My Best Friend's Brother (Make Her Mine Book 1) Read online

  I roll my eyes. “What’s it to you?”

  “Where you two going tonight?” he asks, glancing between Maddie and me.

  “Why?” Maddie asks, stepping up to my side.

  “With her dressed like that,” he points at me, “you’re going to need someone to get you out of the trouble you’re going to be in. I’m coming to whatever party you’re going to.”

  Inside, I smile, but outwardly, I groan, just like Maddie.

  Just thinking about the way he was looking at me that night makes my temperature rise.

  I turn to look at him and notice he’s looking at me like that right now. He’s holding back a grin, eyes glistening and moving around quickly like he’s trying not to look at me.

  “What?” I ask, no longer able to hold back my grin.

  “Huh?” He acts like he didn’t hear me.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” I turn my body to face him directly.

  “Like what?” He frowns.

  I laugh and shake my head as I turn back to face the elevators. “Keep your eyes to yourself before I alert HR.”

  This makes him bust out laughing. “Don’t flatter yourself, Jazz. I’m still amazed you made it to work on time.”

  2

  Damon

  Seeing her at that elevator makes me do a double take. This isn’t the little Jazmine I grew up with. She isn’t the knobby-kneed kid that always ate the last slice of pizza. She isn’t the pesky teenage girl that spied on me with my dates. Hell, this isn’t even the girl I saw just two weeks ago that was lounging on my sister’s couch in cat-print pajamas and eating ice cream straight out of the carton while mocking me. This is a whole new Jazmine—a grown woman with breasts I want to see, curves I want to memorize, and mile-long legs that I want to run my hand up.

  I shake my head and rub my eyes, needing to get her out of my mind to focus on work

  A ding fills my ears and the doors open, allowing us all to step inside. I’m standing in the back, and she’s right in front of me in the crowded elevator. It gives me the perfect chance to check out her ass without her seeing me. I let my eyes fall slightly. They nearly bug out of my head when I see how round and plump her ass looks under that tight pencil skirt. It’s slit up the back—not high, just to her lower thigh—but her toned calves and those shoes make me want to see more. Already, I’m picturing how they’d look wrapped around my hips.

  What the fuck am I doing? This isn’t just some random woman that walked into the elevator. This is Jazzy. The little girl that always said my breath smelled like farts, and that any girl that kissed me must like pink eye because coming that close to an asshole was sure to give it to them. Just thinking of that makes me laugh. She was always so damn mouthy and quick-witted.

  The sound of me laughing in the quiet elevator makes everyone turn around and look at me, even Jazz. She frowns, looks me up and down to make sure I’m not taping a kick me sign to her back, then turns back around.

  Fuck my life. My job just got ten times harder. Why did I get her this job? I must be glutton for punishment.

  When the doors open, she walks out, and I’m right behind her. She hasn’t realized that I’m following because I haven’t told her about this part of the job yet. She stops at the reception desk and I stay behind so she won’t see me.

  “Hi, I’m Jazmine Hernandez. This is my first day, and I was told to come to you.”

  Lisa, the receptionist, smiles, her eyes flashing from Jazz to me and back. “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Hernandez.” She stands and holds out her hand to shake. “I guess you haven’t been told yet, but Mr. Strickland will be overseeing your work. So you just need to follow him.” She motions toward me.

  Jazz turns around with a look of surprise painted on her face. Her mouth is open, and her brown eyes are wide, until she sees me, that is. When her eyes land on mine, her mouth snaps shut and her eyes narrow, causing a small wrinkle to form between them.

  I walk closer with my smile in place. I point at her. “Keep that up and you’ll have wrinkles for sure. Follow me.” I immediately turn and walk to my closed office door.

  “I have a feeling I’m going to need Botox after today,” she mumbles, causing me to laugh under my breath.

  I open my office door and hold it open until she comes in. Closing the door behind us, I take a seat behind my desk while she stands in the center of the room, looking at the desks on either end.

