“Hardly. You knocked it back like you’d been drinking it from your baby bottle.”
They glared at each other in silence.
“Fine.” She relented. What choice did she have?
“So you’ll sign?”
“Give me a pen.”
He handed one over and with more flourishing than was strictly necessary, Briony signed away her sex rights for a whole year. Oh, and agreed to become Mrs. Knight if only on paper.
“At least we can be civil about this, despite the somewhat uncivilized beginning,” he said, shuffling the papers back together.
She snorted. “I don’t remember you complaining.”
“Oh, I wasn’t complaining. If our tryst had been the beginning and end of our evening I probably would have come back for more. One of the highlights of my year.”
He was so cold about it, so matter of fact. But he did say it was one of the highlights of his year. She saw Cole spot something over her shoulder.
His face darkened. “Today? Of all days?” he growled. “Come here.” Not giving her a moment to react, Cole leaned over the table and pulled her chin toward him, roughly covering her mouth with his.
Panties. Melted. In her head, Briony pulled back and slapped Cole Knight in his smug - neighborhood - destroying - rich - boy - developer’s face. Her body had other ideas; she leaned closer and let him push a hand through her hair, dive his tongue into her mouth, and cup her chin as if he owned her.
He was the one to pull back and she quickly shoved her coffee cup in her face to stop a repeat.
“Anyone would think you were trying to hide from me behind this gorgeous woman.” A laconic male voice came from behind Briony. “You forget I’ve known you your whole life though. Didn’t know you knew anyone in L.A.”
Cole looked at Briony and his eyes glinted a warning. Then he looked up. “Turns out I do now.”
Briony turned and looked up into the bright blue eyes of more sunshine-drenched version of Cole. Blue eyes, blond hair, wide grin.
“You going to introduce us?” the man asked.
“I don’t know if I’m ready to share yet.”
“Well, too late. I caught you out.” The man pulled a chair from another table and joined them, waving at a waitress to bring him a coffee.
“Oh, sure, sit down.” The hard glitter in Cole’s eyes was back. His viper eyes could’ve taken the other man’s heart if they’d wanted, Briony was sure of it. She suddenly wondered if blackmailing Cole Knight was biting off more than she could chew. Too late for that.
“I’m Briony Wilde.” She held out her hand. “You must be . . .”
The man took it. “Nice to meet you, Briony Wilde. I’m Cole’s brother, Rick. The lawyer told me I’d find you here.”
“Rick?”
Rick ignored the question and looked at Cole. “You two . . . work together?” Rick eyed their hands.
There was a pause. A long pause. “I guess we will soon.” Briony rushed to fill the silence. “We’re getting married and Cole’s helping me renovate my hotel.”
Rick’s eyebrows nearly reached her hairline. “Married?”
Briony ran a finger along Cole’s jaw. “Does he always get what he wants?”
“Hardly,” Cole muttered but Rick just kept beaming. “He’s a hard worker, my brother. But then, I guess you know that. But, hell, engaged. That was quick. Congratulations.”
“Yes, well, nice we’ve all met,” Cole said, his face set, “what are you even doing in L.A.?”
“Lucy had a meeting here and we thought we’d come out together, make a day of it. Then the board decided that since I was flying here I should go meet Jeremy Holder. See if I can get him on our side.”
“What the fuck for?”
“Because you never know who you’re going to have to be nice to,” Rick said, eyeballing Briony carefully.
“No one thought to tell me you were coming?” Briony watched Cole’s face as he spoke. He didn’t show the effect the snub had on him, but she could see from the way his eyes darkened that he was hurt.
“It was a bit last minute; we’re flying back to New York tonight.”
“Right. Well.” Cole shut down. His face flattened and his eyes lost their dark spark. “If you don’t mind, we need to get back.”
“Wait. What? Aren’t you going to let me get to know my future sister-in-law a bit better?”
