Conflicted

DYLAN'S POV

It wasn't a figment of my imagination,

It wasn't a wet dream either –I would know since they pretty much kept me up all night yesterday.

I was kissing Brielle Renaud, and damn… what a kiss it was.

The little vixen pressed herself against me some more, angling her neck and kissing me like she had been wanting to all her life. I groaned in satisfaction, just as turned on -maybe even more- as she was. Her arms circled my shoulders, her fingers playing with my hair as mine wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer to me.

She let out a soft, breathy moan that went straight to my hard throbbing dick.

Fuck, this girl was going to be the death of me.

I gently bit her bottom lip and took advantage of the surprised gasp she let out to slide my tongue into her mouth, revelling in the sweet taste of cherries and mint, caressing, exploring.

Her sweet, breathy moans nearly put me in a frenzy.

I wanted her naked, begging for me as I placed her on the desk and made love to her.

Thankfully, we didn't make it that far.

"OH, MY GOD! I'M SO SORRY!" The door opened and closed just as quickly, with Brielle's assistant rushing out like she was being chased. The commotion had us pulling away from each other, despite the strong desire I had to still keep her wrapped up in my arms.

"God, I'm so stupid, what the hell was I thinking?" I heard her mutter softly to herself before completely walking away from me towards the door.

She looked distressed.

Had I misread her, perhaps?

Definitely not.

I didn't think so. She had wanted this as much as I did, but clearly, it looked like she had some regrets now- I don't know if it was because we had been caught by her assistant or something more, but I could sense it.

And I didn't like it one bit.

"Brielle? Are you okay? I understand that we put on quite a show for your assistant-"

"Look, you need to leave." She cut me off abruptly and opened the door. She seemed so frantic to see me out that, the feeling… scared me to silence. With a quick nod, I walked out of her office without another word."

My phone rang as I made my way to my office. Reaching for it, Marin's name lit up the screen, the sight unleashing a soft curse from within.

"Hey, man." I greeted when I answered the phone.

"Yo, what's going on? Have you seen the files I sent you? Why haven't you told me anything yet?"

I decided to go with honesty since I could tell from his tone that he was going to immediately fish out any lies I tried to come up with. "Marin, truth is… I haven't checked them out yet. I've been quite busy settling in and all that, but I'm heading to my office now. I'll call you right after taking a look at them."

"One last thing, promise me you'll keep your cool when you see them, alright?"

His words sent a chill down my spine, and all of a sudden… I had a feeling that whatever it was, wasn't going to be good.

"I hear you man, you have my word." I assured him absent-mindedly as I opened the door to my office and hung up.

Settling in my seat, I leaned back and shut my eyes, groaning when my mind replayed my encounter with Brielle over again;

How it went,

How it could have gone,

The mood-killing way it ended.

I groaned again and sat up, adjusting the bulge in my pants even as I wondered what could have happened to get her to shut down like that. I promised to find out, but I had much pressing matters to attend to, starting with Marin's files.

Reaching for my laptop, I quickly opened my email and loaded the set of images he had sent, my body tensing and bristling with anger at the sight that met my eyes.

So, dad was at it again. He was cheating on mum.

How else could I explain the images before me?

Pictures of him checking into a hotel, -according to the brief write-up- at around lunch break most Tuesdays. He was the only one the pictorial evidence accounted for, meaning I'd have to dig some more if I wanted the whole truth, wanted to find out who he was cheating with:

A feat I wasn't sure I was ready for yet.

To think I almost felt bad about my hostile take-over, almost being the keyword here. He seemed to have taken over a new leaf, and Ma seemed much happier now, but it had all been for show.

All I felt now was righteous indignation… I was getting revenge for my mum and my sister, I was restoring order.

Of course he could afford to cheat because he had money… well let's see how that would work out if he found himself suddenly bankrupt.

Reaching for my phone, I dialled Marin.

"Dylan.-"

"Stop the investigation, I'll find out who he's cheating with on my own."

"Calm down. We don't know if he's actually cheating yet, man… but we do know that something fishy is going on with h-"

I hung up, still shaking in anger.

He would pay for this… I was absolutely going to make sure of that.

******

BRIELLE'S POV

What was I thinking?

I tell myself I need to stay away from the guy, and then I go right ahead and allow him to kiss me.

Talk about saying one thing and meaning another.

I had really fucked up, because even as I chided myself for the incident, my mind just couldn't stop replaying the goddamned scene;

How good his lips had felt against mine,

How our kiss started out sweet and passionate, and then ended in a frenzied battle of tongues and dominion, passionate, hard and fast,

How I fucking wanted more.

I brushed the thoughts aside and gave myself a moment to appear calm and collected, and then I went out to get Sloane over to my office.

Not being one to beat about the bush, I dove straight into the matter when she was seated. "Look Sloane, I apologise for the unpleasant sight that met your eyes when you came in-"

"Psh, what the hell are you apologising for girl? You do you."

My eyes widened at her comment and then we both broke into a fit of giggles.

"The boss's son is hot, I'm not gonna blame you for getting caught up in the moment, although I'm pretty surprised at how fast you jumped his bones, knowing you and all that."

Well I didn't blame her, she didn't know the whole story.

