“What are you doing?” I manage.
“Making a statement.”
I’m not sure where to look, his dark eyes or his mouth. “I don’t hear anything."
“But they do.”
I glance past him, searching the crowds of people, some with umbrellas and some ignoring the light sprinkling.
He doesn't move an inch. “The way we’re standing, every person in New York knows you’re mine.”
The words send a shiver through me. The way his voice drops, the confidence he must exude over a boardroom table, it's all here and it’s mesmerizing. I’m seeing Ben as they must see him—confident, undeniable, in control of himself and everything bold or foolish enough to enter his orbit.
I lift my chin. “Well, if it’s that easy, you don’t even need me.”
His answer is a smirk that’s hot as fuck.
“That’s where you’re wrong.” His breath is light on my face. "You’re my girl, which means even if you don’t touch me—especially if you don’t touch me—you’d act as if you want my mouth on you. As if it’s all you can think about. As if all you really want is to get me alone so I’ll do that thing with my tongue that makes you scream.”
From the expression on his face, I swear he knows how he’s affecting me.
Someone bumps me from behind and I stumble forward a step, my free hand landing on Ben’s strong chest to keep myself from falling.
My gaze flicks to his lips. Suddenly I’m imagining that firm lower lip giving just a little against the pressure of mine.
“What thing with your…?”
“Better.” His gaze lingers, warm enough I swear I feel the caress.
We’re too close. He’s not touching me or kissing me, but every nerve in my body is lit up as if he is.
With that sexy smirk firmly fixed on his mouth, he turns and saunters away, leaving me wondering why my lips tingle.
5
My brother stares at me from my chair as I breeze into my office.
“You’re late,” he says.
“Sue me.” I roll down my sleeves and fasten the buttons as he peruses the files on my desk.
“If this is what you’re presenting this afternoon, they’ll never go for it.”
“I’ll convince them.” I shrug back into the Armani coat I’d taken off on account of the heat. “Of course, Holt will oppose it because it’s me.”
“No,” Tris corrects, shoving the chair back and rising. “He’ll oppose it because the proposal is risky and their balance sheet is weak.”
Xavier and Holt were already working together when I joined the firm. I was the same age as most of the associates, but had an impressive track record and took my trust fund and turned it into a fortune.
This isn’t about the money, it’s about the challenge. I like to meet new people, have my finger on the pulse of what’s happening, and know I got in on something first. Tris likes to point out all the ways people are wrong and fucked up and don’t deserve a chance, which is why even though he clerked for a Supreme Court Justice after law school, he bailed on the public servant track and signed on as counsel for us.
The partners each have different expertise. I specialize in tech. Holt does services. Xavier does infrastructure. There’s some overlap, and with the help of a team of associates, we scope, vet, and vote on companies together. Our Monday meetings focus on new acquisitions.
“It’s not risky once you add it to the portfolio we have. That’s the whole point. Diversification. The model only works with high turnover. We want to make thirty percent a year on our investment. That means some dogs in with the stars,” I say as Tris brushes past me.
Most people wouldn’t peg us as brothers, except that we have the same eyes.
He’s smug where I’m serious. He’s details where I’m big picture. He’s an asshole where I’m nice.
At least, he has a chip on his shoulder neither his work nor the revolving door of women in his personal life seems to soften.
He pulls up in the doorway next to me, frowning. “You were with someone.”
“Did you just smell me?”
“Nah.” Tris follows me out the door and down the hall. “I guessed from the fact that you missed two meetings this morning and were late from lunch. So who is it?”
Game time. “Daisy.”
He cackles. “I don’t believe you.”
I pull up outside the boardroom. “Why not?”
“She’s a nine on looks alone. Those eyes. That mouth. Those tits. Come on,” he goes on as I bristle, “I’m not allowed to notice? Because everyone else does.”
My abs tighten in surprise. “Daisy landed Richard Vane as a client this morning.”
His brows lift. “Damn. She just got hotter.”
A strangely possessive feeling rises—one that could be alleviated by wringing his neck. Unfortunately, I can’t because Xavier is already in the meeting room.
“Holt’s on his way,” Xavier intones from his seat.
We have eight chairs around the boardroom table. Through implicit agreement, no one takes the head because we’re equals.
Tris and I take the far side. I don’t worry about the appearance of us brothers having each others’ backs because it doesn’t play out that way in this room. Here, anything is fair game.
Tris leans over, lowering his voice. “She friend-zoned you years ago.”
Irritation rises. “She didn’t friend-zone me. We agreed to be friends. Mutually."
“So you always knew she was hot, but it never occurred to you to act on it?”
I think about her at the Met. She gets her share of admiring looks from strangers, but they don’t see what I see—that she’s not just another attractive woman in New York. She’s a thousand times more rare and special than that.
“What we have is more than physical. It doesn’t—didn’t,” I correct, “translate.”
But for a moment, standing on those steps, I gave myself permission to see her not as my best friend, but as a woman. I let my gaze linger on the curve of her breasts, the way her dress tugged enticingly over her hips, the fullness of her mouth, the dark lashes fringing eyes I love in every variation of amused and calling me on my bullshit.
"Even if I’d wanted to date her back then, it would’ve been fucked up.”
“Why?”
This is not something I’d planned to talk about with Tris, but arguing isn’t worth the effort. “I slept with her sister.”
Tris’s eyes round. “The one who’s living with her now?”
“No. Her twin who left during college and never came back.”
Normally I’d be self-impressed for accomplishing something that takes my brother aback, but under the circumstances, the emotions I’m feeling are decidedly different.
“Fuck. You didn’t love her.” It’s a question, not a statement.
I shake my head. “Sleeping with Vi was a mistake. I was young and stupid.”
And I’ve regretted it ever since.
Sometimes, it’s hard to believe I met Daisy second.
Vi was the crazy one, the life of the party. You couldn’t stand in a room for five minutes and not notice her. They were both beautiful, with dark hair and eyes and full mouths, but it took me far too long to learn the second twin was more fascinating than the first.