Page 11 of Loved By the Hacker

“What? That you’ve been stalking her?” I cut in like a jerk. “I’m pretty sure she already knows.” I shrugged, trying to calm myself down. His silence was answer enough for me. “Is this how you felt?” I clipped, breaking through the tension.

“What?” he asked after a quiet moment.

“When you saw Scarlett,” I clarified. “Is this how you felt?”

“Are you serious right now? Are you saying…” He let the words hang between us.

“I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up,” I joked dryly.

“With Coral?” The moment I grunted with confirmation, he started to chuckle. “Holy shit, I can’t wait to see this play out.”

“Why?”

“Do you know what she does for a living?”

“Of course, I do. She’s a lawyer.”

“Exactly. And what you do usually makes you have to hire a lawyer, not date them.”

“My business is on the up and up.”

“Most of the time,” he quietly reminded me, and I exhaled slowly. “I’m just saying?—“

“I know what you’re saying,” I cut him off. My jaw clenched and hands fisted at my sides. “You don’t think it was something I thought about before I approached her?”

“You hadn’t, until her dick of an ex pushed your buttons by talking to her for more than two point five seconds.”

“You really watched everything, huh?” I shook my head, wondering what the hell was wrong with me that I somehow hadn’t clocked Merri at the bar.Because you were busy watching Coral,a voice in my head reminded me.

All I could see think, feel, hear, smell was Coral.

Coral and those damn dark eyes of hers that haunted my every thought. And now I knew what she felt like when I held her in my arms and sunk deep inside her body. How she tasted and sounded when she whimpered out for more. Her sweet scent wrapped around me in an elusive bubble.

“I’m guessing you didn’t hear a word I just said,” Merritt muttered. “Look, man, I’m not anyone to tell you who you and cannot see…”

“But?” I asked, because I knew he was going to say something to piss me off.

“But unless you’re serious about Coral, don’t go there. Or I should probably say don’t go there again.” I’d been right. I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. Out of respect for our friendship, I took a moment and shut my eyes while I breathed in deeply, exhaling slowly.

“Oleg—“

“I get what you’re saying, and I understand your concern,” I said as calmly as I could. “But I love her, Merritt. She’s mine. I didn’t question you when you came to me?—“

“Bullshit.” he called me out, and I frowned.

“Okay, maybe I questioned the lengths you went to, but I didn’t second-guess your feelings. I love her, Mer. I’d rather cut my arm off than hurt her. Now, I get the connection and why you’re worried. But trust me when I tell you, you have nothing to worry about. I mean it.”

“You sayin’ you’re going to continue to stay away? Let her go?”

“No,” I answered without hesitation. And I wasn’t. I might have contemplated it for about half a second, but there was no way I could keep going through life pretending she didn’t exist or watching from the shadows. Coral was mine.

“No, I won’t give her up, and you might as well get used to the idea of us being related, because if I have things my way, and you know I usually do, we’ll be brothers-in-law.”

“Jesus,” he groaned. “If you hurt her like that jackass?—“

“I’m nothing like that moron.”

“At least we can agree on something there,” he muttered. “You know this isn’t personal.”

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