“Another time perhaps. Right now we have work to do.” He emphasized the word work and Briony felt the tension crackling in the air between the brothers. Whatever history there was, it wasn’t apple-pie friendly. Cole stood and Rick knocked back the rest of his coffee, then followed. They shook hands, a little awkwardly.
“I look forward to hearing more about you, Briony. Come for lunch sometime.”
“Sure,” she said and returned his air kiss as if she gave them out all the time. Then all of a sudden he was gone and the hum of the café filtered back in around them.
“Well, that was fun.”
Cole sat again, his face a mask. “You know that clause about bringing my name into disrepute?”
“I was nice. And he’s your brother. Surely he’s the first person you’d want to tell about your happy news.”
“He’s the last person I was going to tell.”
“Man. Family drama. The two of you should get in a ring and fight it out sometime. Sometime soon.”
“We’re fine.”
“Uh-huh. If my brother came into town and didn’t even bother to call I’d be pissed, too.”
“I wasn’t pissed.”
“Whatever. You might as well have written it on your forehead. Your body stiffened like it got caught in a trap.”
The flicker in his jaw spread, and Cole allowed himself a quick smile. “I’m used to it.” The smile disappeared. “But let’s not have a repeat performance. I didn’t want to tell him like that.”
“Oh well. Had to come out sometime.”
Cole grimaced. “Yes, but I could have chosen a better messenger than my brother.”
Chapter Five
Cole tried to stop the smile. Having Briony take his side over his brother’s had felt good. Great. He looked across at his new fiancée, his lips still pulsing from the kiss he’d demanded. Idiot. He knew better than that. Letting Briony play games with his brother wasn’t going to help him. That’s what Martha had done; this time around he was going to keep Briony as far away from his brother as he could manage.
He’d thought hiding his face in the kiss would make Rick walk on by. But he’d forgotten how focused Rick could be. Focused and insensitive to everything except what Rick wanted. Of course Rick would sit at the table even while Briony was practically melting against his mouth. Cole clenched his hands, trying to stop the mixture of lust and resentment from pouring out in a diatribe he’d no doubt regret.
“So what’s the deal with your brother? And your business? You two work together or are you in rival companies? I need to know if I’m going to censor what I say around him. Spill.”
Cole clenched his jaw. “I don’t think spilling anything to you is a good idea. Do you? Just censor everything you say. To everyone.”
“Look, I know we didn’t get off to the best start.” She bit her finger, a trait he had never found endearing until he saw her do it. Then, like she put on her leather jacket in her mind, her posture hardened and she jutted out her chin. “So I blackmailed you. Not like I had a choice. It’s done now, so suck it up. We don’t have to talk about your brother. We don’t have to talk about anything except my hotel if you want to keep it that way. But if you want me to behave appropriately I’m going to have to know a few things. And if you want me to make all nicey nice in public you’re going to have to do the same. People won’t buy me fawning over you if you’re a giant frozen Popsicle.”
Setting his coffee cup on the table, Cole put both hands on the polished wooden top, trying to steady himself. “You want me to be nice to you? Hell, you want me to share my family secr
ets? With you?”
She shrugged. “If you don’t want to, fine, but you’ll be breaching your own contract, which means the terms I agreed to are null and void.”
He picked up the document she’d just signed. “This says nothing about me needing to share my family’s business with you.”
“Nope, but the clause about me not bringing your reputation into disrepute has a subclause about reciprocity.”
“Reciprocity?”
“I’ll be nice to you. You’ll be nice to me. Mikey’s brother might be a law-school dropout, but he still knows to warn a girl when she’s likely to get screwed. You try and take me down, and I’ll have you up in front of a judge, with the papers biting at my heels to get the story.”
Again, the smile almost snuck onto his face uninvited. Briony Wilde was nothing if not surprising. In a good way. “Very good, Ms. Wilde. Although, of course, all that talk of getting me in front of a judge is hot air. I lose, you lose, remember? Don’t try to threaten me.”
