Page 5 of Under My Skin

“Baby?” I heard a whiny voice say from the other side of the door. “I have to pee. Can you finish up in there?”

I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths so I wouldn’t flip out on this woman, some local sports journalist whose name I didn’t even remember. Just because I’d stuck my dick in her last night, that didn’t give her the right to call me “baby.” I’d stuck my dick in plenty of chicks; she was just the latest in a long line. And I’d made that crystal clear last night.

I threw the door open and stormed out. “Do whatever you have to do in there and get out of here.”

“What’s the matter, baby?” she said with an annoying as fuck pout. “I thought we could grab some breakfast. Maybe go for another round?”

“I have shit to do,” I barked, grabbing my wallet and shoving a Ben Franklin into her hand. “Here. That’ll pay for your Uber and breakfast. Go take care of whatever, get dressed, and get the fuck out. Anddon’tcall me ‘baby.’”

I grabbed a shirt from the dresser and stormed out of the room and downstairs toward my training room, not letting her answer. I had a phone call to make.

“Garman and Garman, Vicki Preston speaking,” came the bitch’s voice.

“What thefuck, Vicki?!” I roared.

“Braden. This is a surprise,” she said in a syrupy-sweet voice that oozed with disingenuity. “What’s wrong, honey?”

God, I fucking hated it when she called me “honey.” I’d asked her numerous times to stop, but she’d never gotten the message.

“Care to tell me why you didn’t think I needed to know that my uncledied?!” I growled. “I missed his fucking funeral today because of you!”

“W-wait, what?” she stammered.

“Itoldyou when I had my old number forwarded to you that a couple of personal calls might end up slipping throughbecause it was my old phone number!And Iaskedyou to either give them my new number or pass on a message. Apparently, you did neither, because my cousin called that number and asked you to pass on a message, which you failed to do. That’s fuckingunacceptable!”

So unacceptable, in fact, that I was seriously considering firing her ass right now, regardless of how much it would cost me to get out of our contract since I couldn’t actuallyprovenegligence.

“Oh, Braden,” she murmured, and I almost –almost– believed she actually had a heart. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. My secretary must have taken the call and not passed it on to me. Is there anything I can do for you now?”

I took a deep breath, ignoring heronce againcalling me by a pet name. Maybe thiswasall a colossal misunderstanding and miscommunication. Vicki had never dropped the ball like this before. She was an entitled bitch who seemed to think the world owed her everything just because she was moderately good-looking, but she was good at her job.

“No. It’s too late. But is thereanything elseyou’ve neglected to tell me?”

“No, honey. I promise. And I’m going to talk to my secretary about passing onallmessages to me, whether or not she thinks they’re important, as soon as we hang up.”

“Next time this happens, you’re fucking fired. Are we clear?”

“Yes,” she mumbled uncomfortably. “I’m so sorry, sweetie. This won’t happen again. I promise.”

“No, it won’t,” I muttered, hanging up on her ass.

CHAPTER TWO

DANIELA

“FUCK!”Amara roared as she squeezed my hand so hard that I thought it might actually break. “God!”

My sister’s face twisted in agony while she pushed as hard as she could through her contraction. I ran my thumb over her knuckles and planted a soft kiss on the back of her hand, offering her comfort in the only way I knew how.

“You’re doing so good, Mar,” I encouraged her. “Mamá would be so proud. It’s almost over.”

Please tell me it’s almost over,I prayed.

I didn’t know how much more of this either one of us could take. It was killing me watching my sister go through labor pains – without an epidural, I might add – and not being able to do anything other than let her squeeze my hand as hard as she needed to. Her water had broken almost twelve hours ago, and she’d been in absolute agony since then.

“Motherfucker!” she groaned as another contraction hit, straining with her effort.

“I can see his head, Amara,” Dr. Blackburn announced. “Just another few pushes and you’ll be done.”

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