Something that feels a lot like shame liquefies my guts. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “Maybe, but you didn’t tell me earlier because you knew the truth would cut me deep.”

  She’s right, and if I refute her or attempt to soft-shoe this, Britta will know. And she will only distrust me more.

  “I’m sorry.”

  A stifled sob sounds over the line. I tense against her cry because it almost causes physical pain. “Maybe you are, deep down. But you’re also your father’s son, just like Griff. You’re all selfish bastards to the end.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I swear.” I don’t know what else to say. “I screwed myself up, if it’s any consolation. I’m really into Keeley, and the thought of her with anyone else…”

  I can’t finish that sentence.

  “How about with your own brother?”

  I grip the phone and close my eyes. At her words, I’m both sick and want to commit murder. “She said she wouldn’t sleep with him.”

  Unless she wanted to.

  “Oh, grow up. You’ve seen your brother in action. He can be very charming… If you don’t want her to become another notch on his bedpost, then stop all this. Do the right thing for once, Maxon. Be the bigger man. Think about the people around you. Care about someone more than yourself.”

  She’s right. I know that deep in my heart. There’s just one problem… “I’m not sure I know how to.”

  And there goes my voice again, broken and coming from someplace deep in my gut.

  “Figure it out because if you do this, if you go ahead with your plan to make her Griff’s latest lover—”

  “Don’t say that,” I growl, teeth all but bared.

  “Lover. His lover. Keeley would be Griff’s lover,” she spits the words at me. “Call it what it is. Now that you’ve started this ball rolling, you can’t run away from it. You groomed her to warm his bed and you didn’t give a damn who you upset in the process. He hurt you, so you wanted to beat him—and fuck everyone else. But if you continue with this, fair warning, Maxon. I quit.”

  I groan aloud with the actual pain twisting my insides up. “Don’t.”

  “You’re not leaving me many choices. I’ll never try to stop you from seeing Jamie. You’re his uncle, and he loves you. He was just asking for you this morning.” Her voice is clipped, as if she hates to admit that. “But you and I can’t work together if you’re going to intentionally do things to keep breaking my already broken heart.”

  “Rob threatened to quit if I didn’t go through with my plan.”

  “Then you have a choice to make. This is all on you.” She sniffles.

  Why doesn’t she just take an ax to my chest? It would hurt less.

  “You know what’s at stake.” I realize I’m wheedling and quit.

  “Money. Your pride.”

  “My career. My future.” As much as that’s inconvenient, those are indisputable facts. “I’m incredibly fond of you and I love Jamie, but—”

  “Don’t rationalize this!” She finally starts yelling at me. “There will be other big-dollar properties. You will still have a career and a future without the Stowe listing. Your biggest problem is that you can’t stand to let your brother win. You have an insane need to be better than Griff at everything. You know I’m right. And he’s no different. You two are both egotistical, and I’m tired of trying to be the water always flowing around your immovable rock. If you want me to stay, you’re going to have to change direction for once.”

  I’m digesting her speech. It’s raw. Starkly honest. She’s stripped me down to the ugliest place in my soul. I’d rather look away, but just like a train wreck, I can’t stop staring.

  “Britta…”

  “Don’t call me again unless it’s to tell me that you’re not going forward with this stupid scheme. And by the way, I know I need to accept that your brother and I are never getting back together. Makaio asked me to marry him yesterday afternoon. I’m going to say yes.”

  Then she’s gone.

  I scrub a hand down my face. Holy shit. Britta married to someone other than Griff. I guess it’s time. I mean, they’ve been apart for three years. I shouldn’t be shocked. Somehow, I am. My brother used to be the most protective, possessive boyfriend ever. I can’t imagine that he’ll take seeing Britta wearing another man’s ring well.

  Then again, I never imagined he’d let her go at all.

  I know I don’t want to, professionally speaking. She knows me well. We work together seamlessly. She fills in the blanks when I’m too busy or disorganized. She’s so knowledgeable. I would be lost around the office without her.

