Chapter Ten
“Are you listening to me?”
Being stuck inside an office with the sun blaring through the closed window without being offered as much as a glass of water was not how I wanted to spend my afternoon.
My brother pointedly cleared his throat, his frosty glare burning a hole into the side of my head. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. Usually, I was focused and could sit through a two-hour meeting listening to someone who loved the sound of their own voice without batting an eyelid.
Why couldn’t I find an ounce of concentration today?
I barely listened to any of my morning meetings, my mind unable to shift away from the woman I was forced to call a wife and the notifications of her charging things to my card coming through at lightning speed.
She wasn’t holding back.
Then again, could I blame her? I told her to get whatever she needed, and with the fire in her eyes when I refused to go along with her little game of pretend, I knew she wouldn’t take my refusal lightly.
Truthfully, her spending reckless amounts of money didn’t bother me.
She dropped nearly $15,000 at a lingerie store, which instantly peaked my interest. The mere thought of her in lacy underwear, sheer nightgowns, and mouthwatering suspenders sent me to my in-person meeting with only one thing on my mind.
When the transaction from a jewelry store came through, I couldn’t help but feed the curiosity swirling in me. What was she buying from a jeweler? A jeweler that I knew for a fact Reynolds company supplied the goods to. She didn’t need to buy anything from there. Her name would have been enough to let her pick any piece and walk away without paying a dime.
Instead, she opted to buy an engagement ring for $65,000.
Well played, douceur.
“Excuser my brother,” Frederic said. “He is in the process of securing something you will be more than happy to hear. Something I am positive will help settle any uncertainties you may have in our future working together.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Kilroy dabbed the beads of sweat from his upper lip with an embroidered handkerchief. “This meeting is a formality, nothing more than an opportunity for us to meet and discuss things. I haven’t made any decisions on whether we will do any further business after this.”
Perry Kilroy was best described as an empty photo frame. Too easy to see right through.
He recently inherited his mother’s business after she passed away suddenly in a fatal car accident. Perry being her only son—only family—was jolted into taking over the business. Impact Advertising was an elite and highly regarded advertising agency with links to best-selling magazines and brochures around the world.
Securing a deal with them was gold.
However, whenever Kilroy’s mother ran the business, she was selective about who she worked with. Her client list, although smaller than average, brought in lucrative deals that she didn’t dare risk taking on others for fear of losing what she already had.
Frederic leaned back in the stiff leather chair. “You know as well as I do, Perry, that Dade Diamonds would be ideal for your agency. You recently secured advertising space with a certain fashion magazine in South America, did you not?”
“That’s not public information yet.” Kilroy frowned. “How did you know about that?”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Poor na?ve Kilroy—this world was going to eat him alive.
“That doesn’t matter,” my brother replied. “What does matter is realizing that we are the biggest supplier for South America and pretty soon, will be the only supplier there.”
“Then why do you need me?” Kilroy wiped fresh sweat away from his brow.
“Because,” I drawled. “How do you think it would look if you were to, let’s say, start advertising a different supplier there? It would undermine our company and risk our hold there, when we could have worked together, and both reaped in the rewards.”
Kilroy’s throat bobbed. “My mother, rest her soul, signed the contract with Reynolds Regality Jewels. She didn’t like to annoy her clients, and if Lexington were to hear that we agreed to start representing and advertising his main competitor, he’d stop working with us.”
I picked a piece of lint—non, not lint, fucking cat hair from my sleeve. “He won’t.”
Kilroy laughed nervously. “You don’t know what Reynolds is like. He has always been one of Mother’s biggest clients. The money he makes for the business, it’s nothing to scoff at.” He shook his head. “I am sorry. I can’t risk losing him. Not right now, not when things are so fresh for me.”
“Lexington won’t be a problem.” I checked my phone. Evelyn’s shopping spree had come to an end. Her messages, too. “You don’t have to worry about him.”
Kilroy looked between me and my brother with disbelief.
“It’s not public information, yet,” Frederic smirked. “But it will be in the coming weeks. The tides are changing. Trust me when I say Lexington Reynolds will no longer be the big man around campus anymore.” My brother stood and straightened his tie. “All I ask is that you hold fire on making decisions right now.”
“For how long?” Kilroy gaped. “I have a meeting with the publisher next month. I need to draw up a plan of action, and if I even considered you over Reynolds… the risk is too high.”
I stood, setting my business card down on Kilroy’s office table. It was cluttered with files, random pieces of paper, and several half-drunken cups of tea. “Don’t make any decisions yet. Give us the month.”
Outside the building, I checked my phone again. Why was I expecting a message? And why did I find myself a little disappointed that she’d gone radio silent?
“I thought Noah told you to stop?” Frederic eyed the motorcycle parked nearby. “He’s going to go kill you when he finds out.”
I pocketed my phone. “Unless you tell him, which I know you’re dying to, he’ll never know.”
Frederic’s lips twitched. “How’s married life treating you, frère cadet? Can I expect my invite to the wedding party soon?”
“Don’t let Kilroy give that advertising space away. The second Evelyn is announced as interim CEO and that I’m her husband, pounce on him.”
“I know how to do my job.” He started to walk toward his waiting car. “Don’t forget the point in all of this, Jaxon. Don’t go and do something stupid like fall in love with her.”
“Va au diable, Frederic.”
Falling in love was never going to be an option. I’d tolerate Evelyn until she was no longer of any use to me. She was a stepping-stone to her father’s demise, and then she’d be nothing more than a distant memory.
