Building Our Love (Griffin Brothers #2) (13 page)

I laugh as he kisses me
again and then pulls me against him as we walk to the registers to
pay. We’re still smiling at each other as we place the panties on
the counter.

“Ryan? Hi. You
haven’t called me in a while,” the cashier says.

“Oh, um, hi…”

“Stacey.”

“Oh, yeah, Stacey.
How are you?”

“I’d be better if
you called me. I thought we had fun.”

“It was nice, but
yeah, I won’t be calling you. I’m with someone now.”

She looks me up and
down, and I know she finds me wanting. She’s tiny and curvy with
much bigger breasts than mine. I’m a little surprised that I’m
not jealous. Then again, Ryan just kissed me in the middle of the
store and told her he won’t call her, so there’s really no reason
for me to be jealous. I know that he’s mine. Plus, he couldn’t
even remember her name.

She finishes ringing us
up and Ryan pays. As we turn to go, she feels that she has to try
again. “Don’t delete my number, you know, just in case.”

“Sorry, but I’ve
already deleted it,” Ryan tells her as we leave.

We walk out into the
mall and Ryan pulls me to the side, out of the flow of traffic. “I’m
sorry, Chlo. I had no idea that was going to happen.”

He looks so nervous,
and I want to ease his worry. I reach up to touch his face. “It’s
okay, Ry. I’m not going to lie and say it was easy to see some girl
you slept with, who is hotter than me, hitting on you. I wasn’t as
upset as I thought that I’d be, either. I feel secure in your love
for me.”

“Wait a second? Did
you just say that she was hotter than you? You’re kidding, right?”

“Why would I be
kidding? Her breasts are way bigger than mine. She could probably be
one of those Angels.”

“Do you have a pen?”

“I think so. Why?”

“Because I need it.”

“O-kay.”

I reach into my purse and grab a
pen. I hand it to him, and he grabs the receipt from the bag he’s
carrying. He motions for me to turn around so he can use my back to
write on. When he’s done, he tears the paper in half and hands both
pieces to me.

Reason #3 that you are AWESOME and I LOVE YOU: Your breasts are
perfect. I love holding themin my hands, especially while I make you
come.

Reason #4 that you are AWESOME and I LOVE YOU: You know in your
heart that I belong to you so you don’t let catty girls who mean
nothing to me bother you.

I look up into his eyes
after I read them both. He’s focusing intently on me. I know he’s
checking to see if I’m really alright. He must realize that I am
because those beautiful eyes of his start to twinkle as I reach up to
kiss him.

Ryan

Things have been going
so well these last few weeks. Chloe’s working hard on getting
everything finalized for the Seattle building while keeping me
organized in the office. I got her the advance for the job so she
could buy some dresses for the parties, and she picked up a few
things for work, too. She’s at a lunch meeting with Owen going over
the final plans for the artwork and sculptures. I’m sitting in my
office, waiting for her to get back, when there’s a knock at the
door.

“Come in.”

“Hi boss, do you have
a minute?” Deanna asks.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“I heard that you’re
going to Seattle next week to check on the building there, and I was
thinking that you might like some company.” She walks over to my
desk and leans forward, giving me a view down her unbuttoned top. I
look away in irritation.

“Chloe’s going with
me, so I’ll have all company I need. Even if she wasn’t going,
I’ve already made it clear to you on several occasions that I’m
not interested in anything other than a work relationship with you.”

“What does she have
that I don’t?”

“Me.”

She turns and storms
out of the office, almost running into Owen,who’s out at Chloe’s
desk with her. He can’t help but laughing as Deanna glares at Chloe
and then him.

“You two make a much
more believable couple,” she tells them.

“And why is that?”
Chloe is going into fight mode. I get up and walk around my desk.

“You’re a slut, and
he’s an artist.”

“You don’t know
anything about me, Deanna. As for Owen, he’s a world famous artist
with more fans than you will ever have.”

“You’re a piece of
trash, bitch.”

