“She said it was an old legend. Red is the color of blood, sacrifice, danger, and courage. It’s also associated with heat, passion, and sexuality. When two people meet unexpectedly with an unexplainable attraction that defies common understanding, it’s called red sin.”
“Does that make it bad?” I asked, intrigued.
“My grandmother would say that bad is what you make out of what you’re given. So is good. I never believed in red sin before you. Now, I can’t deny that it’s real. What we do with it is what will eventually define its goodness or badness. Am I alone, Julia? Do you not feel the same thing?”
“I do.” I took a deep breath. “I’m attracted. I don’t love you.”
“Is that instrumental in marriage? Do you love Butler?”
I took another step back and spun in a slow circle. “That’s not a fair question. Skylar and I have known one another our entire lives.”
“Yet you were going to marry him, a man you’ve known your whole life, were never intimate with, and can’t admit to loving.”
“We were intimate. We just never—”
Van stepped closer, reaching for my waist and holding my hips against his hard, muscular body. “Any man who has spent his life near you, Julia, and hasn’t wanted or pursued the divine pleasure of being inside you isn’t a man who’s honest with you or with himself.”
“We had an agreement.”
“An agreement. We could have one of those too.”
Julia
Van’s hold of me was distracting as he pulled me into his orbit. It would be too easy to stay within his gravitational pull, to give into the red sin. Thoughts of everything we’ve said cycloned within my mind. One thing in particular came to the top of my thoughts. I laid my hand on his chest, my fingers splaying over his satin tie. Beneath my touch, I felt the steady beat of his heart.
“Regardless of how attracted I am or how much I enjoyed the sex, I don’t want to marry you simply because I’ll regret the decision to marry you less than I would if I’d married Skylar. That’s what you said. The lesser of two evils isn’t the best choice.”
With one arm snaked around my waist, Van tugged my hand with the ribbon and pried open my fingers. “Maybe it isn’t red sin, but as you said, the white ribbon. One thing you should know about me is that I’m not the lesser of anyone or anything, including evils. I am that wolf you heard howling at the moon. Skylar Butler is an infant in the world of business. His father is a faltering piranha and Skylar is learning.”
I stared at the ribbon lying in a twist on my palm and back up to his gaze. “How do you know so much about the Butlers?”
“I pay attention. The world of high finance has relatively few significant players.”
“The Butlers are significant.” I wasn’t sure if I was stating or asking.
“No. They want to be.”
“My family?”
“Are they significant? No, but they could be.”
I tilted my head and looked up at Van. As his vibrant green stare searched mine, I shook my head and handed the ribbon back, placing it in his large palm. “I’m still sticking with my second answer. I can’t jump with two feet into what I just escaped.” Taking a step away, I freed myself from the warmth of Van’s hold and I took a seat at the long table. “Tell me more about the job, about writing your memoir.”
Van’s gaze narrowed as he pulled out another chair and folded himself into the seat beside me at the head of the table. It was impossible not to notice how handsome Donovan Sherman was in his expensive suit covering the muscles and toned body that only a few nights ago had been against mine.
“Are you saying,” he asked, “that you want the job, but not the proposal?”
“I’m not sure what I want,” I answered honestly. “You read me right the other night in the cabin. You said that somewhere there’s a man who did me wrong. You said that I was searching for a life that wasn’t planned out, and in the process, I ended up stranded in a snowstorm.
“It was all true. Skylar Butler hurt me, but he’s not the only one. I’ve allowed it. I’ve let others run my life for too long. I’m only twenty-four years old. My shares of Wade will remain under my father’s oversight until I marry. I’m not in a hurry to do that, Van.” I laid my hands out on the table, noticing my ring-free finger. “Besides, the idea that I have to marry to receive control of my shares is archaic and misogynistic. If I wanted, I could fight the will in court. Times have changed since my grandfather died.”
“You could, but that will take time. Marlin Butler had immediate plans for Wade Pharmaceutical. I slowed those plans down with the purchase of the shares I bought this morning, but if you leave your shares under your father’s control and Butler manages to connive your father into doing something unexpected, your family could lose everything. Butler currently has twenty-five percent.” Van shook his head. “Did you wonder how I was able to acquire twenty-one percent as fast as I did?”
“Yes...no.” I took a breath and released it. “I should have wondered. I haven’t exactly been thinking straight.”
“I was able to move fast because I have people working for me who constantly watch for instabilities in the market, in industries, and in businesses of all sizes. They watch for weaknesses that could lead to opportunities. Wade Pharmaceutical as well as other small pharmaceutical companies has been on our radar for some time. As I’m sure you’re aware, recent pharmaceutical developments regarding patents, fast-tracked approval, and the government trying to regulate the prices of medications have all worked together to create a volatile environment. Your father is right about the bigger companies wanting to dominate the market. In most cases they do. Their size alone gives them the advantage. The twenty-one percent of Wade I just purchased was lined up for acquisition by Marlin Butler through multiple investment brokers.” Van looked at his watch. “I would suspect that very soon, your ex-future father-in-law will realize I outbid him and stole the nest egg he planned to fry. His deals were interestingly timed.”
My thoughts were now on Wade Pharmaceutical, the company my great-grandfather founded. In this short time, Van was telling me more than I’d ever gotten from my father or my grandfather before him.