Chapter Thirty-Two
CHARLOTTE
Ihated the way Gabriel was taking it personally all week that I hadn’t invited him to have dinner with Julian tonight. Guilt welled up as I got settled into my hotel room and freshened up to head to the restaurant in half an hour.
I knew if the shoe had been on the other foot, I would’ve been upset, too. But I had no choice. Having Gabriel there tonight would have been disastrous.
Julian was the biggest client Arrow Communications had. Which meant he could push as far as he wanted, and I had to smile and smooth it over.
That much had been made clear since my very first meeting with him years ago.
I refused to let anyone, least of all Gabriel, witness my annual humiliation with Julian. Not the way he looked at me, not the way I had to redirect his comments and not how I had to pretend as if none of it landed.
Julian was the type who needed to be the alpha.
Given the way Gabriel exuded confidence like a second skin, Julian would escalate his game.
Push harder and take it as some kind of challenge.
I had a plan, of course, to deal with him once and for all once I became the CEO, but until that day, I had to bide my time.
And Gabriel wasn’t the type to exercise patience and keep his temper under wraps. No, better to keep him out of it entirely.
I squared my shoulders in the mirror, smoothed the fabric of my dress, picked especially for its square neckline and conservative hemline, and told myself I could get through another dinner with Julian.
But when I exited the cab and entered the restaurant, my breath caught in my throat.
Gabriel was already there. Standing near the bar, broad-shouldered in a dark suit that seemed to belong to the space more than the marble pillars and polished brass did. His gaze found me instantly, sharp as ever, and I knew before he even spoke that he’d gone over my head to be here tonight.
I walked up to him, stowing a healthy dose of irritation mixed with a bigger portion of hurt. “Gabriel, what are you doing here?”
“I spoke with the owners,” he stated quietly, his jaw tight. “We decided I should tag along.”
Heat rushed to my face. “That wasn’t your decision to make.”
“Yeah, would you have done something different?” He leaned close enough that I could hear the anger lacing the words.
“No. I wouldn’t have.” My honesty clearly surprised him. “But you’re about to put on the best show you’ve ever put on with a client.”
“I know how to charm a client, Charlotte.”
He had no idea what he was walking into.
“Understand that with you here tonight, things are about to get a hundred times worse than they normally are. Any reaction you are tempted to have, stow it. Any words you’d want to say, keep them to yourself.
Tonight, you barely know me, and I hardly know you.
We’re just two people who are working together. Got it?”
His eyes narrowed, his mind probably whirling with a number of thoughts. For the first time, his tone softened. “What the hell is going on, Charlotte?”
I swallowed hard not needing to soften any of my fortifications before I went into battle.
The ma?tre d’ appeared at the edge of the lobby and announced that Mr. Harrington’s party was ready.
“You’re about to find out.” I put my phone in my purse and steeled myself.
The restaurant was one of San Fran’s finest chophouses.
The design was deliberately overstated, all mahogany walls and soft lighting designed to flatter the people inside as much as the food on their plates.
It wasn’t my choice of venue. It never was.
Julian insisted on it every time I was in town.
He liked places where the staff knew him by name, where the ma?tre d’ greeted him like royalty, and where every head turned when he entered.
Julian fit the room too well. Tall, broad across the shoulders, his silver hair slicked neatly back to match the expensive navy suit cut to showcase the gym regimen he never failed to mention.
He had the kind of smile that had probably once charmed half of Chicago’s business elite, but up close, the glint in his ice-blue eyes carried less warmth than calculation.
Age hadn’t softened him. It had only made him look even more of a predator.
At the far end of the elegant restaurant, at the best table, Julian Harrington was already seated with his usual entourage, two junior VPs from his company, both clearly there to nod along and laugh at every one of his jokes. He was nothing without an audience.
He rose when he spotted me, his smile too wide, his gaze lingering too long on the neckline of my dress.
“Charlotte, you look ravishing tonight.” His hand pressed against the small of my back as he leaned in for a kiss that landed a shade too close to my mouth. My skin crawled, but I held my smile steady, the way I always did.
