Love & Risks - A Rich Prick love story

Chapter 12 - Eden

"I don't think so." Liv says, holding up a hand dismissively. She turned to stare down at all the foreign objects. Nothing seemed out of place besides the smoke that creeped out from a hose-like objects, that was buried beneath a serious of other objects that she didn't know the names of. Curious she reaches for the hose wanting to get a better look at it.

"No, don't!" Mr. Connor warned, but it was too late. Liv gripped the hose, immediately retracting her hand as the tips of her fingers began to burn from the heat.

"SHIT!" She screamed as she tried to shake off the burning sensation. Mr. Connor was by her side in an instant.

"Can I see?" He asks. Liv allowed him to take her hand in his, it is then that she notices the sincerity behind his hazel-green eyes. As her fingertips begin to blister, she couldn't help the calming feeling that contrasted with the pain that she should be feeling from the burn. "It was his eyes that calmed her", the reporter quoted in the article and the rest is history.

***

I continued to read several other articles on the Connor family, and came across one that sparked my attention. It was a family portrait of the Connors. Mr. and Mrs. Connor stood in black formal wear both sharing wide smiles. A younger girl, who resembled Mrs. Connor stood next to a younger identical guy and directly next to Mr. Connor was Wes. He was just as tall as his father, wearing a formal black fitted tuxedo. His bowtie was undone and hanged loosely around his neck.

I hadn't noticed it before but if you hadn't known any better, one could easily mistake Mr. Connor and Wes for twins. It was the salt and pepper hair that aged Mr. Connor, but other than that the similarities between the two men were uncanny. While everyone in the photo smiled so hard you could practically see every perfectly whitened tooth, Wes had been the only one who bore a slight smirk. Even in the photo Wes exuded a mysterious vibe. Underneath the photo the caption:

Wesley Connor Sr. with his wife Liv and three children- Wesley Jr., Nicholas and Sienna attends a charity ball at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2015.

***

Learning the small bit of family history that I was able to find on the internet had been gut wrenching. Many of the associates bonded well with their teammates; I even heard over whispers that a few of them was envious of my being paired with Wes. The female associates thought the idea of being so close to such an attractive, single, and influential man such as Wes, crossed all their boxes to finding "the one". While the male associates thought it would be great for their careers to work so close to a man of Wes' status. If only they knew the ugly truth behind it all.

There was a lot that I hadn't known about him. My curiosity of the man behind the suits, and hard stares was starting to eat away at me. We managed to avoid each other since our moment in my office a week ago, but I couldn't help but notice the change within him. The last two times I'd spoken a few words to him, his hard exterior was much more distant than it had normally been.

While I played my role in trying to avoid him, without giving it away that I was, Wes made sure to give me absolutely no emotion, as if I didn't exist. As if I was someone that annoyed him the way the feral cats behind my apartment annoyed me some nights with their territorial hisses, purring and growls.

With the lack of a professional relationship and the obvious distance that he'd put between us, forced me to accept that this was how the next six months would be for me. What was supposed to be the best experience of my life, despite my positive attitude, wasn't going in the direction that I'd wanted. I swallow the thick lump in my throat just as my eyes land on the clock on my computer.