker’s Story, coming late - December 2013
Excerpt from “His Challenging Lover” – Xander’s Story, coming mid-January 2014
“I can’t do this,” she whispered to herself. “I thought I could, but it’s simply too painful.”
Kiera’s shoulders slumped and she tried to find the answers within the depths of her martini. Unfortunately, the liquid only mocked her, small circles forming on the top and quickly dissipating as if to say, “You never should have come here.”
Or maybe the glass was only telling her that a heavy-footed person was walking by.
She held her head up with her forehead, trying to figure out what to do. She’d only been at her new job for a less than a week and already she loved it. The people were fun, hard-working, extremely smart…that all added up to an ideal workplace where she was challenged to excel and stand out, but what was even better, she respected her peers. Instinctively, she knew that The Thorpe Group encouraged competition but, unlike other law firms, didn’t condone the backstabbing and win-or-get-out pressure on cases. Oh, they won cases! Clients came to The Thorpe Group for legal advice from all over the country, all over the world even, because they knew that The Thorpe Group would deliver. The difference was that their success was due to a brilliant legal team versus barely ethical legal tactics.
T
here were other law firms out there with a similar reputation, although none as glamorous as The Thorpe Group. Gaining a few years at this firm on her resume would set her up perfectly for success wherever she wanted to go as a next step.
No, the work and the workers weren’t the problem.
Even the location was great. Chicago was a fabulous city with excellent museums, a thriving art community, tons of shopping and a wide range of people with which to interact.
Nope, all of her issues were personal. S
he’d foolishly convinced herself that she would be able to deal with this problem but, after only a few days, she knew that the issue was bigger than she could handle.
Axel Thorpe.
She’d seen the gorgeous, huge male in the hallway earlier today. And that one sighting, just the short glimpse of the man as he walked into a conference room, was why she was here, trying to drown her problems in a martini.
Unfortunately, she realized
after ordering the potent cocktail that she didn’t like martinis.
She also didn’t like her body’s reaction to seeing Axel Thorpe again. She’d almost embarrassed herself when she’d
seen him. Thankfully, she didn’t think he’d seen her trip. Nor had any of her co-workers, which was at least something. She’d had to catch herself by grabbing onto a chair, which probably looked ridiculous, but mercifully, she hadn’t fallen on the floor. She might have passed off the accident as just a fluke, but she’d almost fallen over the conference room table. Not something most people trip over because of its size and obvious placement in the room. But then again, most people hadn’t just seen the love of their life after so many years.
Kiera sighed and took another sip of her martini. Maybe she just needed to plow through the drink.
Keep forcing it down. Hopefully, the alcohol would keep her mind from replaying the scene. She would eventually feel nothing. Maybe that was the way she should handle Axel too. Just keep running into him until her body was numb from the reaction.
Perhaps today’s sighting and the humiliating aftermath was just a fluke. Maybe if she just went up and spoke to him, greeted him and asked him how his day was going, she wouldn’t be so flustered when she accidentally saw him. Sort of like taking an allergy shot every week to build up one’s immune system.
She sighed and took another sip of her martini, her face squinching up ridiculously as she tried to swallow the foul stuff. And she had to acknowledge the stupidity of her idea. Being around him six years ago hadn’t diminished his appeal or the impact he’d had on her when she was in college. Every time she’d seen him, she’d been floored. Just like today. Her knees went weak, she had trouble breathing, her whole body started shaking and she was unable to speak coherently.
Maybe it was just an allergy!
She almost giggled to herself and looked down at her drink. Was she reaching the giggle stage after only a few sips of the martini?
She pulled a file folder out of her leather bag, intending to get some work done. She wouldn’t think about Axel. She would simply push him from her mind every time he entered.
And if she saw him in the hallways at work? Well, she’d known that would happen when she’d accepted the position at The Thorpe Group. The man was one of the co-owners, for goodness sake. She would have been a fool to think she’d never see him.
But after so many years, she’d hoped that she was over him.
She shook her head with derision. Did one ever get over someone like Axel? He really was one in a million. She remembered the first time she’d seen him, laughing in a bar just like this one. She’d been a sophomore at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and he’d been clerking for a Supreme Court justice.
He’d been magnificent, she thought with a smile. So tall, so handsome and one could just see the charm and charisma oozing from the man’s smile.
..
Six Years Earlier….
“This place is too crowded,” Kiera pointed out, peering through the windows of the upscale bar in Georgetown. “Why don’t we go
back to our usual hangout?”
Debbie just grabbed Kiera’s hand and pulled her deeper into the crowd, obviously eager to be here for some reason.
“Because Brian will be there,” Debbie replied, referring to her ex-boyfriend, almost yelling over the noise of the bar. “And I really don’t want to run into him again. He’s still angry about our breakup last week.”
She quickly shifted out of the way of someone who almost spilled beer on her. “This place is a bit rowdier than the places we usually hang out,” Kiera cautioned.
Debbie looked around and smiled. “It’s nice! I like trying out new places and meeting new people.”
Except that Debbie had invited all of their old friends here so they probably wouldn’t meet anyone they didn’
t already know. “I’m not sure I’m feeling all that adventurous tonight, Debbie,” Kiera cautioned. It wasn’t so much that she wasn’t into trying new things, but she preferred less crowded conditions. This bar was wall to wall people.
“
Just pretend for one night,” Debbie laughed back, pulling Kiera up to the bar and ordered two beers.
Kiera shook her hea
d, but followed her friend, not sure this was such a good idea. “Fine,” she agreed and tried to hide the weird feeling that had come over her suddenly. Midterms had just finished, and she had a bit of breathing room before her next paper was due, so it wouldn’t be a bad thing to relax for a few hours. “We’re not staying late.”
