My Brother’s Girl Page 4

  Still, that didn’t change how reckless he was. How flippantly he spoke of the woman he claimed was different than all the others. He still talked about her like she was one of the whores he brought home from the club. He still missed work and dropped the ball and turned to me when shit hit the fan.

  “Nope, just continue to keep the place held together, and we’ll be good,” I told Annie as I grabbed my wallet, phone, and keys and moved around her, stopping only as she spoke again.

  “You know we’re having the office party tomorrow night at Kadia, right?”

  “Kadia?” I glanced over my shoulder. “That place is fucking wild.” And hardly suitable for a work function, party or otherwise.

  “Yeah. It’s a lot of fun.” Her smile was highly inappropriate, almost comically so.

  “Maybe too much fun for an office party?” I shook my head and walked out of the office as I tried to think through how I was going to tell my bull-headed older brother that having an office party at the hottest night club in New York was idiotic.

  They had a sex room on the third floor, from what I’d heard. His decision to have the anniversary party for the firm there made no sense, but we were talking about Luke.

  Hell, he’d probably use one of those sex rooms if he wasn’t dating this mystery girl of his.

  I squeezed into the elevator and turned at the sight of a pretty blonde near the back. My heart fluttered in my chest. Olivia?

  I frowned at my own foolishness.

  No. Stop being stupid. Let it go.

  I wanted to let it go, to let her go, but I couldn’t seem to do it. Six years of nothing, not a word from her, and then she had the audacity to send in her resume to work for the firm. It’d been a year since it came in, and I still felt like shit for shredding it, but I couldn’t have her here. We had too much history between us, too many hurt feelings.

  Six years. I was such a fucking puss for still lamenting over her. It was high school, and I was over it, but the what-ifs drove me into a craze to think through how my life would have been different if she hadn’t turned her back on me our senior year.

  “Stop. You’re too fucking old for this.” I ran my fingers through my hair and got off the elevator, not caring who heard me talking to myself. Olivia was in my past, right where she belonged. Eventually, I would be able to leave her there for good.

  I moved back and waited as everyone left the elevator. The blonde was last off, and she glanced at me and smiled as my heart dropped. Not her.

  Good.

  I turned and walked toward the overpriced restaurant at the bottom of our building, stopping by the hostess stand only for a moment before hearing my brother call my name. I spotted him waving a hand at me from a booth by the window and I made my way toward him while he snapped his fingers at a server and pointed at his empty drink. Clearly, he’d already been here for a little bit.

  Classic Luke, avoiding responsibility like always. He was an asshole no matter who we were dealing with or what audience we were in front of. It was nice to think most people didn’t associate us as anything more than business partners. A good-cop, bad-cop type of relationship, and he was forever the bad cop.

  I offered the server an apologetic smile as I slid into the booth and helped myself to the sweating glass of ice water on the table.

  “There you are. Shit, I thought you’d forgotten.” Luke rested his elbows on the table, clasped his hands together, and rubbed them vigorously. “I have fucking great news.”

  “Your idea of great and mine are two totally different things.” I unbuttoned my navy suit jacket and pulled it off my shoulders as I glanced around the restaurant. “I think you need to fire Annie and let me do the hiring from here on out.”

  “Why’s that? She still after you to take her to bed?” He chuckled and leaned back in his seat to drape his arms over the back of the booth. An expensive Rolex flashed on his left wrist. “Just lock the damn door to the office and pop her cherry for her. You know after a hard fuck she’ll calm down a little. All women just need to realize who’s in charge, who’s capable of bringing them to heel.”

  “That so?”

  “Yep. And a man is what they need.”

  “And you’re that man?” I glanced up at the server, grateful it was a guy. If I had to watch my brother eye-fuck another poor unsuspecting girl, I might have to reach across the table and slap him. We got along well enough, as long as we didn’t broach the subject of women. They were toys to him and always had been. I couldn’t remember a time in my life of ever thinking about them as anything but precious. Maybe I really was a puss.