There was a gray fluffy demon staring at me.
No matter where I went in the house, Evelyn’s pet demon followed me. It scratched at closed doors, driving me to distraction and interrupting both my meetings with the COO and CFO with its cries and meows, forcing me to allow it in.
Whenever it entered the room, it sat and stared at me. Big and unblinking eyes. I swore the creature could see into my very fucking soul.
No amount of shooing it away did the trick. It was dead set on sitting and watching me.
It wasn’t like I didn’t like animals. Contrary to my lie, I wasn’t allergic to them. It was an easy excuse and something people believed without question. The issue was that I simply didn’t feel anything for them.
They were an unnecessary drain on resources, and their limited lifespans turned people into weepy messes when they died.
My last assistant asked for a week off whenever her hamster died. A whole fucking week for an animal no bigger than my thumb. She was swiftly told if she needed the week then she could spend it looking for employment elsewhere.
Seriously, a fucking hamster.
The cat suddenly moved, darting across the room I claimed for an office, and jumped onto the desk beside my laptop. I recoiled in horror as the beast tried to slide its body along my keyboard and nudge its head against my knuckles.
Grabbing all my things, I retreated from the room and stormed into the other makeshift office on the second floor. Evelyn’s head whipped up from her screen, her cheek’s pink and a strand of hair twisted around one of her fingers.
“You need to lock that thing away,” I said.
Evelyn’s eyebrow arched. “Have you ever heard of knocking?”
“It’s a nightmare and I can’t work with it walking freely around the house.”
“What are you talking about?”
“That creature. It’s taken an unwelcome liking to spending its time in my office, and no matter how much I try and keep it out, it finds a way back in. There are actual claw marks in the door from its constant scratching.”
“It’s her home as much as it’s ours.”
“It’s seconds away from being an outdoor animal.”
“Firstly, Bell is not an it. She’s a she.” Evelyn slammed her laptop closed. “Secondly, she likes your office because it gets the sun for most of the day. It’s the perfect room for her to curl up in the sunshine, and thirdly, it’s not her fault that she hasn’t learned you’re a massive, heartless jackass who doesn’t like animals.”
A strange sensation settled through me. Hearing her talk back, the unwillingness to balk away, and her ability to stand up for herself, it ignited something foreign in me.
“Fine, then I am working in here away from it… her constant staring and strange noises.” I settled into the armchair beside the wall-to-ceiling bookshelves. “You can take my office and be with the terror.”
“I’m not leaving.” Evelyn shook her head. “This is my office. This is where I like to work. I am not the one with the problem, so I don’t see why I should be the one to forfeit my space.”
“What’s the difference in working down the hall?”
“All my books are in here.” She motioned to the bookshelves lined with more books than space. “I created my very own sanctuary, including my own personal reading nook. I am not leaving.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Last time I checked, douceur, you haven’t been announced as CEO yet. Why do you even need an office?”
If looks could kill, Evelyn would have been locked away for my murder.
But I couldn’t stop myself, not when it delighted me so much to see the tendrils of smoldering fires forming in her eyes. “Unless you count spending your father’s money as a job, then I would say you’re in need of a promotion.”
Her lips pursed. “How dare you? Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Unfortunately for you, your husband.”
Her anger was too delicious. The crinkle of her nose, the several shades of red painting her cheeks and neck, and her beautiful mouth opening and closing as she fought the flurry of words she wanted to say.
Give it to me, douceur. Let me hear what that perfect mouth was capable of.
“Not that it’s any of your damn business, but I do have a job,” Evelyn seethed. “I’m a journalist, not that you probably think it’s a real job like many other people.” The bitterness seeped into her words. “I’ve been working with Lilypad Press for over a year.”
“I’m aware.”
She snapped open her laptop. “Then you know fine and well why I need a damn office.”
The familiar itch of curiosity got the better of me. “Your father does not approve of your career?”
Her eyes didn’t leave her screen. “He supports it.”
“Then who doesn’t believe it is a real job?”
“My… it doesn’t matter anymore.” Her fingers stilled over the keyboard. “Not that any of it matters anymore. I will have to resign from my position once Dad steps down.”
Silence weighed between us.
The anger subsided, her shoulders relaxing and her breath escaping in a low, drawn-out sigh. “This was always my dream job. For my words to make a difference one day.”
A spike of pity pinched between my ribs. “I read one of your articles a couple years back before you started working at Lilypad Press.”
“Really?” Her green eyes widened. “What piece did you read?”
“From what I remember, you called me ‘the picture of lonely success’ and made reference to my inability to seek out meaningful relationships.” I exhaled a chuckle at her burying her face in her hands. “It was a good piece. It didn’t hold back its punches.”
“Oh god, you read that?” she said. “If you remember, you weren’t the only bachelor I wrote about.”
The idea of her writing about other men, other single men, coated my tongue in a sour taste.
“Well, like I said, it all doesn’t matter anymore.” A glossiness gleamed across her field-green gaze. “It’s funny how quickly our dreams are spoiled by the ugliness of reality.”
“How dramatic,” I said harsher than I intended. “It’s only for a year, Evelyn. I’m sure you can manage that. Once it’s over, you can chase your so-called dreams again.”
A mask of indifference slipped into place as she started to type again. “Be free tomorrow at noon. We have an appointment with the event organizer.”
Maybe it was the hours of battling to keep a cat out of the room, but I didn’t have the strength in me to fight against her as I scheduled the appointment into my calendar.