Chapter Five
The next evening Julia let out a sigh of relief at seeing familiar faces sitting at the security desk. She walked over to the front of their station and said, “You both look like you’re feeling better. I’m glad you’re back. Paul, I am so sorry about the other night.”
Slightly older than Paul, Tom was the veteran on their security team and almost always a voice of reason. “It’s hard to believe either of you are still employed here. Can’t I take a day off without all hell breaking loose?”
Paul shrugged and smiled sheepishly. “Hey, I was sick. If you’d been here, I wouldn’t have had to ask Julia to cover the desk, but you took the night off.”
The two men bickered more like brothers than coworkers.
Julia was moved to voice her apology again. “Paul, I feel awful about—”
He waved her concern off. “Eh, don’t worry. I got a warning and a note in my file. Nothing big. How about you? Everyone has been tight-lipped about you actually attacking Mr. Andrade. What did you get?”
Close enough to him that my nights have been filled with spicy dreams about him? Julia choked that honest answer back. “The same. I’m just glad it blew over.” Julia hitched her purse on her shoulder and said, “I guess I should get back there.”
Paul interrupted. “Hey, you didn’t say what happened with your jewelry guy.”
Tom said, “Paul, don’t make her say it. She would have told us if she had good news.”
“Just because you’re married now doesn’t mean you suddenly have deeper insights into everyone with a vagina. Julia and I are friends. Don’t tell me how to talk to her.”
“First, I don’t know a man who uses the word ‘vagina.’ Never say it again. Second, unlike you, I have sisters. You can make a woman cry if you bring up something she failed at. They’re sensitive.”
“How do you know she failed? She may have nailed it.” Paul turned to Julia. “What happened?”
She covered her eyes with one hand and groaned.
Tom said, “See now you’ve upset her. I told you to drop it.”
“Stop telling me what to do.”
“Someone has to. You have the social skills of a gorilla and the vocabulary of an adolescent.”
“Vagina. Vagina. Vagina.”
“That’s really mature.”
The banter of the two overly muscled security guards pulled Julia back from her inner pity party. She lowered her hand and half smiled. “Paul, you were right. The skirt was too short. He wasn’t interested in buying my jewelry. A total creep. And he was married.”
Paul was on his feet in a heartbeat. “Did he touch you? You tell me where he lives and I’ll break his legs.”
Tom frowned and said, “I can’t help Paul. My wife would kill me. But I know someone who does that kind of thing cheap.”
There was something wonderfully reassuring about their support, even if it was a little extreme. “It’s fine, guys. I should have known something was up when he didn’t want to meet me where he worked. He probably isn’t even a buyer. I have a lot to learn about living in the city.”
Paul came around the podium and gave her a hug. “You’re a beautiful woman, Julia. Guys can’t help but want to fuck you.”
Julia pulled back at his words and burst out laughing. Although many women would have found Paul physically attractive, Julia had never viewed him as a romantic possibility. He said whatever came to his mind. Julia had gotten used to his candor, but she couldn’t take him seriously.
He stepped back, seeming to be shocked by his own admission. Then he smiled and shrugged. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
Tom said, “Get over here, Paul. You went too far. You were doing fine . . . and then you had to cross the line. That’s why you’re still single. It’s your mouth. And, Julia, stay away from Paul. He has a hard enough time concentrating without you as a distraction.”
Julia and Paul stood there for a moment longer, smiling guiltily like children who’d just been lectured. Over the last month, the three of them had gotten into this playful cycle of ribbing each other. It was harmless and started all of their days with a smile.
Still laughing, Julia turned to head to the surveillance room and crashed into a much more refined wall of muscle. One that sent a sledgehammer of heat through her. She raised her eyes slowly, shuddering with pleasure as his two strong hands steadied her. If the dark expression on his face was anything to go by, he was not as happy to see her. Barely above a whisper, she said, “Mr. Andrade.”
“Miss Bennett,” he said curtly, but his hands remained on her arms. “I’d like to speak with you for a moment.”
Julia looked back at Paul and Tom and grimaced. “I’ll be right back.”
Gio put a hand forcibly on Julia’s lower back and guided her to the first floor café, which was busy in the mornings but in the evenings was closed and deserted. Once inside, they stood facing each other, so closely that Julia was sure he’d be able to hear what his nearness was doing to her heartbeat.
“Cogent Solutions has a strict no-dating policy among coworkers. That includes the members of my security team,” he said harshly.
So much for how I imagined this conversation would go. Julia blushed and pointed in the direction of the security desk. She hoped he hadn’t heard what Paul had said to her. “We were just kidding around. It’s harmless.”
He leaned a little closer and Julia quickly looked down, afraid her eyes would reveal how he was making her feel.
“You should be more careful, Miss Bennett. A man could get the wrong impression about you.”
