Page 26 of Forbidden Bond

“Are you going to give me the job or not?” she demands impatiently.

This is a recipe for disaster. And yet I light the fire anyway.

“You can start tomorrow.”

She looks relieved, and her blue eyes gleam as she looks at me. I really wish she’d stop looking at me.

“Thank you,” she says softly. “And Topher, I’m sorry.”

“About?” I prompt. “I can think of a few insults, so you’ll have to be more specific princess.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m only sorry about one thing. Judging you because of your last name. Your family might be full of awful people, but that doesn’t mean you’re an awful person. You’re right, I don’t know you, and I shouldn’t have acted like I did.”

I lean closer to whisper in her ear. “Careful, princess. Those awful people you keep mentioning are still my family. And if we’re going to work together, you’re going to have to learn to keep your biased opinions to yourself, especially when it concerns my family.”

She swallows softly and nods. “Friends?”

Her voice is soft, her expression innocent. Seconds tick by as I stare at her stretched hands.

“What are you going to do when your father finds out that you decided to take a job working for a D’Angelo?”

“Let me worry about that,” she says fiercely.

When Katherine leaves, Cara’s waiting for me as soon as I turn around. She gives me a self-satisfied smirk, her arms crossed over her chest.

“So, how do you know Katie?”

“Right back at you,” I murmur, brushing past her and heading inside.

“We went to school together. It’s the Upper East Side, Topher. All rich folks know each other.”

She’s right. My family was pretty isolated growing up, so I’m not exactly immersed in the same social circles as them. Carlo went to a boarding school and then college abroad. Christian was forever a loner, always on the outside looking in. He never really cared about much except the family.

And then there’s me. I tried my best to be social, but I never really belonged. When your family’s infamous, you’re always regarded by everyone warily. It’s why despite how pissed I am at the way Katherine’s been treating me, I can’t blame her. A part of me was just hoping she would be different.

“Katherine’s a good person,” Cara says suddenly, pulling me from my thoughts. I turn to look at her with an arched eyebrow. “I’m just saying. I don’t know exactly how you know her, or how you two got tangled, but she’s a good person. She was kind to me in a school where everyone looked down on me for being the daughter of Corbin Oshiro.”

Cara’s dad’s pretty infamous in our circles, as well. When she was sixteen, he went to jail for embezzlement, tax evasion, and fraud. I can imagine how she must have been treated at school after that happened. I can also imagine Katherine being a decent person and not looking down on her because of her dad’s mistakes.

“What’s her being a good person got to do with me?” I grumble.

Cara’s eyes narrow. “Don’t make me regret bringing her here.”

“Easy, Car. You’re acting like I’ll do something terrible to her.”

“You might,” she shoots back.

“I won’t,” I say seriously.

Her eyes trail over my face, studying me. “Fine, I believe you. Just remember, Topher. Something terrible includes breaking her heart.”

That almost makes me laugh. I doubt I’m capable of doing that. Katherine’s not dumb, and I’m pretty sure she’s made sure her heart is locked up tight and shielded from me.

“That’s not going to happen, Cara. Katherine starts tomorrow. You can show her the ropes when she arrives. And no slacking—you’re on thin ice, Oshiro.”

She gives me a mock salute before walking away, and I take a second to consider how today has gone. And what Cara said. Katherine working here can only go two ways.

Either nothing happens and I’m worried for nothing—or it ends in an epic disaster.

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