Gabriel’s sharp inhale was audible to me alone. His jaw ticced, but he said nothing. At least, not yet.
“Julian,” I greeted smoothly, reclaiming a step of distance. “Thank you for meeting us tonight. This is Gabriel Chambers, our new COO.”
Julian’s brow flicked, clearly not expecting anyone else to have joined us tonight. “Chambers,” he repeated, like he was testing the taste of it on his tongue. His handshake was deliberately limp, dismissive. “Didn’t realize we had another guest. But the more the merrier, I suppose.”
With a snap of his fingers, another chair and place setting appeared.
We took our seats, menus placed in our hands though no one would actually read them because Julian always ordered for the table. Sure enough, he waved the waiter back with his usual grandiosity, rattling off bottles of wine and half the seafood section as if he were hosting royalty.
I folded my hands in my lap, the weight of Gabriel’s presence beside me unsettling in ways I couldn’t name. Julian thrived on control and on pressing boundaries. He’d been doing it for years. But tonight, with Gabriel here, every glance, every insinuation, carried sharper edges.
“So, Charlotte,” Julian began once the waiter had gone. He leaned back in his chair with a smug smile. “Tell me how’s my favorite account treating you? Still keeping you up at night and infiltrating your bedroom?”
The innuendo was obvious. It always was. His associates chuckled on cue. My stomach rolled, but I kept my tone smooth. “Your account has always been important to Arrow, Julian. We make sure it gets the attention it deserves.”
“Ah, but I only enjoy the type of attention you give to me.”
This was a game to him. The more you let him think he was winning, the more he pressed. It was a tightrope.
His grin widened, sharklike, before he added, almost gleefully, “Ran into Steve on the golf course last month.” He stopped, cluing in the rest of the audience to the backstory.
“Steve is Charlotte’s ex-husband. Anyhow, he and that young wife of his looked…
very cozy. Can’t imagine it’s easy for you, seeing him play house with a younger model.
But maybe you’ve found your own…distraction?
” His gaze flicked to Gabriel before cutting back to me.
“Tell me, Gabriel, what’s it like having Charlotte on top of you? ”
His two lackeys snickered beside him.
Heat pricked the back of my neck, but I kept my expression carefully composed, my lips curving into something cool and polished. I would not give him the satisfaction of having needled me.
Gabriel’s chair creaked as he shifted beside me, muscles tight, jaw flexing hard enough I half expected to hear it crack.
“With the merger, I had my doubts about how the two companies would come together,” he responded thoughtfully, “but Charlotte has been an incredible leader in bringing the teams together.”
Julian scoffed. “Please, good-looking guy like yourself should appreciate more than her leadership qualities, no?”
God, how I hated this man. And once I was CEO, I had every intention of finally dealing with him.
Gabriel took a sip of his wine, carefully masking the temper I could tell was straining. “No. Not at all.”
“Boo, he’s no fun, Charlotte. No fun at all.”
Being boring was the best move Gabriel could’ve made.
I kept my gaze on Julian, refusing to give him the reaction he wanted. “Why don’t we talk about your expansion plans?” I kept my tone cool and composed.
Julian’s smirk faltered but only for a heartbeat. He recovered with a careless shrug. “Of course. But first, let’s drink some more wine.” He lifted his glass, signaling the waiter like he was king of the world.
The rest of the meal played like a high-stakes chess match. Julian with his probing comments, me parrying them with a diplomacy sharpened by years of practice. I wasn’t new to the game, but having Gabriel witness the play made me nauseous.
When Julian leaned across to pour me another glass of wine, his fingers grazed mine with deliberate intimacy. I could feel the weight of Gabriel’s gaze but ignored it as if I had zero connection to the man. As if his reaction didn’t matter to me because he didn’t matter.
I sipped, kept my smile in place, and carried on with the agenda, each response measured, each deflection practiced. Outwardly, I was unshakable. Inwardly, though, I could feel my stomach churning, my skin crawling, as I counted the minutes until this could be over.