Page 65 of Get Undressed With Me

Gus nodded. He knew all of Val’s employees, had worked with most of them at some point or another. It had been easy to convince them to let him in.

“I’ll be sure to chat with the party staff later, but let’s move on. What happened when you got to the party.”

“I found her snuggled up with some guy in a corner.”

Val leveled him with a look. “She’s allowed to do that.”

“I fucking know she’s allowed to do that, Val.” The fact made him burn, that he had no claim to Brittany, that she could touch and kiss and more with anyone she wanted because she wasn’t his.

“Gus, tell me this wasn’t some alpha male jealousy thing that I’m getting pulled into. I thought you were better than this shit.”

He had thought he was, too, but Brittany changed everything.

“I pulled her aside and we had words about her sneaking out.” Among other things, Gus sure as fuck wasn’t going to tell his boss. “It got heated, and she made it clear at the time that she would prefer someone else on her case.”

Val nodded. “So you called me. Makes sense. Now tell me what changed.”

“We… worked it out.”

The look on Val’s face said she wasn’t buying it, which made sense since Gus was working overtime to not talk about the truth.

“What about Robbie?”

Gus snorted. “Why does everyone care so much about what Robbie thinks?”

“The better question is, why don’t you care more about what Robbie thinks? Everything up until this conversation led me to believe that he was the most important relationship in your life, and you didn’t want to do anything to ruin that.”

Gus paused to think about it. How he took care of Robbie, went out of his way to make sure he was happy and thriving, fixing whatever problems may come up, telling himself that’s what good brothers do. And Robbie definitely hated Gus hanging out with Brittany. But Gus was finding that while he cared about Robbie, he didn’t give a shit what Robbie thought about Brittany. Not even a little bit.

“My relationship with Brittany has absolutely nothing to do with Robbie. And if he has a problem with that, he can work that out on his own.”

Val’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re really not making me feel better about keeping you on this assignment.”

“But you’ll keep me.”

He stated it, rather than questioned, even though his heart was pounding with the possibility of her refusing. Val glared at him, more serious than he had ever seen her. Which was saying something, since he and the other guys had a running bet on if she ever smiled.

“I’ll need you to check in with me twice a day rather than once. No more public displays with this woman. No more drama. No more late-night calls. You hear me? You want out, you remember this moment and why you wanted to stay, and you do your fucking job. Understand.”

“Copy that.”

Gus smiled at her, even as she glared at him, and relief flooded him. He stood, anxious to get back.

Val beat him to it. “I’ll tell Curtis to expect you. Don’t fuck this up.”

Gus was out the door, his coffee forgotten in his mission to get back to Brittany.

At the condo, Gus let himself in, staying quiet when he heard Brittany’s voice describing her outfit for the day, realizing she was streaming. He nodded at Curtis, who nodded back before heading out the door. One thing Gus loved about Curtis, he knew when to fuck off.

Gus turned his attention to the corner of his living room, where Brittany had set herself up. She was standing, which he didn’t like, thinking of her ankle, but she seemed well enough as she showed off the small shorts she was apparently planning to parade around in the convention center that day. And she was currently in some sort of bra, something that covered more than a swimsuit but was still clearly underwear. Gus knew she did this often, that part of her stream was showing people the undergarments that could work for various outfits, but still the sight of her in it, posing for her stream, was enough to stop him in his tracks. Fuck, he was going to be hard for hours.

At the thought, the memory of their conversation right before Val interrupted came back to him. He slowly made his way to the living room, knowing the moment when Brittany noticed him by the tension that shot through her body. She was clearly determined to ignore him, which suited him fine, because he was in the mood to work for her attention.

He sat on the couch, facing her but far away from her camera set up, watching as she held up two different shirts to her body.

“What do you all think? I was leaning toward a vamp look, but I’ve also been enjoying the nerdy T-shirt vibe at the con, so I’m torn.”

She continued reading her chat, responding to questions, debating the shirts, and she was so fucking cute Gus couldn’t stand it anymore and let his hand fall right at the pressure on his zipper, rubbing himself through his jeans.

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