"Well, at least you found time to date!" Aspen said gleefully as he put his arm around my shoulders and lead me over to the large armchairs arranged around a TV mounted on the wall. The TV was off, but it was the best place for us all to sit and talk, to catch up with each other.
I raised an eyebrow at him, not quite sure what he was talking about. He didn't sound sarcastic, but I couldn't remember the last time I'd gone on an actual date. The only women I ever tended to go out with were ones who were escorting me to parties and balls. When was the last time I actually went out with someone? Took a woman out to dinner? Saw a show? God, I really needed some time off once this project was over with. Otherwise I was liable to die alone, leaving nothing to show for my life except my company.
"What the hell are you on about?" I asked, cutting right to the point. Aspen was the softer, subtler one of us. That was most definitely not me. I tended to just say whatever I was thinking and deal with the consequences later.
Aspen and Nick both looked at each other. Then, they grinned and burst out laughing, both shaking their heads. "I believe Mom said her name was Jade...." Aspen said in that teasing voice of his.
"She is quite pretty," Nick chimed in. "Though I thought Holly was going to give the woman a heart attack when she came barreling out of the house like that. Hell, she almost gave me one. I thought for sure she was going to end up face planting into the concrete."
I rolled my eyes. I'd told Mom I was bringing Jade along with me as my plus one, but I'd also made sure to tell her our relationship was strictly platonic. "She works for me," I told them, hoping to put an end to that once and for all. Judging by the look they gave each other, it didn't quite work.
"I thought you didn't date coworkers," Nick said, raising an eyebrow at me. The way he looked it, it was like he was looking through me. There were only two people who could really do that to me - Nick and Mom. Which made it near impossible to get away with hiding anything when I'd been growing up. One or both of them tended to pick up on things almost immediately.
"I don't," I said, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks. I didn't date coworkers, but I couldn't deny having those thoughts about Jade more than once. "She's just my secretary. She's leaving the company in a week, and she came along so we could keep going over everything I'd have to find people to handle."
Judging by the look Nick and Aspen shared, my answer sounded as crappy to them as it did to me. "Don't lie to me, Christian Frost," Nick said, piercing me with that gaze again. "I saw you out there with her, the way you stood right next to her, the way you kept looking at her. Even when Mom led you into the house, you couldn't help but look over your shoulder at her."
Right now my face was probably giving me away. My right hand balled into a fist, my left tightening around the glass of Scotch. I had to fight back the urge to down the entire drink in one long gulp. "Were you two hiding upstairs, spying on me?" I shot back, a bit harsher than I meant. But neither brother even flinched at the words. They both just shrugged, and I let out a growl of frustration.
As much as I loved my brothers, they certainly knew how to get under my skin! But then, wasn't that what brothers were supposed to do? Didn't I always do the same damned things to them?
"And what about you?" I shot back at Nick. "I thought you and Gabriella were only going to stay married until she was able to inherit her share of her father's company. If you're renewing your vows with her, it sounds like there's a bit more than just helping out our 'little sister'."
This time, it was Nick who was on the spot. We'd all grown up with Gabriella following us around everywhere. We all knew she had a crush on Nick, but all of us had just considered her a younger sister, the only girl in our little group. Her father had always been around the house. He'd taken each of us under his wing as we'd grown up, teaching us just as much about business as our own father had.
Didn't seem like Nick was thinking of her as his little sister anymore.
He shrugged and leaned back in his chair, trying to look indifferent to my comment. But just like he knew me far too well, I knew him, too. I could see right through his mask. "When you live together for a while like that... You start to grow on each other."
"Grow on each other?" I raised an eyebrow, leaning forward and smirking at him. "Is that what it's called? I wonder what Gabriella would say if I asked her about that... I remember the looks she used to give you as a kid, the worship in her eyes. Does she know you're only staying with her because you've grown complacent?"
Nick narrowed his eyes at me. When I just grinned at him, it seemed to annoy him even more. "You say any of that to her, and I will kill you and bury your body at the back of the property where it'll never be found." Something about the way he said it made me think he might
