"Guess who made the headlines," Stefan announced, sauntering into my office in ripped jeans and a nauseating bright pink polo shirt.

He held his coffee up to me as a way of greeting but I lowered my eyes back to my laptop, ignoring him.

Today wasn't one of my brightest days, not that I ever had one of those but today seemed particularly unpleasant.

It was a Sunday morning and I was in the office, by my desk, forcing myself to work because I didn't know what else to do.

I fucked up.

No matter how hard I tried to spin it, I fucked up.

I probably deserved it. After belting her like that last night, I deserved a helluva lot worse.

A pang of guilt hit me hard like a machete to my chest as I recalled the sheer look of pain in her eyes as she glared at me while she cried. I was used to making women cry from the pain I inflicted on them but it was never like this. Seeing it slew my anger immediately and made me realize I had been a total bloke and an asshole.

"Videos of you assaulting Mr. Pretty Boy's face are all over YouTube," Stefan informed me, collapsing into the seat in front of me. "Some high school kid even made a mad edit. Wanna see?" He stretched out his phone for me to take but I looked away with a grunt, waving him off. The last thing I wanted was to be reminded of anything that transpired last night because the more I thought of it, the more my stomach seethed with anger.

"I want all the videos taken down," I instructed irritably.

"Already on it." He sipped his coffee. "There is one problem though."

"What?"

"Pretty boy filed an assault case against you and is pressing heavy charges."

Of course. "How heavy?"

He exhaled. "Well, with three broken ribs, a fractured cheekbone, and a broken nose the charges are pretty heavy. I'm surprised he isn't in some kind of coma."

I sighed, fumbling with my tie and loosening it a little. "What's my attorney saying?"

"I called him last night, luckily for us, he's friends with the DA so they're trying to settle this amicably without going to court. Bothering on the fact that we're currently paying for Mr. Pretty Boy's medical bills and damages, I think things are going to play out smoothly. If it doesn't, we'll grease a few hands and make it all go away."

"Good then," I said, returning my gaze to my laptop screen.

"What is the real reason tho?"

I looked up. "What do you mean?"

"You going all Muhammad Ali on him like that?" He leaned back, sipping his coffee while gauging me. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were je-"

"Stefan." I stopped him with a warning look, knowing where he was going with this and hating it. "Stop."

He threw his hands up. "Well, I'm just saying. It looked..."

"He was kissing my wife." I bit, cutting him. "Someone had to do something."

"I know but you put your name on the line for her." He argued. "I didn't know you cared that much." A small smile lined his lips. "She clearly means much more to you than you're willing to admit."

She did, didn't she?

Fuck. I shouldn't have done it but I was swamped in anger. Watching him kiss Sienna like that made me sick. No, it made me crazy and right then, something in me exploded.

The memory came unbidden to my mind, causing my fists to clench.

I was never one to act out of primal instinct but she made me do so. Day by day, she slithered through my barricade and brought out these unchecked emotions in me that I had kept locked for a very long time.

My entire life always revolved around working hard, succeeding, and proving to my nutjob of a mother that I could be something without her. Things as measly as getting caught up with my feelings or longing for passion never fazed me.

I practically despised women and made myself emotionally unavailable when it came to dealing with them.

But Sienna...

Fuck.

A lot of things were falling out of place because of her and it pissed me off.

Dismissing everything from my mind, I snapped back into my reality, surprised to find Stefan staring at me with that knowing look he always had on his face whenever he knew something I didn't.

It irritated me.

"What?" I snapped.

He regarded me broodingly for a few silent seconds. "I'm taking Sienna out on a movie date tonight."

His new piece of information knocked me off balance. My scalp prickled. "And why are you telling me this?" I asked, struggling to maintain an unperturbed demeanor.

"So you don't go all Mike Tyson on me for going out with your wife." Humor danced in his eyes.

He thought this was funny?

"She's been looking forward to an outing for a long time." He continued. "And this seems like a good time. So, are you okay with it?"

No. No, I was not. The thought of them having a good time instantly made me sick to the stomach. However; "Yes." I responded.

The corner of his mouth kicked up. "Are you sure?"

He was baiting me. I curled my hands into tight fists underneath my desk, fighting my surging anger. "Yes Stefan, do whatever you want as long as you bring her back to me in one piece."

He took a deep breath before he chuckled. "Alright."

I swallowed down the acid coating my throat and answered with a voice cold enough to freeze a volcano. "Good."

"What's eating you?"

I blinked out of my thoughts, not realizing I'd been staring at my chess piece without moving it.

I was in the hospital, visiting my grandfather after he had successfully completed the first phase of his surgery.

"What's eating you up, Tristan?" He asked me again and I looked up to find his weary eyes studying me.

"Nothing," I said gruffly, lowering my eyes back down and moving my pawn closer to his knight.

"Your heart is heavy." He observed, moving his pawn two steps forward. "You have a lot on your mind, I can tell by the frown lines on your forehead."

Annoyed, I moved my queen away. "I don't. Stop trying to read me."

