Chapter 24

Icould actually feel my heartbeat behind my left eyeball. That had to have been the start of a migraine, right? Or maybe it was a stroke.

"Barrett, what are you doing here?" I asked, doing my best to keep my tone level and professional despite the very last person I ever wanted to lay eyes on standing in the doorway of my office. He's a client, I reminded myself, not your ex. A client.

He looked around at the other people in my office, quickly losing some of the confidence he'd had only a moment ago, seeing the face of my two best friends. He knew these ladies were my ride-or-die and they'd go feral to defend me. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at the sudden fear and trepidation rolling off him.

"Can we talk?" His gaze darted between Ryan and Tarryn who were both actively trying to melt the skin off his face with their glares. "Um, alone maybe?"

The energy in the room had turned static. It felt like the air could zap me at any moment. Ryan crossed her arms over her chest, the Mama Bear coming out in force. "Anything you have to say to her, you can say in front of us."

I was pretty sure my eyelid had started twitching. "It's fine," I said, resigned to get this over with. The sooner I heard him out, the sooner he'd leave. "You guys can head out. I'll be fine."

Tarryn's head turned in my direction, her eyes filled with concern. "You sure?"

I nodded. "I'm good. Promise."

She studied me closely for a few more beats before seeing something on my face that must have put her at ease. Standing from the chair, she gave Ryan's arm a tug, forcing her to her feet as well. Ryan grabbed hold of the handle on her way out and pulled the door behind her, but left it open a crack, her silent meaning behind that action clear as day. It was the same move my mother pulled any time I had a boyfriend over when I was younger. He was allowed to hang out in my room, but only if the door stayed open. Ryan was giving us some space while warning Barrett she'd be keeping a close eye.

"What can I do for you, Barrett?" I started the moment the two of us were alone.

"How have you been?" he asked as he moved to take one of the chairs across from my desk.

I lifted an eyebrow, and clasped my hands together, resting them on the top of my desk. "I'm fine," I answered flatly. "Are you here to discuss your wedding, or..." I trailed off, hoping he'd take the opening to get to it already.

"I just, um..." He tugged anxiously at the collar of his shirt, and I couldn't help but notice the white of it wasn't quite as vibrate as Vaughn's. The fabric didn't look as soft, and it wasn't nearly as crisp. His sentences came out stunted and awkward. "I wanted to say thank you. You know, for agreeing to help. With the wedding."

"It's my job."

Barrett cleared his throat. "I know that. But you could have said no. It means a lot to me that you didn't. Leighton appreciates it too."

I was sure Leighton didn't have the first clue that her fiancé was currently sitting in his ex's office, because if she did, her head would likely explode. I also knew the woman didn't have an appreciative bone in her body. But none of that mattered to me. Honestly, as I looked across my desk at Barrett, I was having trouble remembering what it was about him I'd been so drawn to in the first place.

"I didn't do it for you."

"Right." That one word came out clipped. Something moving across his features as he looked at me made my spine go stiff, an anger I'd never seen from his expression before. The guy might have been an asshole and a coward, but he wasn't prone to anger. That shyness he'd carried with him all through school was still prevalent, even all these years later. The man might as well have had a backbone made of gelatin. "Vaughn, right?" He said his future brother-in-law's name on a sneer.

"As a matter of fact, yes." There was no point in denying the truth, but I had a feeling Barrett didn't know the real reason behind my decision. He probably thought I did it simply because Vaughn was my boyfriend, when the real reason was so much more profound than that. I'd seen the struggle he was dealing with, the weight he'd been carrying in an effort to take the burden off of his father's shoulders. I had agreed to take the job because of that. Because I respected the hell out of him.

"So that's still happening?" Barrett asked.

I wasn't sure, not after how the night before ended, but Barrett didn't need to know that. "I really don't see how that's any of your business."

