Chapter 8

~~ MICHAEL ~~

What the hell did Lily see in that bastard? I’d never felt like hitting anyone before like I did him.  All through the meeting he glared at Lily, making her feel uncomfortable.  I’d wanted her to know she had some support, so I’d slipped my hand under the table and ended up holding her hand, which had felt damn good.  She caressed my thumb, while I imagined it was my cock.  The contact and the fantasy, of course, had me throbbing painfully in my trousers.

It was nearly five hours since we’d met, and I already wanted her all for myself.  I felt possessive of her.  Back in the conference room, all I’d wanted was to punch the bastard and to tell him she was mine now, and to stay away from her.  I’d lost all reason.  I should have listened to Ramon the other night going on and on about the fact that I needed to get laid.  It had been a hell of a long time and perhaps if I hadn’t felt so damn horny, I might have actually been able to act like a CEO and not a hormonal teenager.

“Are these all right on here?”  Lily asked.

I nodded and watched her place the documents onto the conference table in my office.

“Do you think you’d be able to type the notes up this afternoon?”  I smiled at her and wanted her to smile in return.  She did and it set her whole face alight.  She was beautiful.

“No problem.”  She held her hands up and wriggled her fingers.  “Super quick fingers here.”

I laughed as I watched her leave, and before she shut the door, she winked.  Bloody hell!

There was a lot of paperwork she’d stacked on my desk, but instead of sorting through it, I left that and checked my email to see if there was anything from Sebastian.  Nothing.  I picked up my cell and dialed his number, and was shocked as hell when he answered.

“Sebastian, were the hell are you?”  I ran my fingers through my hair.

“I’m still in San Diego and our pal Roger is standing guard.  What the hell is going on?”

I smiled.  He didn’t sound too happy.  “Lucien’s called.  He wants you to fly to Denver.  Don’t ask why, because I have no idea.  He just asked me to get you on a plane.  So now you’re found, Roger will give you a ride to the airport so you can go and calm the baby down.”

He roared with laughter.  “You did not just call our eldest brother a baby?  That was a good one.  Just wait until I tell him.”

I groaned.

Lucien used to be just like Sebastian, but all that changed when he got torn up in a car accident. He now hid from the world in Colorado.  He visited, but preferred his own space.

“Just go Seb, please. Make sure he’s okay, then bring him home, if you can, for the picnic in a couple of weeks.”

“Shit.  I forgot all about that.  Okay, will do.”

After I’d disconnected, I tried not to think about Lucien and how broken my brother was, and started to go through the spreadsheets Dale had prepared for me yesterday. It turned out to be easier said than done thanks to the image of Lily in my head.

The thought of her going home to that idiot was making me see red.  I didn’t have the right to react like I did, but I couldn’t stop myself.  The attraction was instant, on both our parts.  I hadn’t mistaken that.  There was something about her that called out to me and for once the thought of having more than a one-night-stand didn’t leave me running scared.  I knew that with Lily, once she came to me, I wouldn’t let her go, because she would be mine.

With a heavy sigh, I decided to distract myself with work.  But before I started to sort the paper work out, I transferred the spreadsheets that I really needed to work on to a USB, so I could work on them at home.  I then stood and walked towards the conference table to sort through the documents and sketches from Oakfield.

Four hours later, Lily entered with her arms full of paper.  “What on earth do you have there?” I asked, going over and taking some of them from her.

“A cup of coffee,” which she passed to me. “The typed notes, documents that a courier brought over, and the post, which I discovered, unopened, in a filing cabinet, I didn’t even know existed,” she said breathlessly while sorting them out into neat piles on my desk.

“Wow, you have been busy.”  I took a sip of coffee, which felt damn good going down my parched throat.

“I don’t like sitting around doing nothing.”  She smiled at me.  “It looks like you’ve been busy as well.”

I laughed.  Not one bit of the conference table was showing because of all the paper spread over it.

“Your brother rang.”

Those three words froze me, mid-drink.  “Which one?”

“The one who likes to flirt.”

I saw red. “Sebastian,” I said in a tight voice.  “What did he say to you?  I’ll kill him.”

She walked over to me and placed her hand on my arm. “Michael please.  He didn’t offend me.  He just wanted to know who I was, although I did draw the line when he asked for my dress size.”

Shit.  “You need to stay away from Sebastian.  He goes through women as fast as people go through bread.”

“That’s a new one,” she chuckled.  “Don’t worry, I’m not interested in your brother.”

I couldn’t look away from her.  She was standing so close to me.  I reached out to her and my hand caressed her face. She turned into my hand and kissed my palm.  I put my cup down and moved closer.  I took hold of her hand and laced my fingers through hers.  My blood heated at her close proximity.

My cock was ready to burst free and wouldn’t stop twitching.  God, with one touch I would come.

“Michael, what’s happening?” she whispered.

I sucked some much needed air into my lungs and moved my hand from her face, then rested my forehead against hers.  “I don’t know…. but you need to go home.  Now.”  I stepped back from her, which was the hardest thing I’d ever done.  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Lily.”  I watched the woman I wanted more than anything, leave my office. Knowing she was going home to the bastard who didn’t deserve her, bothered me more than it should.