Risky Business: (Taboo Romance Series) (Forbidden Fruit Book 3) (4 page)

Chapter 6

Caden

I got busy with meetings and couldn't seem to find a minute to myself to check into the idea of Luke's girlfriend possibly being my Olivia. There was no way that was possible, and I forced myself to dismiss the idea. I knew Olivia was somewhere in the city, but so were a zillion other people. The past was the past and no matter how badly I needed reconciliation with her, I wasn't going after it. Chances are she would stab me in the heart again and lick the blade clean. Bitch.

"All right, boss. This way. Lunch just got delivered to conference room A. We need to talk about the mini-speeches that Luke wants at the event tonight." Annie moved up beside me in the hall as I walked back from seeing a new client to the front exit.

"Then Luke should have to make these speeches, don't you think?" I smirked.

"He's doing a few of them, but he wants you and Jeremy to talk a little too. You're supposed to focus on the human resources type stuff. Growth in people and achievements. Jeremy gets to talk about investment potential for next year and our new services in the estate planning space." She opened the door to the conference room, and the sound of laughter filled the space around me.

We had a good group of people working for us. We'd grown by leaps and bounds after I'd joined the firm my junior year of college. Managing both school and a budding investment firm was a challenge I didn't think I would survive, but it helped to refocus me on what was most important - my career. Nothing else at twenty-five mattered.

"What are Perry and Luke talking on?" I walked in and waved at the group as they all called out various welcomes. I was far closer to the staff than anyone else at the partner level, but that was most likely because they were my peer group.

"Perry isn't coming. His wife isn't doing too good right now. Her cancer treatments have her bed-ridden." Annie gave me a frown and pointed to the food. "Go eat. Luke will be here in a minute and fill you in on what he’s talking about. When you know, tell me too."

"You don't know? Someone has to censure him." I rolled my eyes and grabbed a plate.

"Right." Annie balked. "You let me know how that works out for you, Mr. Optimist."

"Hey buddy." Jeremy patted my back as he moved up in line behind me. "You doing all right? Anything new on the horizon?"

"Hey man." I picked up a few sandwiches and grabbed a bag of chips. "I had something interesting happen this morning."

"Tell me all about it. Please let it include sex with a super model." He lifted his eyebrow and moved to sit across the table from me. Everyone else milled around in small groups, laughing and having a good time.

"What? No. Shit, I wish." I opened the bag of chips and glanced up at him. "You don't need to be thinking about that stuff though. You have a pretty wife and a little one on the way."

"Yeah. They're my world, man. I keep thinking I'm going to miss my wild-ass days-"

"Like yesterday?" Zander plopped down next to me and pushed his shoulder against mine. "Hey boss. What's shaking?"

"Hey man." I turned my attention back to Jeremy. "So this morning I helped some dude with his car because it broke down in the middle of Third Avenue-"

"You're such a saint. I wish there were more men like you in the world." Annie sat down beside Jeremy across from me. "And he even ruined his good white button down shirt over it."

"Not the Brooks Brothers shirt, right?" Jeremy's face paled.

"Shut up, dude. Nobody cares about a Brooks Brothers shirt." Zander swatted at Jeremy across the table. We acted like teenage boys most days of the week, Annie included.

"Keep going and save us from another conversation over Jeremy's obsession with these shirts. Please."

I laughed. "The guy was Seth Martin. I didn't recognize him at first because he looked like shit, as most of us would from pushing a car across the road in eighty-four degree weather, which, by the way, is ridiculous."

"Eighty-four is blistering hot," Annie complained.

"Try one hundred-five degrees. That's Dallas in the summer." I rolled my eyes at them. New York had some pretty bad hot spells, but without the humidity it was different - better - more tolerable.

"So Seth Martin, hmm? That's kick-ass. You know your brother has been trying to get an account started with him for the last three years or so." Jeremy picked up his sandwich and took a big bite of it. "Any luck?"

"I wasn't going to try and sell the poor guy anything, but he gave me his card and said to call him. He picked up on who I was pretty quickly."

"Yeah, who wouldn’t? You're the youngest millionaire in the city." Zander chuckled. "Tell us your secrets."

"A ruthless unethical brother?" I smirked as everyone laughed and dove into their lunches for the next few minutes.