  “So, why didn’t you tell me you’d be overseeing my work?” she asks, walking toward the floor to ceiling windows and looking out at the busy city below.

  I shrug. “I figured you wouldn’t take the job if I told you what it was.”

  She turns to face me slowly with a look of horror on her face. “What is the job, exactly?”

  “My assistant.” I kick my feet up, getting comfortable.

  Her shoulders visibly fall, and her eyes close while a long breath escapes her beautiful, plump lips. “You have to be joking.” She slowly walks over to my desk and has a seat on the opposite side.

  “I’m not but hear me out.” I sit up, placing my elbows on the top of the desk as I lean closer to her. “Getting your foot in the door is the hard part, right?”

  She nods her head, silently agreeing with me.

  “Well, see there! Hard part over.” I grin, proud of myself. “Now, all we have to do is slowly bring you into meetings where you can put your two cents in, and sooner rather than later, hopefully, you’ll be hired on in whatever department you want. You’ll just have to put up with me for a couple months to do it. And,” I add on, holding up my finger to silence her, “it’ll be a whole lot faster than standing out there interviewing with those fifty other graduates all trying to get the job you want.”

  She groans and rolls her head back, so she’s staring up at the ceiling. “Fine.” She stands and starts pacing the floor with her hands on her hips. “This will just be like the time I lost that bet and had to be your slave for the week. I can do that.” She’s sticking out her lip while nodding her head. She’s clearly trying to talk herself into staying. “I mean, it’s what? Fetching coffee, making copies, answering phones, and taking messages? That sort of thing, right?” She stops her pacing and looks at me for confirmation.

  I nod. “Pretty much… and you know, chasing out crazy women that’ve slept with me but refuse to leave.” I grin, causing her to give me her angry eyes.

  I laugh. “I’m just joking. Everything will be professional. I promise.”

  She takes a deep breath while nodding once, letting her arms fall to her sides. “Okay. Where do we start?”

  I smile. “I’m glad you asked.” I stand and pick up a file folder off my desk. “I have a meeting this morning and need thirty copies of every page in this file to hand out.” I pass it over to her.

  She presses her lips into a straight line but takes it. “And the copy room is where?”

  “End of the hall,” I reply, taking my seat once again and turning my attention to the computer screen to check this morning's emails.

  Without a word, she turns for the door, and my eyes jump up to watch her go. With her every step, her hips sway from side to side, and I get just a peek at her shapely legs. She stops when she gets to the door and turns back to me. “You’re doing it again,” she says around a smile.

  My eyes jump from her ass to her eyes. “Doing what?”

  “Looking at me.” Her dark eyes roll.

  “For the last time, I’m not looking at you. Do you need a cereal box to put between us like when we were kids?” I ask, amused but also using a deeper tone of voice to make her think I’m getting annoyed by her.

  She points a manicured finger at me. “That’s not a bad idea,” she says, walking out and closing the door behind her.

  I sit back in my chair, and my eyes land on her desk right across the room from mine. If I sit here and she sits there, and we both look up, we’ll be eye to eye. I can’t handle that. Then an idea hits me. Way back in grade scho
ol, when we’d take tests, we used two folders and stand them up on the edges of our desk so you couldn’t see your neighbor’s paper. No way can I have all that shit cluttering my desk.

  I open my bottom desk drawer and pull out a stack of unused file folders. I stand with the stack in hand and walk over to her desk, placing each one up so when she sits down, all she’ll see is folders instead of me. This will also help me keep my eyes to myself. I’ve been caught checking her out enough already.

  When I’m proud of my handy work, I turn my attention back to the computer screen and go through all the unread emails. I spend a good thirty minutes sorting through them all, replying when necessary, and deleting what’s not needed. I look up and find that Jazz still isn’t back. I decide to look for her to make sure she hasn’t gotten lost.

