“And they turned out to be something more, I take it.”
He didn’t like to think about that summer or how idiotic he’d been. He hadn’t even told JT this story, but it was necessary to acknowledge the incident. “I fell for mine. Hard. It was the first time I fell in love, and I was honestly ready to change schools to be close to her. I was going to take a year off and spend time with her and then transfer if we decided to make a go of it. JT wasn’t invested, but I was ready to change my whole life for this woman. And then one day I overheard her talking to her sister and complaining about the fact that she should have picked JT instead of me. According to her, I was too intense. Her sister told her it didn’t matter because I had just as much money and they couldn’t change now. She had to suck it up because money like Malone money would set them up for the rest of their lives.”
He’d broken it off with her and told JT he’d simply gotten bored and wanted to go back home to get ready for their senior year. He’d joined the military after he’d graduated and tried to cut himself off from that world. He couldn’t entirely, of course, but he’d made a place for himself.
Not that he’d refused the millions his grandparents had left him or the trust his parents had set up for him.
“Yes, I’ve heard the horror stories.” Julian sent him a sympathetic look. “I had an uncle growing up. I rarely saw him. He was a loathsome man. Some of the only advice he ever gave me was that I wasn’t a human being. I was a large paycheck, and I should understand that going into any relationship I might have. I should know no woman would truly love me because no woman would be able to see past my money.”
“My parents were better than that, but I’ve certainly experienced people who believed the same as your uncle. I’ve also seen people of my class think no one without seven figures behind their name is worth speaking to.” He wasn’t going to fall into the poor rich-boy stereotype. Money had opened many doors for him, but there were drawbacks, too.
Of course, JT had managed to find a woman who adored him and would have been by his side whether or not he was the CEO of a billion-dollar energy company.
Julian sighed, a thoughtful sound. “When I met my Danielle, she told me she would never be special to me. She was ready to walk away because she didn’t think she could ever be more than a convenience to a man like me. She was so very wrong. She and Finn…they are the center of my world. I love our children, but I never would have had children if Finn and Danielle hadn’t come into my life. I would like to think that I’m a better man than I was back then, that I don’t judge people until I know them.”
Michael got what Julian was saying, but there were other issues to think about. “And that is all good and well, but you’re also the head of your family. Vanessa could be utterly misunderstood. She could be innocent. Or she could be a wolf who figured out how to put on the perfect wool to pass as a lamb. The wolf who studied her prey and knows how to make her way into the house.”
“A wolf who could bring my whole house down.” Julian turned his way, a grim look in his eyes. “It’s funny how children change things. Before we had children, I likely would have viewed all of this as an amusing game. I’m a man who’s enjoyed subterfuge from time to time. I would have pitted myself against her with no qualms. But now the consequences of anything going wrong could affect Chloe and Gabriel and John. Life has become complex.”
“Then let me make it simpler for you.” It was good to remember what was at stake—a whole family. “My firm can watch her outside the office, and our techs can make sure she doesn’t do anything she shouldn’t inside the office.”
“What was your impression?” Julian asked.
“She’s lying about something.” No matter how much he physically wanted her, he wasn’t about to hold back with his client. “I don’t think when she sat down that she was truly interested in D/s. Some of what I said made her nervous. I gave her several outs, but she took none of them.”
“She sat on your lap pretty quickly,” Julian pointed out. “That surprised me. She’s not a particularly physically affectionate person, from what I can tell.”
Oh, but she’d felt like she needed affection, like she was a sponge and needed to soak it all in. For a moment it had felt like she needed him.