"Now what kind of grandfather would I be if I didn't try to find out what was wrong with my grandson? Come on, you can tell me anything, you've always told me everything."

Not everything.

"Focus on your health, old man,"

He ignored my rambling. "Does it have to do with your wife?"

I groaned. Of course, it did. It always did but he didn't need to know that. "Stop pestering me."

"It is, isn't it?" He said with an upside-down smile. "Are you two fighting?"

Silence ensued. When I didn't answer, he chuckled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "You need to apologize to her before things get worse."

I looked up.

He moved another piece in the board, giving a light shrug. "She's a sweet girl, I know she would never start a fight with you. You on the other hand." He shook his head pitifully and exhaled.

I moved my castle, affronted. "It is not my fault."

"It is." He argued. "You made it your fault the moment you chose not to smoothen things out with your wife before coming here." He leaned back slowly. "Women are complex creatures. Trust me when I say I didn't keep your grandmother happy for fifty years by having just a huge penis."

Oh lord. I recoiled immediately and frowned. "I did not need to know that."

He let out a hearty laugh. "Where do you think you got yours from? Your father?" He shook his head. "It all comes back to the roots." He jutted his hips in punctuation and the mental image it put in my head made me want to gauge my eyes out.

I grimaced. "Stop it."

His chest bubbled with more laughter. "My point is, you have to play the part. When I got married to your grandmother all we did was bicker over the littlest things but soon I came to realize that dealing with a woman is a whole different game. They're like an egg; very fragile and once you crack it from the outside, you can never put back the pieces no matter how hard you try."

I rolled my eyes. "So I've figured."

"You have to be gentle with her." He continued. "Treat her with kindness and show your affection. Women love to be shown affection. It's like water where she is the flower. The more you pour on her, the more she blooms." He smiled. "In the end, all I want is for both of you to be happy together. I like her for you and I don't want you to lose her because you are so overwhelmed by the need to protect your heart that you forget hers needs loving too."

My chest panged at his words. This was all so sickening I just wanted it to end.

"Be better, Tristan. I know you can." He concluded, placing his queen in front of my king. "Checkmate."

The moment I stepped into the foyer of my penthouse, a familiar scent rushed into my nose, making me fuzzy with nostalgia.

Sienna.

I could hear her getting closer.

She walked into the foyer with a smile on her face and her eyes fixed on her phone.

Unaware of my presence, she just kept walking, but the minute she noticed me, she stopped short and took a quick step back.

Silence filled the air between us, only broken by the working of my throat as I swallowed past the lump and stared down at the reason for my sleepless nights.

Her hair was let loose and falling. Her spaghetti-strap black dress was short and had a plunging neckline that wreaked havoc on a man's imagination.

Her eyes were icy when I tore my gaze away from her body and returned to them.

The vitriolic disdain in the way she looked at me told me she was still as pissed at me.

"You're leaving," I said simply, fixing my hands by my side because the itch to touch her was one very hard to curtail.

Her reply was a curt nod. She didn't want to talk to me.

I cleared the huskiness out of my tone and responded. "Philip will drop you off."

"I can get there on my own." She replied acerbically.

"I insist he does."

"And I insist I can get there on my own." Her tone was so distasteful it made me shudder.

"I already booked an Uber and I'm not canceling." She continued.

I thinned my lips. The determination to defile me was clear in her eyes. Always so goddamned stubborn. Perhaps that was why I liked her. The challenge was foreign.

"I'll get going now." She announced and stalked past me to the elevator.

I turned, allowing my eyes to rake over her backside. Round, perfect-the thought of following her into that elevator and taking her in it came to a halt in my mind. It would be so easy to pull her dress up, bend her against the wall, and watch her come apart with each thrust. My cock jolted with excitement in my pants, making me groan.

I looked away from her ass. God, I wanted her. I wanted to be greedy with her. I wanted her so bad it was slicing my gut from the inside out.

Resigned, I strolled up the stairs to my room and shut the door behind me.

Long minutes later, I strolled out with a towel around my waist to find my phone buzzing on my bedside table.

Wiping my hair with a hand towel, I strode over to reach for it and snorted immediately when Stefan's name popped up.

What did he want?

Was he calling to gloat about how much fun he was having with my wife?

Grumbling, I picked up, ready to scowl at him when the sound of someone wrenching in the background resonated, making me pause and blink a few times.

"Hey, boss," Stefan said over the chaos. "There's been a change in plan."

I stopped wiping my hair. "What plan?"

A disheartening sound crackled through the phone. "I can't make it to the movies, my ladylove has food poisoning and I'm taking her to the hospital."

I lifted my brows. "Since when do you have a girlfriend?"

"Look, It's complicated okay? But that's not the point. Sienna is at the cinema waiting. The movie starts at seven, you have ten minutes to get there."

My hand twisted around my phone. "And do what?"

"You decide."

The statement behind his words made a scowl find my face. "Stefan-"

I was halted by the gut-wrenching sounds of hurling that reverberated from the other end.

"Stefan, hurrrryyy."

"Shit. I gotta run. I'll text you the details. Make sure to take a jacket. She'll get cold." With that, he hung up.