Chapter 16

Oliver

I sent the message and sat back, fuming. I tried to remind myself that Becka was innocent in this. She was the victim of Ethan and was nothing more than a pawn in his revenge against me. Now, it was clear that he was trying to seduce her. She probably had no idea that, while he was kissing her, he had taken a picture of it and sent it to me.

I looked at the image and felt my stomach jerk. Their bodies were so close, and it was obvious that Ethan had been laying it on thick; their mouths were open and the picture had captured what had been a very intimate, passionate kiss. I resisted the urge to throw my phone across the room. I had to stay in control, had to think.

I had just texted Becka and I wished I could take it back. It would upset her, maybe scare her, and I didn’t want to do that.

My phone pinged; it was Becka.

I’m sorry.

I sighed and responded.

No need to be sorry; I told you should meet with him, right?

I waited, not long, for a reply. It was clear she had no idea how much Ethan was manipulating her.

Do you want to come over?

***

I arrived at Becka’s apartment and let myself in; the door was unlocked. She was in her bedroom, candles lit, wearing a white cami top with matching white panties. I felt my chest tighten and my cock grew hard immediately; she was so fucking sexy.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “Thanks for coming over. And,” she added, “for not being mad at me.”

“Shh,” I said, and I stripped my clothes off. I grabbed my cock and pulled on its length, promising it satisfaction in just a little while. I got into bed with her and began to kiss her. I slid my cock against her warm body and she took me in her hands.

Her palms were warm and slippery; she had been touching herself. I reached down and pulled off her panties with my hand; they were soaked with her juices. I groaned and dropped my head down between her legs.

I began to kiss her, starting with her sweet inner thighs, so soft and fragrant. I wanted to tease her a bit, but I couldn’t resist; I dove into her pussy straightaway and began to lick her sweet folds. Her pussy was bare except for a tiny strip of hair at the place where her labia came together; I ran my thumb over that to begin to stimulate her clit.

Not that it needed it; each time I ran my tongue across her lips, I could feel the hard nub underneath waiting to come out.

She was groaning in pleasure and I held her thighs in my hands as I buried my face deeply into her. I slid my tongue into her vagina and began to thrust in and out, my nose pressing against her clit. With my face that way, the only scent I could smell was hers; it felt like I was in a room perfumed by her scent and it was amazing.

Her clit continued to harden and it poked out from beneath its hood. I took it in my mouth and licked, softly at first, then harder as her breathing quickened and she began to moan louder.

“Oh God,” she groaned. “Oh yes!” Her fingers pressed into my shoulders and I felt her nails digging in. She did what she always did when she climaxed, dropped her hips toward me and shuddered, her body trembling under my touch. It was sexy and beautiful, and I wanted to be inside her.

I pulled away and entered her, moving my cock into her all the way to my balls. She was so hot and wet; I could believe how slippery she was. I began to thrust against her, her knees bent and her legs wrapped around me.

“Fuck me hard,” she whispered, and I had every intention of complying.

I knew I wouldn’t last long; she was overwhelmingly hot and my cock was ready to go from the second I walked in the door. When I came, I closed my eyes and felt the sensation move over me. I thrust faster, feeling the friction between us draw my cum out of me, and I groaned loudly as I spent myself inside of her.

When I felt like I could move, I did, sliding out of her, limp and exhausted. I kissed her breasts and she sighed, beginning already to fall asleep. I wasn’t far behind her, and we fell into a slow, sweet slumber until morning.

When I woke up the next morning, the first thought in my head was of Ethan. I needed to contact him and meet with him. He had broken our agreement, and now he had messed with my girlfriend. That would not continue.

Becka

I didn’t hear from Ethan again, and I would have been lying if I’d said he didn’t cross my mind several times a day. I knew it was impossible to contact him, so I turned my focus fully onto more research, working to uncover the truth about the Oliver, Ethan, Neuotova triangle and, in so doing, determine if I had a future in my relationship with Oliver or if I was just another blind believer in his lies.

The idea that he might be lying about the animal testing sickened me, especially considering I had worked in his lab and that it was his money, through his “anonymous” donation to the college, that had kept my research on Protame afloat. If he was a liar, then everything I’d done with Protame, all the good, was tainted with the blood of innocent animals.

I walked into the kitchen and Lisa was there preparing breakfast. It was Sunday morning, and a rare one that found us both at home at the same time.

“Want some eggs?” she asked. “I made way more than I need.”