“Who says I was trying to threaten you?”
The silence sat between them as he looked at her, waiting to see what else she would do. Cole watched the mix of emotions spread themselves around her face. In her jutting chin she was defiant, fierce. In her knitted dark eyebrows, frustrated. But in her eyes she was a little lost and afraid.
He blinked to check he was seeing things properly. The woman in front of him had everything to gain from this union. It was him that could go down in flames if she carried through with her threat. But that little glimmer of uncertainty made his heart squeeze. He’d bought off all her neighbors and his board knew someone at her bank. She must be feeling the pressure big time. That would explain her going to the extremes of blackmailing him. In different circumstances he would find her intriguing, compelling, enticing. Sexy.
The memory of the night before flickered through his brain like a celluloid film reel. Had that only been last night? Briony Wilde was not only surprising, she was unpredictable. That quality alone should have had him running for the Hollywood hills at one hundred miles per hour, but her fresh-talking, brutal honesty was such a contrast to the manipulative, smooth veneer of his last girlfriend, he couldn’t help appreciating it. Doesn’t make her any less dangerous though. No. He was going to be careful. He was being careful. His lawyer knew everything, all his secrets past and present. He’d been there when his pop bailed him out, had helped make the charges go away. He hadn’t had any trouble with the law since, and he never would again. Period.
She broke the standoff. “Fine. Let’s split the difference. We’ll be polite. Professional. We both need to treat this for what it is, a business arrangement.”
“A business arrangement with blackmail and bikers,” he muttered, but this time without the animosity.
She sighed. “Again with the negativity. And here I was thinking you’d be a glass half-full type of guy.”
“You’re right. This is getting us nowhere. I’ll be polite. There’s just one more thing I need to do before we go ahead with this. I need to call the board and tell them about us. Your hotel staying changes the development.”
“Okay. Go ahead.”
“Not here. My office.”
“So let’s go.”
“You’re not coming to my office with me looking like that.”
She looked down at her red leather vest with the Raising Hellfire patch and DM boots and smiled. “I forgot, you’ve seen Pretty Woman. Going to go all Richard Gere after all and give me your credit card?”
“Not a chance. Come on.”
* * *
He could have gotten his secretary to take Briony shopping, but the less she knew about his new fiancée the better. He was new in town. His secretary could be moonlighting for his competitors for all he knew. Cole rubbed his face as he stood in the women’s clothing area of a high-end department store he’d hoped would have a big enough range to suit their needs.
This move was supposed to be straightforward, and instead he was second-guessing himself and getting engaged to someone before he’d even been in the city a couple of months.
“Will this do?” Briony pointed to a rack groaning with black leggings and cotton tank tops.
“No.” He waved to a shop assistant. The woman came over, smiling graciously at him, and trying very hard not to stare at Briony.
“How can I help you, sir?”
“We need a new wardrobe. Business casual. Nothing white, but not too much black.”
“Certainly, sir. If you’d like to come with me?”
“Ahem.” Briony cleared her throat. Loudly.
“Yes. It’s for . . .” Cole stumbled over the word.
“It’s for me. His fiancée. And I’m looking for an evening gown, too. Oh, and shoes. So perhaps you might like to address your comments to me rather than him?”
“Of course.” The shop assistant had the courtesy to blush and Cole didn’t bother to hide his smile this time. He wasn’t supposed to be enjoying this quite as much as he was. Briony Wilde had sass-a-plenty and wasn’t afraid to use it. It made his insides warm to see it. His insides and his outsides. The shop assistant pulled out a dress covered in sequins.
Briony turned to him and her face was creased with a mix of little girl excitement and outraged warrior. “You think I need something this fancy?”
“What would I know? You’ll need an evening gown. Whether you want one that’s masquerading as a solar panel is up to you.”
She snorted and allowed the shop assistant to pile her arms high. “Come on, then.” She raised her eyebrow at him and he realized he was being invited into the dressing room.