"Come on, JoJo, don't be like that," he said beseechingly, the sweetness he infused into his tone setting my teeth on edge. "Just because we aren't together anymore doesn't mean I stopped caring about you. You were important to me. You are important." A few months ago—hell, only a few weeks—those words would have sliced me open like a hot knife cutting through butter. But all I felt was... annoyed. I didn't miss this man anymore. I didn't want him back or mourn our relationship. I just wanted him to stop taking up my time with hollow words and lies that didn't mean anything.

"I'm only looking out for you. He's not a good guy, Jo."

A stupefied laugh bubbled up my throat. "Oh my God," I said on a manic giggle. "And, what? You think you are? I knew you were an asshole, Barrett, but I didn't think you were delusional."

His face grew red as he huffed out an affronted breath. "This guy... there's something not right about him. I can't stand the thought of you getting hurt."

I couldn't stop laughing. The hypocrisy was too much. "Really? That's funny." I had to wait until my chuckles died down to pull in a breath. "Because you didn't seem to mind all that much about hurting me when you broke off our engagement for your new fiancée." I held up my hand to stop him when he started to argue. "And don't bother saying you didn't get involved with her until after we were over, because we both know that's a lie. At least do me the courtesy of being honest, for Christ's sake."

"Jolie, I'm sorry?—"

I shook my head to stop him. "I don't care. I really and truly mean that, Barrett. I. Don't. Care. Not about you. Not about Leighton. And certainly not about your relationship. For all I care, the two of you can ride off into the sunset together and spend the rest of your lives making each other miserable. But what I won't tolerate is you sitting here and saying things about a man you don't know. There is nothing wrong with Vaughn. What is wrong is the fact that you thought you had the right to come to me and talk about him behind his back under the pretense of caring."

"I do care, Jolie. If I could go back?—"

"Don't finish that sentence."

At that deep, menacing rumble, my head shot up just as my door was thrown all the way open, revealing Vaughn on the other side with an expression like a thunderstorm that was about to crack right open.

"Vaughn? What-what are you doing here?"

When his eyes came to mine, the thunderclouds in them cleared a fraction, and I could have sworn his granite features softened a bit, but that very well could have been the hopeless romantic in me. I might as well have been every nerdy girl in an 80's high school romance movie, wishing the most popular boy in school rushes into the crowded cafeteria to declare in front of everybody that he's crazy in love with me. However, when he shifted his focus back to my ex, a shiver went down my spine at the venom in his gaze.

"Is there a reason for you to be in my girlfriend's office right now, Brutus?"

I stifled a laugh as my ex's jaw began to tick. "It's Barrett." Something told me Vaughn really didn't give a shit. "And before she was your girlfriend, she was mine. And we were together a whole hell of a lot longer."

Oh shit. From the way Vaughn's nostrils flared, I knew that was the wrong thing for Barrett to say. "Time for you to go. You said all there was to say to her when you ended it. She doesn't owe you another goddamn second."

Barrett whipped around to me, eyes wide, jaw hanging open. "Seriously, JoJo? This guy?"

I opened my mouth, but couldn't get a word in edgewise between these two. "What the hell did I tell you about speaking to her? Get out before I forcibly remove you."

Barrett blustered, his face growing an unnatural shade of maroon. "That's not—this isn't—what Jolie and I have to talk about isn't any of your business?—"

Vaughn moved deeper into the office, the energy radiating off him screaming louder than a warning siren. My office suddenly felt half the size it had been a moment ago. "See, that's where you're mistaken. Considering the fact I was buried deeper inside her than any man has ever been less than twenty-four hours ago, everything that has to do with her is my business."

I pulled in a broken gasp at the same time my thighs clenched together against the sharp ache that had suddenly formed there.

"And seeing as it was my cock she was coming around and my name she was screaming loud enough to be heard down in the valley, it absolutely is my business. She's mine, Bruno. You were stupid enough to let her go, now I think everyone in this building would agree I'm much smarter than you."

