by Anna Kendra
Because standing only a few feet away from him with a ginormous smirk on his face, was none other than Leonard Stone.
Chapter 15
Julian didn’t get distracted easily and that was a fact, because if he did, people could get hurt. It was something that had been drilled into him from the very first days of training and he had never forgotten that ever since. But today, after nearly eight years of being in the business, he’d been caught unawares and that too, by a thirteen-year-old. What was Sia doing to him?
“How much have you heard kid?” he asked, running his hands through his hair.
“Enough,” Leo said and raised an eyebrow at the door behind him. “Let’s go somewhere else, shall we? Unless you want Mom to come out and join in on the fun?” He gave another amused look at Julian.
He wondered if the kid saw far too much than he should.
“Let’s go,” he said and the two of them moved out of Sia’s room before she could hear anything more.
It was nearly two in the afternoon by the time he had finished narrating his entire story to Leoand not so surprisingly, Martha; they had threatened to tie him to a chair and grilled him for nearly two hours about his life and Sia. Surprisingly, he felt a little less stressed about how he should pursue Sia. They’d all had lunch together while Sia had eaten in her home office, and now they all sat on the chairs surrounding the kitchen counter while sipping a cup of coffee and a piece of cheesecake for Leo.
“Give her time,” Martha said, leaning on the opposite side of the counter to the boys, a coffee cup in hand. “She isn’t used to men courting her.”
Julian nearly spat out his own coffee but recovered with a cough. The word “courting” had never been in Julian’s dictionary, but of course this was Sia they were talking about. In a way, he had been courting her, and the thought had been subconscious before he even had clearly stated to her that she’ll be the one coming to him out of her own free will.
What surprised him the most was that he didn’t flinch away from the thought like he thought he would. Even after all he had witnessed during his childhood: the ways his own mother had devastated his life,leaving him in the dark about his father’s identity and his worth.
But he couldn’t use his birth mother as an excuse, not when he had Cecelia and Damien as an example. His foster parents had been so in love with each other even when they had reached their fifties that it always crushed his chest to watch them. He wanted something like that for himself and who could he ask that for other than Sia?
For God’s sake, she had made him dream of weddings with just one look at her work. She wasn’t just an amazing woman; she was also a great mother. In many ways, he could see Cecelia in her. He could only hope that he would be just as good to her as his Damien had been to Cecelia.
“Anyway,” Leo’s voice broke Julian out of his thoughts. “There’s the Wendy Times Fashion show coming up next month, so Mom will be locked up in her office for the rest of this month buried in fabric and paperwork—as usual. Starting next week would be the model selection, dress fitting, and ramp walk practices. So, we’ll hardly see her.”
“Fashion show? That’s a hell lot of work! How can she finish everything on time in just under a month?” Julian exclaimed. He couldn’t even fathom the entire time in need for its preparation.
Martha and Leo both laughed.
“What?” he asked, confused.
“Designers are always preparing for such occasions and besides, fashion shows aren’t announced just a month in advance. The fashion houses are informed well over four months prior to a show, and that’s why they’re duly prepared before then. So a fashion designer always has things ready, and Sia is no exception,” Martha explained calmly and turned her sympathetic eyes on Julian, “So don’t worry about her, okay? She’ll do fine and you should concentrate on your own job which—”
“Doesn’t only include being her bodyguard . . . but winning her over!” Leo finished for Martha.
“What are you two? Crazy twins?” Julian shook his head, but he was smiling.
His phone rang at that moment, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled over the room in the aftermath of their conversation. Pulling it out of his pocket, he saw Abhay’s number flash on the screen. Looks like, for now, his bodyguard duties will have to take first priority.
He excused himself and went back to his room to speak in private with his friend. “What’d you find?” He went straight to business.
“Well . . . I have to disappoint you but for now, my search has provided limited results,” Abhay said warily. “But the sonofabitch doesn’t have much in his accounts.”
“Tell me what you got,” ordered Julian. He didn’t like the tone of Abhay’s voice. He had a sinking feeling in his gut that whatever he was about to learn won’t be anything good.
“Background checks. Of Sia Milton and her family,” Abhay replied.
“That’s logical. He was a lawyer and it seems like a normal thing to do to check every detail thoroughly before they take over someone else’s company,” Julian said.
“Well, this one was done almost a year prior to the takeover of Milton Inc. and the wedding,” Abhay said in a grim voice. “As if he knew them from before . . . as if he had been planning this from the start.”
Dread settled in the pit of his stomach. “But that’s impossible! He only came to know her after Sia’s father hired him as their lawyer and he was given permission to take over the company!”
“I know . . . that’s why I said I’ll be disappointing you!” Abhay sounded frustrated as well. “There’s nothing else in there, Jules! Nothing! All the emails, documents, files—everything has been erased! Can you believe an owner of a law firm will have only thirty emails in his inbox for all the time he’d worked?”
“And now that asshole’s escaped from prison, roaming around freely. What about his personal life? Any mistresses or past wives that may provide us more information?” Julian asked, running a hand through his hair again.
