Seduce (McKenzie Brothers, #1) by Lexi Buchanan
Chapter 1
~~ LILY ~~
I was lying on the bed naked. David was in the bathroom getting cleaned up after he’d had sex with me. At least that’s what I’d call it. Sex with David over the past five months had involved a couple of open mouth kisses, a few lick and nibbles to my breasts, a finger inside me, then he would push home and within seconds he’d come in the condom, leaving me unsatisfied - every time. All I really wanted to do was curl up on my side and cry.
David and I had been together since high school, some seven years. We were both seventeen when he moved to the high school I was attending and within a week of him starting school, we were inseparable.
He was my first kiss, my first lover. We lived together while we attended the same college and then moved to the same city after graduation. We even worked for the same company, up until two weeks ago, when I lost my job, along with two hundred other employees. David still worked there and for the past week, he’d been making comments about my unemployed status, as though it was my fault I no longer had a job.
Secretly, I’d been looking for another job, because I’d started to want something else. I actually felt relief when the company let me go. For the first time in a long time I was free and there was nothing David could say about it or so I thought.
Apparently, it was my fault. David told me on more than one occasion over the past couple of weeks, that if I hadn’t been ‘gathering wool’ during the department meetings, the boss wouldn’t have noticed and I wouldn’t have made the ‘let go’ list.
I noticed a change in him around five months ago when sex turned into a one-man-show. Up until then, we had what I’d call a ‘normal’ sex life. Not always full of passion, but mutual enjoyment. Well, I can honestly say I hadn’t had an orgasm since then, and I really didn’t think David gave a damn. Not only had that started to piss me off – I also found it upsetting. We were still together years after all our friends told us we wouldn’t last, but I was beginning to think that perhaps they were right.
David was my only family since both my parents had died five years ago and I had no siblings. I’d clung to David even more. He was my security blanket. I came to this conclusion after I’d talked with a shrink for three years after their death – without his knowledge.
I was due to start a new job in the offices of McKenzie Holdings. I hadn’t told anyone about this job, simply because I wanted something that was mine and mine alone, at least for a while. With how David had been lately, he would probably have had a great deal to say about it, not to mention the fact that the company belonged to Michael, Sebastian, Ruben, Lucien and Ramon McKenzie. Sebastian McKenzie was always in the paper with one starlet or another. Michael, the second oldest, was only ever in the paper when the company was mentioned and there was never a photograph. Ruben and Lucien made the paper, but not as often as their brother Sebastian.
I’d never met the brothers, a Mr Roberts had interviewed me for the position. If I had to guess, he was in his late sixties and he seemed to act like everyone’s grandfather. I’d signed the contract then and there and I was to be Mr Roberts’ assistant, which I had to say, I really looked forward to.
I quickly glanced towards the clock and groaned. I really needed to get out of bed, shower and dress, but David was hogging the bathroom. I would just have to rush after he’d left for work. I certainly didn’t want to share.
The bathroom door started to open, so I quickly covered myself with the duvet and pretended to still be asleep. Having a conversation with him was the last thing I wanted to do.
I peeped through my eyelashes and watched David fasten his watch onto his wrist, and put his wallet into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He then collected his keys and walked out of the bedroom. A few minutes later, I heard the front door to the apartment open then close and the lock slip into place. He did all this without one glance in my direction.
I was slowly coming to the conclusion that perhaps our relationship was over. Part of me just wanted to lie in bed all day and cry, another part of me felt relief. The only problem I had was, if – or should I say when – I left, I didn’t have anywhere to go or enough money to pay a deposit on another apartment. I was going to have to save every dollar I could from now on and bide my time.