  I exit the office and walk back toward the elevators, down the hall, and into the copy room. I find Jazz leaning against the copy machine, holding a big stack of papers and smiling while James flirts with her.

  Walking into the room steals both their attention, and the conversation stops.

  I slide my hands into my pockets and smile while glancing between them. “I was worried you got lost,” I say, finally keeping my eyes on her.

  She smiles. “I’m sorry, I was just finishing up when James walked in. We got carried away talking.”

  He forces his smile to fall. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hold you up. I just noticed that small tattoo on her ankle,” he says, now looking at me. “And I knew I had to talk to her. Blink-182 is my favorite band.”

  With his words, I look at her ankle and see a small tattoo of a smiley face that has X’s for eyes and arrows coming out the side. How have I never noticed this before? When did she get a tattoo? Does she have more? If so, where are they? My mind starts to drift, but I catch myself quickly, turning back to the conversation at hand.

  I nod once. “Not a problem,” I reply, bringing my attention to her face. “We need to get some more work done before my meeting.”

  She smiles and nods. “I’ll be right there.”

  I turn and leave, but not before giving James one last look, a silent warning, if you will: Don’t fuck with her. She’s mine.

  On my walk back to the office, I think about those words: She’s mine. Where the fuck did that even come from? I guess in a way she’s always been mine. Mine to torture. Mine to tease. Mine to protect. She’s no different than my sister. Just thinking that makes me want to gag. Okay, she’s different than my sister.

  Fuck, I don’t even know what I’m thinking, or feeling for that matter. All I know is I don’t want her with James. James is a player. Once he gets what he wants, she’ll be heartbroken.

  Just as I’m sitting down at my desk, she walks in. Her eyes land on her desk before meeting mine.

  “Really?” She motions toward my handy work.

  I shrug. “I didn’t have cereal boxes. Next best thing?” I ask with a raise of my brow and a smirk.

  She rolls her eyes and walks over to me, placing the stack of papers on my desk.

  “I need those stapled together in order, please.”

  “Seriously? There’s like four-hundred pages there. You could have told me beforehand so I could have had the machine do it.” Her brows are arched high.

  I nod. “Why do you think I came looking for you? We’re running out of time. There’s a stapler in your desk.” I motion across the room.

  She picks up the stack of papers and walks to her desk, grumbling something under her breath.

  I watch her go until she sits down and she’s no longer in my view. I smile to myself. This was a better idea than I thought.

  I sit upright and bring up the notepad app on my computer to make a note on topics to cover at today’s meeting. I place my fingers on the keyboard to start but the sound of very loud stapling cuts through the silence.

  BAM. A folder on her desk topples over and falls.

  I stop before I can even start on my document and look over at her desk.

  BAM. Another folder topples and falls.

  It sounds like she’s punching the stapler.

  BAM.

  “Seriously, what the hell are you doing over there?”

  She slowly stands, her head moving upward into view. “Stapling these papers like you asked.”

  “Are you in a fight with the stapler? I’ve never in my life heard such aggressive stapling.”

  She smiles sweetly. “Just doing my job.” She shrugs one shoulder before lowering herself back into her seat, out of my view.

  BAM.

  I let out a deep breath and hang my head, trying to clear my anger and annoyance.

  BAM. The sound of ruffling papers fills the room.

  BAM.

  BAM.

  BAM.

  “Enough!” I yell, standing up so quickly my chair rolls back and bumps into the filing cabinets.

  The sound stops.

  I walk around her desk. I pick up the small group of papers and place them in the stapler. Easily, I press down and staple them together with only the slightest hint of a noise. “See? That’s how you do it.” I look down at her smiling face.

  “Ohhhh, I see.” She takes the next stack and slides them into the stapler. Gently, she presses down just as I’ve shown her. And, no noise.

  “Much better,” I say, walking back to my desk.

  The moment I sit down,

  BAM.

  I throw myself back in my seat as I close my eyes and talk myself out of killing her.

