Page 26 of Accidentally Mine

Brent

I fired off an email to my assistant and leaned back in the chair in my home office.

The Key Technologies R&D department was dealing with yet another fire they’d had to elevate to me to put out, and on a Sunday no less.

To add to that, there was what looked like a monsoon going on outside.

I’d had my normal amount of sleep last night—that was, practically none.

And I had another fucking gala to attend that night. I should have been on edge.

Instead, I couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear.

I’d let her go at about ten this morning, after lingering kisses in the doorway. She had a story to finish, and I had work to do, and we’d both neglected our responsibilities for too long. After filling us in on Marie’s condition, Ernest practically had to rip us apart to get her into the car.

Even now, all I could think about was her. Her smile. Her taste. Those eyes. Perfect tits. The way she’d come against my mouth, around my body, again and again, just like I’d promised.

I left my office at noon when I realized I hadn’t had anything to eat since dinner the prior night. I went downstairs to the kitchen, in search of a frozen pizza, and spotted Claudia sitting at the center island, going through the stacks of mail I hadn’t had a chance to look at.

“You know,” she said, whirling in the stool she sat on as she studied what looked like a bill. “For the owner of your own business and a complete and total nerd, you’ve always been remarkably disorganized.”

I swept past her into the kitchen, grabbed a coconut water from the fridge, and leaned against the counter, smirking in my lounge pants like the cat who had very much eaten the canary. “Why do I need to organize myself? I have you.”

Since the accident, she’d taken care of my personal finances.

She was a forensic accountant, so numbers were in her blood.

She lived and breathed her work and seemed to exist on babying me.

That was all she ever did. Though she lived not far away in the North End, she was always coming over here, so much so that I’d given her a key.

She rarely dated, and the only time she ever went out was when I dragged her along to the many galas I had to attend.

“I just came to see how my favorite brother is doing and see if you wanted to catch a movie. And I find a stack.”

“Sorry. Swamped with work right now. How was China?”

“Chinese.” She finally looked at me and tilted her head. “Wait. What’s going on? You look different.”

I looked down at my plaid lounge pants. My chest was bare, so she was getting an unusually good look at my scars. I usually covered up. So that could’ve been it. “Not sure what you’re talking about.”

“I know,” she said, sliding off the stool and stalking over to me. As she came closer, her expression switched from curious to suspicious. “You’re smiling .” She said it like it was a dirty word.

“And?”

“Well, you never do that.” She crossed her arms. “Spill, nerdboy. Are you on new medication?”

I finished the coconut water and tossed the can in the recycling. “Sorry, sis. Nothing to spill.”

I could tell she didn’t buy it. And she’d probably find out sooner, rather than later. There really was no reason to keep it a secret. I contemplated telling her as she went back to the center island.

She pointed to a bill. “This one is almost overdue. Are you sure your Key is working? You have to give the bills to me in order for me to pay them on time, you know.”

“It’s working just fine,” I mumbled. “I just have other things on my mind.”

“Mmm, I heard,” Claudia said, piling the bills according to due date, something I thought she actually found fun. “Another gala, huh?”

I groaned at the thought. “Yeah. I can get you a ticket if you want?”

She clapped her hands. My demented sister loved galas, not just because they gave her the chance to baby me, but because she thrived on getting dressed up and flaunting herself in a gown. “Yes! You know I do. Where’s this one?”

“Boston Symphony.”

“Sweet.” She pushed off of the stool, unbuttoned the top button of her severe blazer, and stretched.

“God, I’m so glad to be home. You know, they lost my luggage at Logan again .

That’s like the third time. It’s a good thing it always happens on the way home.

I’d hate to be running around China naked. ”

“I’m bringing a date.”

She swung her head toward me. It was like opening a gigantic can of worms, setting it down, and watching them slither all over the room.

“You…what?” she said, eyes widening. “Who? Where’d you meet her? What’s her name? Where does she live?”

I held up a hand. “Hold on. Her name’s Roselynn. You’ll meet her tonight. I think you’ll like her.”

She stared at me, astonished. “Well, I don’t know.

You’ve never actually brought a woman to a gala.