“Oh, yes. Found more than ten women he’d dated in the past. Reports say that he generally stayed with one woman for not more than four to six months . . . only . . . Ah! Got it . . . some girl called Jasmine Murray. Been with that chick for almost two years. Some magazine says that he was supposed to marry her—well, her words not mine—but that’s all. He occasionally bumped into her here and there after his wedding but that’s all the gossip I’ve got,” Abhay said. Julian could picture it clearly: his good friend hunched in front of his computer, brows furrowed in search of the most useful data.
“Any idea where she is now? What does she do, anyway?” Julian asked.
“Looks like a gold digger to me. It says here that she met Arthur when she hired him as her lawyer to divorce her cheating husband from whom she managed to keep a good amount of the poor guy’s property.” Clicking noises filled the background as Abhay typed away on his laptop with impatient fingers. “After the divorce, they started dating. So basically, she lives in her husband’s property now and has been leading a quiet life since.”
Simpleexcept . . . “Can you tell me about the cars she owns?”
“Now, that . . .” Abhay continued, “will need some digging. Give me a few more hours,” he requested, “or days would be better!” He finished with a groan.
“What’s the matter?” Julian asked, concerned.
“I was called in to handle a case just a few minutes ago. Government,” Abhay said ruefully.
“Shit,” Julian hissed. “Not only is that time-consuming, but those pricks always want us to solve a case with the minimum amount of info on their part.”
This was going to hamper his search because working for the government usually meant they’ll require Abhay’s complete concentration. But he won’t lose hope just yet. He’s only being delayed, not cut off from his task completely. Meanwhile, he’ll be doing his duty which was to guard Sia and her son.
“Okay then. I’ll get a few extra guards posted in t
he compound. You keep me informed as much as you can.” With that said, he cut the call and went out of his room to get some fresh air . . . only to come face to face with Sia.
She froze immediately, looking at him with wide innocent eyes, her breath catching in her throat. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights. And he knew why. She must have wanted to get out through the back door quietly, most probably to get some fresh air or play with her son, thinking that Leo might not be in his room. But then his eyes went to her outfit, and his expression darkened.
She was wearing a dress paired with a light green sweater and blue leggings. She also had a small purse in her hand and was wearing light-colored flip flops. Her hair was in a messy ponytail and her face bore no makeup. And still, she managed to look like the most beautiful woman on earth to him.
Anger blazed through his eyes as realization hit him: she would risk her own safety if it meant she could avoid him. But he composed himself, smirked, and strode towards her.
Standing so close that their breaths mingled, he leaned his head down slowly so that his lips were infinitesimally close to hers. His breath was cool on her neck, causing a small shiver to pass through her.
“What did I say about going out alone?” He clickedhis tongue and had the satisfaction of watching her freeze. “Now little tiger, where were you off to?”
Sia backed away a bit, gulping noisily. Her mind told her to run because this was not the Julian that had kissed her so passionately the previous night. This was the Julian people knew and called Lucifer,the one who had gotten her out of bullet’s range in the nick of time to take the hit himself. Her eyes went to the bandage that wasn’t visible under the white shirt he wore, but she knew it was there.
“I need materials for more cloths,” she said, looking him right in the eye; she was not about to back off and hide because of his challenge. “I thought you were with Leo.”
“Leo isn’t the one in danger here. He’s safe inside the perimeter where a ton of my people are keeping watch over him. So, I’ll be going with you, whether you like it or not.” Leaving no place for argument, he then motioned for her to lead the way.
She hesitated at first but found herself walking out the back door to an old, beat-up truck in the garage, with Julian hot on her heels. Off to fabric shopping with the devil.
Chapter 16
It was finally Friday, a month after Julian had taken Sia fabric shopping.
It was also the day of the fashion show, and Sia was nervous as hell.
“Relax Mom, everything is going to be fine,” Leo reassured his mother, but that hardly calmed her nerves.
“Is she always like this before a show?” Julian asked from beside Leo, careful to keep his voice down so only the boy could hear him.
“Yup!” he answered, popping the p.
Sia took a deep, shaky breath and sat down in her private makeup van and finally looked at the two.
Over the past four weeks, the pair had become as thick as thieves. It had started the day after she’d told Julian she couldn’t play this game with him and he openly challenged her to resist his charms. The next day, she had woken up to find Julian and Leo playing basketball. She had been jealous, of course. She was the one who taught him how to play, and now her son had someone else new to be his guide and buddy. It hurt to grasp that Leo was looking to someone else, but then again, having her son all to herself had become a bad habit. The absence of a father figure had adverse consequences, but she had picked herself up and acted as both his father and mother and done a damn good job of it.
But as she stared out the window at the duo and saw Julian crush Leo to his chest in congratulations after he’d managed a difficult shot, she realized how much Leo must really miss a male presence in his life. He had never known a father’s love. Even when he had one, Arthur had never really cared about him. He had never even taken Leo in his arms.
Maybe in Julian, her son found a companion, a partner, a friend . . . a father.
