4. Julie
4
“ I can’t believe I have to pretend to like you for the next two hours.” I store my lip balm back into my black clutch while my high heels click on the marble floor in a pace that’s meant to lose my ex-boyfriend along the way.
If only I was that lucky.
The bastard expands his stride, his hand falling to my lower back while his breath withers over my neck. “Lighten up, Jules. It’s a party.”
“Don’t fucking call me that.” I grit out the words, subtly taking a step to the left to force his hand to fall from my body.
I don’t want to be touched by him ever again. I want him to get the fuck out of my life and never return. But the man keeps coming back like a fucking cockroach. I moved to the other side of the country, yet he’s still here. Fucking up my night and messing with my head.
I hate him .
We walk into the venue, my gold dress glittering against the lighting, and I glance around the luxurious ballroom. Soft pink and gold drapes decorate the room, with an open bar on each side of the large space. Servers stroll around the room, dressed in formal wear and a tray of canapes up in the air.
My boss, Edward, talks to a few of the guests, and I kill my speed to a quick halt when he lifts his arm in a short wave.
How the hell am I going to introduce Jacob?
What the hell will Jason think?
My insides burn like they’ve been tossed into an oven. Jason is gonna take this as proof that Jacob and I are still together. That I’m still trapped underneath his spell, when it couldn’t be further from the truth.
Trapped underneath his grasp? Unfortunately.
Bound by his spell? Not a fucking chance.
I was nervous but excited for tonight. The guest list holds some big names in the industry, and I was looking forward to getting to know them. But now that I have my dickhead of an ex-boyfriend following me around like a stray dog as my plus one, I want to run back to my comfy couch.
I should’ve never opened my damn door. At least then I would still have the option to pretend my ex-boyfriend isn’t blackmailing me to participate in his grand scheme to fuck over everyone I care about.
“Can you calm the fuck down? I can barely keep up.”
My forehead crinkles in a deep frown, as I take him in with a slight shake of my head, halting my feet.
“That was the point.”
His hair is styled flawlessly in a crest, his teeth pearl white and dashing every time he smiles. A metal gaze that pierces through your nervous system. Even his suit is filled perfectly with broad, chiseled shoulders, though he gained a few lovehandles I noticed when he was changing into his suit an hour ago.
He’s handsome.
Like a real-life Johnny Bravo, and I have no doubt that every woman here will turn their heads to get a good peek at him when he enters their perimeter. It’s eerie how much his younger brothers look like him, even though they are nothing alike.
All three of them have that natural Spencer charm, twisting every woman around their finger within minutes. But I know better. Jacob is the odd man out, and I’m waiting for his eyes to turn black and reveal he’s a fucking demon.
“When did you become so uptight?” Jacob holds still next to me, straightening his maroon bow tie.
“Here’s a thought?” I laugh sardonically. “Maybe when you made me quit my job and feed my dad some bullshit story about how I wasn’t enjoying real estate anymore? Or when you showed up at my doorstep two hours ago, forcing me to give up everything I’ve worked for since I could walk?”
I don’t even care that he was out to get me. I watched him with his brothers for the past decade and I know how cruel he can be if he doesn’t like you. But I didn’t expect him to deliberately come between my dad and I for his own personal gain.
Let alone make the demands that he has.
I should’ve known he would come back for more. I let him get close enough to see the table. Now he wants a fucking seat.
“You’re being really dramatic.”
“And you’re being a sadistic asshole. You made your point, Jacob. Don’t tell Jason anything. Got it. You can crawl back into whatever hole you crawled out of.”
“And not say hi to my baby brother, no way.” The wolfish grin he’s plastering on his mouth creates a deeper snarl on mine, and this time I speak the words out loud.
“I hate you.”
It feels good, but at the same time, it does absolutely nothing, because it’s not gonna change anything. He’s not affected by my words.
He steps into my space, his voice low, his energy overwhelming and almost crippling. But I’m not that girl anymore. I’m done being scared of him. I just want him gone.
“Once upon a time, you loved me.”
“Once upon a time, I was blinded by bullshit.”
My clutch starts to vibrate, and I twist the button to flip the lid. With my hand firmly against his chest, I hold him back, before I reach into my purse and pull out my phone.
“Shit. Stay here. Don’t fucking move and don’t talk to anyone.”