Big mistake. Seeing her naked would not end in a professional way. He needed to get out of there for a moment. “I’m just heading downstairs. Back in five. Make sure she tries all those on,” he said to the assistant with an approving nod to the clothes she’d selected.
As he rode the escalator he wondered at what his life had become. Again. Briony Wilde had been in his world less than twenty-four hours and already she was making him feel confused like he never had before. He’d planned on calling his board when they got back to his office, but his dad deserved to hear the news in private and he needed to hear the old man’s voice to get his feet back on the ground.
He punched in the number and thought about how his pop had reacted to the news that his brother’s wife was expecting. Family was everything to the old guy, and here he was getting engaged to someone he hardly knew. Worse. Someone he should hate, and yet found himself enjoying the more time he spent with her. He almost hung up, but his pop answered on the fourth ring.
“Pop. It’s me. Cole.”
“My boy. How’s L.A.?”
Cole paused. “Interesting.”
“Interesting isn’t usually a good thing with you.”
“What do you mean?”
The older man sighed. “It was your go-to evasion technique when you were younger. I’d ask you how your day went and you’d say interesting. I thought that meant you learned something new in class. Turned out it meant you’d skipped class altogether and gone shoplifting. Or the other thing.”
Cole’s stomach contracted at the memory. He’d been bored. Lost. Looking for something just out of reach, a way of building something that they didn’t teach in school. And it turned out you couldn’t find it in any shop. Depression arrived at his door when he turned thirteen as if turning the magical age had flipped a switch that had meshed his hormones into some direct line with darkness. Nothing fit at school. And at home his pop was busy enough that he barely noticed when Cole stopped talking unless he absolutely had to. When Cole started “borrowing” cars and got into racing, he’d figured he could outrun any trouble. Truth was, he’d been running from himself. He sighed. “It wasn’t really about the stealing or the racing.”
“I never could work it out. It wasn’t like you wanted for anything.”
No, Cole and his brother had never wanted for anything. That wasn’t the iss
ue. The issue had been the dark rage that Cole had never been able to fight on his own. Not till his pop’s lawyer had gotten him to see someone and he’d finally found the help he needed. Depression didn’t care how rich you were. It just was. Till it wasn’t. At least now he knew how to deal with it, and as long as he kept his mind clear, he could work his way through almost anything.
His father continued. “Well, you gave all that up, thank god, and here we are. So, what does interesting mean these days?” He paused. Cole heard him suck in a breath. “You haven’t gotten back together with that Martha woman, have you?”
“No.”
“Well, that’s something. She was nasty. Vicious.”
Cole reeled. “What? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“That your girlfriend was a manipulative piece of work? And that her family had designs on merging with the Reapers for I don’t know how long? I don’t think that would have gone down very well, do you?”
True. Cole hesitated. But damn, it would have saved him a few sleepless nights. Screw it, this is what you called him about. “I’ve met someone else.”
“That was quick.”
“I know. Too quick, perhaps. Thing is, she wants to get married.”
“Married? She after your money?”
Ha. A thousand times yes. “Not entirely.”
“Do you like her?”
Did he like her? Cole tossed the question around in his mouth. Yes, he liked Briony Wilde. He didn’t trust her, didn’t trust her friends, he was furious with her, and a good part of him wanted to tell her where to shove her blackmailing ultimatum. But he did like her. Her voice, her sense of humor, her sass, her gumption, the way she stood up to his brother, and of course, her body. “Yes.”
“Did you like the last one?”
He’d thought he did. He’d enjoyed Martha for a while, and when they’d first started dating and they’d been nothing but two people getting to know each other it had been fun. Light. It was only when her true designs on his company started coming out that he saw her nasty side. Truth was without the pressure of her family she was fine, mostly, but he would never have been able to take her shopping, or drink whiskey with her. Or have sex in a biker lockup with her. “Maybe not.”
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