Page 23 of Joint Custody

“Thanks, Anne,” he spoke in a playful way.

Today, he was wearing a sort of dark purple which complemented his skin tone. His shirt was as I’d seen him before, loose, along with his pants as if he was a walking advertisement for a romantic holiday away in Rome, riding through the towns on a Vespa. The fabric looked soft to the touch, and I could imagine my cheeks pressing against it as I sank into the warmth of his hug. Amongst all the structured attire, once again, he appeared as a breath of fresh air.

I opened my mouth to greet him when another woman walked by. She didn’t say anything but the eye contact between them said everything. I found myself wishing he’d look at me like that, wondering what brought those smiles to those women’s faces. I bet he gave them something they’d never forget just like Mario had done for me.

Now that I knew of the wonderful surprises held beneath a man’s clothes, I struggled to keep myself from staring at him, trailing my eyes along his torso in wonder. I touched my tongue to my teeth as my throat grew dry, smiling in embarrassment as I brought my eyes back up to Mario’s, who was chuckling at me staring at the Anthony show before us. His grin also made my knees buckle as I remembered how his now smooth and perfectly groomed hair became disheveled in my bed. How I saw the control with which he held himself now fall apart before me as we surrendered to each other.

Need tugged on my lower abdomen as I tried to remind myself of where we were. He was so hot. They both were. Man, my brother had some sexy friends. Even Jared was good-looking enough if you could manage to see past his troll-like personality. But his personality shined through far too bright, scorching souls for anyone to be able to bring themself to look at him. I felt nothing but distaste in my mouth for him.

“So, where were you heading to? Everything okay?” Mario asked, his tone casual as he seemed to reach his hand out toward me without thought before becoming conscious of his movement and tucking his hand into his pocket.

Anthony’s head spun and he smiled at me with perfect white teeth against his dark, trimmed beard and hair that hung into his face a little, brushing against the top of his neck. It was so striking, it set my blood on fire.

“Yeah, so how’d the interview go? Are we looking at our new associate?” Anthony said, throwing his arms open wide, only as a playful gesture, but it made the thought of a hug far more tempting. I almost wanted to find an excuse to rush into the embrace, but I managed to hold myself back. Barely.

The two of them were a much-welcomed distraction, but as I fixed my mouth to speak of the events that transpired inthatman’soffice, the heat of my blood no longer rose in attraction but rather resentment and disgust at Jared. “I can’t stand that man,” I mumbled beneath my breath, not wanting to insult his friends as the words fell from my mouth.

Anthony let out a breath of disbelief as he rolled his eyes, dropping into his hips. “What did he do now?” he said.

I looked up in shock as Mario added. “Yeah, as much as we love him, he can be a real dick sometimes. What happened?”

Oh, thank goodness. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing they weren’t judging me.

“I’ve never been so humiliated in my entire life, and listen, I know I was late and that was my bad.” I held up one hand in acknowledgment.

“I take full responsibility for that, but my word, I’d never been spoken to with such disrespect before, never been so belittled. He didn’t care who I was or what I had to say, didn’t even take a look at my resume. No, he had his mind made up about me as soon as I walked into that office. He decided who I was and if there was ever a doubt in his mind that he was wrong about me, he excused that away with more accusations, and I just wanted to . . . ah!” I said, folding my fists and shaking them as if I was pounding on a prison bar, trying to break it down so that I could escape from my thoughts and the ugly feelings I wasn’t accustomed to feeling.

“I wanted to just scream at him!” I said in a loud whisper. “I’d have thought, being my brother’s best friend and all, he’d be more willing to listen to what I had to say!”

“Oh, no. Jared doesn’t make excuses for people just because they’re his friends.” Mario shook his head, and his gelled hair wobbled a tiny bit.

“Yeah, take us for example. We’ve known him since college and we still had to work hard to wow him at the interview,” Anthony said with a shrug.

I wrinkled my brows at both of them, and they seemed to have read my mind when Mario laughed and answered, “Trust me, he’s an awesome dude. He just doesn’t want people to know it so they can exploit him.”

“Yeah, and he’s ruthless but it’s just because he cares.” Anthony reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder in an effort to comfort me, but it lingered just a little too long. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I felt the brush of his thumb massage a tender spot in the little divot there. I almost moaned out loud before he dropped his hand in a hurry, seeming agitated about how he managed to make me feel just by a touch. My heart’s rhythm picked up a little in guilt as I looked at Mario.

The thing was, Mario made me tremble just from his touch too. It was okay to feel that way about two different people though, right? In the twenty-first century, did it mean you that you had to be in a relationship with the super hot guy who was sweet and gentle when he took your virginity and taught you about mind-blowing sex even though you only knew each for one day? Sure, we liked each other. I certainly loved sex with him, but we weren’t committed to each other. I didn’t even know if we’d ever have a moment like that again, even though I wanted to, so very much. But the fact was, he could decide after last night . . . and a few hours ago, that he just wanted to be friends. So, it was okay to look or desire more with another person, right?

They were both talking to each other, breaking away momentarily to look at me with a smile, but for the life of me, I couldn’t hear what they were saying as I found myself overwhelmed by the ultimate sex appeal these men possessed. The way Mario stood with his shoulders straight and professional, although he grinned with playfulness toward his friend, lighting up his eyes, and there was a slight sense of relaxation in how he rested his back against an empty cubicle filled me with an unexplainable yearning to see him crumble from my touch again, knowing that I was able to see him beyond his structured appearance. And then Anthony, leaning into his hip without a care in the world, his shoulders shaking as he laughed. I ached to know where the wisp of hair peeking out over the neck of his shirt led to.

I forced myself to stop salivating over them and attempted to participate in the conversation, focusing on the words so I could hear them. They were still talking about Jared’s good qualities. Look, I didn’t believe what they were trying to sell me on Jared. I was sure he was an okay enough person, I would have hoped so, otherwise he’d have a pretty miserable life, going by the way he treated strangers who could do nothing for him. At least, in my opinion. I didn’t know the guy and I didn’t care to know him. But I wasn’t going to insult his best friends by saying that, so I just smiled as they turned toward me again, nodding.

“I’m sure he is,” I said in response to their compliments about him.

“But listen here, Jared doesn’t always know what’s best for the company. He’s far too protective over it and can miss out on great opportunities that way,” Mario started.

“Yeah, and we know how incredible your achievements are, we believe you’d be a perfect fit,” Anthony added.

My heart warmed at what I thought was just their attempt to make me feel better. “Aw, thanks guys. That’s nice. But Jared doesn’t think so, so that doesn’t matter, does it?”

“Of course it does.” Mario smiled at Anthony before turning to me with a grin.

“Because we’re going to hire you,” Anthony said with a proud smirk as he folded his arms across his chest, emphasizing impressive biceps I didn’t notice before.

I laughed in shock. “You can’t do that . . . Can you?” I asked.

“Sure, we can. I’m sure we’ll find something in the bylaws that’ll work in our favor, and you’re gonna help us find it.” Mario clicked his tongue.

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