Page 33 of Baby Surprise for my Brother's Best Friend

And if I put my hand on her back, and she smiles like I’m not the man she just caught stroking his cock on the couch?

That’s when this game stops being fun.

That’s when it becomes war.

She thinks she’s the one with control?

I’ve already decided how this ends. With her screaming my name and forgetting every damn rule she ever made.

9

SOPHIE

I slam my office door harder than necessary. The echo vibrates through the floor-to-ceiling windows, but I don’t care.

My father’s voice still lingers in the air, patronizing, condescending, and impossible to ignore.

“Just be careful you don’t get too close, Sophie. He’s your client, not your conquest.”

As if I don’t already know that. As if I haven’t spent every damn day walking the tightrope between professionalism and... whatever the hell this all-consuming chaos with Alessio is.

Never mind the fact that I’m juggling PR landmines with Alessio's recent run in with the Russian mafia. No, let’s reduce it all to hormones and poor judgment.

Classic James Henderson logic: undermine first, justify later. When in doubt, undermine your daughter’s credibility.

I sink into my chair, jaw tight, heart pounding.

My control is hanging by a thread, and he knows it. That smug, backhanded warning wasn’t just about professionalism. It was about Alessio.

And the worst part?

He’s not entirely wrong.

I drop into my chair, pulse still rattled, and pull out my phone to shoot off a text.

Got a minute?

I stare at the message after I hit send.

Denver will know what to say. He always does.

Denver meets me in the company lounge ten minutes later, coffee in hand and concern in his eyes. He slides into the chair across from me.

“You look like you’re two seconds from torching the building.”

“I might be.” I wrap my fingers around my lukewarm cup. “For now, I just needed to talk.”

"Anything in particular?"

His brow lifts slightly.

That’s something I’ve always loved about Denver. He cares. He listens.

“About your BFF. He's infuriating, does whatever the hell he wants, and struts around the apartment like he owns the place."

Of course, I leave out the part where he walks around half-naked and that I caught him...playing solo.

"I get that he’s charming. Too charming. But with his track record, and with the recent incident at my apartment, I don't know if he's reliable. And I need that from him if we're going to make this work. Why... why do you trust him so much?”

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