Part of me understood that should scare the hell out of me, but I was too busy losing myself in him.
Brogan reached over to his nightstand and pulled out another condom. Just as he pulled the foil apart, Bruce whined again and pawed at the door.
I sighed and rested my forehead against his. “Do you want me to take him for a walk?”
He pulled the covers off and sat up, bringing me with him. His bare chest against mine was enough to make me want to ignore the dog altogether and continue where we’d left off. “No. He’s my dog. I’ll walk him. But I’d like for you to come with me. And…we’ll continue this later.” The determination in his eyes sent a wave of goose bumps cascading over my arms. It was a promise. One I’d make sure he kept.
Tufts of gray clouds rolled across the hazy Seattle horizon. A thin dusting of snow covered the cars parked along the streets as we made our way down the block an hour past what Bruce deemed as an acceptable time to be walked.
There was one question that was still bugging me from last night. Brogan’s friend Jace had mentioned that his father was the asshole Wall Street type. It made me wonder why Brogan decided to build his own company. This business was hard enough as is. I steeled myself and gripped Bruce’s leash a little harder. “Does your dad live in New York?”
In my other hand, Brogan’s tensed a fraction, but relaxed a moment later. “Part-time. He also owns a home in Bellevue. That’s where he conducts business when he gets tired of the city. He’s been doing that for years.”
“Must have been tough on your family.”
He shrugged. “My parents divorced when I was fifteen,” he said. His voice held a hint of sadness that came as a punch to my stomach.
I nodded. With the number of trust issues he had, it didn’t surprise me. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be. My mom cheated on my dad.”
Oh. I hadn’t seen that coming.
“Now he has a new girlfriend every month. It’s like a revolving door in that house.” He pulled up a picture on his phone of his dad in a power suit, and handed it to me. “Meet Brandon Starr. He wants me to take over his firm. Cut me out of his will until I agree.”
I raised a brow. “It’s not like you’re lacking for money.” Brogan had more money than I would ever know what to do with.
“No, but he thinks it’s the ultimate betrayal that I started my own business. He’s tried to buy out my firm a couple of times since the startup. He’s ruthless.”
“That’s horrible.” I stared at the photo. He looked like an older version of Brogan, with his strong chin and lean build. But his eyes held a darkness that Brogan’s didn’t possess.
He turned to me and his gaze flashed with a sudden remembrance. “I forgot to tell you the good news about the hacker on the Willington account. I was a little distracted last night.” He managed a sheepish grin.
“You found out who was behind it?” I’d almost forgotten the whole thing, it’d been so long.
“Turns out it was Craig’s younger brother. Got ahold of his iPhone and thought it’d be funny to start shit with another country star.” He smiled. “No hacker involved.”
I scoffed, but relief ebbed through me. Thank goodness this was just a joke, even if it was in poor taste. “What a twerp.”
“Craig’s handling it. I taught him how to put a password on his phone.”
“Good idea.”
We walked around the park a couple times and then made our way back to Brogan’s condo. As we rounded the corner to his block, a guy with a professional grade camera stood by a car on the other side of the street and snapped a few photos of us.
“Does that usually happen?” I jutted my chin toward the guy wearing a baseball cap, blue jeans, and a T-shirt.
He frowned. “Goes along with the territory of owning a company. I’m usually not interesting enough to make the tabloids, though.”
I moved a few steps further away from Brogan, not wanting to cause any type of scandal in the media. No one would know who I was, but it was best to be careful.
My mom probably wouldn’t be too pleased if she saw my face on the front cover of the National Inquirer. The thought of her triggered the memory of dancing with Brogan last night, how he’d said he hadn’t seen his own parent in years.
“Do you ever talk to your mom? You said back at the bar you didn’t know her address.”
“I haven’t talked to her since she divorced my dad. She left with her assistant and never looked back.” The matter-of-factness of his statement gutted me. How could anyone do that to their family? Just up and leave.
We made our way back inside the building and waited for the elevator. The expression on my face must have changed, because he stopped and squeezed my hand. “Don’t feel bad for me. It happened, it’s over, it’s a part of my past.”