“Relax,” he said, noticing the look on my face. Mikey had a blade of a nose and a mouth that was permanently pressed outward in a self-satisfied smirk. He regarded me with hooded, blue eyes like I was a worm squirming between his talons. “I’m not planning to rat you out to father. Yet.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I haven’t quite decided. I do know father’s men aren’t having any luck turning you up. But I had a feeling you would be too stupid to take a fake name. Once I searched for mother’s maiden name, it was just a game of narrowing down possibilities. And here we are.”
“You must be so proud,” I said. I took up a slice of pizza and angrily chewed off a bite. I’d paid for the damn thing and I was going to eat it, even if my slug of a brother was prancing around my apartment.
“Father will be. I’m sure. Giving you back to him would certainly put me in his good graces.”
“Do you get tired of licking his balls, Mikey?”
My brother’s lips curled up. “You’ve been living in squalor too long. You’re talking like some sort of gutter rat.”
“How’s this for gutter rat? You look like you’ve got something shoved up your ass and you’re enjoying every second of it.”
He made a disgusted noise. He’d been running his fingertips along my countertop and suddenly seemed to think better of it. “You should be more careful how you speak to me. Your fate is entirely in my hands.”
“Is that what this is about? You get off on having power over me?”
“I can make a call to father and you’ll be collected within the hour. Or I could make a call to that boss of yours, Mr. Adrian White? I wonder what he’d think if he knew Russ Coleton’s own daughter was his personal assistant?”
“Leave him out of this,” I blurted. Except I realized I’d made a mistake as soon as I spoke. Mikey was fishing for weaknesses, and I’d just handed him exactly what he wanted.
His smug smile widened. “Hmm. I imagine we could cause quite a lot of havoc with this, couldn’t we? I could have him fired and blacklisted. Or better, I could see that he’s promoted. That’d mean both of you would wind up in New York bumping elbows with father in the office. I wonder how long you could keep your lie up, then?”
“What do you want?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Maybe I just want this. Seeing the ever-confident Juliette Coleton squirm. You always thought you were too good for us. Maybe this will teach you to respect the way things are.”
“I never thought I was too good for you. I only wanted the same choice everyone else in the family got.”
He just scoffed in response, then went to my door. “I’ll give you a few days to think about everything, sis.”
19
Adrian
I kicked my feet up on the desk, letting myself bask in the rare moment of relief. Krause had followed through on his promise. He called and set up the interview in New York for next week.
None of it would’ve been possible without Jules, but I also found myself wishing I still didn’t have to figure out how to handle her. The situation was frustratingly tangled, and I couldn’t decide where to start. Did I backtrack and tell her we needed to keep our feelings separate, despite what I’d said on top of that van in New Orleans?
Sure, I could say that. But then I’d go right back to feeling uncontrollably aroused from so much as a glimpse of her. I’d be jacking off with my office door locked and getting more distracted because I was trying to keep her at arm’s length. But if I let her in… Fuck.
I rubbed my temples. Even if I set aside the obvious complicated mess of our potential relationship, I still needed to figure out how I’d tell her the truth. If I did tell her, when could I tell her? Too soon and I’d risk her going to Coleton with the truth about what I was trying to do. Too late and she might never forgive me—with good reason.
The door to my office burst open. Jules was standing there looking flushed in the cheeks and delectable, as usual. She had on a tight pencil skirt that hugged her hips and a button down top. One look at her and I wanted to grab her by the ponytail and shove my tongue down her throat, but I gripped my desk hard enough to make my fingers ache instead and waited. “Yes?” I said.
“I’m not stupid,” she blurted. “I know you’ve been avoiding me since we got back from New Orleans. You’re busy, but I can see your schedule. I make your schedule, in case you forgot. So I know when you’re finding excuses to be out of the office. Can we please just talk about everything? I’m going crazy over here.”