Jeremy broke the silence with a subject that I knew was coming, and yet still felt myself almost bent over about.

"So tell us more about this girl your brother is dating." Jeremy wiped his mouth on his napkin and sat back in his chair. "I've seen her a few times at various events, but-"

"Wait. You've seen her?" My voice rose enough to gleam the attention of the room. "Sorry... just excited about the event tonight." I leaned toward him and lowered my voice. "Details. Now."

"Hold up." Zander backhanded me on the arm. "You haven't met a girl that your brother has been intimately dating for the last three years? Are you guys not as close as you make it seem? That's crazy, bro."

"No, we are, but we usually stay out of each other’s private life. He's nervous I'll steal anyone he picks up." I waited for the laugh that should have come, but they just shook their heads as if they completely understood. "I was kidding, you idiots. We just keep our private lives to ourselves. We always have. Now, tell me what she looks like."

"Hot. She's fucking sick hot." Zander stood up and stretched. "The type of girl we all want to parade around this plastic city and show off the real deal to."

"She's just a washed up cheerleader type. Big boobs, blonde hair, great skin. Blah." Annie stood up and struggled before walking toward the food table.

"Why is she complaining?" Jeremy asked. "She's a pretty girl too."

"No clue. Give me details." I leaned in a little, feeling like a ten-year-old boy who wanted access to the treasure map of a lifetime.

"Annie hit it on the head, but the girl isn't washed up at all. She's beautiful. Exquisite is the word I would use. She's got dirty blonde hair down past her shoulders, big blue eyes and a smile that leaves your heart fluttering in your chest. She's got that look that says she's intelligent and ready to rule the world, but there's something underneath it all."

"How do you know so damn much about her?" Zander pressed his hands to the back of his chair and leaned over.

"We went to that poker tournament last year for Luke. He had to bow out, so I went in his place." Jeremy shrugged. "You were closing that McMillian deal. Remember?"

"I remember that. All too well." I took a quick sip of my soda. Everything they'd said collectively added up to Olivia being my Olivia, but maybe I was stretching too far. "This woman is from Tangling, right?"

"Yeah." Jeremy pulled his phone out. "Here... I'll just look up the website and show you a picture."

Ice water ran through my veins. Did I want to see her again? The year before getting her resume had almost been too much. It had unwound my resolve to get over her and get on with my life, which left me fucked and still single at twenty-five years old.

"Well, fuck. I'm guessing your brother won her over." Jeremy glanced up as a smile lifted his lips. "Her picture has been taken off their site. She must have agreed to come over here to work for us, or gotten a better offer. She graduated at the top of her class from NYU about a year ago. Whether she's Luke's girlfriend or not, the woman knows her shit. We're going to benefit greatly by having her here."

"It will make the place prettier if nothing else." Zander laughed and stood up as I popped him in the stomach and turned back to Jeremy.

"What was she like? You said she had a look that said she could rule the world, but what was she like? You spent an evening playing as her poker partner, right?" I forced myself to sit back in my chair and take a few more bites of my sandwich even though my stomach was threatening to revolt.

"She's great, Caden. She's warm and friendly, knows how to joke and have fun." He smiled as if a memory fluttered by his vision. "She's the kind of woman I could see you with, but not Luke."

"Why not Luke?" I crossed my arms over my chest as the overwhelming need to protect this girl raced through me.

"Let's be real right now. Your brother is a dick that sleeps with anything that moves. You know he's cheating on that poor girl. She doesn't deserve that shit. She's classy, man. Unless she's the world’s greatest actress, and then I'm the idiot in all of this." He stood up and gathered his trash. "Either way, I'm thrilled she's coming to work here. I hope it works out. She's awesome."

"Do you have proof that he's cheating on her, or are you just basing it on the fact that he's Luke?" I tossed the rest of my sandwich back onto my plate. There was no way in hell this was
my
Olivia. She wouldn't date a dickwad like my brother. She held herself to far too high of a standard. Hell, the fact that she'd dated me for seven years when I had no plans for a life beyond football was a miracle in the making.

"He's Luke. He's cheating on her." Jeremy walked away and left me to stew in my thoughts alone. If my brother was cheating on this girl then I needed to tell him to tread lightly. It wasn't my fucking business at all, but bringing her into the firm would only give her more insight to the real him. I wasn't sure that was something Luke wanted.

