Page 71 of Broken Brothers

She could not have dropped that nugget of information by accident. She knows exactly what she’s doing.

“I’m going to someday walk away from Rising Sun with a lot more money in my pocket than I started, but you see this? How I look? This is hiding the stress and burden of having to care forthat business and my employees. Your money is going to save me in a way I could never thank you enough for.”

I smiled but felt very uncomfortable at that statement. I had a feeling this was dangerously tilting toward a Layla-esque situation, except this time, the tables were turned. Claire was the vulnerable one. I swore on the spot that I wouldn’t take advantage of whatever she said, but how could I not? If she told me something about her financial situation that could lead to a better deal…

Would I be man enough to pretend not to have heard her? If Morgan found out, would he have done the same? Or would we have both sought to take full advantage of Claire’s oversharing for our own benefit?

“Well, tell me the story some other time,” I said, holding out my glass for a cheers. “Let’s instead focus on the good times here, shall we? Be present. Sway with the music.”

She looked at me askance, even as we clinked glasses together.

“What?” I said, pretending to be playful but desperately hoping Claire did not linger on the topic of business still. I almost wanted to kiss her purely to prevent her from putting me in the same spot of power Layla abused with me.

“This is so unlike you, Chance,” she said. “You’re the quiet, dark, mysterious brother. Morgan is the talker. Morgan doesn’t know when to shut the hell up. You’re the one who watches and charms.”

I bit my lip to prevent myself from saying something that surely would have crossed the line into blatantly flirtatious. I was this close to saying “how could I not stare at someone as beautiful as you?”

A few more drinks and I would be well on my way to saying such a thing.

Fortunately, I was only on my first drink, not my fifth.

“Sometimes I like to change things up, especially as business continues to grow and I can reach a position like you.”

It was… mildly flirtatious. Perhaps just risque enough for a business conversation, but not so much so as to be construed as inappropriate.

“Very well,” Claire said. “Hold on, I need to use the bathroom.”

She got up, put her hand on me supposedly for balance, and walked forward. I noticed as she moved that she had probably had more than one or two drinks up to that point. I knew right then this night was going to end with one of us making a move.

The only question is if I would be moving to meet her on making the move, or if I would be strong enough to avoid making the move.

I went into the tank in my thoughts, reminding myself that I needed to be strong and not keep making move on my business colleagues. Part of being a man, I told myself, was being able to say no to women as much as it was seducing the ones I wanted. Anyone could say yes to an interested woman—it took a true man with true self-value to know how to say no to a woman he shouldn’t have slept with.

That ended, though, when Claire came back and put her hand on my shoulder.

“Oh, I drank a bit,” she said with a chuckle.

She paused, looking into my eyes for several seconds. It was incredibly obvious what she was hoping for in that moment. She was hoping I would lean forward, close my eyes, and press my lips onto her.

That was not going to happen.

“You should probably take a seat, then,” I said. I could see the disappointment in her eyes, that sense of half-disgust that I had not given her what she wanted.

Which, I shortly realized as she leaned forward, showing me her cleavage, made her want me even more. This was going to be a real challenge tonight.

You know, would it really kill the deal if you slept with her? You haven’t had sex since Layla. You need someone… why not Claire? She’s cute and harmless.

But what if she says something? Do you want to be in a position like Layla?

So don’t take advantage of her, you fuckhead. It’s not that hard.

“I’m sorry, I’ve had more than I ever intended to have,” she said with a laugh. “I, I have just had a lot of stress. It’s not just work. My boyfriend broke up with me a couple of weeks ago.”

It didn’t take me long to figure out that that coincided with when I’d walked into her office and made the deal with her. It didn’t take me any further time to realize we were both each other’s rebounds—she was mine from Layla, and I was hers from her boyfriend. In fact, I began to suspect she had taken our deal so quickly partly as a way to get over her ex, so she could have something to feel good about.

It was all coming together. She was so cold that day because she had just gotten dumped. But ever since then, she was looking for someone to help her move past, someone she knew. She was too busy to get on a dating app and take risks with someone completely new. So she went for the handsome guy who wasn’t her coworker but would be around her all this time.

Me.