Henry (The Beck Brothers) (7 page)

"Are you kidding?
We'll tear each other's throats out. I just sent my shit there because he's got
that big ass empty garage.
”
Sebastian snorted.

"Quinn's only got
that one bedroom studio, so are you going to stay with mom and dad then?
”
Henry asked, a smirk curling
his lips. He knew Sebastian would never stay with their parents. He'd get
smothered by their overbearing mother. He liked to see Sebastian squirm though.

Sebastian sent him in
incredulous glance. "Fuck no! Are you insane?"

Henry barked out a
laugh then went back around his desk to sit in his chair. "You want to
stay with me?
”
he asked,
eyebrow raised.

"If you don't
mind Henry, at least until I can find another job and my own place.
”
Sebastian sighed. Henry knew he
hated having to ask for help.

"Wait, you don't
have a job?
”
Henry asked,
frowning.

"I had to quit, I
couldn't stay there Henry,
”
he said quietly.

Henry nodded.
"Alright, it'll be fine."

"Thanks Henry,
”
Sebastian said sincerely.

                                                 
~~~~~

Claire sat at her
desk, smiling to herself. Henry's face was hilarious when his brother blurted
that he said she had an amazing ass. He had been mortified. Claire was curious
if he was going to say anything about it or if he was going to pretend that it
never happened.

A knock on her door
brought her head up. Instead of Henry, it was his brother, Sebastian. Claire
looked at him in surprise. "Oh, Mr. Beck, can I help you?"

"Please, call me
Sebastian. I just wanted to stop in before I left to apologize for my behavior
earlier, I was out of line,
”
he said softly, stepping into her office.

Claire looked him
over. His whole demeanor had changed.
 
No longer was the arrogant man from earlier standing there, but a
subdued, almost broken version of him. His eyes were now puffy looking and
bloodshot, as if he'd been crying. No way had Henry made him cry. Something
serious must have happened for him to show up here in the middle of the day
without calling Henry first.

Claire waved away his
apology. "Thanks Sebastian, but it's fine. Actually, it
’
s kinda nice to know
someone
looks as my ass,
”
she said with a smirk.

Sebastian laughed.
"Yeah well, Henry was definitely not happy with me for blurting that
out."

Claire shrugged.
"It's no big deal."

Sebastian smiled,
watching her for a moment. "You know, Henry's never talked about a woman
like he has you, just so you know,
”
he said softly.

Claire's heart skipped
a beat, but she tried to act nonchalant and rolled her eyes.
"Whatever."

Sebastian chuckled.
"Alright, I'll let you get back to work. See you around,
”
he said, shaking his head as he
left her office.

Claire stared at his
back as he walked down the hallway. More than once now people have told her
about how Henry acts differently towards her. She wouldn't know because she'd
never seen him with his previous assistants. It made her feel good nonetheless.
Maybe Henry did think she was special. It was nice that someone felt that way
about her. She hated to admit that she had been feeling pretty lonely. She
missed the feeling of being in a man's arms. Maybe she should think about
dating again.

A knock on Claire's
door jolted her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see Henry standing in her
doorway. His hands were shoved in his pockets and his head was bowed. Damn, he
looked fantastic in that suit.

"Henry,
”
Claire said, her lips twitching
as she tried not to smile.

Henry blew out a
breath as he lifted his head to look at her, his green eyes troubled. "I'm
sorry about what I said to my brother, I hope I didn't offend you."

Claire couldn't stop
the laugh that came out. She clapped hand over her mouth, as Henry frowned.
Henry moved farther into her office and shut the door.

"What the hell is
so funny?
”
he snapped, his
hands now planted on his hips.

Claire waved a
dismissive hand. "I'm sorry.
”
She giggled then took a deep breath to get herself under control. "It's
fine Henry, really. If it makes you feel any better, you have an amazing ass,
too,
”
she said.

Henry snorted and
rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Claire just smiled at
him. He was being modest. The man had to know how good looking he was, and how
amazing his body was. Not that Claire could see all that much because he was
always in a suit, but he definitely filled it out nicely. There had to be some
muscle under there. And Henry did have an amazing ass. She saw that whenever he
took his suit jacket off.

"So, what's going
on with your brother? He stopped in here before he left and it looked like he'd
been crying,
”
Claire said
softly. She hoped Henry would talk to her; maybe tell her something about his
life.

Henry sighed heavily
and dropped down into the chair in front of her desk. He scrubbed a hand over
his face before looking at her with troubled look in his eyes again. He stared
at her for a good minute or so, probably trying to decide to tell her or not.

"His wife is
leaving him for another man,
”
Henry blurted.

Claire sucked in a
sharp breath, her hand coming up to press against her breaking heart. "Oh
my god, that's horrible,
”
she rasped.

"And what makes
it worse was that he had no idea anything was going on. Their relationship was
great. They never really fought, so he was shocked when she said she wanted a
divorce,
”
Henry muttered
disgustedly, shaking his head.

"Poor guy,
”
Claire frowned.

Henry lifted his hand
like he was going to run it through his hair, but seemed to catch himself
before dropping it in irritation. Claire bit her lip to stop her smile. She
noticed Henry did that a lot when he was irritated. That must be a habit, to
run his hand through his hair when he's upset or irritated. It was really cute.

"He's gonna be
living with me for a while, so you might be seeing more of him,
”
Henry murmured, squeezing the
bridge of his nose.

"Can you two live
together without killing each other?
”
Claire chuckled.

