Always A Pleasure [Book 2]

Fourteen

Harrison woke up in the morning with a pain wrapping around his brain, caused by a little too much alcohol. A fifth of whiskey to be exact. His emotions got the better of him the night before as he and his father fought about the direction they would like to see King Enterprises going in the future.

He made it a point to remind his father that it was his name that now held the title of CEO and that ultimately it would be his decision. It only served to anger his father further, rather than helping him see reason.

Harrison got an earful of how much of an ungrateful little shit he had always been and that he had to be forced into having anything to do with the company years back. His father always spewed that same bullshit and it always got on every single one of Harrison's nerves. He'd been hearing it for nearly a decade.

Harrison argued that it still didn't erase the fact that the board at King Enterprises voted him in as the permanent CEO even after his father recovered from his heart attack, and that it must have meant he was doing something right.

He was certain his father was just a matter of moments away from throwing a punch before he finally stormed out of Harrison's office. He had never won a fight with Michael King in all of his life and he felt a bit of elation over the fact that he just had. But once the satisfaction of his win finally wore off, it brought on a deep-seated anger that only his father could bring about in him.

That was where the fifth of whiskey came in.

He only meant to have a glass or two to take off the edge before he went home to Katherine. But then he thought about how he would be bringing home his mental and emotional baggage to her, and knew it wouldn't be fair. He didn't want to project his issues on her, and with the mood he was in, he knew it was a strong possibility.

So he had another drink, and then another.

He was completely piss-drunk, in an absolute stupor, when Roberts came in to check on him. He couldn't even remember the ride home. He just remembered sitting on the couch at home feeling thirsty before Katherine came into view. His angel. She made him feel instantly better.

And she didn't push when he told her he didn't want to talk about his fight with his father. She was the most understanding person he had ever met and he admired that about her so much.

She made him feel a lot.

"I guess 'you make me feel a lot' is your 'I love you'," he remembered her saying to him as he held her in his arms on the couch.

His heart flourished thinking about it. She most definitely made him feel a wide range of feelings that he had never felt before. He had never been more emotional in all his life. Maybe that was all due to the influence of a good woman. And Katherine— she was the best.

She was still asleep next to him when he leaned over, grazing his knuckles gently down the pristine alabaster skin of her cheek. She was so beautiful. A true angel. She would genuinely never understand how much she meant to him. There weren't enough words to explain it, in any language he decided to speak them in.

And he hated the fact that there was ever a time in his life that he treated her less than she was worthy of. She deserved the world, and he didn't deserve her at all. He was certain he never would.

...

Harrison fluidly moved around the kitchen preparing Katherine a cup of tea once they returned home from the hospital. Her father was an absolute mess of a person and he knew it weighed on Katherine heavily. He wanted to do something, anything, to ease that burden just a little bit. He knew making her a cup of tea was fruitless when it came to that, but maybe it would help her relax so she could get some much needed sleep.