Page 6 of Billionaire's Frenemy

“You’re late,” I said, crossing my arms and glaring at her.

“What?” Her eyes widened, and she took a step back from me, her hand resting on her stomach. “What are you talking about?”

“I told you to be here last week. I told you to come work here. Your office is ready, and your assistant has been sitting at her desk for days with nothing to do.” I studied her, wanting badly to pull her into my arms and at the same time, damning myself for the urge. “Wills, why didn’t you come to me right away?”

“I don’t like who I am around you,” she admitted, hugging her arms across her stomach. “And I don’t know how to not be that way. You bring out the worst in me, Jamie. And I hate it.”

“We could try a different tactic,” I offered. “We could maybe…start over? Try being nice to each other?”

She made a gagging noise, and I laughed. Twenty-some years of animosity was hard to erase. But damn it, I actually wanted to try.

Roz came back as her phone started to ring. I motioned for Willow to take our conversation out into the hall but froze when I heard Roz say something about a wedding chapel.

“You want me to book a wedding chapel for you and Miss Moretti?” Roz met my gaze across the room. “No, Luke, I won’t call your family. But your mother will be very disappointed.”

I looked at Willow in shock. My asshole brother was about to get married without any of us there.Thatwasn’t happening.

By silent agreement, we both walked back to Roz’s desk the moment she hung up.

“Well?” I asked.

“What?” She glared at me. “He specifically asked me not tell the Cassels what was happening. If you’ll excuse me, I have some calls to make.” She pointed at the chairs across from her desk with a wink.

So, Willow and I sat while Roz made calls and got my brother booked at theTie the Knotwedding chapel. I thanked Roz, and we dashed out, eager to get across town and not miss the ceremony.

“I still can’t believe you got me fired,” Willow snapped as she followed me down to the sidewalk where my driver was waiting, since I’d texted him as Roz made arrangements.

“Technically, you got yourself fired,” I told her. “You knew what would happen. You didn’t even get them pulled. You got them frozen.”

“Well, I needed more time than Shultz gave me, so yeah, I froze them until I got the right signatures to have them pulled.” She climbed into the back of my town car and slammed the door behind her.

“Whatever,” I said, getting in on the other side. “Look, you can pretend to be pissed at me all you want. But we both know you were always going to end up working here.”

“And where exactly ishere?” she asked, her tone dangerous.

“At the family firm,” I answered. “Where you belong. Regardless of what happens between you and me, can you really deny you’re part of this family?”

I knew her family wasn’t great and her mom had passed when Willow was too young. When we were younger, we’d bickered a lot. Some would say we’d fought constantly, but we were also joined at the hip all through school. She was nearly always my partner on school projects, and outside that, she was a fixture at my house. None of the Cassels thought that strange, and my mom had basically adopted her. Sometimes, I was pretty sure my mother loved Willow more than she did me, and I knew my brothers all adored her. As a little sister, of course. I’d kill any of them who thought to make a move on her, and they all knew it.

“Nothing is happening between you and me, Jameson,” she said, taking subtext from my statement—subtext I hadn’t realized was there.

The finality in her tone just made me want her more. Made me want her forever. For just a second, and I would never have admitted it to anyone, I wondered if I could con her into marrying me while we were at the chapel.

Probably not. Besides, when I finally got Willow Tate down the aisle, and I would someday, I wanted her in the big white dress and I wanted all of our family and friends there. As prickly as my girl could be, I’d need all the witnesses I could get.

Three

Willow I-Wish-I-Had-A-Clue Tate

Well, this wasn’t how I’d envisioned my first day of work with the Cassels. I hadn’t even been to my desk, and I was already in a wedding chapel. Granted, it wasn’t with me in a big white dress, my groom staring adoringly at me, but at the moment, Jamie’s eyes were devouring me, and it was making me hotter than I wanted to be—ever. I’d sworn off this man. He couldn’t keep making me tingling and wet.

Shifting my gaze from my infuriating temptation, I refocused on the couple at hand. Despite hisno family at the ceremonydictate, I think Luke was glad to have Jamie and me there. Laura was thrilled to have one of her closest friends in attendance. And I was super glad to be there when her father had shown up in the middle of the ceremony and tried to break up the most nontraditional wedding I’d ever witnessed.

When he’d first shown up, I’d thought,wow, I’d like to have a dad who cared even a little about what I did. Then I’d realized Laura’s father was as much of an asshole as my own was. Maybe, all men were just dicks.

I glanced over at Luke, who was ready to go to war for Laura. I knew Luke and Jamie’s brother, Fray, would do the same for my best friend, Emerson. So, maybe, I couldn’t count them in that generalization.

And that’s when I realized, Jamie was shielding me with his body, standing between me and the angry interloper. When the man left, realizing he’d lost the confrontation, Luke had pulled Laura into his arms while they’d declared their love.

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