“Definitely,” I said, pouring my mug full of coffee and adding enough cream and sugar to make it drinkable. I sat at the table. “How was your date the other night?”

“Eh, you know.” She looked at me with the spatula in her hand and rolled her eyes. “Finding a good man is like finding a piece of chocolate in this house. Fucking impossible.”

I smiled. “Or leftover bacon.”

“Now you’re talking. That’s even more impossible than chocolate! How was your night on Friday? What did you do? Did you hang out with Oliver?”

I blushed as I thought about my meeting with Ethan and then Oliver coming over to the apartment. I hadn’t told Lisa anything about Ethan, so I filled her in on my meeting with him and how angry Oliver was at him.

“So, let me get this straight,” Lisa said as she ate a forkful of eggs. “You have not one, but two billionaires after you right now? I need to be taking lessons from you!” She shook her head and smiled. “I mean, seriously, how does that even happen?”

“It’s not happening,” I said. “I’m not into Ethan.” That was a lie, and one I felt kind of guilty about telling, but I knew that I needed to convince myself just as much as I needed to convince anyone else.

“Well, that’s obviously not true,” Lisa said. “Look at yourself; you’re blushing like mad.”

She was right; even just thinking about Ethan had started a flush moving up my chest into my cheeks. Adding in the memory of Oliver when he’d come over and made me come, well, that wasn’t helping.

“It’s not a good situation,” I said. “Oliver would despise me if he knew I was even taking a second glance at Ethan. And those two have a history.”

I hadn’t bothered to tell her about the work-related elements, other than that they had known each other in the past and didn’t like each other. “Of all people for me to be interacting with, Ethan is the last one on the planet Oliver would be okay with. So, typical me, who am I attracted to?”

“Ha!” Lisa set her fork down. “You are attracted to Ethan!”

“Of course, I am. When you see a picture of him, you’ll understand. He’s ridiculously good looking. But I have a good thing going with Oliver and I don’t want to mess it up.” That was all true. It helped, I had to admit, to strip everything down to the bare essentials.

If I took out all of the work crap and just looked at the two men for who they were individually, I was with Oliver, and I didn’t want to hurt him. Ethan was getting in the way and confusing me.

“Well, he did lay claim to you first, and those billionaires love their claims.”

“He didn’t ‘claim’ me,” I said, sticking my tongue out at her. “But, billionaire or not, he is a man, and men don’t like having to share.”

“That’s true,” Lisa said. “But they do love competition. I’m not saying you should pit them against each other or anything, only that you might be able to have a little fun.”

“You’re a terrible influence,” I said. “But you’re an amazing cook. What did you put in these eggs?” I had been eating as we’d talked and was absolutely stuffed, but I was continuing to eat the eggs because they were delicious.

“I put crème fraiche in them. They’re fattening as can be,” she sighed, “but they make banging scrambled eggs.”

I agreed and finished, then stood up to put my plate in the sink. I walked back to my bedroom, feeling a little better after having eaten and having some bonding time with Lisa. I wanted to text Oliver, but I knew I’d see him in the morning at work and I didn’t want to pester him. Of course, I did think about Lisa’s comment that men like a little competition and thought I should maybe text Ethan.

“Don’t wreck your own life, Becka,” I told myself sternly.

***

At the office, things were business as usual. I arrived at my desk at eight o’clock and began to prepare Oliver’s coffee. I had set up a seven o’clock conference call for him that morning, so I knocked on his door lightly to alert him that I was coming in, then I entered with a tray containing his coffee, already with his desired amount of cream and sugar, a glass of ice water, and a toasted bagel with cream cheese.

The bagel was new, based on my observations that he was always complaining of being hungry by about ten o’clock. I knew it was more likely than not that he left his house each morning without breakfast.

He winked at me and mouthed “thank you” as I left his office, closing the door behind me. I got to work on both Oliver’s list of things for me to do that day as well as my own research, alternating his list with my own. I had gotten into a nice rhythm working for Oliver, and I was able to keep my research pretty well under wraps.

Of course, I had to admit, the main reason I was able to keep my research so secretive was because I wasn’t actually finding anything. It seemed as though I’d already discovered every mention of both Oliver and Ethan that existed on the internet.

Even my meeting with Ethan hadn’t given me anything new to go on. I’d tried to look up Ethan’s account numbers and information from the bank statements, but, without the ability to hack into the bank’s system, something that was far beyond my abilities, that was a complete dead end.

