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

age didn’t bother me, nothing could ever happen again. She’s my boss’s daughter. I couldn’t betray him like that.”

“Don’t you mean, betray him again?”

I grab a pen from the desk and launch it at him. “That isn’t funny.”

He throws his head back with a hearty laugh. “Then, why am I laughing?”

“She made it clear to me that Friday was a one-night thing anyway.”

“So, why are you stressing about it?”

“I guess I just feel guilty.”

“Well, get over it. I know you hate disappointing people, but if it isn’t going to happen again, then just move past it. I mean, you’ve never had a problem with getting over a one-night stand.”

Except Ever was different…

I don’t say this out loud, but she was the one woman I was going to break my rule for. I think the real reason I was so angry with her today was because I was gutted things couldn’t go any further with us.

Angry because she’s my boss’s daughter. Angry because she’s way too young for me.

I don’t believe in soul mates or true love—at least, not for me—but why is the one woman who I was willing to risk having more with too far out of my reach?

“You’re right. I hate knowing I’ll have to keep this from Edwin.”

“But it’s for the best, right? If you told him, it’d just affect your relationship with him. It isn’t like anything else will happen between you and Ever, so there’s no point in pissing the guy off for nothing. Just leave today in the past and focus on being a kick-ass junior partner.”

I smile at my brother, so grateful I have him in my life. “What would I do without you?”

“Probably starve to death or get stomach ulcers from stressing so much. Also, when did you become such a stress-head? You are like the coolest and most collected guy I know.”

I shrug my shoulders. “I guess even lawyers like me have their off days. I’ve just worked so hard to get to where I am that the thought of losing it…I don’t know…it just freaked me out. Then, it didn’t help that everything else decided to shit on me.”

With my hand over my mouse, I close everything down on my laptop and slam it shut. “I’m going to take your advice,” I say as I stand from my seat. “I need to stop dwelling on this shittastic day and focus on being the best lawyer I can be.”

I wave a hand around my messy office, which still has unopened boxes scattered around. “You mind giving me a hand with my office? I think my unpacked office has been my goddamn omen.”

Jace stands from his seat, holding up his forefinger. “On one condition.”

“Shoot,” I tell him, unbuttoning my cuffs and pushing my sleeves up my arms.

He walks over to my desk and picks up my discarded tie. “Throw this away. It’s ugly. I’m not surprised you had a shitty day. Anything that has yellow in it is a fucking omen too.”

“Hey, that’s a new tie,” I argue.

“New tie or not, it looks like it’s got little dicks on it.”

I snatch it from him and have a closer look. I fight back a laugh when I see small patterns that suspiciously look like penises.

Who the fuck designed this?

“Well, damn. I deserved everything that was thrown at me today.”

Putting yesterday behind me, I walk through the office with my head held high and an extra coffee in the tray. A latte with extra whipped cream.

Kimberley spots it immediately as I hand over her morning coffee.

“Who’s the extra coffee for? And I know it isn’t Edwin’s because he’s in court all day today.”

Another reason she is my assistant: she’s always on the fucking ball.

“For someone I need to apologize to. I was kind of a dick to them.”

“Just kind of?” she asks before taking a sip of her coffee.

I tilt my head to the side, a slight smile on my face. “No, I was one hundred percent a dick to them.”

“You going to tell me who?”

“Since you already know everything about me, I’m going to keep this one to myself. It’s nice to have some mystery between us.”

I leave Kimberley chuckling behind me as I go in search of Reagan. Since she’s an intern, we placed her with the first-year associates. As I enter the associates’ office, I blink with surprise when I see only her working away at her desk. It pisses me off that out of all our associates, it’s an intern who is early.

She stills for a moment when she sees me out of the corner of her eye but immediately looks away and focuses back on the job at hand. She purposely avoids me until I set a coffee down in front of her. She frowns at it before looking up at me.

“A peace offering,” I say.

“Aren’t I supposed to get your coffee?” she muses, glancing at her coffee cup like it’s about to explode.

“Other law firms, yes. Here at Sullivan-Gould, we get our own coffees. This, however, is an apology coffee. You didn’t see me at my best yesterday, and for that, I’m sorry,” I tell her sincerely.

She remains silent as she continues to look from me to the coffee.

“How do you know what coffee I take?” she finally asks.

“Well, if I remember correctly, you drink latte with extra whipped cream.”

The corner of her mouth tilts up with what looks to be a smile, but she stops herself at the last minute and pulls her features back in. “I thought you wanted to pretend we didn’t happen.”

I purse my lips and shake my head. I perch myself on the desk and cross my arms over my chest. “That’s one of the things I want to apologize for. I have no excuses for my behavior. Yesterday was my first day of being a junior partner, and when you appeared in Edwin’s office and I learned who you were, I freaked. And just so you know, that isn’t the