Zander frowned. “Joey is here in Scotland?”Elvie nodded. “Yes, he flew over to talk to me face to face.”“About…?”“About something, um—he is going to visit his shrink again, he said he is sick again."“Is he using drugs again, Elvie?”“I'm not sure, but he said he didn't do drugs anymore.”“And you believe him?”“Yes.” Elvie groaned. “He is my brother, Zander, I can't let him down, and... Without the company to keep him busy, I don't know how he would survive—”Zander’s brows snapped together.“You gave him money?”Elvie slipped out of his hold and stood some distance from him with her arms crossed over her body, her hands cupping her elbows. “Yes. I gave him my ATM.”“Your savings? Really?”“Yes.”“Are you that crazy?”“Zander—”He shook his head as if the situation were beyond belief. “He’s a fool. A damn fool. What are you going to do now? He’ll empty it in a day. How can you be so naive?”“I—” Elvie groaned in silent anger, keeping her gaze steady on his. “He said he'd use it fo
Zander walked out of his own mansion as if he were on autopilot. His emotions were in lockdown.Confused, angry, and disappointed.Emotions he hadn’t known he had. He couldn’t think past the thought of her pulling the plug on their marriage. He’d been blindsided. Again. What sort of fool was he to have fallen for it? He’d thought it was going so well. Why was she doing this? Why now, after that wonderful week away together? All this talk of love... He hadn’t said those words to anyone since he’d said them to his ex, Kristal. He had been a fool once, and he swore to never be that sort of person again.He had sworn he would never say them in a subsequent relationship, and he had never needed to, much less wanted to. But Elvie hadn’t said it either. She didn't tell him she loved him.Somehow he had fooled himself into thinking she had, but then he’d been wrong about that sort of thing before. It was the same as all those years ago. NO! It was worse. Much worse. Back then, he’d been angry
That very same day, Zander was supposed to tell her that he loves her; he was supposed to confess his feelings, but what he heard from her mouth while answering Bellas’ questions in the lift made Zander halt on his way up. He heard Elvie clearly say, "Bella, what makes you think that I'm head over heels over Zander? Surely, the man cares so much more about his ego than caring over me. Besides, we both agree to end things before it's too late and he’ll end up hurting me. I'm not the woman he used to know. I'm different now. I don't love anymore.”To say that he was disappointed, hurt, and relieved at the same time was an understatement; he almost made himself a fool by telling her what he truly felt.Okay, if this is really what she wanted, then I'll give her war! He thought to himself as he left the hallway and went to his private elevator.Going up, he thought that life with Elvie was like handling his company full of issues and anomalies. If there was one thing he’d learned from pro
Shortly after sending Danny on his way, Zander waltzed out of his office and into the newsroom. Grilling Elvie about Mathei was tempting, but he wasn’t a hypocrite, and she didn’t owe him shit.Besides, it was likely Elvie already felt extra salty after what had happened with them, and she had enough on her plate without having his dirty laundry to sort through. He was going to talk to Matheo about an item he wanted to scrap from the show tonight when Bella blocked his way to the old cow’s office, throwing her body between them like a hysterical mother in front of a speeding car.Big. Fucking. Mistake, small woman!“Can I help you?” He raised an eyebrow.“I have something you really want to see, Zander...”“Call me, Mr. Stanton. Only my friends call me Zander. Chances are, I’ll stab myself in the eye with a fork before initiating a conversation with you about non-professional issues. Start talking.”Zander followed her to her desk, and she pointed at her screen, her smile oozing stupi
Five minutes later, everyone was inside, including a solemn Bella and a defiant Elvie. Matheo was outside, on a quick phone call.“We need a new item to close up the show. At this point, I’ll take anything. A feature. A kicker. A piece about anything that’s not completely stupid. Brainstorm away.” Zander tapped his finger over the chrome conference table.Everybody looked at their digital devices, typing text messages to their sources and generally being productive. Steven, the guy who yelled at Bella, however, sat with his arms crossed and sulked like a toddler in the midst of a tantrum.“Got it! A country singer was just murdered in a strip club in China.” Matheo swung the door open and walked into the fishbowl meeting room, still staring at his phone.“Steven, I know you like good gossip. Can you follow that up?” The man was already texting her source. “But Kristal’s—” He scratched his head with the tip of his pen when he saw Zander’s intense glare at him.The silence that followed
“Of course not! I had a few, but—anyway,” Elvie quipped, feeling bold. “Does she know?”“Know what?” His lips broadened into an even wider grin, but that meant nothing. Zander was always nonchalant. A meteor could be speeding towards Earth at the speed of light, crashing and killing all of them in exactly two hours, and he still wouldn’t skip the foreplay when he took this girl to his presidential suite for their sexcapade.“Any of the following things, really. One—" Elvie jerked her thumb up. "That's your thing. You pretend to be single while your daughter is waiting for you!” She pointed her forefinger at him.“What?” he frowned.“Idiot! It’s your schedule tonight, remember? Your turn to read Thea her bedtime stories.” She scoffed and looked at the woman, then back to him. “And two, is this your thing? You take women to a hotel suite for the night; fuck her? Our divorce isn't even finalised yet, you asshole—” Then again, she gave him the middle finger, narrowing her eyes, and wonder