Sia shook her head as soon as that thought came into her mind. She and Julian hadn’t spoken of the flames between them since that day a month ago. And she didn’t even know if he was still interested in her. Somehow the thought of him not caring for her, not wanting her . . . hurt. Something tightened inside her chest, like cold, icy fingers had just squeezed her heart.
She’d tried to resist the connection that she felt with Julian this past month, but she knew she had failed miserably. And Julian hadn’t shown her any mercy. Be it a deliberate brush of his fingers against her arms, or him helping her pull her hair off her face when she became engrossed in creating a new design, or the occasional stares he’d give her that stripped her to the soul—dear God! How could she ignore a man who was adamant in winning her over?
Even her resolve had begun to falter as an unknown yearning for Julian started to grow deep inside her. If Julian had simply been flirtatious or had tried to outright seduce her, she would’ve been able to resist his charm. But Julian had been kind and compassionate. He’d never made a bold move, only sweet, subtle ones that melted her heart and opened doors to desires she’d never known before.
She could still remember how he always brought her food or drinks when she was busy in her office. She’d shout and threatento kick him out, but he’d simply stay quiet until she got the stress out of her system. Then he’d feed her small bites while she worked on the final designs. She’d never met a man who could stay calm throughout her temper tantrums and still be kind, considerate, and caring toward her.
“You do know that staring is rude, right?” Julian joked, snapping her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see that wide smirk on his face.
Of course, he knew! Of course, he knew just how infatuated she’d become over him. He was trained to notice even the slightest details in a crime scene, so Sia was no difficult feat especially when she was around him 24/7. She wouldn’t be surprised if he’d notice just how easily she blushed when he’d touch her hand by accident, or when Julian would clean the crumbs from her lips with his fingers. How she wished he’d touch them with his lips instead of his hands. She felt frustrated that Julian wasn’t pursuing her like how she knew he usually pursues women. Yes, she had done her homework. Being near Julian was making her a little reckless, but what worried her was that she didn’t seem to mind it.
“So how come you boys are twinning?” she asked deliberately, using the term “boy” to get a reaction from Julian. She hated being the only one feeling affected, and she knew Julian, with his tank-like figure and devastatingly handsome looks, was by no means a boy.
And she wasn’t kidding, either. Instead of his usual company shirt and jeans, he’d chosen to wear a plain red shirt in a black jacket paired with black jeans. Surprisingly, Leo also wore a full-sleeved red turtle neck and black jeans. Both of them looked drop dead gorgeous. But even though Julian wore casual clothes, she was sure there were a few weapons hidden there somewhere.
“Well. . .” Leo gave her a sheepish smile. “Since we’re best buddies now, I thought, why not? You do have to admitwe look hot, don’t we Mom?”
We.
Julian smirked inwardly even though on the outside he had his best poker face on. Leo had said ‘we’ instead of me. Now Sia couldn’t give Julian a negative answer without including Leo. And if she praises her son, she’ll be praising Julian too.
Way to go kid! he thought.
He saw Sia’s inner struggle in her eyes, in the slight twitch in her right eyebrow, and knew that she had come to the same conclusion.
“That you do,” she said finally with a small grin.
Both of their faces lit up like a Christmas tree and Julian gave himself an imaginary pat on the back. But then he saw the slight blush on Sia’s cheeks, and he couldn’t help but let his lips tilt up in a satisfied smirk.
He’d seen the changes in Sia slowly over the past few weeks, how she’d become more aware of him as he would deliberately try to stay away from her. However, caring for her had
come naturally. He hadn’t planned to take food or drinks for her in her office when she worked long hours, but his concern for her health had gotten the better of him and he’d soon fallen into the routine of taking snacks to her everyday or sometimes hold pieces of fabric together while she stitched away.And he was more than happy to be there for her and witness all her efforts come to fruition.
Sia looked gorgeous tonight. She wore a red-and-gold embroidered full-sleeve gown which she accessorized with elegant gold earrings and gold high heels. Her eyes had a light gold shimmer on them and her lips were painted wicked red that made him want to kiss her senseless. Her soft, silky hair was tied in an elegant knot at one side of her head and a huge red orchid was placed in it.
Today was a big day for her, not only because it was the first show of the season, but also because Sia will be walking the ramp for the first time, exposing herself to the public.
It was a deliberate move on their part. Julian had wanted to lure Arthur out of his hiding place and catch the bastard before he could strike again. Julian had tried his level best to find out where he was hiding. He even had his men patrol Jasmine Murray’s apartment, but they were unable to find any suspicious figures coming or going out of the house. Finally, he’d become impatient in his waiting game and decided to lay the trap for the evil bastard.
“Ms. Milton?”
A man with a clipboard knocked at the already open door before climbing up the first two steps of the stairs to look up at the trio.
“Yes? Is everything ready?” Sia asked the young man. He stared, starstruck, at Sia. Julian couldn’t blame him.
“Y-yes, Ma’am! The models are ready and they need your final approval,” the man said, finally finding his voice.
“Okay.” Sia got up from her seat, her nerves in a mess and her palms sweaty. “Let the show begin.”
Chapter 17