At first I thought you were just picky, but lately, I’d started thinking you were looking for someone with a rare quality that didn’t exist in nature.

Like, I don’t know, a horn on her head. A unicorn-girl. ”

I laughed. “She is not a unicorn.”

“So she’s an actual, real human?” She rubbed her hands together. “This I’ve got to see.”

“And you shall. But you aren’t one to talk. When was the last time you dated?”

“Don’t change the subject.” She clasped her hands together as she crossed the kitchen to me again, and I could’ve sworn there were tears in her big brown eyes. She hugged me. “That’s why you’re different, baby brother. You’re in love.”

“Whoa.” I held out my arms, refusing to hug her back. “Cart before the horse. I just met her. But I really, really like her. So if you come to this thing, no blithering on about all the stupid things I did when I was a kid. Got it?”

“But that will leave me nothing to talk about!”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Ha.”

I knew that Roselynn and Claudia would get along famously.

Despite having a profession that often had her locked up in a room, spending many lonely nights poring over facts and figures, my sister was very bubbly and sociable and could make friends with a wall.

So when Ernest drove us to South Boston to pick Roselynn up, she and my sister immediately began chatting up a storm.

All the while, I couldn’t take my eyes off the beautiful vision Roselynn made sitting next to me in the car.

I’d ordered her a white gown, coated in gold sparkles to match her hair, and had it delivered to her aunt’s house.

She’d worn her hair loose, tumbling down her bare back in long, sexy spirals.

As she talked to my sister, I had the urge to reach out and touch her.

Before I could stop them, my fingers grazed their way protectively up the curve of her bare back.

When we arrived at Symphony Hall, my sister got out first. I leaned into Roselynn and nuzzled her neck, my arm snaking around her slim waist. “You look edible. If it was up to me, I’d close the door right now and fuck you in the back of this limo.”

She ran her tongue over her top teeth, sexy as hell. “Don’t you have to make an appearance at this thing?”

I tweaked her side. “Unfortunately. But no one said it couldn’t be a short one.”

It would be all the same people in the medical world who I mingled with at each gala, all the same boring chatter, all the same glitz and glamor.

But I walked into this gala with a new kind of pride.

This time I was flanked by easily the two most beautiful women in Boston.

Heads swiveled in our direction as I lifted two champagne flutes and presented them to my sister and Roselynn.

“What is this event for?” Roselynn asked, sipping on her champagne as her eyes darted around the high-ceilinged hall before landing on the stage.

“To support research efforts for the Massachusetts Association for TBI,” Claudia explained. “Brent plays a big part in their fundraising efforts and always contributes.”

“TBI?” Roselynn asked.

“Traumatic Brain Injury,” I filled in, pointing to my head. Her eyes widened.

“So,” Claudia said to Roselynn, linking arms with her as we made our way to our table. “Brent mentioned you write for a living?”

She nodded. “I write and publish a zombie serial, actually. I don’t know if it’s what I want to do for the rest of my life, but it pays the bills.”

“That’s awesome. I’ve always tinkered around with writing myself. I’ve been trying to write a series of mysteries about a forensic accountant who solves crimes. I have a lot of fodder for that, since I am one.”

“And Claudia also tends to stumble into trouble,” I added with a grin.

“That’s because I’m related to you, brother,” she said, reaching over and fake-punching my jaw. She smiled at Roselynn. “So how did you get started in publishing the stuff you wrote? Because I have no idea where I’d start.”

“Oh, I could talk for hours about it,” Roselynn said as I pulled out the chair next to mine and helped her into the seat. “Why don’t I give you my number, and if you have any questions, or want to talk, just text me.”

“That would be amazing,” my sister said, pulling out her phone. Roselynn put in her digits.

As much as I loved that they were getting along like old friends, by the time dinner was over, I’d begun feeling neglected. I reached for Roselynn’s hand. “I want to dance with you, gorgeous.”

“Dance?” She wrinkled her nose toward the busy dance floor, looking unsure for the first time since we’d entered the hall. “Out there? I’m not very graceful.”

“It’s easy.” I took her hand, and when she didn’t stand, said, “Just once. Trust me.” Finally, she stood, and I led her to the dance floor.