  I look at the clock. It’s after ten now. I can’t sit here. I have to pace.

  Thirty seconds later, I realize that wearing a path in the floor from one side of the condo to the other isn’t doing me a damn bit of good. I feel so fucking wound up and turned inside out. I need more space. I need air.

  What I really need is Keeley.

  I wrench open the door to the lanai and step outside. The sultry Hawaiian breeze immediately sweeps across my skin, ruffling my hair. I look out at the inky water shimmering under the golden moon hanging low and lazy. But there’s no peace. I seize the railing in a crushing grip, as if I can funnel everything I’m feeling out of my body through my hands.

  Impossible.

  Along the beach, I see the rocks where I stripped away Keeley’s reservations and clothes before I took her body. At the moment, I’d give anything to take that night back and start over. Get to know her just for her. Because she’s interesting. Unique. I sigh. Because it feels like she belongs with me. To me.

  I’m fucking doomed now. What if she never speaks to me again? What if… Oh, shit. What if I fell in love and I realized it too late?

  Behind me, I hear the slam of the front door. I spin around and see Keeley entering the living room, staring at me through the glass door. She’s decked out from head to toe in the pinstripe suit that hugs her body so well it’s impossible not to see that she’s made for sin.

  I wrench open the patio door. “Keeley?” Thank God you’re here. “I called. I texted. Where have you been?”

  “Doing my ‘job.’ I met your brother tonight.” She lifts her chin. “We should talk.”

  My heart comes to a screeching, skidding halt. She met Griff?

  Why do I have the sinking feeling that I’m even more fucked? Because my brother goes out for drinks about seven. Keeley is breezing in about ten thirty. A lot could happen in three and a half hours. I try not to imagine what.

  My feet feel like blocks of lead as I enter the condo, shutting the lanai door behind me.

  “You went outside?” She sounds surprised.

  “Yeah.” I nod nervously as my heart decides to wage an all-out war with my chest. The battle is so loud I hear it in my ears. “You were right. It’s nice out there.”

  I’m babbling. I wipe my sweaty palms on the soft cotton of my pajama pants. I want to touch her so badly, but her face is unreadable. I don’t know what to say.

  She nods and kicks off her pumps. “Do you want to know about my evening with Griff?”

  Yes and no. Mostly no. I wish like hell I had any idea what was rolling through her head. I stand there mutely, a boiling pot of emotion melting my brain. I blink. She looks beautiful. There’s really no way my brother didn’t see her, zero in on her, want to know everything about her before he saw every inch of her.

  The thought is killing me.

  “I’m not sure.”

  She softens a little. “Sit.”

  Keeley chooses the corner of the L-shaped sectional. I sit one cushion over, going through the motions of breathing so I don’t freak out.

  This makes no fucking sense. Twenty days ago, I didn’t even know this woman. I would have passed her on the street and stared…before I shrugged and walked on. Now I’m seriously thinking of surrendering my future to her. Giving up the only sense of self I’ve ever known for her.

  “Did you talk to him?” I finally ask into the protracted silence.

  “Yes. He’s…like you. And not. He’s smart and ambitious and interesting. You’ve got that in common. But he’s more serious. More intense.”

  Griff is. He always has been. I wonder if it’s because he has a chip on his shoulder about being the younger brother, if he always feels like he needs to dig deeper to keep up.

  “What happened? What did you talk about?”

  “I got your message with the name of that bar that Harlow passed on. I thought I’d go over there and see if I could figure him out just by observing. I was on my stool about two minutes when he came over to me, drink in hand and swagger in full swing.”

  Knowing he studied her and sized her up as a potential nightly fuck makes me want to both curl into the fetal position and beat him senseless. Breathing is hard again. I’m wishing I had booze or a punching bag—something to bleed off my growing fury. Griff looked at her, damn it.