Without waiting for his reply, I dart out of the room, into a corner of the foyer, and answer the call.
“You never called me back, bitch. What the fuck is going on?” Kayla sounds as worried as she does curious, and I roll my eyes at this entire fucked-up situation while folding my clutch closed and tucking it underneath my arm.
“Jacob showed up.” I suck all the air into my lungs I can fit, then exhale to get the edge off my mood. Fucking useless.
“What? Why?”
To make sure I don’t tell his brother that he’s blackmailing me to get my position at my father’s company? Yeah, if I tell her that, she’ll be standing on my father’s doorstep within an hour and everything will have been for nothing.
“I don’t know.”
“To win you back?”
“More to piss Jason off. He found out Jason was making a deal with NVS.”
It’s not a complete lie; it’s just not the full truth either. Jacob doesn’t give a shit about his brother’s deals or clients. He just wants to make sure I don’t tell his little brother the truth.
Like a fucking sleazeball, he jumped on a plane the second his mother informed him Jason and I were working together. He was even canny enough to google the NVS calendar and showed up with a tux in hand, informing me he was going to be my date.
Yay me.
“Doesn’t Jacob know you two aren’t talking?”
The sigh that erupts from her question is long, deep, and coming from every nerve in my body.
“Oh, he knows. He just wants to make sure it stays that way.”
It’s creepy how much he’s keeping track of my life. Something I need to find a solution for.
“I’m getting an aneurysm trying to make sense of this.”
“I know. They are both stubborn motherfuckers.”
This could have all been prevented if Jason and I were still on good terms, or if at least on speaking terms.
Just thinking about it makes my skin burn and my fingers tingle.
Jacob would’ve never pulled this off if he thought he couldn’t succeed. Keeping Jason out of the picture is in his best interest and that stubborn man is playing into his brother’s hands without even realizing because he refuses to talk to me like an adult.
It’s pissing me off more than anything. And it’s not like I haven’t tried to explain to him what happened. I tried to call him for fourteen days straight, until I gave up. I know what it looked like to him, and I can imagine it felt like more than just a dick move. But I deserved a moment to tell him what was going on.
Instead, he fucking ghosted me.
“I swear those Spencer boys need a spanking on their bare asses that would make my grandmother turn around in her grave.” I continue, all fired up and unable to calm my nervous system. “Presumptuous buffoons thinking they got it all figured out with their heads up their own fucking asses. The only good thing about Jacob being here is knowing it will make Jason’s skin burst and I need some fucking entertainment.”
“You don’t mean that.” Kayla giggles, and I shove up my chin a little higher.
“Every word. Jason Spencer needs to remove the stick from his ass and start communicating like a human instead of a wiggly dildo.”
If he would’ve done that in the first place, maybe Jacob wouldn’t have seen an opening when he did.
“Wiggly dildo?” She’s full-blown laughing now, and I can’t hold back the twitch of my lips as I turn around to head back to the main room.
“Yeah, you know–” My words are shoved back into my mouth when I collide with a hard chest before I juggle my phone to prevent it from shattering on the beige tiles.
Oh, shit.
When it’s safely secured in my grip, I glance up to a set of icy eyes that freeze every muscle in my body. My eyebrows shoot up involuntarily, my lips parting in shock with a loss of words. The not-so-bright lights suddenly feel like searing spotlights, their harsh glare intensifying under his piercing gaze. I’m paralyzed.
Trapped in the grip of his penetrating stare.
“Damn, you kiss my brother with that mouth?” Jason cocks one eyebrow, his hand in the pocket of his black pants, looking like he was meant to prance around in a tuxedo all day as if he’s living in the Great Gatsby .
My gaze involuntarily roams over every inch of his broad shoulders, my heart missing a beat when it moves back to his features, all sharp and mesmerizing, with a five o’clock shadow I want to feel underneath my fingertips.
A Cheshire Cat grin sits in the corner of his mouth, and for the tiniest of seconds, it’s us again. It’s me and him in the safest bubble you can imagine. He’s my hero once more.
He believes me and he’s on my freaking team while we come up with a plan to destroy Jacob like he’s trying to destroy me. A warm, fuzzy feeling spreads across my chest, and a smile wants to expand to my ears at the sight of him.
Until a brunette I know better than I want to appears on his side and my bubble bursts to hell.
Shit.