Lie Next to Me (18 page)

“Like you and Adalynn?”

“Sure, you could say that.”

“Nothing else?”

He stopped in the sand and I stopped with him. He looked at me and put his hands on each side of my face. “I told you there would be nothing else, remember? We talked about this.”

“I remember,” I said as I looked down.

He lifted my chin with his finger. “Let’s not make this complicated.”

I couldn’t do anything but agree with him because I wasn’t going to fight with him again. This was what Adalynn had warned me of, and I knew full well what I was getting myself into. My name is Rory Sinclair, and I’m Ian Braxton’s friend with benefits.

“No complication here,” I said as I began running.

My feelings were hurt and I just wanted to collapse on the sand and cry. I felt like a call girl. Ian Braxton’s own personal call girl.
Is that what I’ve resorted to now? Is that what I’ve let myself become?

I walked down to the kitchen, grabbed a cup of coffee, and headed straight to Ian’s study to start the day. I hadn’t seen him since we had sex last night and, when I woke up this morning, he was gone. I was still bothered by the fact that he hadn’t taken me to his bed, but that was another argument I was saving for later. When I walked into the study, I noticed a yellow
post-it on the computer screen.

“I had to go to the office early for a meeting. I’ll be back later. Revise the contracts I left and then I need you to drop them off to Adalyn
n at Prim. Talk soon ~ xo Ian.”

My phone beeped, reminding me that I had an appointment with Dr. Neil this evening. I dismissed the alert and began working on the contract revisions. Mandy was kind enough to bring me in a fruit cup and a chocolate chip muffin.

“Umm, Miss Sinclair, I just thought you should know that Mr. Braxton’s father is on his way over to pick up some papers.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Thank you, Mandy, for the warning. I can’t stand that man.”

Mandy let out a sigh of relief and put her hand on her chest. “Oh good, because I can’t stand him either. Can I tell you something privately?”

“Of course you can, Mandy. You can tell me anything.”

“Mr. Braxton’s father is always grabbing me and hitting my butt, and he says things to me.”

I looked at her with knitted eyebrows. “What does he say to you?”

I could tell she was nervous by the way she was wringing her hands. “He says he wants to take me to bed and have sex with me, but he doesn’t say it like that. It’s much dirtier.”

I sat there, shaking my head, and then I got up and hugged her. “You are to ignore that pig and don’t even look his way.”

“I try to hide every time he comes around, but sometimes I can’t.”

“Have you told Ian about this?” I asked.

“No, and please, Miss Sinclair, don’t tell him. He’ll fire me and I need this job so bad. I’m a single mom and I need to provide for my daughter.”

My heart sank. I didn’t know Mandy was a mother. “I didn’t know you had a child. How old is she?”

“She’s two.”

“What about her father?”

“He took off when he found out I was pregnant. I don’t know where he is,” she said as she looked down.

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell Ian about it. Mandy, please call me Rory. We’re friends and you don’t need to call me Miss Sinclair.”

A smile graced her face when I said that. Just as she was about to walk out the door, she stopped and turned around.

“I’m really glad you’re here, and I’m happy you’re doing so much better. I was here the night Mr. Braxton brought you home.”

I gave her a smile and she left the study. I finished up the contract revisions and, as I was sending a text message to Adalynn, Richard came blowing in.

“Well, well, well. Good morning, Rory.”

“Good morning, Richard.” I smiled. “What can I do for you?”

“Since you asked, you can start by giving me a blow job.”

Calm. Deep breath. Handle him.
“Oh, Richard, I’m sorry, but I don’t blow old men with wrinkly dicks.”

“You stupid trashy little bitch,” he said as he glared at me.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do. Get what you need and leave,” I said as I walked out of the office.

I went upstairs to my room to grab my purse. I fumbled through it, trying to find my keys. As I was walking downstairs, I saw Richard talking to Mandy. She looked uncomfortable. As he was talking to her, she kept backing up until her back was against the wall. Richard took her hands and lifted them over her head.

“Let her go, NOW!” I commanded.

