by Leah Brooke
“If you need money—”
“No, Gabriel. I appreciate it, but I will not borrow money from you.”
“You are the most exasperating female. I don’t know why those two show such an interest in you.”
Julianna blinked, stilling. “What two?”
“Nick and Steve. They’re the ones who’ve been asking about you.”
Julianna groaned, too embarrassed to ever face either one of them again.
No matter how much they fascinated her.
Something in Gabriel’s tone put her on edge, and after the speculative way he’d looked at Nick and Steve the other night, and his almost hurried departure, she wanted to eliminate any chance he’d move them around like pawns on his chessboard.
“I thought David was the one asking questions about me. I could never face Nick or Steve again. Did you see their faces when David blurted out that I was his sub?”
“Yes, but I don’t think you and I saw the same thing.”
“They looked shocked and disgusted.”
“Like I said, you and I didn’t see the same thing. Shocked, yes. But that’s not all they were, especially Nick. For someone who deals with the public, you really stink at reading body language. Anyway, they somehow got my private number, I’m still not quite certain how, and questioned me extensively about you.”
Julianna jumped up, wincing when she hit her toe on the coffee table. “What? You didn’t tell me that! What did you tell them?”
“Not much, which appeared to pique their interest even more. They’ve got an investigator digging up whatever he can on you.”
Speechless, Julianna just stared into space for several long seconds, almost scared to ask. “Why? And how do you know that?”
“Because I’m not without resources myself. Who knows, sweetheart? You might see them again when you least expect it. So, are you ready for your interview?”
“Yes. As a matter of fact, I was just thinking about that.”
“Good. It’ll get your mind off of everything else. Go design something spectacular.”
“I already have. My designs are good, but I don’t know if they’ll choose someone without big references. You might be wrong again. I hope you don’t make this a habit. It’s going to disappoint me very much if you’re wrong about Kelsey.”
It worried her that he might be. No one would be better for her friend than Gabriel, a man who clearly loved her.
The silence stretched, making Julianna regret saying anything.
Finally, Gabriel sighed. “I’m not wrong about that. It’ll just take time. But as for the owners of the hotel not hiring you, you never know, sweetheart. Like I said, life is full of surprises.”
After a few more minutes of small talk, Julianna hung up, still distracted by Gabriel’s news. Why in the world would Nick and Steve be checking up on her? She’d only met them once and not in the best of circumstances.
Rising, she put on the water to fix herself another cup of tea. While the water heated, she went into the spare bedroom and opened the folder containing copies of the drawings she’d submitted. They were damned good, and she knew it, but she still didn’t have the big name to go with it. Yet. She just had to do her best to dazzle them.
* * * *
Looking around their hotel suite, Steve sat with his feet propped on an ottoman, noticing things about the room he never would have noticed fifteen, hell, ten years earlier. Thanks to his partnership with Nick, he noticed things like curtains and the furnishings, something he used to take for granted. In the past the only thing that mattered had been whether the bed was big enough to roll around on with a woman and comfortable enough to stretch out on when he was done.
The image of rolling on the bed in his room with Julianna, her long legs wrapped around his waist as he sank into her, played over and over in his mind all day. She’d been in his thoughts with alarming frequency ever since he’d walked out of her apartment a little over a week ago.
He groaned inwardly as his cock stirred yet again. It was annoying as hell that the damned thing got hard every time he thought about her.
Pushing the image of Julianna in her oversized shirt out of his mind, he sipped his drink as he waited for Nick to finish reading the file he’d put together. He’d been as thorough as possible, sending the investigator to talk to several people, not only in Philadelphia, but people Julianna went to school with in New York as well as where she grew up in New Jersey.
His men had been almost relieved to work on something else. They dealt with threats to the hotels every day and had to constantly be on guard against attempts on their lives. The frustration continued to grow that they couldn’t find a trace of the man who’d nearly killed him seventeen years ago and who would remain a threat until they found him. The men in his unit now worked as security for the Crescendo and, other than Nick, were the only people on earth he trusted.
They’d all been hurt to varying degrees in the ambush, and once they’d learned that their captain and one-time friend had been the shooter, they’d recovered from their injuries, finished out their time, and left the service. By then he’d already met Nick, who’d offered him and his men something else.
They’d taken it and had never looked back.
“So this is everything you’ve found?”
He met Nick’s lifted brow with a smile. His friend had never been easy to read, but familiarity had changed that, and he knew exactly what Nick was looking for. “That’s it, yes. There are no men in her life, except for Gabriel, who seems to be just a friend. She doesn’t seem to be very close to her family, either.”
Although they’d carefully avoided having a conversation about Julianna all week, it didn’t stop them from thinking about her and randomly blurting out those thoughts.
“She’s adorable, isn’t she?”
“We’ve got to get some fresh flowers for that hole she’ll be using as an office.”
“Her bills are all overdue.”
“Her legs are a mile long.”
“She smells delicious, doesn’t she?”
