Secured Sevenfold

Joe´s POV
“Stop that!” I grinned over my computer, looking at Matt, he had been staring at me for the past 10 minutes and I couldn’t get any of my work done with him looking at me like that.
“What? I’m not doing anything!” He averted his eyes again, back down to his screen, but I could just see the smile on his face.
We had spend our night together, after our little moment in the shower, he had just pulled me in his arms and we had talked until I fell asleep. When I woke up he was still there, he hadn’t want to leave me, just as much as I really didn’t want him to leave.
Before we decided to start work early, we talked about telling the others about us. I was still a little reluctant, I didn’t like the fact we needed to sneak around, but I was also scared of everyone having an opinion about us. Matt and I were so different, yet so the same, but what if his friends couldn’t accept me as his girlfriend and he would reconsider us?
Matt told me he was enjoying having me to himself and that he wanted us to have this bubble a little longer, so we were still not telling.

I looked at my screen again and was startled by Matt standing behind me all of a sudden, his finger slightly moving over my bare neck. He pulled the ribbon out of my hair and let it fall down, before he pushed it to one side and moved real close to my ear.
“I like your hair better like this Joe… As much as I enjoy pulling the ribbon out, every single time… why don’t you start your day like this, instead of the strict look you get with your hair tied together”
A shiver went down my spine by the feeling of his breath on my skin.
“It’s work Matt, I can hardly do my work without the right attire” I tried to sound serious, but he was distracting me enormously with the soft touch of his fingers on my skin, his presence so close to me.
I swallowed thickly as his hand moved to the front of my shirt and graced the top of my breasts.
“Matt… I…. My…” I tried to gather words to form a whole sentence “I’m out of coffee, are you getting me a refill?”
With a low chuckle he moved his hand out of my shirt and bend over me to get my cup, quickly pecking my lips.
I enjoyed the sight of Matt’s ass as he walked out of the office and smiled, damn that man, he made me feel so many things I never felt before, how could I have lived 32 years with several boyfriends, but never felt real love… Was that what this was? Real love?

I shook my head with a smile, this is not the time for that Josephine, it is time you get some work done. I focused on the contract I was working on again as I saw the new email notification popping up on my screen. I clicked my emailprogram and saw the new email standing at the top of my inbox and my heart fell… It couldn’t be…

Jacky’s POV
“When do I get to see more of your room?” my head rested on Brian’s shoulder and I lazily drew circles over his chest.
“What do you want to see in my room? There is not much to see anyway?” Brian replied a smirk on his face.
“You told me no secrets, are you keeping some in your room or what?” I asked again, looking up meeting his eyes.
“No secrets there… It’s rather boring I can tell you. But if you want to explore more from it… be my guest.” Brian shrugged and I lifted my eyebrow, not really buying.
“Hmm… sure.” I nodded into his chest and Brian chuckled.
“You don’t believe me huh?” Brian asked, and grabbed my waist and pulled me beneath him, his lips only inches away from mine.
“Maybe.” I whispered.
“Do you even know, how often I already imagined having you in my bed, waking up with you in my room, not some guest room… Your hair sprawled on my pillow, your naked body on my sheets?” Brian voice was deeper than usual, always when he was talking sexy like that.
“Go ahead, Brian… but I can tell you, when you turned us around you already got me, and I am yours.” I chuckled and Brian groaned.
“Woman, you drive me crazy.” Brian dipped his lips to mine and we got lost into a kiss, slow and sensual, nothing to rush just us having time for each other, cherishing the moment and keeping it as it was but was rudely interrupted from the “bing” of receiving a new mail.
Slowly I pushed at Brian’s chest but he wouldn’t let go, wouldn’t back off and started kissing my cheek, my jaw-line.. dipping lower.
“Brian.. wait a second.” I tried to push him away again.
“What… you really want me to wait? REALLY?” He looked at me shocked and I had to stifle a laugh.
“That’s probably the review of my latest book, I need to publish it soon and I need to check my mails… give me a second, and then I’m all yours again… remember I have some work to do… just like you.” Finally Brian gave in and I could push him to the side.
He crossed his arms behind his head, looking at me with a smirk when I got naked out of the bed, grabbed my laptop of the floor and walked back to him.
“What is that look for?” I asked him and he chuckled, “Nothing, I am doing my work, just like you… guarding that gorgeous body of yours… now hurry check that mail so I can have a closer look at it, for job matters of course.” The sexy smirk got even brighter and I rolled my eyes.
“Sure job matters, I hope I am the only client that’s ever been treated like that, dear bodyguard.”
Brian sat up again, grabbing me into his lap and whispered to my ear “The first and the only… I never risked Matt’s wrath for anybody else… than you, babe.”

I leaned my back against Brian’s chest and opened my mail program and my heart stopped for a second seeing the sender of the new mail that just arrived.
“Brian…” I pointed to the screen, he leaned over my shoulder reading as I did and I heard him curse.
“Get dressed, we have something important to talk about in Matt’s office.”

