Page 25 of The Merger

Stryker’s breathing sped up. “Have you eaten?”

“No,” I breathed into the phone. “But, before you ask. I don’t think we should see each other tonight. I still need to talk to Malcolm, and I want to take this slow.”

“Nothing about us is slow,” he said.

“You’ve waited five long years to even speak to me again. I promise, we won’t take it that slow,” I laughed again.

He growled and I had to admit, it was sexy as hell. “Soon, Sunshine. I’m picking you up for work tomorrow.”

“I have a car,” I argued. Technically it was true. He didn’t need to know it was currently broken down.

“And you have to park it blocks away from your apartment. We worked late tonight. I don’t like you having to walk that far in the dark. Can I please pick you up?”

I could argue with him. Demand to preserve my independence, but he wasn’t wrong. There’d been more than one occasion where I’d felt uncomfortable on my short walk from the parking lot where I paid for a spot, to my apartment building. Not everyone had a fat bank account like my best friend turned niece or my stepbrother. My apartment was in a nice neighborhood, but I lived on the third floor in a building without an elevator or a dedicated parking space.

“Okay,” I finally agreed. “I’ll wait for you out front.”

“Good girl,” he purred into the phone.

Hearing those words in his grumbling rasp of a voice increased the throbbing between my legs. I squeezed my thighs together to try and alleviate the ache.

I struggled to find something to say back, but his words kept banging around in my head.

“Goodnight, Sunshine. Sleep well,” he said before I could speak.

“Night,” I mumbled in return.

For the first time in years, my body hummed with desire. I felt electrified and alive. Not at all tired, but I forced my eyes closed soon after hanging up just so I could see him sooner. I was in trouble.

ChapterTen

Stryker

“Everyone is staring at us,” Sabrina whispered after we stepped off the elevator together in the morning.

I should have thought about what it would look like to the staff when we arrived together. I hadn’t really considered it might look shady considering we’d been married for years.

“Ignore them,” I grunted.

Her eyes lasered in on me and narrowed. “Easy for you to say. You're not the one who looks like she’s trying to sleep her way to the top.”

“Fuck them. They don’t know shit about us.” She wasn’t wrong though, everyone in the lobby was staring at us. For all they knew we could have had a breakfast meeting. It would take more than seeing us enter the office together one time for the staff to start whispering behind our backs.

Sabrina wheeled around to face me. “This is my reputation, Stryker. I would actually like to be respected in the business world and not have people think I only got where I am because my brother gave me a job, or because I’ve slept my way to the top.”

I grabbed the back of my neck and squeezed. “Let’s go talk in my office.”

She shook her head, her golden hair swished around her shoulders. “If we go to your office they’re just going to think I’m blowing you under your desk.”

“We have to be able to meet, sometimes behind closed doors. We can’t be worried about what the staff is going to think every time we need to discuss business. Who said you only got where you are because of your family?”

Sabrina took a step away from me. “Why do you think someone said something?”

I stepped toward her. “Tell me.”

Her head dropped down. “Malcolm,” she whispered.

My hands fisted by my sides. My fucking brother was always screwing up my life. Not this time. “Don’t let him worm his way into your mind. You’re a brilliant woman. You’ve earned everything you’ve got. People like my brother, the ones who have actually been handed everything they have, will never understand what hard work looks like.”

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