"Jeremy." I looked over my shoulder. "What's her last name?"

"It's something weird. Detrom? Desrand?"

Luke walked into the room and rolled his shoulders, obviously catching the ass-end of our conversation. "It's Olivia Desmant. Why?"

"No reason." I turned back around as my heart broke. Fuck my life. It
was
her.

Chapter 7

Olivia

"No fucking way." Dana walked around my bedroom as I laid on the bed with my hands pressed to my face. To say I was a hot mess would have been a vast understatement.

"Yes. I'm an idiot. I should have looked into it the minute I met Luke."

"What? Why? Taylor is a really common last name, Olivia. Cut yourself some slack. These kinds of things don't happen, well, not to most people. You just seem to be uncommonly unlucky."

"Thanks." I rolled over and pressed my face to the bed. "I have to break up with Luke."

"What? Hell no." She crawled up on the bed and lay down on her side, propping herself up with her elbow. "You're not breaking up with Luke. You're going to show Caden Taylor that your life is all you wanted it to be. He fucked things up back in high school. Hopefully he's suffering."

"My life is nothing like I want it to be." I rolled back onto my back as a sob lodged in my throat. "I've just buried everything so deep inside of me that I've created a new life around it. A fake set of goals and ambitions that have little to do with who I really am... who I was."

Hot tears burned the sides of my face as I counted the ceiling tiles and prayed that the floor would open up and swallow me whole.

"Then get back to being you." Dana reached over and brushed my hair from my face. "And don't you change a damn thing for that bastard."

"What if he's not a bastard?" My voice broke as I rolled on my side to face her. I hadn't felt so insanely vulnerable in more than six years. Caden Taylor wasn't just in the city, but at the firm I was going to work for, at the party I was going to that night, the brother of my lover.

"Then we work through it day by day. Moment by moment." She wiped a tear from my face. "You remember when your dad used to say that all the time?"

"Yeah. I do." I discarded the memory as I didn't need another reason to cry. Caden was enough. My father dying my freshman year of college was still too real. Too raw. Even after five long years had passed. I'd created a new me. One that fit beautifully next to Luke and would one day rule the world of finance, but I didn't feel much like that solid fortress in the moment.

"We're going to that party tonight and when you see him... you have two choices."

"Fuck no." I shook my head and sat up. "There is no way I'm going tonight. I can't imagine seeing him after all these years."

"I bet he looks like heaven." She sat up and bumped her shoulder against mine.

"Wait. Are you for him or against him?" I moved to the edge of the bed and glanced back at her.

"I don't know." She shrugged and flopped back down. "I feel like people deserve a second chance and maybe we didn't get the full story in high school, you know? I mean, seven years of being the best boyfriend ever and then you guys sleep together and he's all of a sudden a horrible asshole that doesn't give you the time of day?"

"I was a lousy lay. At least that's what he told everyone. Remember?" I swallowed my regret and got up. I wasn't a lousy lay anymore. I'd slept with enough guys to prove to myself that I was possibly the best lay in all of New York. I ignored just how badly that same truth hurt the parts of me that only wanted one man in my bed for life. That girl was dead and buried. Weak and stupid to believe in such a thing.

"That's bullshit and you know it." She rolled off the bed and stood up. "We're going tonight. You need to face the past and show it, or really him, that you're good. Put this to bed tonight."

"And if I crumble?" Tears blurred my vision. "If I can't keep the part of me that wanted him beside me forever tucked away, then what, Dana? Are you going to rescue me? Take me back to Dallas with you and help me start over?"

"You're not running from your life over this idiot. It was high school. You have to find a way to make peace with this. It's been fucking with you far too long."

I walked to the closet to grab the sexiest dress I had. "What if this was never supposed to be my life in the first place? What if it was just a way to recreate myself?"

"Then run hard and fast. Ignore me completely, because of all the people in my life... you're the last one I would have ever wanted to see change. Face him tonight and figure out what happened."

*

Nerves tore up my insides as we drove toward Kadia. I had to get Dana to drive because my hands were shaking so bad it looked like I had a form of turrets. Bile rose in my chest and threatened to put me on my hands and knees before the closest toilet if I didn't chill the fuck out.

