50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Chapter Twenty-Six

    "As you already know, Aubrey was determined not to fall in love. See...I was a bachelor once upon a time, but he was an entirely different breed. I've witnessed him cutting a woman off before. She got addicted to him, I guess, and she came to Graham Enterprises one day because he stopped calling her. She managed to get up to the thirty-fifth floor. How she knew he worked on the thirty-fifth floor, I don't even know. But he and I were in a meeting that day, and she got past Bridgette and burst into the office and just railed in on him. And he sat there and took it. Like a champ. No anger. No emotions whatsoever. He waited for her to finish and then he just calmly laid into her, telling her about all of her flaws. Told her why she would never be the perfect woman for him. I've...never seen anything like it. Cold and calculated and detached. Sent the woman out of that office in tears. Back then, he had two extremes: either he was intensely into a woman, or he was turned all the way off. There was no middle ground with him. Just because he was determined not to fall in love, didn't mean that he couldn't become infatuated, or borderline obsessed with a woman who caught his attention. I suspect that's what happened with Sharon. He became infatuated with her, and couldn't bring himself to stop seeing her."

    "How do you know he kept seeing her?" Destiny demanded. "Are you going off of what Sharon told you?"

    "Let's just say I know," Brian said with a haunted look in his eyes.

    "But...he wouldn't," she whispered, trying to convince herself more than anyone else now.

    "The new and improved Aubrey? You're right. He probably wouldn't. But the Aubrey I knew back then? He would and did. And after I cussed him the fuck out, he acted like nothing even happened. Sharon put in her notice and quit. She claimed to have found a job somewhere else, which was a relief for me. Having her on my floor, having to see her every weekday, was stressful. To say the least."

    Destiny was still shaking her head in confusion. "I just...I can't believe that. He's so...sensitive, and caring."

    "Some woman from his past fucked him up royally," Brian said with a wave of his hand. "Cheated on him and shit. It really messed with him, and he just became...an entirely different person after that. But you're right. At one point Aubrey was a decent, solid guy. He was the type of guy that would throw his coat over a puddle just so a woman didn't mess up her shoes. Whatever he went through, though, twisted his mind. It seemed like he thought that all woman were liars and cheaters."

    She huddled within the confines of the blanket, feeling a sudden chill.

    "I mean...that seems to just be a problem of the past. He's different now, so you don't really have anything to worry about."

    But knowing that he was ever that cold and heartless...it makes me look at him a little differently. We all have our pasts, and we all change over time, but the man you're describing is a complete monster. She settled against the backrest of the couch with a pensive frown on her face.

    "I have a few questions for you, now," Brian said.

    "Ask them," she told him.

    "I just have three questions, really." Brian took a swig from his glass. Then he looked up at her. "The first question pertains to a few weeks ago, when you came into the office. You were unable to sit down."

    A lump formed in Destiny's throat and she had to struggle to swallow it.

    "If I remember correctly, I think you said that you were working out and injured yourself? Or something?"

    She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

    "Nothing? Okay. How about question number two, then." He narrowed his eyes. "Earlier tonight, when we were at Graham Enterprises. When you were saying your goodbyes to Aubrey, you called him 'Sir.' What...what was that?"

    She pursed her lips shut and stared at Brian wordlessly.

    "No response to that either?" Brian nodded and looked away from her. "Okay, how about this: have you ever been in the room he calls the Red Room?"

    "Why are you asking these questions?"

    "Because," he said calmly, turning his eyes back to her. "I'm trying to understand what it is about him that makes women abandon all of their common sense. I'm trying to understand why women are willing to feed into his sadistic, psychotic shit, just so they can be with him." A muscle in his jaw twitched. "I guess I'm trying to understand why women always seem to choose him over me."