ADDICTED

57

JAMES

Few things truly astonish me in this life. While most people are easily infatuated with money, sex, fame, and the like, only very large animals with sharp teeth and Leah proved capable of fazing me.

My parents, however, had outdone themselves this time. They were never so cold to anyone as they were to Leah on this trip. My father ignored her completely and my mother acted like she was the help.

After showing them the house, I led them to the second-floor balcony that overlooked the forest. My parents leaned against the glass railing with their drinks in hand. They kept a few inches of space between them, distant as usual.

Lingering behind them, I studied their familiar figures. They had both softened over the years, athleticism turning into fat, but their rigid postures never changed. I recognized their stiff spines in myself.

As a child, I was always told that the Muller family was a prestigious bloodline and that we must conduct ourselves as such. It was a motto that I always maintained. I believed in it with everything in me.

No one ever made me see myself or my family any differently, including Marissa.

Now, I looked at my parents and I felt a streak of revulsion pulse through me. They molded me into the successful man I am today and I will forever be grateful for that. But they also made me and Jarrod the possessive, materialistic scum we were.

What did it matter if I drove a Tesla if they didn't think the woman I loved was good enough to ride in it beside me? What good was my forest oasis if Leah wasn't good enough to live in it with me?

Without her, I wanted none of it. I swallowed heavily at this realization.

My success was utterly meaningless without someone to share it with, and there was no other soul I wished to do that with but Leah.

"You have to get rid of her," my mother said.

"Who?"

She kept her back to me as she responded. "Leah. Your assistant. This is unprofessional, James."

"She's more than my assistant."

"This has gone too far, son," my father told me, turning to meet my gaze.

His piercing eyes and the wizened creases in the skin around them no longer convinced me of wisdom and authority like they once had.

"She ruined the gala and gave the Foundation bad PR," he went on. "Now she's taking advantage of you. Stop thinking with your dick."

I stood resolutely, unwavering under his gaze. My mother turned to look at me also.

"She's trouble, James," she said. "You know this. Why haven't you fired her yet?"

"Were you not the same people who forced me to hire her?" I grit out.

"The situation has changed," my father grumbled.

"It's too late anyway." I shrugged. "She means more to me than her professional position within the Foundation. I thought I made that clear at the gala."

"Feelings are fleeting," my mother said. "You are not some reckless teenager driven by hormones. You're a mature adult. We taught you better than this."

My blood simmered hotly beneath my clothes. How could they be such fucking hypocrites?

"You're right," I muttered. My hands slid down into the pockets of my jeans. "You taught me how to be successful, how to get what I want. Leah is what I want. I'm in love with her."