  The worst part is, I have no one to blame but myself.

  “What did he say?”

  “Not much. We made small talk, exchanged names and a little info. We joked about our favorite drinks, then made a pointless bet about whether the new waitress would drop a huge tray of drinks. He won, by the way. She wasn’t practiced enough to handle all that. We mentioned where we were from, where we’d gone to college, and the fact that we’re both single.”

  Technically, Keeley is single. I know it in my head. The rest of me is shouting a big “fuck no.”

  “That took three hours?”

  She raises a brow at me. It’s a subtle warning that I don’t own her.

  “We took our time. We ended up finding a booth and sharing appetizers. We talked about business. I gave him a cover story. He thinks I work retail but am thinking about going into real estate. That opened him up to talk about business. He spoke in veiled terms about the Stowe deal.”

  As much as I hate the cozy picture her words paint, it doesn’t sound as intimate as I feared.

  I let out a pent-up breath. “Okay. So that’s it?”

  “No.” She folds her hands in her lap and looks at her entwined fingers.

  Is she trying to collect her words? Or hide her guilt?

  “And?” I demand, hearing an edgy note creep into my voice.

  I can’t stand being on tenterhooks anymore. The not being able to draw in a deep breath, along with the sharp, perpetual tensing of my gut, is killing me. The pain bolts down my sternum.

  “We talked about family. He mentioned you.” She taps her thumbs together and pauses again.

  “Spit it out.”

  “He hates you.”

  I guessed that. The feeling has been unspoken for something just north of a thousand days. But Keeley’s soft words makes everything inside me crater.

  Not knowing the truth for certain was easier.

  Fuck, one deal tore up my family. This one is going to rip up my heart.

  Goddamn it.

  “Yeah.”

  “And he loves you. He didn’t say that, but I know it.”

  My heart nearly implodes. I love him, too.

  I shut my eyes and feel tears sting like acid. I miss that stupid motherfucker so much.

  “Maxon?” she prods at me.

  I refuse to cry. It’s been an absolutely terrible day. Not the first. It won’t be the last. I clench my teeth together. I will not lose my composure. I am fucking going to hold it together so I can hear the rest of this.

  “Yeah.” I drag in a shuddering breath. “So where did you leave things?”

  “He asked me to dinner tomorrow night.”

  Jesus. Motherfucking son of a bitch. My stomach tightens so much it’s one giant ball of ache.

  “What did you say?”

  She looks past me, out to the lanai, biting her lip. The tension is killing me.

  Finally, she nods. “I, um…told him this week was hell on my schedule and I’d have to juggle my schedule to make it work. He gave me his number. I’m supposed to call him tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Where does he want to take you?” That will tell me a lot about how interested Griff is.

  “Nowhere. He wants to cook for me.”

  That’s a lie. He wants to fuck her.

  I can’t take that sitting down.

  Lurching to my feet, I lunge across the room, raking my hand through my hair. “It’s a ploy. He only invites a woman over when—”

  “He wants to sleep with her. I’ve been around the block, Maxon. I know.”

  “What the hell? I…”

  She can’t go. I can’t let her. On the other hand, will she even listen to me? Does she want Griff?

  “So you had drinks and appetizers and came home.”

  “I came back to your place,” she corrects me.

  It’s not home to her. Right.

  I swallow as I turn to face her. “Did he walk you to your car?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did he kiss you?”

  “Yes.”

  I stagger. That one word feels like the sharpest blade buried right in my heart.

  Before I can wrap my brain around her reply and insist that she’s never seeing him again, she cocks her head and speaks. “When do you want me to go out with him? I have a feeling I can undo him in a night.”

  I gape at her like she’s lost her fucking mind. “Less than a week ago, you were preaching Kumbaya bullshit about repairing the relationship between me and Griff, and now you’re smacking lips with him and willing to help me tear him down.”