They’d talked to people she’d designed for, and every one of them had loved her. Both knew that if their investigation turned up nothing they would hire her. After a few days, he’d been almost afraid to look, fearing that he would find something to ruin their plans. Then he asked himself how bad it would have to be for them to turn her down.
Pretty damned bad.
He didn’t know what it was about her, but it had been a long time since his interest had been stirred this way. The sadness and soft vulnerability in her eyes looked out of place on a woman so blatantly sexy that she could be a fucking centerfold.
With her blonde hair, clear blue eyes, and peaches-and-cream skin, she should have looked cool and untouchable. Instead, she looked hotter than hell, making him want to gather her against him and ruffle the hell out of her. She’d been disheveled and dirty in the parking lot but had still looked like a damned wet dream. She’d probably be surprised to know that she hadn’t quite been able to pull off the hard sophisticate he assumed she strived for.
After her shower, wearing a T-shirt that was several times too big for her and a baggy pair of shorts, she’d been downright adorable. With her hair wet and wearing no makeup, she’d had him fighting his desire to pull her into his arms to cuddle with her on the sofa.
It had been a long time since he’d felt the desire to cuddle with a woman.
With her tight little bottom, slim thighs, and high breasts that would fill his hands, she had a body that had kept him awake at night, and it took remarkable willpower to stay away from her while they investigated her past.
It had also been hard not to talk about her with Nick.
For the first time in his life, he’d met a woman who made him think of more than sex, a woman who brought out his protective instincts and made him possessive as hell.
A woman Nick also seemed enthralled with, something Steve never thought to see.
“Her pla
The anticipation in Nick’s voice made Steve’s stomach clench. Inclining his head, he stared into his glass. “They are.”
“She was married.”
“Briefly. Divorced a year later.” Learning that she had an ex-husband somewhere had given him more than a few bad moments. He wondered what the guy had done to her and had him investigated as well. What he’d learned surprised him even more.
Shrugging, Steve did his best to appear uninterested, uncomfortable under Nick’s searching gaze. “He’s married to another woman now, and from what we gathered from the neighbors, the wife seems to be the one in charge of things. Friends of hers claim she’s a Dominatrix. Julianna’s dated quite a bit in the last few years, but it’s been casual, no boyfriends.”
Nick nodded, his eyes sharp. “She married young. Twenty-one.”
Steve swirled his drink. “As soon as she divorced, she entered design school. Maybe that’s why she didn’t date much then.”
“She’s the one who helped build Avante’s reputation. You couldn’t find out why she quit?”
Steve took a sip of his drink and leaned back, resting his glass on his thigh. “No. Nobody there will tell me much. I understand the atmosphere turned cool when anyone asked about Julianna. Apparently, they’re very defensive of her. I do know she stormed out with no notice.”
He smiled at Nick in amusement. “There are conflicting stories about whether or not she threw something at Ken Phillips’ head on her way out the door. She hasn’t been able to get a job since, so she opened her own business, which she runs out of her own home, and she has no other employees. The owner of Avante’s, Vittorio Avante, has his nephew, the same Ken Phillips Julianna may or may not have thrown something at, running his business. Ken Phillips appears to be no more than a figurehead, although he would probably disagree with that.”
Nick tossed the file onto the coffee table and picked up his own drink. “It would be interesting to see those two together. Have Claire call Ken and arrange for an interview at the same time as Julianna’s. It’ll be last minute, but with the jobs he’s losing, he’ll be desperate to impress his uncle. Get a camera and microphone in there. We’ll leave them alone and see what happens. I want to know for sure what happened to make her quit before we hire either one of them.”
Steve nodded. “No one at Avante’s would say much about it, but several of the women there are actively looking for other jobs.”
Nick stared at the opposite wall. “Our Julianna apparently left in a hurry, even with a stack of bills to pay. She left over two months ago, and she’s kept busy, but it’s been only small jobs since then.”
The knot in Steve’s stomach tightened at the “our.” If he had his way, she would be his, whether she worked for them or not. He hated not going to her now, but since they were investigating her before offering her a job, he’d thought it best to stay away. He’d had her watched, though, by a private investigator here in Philly to make sure she was all right.
In all honesty, he’d had her watched to make sure she didn’t start seeing any other man. Other than Gabriel Durand and her friend, Kelsey Richards, no one had been to her apartment.
Tapping his fingers against his thigh, he smiled. “She seems to have something of a temper.” When Nick’s head snapped up, he shrugged, not wanting to show too much. “She would have to have a temper to throw something at her boss and walk out without giving notice.”
A hot temper usually meant strong passions. His groin stirred yet again, and he looked away from Nick’s probing gaze. He’d spent the last week semi-aroused, and it had begun to get on his nerves. Nights were a bitch. He’d woken more than once to a raging hard-on and her name on his lips.
He had no business thinking that way about a woman his best friend was obviously interested in.
Nick looked down at one of the designs she’d proposed. “Beautiful, talented, and passionate.”