Matt’s POV
That smile was stuck on my face and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Having Joe in this house, in my office, being around her, spending time with her, it only made me realize I wanted it all with her, I think we could both use a little more time before we had to deal with everyone else, but that was just because I wanted her to myself, I didn’t want to share her with my friends or with anyone else for that matter. She was making me happy, making my life more complete again, it was just…
I waited for the coffee to be done and poured us both a new cup, before heading back to our office. I was only halfway gone when I heard Joe scream my name. By the sound of her voice I could instantly tell this wasn’t good, something was wrong.
“Joe!”
I rushed over to her and saw all the blood had left her face, she was pale and her hand was shaking when she pointed to her screen. She looked at me, her eyes full with emotion, emotions I couldn’t quite place.
“What… What… What is he talking about Matt?”
I looked at her screen and saw the name above the email, and then the message, immediately understanding why Joe was like she was.

My dearest girls,
I know I have been a bad father, keeping you two in the dark for so long, and I´m sorry, but there was no other way.News has reached me that the men that are after me, have tried to get a hold of you both, and you should know, that was exactly what I was trying to prevent by disappearing.
I can´t come back yet, I need to solve all of this first, please, please, please trust Matthew and let him and his men help you. He knows everything and he can tell you all you need to know to stay safe.I´m sorry, I never meant all of this to get out of hand like this.

I love you both.
Love, Dad

Joe looked at me with expecting eyes and for a brief second I closed my eyes. How could Joseph put me up to the stand like that? He wasn’t taking any responsibility at all, left all of it to me and now I had to tell both these girls that their father fled for criminals because of a bad deal? Now I had to tell the woman I might love that her dad wasn’t the superman she had always thought? DAMNIT!
“Matt?” Joe’s soft voice got me back in the real world again.
I turned her chair around and got down on eye height.
“Josephine, please listen to me, okay? Your dad asked me to keep you safe, that is all that is important”
“No. You are going to tell me the whole story now!” She started pushing against my chest, getting up out of her chair, she started pacing the office, everything in her steps was pointing to angry and hurt, how could I even comfort her and inform her at the same time.
“Joe, Stop!” I put my arms around her and pulled her to my body, holding her tightly to stop the fighting she was doing. After a few minutes I felt her relax a little, leaning into my body and she let out a deep sigh. I let my head rest on hers, and kissed the top of her head.
“There you go” I smiled as I let my hands wander over her back.

“MATT! You won’t believe what email Jacky got! We need to tell them!”

Brian’s voice made Joe and me jump away from each other, earning a strange look from Brian and Jacky, who was dragged behind him.

“Did you hear me?” Brian asked he still had a frown on his face when he finally stopped in the doorway of my office, looking between Joe and me confused.
“Yeah, I heard you… That’s why I was comforting Joe. She got the same mail… I guess that much at least…” I tried to think of the best way to approach this, but was there a best way?
How should we handle this?
We didn’t know much more, we didn’t know what this deal was all about… we could just lay open what we knew… and I couldn’t really comfort Joe now, with Brian and Jacky in the room. I looked over to Joe, wanting to hold her, help her with everything… but I couldn’t…
Fuck this…

“Okay, I think Brian is right, we need to talk to you finally, we need to let you know what we know.” I started and motioned for Joe, Brian and Jacky to sit down in front of my desk. I closed the door and swallowed… how do I start this.
“Matt, tell them.” Brian urged and I shot him an angry glare.
“I will, I just… okay… So listen...” I stopped again looking at Joe pointedly. “Your father, he is an old friend of the family, as you two know, right?” I waited for the girls to acknowledge and they both nodded slowly.
“So, one evening I got a call from your father, asking me personally and my company for help. Of course, I went to him and listened to his story. He told me he had problems with his business, he needed help and I told him that I would help him, of course we would. It’s family.”
“What kind of problems, Matt?” Jacky asked and I saw Joe already guessing in which direction it was getting.
“I honestly can’t tell you any details, because he never gave me all the details myself. I can just tell you he worked with the wrong people, trusted the wrong people.” I sighed heavily seeing the disappointed in Joe’s eyes when she looked up to me. “Tell us he didn’t do anything illegal, Matt.” Joe demanded and I couldn’t.
“I wish I could, Joe… Jacky… I can’t. I just know his deal gone bad and now he earns this guy a lot of money… Money that he doesn’t have… They tricked him, but that doesn’t matter now, he needs to pay them or…” I trailed off not really able to complete the sentence.

“Or?” Jacky looked at me angry.
“Babe, or you know what these guys tried to do…” Brian picked up “They tried to take you and Joe away from us, we don’t know exactly what they would do, but I think they want you to have some sort of leverage against your farther. That’s why it is even more important that we can protect you, that we are always by your side’s, right Matt?” Brian looked to me.
“And why the hell didn’t someone talk to us about this? Tell us just how dangerous all this is… what happened to our father?” Jacky looked even more pissed between Brian and me and I had to shield my friend a little, it was my fault to wait so long.
“I told Brian to not tell, he wanted to tell you some time ago, I didn’t want to… make you even more nervous then you already are… I’m sorry. We should have.”
“The hell you should have, it’s our father you talk about!” Jacky got up looking at Joe “Joe? Don’t you want to say something?”
She shook her head and I hated to see her like this, the picture of her father was ruined now, and wouldn’t be made whole again anytime soon, we had to figure something out… and I had to try and make Joe feel better, just how?

Notes

Uh Oh... Dad sends a message and causes all things to be shaken up....
What are they going to do now?

Morning, lovelies!