Sundays were Thea days.Days of echoed laughter in the mansion and the silent murmur of the staff and of course, munching on sweets and stealing glances at the main door, hoping Zander would appear and rescue her from the tower of dragons with one heated kiss. Yeah, it would never happen, but still, she hoped for something similar, so sue her.Today, Thea practically pushed her out the door. She’d made some excuse about getting some vitamin D, but it wasn’t even that sunny. Nonetheless, Elvie figured Thea wanted time alone with her new Princess Fiona and Shrek tea set. The mansion was huge. It was too big for Elvie’s liking, so she went to the garden with a cup of coffee in her hand. Besides, getting some time to think wasn’t the worst idea she’d had. She also needed to read more about her late parents' company crisis. And though she’d felt a little unequipped and uninformed this week when Joey and she discussed it in one of their online meetings, which ended up in an argument, then a
Going into his mansion again wasn’t the most constructive thing to do, Zander thought, considering the little fixation she was developing. But of course, he could just reason that he wanted to see their daughter.He could smell her skin, the undertone of her vanilla scent, and her ginger-and-jasmine shampoo on every piece of furniture in Thea’s play room. Her office, however, screamed Elvie. Her personality jumped out of every corner of the room. Zander saw her in the cider-scented candles lined up neatly on the mantel like soldiers and in the framed pictures—her hugging Thea with a huge smile on her face. She was in the curtains that were drawn open, inviting the sun to pour into the room, and in the small, organised stack of newspapers and books on the coffee table, as well as the ring stain of a mug beside them that told him her favourite pastime. And in the unlikely picture hanging above the TV, of a girl reaching up to a heart-shaped balloon and watching it drift skyward and away
“I need you to turn my maybe into a definitely." Zander crawled into Elvie’s bed at the end of that gruelling Monday in the office. “Yeah, right. What are you doing here? Thea will—” “Come on, can a man get some time alone with his wife?” Elvie rolled her eyes, but she didn’t kick him out, even though a small, vindictive part of her wanted to. Life was too short to deprive yourself of spending time with those you love—something I’d learned the hard way. She thought to herself. His body seemed to mould into her massive mattress. Somehow, he fit. If there was one thing she’d realised this year, it was that sometimes they belong in the last place they thought they’d ever be. “Wife, let’s turn maybe into definitely.” “How can I do that?” she put her thriller in her lap and let his arm loop around her waist, dragging her into the crook of his shoulder. His lips fluttered along her neck. “Stay at SBC, stay with me no matter how this sh*t turns out. I can’t make it without you.” “Make
They went home to his mansion. To his cock’s disappointment, he slept in the master bedroom alone because Thea was sick and Elvie slept in her room. But it was still better than sleeping in a million-star hotel or at the Stanton Towers, which he couldn’t even look at after he’d learned what he had about his father not being his real father. He wasn’t the one who’d cheated on him. Yet Zander was the one who’d taken most of Matheo’s wrath. In the morning, Elvie gave her brother a shake from what looked like sewer water, green puke, and misery and slid a bowl of cereal his way. It wasn’t even a brand. It was poured right out of a six-pound industrial box with a Costco logo. “Where is the chef?” “Vacation…half of the staff too.” Elvie smiled. “Cavities and diabetes. Breakfast of champions,” Zander muttered into the bowl as he took a spoonful. “My apologies. Our room service doesn’t work on Mondays. Butler is sick. No chef, yeah so, stick with me!” Elvie took a seat next to her dad a
Zander set the papers down, sitting on the edge of her desk and lacing his fingers nonchalantly. So Matheo had planned it all along. The old cow killed his parents. His meeting Elvie, his falling in love with her, giving up on the Davis family—every single thing And he’d walked right into his trap. Well, almost. He would pay! Dearly. Zander thought to himself. He didn’t make the mistake of asking Elvie if she’d known about it. Of course she hadn’t. Instead, he focused on how to deal with this shit. “We’ve both been set up,” he said. “And he—the bastard—killed my parents!” His voice shuddered with enough hatred to melt the antarctic. And though he had his doubts before, he disregarded his instinct and thought that Matheo wasn't capable of doing such nineious things. “He—will pay! I will make sure he—” "Zander." She put a hand on his shoulder, and he resisted the urge to pull her into him and bury his face in her hair. “I'm sorry." Elvie had this touch that made sh*t go away. Bad shi