“And impulsive.” Steve took another sip of his drink and swirled the remaining liquid, not meeting Nick’s eyes as his imagination worked overtime. Drawing a deep breath, he looked up at his best friend and partner, anxiously waiting to see if Nick wanted her as badly as he did. “She quit with nothing lined up, and I’ll bet anything that meeting with David was an impulse, otherwise her friend Gabriel would have known about it.”
Nick stood, moving slowly to the window. Turning, he met Steve’s eyes. “We’ve been friends for a long time, long enough that I’ve learned to read you fairly accurately.”
Uneasy now, Steve sat forward and poured himself another drink from the bottle he’d placed on the low table before looking up again. “And?”
Nick’s lips twitched. “Why are you trying so hard to pretend you aren’t interested in her?”
Faintly insulted, Steve froze, meeting Nick’s eyes squarely. “I’m interested, but I don’t poach.”
Nick smiled, looking down into his own empty glass. “I know that.”
Shooting to his feet, Steve glared at him, his patience gone. “Then what the fuck are you asking me? Are you going after her or not?”
Nick sobered and turned away from the window, coming over to the table in front of Steve and pouring himself another drink before moving away again. He settled himself back on the overstuffed sofa, leaning back with a sigh. “Ever since the night we met Julianna, I’ve been thinking about my misspent youth.”
Intrigued and relieved to be talking about something else, Steve sat back down again. Knowing Steve’s background, Nick didn’t often tell him much about his misspent youth. He’d told him a little while trading stories as he recovered from gunshot wounds years ago, but it didn’t come up often. “Are you actually going to make a confession?”
Nick chuckled. “Nothing like what you’re thinking.” His smile fell as he swirled his drink, staring into it thoughtfully. “I had a friend back then, a good friend. At least he was a good friend for a while. I met him shortly after my mother died and I started earning my way gambling instead of helping my mother clean hotel rooms.” Toeing off his shoes, he propped his feet on the sofa and lay back, watching Steve as though to gauge his reaction.
Steve sipped his drink, not bothering to hide his curiosity. “What happened to him?”
Nick sighed. “I gambled. He sold drugs. A deal went bad, and he was killed.”
Steve eyed him warily, wondering if Nick had too much to drink. He’d never seen him drunk before, but since meeting Julianna, both had started drinking a little more.
“What does all of this have to do with meeting Julianna?”
“Rico and I loved the same woman.” Nick smiled slightly, waving a hand. “Well, the kind of love we were capable of at the time. She also claimed to love both of us, but she didn’t, and we both knew it.”
Nick stared at the ceiling, apparently lost in thought.
Steve grimaced as the knots in his stomach grew. Ever since he’d met him, Nick had always been exceedingly possessive of the women he dated—for as long as he dated them. “So what happened?”
The silence lengthened until Nick finally sat up, resting his forearms on his thighs and staring down into the drink he held. “We shared her.”
Stunned, Steve could only gape at him. “You? I can’t believe it. How the hell did that work out?”
Nick’s lips curved. “It worked out great for a while. She had two men to provide for her, which she loved. She also liked the forbidden aspect of it. The three of us stayed together for almost a year. Then Rico got killed.”
Shrugging, he stood and went back to the window. “After that it fizzled out. She couldn’t handle my dominance in bed without Rico acting as a buffer, and I wasn’t willing to compromise. We both realized then that it had only been sex after all.” Turning back toward Steve, his lips twitched. “She wanted to get someone to replace him, but I wasn’t interested in bringing a stranger into it, and I was getting a little tired of her anyway.”
“So you ended it?”
Nick inclined his head. “So I ended it.”
“What does that have to do with…” Steve jumped to his feet. “Are you talking about us sharing Julianna?”
Nick shrugged and turned to face Steve fully. “We don’t even know her well enough to know if either one of us will stay interested in her. But seeing the way you looked at her just brought it all back. I’ve been thinking about it all week.”
He turned away again to stare out the window. “Interesting, don’t you think?”
For the first time in his life, Steve opened his mouth and nothing came out.
Did Nick really mean what he thought he meant?
It took him a good minute or two before he finally managed to get his thoughts together, but he had to take another sip of his drink before he could manage any words and blurted out the only one that mattered.
“Why?”
Nick turned back to him, smiled faintly, and shrugged. “After we left her, she’s all I could think about. I’ve never had that happen before. I want her, Steve, and I’ll have her.”
Even through Steve’s amusement at his friend’s usual arrogance, the knot in his stomach got tighter.
“So have her.” He tossed back the remainder of his drink and set the glass on the small table with more force than necessary, coming to his feet with the intention of escaping to his room and another long night of trying not to think about Julianna.
“I’ve never seen that look in your eyes before.”
Nick’s low tone stopped him in his tracks.
Steve turned, stiffening. “What are you talking about? What look?”
Christ, had he inadvertently given himself away?
Nick’s gaze held a hint of amusement. “I saw the way you looked at her. You looked as though you could have eaten her alive right there, and you’ve been like a bear with a sore paw all week. Did you think I didn’t know that you’re having her followed?”
Shaking his head, Nick chuckled softly. “Hell, I probably had the same look on my face, and the reason I knew you had her followed was because I did the same damned thing.”
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