AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We finish up our lunch, then start walking in the direction of Griffin’s office.
“Do you have time to come up?” he asks.
I glance at my watch. “I should probably head back. I don’t want to take a long lunch on my second day.”
“Real quick.” He motions toward the building entrance. “The view is cool.”
I can’t argue with Griffin’s eagerness. While we’re eight years apart, we’re on the same timeline. Both here in a new city and starting our careers. If his excitement is anything on par with how I feel, I want to indulge his excitement to share his new office with me.
I follow him inside the building where we take the elevator up to the twenty-third floor. The office layout is similar to Marion Adler Events. Glass doors open to reception, and then long hallways on both sides house offices. The décor is more wood and metal, crisp clean lines, where Marion Adler Events office is romantic and whimsical.
Griffin introduces me to the receptionist, Rebecca, and a few other coworkers we meet along the way to his office.
In his office, he sits behind his desk and I take one of the guest chairs across from him, facing the windows. The architecture of the buildings in Midtown and the Flatiron District are some of my favorites. It’s postcard-worthy and I love that this is the view he has every day.
I make a low whistling sound. “Very impressive.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool.”
It’s a million times better than the one I have from the interior office me and the other interns share. He looks so damn happy sitting across from me. It makes my heart swell, because he deserves this. There’s nothing I can do to pay him back for the sacrifices he made to raise me, but I will be damn sure to do whatever I can to lessen the burden on him. To work hard and make him proud. To become self-reliant for once in my life.
I stand to check out the pictures lining his bookcase that he’s brought in from home. There’s one of him and Emma at their wedding. Emma’s designer slip wedding dress, simple, yet elegant, while Griffin looks deliriously happy in his black denim and t-shirt.
I sigh, thinking about their unconventional love story. And maybe about love in general. Something I’m not familiar with. If I wasn’t busting my ass getting top grades in school, I was working a part-time job. And, if a guy came anywhere near me, Griffin’s big brother ‘mess with my sister and I’ll fuck you up’ glare scared them off.
Now there is a whole city of men. I’m sure if I wasn’t so focused on starting my career, it would be fun to explore the dating pool that New York City has to offer.
Hunter.
I ignore my brain’s automatic reference to the gorgeous man with piercing blue eyes and a thick cock that left me deliciously sore.
There’s also a picture of Griffin and me when we were kids. I must have been five or six and Griffin was a freshman in high school. Sometimes I wonder if our roles would have been reversed, if I would have had it in me to raise him. To put my needs aside and do what was best for us. The responsibility that would have required. I don’t think I would have been able to do it.
A knock at Griffin’s open door has both our heads swiveling toward the doorway. For the second day in a row, I do a double take.
Hunter.
At the sight of him standing there, my heart immediately stops before picking back up at a rapid-fire pace.
“Hey, Griffin,” Hunter’s attention is on Griffin as he waves a manila folder in the air. What the hell? I want to crawl under Griffin’s desk, but my brain has short circuited and my shaky hand knocks one of the photo frames off the shelf, drawing Hunter’s attention.
When Hunter’s eyes land on me, there’s nothing short of absolute shock in them. After all, this is the second time in two days, he’s not expecting to seeme, but he manages to recover quickly.
“I didn’t realize you had company.” Hunter’s words are for Griffin, but his gaze never leaves me.
I could be imagining it, but Hunter’s eyes narrow slightly, and his jaw tightens.
He doesn’t look pleased to see me. Is he annoyed that I’m here? Does he think that I’m some obsessed woman that is trying to track him down?
I break our eye contact to pick up the fallen frame and set it back on the shelf.
“Hunter,” Griffin starts, “this is my sister, Sophie.”
The bulging muscle in his jaw somewhat relaxes, then Hunter confidently takes the three steps over to where I’m standing.
“Sophie, this is Hunter Cartwright. He’s the CEO here at Premier Real Estate Group.”
I’m too stunned to speak. In fact, I think I might squeak when Hunter’s large hand wraps around mine. If my humiliation yesterday wasn’t enough, looks like we’re going for round two. Maybe my denial at Coco’s insistence there was something cosmically at play with me and Hunter has the universe sayinghold my beer.None of that matters right now except figuring out how to respond to this discovery. Inside my skull, my brain is playing ping pong, my thoughts bouncing all over the place.