Was she being too cautious? Probably, she told herself as she slipped between a
couple that was heavy into a debate on the latest political wranglings. It was hard to avoid those kinds of discussions in a Georgetown bar. Not only were they mere miles from the heart of the federal buildings where real estate was so expensive, the area was teeming with history. The streets were mostly cobblestones from the colonial period and even a small townhouse would cost well over one million dollars. The cobblestones were ballast from the rum trade, but the political debates were due to the proximity of the federal government. She suspected that many of the people here were either international studies students, political science majors, or were interning for a senator or representative.
“This is awesome,” Debbie called back to her, grinning from ear to ear, obviously excited to be in a new setting instead of their normal haunts. The bar was darker, probably proud of the bare bricks and heavy, wooden beams overhead that might or might not date back to the colonial period. If they weren’t, Kiera doubted the owner would ‘fess up to having new beams. Many of the establishments promoted the “old time” feel of their buildings by refurbishing so that the décor was reminiscent of colonial times, but with all the bells and whistles of modern conveniences. Of course, there was the one trendy bar she knew of that bragged about having bullet holes in the walls. Not that they claimed the bullets were colonial, but every bar had to have its quirks, she supposed.
She took the beer Debbie handed her and then turned around, trying to find a place to sit down. The odds of finding a chair or stool in a place this crowded would be pretty slim, she thought while her eyes surveyed the room.
Kiera noticed him the moment Debbie’s back was turned. He was in a group of
four or five other men, all of them laughing about something. But not him. He was staring right back at her. His eyes seemed to capture hers. That look was so powerful, his gaze so strong that it jolted her all the way down to her toes. More than just her eyes were captured. Her whole body was frozen in place, the noise and crowds, the damp smell of beer and other drinks…all of it just disappeared from her consciousness as she stared right back at him. She couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t pull her eyes away. She couldn’t even move.
She hadn’t even realized that Debbie had turned around and was trying
engage her in conversation until Debbie breathed, “Who is that?”
Kiera
struggled, but she was finally able to pull her eyes away and glanced at her friend. To her horror, Debbie was staring at the man! Her man! And there was a great deal of interest on Debbie’s lovely features. Jealousy, hot and powerful stabbed through Kiera’s body. She didn’t like her friend even looking at a man she already considered to be hers.
Okay, so that was ridiculous. She couldn’t claim
ownership of a human being simply because they were looking at each other from across the room. But there was no way to suppress the furious feelings that surged through Kiera as her friend surveyed the tall, handsome stranger. Kiera tried to be rational about this. She had no claim on the man. But regardless, she was suddenly incensed that Debbie had dared to look at the guy. It was a sudden and all-consuming jealousy, something Kiera had never experienced before, so she wasn’t sure how to handle that level of intensity. Men had never affected her in the past. To her, they were simply other human beings she could study with or joke with during non-study hours.
It was completely different with this man.
And completely irrational.
Instead of
revealing her jealousy, Kiera took a sip of her beer and pulled Debbie through the crowd until they couldn’t see the man anymore, although Debbie’s blond head kept craning at different angles to try and take another gander at him.
Debbie wasn’t shy about letting a guy know she was interested. But didn’t she need a bit of time to get over Brian? Debbie had just broken up with her boyfriend earlier this week! What was she doing ogling another man so quickly? It was ridiculous and disrespectful of Brian’s feelings
not to mention the three years they’d been together.
Kiera tried hard to ignore her jealousy, pushing Debbie to talk about classes and their friends
in an effort to distract her from the gorgeous man. When a couple more friends showed up, Kiera was relieved to finally have support distracting Debbie from the man Kiera had already claimed, at least mentally. Not that she would do anything about her gnawing desire to find out more about the tall, intensely handsome man with the piercing, ice blue eyes.
Unfortunately,
Kiera wasn’t like Debbie. Where Kiera was shy and introverted, Debbie was the party girl, the one that pushed Kiera to get out and have more fun. Debbie also didn’t hide her interest in the opposite sex. When Debbie wanted a man, she walked right up to him and started talking to him. Kiera hadn’t ever felt this way, but she knew that she wouldn’t go up to that man tonight. She wasn’t that brave. Besides, the look he was giving her sent some scary feelings right through her body. And he hadn’t even touched her! No, she couldn’t handle him, so it was better to just stay away from that kind of…whatever it was.
An hour later, Kiera desperately needed to use the ladies’ room. Unfortunately, the man she’d spotted earlier had been positioned right next to the hallway where the bathrooms were located. She wiggled in her chair, determined to ignore the need. But when Debbie p
opped up with the same intention, Kiera wasn’t going to allow her to go alone. “I’ll come with you,” she said, determined to keep Debbie and the stranger from seeing each other again. Kiera knew she couldn’t have the man. She wasn’t glamorous or rich or any of those adjectives that would apply to the woman on that kind of man’s arm. She was passably pretty with curly brown hair that tended to get out of control. She had a good enough figure but she wasn’t any lingerie model.
In short, Kiera knew she was
just an average kind of gal.
Debbie, on the other hand, was not only blond and
beautiful, she had a way about her that seemed to draw men into her realm. She was fun and nice, not to mention extremely intelligent. And over the past year, they’d been good friends and study partners. But at this moment, Kiera could honestly say that she hated Debbie. Because Kiera knew that Debbie was going to talk to the stranger. Kiera could see it in Debbie’s eyes and was helpless to stop the action. Kiera felt helpless, desperate to keep Debbie from acquiring yet another conquest, but unable to come up with any ideas on how to stop her from working her magic.