I was still torn.
Work was piling up the more I stayed out of the office, but I suspected I’d worry about her the entire time I was gone. I was torn between two sides, two desires. I dried my hair with the towel before I tossed it in the laundry basket in the walk-in closet. “Baby, I’m not sure about this.”
“You’re going.” She was in my t-shirt with black leggings, and her hair was already done as well as her makeup. Her energy hadn’t returned to normal because she still had tremendous physical weakness. She could move around the house for a few hours before she needed to take a long break. She tried to hide her fatigue from me, but I knew her better than she realized. Weakness was a word that didn’t exist in her vocabulary.
“You have a lot of medication to keep track of.”
“And I’m smart enough to figure it out. I’ve been taking it every day.”
“What if you—”
“Diesel, I’m fine. You belong at the office. You have so many things to take care of. As much as I love spending the day with you, you have other priorities. If I need something, I won’t hesitate to call.”
The weeks had stretched by, and I was getting restless at home too. I hadn’t been working out either, and I felt the subtle changes in my body. As much as I wanted to be with Titan, my other projects weighed on my mind. She was more than stable, perfectly capable of getting around the penthouse on her own. But I would never stop worrying. “You’re sure about this?”
A smile broke on her face, the genuine kind that reached her eyes. “Absolutely. Please go, Diesel.”
I stood naked in the bedroom, and it was a testament to her dedication that she didn’t stare at my package. Whenever my clothes were gone, sex was always on her mind. “I’ll check on you throughout the day. But I want you to call me if anything comes up.”
“I know.”
“Promise me?” I didn’t want her to refrain from calling me just because she was afraid to bother me. Work needed to be taken care of, but its importance still paled in comparison to her.
“I promise.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist and pressed my face against hers. There was nothing else in my life that gave me as much meaning as this woman. If I’d lost her, I would have lost everything else too. Happiness hadn’t been a regular theme in my life, but now that I had it every single day, I was terrified to lose it. Tatum completed me in a way money and fancy cars never did. “I love you.”
She rubbed her nose against mine. “I know you do.”
Reporters followed me everywhere I went. From the moment I left the penthouse to the instant I stepped inside my building, they pestered me with questions about Tatum’s health and our upcoming nuptials.
I ignored them.
Once the elevator doors opened, I walked onto my floor and saw the surprised looks on my assistants’ faces.
They obviously hadn’t expected me to show up.
I went to Natalie first. “I know I have a lot to catch up on. So let’s start now.”
“Of course.” She grabbed a folder and stuffed a bunch of papers inside. “How’s Titan doing?”
“She’s recovering. She’ll be good as new in no time.”
Natalie and I walked into my office and got to work. My meetings had been canceled for the foreseeable future, so we got everything back on the calendar. I had thousands of unread emails, contracts, and updates on my various companies. It would take a month just to catch up on everything.
A few hours later, Jax called my cell.
The last time I saw him, Tatum had been shot. I couldn’t even remember what we talked about. I remembered his face, but not a single conversation. I took the call. “Hey.” It was awkward to address him because I wasn’t used to speaking to my brother.
“Back at work?”
“Yeah…how did you know?”
He chuckled into the phone. “It’s all over the news, man.”
I rolled my eyes, annoyed that my life was more important than the serious shit going on in the world. “Tatum pressured me. She said it was time I moved on.”
“Doesn’t surprise me. She doesn’t strike me as the kind of woman that needs to be taken care of.”
“No, she’s definitely not.” She liked to solve her own problems. She preferred to take care of herself before she let anyone help her. It wasn’t a matter of pride, but of strength. She let me in more than anyone else, but even then, she could be difficult.
“I wanted to see if you wanted to get lunch. We haven’t talked much…”
We hadn’t talked at all. I’d greeted him at dinner, but we hadn’t said much. In the back of my mind, I thought about the work that had piled up in my absence. I should attend to it before I ventured into my social life. But this was my brother, and he should have priority. “I don’t think it’s smart for me to leave the office when every reporter in Manhattan is following me. How about we meet here? One of my assistants will grab something for us.”
“That works for me. What time?”
I looked at my watch on my wrist. “How about shortly after one?”
“I’ll see you then.”
Jax walked into my office in a crisp suit and tie. Black on black, he looked like a darker version of me. We had the same jaw, the same eyes, and our builds were similar to our father’s. There was no doubt we were related—and we were definitely brothers.
He approached my desk with his hand in his pockets. A slight smile was on his lips, but the rest of his facial features were hard. “I’d shake your hand, but that feels strange.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“But I think