“That’s all you’ve
got? I’ve been called much worse by better people than you. And
just so you know, I don’t care what you say about me, but if I hear
you saying anything bad about Owen or any of the other Griffins, I’ll
quit my job and then kick your ass.”

“You’re crazy! I’m
going to H.R.”

“You do that. I’ll
head down there with you and tell Ellen that I overheard you
propositioning my brother, who has turned you down on multiple
occasions. I’m pretty sure that would fall under sexual
harassment,” Owen says.

“You don’t need to
come down to my office. I heard everything. Deanna, I’ll need you
to turn in your keycard and clean out your office.” Ellen walks
over with my dad. I hadn’t seen either of them. I was too focused
on everyone else.

“Me? I’m being
fired?” Deanna says.

“Yes. You
propositioned your boss and then insulted two other coworkers in
front of witnesses.”

“That bitch
threatened me.”

“After you provoked
her.” Ellen looks at Chloe. “I will have to document that as
well, Chloe.”

“Now wait a minute…”
Owen starts to say, but Chloe cuts him off.

“It’s fine, Owe.
She can write me up. I did threaten Deanna.”

“To protect my
family, who happen to own this company.”

“I would do anything
to protect your family. No matter what the consequences are.” Chloe
turns to Ellen. “Should I come down later to sign the paperwork?”

“Yes. I’ll call you
when it is ready. Now, Deanna, let’s go meet security in your
office.”

They walk away, and I
don’t know what to say to Chloe or Owen. I should’ve stopped
things before they got this far. Not just with Deanna, and her
hitting on me, but with the confrontation that just took place. It
should’ve been me defending Owen and Chloe. But I just stood there
watching it all happen.

“Well that was
interesting,” Owen says.

“That’s not quite
the word I would use, son,” my dad replies. “I’m sorry that you
have to be written up, Chloe, but we can’t make exceptions for you,
even though you were defending my son.”

“I know, Gary. It’s
fine. I’ll stay on the straight and narrow from now on. I just
couldn’t let her condescend to Owen. His art is going to elevate
the Seattle building.”

“You’ve always been
my biggest supporter, Chloe. Thank you.” Owen hugs her and then
gives me a fist bump before leaving with my dad.

“I’m going to have
to decide on who will replace Deanna on her current projects. I don’t
want to be disturbed. Can you not put any calls through unless
they’re urgent?”

Chloe nods. “Sure,
Ry.”

“Great. I’ll talk
to you later.” I walk into my office and close the door. I’m
pretty sure that I just came across as the biggest asshole on the
planet. Again. I feel so guilty about not being the one to defend
Chloe and Owen that I’ve now closed myself off from her. Great.
Well, at least I wasn’t lying about having to move people around to
cover Deanna’s projects. That will keep me busy for a couple of
hours.

* * *

Chloe

The afternoon pretty
much dragged on. Ryan didn’t come out of his office or call me. I
don’t know why he’s mad at me. I went downstairs and signed my
paperwork. Ellen gave me a verbal written warning only. She said that
since she heard the whole conversation, she knew that I was just
sticking up for Owen, and since he is a partial owner of the company
that should count for something.

When it’s time to go
home and Ryan is still giving me the silent treatment, I realize that
I’m going alone today. Luckily, I brought my car with me today
because I was meeting Owen for lunch. Most days Ryan and I just
carpool together. We’ve been alternating between his condo and the
guest house, but we haven’t spent one night alone since we got back
together. I have a feeling that tonight will be the first one, and I
have to admit that I’m not happy about this turn of events.

I decide to leave Ryan a note before
I leave. We’ve continued to write each other the love notes, often
more than once a day. Sometimes they’re serious and sometimes
they’re funny. I realize that this is one of the days when maybe a
mix of serious and funny would help to lighten his mood.

Reason #23 that you are AWESOME and I LOVE YOU: You don’t accept
the advances of bitches who insult me and you brother.

I leave it taped to my
computer where I hope he’ll see it when he leaves. Then, I head
down to my car and drive home. The Griffins are getting ready for
Friday night barbeque when I get there. It’s a little overwhelming
to be in the midst of all of them at once. Well, almost all of them.
I try to sneak into the guest house.

