Moments of Julian (27 page)

“
I’m nearly fully
recovered,” I say. “Still some bruising, that will probably last
another week or so.” I say it for effect and to rub it in just a
little bit. “But I’m up and about.”

He pauses for a moment and the effect
I was going for has worked. I’ve gained the upper hand by making
him squirm and feel horrible. “I’m glad to hear it. Now, I was
wondering if we could have that meeting sometime soon. We have some
things to talk over.”

“
I’ll come by Digit
tomorrow morning at ten,” I say.

He pauses again. I’ve taken charge of
the situation by not asking him when works for him or asking if my
set time and date works with his schedule. Mr. Maxwell isn’t
someone who is used to having someone take charge of his time. But
he has some major bumps to smooth out and he knows I am the only
person who can help him. “I can make that work.”

“
See you then,” I say with
a smile as I hang up.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-
FOUR

“
Good morning, sunshine,”
Dustin says, cranking up his Southern charm. He gives me his
infamous lopsided smile, showing off pearly whites. “We’ve all been
informed we have some major kissing to do to that mighty fine rear
end of yours.”

“
And I’m going to enjoy
every second if it,” I say as I fold up my sunglasses and set them
on the dash. Dustin opens the gate and I’m about to pull forward
when a smile suddenly curls on my face and I stop.

“
Dustin,” I say. He looks
back at me, his eyebrows raised. “Have you met my assistant
Gretchen?”

“
I think we’ve talked once
or twice in passing,” he says.

“
Remind me to formally
introduce you two sometime,” I say with a smile as I pull
forward.

I park in my spot and climb out. I
nearly float on my Louboutin’s, the same ones I used to defend
myself against Brian with, as I swipe my card and let myself into
the building. Once the blood was washed off, they served as proof
that even an attacking two hundred pound man can’t keep me
down.

I walk past the front desk in the
lobby.

“
Good morning Miss
McCain,” the receptionist says brightly to me. There is something
in her eyes that suggest the fear of a boss and strict instructions
to be carried out.

“
Good morning,” I say with
a brilliant smile as I pass by her. I head for the elevator and
press the up button. The doors ding and slide open.

And standing inside is
Gretchen.

I’ve barely stepped inside when she
rushes forward and engulfs me in a hug.

“
I am so sorry about all
of this,” she immediately starts. Her voice quivers and soon she is
crying. “I never thought I’d have to worry about Brian sneaking
into my desk. I mean, we’ve been together for a year and a half! I
never suspected him, but I should have with all those late nights
and lame excuses of working overtime. We have a graveyard shift for
goodness sakes!”

“
Gretch,” I say firmly. I
grab her arms and force her to take a step back from me before she
can get black, runny mascara all over my shirt. “I know you didn’t
have anything to do with it, and I know that you are sorry.
Everything is okay.”

“
You don’t hate me?” she
asks, her eyes puffy and uncertain. “You don’t want to fire
me?”

I smile as the doors open on the tenth
floor and we step out. “I could never hate you Gretch, you’re the
perfect assistant. And I would have to have my job back first
before I could fire you, but that would never happen.”

A wide smile breaks over her face and
she’s just about to throw her arms around me again when I hold a
hand up and she stops abruptly.

“
I need you to find me a
good accountant,” I move on. She takes a good second to compose
herself, and suddenly my hard working, always loyal Gretch is back.
“Part of the reason I got into this mess is because I haven’t been
watching my accounts close enough. I need you to find someone we
can trust, someone with rock-solid references.”

“
I’ll have some options
for you by this afternoon,” she says. She quickly wipes at her eyes
and gives me a smile. “I’m glad we’re getting back to normal around
here.”

“
Oh,” I say as I walk
toward Mr. Maxwell’s office. “Things are never going to be normal
around here again.”

I give Gretch a smile and let myself
into Gideon’s office.

——

Five days later, Julian and I pull
into the parking garage of Digit.

“
Are you sure you won’t
tell me what is going on?” he asks, hesitating in the
car.

“
Trust me,” I say with a
smile. “You’re going to like this surprise.”

“
I don’t know,” he says as
he opens the door and climbs out. He walks around to my side and
opens the door for me. “I’m not sure I like surprises. You’re kind
of making me nervous.”

“
Have a little faith.” I
lean into him for just a moment, brushing my lips to his cheek,
leaving a red lip imprint there. It is adorable that he doesn’t
even realize it is there as we walk into the building. He walks
nervous and stiff into the elevator.

I make myself stand across the
elevator from him as we start to rise. My eyes trace over him from
polished shoes, up his pinstriped trousers, up his tailored suit
jacket, over his charcoal tie, up to his captivating dark green
eyes.

It’s taking every ounce of strength I
have not to take him here and now in this tiny elevator.

But we have important business to take
care of.

A knowing smile curls on Julian’s lips
as the doors open. I mirror it as I wipe the lipstick from his
face.

Julian follows me to the conference
room. Inside, Mr. Maxwell and the company attorney, Adam Scott, are
waiting for us.

“
Good morning, everyone,”
I say cheerily as I set my bags down on an empty chair and lower
myself into another. Julian looks at me uncertainly and I eye the
seat next to me. He sinks down into it.

“
Morning, Miss McCain,”
Adam says with a thin lipped smile. He has a completely bald head,
even though he doesn’t look much over thirty five, and the overhead
lights reflect off it. He’s wearing a neatly pressed suit that
reflects the nice salary Digit pays him.

Mr. Maxwell just gives a curt
nod.

“
I’ve got the paperwork
all drawn up,” Adam Scott starts into things. He is nothing if not
direct and quick at his work. “I will just need the three of you to
sign this monstrous stack of documents. I will act as notary and we
can have all the paperwork for the restructuring of Digit
Securities filed.”

