Authors: Bridget Midway
“I, uh—”
“Do me a favor. Don’t think. If you can’t fill my order, I’ll go somewhere else.” Before he disconnected the call, he had to make one other point very clear. “And I go by Jace now, not Christian. Got it?”
“Uh, yeah. Okay.”
Jace disconnected the call and threw the phone on the desk. He ran both hands over his hair, hoping to erase all the shit he’d endured today.
Hell, he hadn’t been putting up with crap just for that day. The last ten years had been torturous. No, not ten years. Longer. He had to count the lost years when he’d made some stupid choices in his youth.
He opened the top drawer of the desk and peered down.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Jace brought his attention up in time to see Aaron strolling toward him. He hadn’t even heard the door opening to the trailer when the big man entered. Jace hadn’t seen him since the awards dinner.
“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, especially on my job site.” Jace glared at the man approaching him. “Besides, I only looked. I wasn’t going to smoke.” Jace slammed the drawer after giving one last glance at the pack of Marlboro cigarettes resting on top of loose change and pens.
“Bullshit. We all could hear you outside the trailer, tearing the supplier a new asshole. I knew your next move would be to snag one of my cigs. So no tile?” The lithe African-American man sat on a tattered, yellow-and-red plaid couch.
Aaron’s skin tone always reminded Jace of sawdust, golden with imperfections. Aaron’s steel-toed boots had caked-on mud across the top and underneath. The splattered mud at the bottom of his jeans dried and started to break off in chunks. Jace missed living his life like that, the spoils of work evident on his person.
“No tile from that guy. I’ll find someone else who’ll give me what I need.” Jace came around from behind the desk and sat on it as he spoke to Aaron.
“Why don’t you let me worry about that? I am your foreman. I’m supposed to be an extension of you.” Aaron sniffed and turned his gaze away from Jace.
Jace should have been able to trust Aaron. He had control issues. Even after all these years, Jace couldn’t blur the lines between friendship and business.
Aaron pointed to him. “You aren’t even supposed to be here. You shouldn’t dirty up your cool suit.”
Jace didn’t have on the jacket, but at the mention of his clothing, he loosened his tie. His preference would have been to wear jeans, boots, and a cotton T-shirt like Aaron. He had meetings and had to look like a professional, like a man who owned and ran a successful company. Perception meant everything.
“I came out to do an inspection and I hear from the crew about issues on the job. I can’t sit back and wait to talk to you. I’m going to take care of things myself.” Jace unbuttoned the top button on his crisp, white shirt, starched stiff enough to be considered a torture device.
“Spoken like a true Morton.” Aaron chuckled.
Jace didn’t. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
When Jace watched the smile dripping from Aaron’s face, he knew his employee understood the error of his ways.
Aaron held up his hand. “Bad joke about the whole…” He snapped his wrist in the air and made a whipping sound. “You know. Your brother and all.”
Good. Aaron didn’t know about Jace’s involvement—or, rather, his former involvement—in the lifestyle. It had been a long time since he’d cracked a whip or even been in a dungeon. The little things he did with women he’d dated only stoked the fire in him to do more. He stopped. He stopped going to clubs. He stopped dating. He stopped it all.
Jace shook his head. “It’s been five fucking years. Won’t people let that go?”
“Sorry, man. I shouldn’t have gone there.” Aaron lifted his ball cap and scratched the top of his shaved head. “I thought enough time had passed that we could, you know, joke about it.”
Considering Jace hadn’t made up with Eagan after their father passed away, he really didn’t want to talk about his brother.
“Did you come in here for something?” Jace went to a window and twirled the wand to the blinds that covered them to open them.
Workers filled the small subdivision, moving back and forth to the various houses in different states of completion. They all looked great. He needed people to buy them.
“Apparently I didn’t come in
my
office to see you for your wit and sparkling personality.” Aaron stood. “Since you’re here, I can ask you about a couple of things. You have any plans for that building outside of Town Center?”
Jace turned to Aaron. “The one in Virginia Beach?”
Aaron nodded.
Aaron started working for Jace nearly fifteen years ago, when he first started his building company. Back then, he did small jobs: additions, renovations, repairs, handyman work. As he saved money, his business grew and grew until he made C.J. Morton Builders the top residential construction company in the Tidewater area of Virginia. With all Jace had been through to get to this point, he wondered why his employee questioned him on a piece of property.
