by Nana Malone
Ryan’s brows lifted. It was pretty clear I was not impressed with what was happening. I hadn’t been here long enough for them to form an opinion probably, but I was going for tough but fair. I’d been friendly, accommodating when asking for information, and fair about giving them time to do it, but I’d made it clear that when I said I wanted something, I most definitely wanted it. And they had all been instructed to give me everything I needed. So far, we hadn’t had any problems.
The only person I had a problem with was Lord Tressel. His office often gave me the run around, making it clear that he was oh-so-busy. He couldn’t always give me what I needed, when needed it. The kicker of it was, I couldn’t come right out and accuse him of anything untoward, because I didn’t have enough proof. I didn’t have enough information. I didn’t have enough documentation. And to boot, I wasn’t sure how things went on the back end or how much access he had, but something was definitely fishy. He was the only one who hadn’t given me all his financials.
Then the alert button on the monitor told us that he was coming online. Finally, Tressel appeared, looking not at all hurried or concerned that he was late. “Yes, yes. Is everyone here?”
I took a deep breath. “Yes, we’ve all been here, Lord Tressel, for the last twenty-five minutes.”
He only shrugged. “You know, I got tied up. What’s all this about?”
I forced calm into my voice that I didn’t feel. “Well, Lord Tressel, we’re meeting because you have discrepancies in the charity funding. Incorrect amounts filed, inaccurate paperwork…”
“Yes, well, everyone is using the old antiquated system that the Winston Isles Charity Trust has always used. There is so much paperwork, every department has to bring different information. It’s no wonder.”
“I’m glad you pointed that out, Lord Tressel. I seem to find the most discrepancies come from your department.”
I pointed out the accounts, small amounts, discrepancies, and things that people could easily overlook. “We need to be able to account for every cent. I want every discrepancy found and accounted for, and documentation of where in the process we’ve made mistakes.”
They were all busy taking notes when I glanced up. All except Tressel, who looked like he might have swallowed his tongue. “Do you have any idea how much time it will take to unravel years of bad data?”
I gave him a brusque nod. “Yes, I do. Forensic accounting is a field I happen to excel in.” I turned my attention to Bill Wexler. He ran the most active charities division. “Mr. Wexler, your paperwork is outstanding.”
The guy pushed up his glasses and nodded vigorously. “We pride ourselves with getting things right sir.” Wexler looked like he was an actual IRS accountant… glasses, hair parted just so, nothing out of place.
“Mr. Wexler, if you could so kindly remind me of when you joined the Winston Isles’s trust?”
“Four years ago, sir.”
“You’ve done a remarkable job. I could find nothing wrong with your files.”
The man practically beamed. I’d have said he was about thirty. And he certainly loved a bow tie. “Thank you, sir. When I started, I made some notes about things that were sloppy, and I tightened the ship, changed the processes.”
“That’s exactly what I’m looking for. If you don’t mind sharing the processed documents with the other directors, that would be fantastic and would at least help us plug the holes. Then we can do a deep dive on any discrepancies.”
Tressel was having none of this. “You think I will just bow to what you say? Who died and made you king?”
No one else on the video conference knew that was a direct jibe intended for me. “King? No one. But the president of this trust, the actual King of the Winston Isles, directed me specifically to do this work. If you have a problem with it, you can take it up with him. Until then, I expect your report at the end of the week.”
I was done fucking with him. If it was going to be war, I was ready. Guys like Tressel had been looking down their noses at me my whole life. For once, I was on the right side of things. If he wasn’t, I was going to give him hell.
Aren’t you complicating things since his daughter lives with you?
Yeah well, my life was made slightly easier by the fact that he didn’t know Bryna was my roommate. And she didn’t want me to tell him, so I wasn’t going to. But yeah, my life was just about to get all kinds of complicated.
It looked like instead of an ally, I’d made an enemy.
