LITMIR.BIZ

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      When he stopped to dig Sasha’s apartment key from his jeans pocket, he smiled. She was going to be surprised and hopefully quite pleased when she came home from work and found that he’d had a caterer deliver a specially prepared dinner for them. She was expecting him to take her out, but after spending the past four days without her in his arms, the last place Blake wanted them to be was in a crowded restaurant.

      “It’s past time that you and I have it out, little brother.”

      At the sound of his brother’s angry voice, Blake’s good mood took a nosedive and he turned to find Creed storming up the sidewalk toward him. “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

      “But I have plenty to say to you and you’re going to listen.”

      “The hell I am.” Blake wasn’t the least bit intimidated by Creed’s menacing expression. “I have plans for the evening and they don’t include talking to you.”

      “I don’t give a damn about you or your plans,” Creed said, poking Blake in the chest with his index finger. “You’re going to listen.”

      White hot fury invaded every fiber of Blake’s being. “Do that again and I’ll knock the hell out of you.”

      Although there were six years difference in their ages, they were pretty well matched in size and build. And if it came to blows, Blake figured he had a pretty good chance of taking Creed in a fight.

      “Until today, I couldn’t figure out why you’d taken a sudden interest in Sasha when you hadn’t so much as given her a second glance in the four years she’s worked at Dakota Fortune,” Creed growled.

      “And you think you’ve figured it out now?” Blake snapped back.

      “Oh, yeah.” Creed’s smile was filled with loathing. “Because it appeared that Sasha and I were a couple, you decided to seduce her away from me. But you were too blinded by your jealousy of me to see that there was never anything romantic between us.”

      Guilt coursed through Blake. That was exactly the way his involvement with Sasha had started out. Fortunately, it hadn’t taken long for him to realize how special she was and how much he needed her in his life.

      But Blake’s need to retaliate quickly became stronger than his sense of regret and before he could stop himself, he lashed out. “I figured that out about the same time I took her virginity.”

      Creed laughed humorlessly. “And she was ripe for the picking, wasn’t she?”

      “What’s that supposed to mean?” Blake demanded, barely resisting the urge to plant his fist in his brother’s nose.

      “I’ve seen the way she looked at you over the past year. But being a self-absorbed bastard, I don’t suppose you could see that she was attracted to you.” Creed gave him a disgusted look. “Although for the life of me, I’ll never understand why.”

      Blake shook his head. “I don’t give a damn what you do or don’t understand. Sasha’s with me now and you’re out of the picture.” Without thinking, he added, “I win.”

      “A real man would walk away from this before Sasha ends up getting hurt.” Creed raised an arrogant eyebrow. “But then, her feelings have never been your concern, have they? You were too focused on getting back at me to consider what your little game would do to her. And if the truth is known, you wouldn’t have cared even if you had.”

      Blake didn’t think he’d ever despised his brother more than he did at that moment. “I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I’ll do whatever it takes just for the privilege of watching you land on your ass. But that’s not—”

      He started to tell Creed that he’d come to care too much for Sasha to hurt her in any way, but the words died in Blake’s throat when he heard the soft female gasp behind him. Spinning around, Blake felt as if he was being torn apart when he saw the devastated expression on Sasha’s sweet face and the tears streaming unchecked from her emerald eyes.

      Neither he nor Creed had noticed her opening the apartment door, and Blake knew that she’d heard every one of the verbal barbs and accusations that they’d hurled at each other.

      Arriving home from the office, Sasha had barely had time to change clothes and feed her cat, Melvin, before she’d heard the angry male voices outside of her apartment door. When she’d peeked out the window to see what was going on, the elation she’d felt at the sight of Blake had quickly turned to desolation. He and Creed had been embroiled in a heated argument and it hadn’t taken long for her to realize that she was the subject of their battle.

      “H-how could you?” she stammered, unsure which of the Fortune brothers to address first.

      “Sasha—”

      “Sweetheart—”

      They both spoke at once, but she’d heard more than enough. “Don’t.” She shook her head. “There’s nothing left to say.”

      Blake took a step toward her. “You heard—”

      “E-everything,” she said, drawing back. If he touched her, she knew for certain she’d shatter into a million pieces.

      “I thought you were still at work,” Creed said, his expression guarded.

      “After our conversation, I didn’t feel like staying at the office.” She swiped at the tears running down her cheeks. “But don’t trouble yourself with firing me for leaving work early.”

      “I wasn’t going to,” Creed said, frowning. “Why would you think that I would?”

      “It doesn’t matter whether you were or not because effective immediately, I’m no longer an employee of Dakota Fortune.” When he opened his mouth as if he intended to refuse her resignation, she held up her hand. “I don’t want to hear it. I thought you were my friend, Creed.”

      “I am,” he insisted.

      She shook her head. “A true friend wouldn’t have talked to me the way you did earlier today.”

      “What did you say to her?” Blake demanded, his fists doubled at his sides.

      “It doesn’t matter,” Sasha answered, staring at Creed. She feared she wouldn’t be able to continue if she looked at Blake. And it was extremely important that she let them both know exactly what their feuding had cost them.

      “I’m here defending you now,” Creed said stubbornly. “If that’s not friendship, I don’t know what is.”

      “You weren’t defending me as much as you were letting Blake know what easy prey you thought I was.” She could tell that her statement shocked him, but it was past time they both heard just how destructive their warring had become and the high price they’d both have to pay for it. “In light of everything that’s happened today, I think you’ll have to agree that our friendship has come to an end, Creed.”

      “It’s just as well, sweetheart,” Blake interjected. “The son of a bitch wouldn’t know how to be a friend if his life depended on it.”

      Sasha finally looked at him and she felt as if her heart broke all over again. “What you did to me is far worse than anything Creed could have ever done.” Her voice caught on a sob. “Only the ones you love the most have the power to devastate you.”

      “Sasha, listen to me,” Blake said, reaching for her.

      “Don’t touch me.” She brushed his hand away. “Don’t ever touch me again.”

      “Sasha, sweetheart, you don’t mean that.”

      “Yes, I do.” She took a deep breath as she forced herself to push the all-consuming emotional pain aside and dig deep within her soul to muster the last scrap of her tattered pride. “How could you have such little regard for my feelings? Did you even think of what it would do to me when I discovered that you were using me to get back at Creed?”

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