Addicted (A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance)(43)

I stood there for a long time, overwhelmed by helpless rage.

“Charles?”

“Yes,” I grated. “Yes sir, I understand you completely.”

James nodded his head. “Good. Now go finish that report that you said you would have on my desk by Monday.” He sat down at his desk and began looking over a stack of papers, letting me know our meeting was over.

Swallowing my pride, I turned and walked out of the office, closing his door a little louder than I should have behind me, vowing that it was time to take matters into my own hands. This wasn’t over, not by a long shot.





Chapter 21





Tyler - Three Months Later





An irritating beeping sound awoke me with a start. I laid there for a while, trying to ignore it before I went searching for the annoying offender.

“Shut the fuck up,” I growled. The sounds literally felt like they were skull-fucking me, sending sharp slashes of pain through my temples.

Rolling over in bed, moaning and groaning, I blindly ran my fingers over my night stand until I hit the alarm clock button, narrowly missing knocking over a half empty bottle of vodka.

“Fuck, my head hurts,” I groaned, clutching at my temples.

I felt like complete shit, but that was to be expected.

I’d spent another night out, drinking and partying at the hottest clubs the city’s night life had to offer, attempting to drown away my unhappiness. I hadn’t been in this much of a slump since Candice . . .

Speaking of Candice, since leaving my apartment the night she unceremoniously showed up, Victoria had refused to return any of my calls.

For three months straight.

I’d left her more messages than I could count, messages that I’d be ashamed of under ordinary circumstances. Messages where I’d poured my heart out and tried to explain my situation and what actually happened.

It didn’t work. She was as stubborn as me sometimes, and maybe that’s why I liked her so much.

I'd even tried to track her down at work, but I never seemed to be able to catch her. She either wasn't there or someone would tell me she was too busy running errands for Christine. I figured it was probably bullshit, but I wasn’t going to push it and get her in trouble, making everything worse.

Her coworker, April, appeared to take a special glee in turning me away. She always had this huge smile on her face, pissing me off even more. She knew it too. I could tell.

Finally, I’d given up on making myself look pathetic. I got very angry at Victoria, even told myself that I didn’t need her. That I was better than her. After all, I was a rich CFO with my whole life ahead of me, standing to be the sole beneficiary to an empire. There wasn't a girl on the planet that wouldn't want to be with me.

Except one. The one I wanted.

She needed me. I didn't need her, I told myself. She’d regret her decision for the rest of her life. I just knew it.

Distraught, I turned to alcohol to numb the pain of our break up. I felt weak for doing it, but I could find no other respite.

Sure, I could've gone out and had revenge sex with every willing slut that I could find. After all, isn't that what Victoria thought of me? A manwhore who couldn’t keep his big dick in his pants?

Maybe I was once that man, but strangely enough, those things no longer interested me. I wanted one thing and one thing only.

Victoria.

My phone beeped, drawing me out of my reverie.

Wiping the sleep out of my eyes, I grabbed it off the night stand, this time knocking over the bottle of Vodka.

I’ll just have Jonathan clean it up, I thought as the smell of alcohol hit my nostrils.

It took several seconds for my fuzzy mind to read the reminder I’d set on my phone.

ARMEX meeting today.

“Shit,” I muttered.





* * *



“You looked like shit today in the meeting,” Jeff hissed. “What is wrong with you?”

Me and my fellow colleague were sitting in my office after a nearly disastrous meeting where I’d been unable to read my report without stumbling over my words. It’d gotten so bad that my dad had to step in to save me from further embarrassing myself.

He hadn't looked too happy about that. In fact, he looked like he wanted to choke me with his bare hands. I knew that we were going to have words later, and I wasn’t looking forward to it.

I was barely holding it together as it was.

I lowered my head to my desk and groaned. “Don't you have something better to do? I don't want to hear this shit."

"Well, you're going to hear it, because I've never seen you act so disgusting inside that room before. And the only reason why you're still sitting in that chair and not out looking for a job is because of your father.”

I looked up, then winced a second later as my temples pounded. The four Tylenol I'd taken before the meeting had done little to alleviate my misery. "That's not true," I croaked. "I'm here because I'm valuable.”