The UN Series Complete Box Set (90 page)

“Central Bank. This is Samantha Hall. How may I help you?” she answers, and I can hear the smile in her voice. She knows it’s me calling.

“Stop doing that,” I snap, and she laughs. “For the love of God, please,” I beg of her.

Her laughter gets louder. “You are in so much trouble,” I warn. “I was being serious, Angel,” I snap readjusting my hard-on.

“Oh, I was too,” she says no longer laughing. “How about lunch? Would you like me to bring you lunch, sweetheart?”

I can tell by the sultry tone in her voice she doesn’t mean food. “Yes.”

“What would you like?”

I sigh. “Just you, Angel. Just bring your hot little ass to my office.”

“I’ll be there at twelve thirty. I love you,” she says before she hangs up.

I slam the phone down and take a few deep breaths. Twelve thirty, I can make it until then.

Leaving my cell on the desk I stand up and try to walk off this painful erection on the way to the conference room.

“Man I’m so glad we are about to go on another vacation,” Micah says as he enters the big conference room. He fiddles with his black tie before he sits down beside me.

“What? Vegas is like three weeks away.”
Or is it two?
I can’t keep track of time these days. I’m lucky that I even remembered today was Monday and I needed to come to work.

“You don’t understand, but you will.” He laughs but it holds no humor. “While we were in New York, all Holly talked about was you proposing.” I’m surprised she was able to keep it a secret. “Then as soon as you did, all she has talked about is our wedding again. She keeps asking me what I think.” He throws his hands up in the air. “I don’t fucking know, they’re just napkins. Why do they have to be a certain color, or have a little design on them, or...” He pulls on the collar of his dark gray button up.

I place my hand on his shoulder. “Calm down,” I say trying not to laugh at him.“If it doesn’t matter then just pick something to make her happy.”

He looks at me, his dark blue eyes wild-eyed. “You just wait.” He shakes a finger at me. “It’s a test. It’s all a fucking test. They want you to pick what they want without telling you. If you pick the wrong thing you get asked a million questions like ‘why you don’t like that one’ or ‘do you even care’? You want to say ‘not really’ but that will just start an even bigger fight.”

I can’t hold back my laughter anymore. He gets less and less like my brother every day. I love him this way just as much the other way. He just has never seemed so unraveled.

“Quit messing with your tie,” I say yanking the silk black tie out of his hands. “Why are you so fidgety?” I question.

He places his hands on the table and sighs. “I just need some sleep.”

“Okay boys.” Our father enters the conference room, getting our attention. He’s in total business mode, dressed in an expensive dark Armani suit with a silver tie and shiny black shoes to match. Seeing him in street clothes, like he was while we were in New York, still takes some getting used to. Even growing up I always saw him in a suit.

He strolls to the head of the table and pulls out the seat. He sits down and links his hands together before placing them on the table. He clears his throat and then looks up at us. “I just got off the phone with Mayor O’Hare, and I have officially hired his youngest son, Braxton, here at the firm.”

“Were you ever considering not to?” I ask sitting up straighter in my chair.

We’d had this talk while we were in New York. My father had received a phone call that Braxton, one of my best friends from high school, Parker O’Hare’s, little brother, was graduating with a law degree from Princeton a semester early. His father, the mayor of St. Louis and also a friend of my father’s from way back, called asking him for a job.

“Well, we really don’t need him.” He shrugs. “But after some thought I have decided that it is a great idea.”

“When does he start?” Micah asks.

“He will be here tomorrow.”

That surprises me. “That’s quick,” I point out the obvious.

My father nods his head. “We’ve been gone and things need to get back in order. I want him here as soon as possible so he can help do just that,” he states before he stands and walks out of the room clearly ending our meeting.

Well that was short.
Couldn’t he have told us that over a phone call?

Micah turns to me. “Do you ever talk to Parker anymore?”

Parker, Josh, and I used to be inseparable back in middle school and high school. Josh and I were always closer but Parker was usually close behind.

“I spoke to him last year when he came into town for the birthday party that we threw for Josh.” At the time, Josh was with his fiancée. The crazy bitch tried to get me to fuck her that night. Micah was with Holly, so Parker and I were our usual single selves fucking everything we could but of course I turned down Josh’s fiancée. “How about you?”

“I spoke with him a couple of weeks ago. He called me to confirm that he was coming to Vegas and that he’s in the wedding.” Micah smiles over at me.

I let out a long breath and lean my head back against the chair. “I see Vegas ending in disaster,” I mumble.

Parker has a tendency to bring up things from the past. Angel and I just went through all those videos that Jessica sent her. I don’t want her to know things about my past when it comes to women. Because I sure as hell don’t like hearing about her and Jax’s past.

Micah laughs.

“Why do you think that the high probability of me getting in trouble with Angel is funny?” I ask looking over to him.

He shrugs. “I just see it the same way you see me freaking out over my wedding with Holly,” he says simply.

“You’re such an ass,” I growl getting up out of my chair.

“That’s what little brothers are for.” He pats me on the back before he turns and heads to his office.

*****

Around lunchtime I’m on a call to a client when my door opens. I look up and expect to see Angel, but instead see Tate walking in. I lift my free hand and motion for him to take a seat as I wrap up my phone call.

“What can I do for you, Tate?” I ask once I hang up the phone.

“Has Sam asked you any questions?” he asks.