  “I was that man.” He sighed as I ordered a beer.

  “Was?” I chuckled, unable to help myself. He was such a bleeding heart over his loss of freedom. This invisible girlfriend was cramping his style from the looks of things.

  “Yeah. My girl is getting a little pushy about us moving into something more serious.”

  “Really?” I took the breadbasket from the center of the table and fished out a piece of bread. “And you’re wanting to take another step with her?”

  “Yeah, if it means I keep getting to bury various parts of my body deep inside of her anytime I want.” He growled. “She’s so fucking hot, Caden, even after three years of seeing her off and on. The thought of how well she can work her sexy little body drives me absolutely insane.”

  “Yeah, let’s talk about something else. I’m not going over the ins and outs of you ass-fucking this girl again. I’m not interested.”

  “Because you’re jealous. Plain and simple. She’s a whore for me. And that ass is so unbelievably—”

  “Awesome. Keep that shit to yourself.” I buttered my bread and tried to keep my pulse steady. I hadn’t slept with someone I cared about in too many years to count. A few drunk one-night stands, and I was good to go for a little while longer. Relationships were messy, complicated, and hurt like a bitch when they ended.

  “You need to stop wallowing in your tears and get a woman. You’re being a fucking bitch about it.” He snagged a roll and tore into it like it was beef jerky. “Like Annie. What’s wrong with her? I mean, sure, she’s no crown jewel, but she’s got a great set of tits and a pretty smile. What more could a guy want?”

  I chuckled, unable to help myself. “Fuck off. I’ll figure out my love life when I’m not married to my job anymore.”

  “I could ask my girl if she’s willing to have us both one night.”

  “What?” My eyes moved up to his shit-eating grin. “Shut the fuck up. I’m not fucking some poor girl with you. You’re sick.”

  “Sick with lust. God, dude.”

  “Stop. Seriously.” I gave him a stern look, wondering why in the hell he was like this. It must have come from his mother, seeing that he got most of his looks from her too. I was almost grateful that my mother was softer, more empathetic. The fact that we weren’t from the exact same gene pool gave me great relief.

  “All right. Shit.” He lifted his hands. “Can I at least tell you my good news?”

  “Yeah, and then we’re talking about rescheduling the anniversary party for the firm. We can’t host it at Kadia, man. Shit gets too wild there.”

  “Rescheduling?” Luke barked with laughter. “It’s already booked, little brother, and the guys at the firm deserve all that crazy fucking place has to offer. It’s perfect.”

  “What’s the news, Luke?” I was almost surprised by how worn down I was just being around him lately. A few years back when we started the firm, I couldn’t seem to get enough time with him, but he’d grown cynical, nasty, and vulgar.

  “My girl’s coming to Kadia tomorrow night.” He wagged his eyebrows. “I mean, she’s coming tonight, but it’ll be a different kind of coming, if you know what I mean.”

  I thanked the server for my beer and glanced back over at him. “I think that’s great that she’s coming to the party. It’s about fucking time that I get to meet her.”

  “I need you to treat the evening
like an interview, okay?”

  “What? No. I’m not screening this chick for you. You’ve already painted her as a two-bit whore that likes it in the ass.” I pressed my beer to my lips and pulled my thoughts from depravity as my cock twitched in my slacks. I needed to get laid, to feel the warmth of someone beneath me, and soon.

  “Not for me, you dickwad. For the company. She’s coming to join us. I’ve almost talked her into it.”

  I spit my beer halfway across the table. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

  “Nope. She’s brilliant, Caden. More than you, more than Perry, hell, even more than me.”

  “No way. That isn’t happening. I don’t care how smart she is. We’re not bringing her into the firm. If things end badly between you two…” I shook my head. “No. That’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

  “You’re going to love her.” He laughed and tossed a napkin at my face as I wiped up my mess. “Just remember when you see her to keep your eyes above her shoulders. She’s likely the most beautiful woman in all of New York.”

  “Doubtful, and my answer is still no. She’s not working for us. Period.”

