Chapter Fifteen

Cormac

The next day, I was sitting in the meeting room with Rhett, Hunter, Owen, and Pierce. I hadn’t been able to pay attention to a word that was spoken. Pierce was at the whiteboard, standing and giving the rest of the group a short informal presentation on the project that we had been working on together for the past week.

The same project that I had made no contribution to since Olive had walked into my life. And now, it felt like she was ruining my life. Especially because I couldn’t have her.

I couldn’t look at Pierce anymore. Not after the fact that I’d had sex with Olive. I’d dropped her at the house right after that, barely exchanging a few words between us. But the problem was that she wasn’t just another girl I’d picked up at the bar. She was a woman I couldn’t forget. Once wasn’t enough. I’d woken up this morning with a desperate urge to go look for her again.

And as long as Pierce stood in front of me, I couldn’t meet anyone’s eye. I’d fucked his sister. I’d broken the most valued rule in our book, even though it had never formally been spoken about. That was because Pierce had clearly never imagined a situation where this could possibly happen.

I didn’t even know how I’d managed to get out of bed, get dressed for the day, and show up for work. I could still feel myself releasing into Olive, my seed shooting deep into her pussy. And I wanted more.

“That’s good, Pierce. We’re looking forward to seeing more,” I heard Hunter say, and I sensed a change in pace in the room. I blinked my eyes furiously to try and focus on the faces in the room again. Pierce was sitting farthest away from me, while Owen was beside me. I noticed now that he was staring.

The others had started collecting their things. The meeting was over. I wasn’t even aware of when it had begun. My life seemed to be passing me by in a haze, and I had no idea where I was when I wasn’t with Olive. She made me feel alive, and I felt dead when she wasn’t there. I didn’t even really know her.

“Hey, Cormac.” Owen had placed a hand on my arm, jerking me out of my thoughts.

“All good with you two?” he asked and tipped his head in Pierce’s direction, who was now deep in conversation with Hunter.

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’m fine,” I said casually and stood up from my chair.

“Who was that girl? Are you two fighting over someone?” Owen persisted as I turned from him, but I whipped back around to him, my nostrils flaring in anger.

“Stay out of it,” I hissed at him, and Owen furrowed his brows. I could tell that he was weirded out by my sudden violent streak. We had gotten to know each other pretty well in the past few months, and he hadn’t seen this side of me. I hadn’t seen this side of me before either.

Something was clearly going wrong with me, and I needed to fix it.

I walked up to Pierce, interrupting his conversation with Hunter.

“Pierce, can we talk in my office, right now?” I asked him, purposely in front of the others because it gave him less of an opportunity to refuse me.

Pierce looked displeased and like he’d been backed into a corner. He looked at me and then nervously at Hunter standing beside him and Owen beside me. Then he forced a smile on his face and stepped forward.

“Sure thing, old boy. Let’s go discuss the numbers. Catch ya later,” he addressed the others, and then doing up the buttons on his suit jacket, he walked ahead of me and I followed.

At the elevator doors, we stood in silence. I looked at my best friend and tried to decide what I was going to say. The doors pinged open, and Pierce was quick to step inside.

“Make this quick, Cormac. I have shit to do,” he said gruffly when I pressed the button for our office floor.

I didn’t know what I was going to say yet, but all I knew was that Pierce deserved to know the truth.

***

The thing that Pierce predicted would happen had come true. The very reason why he didn’t want me going anywhere near his sisterwas because he knew me and he knew that I’d fuck her and forget her. It had happened. I’d fucked her in a matter of a day. As hard as I’d tried to stay away from her, I wasn’t able to do it. But the other part wasn’t true. I hadn’t been able to forget her like Pierce had predicted.

Pierce led me to my office, and once we were inside, he shut the door behind him and we walked up to my desk.

I was buying time, still trying to come up with a speech to deliver, so I sat down on my chair. Pierce remained standing in front of me.

We stared at each other in silence. I wasn’t trying to pick a fight with him anymore. I was trying to apologize and tell him the truth. He needed to know that I’d slept with his sister, and he also needed to know that I didn’t plan on treating her like shit. I wanted to ask her out, take her on a formal date where we could finally get to know each other. And I wanted to do all that with Pierce’s blessing.

“What do you want to say, Cormac?” Pierce thundered. I cleared my throat.

“Do you want to sit down first? So that we can feel like equals?” I suggested and waited for him to take a seat. I needed him to be calm and under control when I told him about the previous night. I was also open to the possibility that Pierce might try and punch me when the news first broke. I was okay with that. I deserved a punch from him. I just needed him to hear me out first.

“I don’t intend on us having some kind of deep philosophical discussion over my sister, Cormac. Just tell me what you want to say, and I’ll be on my way,” Pierce grunted, and I clenched my jaws.

He was making it exceptionally difficult for me to speak my mind.

“Okay, firstly, I want to apologize for my behavior. I get where you’re coming from. You’re looking out for your sister, I get it. It’s what I would have done if I had a sister too,” I began, and even though Pierce was glaring right at me, it didn’t seem like he was really listening.

“You don’t seem to get it, Cormac. Because you keep seeing her. You keep magically appearing wherever Olive is. She’s naive. She’s not been hurt by a guy yet, and I would like to keep it that way,” Pierce said and adjusted the tie at his neck.

“How do you know that about her? Has she told you that?” I blurted out, and Pierce narrowed his eyes at me. He was offended that I was questioning his wisdom and his relationship with Olive.

“Forget it. That’s not the point. I get what you’re saying, and I promise you, Pierce, that I have no intention of hurting her either,” I said. Pierce stared at me some more, while I waited for his reaction.

“It’s what you do, man. I know it’s what I do too. You are not the kind of guy I want my sister to be with,” he continued, and I squared my shoulders and let out a deep sigh.

“I hear you,” I replied, slightly relieved that Pierce was now beginning to sound more calm than before. I was hoping that this conversation could eventually lead to me proving my honesty to him. I wanted to explain to him that Olive was different. She wasn’t like all the other women we met.

“Good. So just forget about what she’s saying. I know she’s trying to throw herself at you because she wants to piss me off. It’s why she was throwing herself at that jerk last night.” Pierce sounded much more calm now, but I didn’t like the direction this conversation was going in.

“Yeah, I figured, and I don’t want to dictate your relationship with her, but maybe just give her some space?” I suggested, and Pierce threw me another look of warning.

“Yeah, you shouldn’t dictate my relationship with her. I know what’s best for Olive; I know what my sister needs. She’s not been living alone long enough to know what’s good for her. Or how she’s supposed to behave. So, no, she doesn’t need space. I need to make sure she never makes any mistakes—she’ll thank me later,” Pierce said and then stuck his hands into the pockets of his pants.

I had nothing to follow that up with. How was I supposed to jump from that to the little factoidthat I’d slept with his sister already?

“I’m glad you get it. I’ll let yesterday slide. She was just as much at fault as you were. So I can rely on you to keep your distance from her?” he continued, and I had no choice but to nod.

“Good. Because if you come close to her again, I swear, Cormac, I’ll break your fucking neck,” Pierce growled and then turned on his heels and walked out of my office. He didn’t sound like a man making a joke, and neither had he waited for a response from me. That was a genuine threat and one which I knew I needed to take seriously.

“Fuck!” I cursed loudly in the silence of my empty office and jumped off my chair. It was barely five in the evening, and I already felt thirsty for whisky.

This time, I was going to go alone. I was going to find myself a bar where I knew none of my friends nor my brother would turn up. I needed to spend one evening by myself and drown my desire for Olive in whisky and just be done with it. I’d lost my chance of telling Pierce the truth anyway.