Henry smiled and
leaned back in the chair. He crossed his arms over his chest then shrugged.
"Yeah, we get along fine, he just likes to push my buttons every chance he
gets."

Claire smiled, happy
that Henry was finally sharing some of his life with her. She already
considered them friends in a boss/employee kind of way, so this just took it to
the next level, where they could possibly be friends outside the workplace.

"Is Sebastian
your only sibling?
”
Claire
asked, resting her chin in her hand as she leaned on the desk in front of her.

"No, I have two
more brothers besides him, Quinn and Christian; they're all younger than me,
”
Henry supplied without
hesitation.

"You say that
like you're old,
”
Claire
scoffed.

"Yeah well, I'm
older than you and I feel it,
”
Henry grunted, his green eyes sparkling with amusement.

Claire liked Henry
this way, open and relaxed. She didn't see it nearly as often as she would
like. The only other time was when he came to her apartment. "Oh come on,
you can't be that much older than me, you're what, thirty? Thirty-two?"

Henry's smile widened,
showing off a pair of dimples that Claire's never seen before. Claire couldn't
get over how that smile lit up his face and made him look just stunning.
"I'm flattered, but no, I'm thirty-four, and feel like I'm forty."

"That's because
you're all work and no play. And you're only nine years older than me,
”
Claire snickered, knowing it
would irk him.

Henry groaned and
dropped his face into his hands. When he emerged from his hands he stood.
"Get back to work,
”
he
huffed then headed for the door. He sent her a wink over his shoulder before
walking out.

There was that wink
again; that sexy wink with that sexy smirk. Claire watched him as he headed
down the hallway. He turned his head when someone called to him. He moved over
towards the cubical and leaned against the divider with his forearms. This
caused his jacket to ride up as he cocked a hip. Claire's eyes dropped to his
amazing ass, which was now on full display. Oh what she would give to dig her
nails...Claire shook her head to clear her dirty thoughts. She needed to get
laid, preferably by Henry.

Chapter 4

Henry groaned as he
woke. Jesus Christ, his whole body ached, which he didn't understand because he
hadn't worked out too hard the day before. Come to think of it, he had felt
pretty run down yesterday. Henry sat up and rubbed his eyes. Fuck, he was
exhausted. He reached over and shut off his alarm clock, which was giving him a
freaking headache.

Henry shuffled naked
to his bathroom, which was attached to his bedroom. He caught a glance of
himself in the mirror before going to take a piss and damn, he looked like
shit. After going to the bathroom, he turned on the shower and hopped in,
hoping it would make him feel better. Nothin' doin'. The shower didn't do
anything other than clean him.

He got dressed. Half
the time he had his eyes closed, and he was sure he looked horrendous. He
didn't even bother shaving or using hair product, he just brushed it. He didn't
bother with his contacts either. He put on his sleek black rectangular plastic
frames and headed downstairs. Sebastian wasn't up yet, but he had no need to be
since he hadn't found a job yet. It had only been two weeks, so Henry wasn't
really surprised. Sebastian was a gunsmith, so finding a job wasn't going to be
easy.

Henry groaned as his
stomach rolled. Forget eating breakfast, he was just going to head to work and
see how he felt then.
 
He could
always have Claire go out and grab him something. Henry grabbed his keys and headed
to the garage. He took his jacket off and laid it in the passenger seat of his
white BMW M3 coupe. He was sweating to death.

The drive in to work
was hell. His eyes kept watering, his nose was runny, and he kept coughing a
dry cough that hurt his throat. Then on top of that, the aching in his body
just seemed to get worse. And shifting the gears on the car was not helping.

Henry felt ready to
pass out when he finally got up to the office. He was feeling extremely weak.
What the hell was he thinking coming in here today? And there was no way he was
going to be able to drive home himself. He'd better find Claire and see if she
can drive him home.

He got stared at by
everyone as he walked down the aisle towards his office. No doubt he looked
like shit, plus he'd never worn his glasses into the office. He'd also never
showed up unshaven. He saw Claire walking up just as he cleared the aisle. He
reached his door the same time as she did. When he looked at her, she was
frowning at him.

"You wear
glasses?
”
she asked in
confusion.

"Contacts usually,
”
Henry replied weakly.

Henry rummaged around
in his pockets for his keys. He always locked his office when he left and the
key was on his car key ring. Henry leaned forward and put his forehead on the
door, groaning when the coolness felt amazing on his flushed skin.

"Henry, you don't
look well,
”
Claire said with
a hint of worry in her voice.

Henry fell into a
coughing fit, covering his mouth with the crook of his elbow. The coughing
doubled him over. When he was finally able to draw a breath and straighten,
Claire's cool hands were on him. One went to his forehead the other to his
neck. Henry closed his eyes, her hands felt so good on his skin. Not only
because they were cool, but because they were her hands.

"Jesus Henry,
you're burning up. Why did you even come in?
”
Claire asked softly.

Henry shrugged, eyes
still closed. "I've never missed a day."

"Well, you need
to go home and get in bed,
”
Claire said firmly, her hands now cupping his scruffy face.

Henry shook his head
and dragged his eyes open. "I barely made it here,
”
he muttered, pulling off his glasses to rub his
watery eyes. "Do you know how to drive a stick?
”
he asked, putting his glasses back on so he could
see her.

"Yeah, I'll drive
you. Just let me tell Asher that we're leaving,
”
Claire said, her thumb stroking his stubbled cheek.