“Don’t you have somewhere you have to be, little girl?” he smirked.

“I said ‘let her go.’”

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” he said as he let go of Mandy’s arms and turned towards me.

“Richard, please, just leave.”

“Not until you tell me who you think you are,” he said as he inched closer to me.

I took off my heels and tossed them to the side. I gave him a seductive look before grabbing his balls and pushing him up against the wall. He let out a yell and Mandy stood there in shock.

“I’ll tell you who the fuck I am. My name is Rory Sinclair and I come from a family of crazies. My brother is a schizophrenic who’s locked up over at Hudson Rock Psychiatric Hospital. Did I mention that my brother is also my twin? So I guess that makes me a schizophrenic too,” I spat as I tightened the grip on his balls. “You will never speak to or look at Mandy again. Do you understand me? Because if I so much as even see you walking near her, I’ll rip these babies off. Do you understand me?” I yelled.

“YES!”

“Oh, and that also goes for me or any other female in this house. I wouldn’t tell Ian about this if I were you. You’d just make yourself look stupid,” I said as I let go of him and walked over to where my shoes were.

“You’re a fucking crazy bitch. You’re fucking crazy!”

“I know. It runs in the family.” I smiled. “Now, if you’ve gotten what you came here to get, then you need to leave.”

Richard walked out the door and Mandy hugged me. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Rory.”

****

The thought of Richard burned through me all the way to
Prim
. He was such a vile and disgusting human being. I rode the elevator up to the eleventh floor where
Prim
was located. As I walked through the large, glass double doors, the receptionist showed me to Adalynn’s office. When I walked in, I saw a very handsome man sitting in the chair across from her desk.

“Rory! Welcome to
Prim
!” Adalynn said excitedly as she walked over and hugged me.

“Hello, Miss Sinclair.” He winked.

“Hello, Mr. Braxton.” I smiled.

I handed Adalynn the folder with the contracts in it and sat down next to Ian.

“I didn’t know you were going to be here,” I said to him.

“I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d drop in and see how things were going. I just invited Adalynn and Daniel over for Thanksgiving.”

“Shit. That’s this week, isn’t it?”

If Ian was having Thanksgiving at his house, that meant Andrew and Richard would be there. Oh God, there was no way I could deal with the two of them, especially after what had just happened with Richard.

“You are going to be there, right?” Adalynn asked me.

“Of course she is. She lives there. Where else would she go?” Ian replied.

I didn’t want to talk about Thanksgiving. Holidays were not a pleasant subject for me. I looked at my phone and saw the time.

“I have to go. I have an appointment with Dr. Neil,” I said as I got up from my seat.

Ian followed me out of Adalynn’s office and into the elevators. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine.”

He pushed the stop button on the panel and the elevator came to a halt. I should’ve seen this coming. “Let me guess. We’re going to have sex in the elevator.”

“You’re a smart woman. I knew I hired you for a reason.” He smiled. “I’m already hard and I bet you’re already wet,” he whispered as he leaned over and kissed my neck. His hand wasted no time traveling up my skirt as his fingers pushed my thong to the side.

“I knew it. I knew you were wet. I bet you were thinking about it too, weren’t you?”

“Thinking about what?” I asked breathlessly as his fingers moved inside me and his hot tongue took over my neck.

“About me fucking you in this elevator. I’ve thought about it since you walked into the office.”

I wasn’t
going to lie; the thought did cross my mind as I rode up to Adalynn’s office. “Yes,” I whispered.

He had his hold on me again and I couldn’t break free. “I thought so. You’re so hot, sweetheart. I can’t wait to get my cock inside you,” he said as I unbuckled his belt and unzipped his pants.

I took them down and stroked his erection, gliding my thumb over his slick head. He moaned.

“Turn around, put your hands on the wall, and bend over,” he said as his hands first took down my thong and then pushed my skirt over my waist. “Fuck, look at that perfect ass,” he said as he lightly slapped it.

