Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Cotter~

After I’d left Aelix’s condo last night, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her and these past couple of years, or how I needed to get realistic about our future. Aelix was thirty-three now, and at what point was she going to finally want to settle down? After all, two years was plenty of time to get over a douchebag cheating on you, right?

I was also self-aware enough to recognize that this was all stemming from seeing Aelix at lunch with that asshole, and that was another thing that was bothering me. I hadn’t ever examined my feelings for Aelix because I hadn’t had to before now. We’d had a simple arrangement, and there’d been no need to make things complicated by bringing feelings into it, especially since Aelix had never once acted like she’d wanted more.

“I swear to God, if you don’t do something about that goddamn assistant of yours, I’m going to toss him off the roof of the building.”

I looked up to see Cutter storming into my office. “Well, hello to you, too.”

Cutter ignored me, taking a seat in front of my desk. “I had the misfortune of getting trapped with him in the elevator, and he wouldn’t shut up about the injustice of Harold Croupe daring to call you directly.”

My lips twitched at that. “Yeah, he’s still trying to work through his feelings about that.”

“Then let him work them out with a licensed therapist,” Cutter huffed. “I mean, how many times do I have to tell him that I’m too busy for him to get the hint.”

“I’d ask if you’re in a bad mood, but you’re always like this,” I snorted.

Cutter shot me a knowing look. “Not always.”

“I still haven’t forgiven you for not locking your goddamn office door,” I reminded him.

“Just keep Sumner away from me, and then I’ll be in a fan-fucking-tastic mood,” he shot back.

Ignoring him, I asked, “Do you and Merritt have sex while she’s on her period?”

Cutter scowled. “What kind of question is that?” The man looked genuinely offended. “Of course, we do. What the fuck do I look like?”

I grinned at that. “So, you don’t consider it a fetish?”

After carrying Aelix to the shower last night, I had taken my time washing her clean, and I’d found myself feeling lucky at how she wasn’t bothered by sex on her period. Or, if she was, she wasn’t bothered enough not to do it. The first time that she had sent me a text to let me know that she was on her period, I’d been genuinely baffled by why she’d think that I’d care about something as natural as a woman’s menstruation cycle. Yeah, I knew that a lot of guys didn’t care for the mess, but I found it absolutely silly to have those kinds of reservations when it came to sex during that time of the month.

Rich kids were the worst, so while in college, I’d seen and participated in my fair share of group sex, and it was crazy how lots of men didn’t mind sliding inside a pussy that was already stuffed with another man’s spunk, but blood bothered them. Besides, if bodily fluids were that big of a deal, that’s what condoms were for. Luckily for me, one month into our arrangement, Aelix and I had done the whole blood test thing, then after proof of her being on birth control, we’d gotten rid of the condoms.

At any rate, there was just something primal about fucking Aelix while she was on her period. It felt like I was owning her at her most vulnerable, and it got my dick hard like nothing else. She was never more a woman than when she was bleeding, and I liked that. I liked every feminine quality about her, and that included when her tits were swollen and tender, when she was cramping, and when her womb was so sensitive that she came almost instantly all over me.

“No,” Cutter answered. “I consider it wanting my woman more than caring about a mess that can be taken care of with a shower and the washing machine.” My brother shot me a look. “Why are you asking? It’s not like you to get into my personal business like that.”

“Oh, really?” I deadpanned.

“Not details about Merritt,” he corrected. “You’ve always respected that privacy.”

I shrugged. “I was just curious.”

“You’re lying,” he shot back immediately. “Now, tell me what’s going on, or else I’m going to send Sumner to China for a month on an all-expenses-paid vacation.”

“It’s one of my favorite things to do,” I confessed. “So, I was just asking.”

“You mean that it’s one of your favorite things to do with Aelix,” he remarked. “Don’t bullshit me, Cotter. I’m not in the mood after having spent an eternity locked in the elevator with your assistant.”

“I saw her having lunch with a coworker yesterday, and…I didn’t particularly care for the cozy picture that they painted,” I admitted.

Cutter leaned back in his seat. “So, the mighty have fallen,” he smirked.

“Don’t be an asshole,” I scowled.

“So, what’s the problem?” he asked, brushing off my insult. “Tell her how you feel, get married, then live happily ever after.”

“I can’t tell her how I feel because I haven’t processed how I feel yet,” I explained. “This is the first time that I’ve ever had feelings like this for a woman, so I’m not trying to jump the gun.”

“What’s there to process?” he asked. “There’s only one reason that a man ever feels jealousy, Cotter. I mean, what all were they doing?”

“Having lunch,” I answered.

“And?”

“That’s it. Just having lunch.”

“You got caught up in your feelings because she was simply having lunch with someone?” he asked incredulously.

“Not someone,” I corrected. “Another man.”

“A coworker,” he pointed out. “Something that she probably does all the damn time.”

“Yeah, but I’ve never seen it before,” I replied.

Cutter eyed me. “Why were they having lunch?”

“They’d just won a big case that morning, so they were celebrating,” I answered.

My brother arched a brow. “So, let me get this straight…you saw Aelix having a celebratory lunch with a coworker in the middle of the day, and it bothered you enough that you’re still bothered by it?”

I nodded. “That about sums it up.”

“Yeah, sounds like love to me,” he quipped. “Seriously, Cotter. No guy gets that upset if it’s not.”

“Do you ever feel jealous over Merritt?”

“Not sure if jealousy is the right word,” he mused. “People get jealous over things that they covet, so that doesn’t fit my narrative because Merritt belongs to me. I’d say that I’m protective or…maybe territorial when it comes to her. While I trust her explicitly, I like to make it known to whatever man that comes near her that she’s spoken for. Less court dates that way.”

“I just don’t see this ending well if Aelix doesn’t return my feelings,” I told him honestly.

“Never been dumped before?” he snorted like a dick.

“I’m just not sure if I’ll be…agreeable to her ending things if she doesn’t feel the same way,” I clarified.

“That’s doesn’t sound ominous at all,” he drawled out, still being a dick.

“Well, if it’s any consolation, she’s been putting up with you for two years, so she’s gotta like you at least a little.”

“That doesn’t help,” I remarked dryly as Cutter stood up to go about his business.

“Look, just tell her how you feel, then go from there,” he advised. “It’s not like you don’t know how to strategize, Cotter.”

Ignoring that, I said, “I’ll talk to Sumner.”

“Nice deflection,” he retorted. “I’ll be back tomorrow to see how it’s going.”

I didn’t say anything more as Cutter walked out of my office, and I also knew that he hadn’t been lying about coming back tomorrow to check on me. Again, we weren’t like other twins, and I knew that me being ill at ease would be enough to keep Cutter up at night.

It also wasn’t that I was afraid to have a conversation about feelings with Aelix. I just really wasn’t used to diving into anything headfirst. Since as far back as I could remember, I’d always been the one to calculate a situation before executing a move. Cutter was the one with all the ideas, and as he assessed what could be, I mulled it around in my brain to see how to make it happen. So, while I wasn’t afraid of a challenge, I needed to make sure what my feelings were before I ruined what Aelix and I had. Despite it being just sex, it was phenomenal sex, and I was fairly certain that I wasn’t going to be able to find anything else like it on the planet. At least, not right away, if at all.

Shaking my head, I picked up my phone, then dialed my assistant. As soon as he answered, I said, “Quit bothering my brother.”

“He’s such a tattletale,” Sumner huffed, and maybe he did need a month-long vacation in China.

Or maybe I did.