The word “music” comes from the Muses, goddesses of the arts in Greek mythology.I never said it before, because I thought it was tacky, but you’re my goddess (especially your ass).—ZanderJohn Lennon started his music career as a choir boy.I never said it before, because it terrified me to admit it, but you’re my church (although I plan to be inside you way more than just on Sundays).—ZanderYour heart mimics the beat of the music you’re listening to.I didn’t know I even had one before you came along, and now I do, and it hurts like a motherfucker (thanks for that).—ZanderRemember in university? I stole your iPod before you stole my wallet. It was tucked inside my jacket before I even removed your panties. I wanted to know what you were listening to. (And I was sorely disappointed there were no Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake songs in sight, because it made not falling for you so much fucking harder.)—ZanderI tried to tell myself I broke up my contract with Kristal and her f
Her heart was that of a lonely hunter.Yes and everything hurts.Elvie had always thought she was doomed by not being able to fall in love, but once she did fall, she wished she hadn’t. Now it hurt when she breathed, when she walked the hallways at work, and each time in between, when she caught sight of the person with a sharp suit and even sharper tongue moving past her, firing orders at Bella or bantering with the rest of the newsroom staff.A few weeks had passed. Four weeks after he’d shown up at her doorstep with flowers and chocolate, Zander had invited everyone into the conference room and announced that he’d given up his position and would only be staying for another month.After he made that announcement, he’d shot her a look, searching her face. Whatever he found there made him ask her to stay after the meeting was over so they could talk about it.She’d wanted to badly, but she knew nothing had changed. Though he often talked to Thea and visited her when he wasn't busy, he
Kristal had been a no-show during those terrible days, but he still remembered the flowers and pastry the family had sent every morning, her mother checking in on him, and her grandmother calling him three times a day to make sure he ate, showered, and breathed. Bella turned around, reaching for the door handle. Zander kept his face blasé. “Good luck explaining it to everyone, sir. Because let me tell you something—the moment Elvie walked into the room and into your life again, she changed you. It wasn’t profound. It was even more gradual, but it was there. In the way you started smiling, the way you softened towards your employees—just a little—and started doing the right thing by yourself and Kristal. But standing here?” She shook her head. “I think that man just bailed on us, and it saddens me because I was looking forward to working with and befriending the new Zander.” Fuck! Bella closed the door behind her, and he looked to the glass wall, catching Elvie unpacking her lunch a
Elvie was about to round the corner and turn onto the street when a limo pulled up at the curb and the passenger door flung open. Her eyes widened, and she stopped in an instant. Her brother was no Liam Neeson, and if she was going to get kidnapped, she very much doubted she could be saved. She turned around to look at the person getting out of the vehicle. It was Kristal, dressed to impress in what looked like a cocktail gown. She seemed to be alone.“Can I help you?” Elvie cocked her head. She wanted to be strong, but she was tired, hungry, and annoyed. And pissed at herself—so pissed that she’d let herself get carried away with a man like Zander Stanton. She usually made smart choices. She was a salad girl, and he was a deep-fried chocolate lava cake.“Me? No, though I’m sure you’ll do it at some point once you get fired, divorced, and have to become a waitress to support your slutty ways.” She walked towards her on her high heels. The limo driver looked the other way, like he coul
On the way to work, Gerald told her in her earbuds that they’re spending the treasure that love cannot afford, and Elvie nodded, not only to the rhythm but to the sentiment. Her shoes were blood red, and she’d spent the ride dying their laces black with a Sharpie.She walked into the office, not knowing what to expect. The professional side was going to be evidently extra depressing. But last night, Zander and she showcased their hearts like they were on a window display when they touched—crawling into each other’s mouths and seeping into each other’s souls. Then she’d left, without a message or a phone call. It was not her most mature moment, but she was sure he needed time to think too.Elvie walked the hallway, ignoring the judgy looks and raised eyebrows people tried to pin her with. One of the secretaries passed her and winced. She didn’t say anything, but one look at her face told Elvie she was in for an unpleasant surprise. What the hell was wrong with these people? Why on eart
Her legs were up before she knew it, carrying her to the exit. No explanation. No apologies. Elvie felt his grave steps thumping in her hollow chest as he followed her out. It was raining outside—the kind of dirty, humid rain to break the pulses of summer heat. It reminded her of the day they’d met at the university, of the carnal desperation that ate at her back then, and of the fact that she was still alone.Elvie felt his hand on my shoulder as he swivelled her around sharply. He jerked her into his arms.I didn’t want him to let go.I didn’t want him to keep me there, either. She thought.“I wish I’d never met you.” My fists pounded his chest, and he took it. Maybe because he knew he deserved it. His mouth pressed against my cheek felt like a rusty, hot blade. The world felt like it was ending, even though I knew it couldn’t be.The vane of his breath sliced through my ear. “I wish that, too.”That night, the sex was different.Slow, intense, and angry. Every thrust was a punishme