Her eyes flew up to clash with his. “I appreciate your concern, Mr. Andrade, but it’s unnecessary. I get along well with both Tom and Paul. We sometimes laugh. It’s what people do when they work together.”
“I don’t like him near you.” His eyes burned into hers.
Her breath caught in her throat. She shook her head, sure that she had misunderstood what she’d heard. “I’m sorry?”
He brushed a thumb softly across her lower lip. “You heard me.” He dropped his hand, spun on his heel, and walked away.
Julia stood rooted to the spot until Gio was out of sight. She sank down into one of the wooden chairs and let out a shaky breath.
I heard you.
I just wish I hadn’t.
It was one thing to fantasize about him. That was harmless. It was completely different and even scary to consider for a moment that he might be attracted to her. Men like him don’t date women like me.
He might try to for a one-night stand.
Maybe he considered it amusing to step outside his usual diet of models to flirt with a regular woman, but in no one’s universe was it a good idea to even consider getting involved with him.
I should have told him I have a boyfriend.
I should have told him it wasn’t appropriate to talk to me like that. But what did I do? I just stood there staring at him like some easy mark. No wonder he thinks I’m interested. I make a complete fool out of myself every time I see him.
I can’t hide in here forever.
Julia stood and straightened her shoulders with determination. Nothing happened. Nothing is going to happen. For all I know, he was teasing me. Maybe he has a sick sense of humor. She shook it off and walked past Tom and Paul, hoping they wouldn’t ask her what the great Mr. Andrade had wanted.
Tom pushed his chair back and stood at her approach. “Julia and the boss? When were you going to tell me about this?”
Paul defended himself. “I didn’t know. The last time I saw the two of them she was trying to kill him with a lamp.”
“This is not good. You have to talk to her.”
“Me? You’re the one who is so great with women.”
Julia broke into their stage-whispered conversation. “I’m fine, Guys. It’s not what you’re thinking.”
With a shake of his head, Tom sat back down. “You’re an awful liar, Julia. I’ve never seen Mr. Andrade do anything inappropriate, but it’s obvious he’s interested in you. Avoid him. I don’t want to see you get hurt.
Julia nodded, rushed to the privacy of her monitor room, closed the door, leaned back, and closed her eyes. Was it possible that Tom was right?
Was Gio seriously interested in her?
And if he was, how was she going to find the strength to avoid him?
By reminding myself that getting involved with him will only lead to heartache? That it would be a distraction I don’t need right now?
Julia sank back into the chair behind the monitors and laid her forehead down on her folded hands.
If I know all of that, why can’t I get this stupid smile off my face?
* * *
Gio paced his home office in his Upper West Side penthouse apartment. He’d brought work home with him, but it was still tucked, untouched, in his briefcase. Although he notoriously worked late, he’d thought a different location would help clear his head.
So far, it wasn’t helping.
He couldn’t concentrate. He groaned as he remembered what he’d said to Julia in the café. She brought out a possessive side of him he hadn’t known he had. He’d wanted to rip her away from the security guards when he’d seen her laughing with them.
He told himself to keep walking. It was none of his business who she spoke to, who she laughed with, unless it affected her job performance. Even then, he wouldn’t normally have wasted his time by getting involved. He would’ve mentioned it to Rena and she would’ve sent an email to the head of the security department.
He had never imagined himself as the type of man who would proclaim he was uncomfortable with any woman’s relationship with her coworkers; like some jealous boyfriend.
And that’s what made Julia dangerous.
He wasn’t himself around her.
I should just fuck her and get it over with.
Nothing breeds contempt better than familiarity. By trying to deny whatever this is, I’m giving it an artificial importance.
For all I know she lives with someone. She may have dated half the men at Cogent while I was away. That possibility alone should be enough to keep me away from her. Getting involved with Julia could get complicated. He didn’t do complicated.
He opened the doors to his balcony and stepped outside, hoping the fresh air would return some of his sanity. As he looked over the skyline of the city, he wondered if what he felt for Julia was merely a side effect of how he’d been feeling lately.
A few months ago, if someone had asked him how he felt about his life he would have said he was comfortable with where he was and what he was doing. His business was thriving. Any drama that had existed within his family was in the distant past. His social life was full, even if it was unexciting when compared to his brother Nick’s.
Unfortunately he had made the mistake of attending a summer function with the side of his family he normally avoided. Seeing his uncles again had rekindled memories of betrayal. And, much like with Julia, he didn’t like how those old emotions threatened the calm he had worked so hard to achieve.
Every time Madison Andrade contacted him, he was reminded of how fake that side of the family was. His uncles often spoke of love and family loyalty, but when he and his brothers had needed them the most, they had proven how hypocritical and self-serving they were. He wouldn’t be fooled by them twice.
Maybe it’s time for me to take a page out of my brother’s book and do something I want to do.
Or, rather, someone I want to do.
A little complication might be just the distraction I’m looking for.