“Why are you asking?” Jace rested his hands on his hips.
Aaron shrugged.
“No, don’t do that. You asked me for a reason. I want to know what it is.”
The window unit whistled as it pumped cool air into the small trailer. It felt good in the middle of a hot summer day.
“Okay, I was approached by a developer. He’s offering top dollar for it.”
Jace felt like he’d been punched in his gut. “Why would you be discussing my business with anyone else?”
Aaron took a step back. “I wasn’t. Like I said, the cat approached me. Besides, last I heard, we’ve only sold one house in here, and we’re building twenty. The real estate market is turning, but not that much.”
Jace took a decided step forward. “Have I ever not paid you or paid you late?” Heat simmered at his feet nestled inside his expensive leather shoes and eased up his body.
“No.” Aaron shook his head.
“Have I ever said my business was in trouble or laid anyone off?” The flames licked at his thighs as it made its way up his body.
“Never.”
“If you ever come in here with suggestions on how I should run my
thriving
business, you will be out, understand?”
Aaron tilted his head back and walked backwards to the door. “Understood. I figured after so many years, you would respect my opinion.”
Jace didn’t say anything to the man who he’d found as a day laborer in front of a hardware store so many years ago. He should have trusted Aaron. Jace shared with him what he would have told to Eagan.
Aaron rested his hand on the doorknob. “Since you are in town, Cherryce wanted me to invite you to dinner.”
Now Jace felt like an asshole. Aaron’s wife had been nothing but kind to him and looked out for him like a brother. “Let me see how the day plays out. I’ll let you know.”
Aaron nodded before he turned to the door.
“Hey, wait.” Jace walked toward his employee.
“Yeah?”
“She didn’t invite anyone else over, did she?”
Aaron stared at Jace for a beat before turning away.
“Damn it, man. I don’t need to be fixed up.” Jace shook his head.
“Cherryce thinks if you had someone in your life, you might…” Aaron trailed off.
“Might what?”
Aaron exhaled. “Relax a little. You’ve been a little high strung lately. Snapping at people and thinking about smoking again.” He pointed to the desk.
Jace felt his shoulders bunching up around his ears. “They’re not even my cigarettes. They’re yours. You should consider quitting, too.” At this point, his body felt like flames surrounded him. Here he thought not living with his mother he would have avoided awkward conversations like this.
“Now you sound like my lady.” Aaron scratched his chin. “We’re concerned about you. I haven’t seen you with a girl—”
“Woman,” Jace said, interrupting Aaron.
“Since Michelle, the cute chick with the short haircut that was swept off to the side and them lips.” Aaron licked his like a dog ready to eat a rare steak.
“Don’t make me call your wife.” Jace wagged his finger at Aaron.
Aaron waved his hand in front of Jace. “No need. Honey and I talked about you two. She liked Michelle. It impressed me that you were down with the swirl.”
Jace felt his eyebrows crawl to each other like a meeting of the minds. “What?”
“You know.” Aaron pointed at him. “White dude. Black girl.”
“Woman.”
“Right. Put the two together.” Aaron moved his hand around as though stirring an invisible pot of Kool-Aid. “Swirl.”
“I didn’t go out with her because of some saying. I liked her.” Too bad Michelle didn’t dig being tied up or spanked.
She had allowed him to take some liberties with her one night, thinking Jace wanted to do something kinky. When he’d tried to incorporate his BDSM side into their relationship again, she couldn’t take it. It didn’t help that she’d known about his brother’s damn show.
“A family of freaks,” was what Michelle had called Jace and Eagan.
Since then, Jace had kept to himself. No use dragging anyone else into his personal hell. “Check on your crew. Let me know about the tile.”
“And dinner?” Aaron quickly added.
“If I show up and there’s someone there I don’t know, I’m walking right out.”
“Fine. You still heading out of town tomorrow?” Aaron opened the door.
A rush of hot air filled the trailer.
“Depends. If I know everything is cool here, I’ll head out to Arizona tomorrow for a couple of weeks, then Florida for another few weeks. I’m trying to go national.”
“Trust me. Everything will be fine. I’ll look after things here.”
Jace shook his head. “I didn’t get where I am by trusting a whole lot of people.”
