Page 31 of If You Could Only Feel
I took a deep breath and went for broke. “I didn’t sleep with Nathanial and he wasn’t the reason I went to Las Vegas, Beatrice.”
“Well, then, what the hell, Justice?”
“I didn’t sleep with Nathanial because I…uhm, I’ve been sleeping with Gabriel Buchanan since we were 16 years old. And I went to Las Vegas to try to screw him out of my system with some random stranger I’d never have to see again.”
Beatrice started choking on her drink of tea so badly, I had to stand up, walk around and start patting her on the back to help get her under control. “Are you okay?”
She wheezed and coughed and sputtered, “Wh…w…wha…what?”
I sat back down in my seat and grimaced. Was I a bad friend that I had kept this from her for so long? “I’m sorry, Bea-”
Beatrice leaned forward. “Gabriel Buchanan as inTheGabriel Buchanan? As in Buchanan Industries Buchanans?Thatfucking Gabriel Buchanan?”
I let out a sigh. “Yeah,” I confessed. “That’s the one.”
Her beautiful blue eyes bugged clean out of her head. “Holy shit, Justice!” she whispered yelled. “You’re doing the deed with Gabriel Buchanan and you’ve been doing it since high school?”
My shoulders lost all forms of life and I slunk into my seat. “Yeah,” I confirmed lamely.
“I don’t understand,” she went on. “If I were sleeping with a man who looks like that, I’d have taken out a billboard announcing it to the fucking world.”
Little did she know. “There’s more,” I prepared her.
“I swear to God, Justice, if you tell me you’re screwing Michael Buchanan too, I’m going to faint,” she declared.
I threw a baby tomato at her.“Eewww…no!”I exclaimed, laughing. “I am not sleeping with…them.”
She leaned back in her seat and breathed out a dramatic sigh. “Jesus,” she shook her head. “I was about to lose my mind there for a sec.” Beatrice cocked a brow and gave me the most mischievous grin. “Okay, so spill, sister.”
“I promise to spill tonight after work,” I said, knowing we were short on time. “But…there’s also something else.”
Her eyes bugged again. “Something, beyond the fact that you’ve been sleeping with Gabriel Buchanan and have managed to keep it a secret for six goddamn years? I mean, seriously, Justice. The CIA should recruit your ass.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “So, you know how I went to Vegas to screw him out of my system?” She nodded. “Well, he found me and…he found me, and we sort of…”
“Oh, my all that is holy and right in this world,” she breathed. “You married Gabriel Buchanan in Las Vegas, didn’t you?”
I dropped my head on the table right next to my salad, not caring if I was going to be covered in salad dressing later, and mumbled, “Yep.”
“Well, I’ll be a sonofabitch,” she replied. The rest of lunch was eaten in silence.
Chapter 18
Gabriel~
I spent the last two days trying to prove I wasn’t a total loser and starting my rotation at BI. Mason and Aiden had spent a month rotating through the departments, getting to know people and their purpose here at BI. This hands-on personal touch was required by Mason, and I, personally, thought it was a great idea.
However, the first week I had cut out early to follow Justice to Las Vegas, and most of this week I had been cutting out early because of the commute. Well, deciding to take Mason’s advice and give Justice some space, I was able to put in the hours I should have and was really making a dent in meeting our employees and getting grounded in our client accounts.
I was making a lot of progress, but Justice was still there, in the back of my mind, making me fucking crazy. That scene at her apartment had been an ugly one. I’d never lost control like that before, but finally telling her I loved her, only to have her throw it back in my face, as a lie, had been enough to push me over the edge.
But I wasn’t a completely self-absorbed dick. I knew this was my fault. I knew her insecurities and refusal to see the truth was all my fault. Iknewthis. I just didn’t know how to undo six years of neglect. And I was all for Michael’s plan, but the more serious she sounded about divorcing me, the more panicked I became.
The phone on my desk rang, and so, I placed Justice in the back of my mind the way I needed to. I picked up the receiver without checking to see who it was. “Hello?”
“Hey,” came Shane’s voice over the line and I immediately smiled.
“Hey, Sis. What’s up?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.
