Page 85 of Silver Fox's Secret Triplets
I threw another punch, harder this time. "I need to be left alone."
"That's not how this works." His voice carried the patronizing tone that had always grated on me. "You can't just shut everyone out when things get complicated."
"Complicated." I stopped hitting the bag and stared at him. "Is that what you call it?"
"Look, I came here to apologize." He held up his hands in a gesture of peace. "I may have pushed too hard earlier. About the transition, about moving up the timeline. I didn't realize how… invested you'd become."
The word hit me wrong. "Invested."
"In the assistant. Ivy." He said her name carefully, like he was testing the waters. "I can see she's got you tangled up."
The rage I'd been trying to work out through the bag found a new target. "What did you say?"
"I'm not judging." Nick's voice remained calm, reasonable. "We've all been there. A pretty face, a complicated situation. But you're better than this, Duncan. You're smarter than getting caught up in another scandal. She's so young…"
I stepped away from the bag, my fists still clenched. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't I?" He moved closer, his expression shifting from apologetic to calculating. "You've been distracted for weeks. Missing meetings, making decisions based on emotion instead of logic. The board's starting to notice."
"The board's starting to notice what, exactly?"
"That you're compromised." He shrugged, as if the word meant nothing. "Look, I get it. She's young, she's attractive, she's got that wounded bird thing going on. But you're the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company. You can't afford to let personal feelings?—"
I moved before he could finish the sentence. My fist connected with his jaw in a sharp crack that echoed through the empty gym. Nick stumbled backward, his hand flying to his face.
"Jesus, Duncan!"
"Don't." I advanced on him, my voice low and dangerous. "Don't you dare talk about her like that."
Nick straightened, his eyes bright with something that might have been satisfaction. "There it is. The truth you've been hiding from yourself."
"The truth?"
"You're in love with her." He dabbed at his lip, checking for blood. "Have been for years, probably. That's why you can't focus. That's why you're making terrible decisions."
I grabbed him by the shirt and shoved him against the wall. "I said don't."
"Or what?" His voice remained steady despite the position he was in. "You'll hit me again? Prove my point about how unstable you've become?"
The calm in his tone, the way he seemed to be enjoying this, made my vision go red. I pulled back my fist, ready to wipe that smug expression off his face permanently.
"Go ahead," he said quietly. "Show me exactly how far you've fallen."
I released him instead, stepping back with disgust. "Get out."
"Duncan—"
"Get out of my sight before I do something we'll both regret."
He straightened his shirt, that calculating look never leaving his eyes. "I didn't mean to push so hard. But you needed to hear it."
"What I needed was for you to mind your own business."
"This is my business." His voice hardened. "The company is my business. And you're destroying it."
I stared at him, really seeing him for the first time in years. The careful way he'd been positioning himself, the meetings he'd been pushing, the timeline he'd been so eager to accelerate. "You set this up."
"What?"