  3

  Jazmine

  I snicker to myself, knowing I’m driving him crazy. But what does he expect? I mean, he basically tricked me into this job. I understand his reasoning: it will be easier to get the job I want if I’m already a part of the company. But he could’ve told me that when he offered to put in a good word for me. Instead, he let me walk into another one of his jokes. You’d think by now I’d be used to his tricks. I should have foreseen this.

  Regardless, I’m in the company, I have a paying job, I get to look at his handsome face all day, and I get to drive him crazy. I guess there are worse jobs I could’ve gotten. Plus, James is pretty cute, and I never would’ve met him without this job. And, I might be crazy, but I saw a hint of jealousy on Damon’s face when he walked in and found us talking.

  I continue to staple the papers as loudly as possible while letting my mind drift off. Damon doesn’t say another word; he knows what I’m doing, and he’s choosing to ignore it because, really, he can’t do anything about it anyway. And maybe the more I annoy him, the faster he’ll work at getting me out of his office and into one of my own. I would never try this tactic had my boss been anyone but Damon.

  A knock at the door pulls me from my thoughts, and I peek up over my folders to find Damon looking at me. His eyes are wide, and his brows are lifted.

  “Oh, I answer the door?” I ask, standing up and rushing to it. Pulling it open, a woman with dark hair walks in without acknowledging me.

  “There you are,” she says, walking directly over to Damon’s desk.

  I see him let out a long breath before forcing a smile onto his face. Whoever she is, he’s not happy to see her.

  “Here I am,” he replies, using his fake happy tone. He stands, and she rushes to him, pulling him in for a hug.

  “I’ve been searching for you all morning. I wanted to talk to you about tonight’s gala.” She pulls away but keeps her hands on his biceps.

  I shut the door, and the noise causes them both to look at me.

  Taking the hint I’ve been smacked with, I turn and take my seat at my desk, out of their view thanks to the folders Damon so sweetly decided to put up.

  “About that,” I hear him say softly.

  “Oh, no. Don’t tell me you’re pulling out early.” I can hear the smile on her face. It makes her voice take on a flirty tone.

  I roll my eyes.

  Damon lets out a nervous laugh. “I’m sorry. Something has come up, and I won
’t be able to make it. You know I would if I could.”

  She lets out a deep breath that even I can hear from clear across the room. “I know you would. You never turn down a night out with me. Mostly because a night out turns into a night in.” Her voice gets a tad louder, like she’s turning and facing me now. Is she trying to make me jealous?

  I hear him let out a soft laugh and finally, my curiosity gets the best of me, and I peek out over the top of the folders in time to see her turn her head back in his direction.

  Her hands are holding onto his neck, and his hands are on her hips. Their embrace makes acid burn in my throat.

  “I’m sorry, Abby,” he says softly.

  “I understand… this time. But you better not stand me up again. I won’t wait around for you forever, you know.”

  She releases him but catches his hand in hers and pulls him over to the door.

  “What can I say? A woman like you must have plenty of back-ups waiting to take my place.” He gives her a flirty smile.

  She laughs and then pulls him in for a long, noisy, wet-sounding kiss.

  My eyes grow in size as my face wrinkles in disgust.

  Finally, she pulls away, and he opens the door, closing it the moment she steps out.

  When he turns back around, I see him quickly wipe at his mouth, and I jump back into my stapling.

  “Okay, out with it,” he says, walking closer to me so I can see his red face above my folders.

  “What?” I ask, quickly pulling my lips between my teeth and biting down on them to keep the smile away.

  “I know you have something to say. You always do.”

  “Nope.” I shake my head.

  He moves a couple of the folders and sits on the edge of my desk, looking down at me. “Really? You, Miss Queen of Wit, have nothing to say?”

  My smile begins to break free. “Nothing at all.”

  He shrugs and stands, walking back to his side of the room. I turn my attention back to my papers, but he spins around.