: Chapter 20

I press my lips to the curve of her neck as her hand glides into my hair.

“Yes,” she whispers, being quiet for once.

My hand slides up her stomach and cups her breast as I continue to pump in and out of her.

I woke up this morning needing my girl. Not because I missed her—she hasn’t left my goddamn sight unless I’m at work—but because I craved her. I wake up every morning craving her, and thankfully, she craves me just as much.

Hard as stone when I woke up, I moved in close behind her, and I can still remember the sound of her moan as she lifted one leg and let me in.

This has to be one of my favorite positions—lying down, fucking her from behind as she rests on her pillow.

“So good, so close,” I say.

“Me too,” she breathes out heavily.

There’s nothing feral about what we’re doing right now, more like comfort. It’s lazy, but it feels so fucking good.

I give her a few more pumps as I feel her tightening around me, and when I know she’s about to fall over, I pinch her nipple, and that’s all it takes with my girl. She screams my name, tightens, and then sends me over the edge as well.

Together, we ride out the wave of euphoria until we’re both sated and breathing heavily.

I don’t move and neither does she as we catch our breath. I casually play with her breast and pull her in closer.

“The perfect way to wake up,” she says, her voice all dreamy.

“Yeah, I’m one lucky son of a bitch.”

She chuckles and rests her hand over mine. “I’m lucky that you can keep up with my libido.”

“Are you saying you’re more . . . needy . . . than me?”

“Do you not remember what happened in the middle of the night?”

How could I forget?

I woke up to her riding me. I had no idea I was hard, but apparently I was, because in a dreamy haze, I opened my eyes to find Lottie hovering above me, her tits bouncing beautifully as she used my dick to make herself come.

Hottest thing I’ve ever experienced.

“I do recall.” I place a kiss along her neck. “Not sure I’ll ever forget that.”

Pulling away from me, she turns in my embrace and asks, “Should I be embarrassed?”

I laugh out loud. “Babe, you should be rewarded. That was really hot.”

“Yeah?”

I nod. “Yeah. Please, feel free to do that again, whenever you want.”

Her fingers play over my chest. “You were so hard last night, you woke me up, and even though you were still sleeping, all I could think about was how it would feel to slide over you.”

“And how did it feel?”

“Amazing.” She glides her leg over mine and her hand falls to my pec, her thumb passing over my nipple.

“If you keep that up, I’m never getting out of this bed.”

“Would that be a bad thing?”

I grip her ass and give it a squeeze. “You and I both have work to do. Calling in sick won’t work anymore. Everyone knows we wouldn’t actually be sick.”

“Ugh, I hate real-world responsibilities.”

“You and me both,” I say, pressing a kiss to her nose.

Sighing, she rolls away from me and gets out of bed, much to my dismay. I was hoping for more cuddle time.

The shower turns on, indicating the start of the day.

Groaning, I get out of bed as well and trudge across the hardwood floor to the bathroom, where I find Lottie standing next to the shower, holding up one of her vibrators and sporting a mischievous grin.

“Care to have some fun in the shower?”

She doesn’t have to ask twice.

“DUDE, ARE YOU LISTENING?”

“Huh?” I ask, looking at JP, who looks more than irritated with me.

“I’m trying to talk about our business here and you can’t give me two seconds before you’re daydreaming.”

“I’m not daydreaming,” I say, even though that’s exactly what I’m doing. I keep thinking about Lottie and the wicked smile she gave me before rubbing her vibrator up and down my cock, making me come in thirty seconds—she counted in her head.

“Bullshit,” Breaker says. “You haven’t paid attention to a goddamn thing we’ve had to say this entire meeting.”

“That’s not true at all.”

“Oh?” Breaker asks. “Then who did we say is arriving in five minutes?”

Someone is arriving in five minutes?

“Uhh . . . Karla?” I ask, sounding more pathetic than I’d like.

Breaker rolls his eyes, while JP throws his arms up in annoyance.

There’s a knock on my office door, and Karla stands there with her tablet in hand. “Mr. Cane, Mr. Dwayne Hernandez is here to see you.”

“Thank you,” I say to Karla. “Send him in.” When she takes off, I quickly say to my brothers, “Dwayne is arriving.”

JP offers me a slow clap. “Wow, man. Impressive.”

I don’t have time for a snarky retort, because Dwayne makes his way into my office.

I’ve done plenty of business with Dwayne in the past. He’s a good man, someone I trust, someone I wouldn’t mind doing more business with, especially since he’s leading the area in clean, sustainable, and on-time construction. He’s our go-to man. And if I were paying attention earlier rather than daydreaming about Lottie, I’d know exactly why he’s here.

But I’ve winged it before.

I stand from my desk and round it, welcoming the man.

“Dwayne, it’s good to see you.” I give him a handshake.

“How are you, man?” Dwayne asks before shaking my brothers’ hands as well.

“Good. Good. Please, take a seat.” I join them in the sitting area of my office.

Dwayne unbuttons his suit jacket and takes a seat, his large frame eating up most of his chair.

“How are the girls?” I ask him. Pretty sure he has eight-, six-, and two-year-old daughters.

“They have me wrapped around their little fingers. We just installed a slide to our pool yesterday and I spent so much time in the water with them that I think my balls have become raisins.”

We let out a hearty laugh.

“But seeing those smiling faces as they flew into the water—worth it.”

“I bet,” I say. “And Maxine? She’s good?”

He nods and shifts in his seat. “She is. She, uh, she’s pregnant again.”

“Wow, that’s great,” Breaker says. “How do you feel about it?”

“Excited.” Dwayne rubs his hands together. “Hoping for another girl. Maxine wants a boy, but not me. I know if we have a boy, he’s going to end up being a punk just like me. I want to have another girl, another angel like my wife.”