Lucas
After a day like I’d had, I needed a break. I didn’t need the guys giving me shit. We’d braved the happy hour crowds at Prohibition, one of the city’s oldest speakeasies. It had been modernized and upgraded, but the place was an institution. It had original oak wood with modern steel accents. It was my favorite spot in the city. But that night, even the familiar atmosphere felt uncomfortable, given the line of thinking I was having.
“So, let me get this right,” Roone leaned in across the table, chuckling. “You have the hots for Lady Bryna Tressel?”
“Not the hots. I just said she was hot. There’s a difference.”
So what if Bryna was exactly my type? Dark hair, eyes the color of malt whiskey. A voice like the sweetest vanilla but with the bite of cayenne. It didn’t matter, because Roone knew as well as I did, given who her father was, she was way the hell off-limits.
Marcus shook his head. “And the hot girl you’re not supposed to go near at all, you’ve invited to live with you?”
“It’s not like that.” Yes, yes, it is like that. “But while we’re at it, neither one of you tell Sebastian. She’s not a threat to my safety.” She wasn’t, but he’d likely be pissed.
I sat back on my bar stool and ran my hands through my hair. “She needed a place to stay. She couldn’t stay there.”
Marcus slid Roone a smile. “This is the same chick that he broke protocol for, went running after, and left you, his Royal Guard, behind?”
Roone chuckled, picked up his longneck and took a long sip. “The very same.”
Marcus was usually a lot more reserved than Roone was. He didn’t laugh easily. He was all about the job, but he actually started to chuckle. No, that wasn’t a chuckle. That was a full-fledged laugh. As a matter of fact, it was a guffaw. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him guffaw before. And I wasn’t a fan that it was at my expense.
“Shut up. It’s not like that.”
Both Marcus and Roone shook their heads, but it was Roone who said, “I can’t wait to tell Sebastian.”
“You aren’t telling Sebastian shit.”
“So, when Sebastian asked you to look out for her, you realized he meant you weren’t to sleep with her, right?” Roone asked.
I scowled at the both of them. “Oh, ye of little faith. It’s easy. Yeah, sure, she’s hot, and okay, she’s living with me, and we apparently have a class together. But it’s fine, because I’m not some idiot kid who’s just getting his dick wet. I have self-control.”
That caused another guffaw from Marcus, who then mischievously hooked a thumb in my direction. “This guy knows control?”
Roone threw up his hands. “I know, right? Isn’t it the tits? This is going to be a bloody train wreck. I can’t wait.”
“I thought you two were supposed to be my friends?”
Marcus grinned then. “Define friend exactly. We’re your guards. And I like taking your money at poker, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to give you shit.”
It was Roone’s turn to grin then. “And I actually would call you my friend, which means I will be giving you all the shit in the world. You’re the one who insisted she stay…”
“Yeah, but come on, she’s hot. You didn’t for one second think that this was going to be a problem?” Marcus asked.
“The thing is, I sort of agreed to do this for Sebastian before I’d seen her. I figured she’d just be some average girl I’d show around the city, point out the coffee shops, and my obligation would be done. How was I s
upposed to know it would be her?”
Marcus frowned then. “You said that like you know her from before.”
I rolled my eyes and then quickly recounted my first meeting with Bryna. The more I talked though, the more Marcus started to shed that stern, serious exterior, and the more he laughed.
He actually laughed so hard he almost fell off his stool. Roone had given up the ghost and had jumped off the stool and laughed so hard he had to move around to walk off the stitch in his side.
Marcus held up a hand. “Wait, wait. So you’ve seen her bare ass?”
“Yeah.” I left out what else I’d seen. “Look, that’s not the point. The point is I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
Roone held out his hand. “Want to make a bet on it?”
Marcus reached for his wallet. “I’ll take that bet.”
Roone nodded. “Okay, we’ll both put fifty in. You keep your hands off her, you get a hundred. If you don’t keep your hands off of her, you pay us each a hundred.”
