Page 49 of Embrace
Again, she was aiming to get a rise out of me. She and I both knew that wasn’t the truth.
When I reached my office, I had second thoughts about being alone with her and in close quarters. It would’ve been beneficial to have witnesses. Si was occupied with Greg Carroll. My brothers weren’t around. I glanced at Julia, and her eyebrows flew up.
“Scared?” she asked, smirking.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Then you feel the chemistry too.”
I grunted bitterly as I stuck my key in the door, trying to take Bryn’s advice and be nice to her. I wanted to tell her there could never be chemistry between us. I hadn’t known what chemistry felt like until Penina came along. What I felt for Julia was distrust.
I opened the door, and she strolled through, perfecting her fuck walk. When I walked into my office, I didn’t close the door all the way. We needed some amount of privacy. I didn’t want a passerby overhearing our conversation. I stopped in the middle of the space, making sure there was plenty of room between us. We observed each other. My gaze held suspicion—hers, amusement.
“You’re still handsome to the extreme,” she said, grinning.
“Why are you here, Julia? And how did you get my number?”
She sniffed. “Do you really have to ask me that? Your whore gave me everything I needed.”
I bit down on my back teeth. She knew Gina was no longer practicing prostitution, but she didn’t care. Julia needed to view Gina as someone in a lower category of human being than herself. On many occasions, I’d tried to convince Gina that Julia could never be her friend. But Julia was a master manipulator. She knew how to prey on the wounded. With insincerity, she listened to Gina’s hardships and offered bad advice, and was disingenuous while consoling her. She even started a sexual relationship with Gina, who used to believe sex, regardless of who she engaged in it with, equated to love. The handful of times Gina and I had sex, though, she never got confused about love, simply because fucking me made her realize how unworthy of love she felt. Before Penina, my relationships with women amounted to shit. And standing there, looking at a pile of it, I was reminded of that.
“Okay, I’ll tell you why I’m here,” she said, smirking.
I kept my expression hard. “I’m listening.”
She dangled a ring with two keys on it. “I purchased the penthouse from Gina, for one.”
I sniffed bitterly. “What the fuck do you need the penthouse for?”
“Oh.” Her eyes gleamed, proud she made me snap at her. “There you are.”
I took a deep breath, rounding my shoulders.Stay in control, Asher. Don’t let her get to you.“Why do you need it?”
Julia kept sneering. “I have a new job in town.”
“Well, it’s not for sale.”
“The problem is, Gina sold it to me.”
I bared my teeth. “The problem is, she can’t sell it without my permission.”
She smirked, seemingly unaffected by how riled up I was.
“Don’t you…” She ran her fingers down her collarbone and unfastened the top button of her blouse. She was on cue. The moment had come for her to use her pussy for advantage. “… miss me? Even a little?”
“No.”
“See… I think you do.”
“And,” I continued, narrowing my eyes to slits, “not only won’t I sell my penthouse to you, but Gina no longer owns it. You can set my keys on my desk before you leave my office. And I’ll have the locks changed and the security system reset by the time you make it to the end of the hallway.”
She stuffed the keys into her blouse. “Come get them.”
She was a sad sight, actually. After six years, she was still snatching tricks out of the same tired bag. I’d thought not having Arthur to run to when her blunders needed his fixing would’ve made her grow up. Apparently not.
“Haven’t you noticed how peaceful it is around here? The missing Christmas brother hasn’t left the building, yet there’s not a reporter lurking.”
I frowned, thoughtful. That was true. I’d walked right through the front entrance that morning, and no one was camping out, trying to capture me with their camera.
