Page 5 of Hidden Obsession

“Who is what?” I asked, her name burning on my tongue. Maryanne. My Maryanne.

“The guys and I talked about this.”

“Jonas––“

“Victor thinks it’s one of the bouncers,” he teased. I rolled my eyes.

“Lucas and Trager think it has to be one of the crazy chicks here, like Gretchen. Because for what other reason would you be locked up tight like that.” I breathed in and shook my head. “Is it a crazy one?”

“Maybe I just want to visit you.” I shrugged, and he laughed.

“Maybe you’re full of shit. I work out at your gym twice a day. You hang out with me plenty.” He grinned and leaned forward on his desk, his small smile growing way too wide for his own good. “Do you want to know what I think?”

“I have a feeling I don’t have a choice,” I mumbled, trying to avoid the way my eyes kept moving to the screens behind him.

“I think a girl like Gretchen would annoy the living hell out of you. Sex might be wild, but you…” He shook his head, “You’ve done that, been there.”

“Fuck.” I chuckled because he wasn’t wrong. You didn’t get to my age without living some, and let’s say my choices in women in my early twenties weren’t very discerning.

“I think it’s someone sweeter. More… innocent, perhaps? Maybe the first dancer I had the privilege of hiring after I took over?” I broke eye contact, my attention moving to the wall of screens behind him.

Shit. Jonas knew me too well. I swallowed hard, searching the cameras knowing that I was either going to confess the truth or make up an excuse to get my ass out of his office and back to work.

“That’s what I thought,” my little pain-in-the-ass brother murmured under his breath. He chuckled and shook his head before tilting his head back towards the screens behind him. “You know,” he started, and my gaze drifted to him after scouring the feeds for a glimpse of my girl. She’s not yours! that sliver of sanity tried to shout inside my head. He cleared his throat, and when I looked at him, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. “You know you can talk to me, right?”

“About?” I didn’t blink as we held a staring contest before he rolled his eyes.

“Why you’ve been coming in regularly during the day from the back, like you’re trying to hide from anyone seeing you come here.”

“I’m just visiting my brother.” The lie weighed heavily in my gut.

“Who owns a strip club,” he pointed out.

It was something they thought bothered me. Didn’t they understand no matter what goals I might have, the relationship we had was more important? No matter what.

“I know how bad that looks for you, especially if you’re going to run for⁠—“

“What if I didn’t?” I blurted. He took a beat to look at me. I sighed and ran a hand through my disheveled hair. “What if…” I ran my tongue over my teeth. “What if I want something else?” Maryanne.

“Man, you can want whatever you want,” Jonas assured me.

“But what about the plans we made? Of giving back and making the Porter name⁠—“

“Dude, plans can change.” His brows narrowed. “Mom and Dad would only want you to be happy. Period.”

“I don’t know. I think about all the sacrifices and shit that everyone’s done and⁠—“

“Breathe, Hollis. Look, I get you’re the oldest and went through a lot of shit before life tossed us all together, but plans are allowed to change. You think Lucas and I planned on falling in love like we did?” My jaw clenched tightly. Was that what I’d done? Fallen in love with a woman I had only said hi to once?

“Look.” He took a deep, cleansing breath like he thought I was a moron. “I like your visits and everything, but before you strain your eyes or they pop out from how hard you’re looking at the feed,”—he pointed behind him—“you should know, she isn’t here yet. Switched to nights for the rest of the week.” My body reacted without me noticing just how much I was giving away. I sat up straighter. Something stirred deep in my gut as I frowned.

“Why?” I clipped in a harsher tone than I’d ever spoken in to my brother before. Nights were more dangerous for her. It also meant she wouldn’t have her sisters with her.

“How should I know?”

“I don’t know. Aren’t you the fucking boss here?” I exclaimed a little too loudly and forced myself to take a deep breath. “Sorry, I just…” I opened my phone and brought up the app of the little camera I’d left in her room. Relief washed over me as she appeared on my screen.

Sitting criss-cross on the middle of her bed, one pretty fingernail between her lips as she held a book in the other hand. Whatever she was reading was a nail biter, and fuck me, it softened something in my chest while it made another part of me hard.