Forever Blake (Once Upon a Player Book 3) by Elena Matthews (free books to read .TXT) 📗

anything. This job is too important to me to let anything jeopardize it. I just need to make sure you understand that nothing can happen between us again.”

Crossing her arms over her chest, she rolls her eyes. “No offense, Blake, but I already told you that Friday night was a one-time thing, and I was telling the truth. You don’t have to give me the spiel you have to give your clingy one-night stand chicks. I’m a big girl, Blake. I knew what I was getting into when I got in bed with you. You can relax. Like you, I don’t do relationships either. All I’m focused on is becoming a lawyer.”

Her words make me feel marginally better, except there is still something niggling at the back of my mind.

“I need to make sure you won’t ever tell your father. I can’t have him knowing that his junior partner slept with his barely legal daughter. He can’t ever find out.”

She scoffs, “Barely legal? I’m not sixteen. I’m a grown fucking woman. Also, I tend not to tell my dad about my sexual conquests, so you’re safe. We can keep that a secret.”

“Or even better, let’s pretend it didn’t happen.” As soon as I say this, I know I won’t be able to do this.

Since the moment she left my apartment on Saturday, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her. I’m disappointed we won’t have sex again. I mean, with the version of Ever who wasn’t twenty-two and Edwin’s daughter, that is.

“If that’ll make you feel less guilty when you’re around my father, then okay, let’s pretend it didn’t happen. I don’t really care, Blake. I’m here for one thing and one thing only—for my internship before heading to law school. An internship I’d like to start if you don’t mind.”

I don’t show it, but I’m taken aback at how nonchalant she’s being. Almost like Friday night meant nothing to her, that I was just another notch on her bedpost. I know it sounds ridiculous since that’s essentially what she was to me…but that night was different. It didn’t feel like just another notch…it was more than that. It was like I was a blind man who regained his sight, and now…it’s like I’ve lost the ability to see again.

I’m not ashamed to admit that my ego is one hundred percent bruised right now, and I’m struggling with how to process this. It’s a new feeling, one I can’t even begin to understand.

“Okay, good. I’m glad we’re on the same page.” The words that leave my mouth sound genuine, but with the way my gut twists, I know they’re nothing but a lie.

Straightening up my posture, I brush past Ever and open the door. “Now, with that squared away, let me show you where Human Resources is and get you situated.”

I swing my arm in the direction of the hallway, indicating her to go first. She nods her head and steps past me without a single glance.

As I go to shut the door behind me, those pretty blues stare into mine. “I’m disappointed.”

“About?”

“You,” is all she says.

My brows rise. “Excuse me?”

Instead of repeating herself, she elaborates, “My father described you as honorable, trustworthy, and a man who would have his back, no matter what. Yet when it really comes down to it, the only person’s back you have is your own. First day of being junior partner, and you’ve already lied to him. I wonder what else you’ve lied to him about.”

For the first time in, well, fucking forever, she has me completely dumbstruck. I open my mouth to speak, yet I’m left looking like a goldfish opening and closing its mouth.

Then, she says one final thing, “I can’t wait to learn how to become a deceitful son of a bitch since, you know, I’m going to be learning from the best.”

She walks off, and a minute must go by before I realize I didn’t show her to Human Resources.

Edwin asked me to take her under my wing, and the only things I’ve managed to do are give her the wrong impression of me and potentially let her get lost in the huge building that is Sullivan-Gould.

Jesus, fuck, can this day get any worse?

To answer my last question, yes, my day got exceedingly worse.

After the meet-and-greet freak-out with Reagan—who I now refuse to call Ever because if I pretend Ever and Reagan are two different people, then I might forget I ever slept with my boss’s daughter—the day just went from shit to catastrophic.

A first-year associate spilled hot coffee down my two-thousand-dollar suit, and the coffee wasn’t even for me.

I spent all day prepping a case, only for all the systems to go down, and I lost seven hours’ worth of work. It’s safe to say that IT got a fucking earful. So, now, I must redo everything, meaning I’ll be working an all-nighter with only the cleaning staff as company.

Then, to add icing to the already-crap-filled cake, a client threatened if I didn’t get him an extra thirty million in his settlement, then he’d dump my ass so quickly that I’d think I was a teen in an episode of Dawson’s Creek.

So, here I am, sitting at my desk in my now-ruffled, coffee-covered suit, trying to recount documents word for fucking word before trying to work out a way of getting my other client thirty million dollars more. This would be a great opportunity for the summer intern to help, but after this morning, it’s safe to say that I’ve been avoiding Reagan like the plague. So, I soldier on and try to make the best of a shitty day.

At around nine, I blink in surprise as my brother Jace pops his head around my door with a takeout bag in his hand. My stomach growls in anticipation, and I realize I haven’t eaten anything since lunch. Though stuffing a couple of Oreos in my mouth before going into a meeting isn’t exactly lunch. I