“All it would take to get the books current is one good deal, Dad. I have to try.”
“It’s just a business, Jules. It’s not what matters.” The sadness in his voice tore at Julia’s heart. Her father would do anything for her and for his wife, but he wasn’t a businessman. He’d tried to downplay the seriousness of his situation, but Julia knew how close he was to losing everything.
Her mother would have known how to turn it around. She would have known exactly what to say to the bankers, who had begun pressuring her father to sell the land to local developers before they claimed it and auctioned it off themselves. The hardest part of Alzheimer’s was, although her mother was there, still laughing and playing cards with her father, the sharp woman she’d been was gone.
Leaving Dad and me to fend for ourselves.
And we were cut from the same dreamer cloth.
No, I will no longer limit myself with narrow definitions of who I am. I’m a reasonably intelligent person. I can learn to be a businesswoman.
I must have some of my mother in me.
It was that decision that had started Julia reading motivational business books. Surround yourself with those you want to emulate. Want to land an opportunity? Put yourself where opportunities are plentiful. Want to be a business shark? Swim with sharks.
Less than four hours from her home and boasting one of the world’s largest collections of jewelry businesses, New York had been a natural choice for Julia. Working nights allowed her to frequent the Diamond District and learn which pieces were selling and which weren’t. It was a culture shock, but not all bad. New Yorkers were sharply dressed, blunt in their speech, and willing to fight to death for a taxi. She respected them even as she struggled to keep up with them.
“It does matter, Dad. It matters to me.”
“It’s not a weight that belongs on your shoulders. I have some options I’m considering.”
Julia sat up and wiped her tears away. “Don’t do anything until I come home, Dad. This is going to work out. You and Mom have been the best parents anyone could ever ask for. I would still be selling my jewelry out of your furniture store if Mom hadn’t gotten sick. You always believed in me.”
“That’s what parents do, Jules.”
“No. Not all parents, Dad. Good parents. And I know I don’t have to do this for you. I want to do this. I will do this.”
With a voice that was thick with emotion, her father said, “New York is about to discover an incredible artisan. I believe that. You’ll find a buyer. You know why? Because you have your mother’s heart. She was always a scrapper. If this is what you feel you need to do, then you get back out there, Jules, and you fight for it. Not for Mom and me. But for you.”
Wiping away a fresh tear, Julia said, “I will, Dad. I’ll make you proud.”
“I’m already proud, Jules. Now go get some rest. Tomorrow is a whole new day. Love you.”
“Love you more,” Julia whispered and hung up. She fell back onto her bed and covered her eyes with one arm.
It won’t be hard for tomorrow to be better than today.
Although, today could have been worse. I could have accidentally killed Gio Andrade with that lamp instead of just stunning him. An image of her boss, eyes flashing with fury while he touched the wound on his temple, brought a fresh flush of color to her cheeks. Her breath caught as she remembered how he had looked when he’d turned around from his secretary’s desk—so arrogant, so in control.
Well, I knocked that right out of him.
She groaned at the memory.
And then actually wondered if he was attracted to me.
Because nothing is hotter than a good ol’ smack to the side of the head.
I’m sure he’s lying in his ridiculously plush bed thinking about me tonight.
Yeah, right.
Oh, my God. I’m going to be arrested when I go to work tomorrow.
*
Gio restlessly turned over in his bed. Another sleepless night. This time, however, he wasn’t thinking about any of his international projects. Nor was he cursing his family for distracting him from more important matters.
No, tonight he was plagued by the image of a woman he had no business thinking twice about. If there was one rule Gio had always adhered to, it was never mix business with pleasure.
Rolling onto his back, he tested the tender skin on his bruised temple and winced. He should have told Paul to fire her on the spot. That crazy brunette was obviously completely unsuited for security work. Beyond not recognizing the owner of the business she was supposedly guarding, she was dangerously unpredictable.
A fact that didn’t stop his cock from stirring to life at the memory of how her legs had seemed to go on forever. He shook his head and groaned as the movement sent a knifelike pain through his head. Still, his erection grew as his traitorous mind conjured images of what she would have looked like in just those high heels.
I should have let Ceci come over.
One of his welcome-home messages had been from his last hookup. She’d thanked him for the thoughtful gift he’d sent while he was away. He’d have to ask his secretary what it had been. He hoped she’d followed his normal rule of something generous that didn’t promise anything more. The women he dated expected to be pampered, but they knew the score.
Sex was just sex.
And good sex, while necessitating the occasional diamond bracelet, did not require emotional investment or the hypocrisy of vows. Marriage might have made sense back when a person’s life expectancy was forty, or when social norms dictated it, but he saw no reason for it in modern society.
Maybe for the sake of children.
But the world was already overpopulated—it could do with a few less of those, too. As his body continued to betray him and throb beneath the sheets, he rolled over again and punched one of his pillows. He didn’t want Ceci; he wanted his little brunette security woman.
What was it about her that made her unforgettable? Was it the way she’d reprimanded him even after she knew who he was, seemingly unimpressed by his title and wealth? He couldn’t remember a time when he’d been so easily dismissed by a woman. She’d seemed more concerned with upsetting Paul than him.
And I’m the one she hit.
That’s probably all this is—a concussion.
If concussions come with the side effect of a raging hard-on.
His little security guard was beautiful, but beauty was common in his world. She was lean with a killer ass, but those were common traits, too. What had been novel was the way his gut had clenched with excitement whenever their eyes met. He wasn’t an impulsive man, but he’d found himself cornering her, afraid she was an illusion conjured up by his exhaustion—a dream he didn’t want to wake from.
Desire that intense is dangerous.
Complicated.
A weakness that topples empires.
Something I thought I was immune to.
I’m being ridiculous.
This is the result of too much work and several weeks of pent-up sexual frustration.
I’ll call her into my office tomorrow, and in the light of day my cock will see the truth.