Jesus Christ. Steep betting odds. But I knew one thing that they didn’t. Bryna was prickly, a pain in the ass who went off on wild bouts of cussing me out. She was basically a porcupine. One should not fuck a porcupine. “I’ll take that bet. Besides, how hard can it be? All I have to do is keep my hands off her.”
She was hot though. The safest thing to do would be to find someone else to start fucking immediately. Stay the hell away from Bryna Tressel.
I could do that. Easy money. Besides, I’d promised my brother. A hell of a time to start being the good guy.
13
Lucas
Never taunt the gods. Why?
Because when you taunt the gods, they fuck with you.
There was no way in hell I was ever admitting to Roone or Marcus that they might be right, but I was a little out of my depth.
That night after I got home from Prohibition, I walked in on Bryna doing yoga in the living room in those tight little yoga pants. As if she didn’t know she was torturing me. I mean, she was actually trying to kill me. Or maybe she has no idea.
She mumbled some kind of sorry I’m in your way and then packed up her little yoga mat. The problem was I’d already seen her. Tight pants, sports bra, midriff showing, smooth, tanned skin… It was hard not to imagine her in that canary yellow dress tucked into her thong with her nearly bare ass on display.
No, never mind that. You will be good. Your brother asked you not to be a dick, so try not to be a dick. I could do that. It was fine. Easy even.
But the next morning, she was sitting at the dining room table in the shortest pair of shorts I have ever seen in my life.
I told myself to look away.
Apparently, my brain did not send the message to my eyes, because I couldn’t look away. Then of course, once my eyes got in on the action, my dick… well, he was never one for listening anyway. Thanks to her, I was suddenly prone to hard-ons in my own house, just by walking around. It was like I was thirteen again.
When I walked out of my room, she looked up, eyes wide and brows lifted. She started to gather her things. “Sorry, I spread out a little.”
You’re a dick. “You’re fine. I told you to stay here as long as you need to. I meant it.”
I felt like the big bad wolf. Oh Lucas, what big eyes you have. The better to see you with, my dear.
“Sorry. I’ll be looking for an apartment soon.”
Now, I really felt like a dick. For some reason, the pit in my stomach bottomed out. “Come on. I didn’t say you need to leave or anything.”
Her brows lifted. “I’m in your space. You have generously given me a place to crash. I got the impression last night that you weren’t too thrilled to find me doing yoga in the middle of the living room. It’s probably time for me to go. You’ve given me a place to stay for a couple of days, and I appreciate it, but I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”
See, that part where my brother asked me to be a good guy, I needed to remember that. “Stop.” I joined her at the dining room table, trying to ignore the long span of legs that I could see through the glass. “When I said stay as long as you need, I meant it. And like I promised, I haven’t said a word to your parents. So, there’s no rush.”
She sighed. “Thank you. It’s just that I’m struggling with the internship thing, and the funds I had saved all vanished in a bonfire basically, so everything is shitty.” She spoke in that rapid-fire way of hers, all the words clamoring to spill out over each other. “I’m trying to find a job and an apartment, but I haven’t had any luck. My internship only pays a small stipend. Everything else is asking for lots of experience. All I really have as experience was doing this charity work, and that extra commitment is sort of going to take a bite out of my actual college work, and I just—"
I held up my hand. “Relax. One problem at a time. What’s the priority?”
“A job, I suppose.” She frowned. She looked so cute with that little furrow between her brows and her floppy ponytail.
Cute was certainly better than sexy as hell. The big crease on her brow made me want to run my thumb over it and ease the worry. What the hell was that?
In my old life, that frown was exactly what I was looking for. I would take advantage of it, manipulate it, and make it work in my favor. But you’re not that guy anymore.
Her eyes narrowed. “Why are you being so nice to me? Where’s the smug smirk?”
I didn’t focus on the last part there. “Because you look like, wait—I’m always nice.”
She shook her head. “Something tells me that you’re not always nice.”