  Chapter 6

  Olivia

  “I still can’t believe you cut your hair.” I reached out and tugged at the short strands of Dana’s dark hair. “It was almost down to your butt at Christmas.”

  “I know. I just got tired of having to deal with it all the time.” She shrugged and sank back into the softness of my oversized couch. “Let’s not mention how sick I am of being called Pocahontas. Now, if a certain John Smith were to show up…”

  I laughed and pushed at her leg with my foot as I reclined against the far side of the couch. It was beyond good to see her, and as always, I dreaded her leaving before she even really settled in. Having been my friend since we were able to talk, Dana was like the sister I never had.

  “You don’t need John Smith, just that hottie professor you keep going on about.” I tried to hide the smile that tugged at the side of my mouth. We all had fantasies about a college professor bending us over a desk, or at least I did. A hot one anyway, not the sort I was privy to during my college days.

  “Oh man.” She pressed her hands to her face and leaned back. “He’s so fucking beautiful, Olivia. Like the perfect man for me, but he’s a stickler for the rules.”

  “So get him off campus.” It seemed like a simple solution to me. She’d been telling me about this guy for three consecutive semesters now and it seemed like he had a bit of a thing for her too. They’d shared some moments where something might have easily happened but didn’t. She was all pent up about him and needed to get him out of her system. Or in it. “I have to get ready for dinner with Luke. I wanted to reschedule, but he made me promise not to. Something about a big surprise.”

  “Seriously?” Dana sat up straight. “Do you think it’s a ring?”

  “What? No.” I walked toward the bedroom to fix my makeup from the war my long day had waged against it. “No. God, I hope not.”

  “What?” She followed me into the bedroom and jumped up onto the bed. “I thought you were in love with this guy? Why else have you been with him for so long?”

  “I’m in love with his power, his money, and his dick.” I glanced over my shoulder as she squealed.

  “You hooker.”

  “Yep. Not much has changed.” I was being cheeky for sure. I’d been a prude back in high school, or so Dana and our other friends said. Being a cheerleader had an odd stigma, but I’d kept to my beliefs that sex belonged in marriage until my senior year. Then the drive to lock Caden Taylor to my side forever drove me to do something I promised myself I’d never do. And it had blown up in my face. He wasn’t at all the guy I thought him to be.

  Three and a half years of dating and the future I’d dreamed of went down the tube over one night. One mistake.

  “Not much has changed?” She laughed loudly as I leaned over and reapplied my eye shadow. “That’s rich. You were a good girl. You might not be now, but you were then. The candle by which the rest of us made it through the dark.”

  “All right. All right. Don’t make me a saint.” I stuck my head out of the bathroom and wagged my eyebrows at her. “Those days are long gone. Life’s a bitch and Luke has enough of the things I want in a man to settle. Good sex means lots of endorphins, and with my work, I need all of those I can get.”

  “Are you saying you’ll accept his proposal if he gives one?” She sat up and tilted her head to the side.

  I laughed and moved back toward the mirror. “Of course I am. He’s not prince charming by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s as good as it’s going to get, I’m afraid.”

  “What a shitty attitude on love.” She walked into the bathroom behind me, closed the toilet seat, and sat down. “What happened to the girl that believed in a happy ever after? Did college here in New York really stain you that much?”

  “No, but being realistic just seems like a better option. I’m tired of dreaming that I’ll find him.” I shrugged and tried to ignore the burn of desire rising in my chest. It wasn’t sexy or lusty but a longing to find someone like Caden again. It’d been six years since high school but I still looked everywhere for him. It was sickening. Embarrassing. I needed to grow the hell up, but I couldn’t figure out how.

  “Him? As in Caden?” She crossed her arms over her chest and slipped in a few more words before I could speak. “You know he’s here in New York, right?”

  My heart came to a grinding momentary stop. My breath hitched.

  Caden was here? In the same damn postal code as me?