“Chloe! You’re
coming to dinner, aren’t you?” Maggie asks.

“I was actually just
going to hang out by myself tonight.”

“Oh. Are you upset
about what happened this afternoon? Gary and Owen told me all about
it. Thank you for standing up for Owen. I’m sorry that you had to
be disciplined, but Gary said that it can be removed from your file
in three months if you don’t get in trouble again.”

“It’s no problem,
Maggie. Really. You don’t need to thank me. I’d always stand up
for Owen and everyone else, no matter what happens to me because of
it.”

“She means it,
Maggie,” Yasmin says from behind me.

I whirl around and give
her a look, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her inside the guest
house with me. “What are you doing, Yasmin?”

“You have to tell
them, Chloe. They love you so much already. They deserve to know what
you did for them.”

“No. What they
deserve is to be happy. They’re happy right now. Telling them would
not help anyone. Adam and his family would deny it and then I know
they would go to the press and accuse me and the Griffins of
slandering them.”

“There’s no proof
of what they did?”

“I still have the
written agreement about Adam not being able to touch me in any way,
and me not being able to publicly deny what he said about me when we
broke up, but that’s it.”

“Wait. You said they
had the talk with you at the university. Is that the same university
that Scott went to?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I don’t want to
say until I know for sure, but can you write down the date and time
for me, and also what building you were in?”

“Sure.” I write
everything down and hand it to her.

“Now, we better get
back out there and have dinner before Maggie sends the boys for us.”

I go back out, even
though I want to be alone. I know Yasmin is right. If Maggie wants me
to eat with the family, she won’t give up until I say yes. I might
as well just skip us both the hassle and go out right away.

We go back, out and I
see that Ryan has arrived. He doesn’t look at me as everyone else
greets me. I should head back to the guest house, but I decide to
hold on to my last shred of pride. I can ignore him for as long as he
chooses to ignore me. It’s Friday, so I won’t see him in the
office again for a couple of days. That’s long enough to come up
with a plan of attack. We sit as far away as possible from each other
and eat as though nothing is wrong. We both engage in the
conversations, but don’t speak to each other. I catch everyone
looking at us curiously, but no one says anything. I finish dinner
and dessert as quickly as possible without being rude and then say my
goodnights. I head back to the guesthouse without having said even
one word to Ryan for over two hours.

* * *

Ryan

“What’s going on
with you and Chloe?” Scott asks me when my parents, Alex, and
Yasmin go inside.

I try to play dumb.
“What are you talking about?”

“Cut the bullshit,
man. The two of you didn’t say one word to each other all night,”
Luke says.

“And you didn’t
kiss her hello or goodbye. You two are the poster children for PDA,
normally,” Owen adds.

“I’m an asshole.”

“Go on.” Scott
replies.

“You all know what
happened today, right?” They nod, and I continue. “So, you know
that I was a total dick and just stood there while that bitch
insulted Owen and Chloe.”

“That is not what
happened, Ry.” Owen says. “She had already started in on us
before you got out of your office. We didn’t need you to do
anything. Chloe handled it. She was badass, actually.”

“Yeah, but I should
have stepped in. I’ve always protected Chloe. And you, when you
needed it. Which wasn’t often, but still. Plus, Chloe got written
up.”

“You have always
protected her, but she protected us.” Scott looks to Owen and Luke
who nod in agreement. “When we were in school and kids were mean to
me, she always found some way to get back at them. It was usually
some elaborate prank. She never admitted it or got caught, but I knew
it was her. She did the same for Owen and Luke. I’m not surprised
that she stood up for Owe. I would actually be shocked if she didn’t.
As for her getting written up, that’s total bullshit. But Owe said
she didn’t seem upset about it.”

“I never knew that
she stood up for you guys. How come no one told me? And she wasn’t
upset about the write up, but I still feel bad about it.”

“You were so happy
being the knight who swept in and saved her we didn’t want to tell
you that she was saving us at the same time,” Luke tells me.
“Besides, she needed you. While she always stood up for us, she
never defended herself.”