I heard a noise and I looked up. My mouth dropped open as I saw Ethan standing in front of me.

“What are you doing here?” I gasped. I glanced at Oliver’s closed door, fear moving through me. If Oliver saw Ethan and me talking, there was no telling what he would do. I couldn’t believe Ethan had the nerve to even show up here to see me like this!

“You can’t be here,” I said, standing up and starting to walk around my desk. “I know the other night was fun,” more than fun, my brain said, “but you seriously need to leave.”

Ethan didn’t move, didn’t really, even, acknowledge that I had spoken.

“Good morning, Miss…” he made a show of looking at my nameplate. “Jasper. I’m here to see Dr. Weeks.” He smiled.

I felt a flush rise in my cheeks immediately and I shook my head. “No way,” I said. “First, that’s absolutely ridiculous. Dr. Weeks would fire me if I let you into his office. Second, he’s extremely busy. He’s in a conference call right now and is very booked with meetings for the rest of the day.

I’m afraid you’ll have to leave. You could always call later and see if he has an appointment this week, but, to be honest, he’s very, very busy.”

I continued to talk as my arousal grew. I mentally chided myself for not having better control. He knew how much he was getting to me, I could tell.

“If you wouldn’t mind, please buzz him and let him know I’m here. I think he would probably like very much to see me and hear what I have to say.”

I looked between him and Oliver’s door, trying to make a decision. I didn’t know what to do. While I contemplated, Ethan leaned in and kissed me. My body responded first to his touch, to his lips, and I let out a small moan before I caught myself. I realized where I was and pulled away.

“What are you doing?” I whispered. “You can’t… do that here! If Oliver comes out of his office and we’re kissing, he’ll kill us both.”

I didn’t know if Ethan was there to see Oliver, or me, or both. I glanced at my desk and had a sudden vision of us on it, him sweeping everything from the papers to the computer off of the surface and taking me right there.

He must have read my thoughts, or maybe he was starting to recognize the flush that rose in my chest whenever I became aroused, because he leaned into me and began to kiss my neck and my throat.

Suddenly, the door opened and Oliver walked out. He took in the picture of both Ethan and me standing next to my desk, Ethan’s lips on my neck. Though I’d been trying to shoo him out, not be close to him, it didn’t look that way. His face was masked with anger; it was tight across his eyes, mouth, and his jawline.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded, stalking across the room and stepping between Ethan and me.

“Oh, calm down,” Ethan said, smiling. “I got your message that you wanted to meet and I decided I’d drop by since I had some time open. It gave me the opportunity to visit with Becka here. As I’m sure you’re aware, we’ve become quite close.”

“Oliver, it’s not true,” I said.

“Shh, Becka, it is true, but it doesn’t matter.” He glanced at me and the anger in his eyes melted. He turned back to Ethan and his rage flashed again. “You’re an innocent pawn in Ethan’s game. He’s been trying to ruin me for years, to get his revenge on me for his own wrongdoing years and years ago. He knows that being with you would hurt me, so, as the latest in his revenge games, he made it his mission to seduce you.”

Oliver stepped toward Ethan and Ethan stepped back, surprised at Oliver’s aggression.

“Now, Oliver,” Ethan said. “That makes me sound so cold and calculating.”

“That’s what you are,” Oliver said. “What lies have you been telling her?”

“I haven’t lied at all. I’ve told her the exact situation that happened. From start to finish. I even showed her the bank statements where you’ve been paying me off for my silence for the last five years. I must admit, the expression on her face was priceless. She really actually likes you.”

I watched the back and forth between the two men, truly not knowing whose side I should be on. Both men had accused the other of lying about the exact same situation. Both had credible evidence to support their claims. I had no idea what to say.

“Becka,” Oliver said, not looking at me, but keeping his eyes on Ethan. “There is one part of the situation that I doubt Ethan here told you. I can pretty much guarantee it, because I haven’t told it to you either.”

“Don’t you dare,” Ethan seethed. “If you tell her, I’ll ruin you once and for all.”

“You’re not going to have the chance,” Oliver said. “I have enough support on my side, enough evidence to counter your claims, that no amount of yelling and screaming on your end will convince even the most simple-minded person that you’re the honest one in the family.”

“Family?” I croaked, the word standing out like a rock star in the spotlight against the rest of his words.

“Family,” Oliver repeated. “Becka, Ethan is my brother.”