“I made him a painting,” I scoff, recalling the memory all too vividly. “Worked on it for about a month in my mother’s studio until it was finally time to give it to him. When I gave it to him he just sneered and tossed it in a corner of his office. He and my brother were headed out to the golf course and he told me that the best gift I could give him would to be more like my brother.”
Lilah’s gasp feels me with dread. The last thing I want is her pity. That’s not why I told her. Actually, I don’t know why I’m telling her. The words just won’t stop flowing once I start.
“That must have been tough,” she says finally.
“Yeah, something like that,” I tell her, resurrecting my invisible wall. I don’t do vulnerable and this woman has me wide open right now.
But she doesn’t push. She just stares at me with those eyes that make me want things that I’ve never wanted before. Things that I only want with her.
“Thank you for telling me,” she whispers, kissing the corner of my mouth. “And thanking you for bringing me here. It means the world to me.”
Her words hit me in the chest, igniting warmth in the previously hollowed-out space. I’ve never felt anything like this before and it’s confusing as hell.
How did sneaking away for a good time turn into a heart to heart with the woman who was just supposed to be another box I checked off my bucket list? A bucket list that she blew apart. Now the only list I have is ways I want to make her come.
“I guess we better get back,” Lilah sighs, sensing that our conversation is over.
I’m thankful for her natural ability to read my body language so well. When she stands in front of me, I smile up at her mischievously because I know what’s coming.
“Can I have my panties back now?” she asks cheekily, fisting her hands at her hips.
Her dress shifts dangerously, almost giving me a flash of the part of her I adore the most.
She feigns annoyance when I tell her that they’re better off in my pocket and I grab her hand pulling her back out into the hall.
Lilah’s threatening to get me back somehow when someone clears their throat up ahead.
My walk down memory must have conjured him up, because right there in the flesh is my brother.
“Motherfucker,” I bite out.
Instantly, I stop walking to watch his haughty approach. There’s already an annoying sneer on his face that I want to smack off.
Beside me, I feel the second Lilah tenses in response to the shift in my demeanor.
“Andrew,” my brother greets us coolly as he closes in. “Long time no see.”
Thirty
LILAH
If you told me an hour ago that my world was going to come crashing down on me tonight, I would have laughed in your face and asked you what you were smoking.
Tonight’s perfect.
Absolutely nothing can go wrong.
Holy shit was I wrong.
As the gravity of this moment sets in, I shake my head for once again being so naïve to believe that the universe doesn’t have it out for me.
I know the second that they come face to face exactly how they’re related. It’s all right there. Despite how utterly different they are, their similarities are impossible to ignore when they’re standing right across from each other.
How the hell had I missed it?
Was it willful ignorance or just plain blindness on my part?
Even before Andrew speaks, I’ve already guessed that this is the brother he has such a strained relationship with.
Edward. My boss. The man I’m working for in order to secure money for my project is my boyfriend’s brother.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I don’t mean to jump when Andrew starts speaking but it’s inevitable considering how fraught my nerves are at the moment.
“Lilah, I want you to meet my brother. Edward, this is my girlfriend, Lilah.”
It’s the first time I’ve heard him use that title to describe me, and while I should be rejoicing at the sound, I’m shaking in my boots.
Edward is going to blow my cover in just one second and I suck in my last breath, waiting for my world to crumble.
“Nice to meet you, Lilah,” Edward says without a trace of recognition evident on his face.
My heart is pounding in my ears as palpable fear grips me, rooting me to the spot.
Nice to meet you?
What?
Why is he pretending not to know who I am? As if this moment couldn’t get any more stressful, here he is playing games.
He doesn’t give me the time of day as he focuses solely on Andrew.
“I can’t say I expected to run into you here, Andrew. I thought you were too good for these kinds of events. What changed?” he sneers.
The muscle at the base of Andrew’s jaw is ticking double time. His brow narrows and he gives his brother a look I’ve never seen before, full of animosity and contempt.
Andrew’s grip on my hand grows tighter, pulling me closer to his side as if he wants to shield me from something.
“I wish I could say it was good to see you, Teddy. But we both know that’d be a lie.”
Edward snarls as soon as the name slips past Andrew’s lips. That same petulant expression he gives me when he’s annoyed in the office blankets his face right now.
An eerie sense of déjà vu sends chills crawling up my arms.
What the hell is going on here? I’ve stepped into the twilight zone and I know for a fact that I’m fucked whether I say something or remain silent.
“I see not much has changed,” Edward remarks, sliding me a cursory glance. “Still running through pretty women like water.”
His words hit me right in the gut which I’m sure is exactly what he intended. His implication that I’m just another woman on a long list doesn’t sit well with me.
Even if I’ve been plagued by those same doubts myself. But I can’t