  I’d made myself a promise at our high school graduation when he wouldn’t even look at me after all those years of being together that I’d never look back after that day. I’d never go find him or look him up or pray in time that he would be mine. Never.

  “Is he now? Good for him.” I spread my pink lipstick over my lips and pursed them a few times as my chest contracted and pain laced my insides.

  “Aww, come on. It’s me right here. I was there for all of it, remember?” She leaned toward the counter where I stood. “Stop acting like you don’t still think about him. I’ve been there for half of your drunken cries over him. Or you’ve called me while you’ve been crying your eyes out on the bathroom floor. I know you still think about him. And I know you miss him.”

  “I don’t,” I said, sounding a lot more confident than I felt. “Sure, it still crops up when I’ve had a drink too many, but that’s me missing the feeling of being in love. Not missing him. There’s a difference.”

  She laughed and followed me out of the bathroom. “I think you’re full of shit. I don’t think this Luke guy is the guy for you at all. He’s a place holder.”

  “Let me guess. You think I should turn down this big diamond tonight and go in search of Caden? Confess my undying love for him and hope that he’s not married with three kids already?”

  “He’s not. I checked.”

  Of course, she checked, I thought sourly.

  “Are you sure you’re good here?” I asked as I collected my purse from the kitchen counter. “I feel like shit for leaving you on your first night in town.”

  “I’m great. I’m going to clean out your fridge and leave the imprint of my ass on your big fancy couch.” She gestured at my sofa and turned back to me, a soft smile settling on her lips. “You don’t need to settle, Olivia. That’s all I’m saying.”

  “I don’t know, Dana. Love isn’t what you think it is. It hurts more often than not, and it always disappoints.”

  “It was six years ago. Caden was a teenage boy. You can’t use your relationship with him as a standard for what is normal. You’ve hardly even tried, Olivia. It’s time to get over it and see if something still exists between you and Caden. Otherwise, you’re always going to wonder.” She reached out and ran her hand down my arm. “Don’t make a mistake tonight.”

  I nodded but didn’t respond. If Luke proposed, I was going to accep
t. Because that was the beauty with Luke. I didn’t have to wonder at all. I knew what to expect. I knew who he was, a simple man with a quick tongue (both in and out of the bedroom), a mind for business, and a thigh-shaking depravity that rubbed me both the right and wrong way.

  Luke was the safe choice. And safe was right. I had enough risk in my life where business was concerned. I wanted someone I could rely on, someone who was as driven as me and who would build the life I wanted now. Success in dollar signs.

  Caden Taylor hadn’t been in my life in six years, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to invite him to fuck it up again.

  Once was plenty.

  * * *

  “Wow. Don’t you look good enough to eat?” Luke looked me up and down as I approached the private table he’d reserved at an upscale restaurant for just the two of us. He stood, the legs of his chair squeaking against the obsidian floors, and he pulled me in, placing a kiss on each cheek and then one on my lips. He held me against him, completely unashamed of the display of affection in a very classy restaurant.

  “Oh yeah, you hungry?” I teased, moving into his arms and lifting onto my toes to meet him in one more long kiss. Where I didn’t love him, I liked him—a lot. He was perfect for my life and fit beautifully in the future I had plotted out. Love wasn’t part of the charted course, but it was for the better. Love was a weakness that I didn’t want to entertain anymore.

  “For you? Fuck yes.” He nipped at my lips as his eyes darkened. He wasn’t the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, but he was still intensely handsome. His light brown hair was cut close to his head, his brown eyes were filled with mystery, and his cocky smile fit him well. The body beneath the dark bespoke suit was pretty great, too.

  “Good. Let’s have dinner and then maybe we can slip in dessert in the back of your car.” Luke’s hand grazed my lower back as he let me step back and settle into my chair. He watched with hungry eyes as I ran a finger along my lower lip, making sure he hadn’t smudged my lip color. No pink stain came away on my thumb. He growled and sat down, his eyes still glued to my lower lip. “You’re giving me a boner in the middle of a fancy restaurant. You should be spanked.”