"For the record, that was not supposed to happen, and I still can't stand the man." I defended myself helplessly.

"Mmhmm, keep telling yourself that. I think you guys pretty much seemed ready to go all the way had I not barged in like I did."

She really wasn't lying, at least I knew I was.

But even then I wanted to deny it… because maybe saying the opposite out loud will eventually cause me to start believing it.

"That wouldn't have happened Slo, just drop it already."

She raised her hands in surrender. "Oohkayy I hear you."

I shook my head at her antics and steered clear of the topic at hand. "So… I forwarded the list of investors to you, have you taken a look at them, and what plan of action do you suggest?"

Her eyes lit up with a glint. "I think I know just the thing."

*****

I felt more confident of an assured victory after my meeting with Slo, the older woman was always just bursting with ideas that it hurt me that she was stuck at such a position –being my assistant- when she could contribute immensely to the development of the company if given the chance. A lot of women like her actually roamed the halls of RetroCorp, stuck at menial positions when they had so much to offer.

I was going to change that.

For some reason, I had managed to make it to the top so far, and I needed just a little more push to get to the level where I could advocate for them too, which was why I was going to do anything possible to win.

Anything.

Even stepping on a few toes, -yes, even Dylan's- if it meant emerging as vice president.

Plus, call it being petty or whatever… but a part of me wanted to kick Dylan in the nuts so hard, it'd hurt (figuratively speaking of course.)

Although being able to do that for real wouldn't have been that bad now that I was thinking about it.

"You know you want to do much more wicked things to his manly parts than kicking him down there Lucia, so stop deceiving yourself." My subconscious mocked darkly, bringing me back to the issue at hand, a light blush on my face as I silently thanked the fates for ensuring that Sloane had left when this thought popped up in my head.

Like she would never let me live it down.

I had figured that, since his interest was in the vice presidential position, the best kick would be to win the position, because trust me… though the other options would have gotten quicker and more desirable results, I didn't think I had the heart or capacity to pull it off;

Something like, getting him to fall in love with me and then breaking his heart like he did mine so many years ago.

As appealing as the thought sounded, I just knew I was going to come out even more heartbroken than I was before. Hell, I mean after ten long years, I was still attracted to the jerk… a feeling that had considerably increased after the kiss and I honestly didn't know what would happen if I were to throw myself at him in the name of revenge.

Nah, I wasn't that stupid or crazy.

Winning the position was a safe bet, and could do an amount of damage that may perhaps appease my wounded heart.

With Sloane having access to his itinerary, I was positive winning was going to be an absolute breeze.

I glanced at my watch absentmindedly, startling when I realised it was almost lunch break.

Wow, time did fly by very fast nowadays.

I contemplated between having lunch with Sloane over at the office, heading out to a restaurant for lunch, or just calling it a day so I could go home and have Silvie spoil me sick, and almost laughed at the fact that I was stuck in a dilemma.

The old me wouldn't have hesitated to pick option three, but I guess people change with age.

My phone rang while I was stuck in my reverie and I came to only to realise it was Shawn.

Why was he calling?

I answered after the first ring." "Hey Shawn."

"Brielle, I need a favour. I need you to come someplace with me." He stated, going straight to the point.

"O-okayy, and does this place have a name?" I asked tentatively causing the old man to chuckle over the line. "Yes Brielle, it does… and I'll tell you all about it on the way. Meet me at the car park, oh and you're my designated driver." He hung up after that weird statement.

What was up with him?

Standing up and gathering my stuff, I chuckled at the fact that none of the choices I'd been thinking about had made it into my plans, and then headed out leaving a brief "I'm going out for lunch" message for Sloane since she was absent from her desk.

As I made my way down the stairs to the car park, I idly wondered why everyone at RetroCorp understood my relationship with Shawn and didn't try to question that we were nothing short of a father and his daughter… everyone apart from Dylan, that is.

Of course I'd heard stories through the grapevine on how I was Shawn's illegitimate daughter among other outrageous claims, but through it all, I was grateful that at least it wasn't something sexually related.

Naturally, there were people over at the company who thought I didn't deserve to be where I was, but that was normal, and I most importantly didn't let it get to me.

Everyone was entitled to their own opinions after all, amirite?

I had gotten to the car park and had even settled in my car with the engine on, soft music playing in the background, and the AC running when Shawn joined me. "You're late Shawn." I admonished teasingly.

"But, we never agreed on a specific time, did we?" He teased back with a smirk that immediately reminded me of his arrogant, annoyingly handsome son. His son who had held me close and kissed me senseless just a few hours ago-

"Earth to Brielle."

I snapped out of it, surprisingly remembering what we were talking about.

Thank God for excellent cognitive abilities.

"No, no. We didn't. Happy now?" I glared at him, rolling my eyes when he chuckled. "Alright, step on it."

I shot him an exasperated look. "You haven't exactly told me where we're going."

"Oh, sorry. Windsor Court Hotel."

I raised my eyebrows at the location, but didn't say a word, even though my mouth itched to ask lots of questions.

Questions like, where we were going,

Who we were going to meet,

Why he didn't go with someone else.

Switching from Park to Drive, I stepped on the accelerator and drove off.