AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"I would think that you have had more than enough help to relieve your tension," Katie snickers.
She hasn't really stopped laughing since I came down to her massage room twenty minutes ago. After the news broke this morning, I hightailed it downstairs to the spa I'd set up in my company's headquarters for moments just like this.
"It's not fucking funny, Katie. I'm no one's baby daddy. And that unprotected sex bullshit is just that.," I grumble. "Hey, I'd double bag if I had to make sure that no woman can go around saying that she has Matthias Baxter, Jr. in her belly."
Katie moves around the table and jabs her elbow into my shoulder blade, making me yelp. "Um, I don't think that's where the baby is—"
"You know what I mean!"
This time it's not just a snicker, she outright guffaws and slaps her hand across my bare ass.
Considering we slept together a few times about four years ago, there doesn't really seem to be any need to be modest around her. I scowl into the hole, glad she can't see me, or else she'd be laughing even harder. These bogus news stories are the bane of my existence. After living here in Manhattan for seven years now, I would've thought that the entertainment channels would be more than sick of plastering my fucking face on their big screens. It's not the allegations themselves that annoy me—they're always quickly quietened with a fat check—it's how they affect business. I'm spending more time putting out fires than actually getting any work done.
We don't say anything for a few minutes as she grunts, trying to dig the pointy parts of her body into the sore parts of mine, finally working out some of the tension. That is until the door flings open and my assistant's voice comes crashing down over my trying-to-relax state.
"Matthias! Where have you been?"
Judging by the tone of her voice, my massage is over.
I sit up, ignoring the fact that I'm buck naked. There's isn't much she hasn't seen of me either, but not in any kind of sexual state. She's just walked in on me showering or changing enough times not to be fazed in the slightest about the sight of my back and front bits. If anything, I feel like she silently scoffs, as if she's disappointed in me for even having genitalia.
That’s what you get when you hire an assistant who’s ten years older than you.
"You know, Hannah," I say, "all of my brothers' assistants call them'Mr. Baxter."
Her eyes roll up so high in her head she can probably see what's hung on the wall behind her. "Well, then, you wouldn't want to be mistaken for them, would you? Aren't you always complaining about how you hate being in your older brother's shadow and overtaken by your younger brothers' intelligence?" she says, her voice deadpan as she throws a robe at me.
It lands over my head and drapes over my face, the scent of fabric softener permeating my breath. "Touché. What are you doing here, anyway? You said I had a half hour break before my next meeting."
"Mr. Baxter is on the phone," she says.
"Which Mr. Baxter?"
A smug smile settles on her lips as she realizes I have made her point. "Your uncle."
A string of curses spills from my lips. Gerry, my uncle, the interim CEO of Baxter Enterprises, is more of a pain in my ass than my masseuse and assistant put together. Times a thousand. As far as I know, they're not trying to throw my three brothers and me out of the company.
"What does he want?" I growl, pulling on the robe. Any day that has Gerry in it is a bad day.
She purses her lips. "I think you know what he wants."
I do. It's about the news that he's allegedly about to be a great-uncle to two baby Baxters. I slide off the massage table and shrug. "He'll get over it. It's not the first time."
"I don't know. He sounded angry. He sent Paula from PR to come talk to you."
"What makes this time important enough for him to stick his nose into it?" I ask, but it's a rhetorical question.
We know exactly why.
Because in eight months, the company's board is due for a vote, and as agreed between the board and my late grandfather, when my eldest brother Kingsley turns forty-two years old, he is to be voted in as CEO. So, Gerry, as interim CEO, has eight months left to get us thrown out and get the board to vote him permanently into the position. Since my grandfather's passing, he's been trying to pick all of us off, one by one. He hasn't succeeded with any of my brothers yet, and I'll be fucking damned if I'm going to be the weak link.
Hannah hands me my clothes and turns away while I quickly get changed in my private elevator as it whizzes up to my office floor. "You don't have to turn away, you know. You're welcome to enjoy the show."
"No, thank you. I'm not much for horror movies, Matthias."
"Ouch!" I groan as the elevator comes to a stop, and I catch a smirk on her face as she steps out onto the floor ahead of me. "Paula," I say as soon as I step into my office to see my PR rep standing there, looking about as pissed with my uncle as I am. "Tell me what I have to do to make this all go away, and fast, so I can actually get some work done around here."
"Yes, Mr. Baxter. But frankly, sir, you're going to fucking hate it."
