Her Brother, Her Mate

Hadley POV

Simone is belting out the song Call me Maybe on this super fancy karaoke machine. Strobe lights are going, a smoke machine came out of nowhere, filling the room with a hazy glow, and some burly man named Stephan is standing in the entrance by the elevator acting like this is all completely normal as he guards the door.

When I asked Simone why she needed a guy like Stephan, she explained that she was kidnapped once and ever since, if Vincent can’t be with her, one of his security team men is. She said she even uses the security team Mark works for when Stephan isn’t available.

Mark is the one frequently sent to be her bodyguard when Stephan isn’t available. She said Mitch would even fill in too. She said something about her brother who had to move away, being best friends with Mark and Mitch’s brother, Matt. I wanted to ask more about Mark and Mitchel, but was hesitant to. Now, she’s so excited about singing and getting drunk that I can’t bring Mark or Mitchel up naturally.

Seriously, this girl can drink. She’s so much more fun to drink with than Jenny, and can handle her alcohol way better. We’ve gone through two bottles of wine and random shots of whatever she lands her hands on first, and neither one of us are even tipsy.

“Stephan, come sing this duet with me!” Simone yells out to her bodyguard, who just shakes his head with a smirk. “Come on you party pooper!”

“Last time I did karaoke with you, you recorded it and played it at the annual Christmas party.”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“And you impressed all the ladies with your rendition of What Does the Fox Say,” she giggled.

“Well, duh. I’ve got the voice of an angel. It was the dancing alone in the video like an i***t that I wasn’t okay with.”

“I won’t make you dance along,” she smiled tauntingly at him.

“Lies. No ma’am. You and your friend can sing by yourselves,” he tells her before he returns to standing stiffly against the wall.

“You’re no fun,” she pouts, then plops down on the couch beside me. “I’m out of breath.”

“I would be too,” I laughed at her, handing her some water.

“It’s a workout being so much fun,” she beams at me, “So tell me about you, Hadley. I feel like we spent the whole evening telling you about us. I want to hear about you. What was your life like in New York?”

I shrug, “Nothing special. I had a protective family and didn’t really do much outside of what I was told to do.”

“So how did you end up here?” she furrows her brows.

I bit my lips nervously, “Well, I kind of ran away. I’m an adult, so not really running away in that sense, but I was tired of being under my father’s thumb, so when I had a college professor recommend me for this job here, I jumped at the chance to take it.”

“Wow. So you came here without your parents knowing?”

I nodded, “Yeah. My father was trying to force me to marry this man that I hate. I didn’t want them to be able to find me.”

“Oooh, how scandalous. Who was the man? Why did you hate him? I need to know these things, Hadley. This is juicier than I thought it would be.”

I laughed nervously at her enthusiasm. “Zeki, the man they were trying to make me marry, was my father’s business partner’s son. Complete a*****e. He was everything I hated in a man. Arrogant, egotistical, rude, complete playboy….I couldn’t marry him. I fought it for the past several years using school as an excuse, then I said I wanted to go back to get my master’s degree. I faked every illness possible. I faked a positive mono test for almost a year.

“Right before I came here, he and his father announced that I was marrying him in just a few weeks. They had already taken care of everything and I didn’t have a choice in the matter. When I begged my parents not to make me go through with it, my dad said I didn’t have a choice. He didn’t care about anything I had to say. He would have dragged me down the aisle kicking and screaming if he had to.

“I already had this job offer, and I’d been hoarding money for months to make an escape, so I snuck out, bought a plane ticket to a random city to throw them off my trail, then took several different buses and trains to get here.”

“That’s, like, mission impossible stuff,” Simone giggled, eyes wide as she was completely enthralled in my story. “That’s crazy! Wow. Well, I’m glad you got out of there. Now you can live here being my friend and getting back at that bastard, Zizi, by living happily ever after with two sexy studs,” she giggles, wiggling her eyebrows. I almost laugh at the way she messed up Zeki’s name.

“What are you talking about,” I brought my hands up to my cheeks to hide the heat building in them.

“Don’t act like you don’t know. I was with you and Mitch all afternoon. You like him, and he is so infatuated with you. Then, along came Mark, and when he got all mopey popey, you were practically dying to jump up and comfort the big goof.”

I sputtered,” I, uh, I was not.”

“Lies! You will have both those boys worshiping at your gorgeously adorned feet,” she stops, starting at my shoes, “Seriously. Where did you get those shoes?”

I laugh as she forces my foot into her lap and starts examining my shoe.

It feels good to have a friend like this. I didn’t have any real friends in New York. My life was too controlled. Laughing with a friend is something I’ve been craving for a long time.

“Hey, so, didn’t you tell me to stay away from the Meyers brothers? Why does it sound like you’re going back on that now?”

She shrugs, but smiles knowingly, “That was before I learned what you are to them. Now, I’m cheering you on. Man, you are one lucky lady. Having both those stallions servicing you whenever you want is going to be bliss for you,” she rested her chin on her palms and sighed, “I’d love to have two Vincents. Double the everything,” she sighs again, “I’d never be able to walk again. And I wouldn’t have to. I’d have one of him to carry me everywhere I went.”

“Is that what you really want, my love?” Vincent’s voice croons from behind us, making me startle and Simone giggle.

“Maybe?” she beckons him over with the curl of her finger, “Why? If it was, would you find a way to get me two of you?”

“I would do anything for you. You know that,” he smiled, bending down to k**s her lips tenderly, making me blush as I intruded on their intimate greeting. He ran his hands down her face, his thumb running along her jaw, making her shiver before straightening up and smirking down at her.

“Stephan, I’ll be home for the evening. You can head home. Thank you for coming on such short notice tonight.”

“No problem, boss. See you tomorrow.” Stephan headed down the elevator.

Vincent goes to the kitchen, reaching into the cabinet above the built-in microwave and pulling down a bottle of amber liquid. Pouring himself a glass, he came back to join us.

“Are you ladies having fun?” He picks up the remote to the strobe lights, clicks them off, then presses the off button on the fog machine.

“We are! Stephan wouldn’t play with us though,” Simone pouts.

“I’m sorry, love. I can put ‘follow my wife’s every command and whim’ in his job description if you want.”

“I would have so much fun abusing that power,” she laughs deviously, making me laugh with her as Vincent smiles.

One thing Simone said earlier is still replaying in the back of my head.

“Simone, what did you mean when you said before you knew what I am to Mark and Mitch?”

Vincent stops smiling and furrows his eyebrows at his wife, like she told me something she wasn’t supposed to.