“
Restructuring?” Julian
asks, his brow furrowing. “I’m sorry, I have absolutely no idea
what is going on or why I am here.”

Mr. Maxwell glares at me with
questions in his eyes as to why I haven’t explained things to
Julian. A smirk simply forms on my own face.

“
I made a deal with Gideon
in our meeting a few days ago,” I start to explain. My eyes drift
from Mr. Maxwell to Julian and he is an open book of confusion. “I
told him that I would get all our clients we lost back. They just
needed a little explanation and assurance that we have contained
the problem, and the information that we have a new product that
will be rolling out in three weeks that will solve all our issues
for years to come.”

Despite the confusion and excitement
of this moment, there are still bags under Julian’s eyes. He’s been
working non-stop since the day I had my meeting with Mr. Maxwell on
the Red Door. With the Blue Wall compromised, we have no choice but
to forego beta testing. We needed to give our clients a product
they can be confident with. Now. And once we told them about the
Red Door, no one could wait to get their hands on it. Julian had
been working his brains out to have it ready as soon as humanly
possible, with the help of our extensive, now more cautious IT
department.

“
This on the condition
that he make me CEO, and you and I each ten percent stock owners of
Digit Securities.”

Julian’s expression is
non-comprehending for a long minute. He looks back and forth from
Mr. Maxwell, who does not look happy about this, but knows he has
no choice but to grant me my demands or go bankrupt, and me, who
knows I have won.

Gideon owns forty percent of Digit.
Thirty is owned by our private shareholders. Thirty percent used to
be owned by the public share market.

Over the last few days, Digit has
bought back twenty percent to give over to us.

“
You’re signing over ten
percent of Digit to Sage,” Julian clarifies. I sense it is in an
attempt for this unexpected, whiplash change in direction of
events, to make sense in his head. “And ten percent to
me?”

“
That was Sage’s terms,”
Mr. Maxwell says, lacing his fingers together and resting his hands
on the table.

“
I’ve been on the phone
for the past four days straight,” I say. “You’ve been busy, but so
have I. In all, we ended up losing six major clients and seventeen
lesser ones because of the breech and scandal. In the past four
days, I’ve brought every single one of them back into the Digit
fold. They eagerly await testing out the Red Door.”

Julian is staring at me with his mouth
very slightly open.

And then I see the life leap back into
his eyes and a smile curls on his lips. He looks over at Mr.
Maxwell and mimics his posture, linking his fingers together and
resting his forearms on the table. “It’s hard to fight the will of
Sage McCain, isn’t it?”

“
Who me?” I say innocently
as I lean back in the chair and cross my legs. “I’m a
peach.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-
FIVE

“
Did that really just
happen?” Julian says with a chuckle as we finish dinner. “Last week
you were about to be arrested for fraud, the FBI was all over you.
And in a matter of days you’ve wrangled ten percent of the company
from the man who would have had your head just days
ago?”

“
And I got ten percent of
it for you too,” I say with a wink as I reach for my water glass.
“You’ve invested so much into this company, I thought you should
gain some say in how it is operated from now on.”

“
You are an impressive
woman, Sage McCain,” Julian says as he reaches across the table and
takes my hand in his. “And I’ll admit, I would be terrified to go
up against you. You McCain’s can be pretty scary when you want to
be.”

I chuckle, but my moment of glory
feels dampened a bit.

During the chaos of the last five
days, I was able to take off exactly thirty minutes to go to SeaTac
airport. Mom, Dad, Drake, Kale, and even Julian all came to see
Lake off. His short leave came to an end and he had to get back for
duty.

Mom cried, everyone expected that.
Kale didn’t say much and his face was completely white. Drake only
said to keep safe, as did Dad. To my surprise, Julian and Lake
ended up talking quietly for a few moments but no one overheard
what was said. I wasn’t going to pry.

And with dread in my heart, I watched
as my brother walked away. And I prayed that he would be kept
safe.

“
No one messes with a
McCain,” I say, pulling back into the present.

We finish dinner and argue over who
will pay the bill and in the end, I relent. But just this
once.

Julian pulls out his phone to check
the time. “Did you realize it is already the fourth of August? We
have completely abandoned ballroom classes. The last class was
Thursday.”

“
You know, to be honest, I
completely forgot about class,” I say, surprised at the reality of
the words. I haven’t given a single thought to the waltz, cha-cha,
or rumba in weeks now. “How could you forget, you’re supposed to be
helping teach?”

Julian chuckles as we stand and start
for the door. He pulls me in close as we walk and none too
conspicuously, leans his face in close, his nose tracing the skin
under my ear. “I’ve been a bit otherwise occupied.”

My nerve endings jump to life and
everything around is blurry and nonexistent. My eyes rise up to
meet Julian’s as we step outside the restaurant into the dim light
of summer evening. He is a sight to see in his suit with his hair
parted and slicked back. He is beautiful and killing all the female
hormones in me with want.

“
Let’s go do something
crazy tonight,” I say as I lean into him. My breasts push into his
chest and his hands come low on my hips. My hands press into his
hard back and my eyes fix on the tattoo of a wing that is barely
poking above his collar.

“
What did you have in
mind?” he breathes and I feel his body jump to life. His breathing
picks up.

“
I want to make a memory
tonight,” I say, appreciating Julian appreciating me, but not
wanting to torture him. I back away just slightly, fisting his
lapel in my hands. “You did say the pain only lasts for a little
while.”

I can tell it takes Julian a moment to
figure out what I am really suggesting and not what it sounds
like.