Killian
I like the quiet, regular clients. They are the best, they don’t care that I've made a name for myself in the art world and best of all, they don’t talk.
Except today, I hope one of them will talk.
Beneath the buzz of my gun, my brain is too focused on Caroline.
On her soft body against mine, the sweetness of her mouth, the noises she made when I kissed her and made her come.
I should be concerned how easily I’ve gotten used to her presence in my life.
It’s like I’ve been existing in my life so far, floating along being invisible from everyone and Caroline is the first person to see me. More than that, she’s forcing me to see the world the way she sees it. She knows all my clients and their back stories more than I do.
The worst thing is, I can’t see her because she’s not here.
I took her to Manhattan today for her job interview which Lilith arranged.
I’ve never met anyone who’s more excited to get on the train than Caroline.
Her constant chatter with Eve and the clients is missing today and the shop feels eerily quiet.
“Where’s Caroline?” Jake asks as I wipe the tattoo on his arm. I pause for a second and glance up at him. He’s never met Caroline so I’m surprised to hear him say her name.
“How do you know Caroline?”
Jake shrugs his wide shoulders. “I talked to her the other day when I called to change my appointment. She wanted me to give her an update on my Lulu when I came in.”
Lulu is Jake’s pug. I remember because I tattooed her likeness on his bicep the last time he came in. Of course, Caroline wanted to know about the dog of a man she’s never met before because that’s a perfectly normal thing to do.
“She’s not here,” I say, bending forward to work on his tattoo again.
“That’s too bad,” Jake comments lightly. “She seems like a nice girl.”
I pick up my gun and get back to work. Not sure how I feel about someone speaking so fondly of Caroline. Doesn’t matter Jake’s never met her or might never meet her. No one has the right to call her anything.
My afternoon gets worse when Eve comes back to lunch and declares, “It’s so boring here without Caroline. I need someone to talk to.”
“You’re at work, Eve. It’s not supposed to be entertaining.”
I don’t bother looking up from my sketchbook and give her a nod of thanks when she sets down a coffee in front of me. Caroline’s interview was at eleven and it’s a little past one. Granted I’ve never interviewed for a job at a law firm, but should an interview take this long?
“I don’t want entertainment,” Eve protests. “I want someone to gossip with. I don’t know how she does it, but she always manages to get the best gossip.”
She heaves a sigh like she’s been greatly put upon, which finally makes me look up at her. Eve is staring out the window, a forlorn expression on her face.
“What were you doing before Caroline came here?”
“Not realizing my potential for gossip,” Eve says.
“Caroline hasn’t been here long enough to know any gossip.” I close my sketchbook and sit up, crossing my arms. We don’t have anyone scheduled for the next hour because we’re finally getting our schedules back on track after our last receptionist messed them up.
“She knows everything about everyone. She’s got one of those faces.”
It’s not the face. It’s the eyes. Those wide, innocent, naive ingenue eyes which make people immediately trust her. And for good reason. Caroline might gossip, but she’s not someone who makes fun of you and she’s never going to reveal your deepest, darkest secrets to anyone.
“Neither of you should be gossiping about the clients,” I say.
Eve frowns, pursing her lips as she examines me. “You’re being extra prickly today.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Usually, you’re just grumpy and quiet. When you’re feeling extra grumpy, you nitpick everything,” Eve explains, nodding along with her own logic. She removes the hair tie off her wrist and twists her dark hair into a bun.
“Telling you not to gossip about our clients is good business, not me being prickly,” I tell her.
I pick up my phone and slide my thumb up the screen to see if I have any notifications.
What if something happened? Funny, how she lived on the other side of the country for years and I never worried.
She’s been here long enough and I’m stressing about her getting lost in the crowd like she’s five, and not an adult woman who grew up in a large city similar to New York.
“Oh, it’s because Caroline is still at her interview,” Eve coos. “Now it makes sense.”
I glance at her. “What makes sense?”
“Why you’re irritable,” Eve says blithely, as if Caroline’s non-presence explains away everything.
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard today,” I say. Picking up my coffee, I take a sip so I can pretend to ignore her. I want to say that Caroline’s presence is not affecting me, even if it’s a lie. I haven’t changed. I’ve just adjusted slightly to make room for her.