Aaron snickered. “Wow. Whatever, man.” He started to step out of the trailer when he stopped and backed up. “Come on in.”
Jace looked at the doorway to see who Aaron had ushered into the office space. As soon as he saw Ananda’s smiling face, he couldn’t help but see his brother. She hugged Aaron first.
“Good to see you. How’s Cherryce?” she asked as she patted his shoulder.
“The same, ornery but fine as hell.” Aaron smiled. He peered over at Jace. “Hope you can cheer your bro-in-law up.”
“Get back to work.” Jace pointed out the door.
“See.” Aaron nodded toward Jace. “Talk to you later.” He closed the door behind himself.
Jace remained in his spot, so Ananda strolled to him with her arms outstretched.
“So good to see you, Jace.” She embraced him.
Jace left his arms dangling by his sides. Even as his sister-in-law hugged him, he thought about their snub a couple of weeks ago when they couldn’t be bothered to see Jace at the awards dinner. Jace had been to Eagan’s movie premieres and had even attended a couple of award shows where Eagan’s work had been nominated. Weeks after his event, he hadn’t heard a word from Eagan or Ananda.
Ananda had been kind and sweet. Like Cherryce and Aaron, Ananda had invited Jace over for dinner on occasion, except she never had a surprise waiting for him. She never tried setting him up with anyone. Maybe, unlike Cherryce, Ananda didn’t find Jace to be loveable.
One thing he did have to commend her on despite everything else, he liked the fact that it didn’t take her long to adjust herself from calling him Christian, something Eagan hadn’t done yet.
“You tracked me down here.” He peered behind her at the door, half expecting it to be flung open, and see Eagan coming through it. “Here alone?”
“I called your office, and your assistant said you would be here.” She pulled back from him. “Eagan is in California promoting
Infinity: The Great Beyond
. It was such a blessing that the first movie did so well, even after losing Dris Markham.”
Jace stepped back near the desk. Without invitation, Ananda sat in a chair across from it. He kind of hoped her visit would be short and sweet. He didn’t need to hear her making excuses for herself or Eagan. At this point in his life, he wanted to be left alone.
“You didn’t go with him this time?” Jace remembered when
Infinity
had been released, Ananda had gone with him to all the press junkets.
Of course,
Love My Way
still had some heat on it since the series had gone on DVD and streaming systems everywhere by that point. As Eagan and Ananda promoted the movie, they also had talked about the show. Jace didn’t watch any of it. To him, Ananda provided Eagan another reason to avoid him.
Ananda shook her head. “Not right away. I have work of my own this time, which is why I’m here.”
“This new project the reason you and Eagan couldn’t make my awards dinner?” Jace glared at her. “Mom was there. I called and left Eagan messages.”
She sighed and kept her gaze down to the floor, probably out of shame. She brought her face up to answer him. “I am so sorry that we missed your event. I thought, though, that Eagan had called you to let you know we wouldn’t be able to make it.”
Jace shook his head. “No, he didn’t.” Then he shrugged. “It’s okay. At this point I’m used to him being a no-show in my life.”
“That’s not fair. He wants to be more involved. He’s—”
Jace stopped her line of excuses for her husband by holding up his hand to her. “Stop. I’m sure he has an excuse. I don’t have time to hear it. So what is it that you’re doing?” Jace couldn’t imagine what Ananda could be there to do or ask.
“I’m going to produce my own show.” She smiled.
Jace understood how Eagan could fall in love with this vision. Her face lit up when she smiled. She had her hair cut to chin length and left shaggy but stylish. Her almond-shaped eyes had him wishing he had a woman with eyes like that who would look at him that way.
He’d heard that Ananda danced professionally and had even choreographed a few numbers on that
High Stepper
show. Her body showed off her hard work. She kept it trim and lean.
Looking at Ananda had him thinking about the vision he’d encountered at the Cavalier. He normally didn’t go for shorter women, but this one had him thinking twice about his choices. She had her chestnut-colored hair in a bun that he wanted to take down and grab in his fist. Her plain, black dress showed off her curves. She had a full rack that he managed to take a quick peek at while she spoke to him. Her long legs had him imagining what they would be like around his body. Her complexion carried the same shade as a rich cup of coffee with a splash of cream.