to work,” he says dryly, with an unmistakable hint of censure.
I flop down in the seat opposite him and kick my feet up onto his desk. “Well, hello, JT. It’s nice to see you too.”
He snorts but keeps reading his document. I take the moment to study him carefully and unobtrusively. JT had been my long-standing friend, and even though I often wanted to throttle him, deep down I always loved him. But now he’s an evil monster in my eyes. I find it utterly fascinating that I’m sitting here looking at him with detachment, apparently fully capable of keeping my rage toward him compartmentalized. I think that I have such a sense of moral high ground cushioning me right now, sprinkled with a bit of vigilante justice, that I’m able to view him as a mouse in my game.
I’m the cat, by the way.
“Come on, man,” I say with amused affection that tastes slightly bitter on my tongue. “You’re not mad I took a week off from work with a gorgeous woman, are you?”
JT doesn’t look up at me, but I see the corner of his mouth tip up. “No,” he drawls. “I’m mad you wouldn’t answer any of my fucking calls or emails.”
“Seriously dude . . . have you seen Sela?” I ask with a laugh that I’m pleased sounds genuine. “I was a little preoccupied.”
He doesn’t respond or look up at me, and I find the sullen silence to suit the egotistical child-man I know him to be.
“JT,” I say softly, and because he can hear the seriousness in my voice, he raises his gaze to mine. “I think I love her, man.”
With raised eyebrows and mouth slightly agape, he repeats, “You love her?”
Yes, JT. I think I’ve fallen in love with the woman you raped ten years ago. What I really want to do is kill you. Choke you with my bare hands while you plead with your eyes for me to stop. I want to watch you take your last breath, and then I want to go tell Sela that she’s been avenged.
But I can’t say that, so I simply say, “I think I do. I mean . . . I can’t seem to get enough of her. I’ve asked her to move in permanently with me, and I think she’s the one. You know how you just kind of know?”
JT shakes his head and I’m not surprised when he says, “No. I don’t know. Never felt that before for a woman.”
Because you’re incapable of love you selfish, narcissistic, sociopathic prick.
“I wish you could feel it, buddy,” I tell him with a wistful smile. “It’s amazing. Finding someone you want to devote your life to.”
JT just blinks at me, clearly perplexed. He can’t comprehend that level of care.
“Finding a woman who completes you,” I continue as I pin him with a fervent look. “A woman that you would do anything for. Defend to the end. Be her knight in shining armor. Make all her worries and hurts go away, no matter the cost.”
I’m going to make you pay for what you did to her, you fucking bastard.
“Yeah,” I say with a smile leveled at my half brother. “I think I love her.”
Tilting his head to the side, he gives me a pointed look. “You’ve only known her a few weeks.”
“Almost a month and a half.”
“Still not very long to fall in love,” he says skeptically. “Especially for a confirmed bachelor.”
Now, let me throw a little more bait out there for you. Make you think you’re my guy. Buds to the end. “You think I’m rushing it?”
JT chomps down hard on the bait and sits up straighter in his chair as he tosses down the document. He leans forward, resting his forearms on the desk, and clasps his hands, leveling a serious look at me. “Listen . . . I don’t know Sela very well, but dude . . . she’s a Sugar Baby. Sugar Babies are all about the money. Now, I’m not saying that’s what she’s doing, but just remember what her initial agenda was when you first met her.”
I have to practically bite down on the inside of my cheek not to laugh out loud, because it’s fucking funny that JT would even try to hazard a guess as to what Sela’s original agenda was when I first met her. He’d be shocked as shit to know it wasn’t to get my money but to murder him in cold blood.