He pushed into me hard and moved in and out at a rapid pace while his hands had a tight grip on my hips. The pressure was building, my body was tightening, and I was ready to explode.

“That’s it, sweetheart.”

I let out a moan with each thrust and Ian put his hand over my mouth. That turned me on even more as my body shuddered with pleasure. His thrusting slowed as he released himself inside me.

“Ah, you feel so damn good,” he whispered as his last thrust stayed deep inside me.

We stayed like that for a moment and then Ian pulled out of me, pulled up his pants, and handed me my thong. After I put it on and pulled down my skirt, he pulled me close to him and kissed me as he hit the button. The elevator jerked and then started going down. He looked at me and smiled as he ran his finger down my cheek. When the doors opened, Ian put his hand on the small of my back and we walked out of the building.

“I’ll see you when you get home and I’ll have Charles cook us dinner,” he said as he kissed me on the cheek.

“See you at home.” I smiled.

Home. He’d see me at home. The sound of that coming from him was bittersweet. I loved living there with him, but it also hurt more times than not. I drove to Dr. Neil’s office and was instantly seen when I arrived.

“I need to discuss Ian, Dr. Neil.”

“Okay, what’s going on?”

“I’m in love with him and he doesn’t feel the same way. He told me yesterday that he’s happy with our friendship the way it is and not to complicate things.”

Dr. Neil tilted her head and looked at me with empathy. “Only you can make the decision if that’s how you want to keep things. If you do, then you’re opening yourself up to extreme heartache down the road. If you don’t, then you need to move on and start rebuilding your life, without Ian. I’m not sure a man like Ian Braxton can change.”

“The nightmares don’t exist when Ian is with me at night. When he’s not, they come back.”

“Ian saved your life. He gave you safety. He took care of you and saw that you had everything you needed. From what you’ve told me, you’ve never experienced safety. You’ve lived pretty much in fear since your mother died. Ian takes that fear from you when he’s around
, and when he’s not, you go back to that place of pain. Let me ask you something. Have you ever confronted your aunt about your feelings and how you felt growing up in her house?”

“No,” I whispered as I shook my head.

“In order to move on from the past, you need to confront it.”

****

When I walked into the house, the first thing I did was change into comfortable clothes. I walked to the kitchen and saw Ian sitting on the patio. I stepped outside and sat in the lounge chair next to him. As he handed me a glass of wine, he smiled.

“How did your appointment go?”

“It went good. Dr. Neil told me that I need to face my past in order for the nightmares to stop. She suggested that I go back to Indiana and put closure on it.”

“Then we’ll leave tomorrow,” he said.

“Tomorrow? Are you crazy? And what’s this ‘we’ business?”

Ian chuckled. “The sooner the better. The holidays are coming up and you need to put all this behind you. Plus, I’m going with you. There’s no way you’re going back to that place by yourself. I won’t allow it.”

“You won’t allow it? I do believe this is
my
life, Ian, and
I’m
the one who’s in control of my life.”

Hell, I didn’t even know where those words came from, but I was proud of myself for saying them. Ian stared at me. He was giving me the “I’m trying to figure you out” look.

“Rory, please let me accompany you back to Indiana so you don’t have to go alone. It would make me feel better knowing that I was there with you.”

I smiled at him as I got up from my chair and sat on his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck and lightly kissed his cheek. “Thank you for offering, Ian. I would love for you to come with me.”

“Why do you have to make things so difficult?” he smirked. “I’ll call my father’s pilot and tell him that we’re leaving tomorrow morning, and we’ll fly back on Wednesday.”

“You father has his own plane?”

“Yes, and it’s very nice. You’ll like it.” He smiled as he kissed the tip of my nose. “Let’s go eat. Charles made us a nice dinner.”

As we walked into the dining room, Mandy was setting the food on the table. She looked over at me and smiled. I winked at her.

“What was that for?” Ian asked.

“What was what for?”

“Why did you wink at Mandy?”

“She had a problem earlier and I helped her resolve it,” I said as I folded my napkin in my lap.

“Don’t get involved with help, Rory.”