I think back to her asking me what was wrong after I took the phone call from Jax and had the talk with Tate about his secret. I couldn’t tell her any of it. My body language was giving something away, she just couldn’t figure it out. I had taken off my sweatpants and climbed on top of her. I needed her. I needed to feel like everything was still okay. She had agreed to marry me and in a matter of hours things were already threatening to fall apart. But I don’t want Tate to know any of that. He already has a lot going on. He doesn’t need to know that I acted like a little bitch, afraid I was going to lose my favorite toy to a big bully, which would be Jax in this case.

I take a good look at him. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days. The total opposite of how he was in New York. He didn’t act like being around her affected him much until we landed last night. We argued at the airport over him telling her, because I feel she has the right to know. My words were pointless, though. He could have cared less what I thought. He knows I won’t run and tell her anything. She will have questions that I won’t have answers to.

“No,” I respond to his question. “As far as I know, there is no way for her to find out unless you tell her.”

We sit in silence for a few seconds as I watch him stare down at the black and white Persian rug that sits in the middle of my office floor. I can see the battle he’s having just by staring at him. He looks pained, and I hate that I’m going to see that same look on Angel’s face when he tells her that all along she has had a brother but that he wasn’t there when she needed him.

“Why?” I ask finally breaking the silence. “Has she said something to you?”

I don’t know just how close they have gotten since he has entered her life for the second time, but Tate is close with us guys. Tate and I had a rocky start when he showed up at her mother’s house a few months back, but now I consider him one of my best friends and soon he is going to be my brother. Just like Micah and Josh are.

He shakes his head getting my attention before looking up to me. He runs a hand over his cropped dark hair. “I was the one who bought Jack’s house,” he admits softly.

Not what I was expecting. “That was you?” I ask shocked. “I wondered how it sold so fast.” Now I know why he had called me freaking out when he had been notified that she put her dad’s house up for sale. He wanted it.

He nods his head and sighs.

“How did she not know? She had all the paperwork faxed to her the next day,” I remind him. I don’t think that is something that she could have overlooked.

He lets out a long breath. “My legal name is not Tate but she has never known me by anything other than that. I had to have help from a friend to get that house in order for her not to find out.”

“Your name is not really Tate?”
This cannot be happening.

He shakes his head slowly and looks down to the floor once again. “Like I said before, I have secrets, Slade,” he mumbles.

I sit back in my chair and let out a puff of air, completely shocked.

Just how deep do his secrets go?

“I feel…guilty,” he admits, getting my attention.

“That you’re keeping a secret from her?” I’m not sure which secret I’m asking about. There seems to be many.

He slowly nods his head as he keeps his eyes on the floor as in thought. “I’m just not ready. I know—” He holds up his hand thinking I was going to speak. “I’m being a selfish prick and a horrible brother. I’m just not ready to bring up my past and all the fucked-up things it involves.”

I release a long breath. I sit and watch him as he mentally fights with himself. He is just like his sister. They both want to keep their lives a secret from the world. They both wear their hearts on their sleeves, they just don’t want to admit it.

“You have my word, Tate. As long as you need to keep that secret. Or if you ever just need to talk.”

He stands up and nods his head once. Looking me in the eye he says, “Thanks, Slade,” then turns around and walks out of my office.

I don’t know what he wanted to accomplish by coming up to my office, but I feel like whatever he was searching for, he did not get.

I sit up in my chair and send out an email to a friend. I know I told him that my lips were sealed. It does not mean that I’m not gonna search to find out who the hell he truly is.

It’s thirty minutes later; I’ve sent an email to an old friend and then checked through my emails from us being out of town when I hear my door open again. I look up and see my Angel walking in like she owns the place. Her black, sexy fuck-me heels click as she crosses the dark hardwood floors. Her dark brown hair is in big curls and falls down on both sides of her Barbie doll face. She still has her sunglasses on and a naughty little smile on her sexy lips.

“What can I do for you, beautiful?” I ask with a smile on my face.

She walks up to my desk, places her palms flat, and leans over. “I believe I am here to do something for you.”

“What is that?” I ask with a knowing smile.

“I’m here to service you, Sir.”

That soft voice has my eyebrows shoot up along with my cock. Fuck, did that sound hot as hell. I sit there speechless as she leans over even further. Placing her face right up to mine. She still has on her sunglasses, and it’s killing me, wanting to pull them off and see those bright green eyes.

She licks her pink shiny lips and the notion reminds me of why she is here.
Service my cock.

“Unless you don’t have time for me.” She sticks that plump bottom lip out, pouting. “I did have an appointment didn’t I?”

I nod my head, and she pushes off of the desk and walks around. I spin my chair around to face her, and she stops in front of me looking down. I stand quickly, not liking that fact that she’s looking down at me.

I reach up and remove her big black sunglasses before tossing them onto my desk. I lean down, taking her lips with mine, and I feel her hand go to my pants—not wanting to waste any time. She unzips them and reaches through my boxers, pulling out my hard dick. I moan at the instant relief from the restraining fabric. It’s been throbbing all day, and I’m pretty sure my balls are blue.

I pull back from her and lift my hands to undo my purple tie. She tilts her head to the side in confusion as I slip it out from underneath the collar of my button-down dress shirt. I take her wrists in mine and place them behind her back.

“Hold them still,” I command, and she obliges. I fasten my tie around her wrists, securing them tightly behind her back.

She smiles when I pull back and lift my hands to undo the buttons on her white blouse. I undo them far enough to reveal her pierced belly button, then push the shirt back so it sits at the top of her arms, constricting her arms even more. She arches her back, pushing her chest up toward me. I pull down her flesh tone bra and lean down to take a pink nipple in my mouth. She moans as I swirl my tongue around it until it hardens. Then I lightly bite it, making her breaths come faster as she pants.