"You all right?" Dana reached out and squeezed my hand softly.

"I will be when this is over. I'm going to have to go in completely bitch mode to survive this shit." I swallowed and reached up to turn the air conditioner vents toward me.

"I'll be right beside you all night. If you need to get out of there, we'll leave. If you need me to divert him, you just give me the look and I'll step in."

I laughed in spite of my insides turning to mush. "You remember back in school when we used the code words, ‘dill pickle’ to get help from a shitty situation?"

She laughed loudly. "Yes. Why did we pick such stupid words? Do you know how hard it was to squeeze in the words 'dill pickle' in the middle of a conversation with someone so you would know I needed help?"

I chuckled and pointed to the club. "Right up here on the left. The big, beautiful place with all of the lights."

"Is Luke already here? I'm looking forward to meeting this guy you've changed your persona for." She snorted and pulled up to the front of the club.

"I didn't change anything for him. Me changing just drew his crooked ass in like a moth to the flame." I got out of the car and ran my hands down the front of my black cocktail dress. I'd gone for business sexy instead of all out sexy. Grabbing Caden's attention and showing him what he was missing was only one of my objectives for the night. The other was to actually impress some of the people in Luke's office just in case I decided there was some way I could still take the position with him.

From a career standpoint, it was just smart, a great new step. From an emotional standpoint, I was fucking myself hard without lubrication. It was ugly.

"You look incredible." Dana moved up beside me and slipped her arm into mine. "You just stick beside me and I'll get you liquored up enough to relax."

"Please do." I smiled at my pretty dark-haired friend. The dark hues of her skin mixed with her warm brown eyes left me smiling. Caden would probably be quite surprised to see she'd grown up from the wiry little tomboy she'd been when we were kids to the beautiful girl she was now.

Had I changed at all? Being head cheerleader of our high school and fit as a fiddle back then, it would seem that if I did, it would be for the worst.

"Stop trash talking yourself and lift your chin," Dana mumbled from beside me as we walked into the expansive club.

"What? How did you know?" I forced a laugh as I pulled my I.D. from my wallet and showed it to the bouncer at the door.

"Your chin is pointed down and your shoulders are rounded. I've known you my whole life, remember? Hello." She snorted and pointed up to the third floor. "Why is it so dark up there?"

"Sex room from what the whispers on the street say." I shrugged and pulled my arm from her grasp. The last thing I wanted to do was to let anyone think I had a weakness. Luke only knew what I wanted him to know about me, which wasn't much. Our relationship was only surface deep, which was a good thing, seeing that it was going to most likely be over soon. There was no way in hell I could keep dating him or rather marry him with the notion that Caden and I would then be tied together forever.

Fuck that.

"Oh my. How is the most beautiful creature in the world tonight?" Luke's hand slid over my hip and pressed to my stomach as he flattened his chest to my back and leaned down to kiss my neck a few times. "Hmm... how's my girl?"

"Great." I turned and kissed him before moving back. "Luke, this is my best friend, Dana."

He smiled and offered his hand. "Dana, so nice to meet you. I was starting to think that Olivia might keep everything about her past from me, but it's nice to see that maybe I was wrong."

"I'm not the only one with secrets." I gave him a cheeky grin and brushed my hand down his chest. He had a swimmer's body, lean and strong, but not at all the type of man that could make my body ache. His brother on the other hand...
Stop it.

"Get you a drink and join us over there. I want to introduce you to everyone." He kissed the tip of my nose and ran his hand over my side to squeeze the top of my ass. "You mind if I tell them you're a new investment advisor that's considering working for us?"

"And your girlfriend? Oh, the stigma I'll have to overcome." I pushed at his chest a little.

"I quite like the idea of giving them something to talk about." He winked and glanced toward Dana. "But then again, Olivia will tell you that I'm quite the attention whore."

"Amongst other categories of whore." I chuckled and turned toward the bar, motioning for Dana to join me.

"Damn," she mumbled. "He's insanely hot."

"You should see his brother." I sighed and stood in front of the bar top. "He's only gotten better with age."

"That's scary." She glanced over her shoulder.

"Tell me about it." Every cell in my body woke up at the thought of seeing him in person again. It had been far too long, and as scared as I was... I was equally excited.