“I am always nice. I’m nice in all kinds of ways.” I used being nice to work in my favor.
Bryna rolled her eyes, but I could see the hint of a smile tugging on the corners of her lips.
“Okay, so you said the priority is a job. Well, my brother happens to own a bar.”
Her brows lifted. “You have a brother? There are two of you?”
Shit. I hadn’t even realized that slip. Old Lucas never would have made that kind of slip. You lived a con; you were the con. But somehow after a year with Sebastian, I was making all kinds of mistakes. I was living this open kind of life where I didn’t have to lie all the time. It made me rusty. “Yeah, there’s another one of me. Not nearly as good looking though.”
“Oh Lord. I bet you there are dropped panties and angry boyfriends from coast to coast.”
I couldn’t help a chuckle. “Is that what you think of me? That I cause dropped panties and angry boyfriends?”
She shrugged. “I don’t really know you, but from what I do know, I’d say that’s probably pretty accurate.”
I opened my mouth to argue with her, but then I remembered how I’d met her. About to hook up with some chick at my brother’s wedding. So that was really all she knew of me. Except that time when you saved her. Yes, there was that. So, hey, there was a good guy in there somewhere. I was not a Tin Man. I did have a heart.
God, there were days when I would have hated being considered a good guy.
“That might be fair in some instances, but not in this one.”
She shook her head. “Whatever you say.”
I cleared my throat and then, I couldn’t help it, honestly, my gaze dipped to her chest. And Jesus, Lord, was that thing she was wearing see-through?
Look away. Look away now. Okay, on the count of three. One, two, nope. Still looking. Her fucking T-shirt was see-through. Her nipples were dark. I clearly remember the dusky rose color.
I licked my lips and then forced my eyes to do one thing that they did not want to do. Close. Then I hit the reset button and forced them open to look at her again.
She wasn’t even paying attention to me. Her gaze was back on her computer, and then it flickered to mine. “You were serious? You can help?”
Fuck, I was going to need to say something. Not ‘Can I lick your tits?’ Please do not say can I lick your tits. Do not say can I lick your –
Sh
e cocked her head. “Lucas?”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah, I was serious. I can help you with an apartment, I mean, a job. My brother, like I said, owns a bar in the city. It’s not too far from here. Well lit, lots of tourists. It’s busy and safe and close enough that if you need anyone to walk you home, I’m right here, so I can do it.”
She shook her head. “That’s too much to ask. I’ll take the job if it’s open and you can get me an interview. I’ll be super happy to have it. But you don’t have to do any of the other stuff.”
“Look, I take my job seriously. King Sebastian asked me to do him the favor. It’s no big deal.” The way she was looking at me, wide eyes, tucked chin, and slight smile, made my dick twitch. “I’ll have to check in on you, so that’s what I’m going to do, which means that if you need me to walk you home, I can manage that.”
A flush crept up her neck, dusting her cheeks a pretty pink. And, oh hell, it sent more blood straight to my dick. Roone and Marcus were right. I was in trouble.
She frowned a little when she caught my gaze directed on her nipples.
“Lucas?”
“Huh?” I dragged my gaze back to hers.
“What the hell is your problem?”
I couldn’t help it, my mind was drinking in her nipples and the first thing out of my mouth was, “I can see your tits.”
She squealed and then immediately crossed her arms. “Oh my God. Are you just now saying something? Ugh, forget what I said about you being a nice guy.”
“It’s not my fault. Your goddamned shirt is see-through.”
“It is not.” And then she glanced down and looked at her shirt. The thing was threadbare and white. And her nipples, God, her nipples…
“See, I told you.”
Her face flamed. “Oh my God, why do I keep mortifying myself in front of you? First my ass, then my bare tits, now my tits again.”
I dragged my eyes away from her again and forced myself to look up at the ceiling. “I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything because… well, then you would have kept sitting here and I could look at your tits some more. By now I figure you should just walk around naked. I’ve already seen all of the good bits.”