I’m not an idiot. I’m not going to close the door on the first day of sunshine.
“If you don’t have plans to celebrate her new job, can I take her to the club?” Eve asks.
She’s moving around the shop, adjusting the frames of art works, the basic tattoo designs, the tall fake tree in the corner which she said adds ‘character’ to the place even though I told her to never put it there.
“Caroline makes the decisions about what she wants to do,” I say.
Eve arches a brow as she leans across the counter. “Really? So I can take her to the club where drunk men will hit on her?”
My fingers tighten around my pencil and I dig a little too hard on the paper, ripping it. Eve smirks knowingly. I rip the page out of the sketchbook and ball it up, throwing it in the trash.
“Caroline can take care of herself,” I reply.
She did stab my brother.
It’s a good thing my brother is on the other side of the country or I would’ve stabbed him a little, too.
I knew the marriage was a compromise for Caroline, something she agreed to because she wanted her parents approval.
Beckett probably went along with it because of our father’s manipulations.
If he truly had any feelings for Caroline, he wouldn’t have cheated on her.
“It’s good to see you two getting along,” Eve says.
“We always got along.”
“Not that first day,” Eve says with a laugh. “Caroline looked like she wanted to stab you.”
I’m sure she did. My eyes shift behind Eve when a cab pulls up to the front of the shop. The door opens and out steps Caroline, in her butter yellow dress and white blazer, the sun making her brown hair glow.
I straighten immediately, walking to the door just as she reaches to open it.
“Why didn’t you call me? I would’ve come to pick you up,” I say, as soon as she looks up at me.
“That’s why I didn’t call you,” Caroline says. “Aiden helped me hail a cab.”
“You took a cab over the bridge?” Eve asks. “Babe, you’re never going to be a real New Yorker if you do that. It takes far too long and it’s far too expensive.”
“Why did Aiden help you hail a cab?” I ask.
Caroline looks from Eve to me. I don’t like how casually she said Aiden’s name, as if she’s known him for a long time. At least I never had to see her with my brother. It would’ve driven me to the edge of madness. Just thinking about it is bad enough.
“He was leaving for a lunch meeting so he helped me,” Caroline explains.
“When do you start work?”
“How do you know I got the job?”
“Because you’re brilliant and Aiden Fairchild would be an idiot not to hire you,” I reply easily.
Caroline props a hand on her hip, brows arched. “You’ve never seen me practice law.”
“What does that have to do with it?”
Eve steps in, pulling Caroline into an excited hug. “Oh my gosh, I was just telling Killian we should go to a club to celebrate you getting the job.”
“I’ve never been to a club,” Caroline says.
“I’ll be popping your club cherry? I take the honor very seriously.”
I roll my eyes at her dramatics, walking behind the counter to gather my sketchbook. I’d been working on something for Caroline’s tattoo, but it’s not clicking yet. It needs to be something that will suit her. Can’t let Eve have all her firsts.
Eve’s phone buzzes with a reminder about her next client and she rushes off to prep her station. I drink the rest of my coffee and throw the cup in the trash. Caroline sets her purse on the counter, looking at me with a pout.
“Are you upset?”
I look at her in question. “No. Why would I be upset?”
She chews on her bottom lip, frowning as she looks down at the counter, tracing a whorl in the wood. “Because I got the job.”
I set down the sketchbook and walk around the counter to stand in front of her.
“Why would that upset me, Caroline?” I ask softly.
“Because…” she falters, her eyes lifting to meet mine. I hate the hesitation and questions I see in them. The self-doubt which eats at her and makes her think she’s somehow not enough.
“Because it means you’re independent?” I guess.
“When I wanted to get a job at another firm after school, everyone told me I should be happy that I have a job waiting for me at our family’s firm and I was being ungrateful by rejecting it.
” Sighing deeply, Caroline pushes her hair behind her ear.
It’s soft and shiny because she spent an hour blow drying it to perfection this morning.
“You realize it was just a way to control you?” I ask, keeping my voice low. If she hasn’t realized it yet, I don’t want the realization to offend her or scare her.
Caroline lifts her eyes to mine. “The saddest part is I let them control me because I thought it would make me worthy.”