"I agree!" Tarryn's disembodied voice called from the hallway, followed closely by Ryan's "Shh!" and a noise that sounded an awful lot like she'd just smacked Tarryn in the arm.

"You shh! And stop hitting me, you jerk."

Oh my God. How in the hell was it possible that this whole scene was hilarious and sexy and mind-boggling all at the same time? That tick in my eyelid was getting so much worse. "That's it. This is over. Barrett, it's time for you to go."

He stood from his seat and brushed at the front of his slacks, the look on his face telling me he wasn't happy about being forced out.

"We'll talk later, when we have some privacy. This isn't over."

"That's where you're wrong, Barrett. This is very over. From here on out, I don't want to speak or see you, unless it directly involves the wedding my partners and I are being paid to assist with."

Realizing there wasn't a chance he was going to win, he turned on his heel and headed for the door, slowing only as he waited for Vaughn to move out of the way, which Vaughn did after issuing one last, "Bye, Beelzebub."

"It's—" That was all Barrett got out before Vaughn slammed the door in his face.

I barely had a chance to take in a sigh of relief that he was gone before my heart started hammering at being alone with Vaughn. My body didn't seem to give a damn that things the night before had ended so disastrously, because my body was coming to life at just the sight of him. My skin suddenly felt tight, my breathing labored. My fingers itched to dive into his silky hair and yank his mouth to mine. A pulse started low in my belly, growing in pressure as my nipples puckered, the tips hard as diamond.

"You know he's still in love with you, right?" he asked before I had a chance to question what he was doing standing in my office only hours after kicking me to the curb.

I let out a weary sigh as I pressed back in my chair, closing my eyes to massage my temples. "I don't think Barrett knows how to love anyone, honestly." I finally saw that first-hand. For the longest time I questioned what had gone wrong. I thought our relationship had been so wonderful, and I couldn't wrap my head around why he would end it. Now I understood. He was still very much that nerdy kid from back in high school. It didn't matter he'd already had a woman who loved him, who was devoted to him, and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. The moment someone else showed interest, he hadn't blinked at blowing our world apart. Barrett was still so insecure, he didn't have a clue what he wanted. It was actually kind of sad.

"All right. But he wants you back. That much is obvious."

I opened my eyes, pinning him with a hard stare. "Why are you telling me this? Why are you even here?" I asked exasperatedly.

I saw his throat work on a thick swallow, bobbing over the top of the starched collar of his button-down. A much nicer button-down than Barrett's.

"I'm here... The tips of his ears and the sharp ridges of his cheekbones started to deepen with color. "I'm here because I fucked up. I can't stand how we left things last night."

My throat went dry. There was a voice in the very back of my head that wanted to cheer, but I quickly smacked it down, afraid to let myself hope. My voice came out only a few octaves above a whisper as I asked, "How would you have preferred we left them?"

He moved then, coming closer. Each step so slow yet enough to make my heart speed up. "I would have preferred to have you in my bed," he admitted gruffly, his words deep and gravelly. "I would have liked to be able to hold you all night, to feel your skin against mine. I would have liked to be able to press my face into your hair and breathe you in, to have your sunshine scent on my sheets so every time I climbed inside I'd be able to smell you. I would have preferred anything over watching you drive away from me last night. It gutted me."

I blinked, his words catching me completely off guard. Goosebumps were spreading across my entire body. At his confession that need coiling deep in my core twisted even tighter. "Then why did you push me away?"

"Because you scare the hell out of me," he confessed so earnestly the backs of my eyes began to burn. "Because being with you is better than anything I've ever felt before. And I'm not only talking about the sex. You terrify me because nothing I feel for you is fake, baby."

"What—" I had to stop, give myself time to get my thoughts together. "What do you want, Vaughn?" My tongue darted, swiping over my bottom lip as Vaughn closed the last of the space between us and shocked the hell out of me by lowering to his knees right in front of me.

His response was one simple word, but the impact of it was indescribable.

"You."