And this is exactly why we hire Dwayne for every job. Because he’s just an all-around good man. A family man. An honest man. A man with integrity.

“You know, having another Dwayne Hernandez in the world might not be a bad thing,” I say.

“Your flattery never goes unnoticed.” He then motions his hand to me and says, “And I guess congratulations are in order to you, or . . . fake congratulations.” He laughs.

Eh . . . what?

“Fake congratulations?” I ask, confused, even though I feel a sense of dread falling over me.

“Yeah.” He chuckles and then shifts in his seat. “Had dinner with Dave Toney the other night, and he told me all about your fake engagement and pregnancy.” Dwayne shakes his head. “I’m not sure I’d be able to pull off something like that but Dave said you were killing it.”

What.

The.

Actual.

Fuck?

Breaker and JP both stare at me with horrified expressions, most likely mirror replicas of mine.

“He, uh, he told you that?” I ask, unsure of what else to say.

“Yeah. He said he had no clue until his fiancée, Ellie, told him all about it.”

My mind races. My pulse hammers in my head as I try to wrap my mind around what Dwayne is divulging.

Ellie told Dave it was fake?

How could she have known?

Unless . . .

.

Lottie wouldn’t have said anything. Right?

Her loyalty is with me. That’s what she said.

But . . .

“But, yeah, the plans he has for the empty lots down on the south side—great idea,” Dwayne continues.

Plans?

The south side?

Is he talking about the lots I’m trying to acquire?

A burning rage of confusion erupts in the pit of my stomach.

No, there’s no fucking way.

“Wasn’t sure I could fit him into my schedule, but I put together a quote anyway. Dude is kind of a strange one. Have you spent much time with him?”

Too much goddamn time.

“Uh, yeah,” I say, trying to keep my composure, but I’m not doing a good job of it as sweat breaks out over my upper lip.

“Solid guy, though, even if he has his quirks.” Dwayne claps his hands together. “Okay, should we go over the Malibu estate?”

“Um . . .” I hold up my finger and stand from my chair. “Would you be able to give me one second?”

“Of course.” He pulls his phone from his suit pocket. “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to call Maxine to make sure she’s okay. There’s a message from her, and as she was having odd back pain this morning, I want to check up on her, make sure all is well.”

“Ask Karla for access to the conference room. She’ll be more than happy to help you.”

“Thank you,” Dwayne says, standing from his chair.

He makes his way out of my office, and the moment the door clicks shut, JP asks, “What the actual fuck? Dave knows?”

“First I’ve heard of it,” I say, pushing my hand frantically through my hair.

“How the hell does he know? You didn’t say anything, did you?”

“Are you insane? Do you think I’d tell him the truth while trying to secure this deal with him? A deal it seems as though he has no intention of taking, seeing he has plans to capitalize on our goddamn idea.” Angrily, I stand from my chair and start pacing the room.

He knows.

Dave fucking knows.

And he’s telling people, people I work with, ruining my reputation.

My worst fears come to the surface, pinning me in the chest with mortification.

“Who else do you think he told?” I ask. “Fuck, this could be bad.”

“This could be really bad,” JP adds. “If he told Dwayne, then he’s told others. Dwayne is cool enough to laugh it off, but I couldn’t say that about everyone we work with.”

“Especially people we might want to work with in the future.” I grip my hair with both hands now. “Fuck, he’s probably turning us into a laughingstock with everyone. What the hell do we do now? I have a meeting with him tomorrow.”

“What the hell for? Clearly, he’s not going to sell us the properties,” Breaker says, his face contorted in a worried expression. My stomach plummets from that one look.

This is what my brothers feared would happen, that my mistake and ignorance would come back to bite us in the ass. I’m not only fucking over myself, but I’m fucking them over as well, and that hurts more than anything.

Through thick and thin, they’ve been there for me. We’ve created this business together, from the ground up. We’ve grown, we’ve been through the aches and pains together, the ups and downs, and the successes with minimal failure. If this lie took me out individually, that would be something I’d have to live with, but taking out my brothers . . . fuck, I can’t imagine carrying that burden on my shoulders.

“I . . . I don’t know.”

“I think you need to figure out how he found out,” JP says.

“And how do I go about doing that?” I pin my brothers with a look, and I can see it on their faces. The same thought is going through their minds that passed through mine.

“Dwayne said Ellie knew,” Breaker says gently. “I think—”

I shake my head. “Don’t say it.”

“You need to ask her,” JP says. “You need to confront Lottie.”

And there it is, the elephant in the room, the one thing I didn’t want to consider.

“I don’t think she said anything,” I say, defending her.

“Didn’t she hang out with Ellie in the beginning? Before you two were a real couple?” Breaker asks.

“Yes, but she wouldn’t have said anything.”

“You don’t think she might have said something out of spite? You two fought a lot in the beginning. I’m pretty sure you said there were times when you thought she actually hated you.”

There were times when I think she could barely look at me. Didn’t even want to be around me.

But . . .

“She was under contract.”

“Sometimes that doesn’t matter to some people,” Breaker says. He glances over his shoulder to see if Dwayne is coming. “Either way, you need to ask her, because if it was Lottie, we need to know exactly what she told Ellie.”

“Fuck,” I say as a nervous tension fills my muscles.

“I hate to say it,” JP adds, “especially since I like Lottie so much, but he has a point. We need to get to the bottom of this. She’s the only one I can think of that would have that close a connection to the truth and tell Ellie.”

I drag my hands over my face. “And what if she did say something? Then what?”

Breaker leans back in his chair. “Then I think we call it like it is—we were fucked over. And not sure if we’re going to recover.”

And that right there sends a cold chill of resentment through my veins.

Fuck with me—fine.

Fuck with my brothers—that’s a different story.