  “Once I realized that you were never going to care about more than business, that didn’t leave me with many options. I can either keep forcing a peace on you that you don’t give a flip about or I can live up to my word. You want to destroy your own family? You’re the one who will have to live with the consequences. Why am I standing in your way? You’ve painted Griff as a man who abandons his loved ones and doesn’t care about the son he’s never met. As far as I can tell, you’re both getting what you deserve. When you approached me with your plan, I naively believed that everyone has good qualities. That, deep down, all people are capable of love. Yes, even you. I was sure you wanted happiness. I just had to show you the way. But most every choice you’ve made since I’ve known you has been selfish.”

  I wince. She’s right. “Keeley—”

  “No. You brought us to this place so now you’re going to listen. You don’t know what love is. And it’s clear to me that you don’t have the first clue how to be happy. So if you want to know why I’m all in with your stupid plan suddenly, it’s because I want to get this over with and move on to a less toxic situation. Griff’s pitch is Thursday. Isn’t that what Britta said last night?”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “There’s no ‘but’ here. That doesn’t give me a lot of time to work, but since you’re willing to sacrifice everything to win, I won’t feel bad about being really fucking charming to your brother over the next two days. It’s not like Griff is hard on the eyes. By the time you pitch to George Stowe on Friday, he’ll have a muddled head. And you should have a clear path.”

  I tear across the room, torn between violently pounding the wall and clutching Keeley to me like a sobbing boy until she swears she won’t let me go. “No. No! Fuck no! You swore that you didn’t intend to sleep with him, that I couldn’t make you. You didn’t want to be a whore, and I respected that.”

  “You accepted it because I forced you to. But it’s my body and my life. It’s just sex.” She shrugs. “No big deal.”

  I grab her shoulders and lunge in her face. “It is a big deal. Huge fucking deal. You can’t date him. You can’t touch him.”

  She tilts her head, raises a brow. Somewhere in the back of my brain, I know those are warning signals. I try to slow down my outrage and fear. Somewhere under that, I feel logic lurking, trying to reassert itself. But at my head’s insistence that maybe she’s right, my emotions shove those thoughts down.

  “Why?” she asks softly.

  I’m used to animated Keeley, the one who teases and cajoles while she tries to get me to see the best in every situation. That woman lightens me, soothes me, balances me. I’ve grown so attached to her that I’m thinking…yeah, maybe the whole love thing isn’t a crazy hoax. But the Keeley in front of me now is cool, almost calculating. She’s willing to blow up everything between us.

  Fuck. This is exactly how she felt when she seemingly overheard me giving her up for my ambition last night. Unimportant. Confused. Destroyed.

  “Why, Maxon?” she prods. “Why shouldn’t I go distract your brother?”

  Because I love you. The realization rolls through my head. It jets blood through my veins. It envelops my beating heart. She thinks I don’t know what love means, but suddenly I understand. Absolutely. Totally. I would kill for this woman. Die for her. Do anything to make her smile. I cannot live without her. I cannot release her from my life.

  I cannot give her to Griff.

  “I-I…” Do I tell her? Will she believe me? Do I give her that kind of power over me? Will she even care?

  Too many questions pelt my brain. As I’m sorting through the tangle—tough to do when I’m dizzy, shocked, and grappling with how much Keeley Kent has changed me—someone starts pounding on my door. This isn’t a polite knock but a nonverbal demand that I open up now.

  Damn it, talk about the worst possible timing.

  “Who the fuck is that?” I snarl under my breath.

  No one ever comes to my place except Britta and Rob. I don’t have any other friends. Come to think of it, I don’t have anyone I can really talk to.

  Except Keeley.

  I’m going to ignore this unwelcome visitor. If I don’t answer, my staff will assume I’m not here or that I’m busy. If it’s a solicitor or religion peddler, they’ll go away soon enough. Everyone else, I don’t give two fucks about.

  This beautiful redhead in front of me is definitely at the top of my give-a-fuck list—in all ways.