Chapter Fourteen
Artimus
Sitting in Price Stone’s office at the New York Times, I couldn’t help but feel a little odd. The man sat there at his desk, acting as if he was in charge of the whole damn company. Which he wasn’t. I had the distinct impression he was trying to out-alpha me for some reason.
We had already had a bit of an issue getting the interview off the ground in the first place, as he had been entirely unwilling to conduct the interview at my penthouse as I’d initially requested. That alone didn’t leave me with the best impression of the guy, and it just kept getting worse by the second.
Julia sat next to me, fiddling with her cell as Price ran his finger over a sheet of paper, which I assumed had the questions that he’d be asking me written down. He cocked one blond eyebrow then looked at me. “Hmm, this is interesting, Artimus. It says here that you’ve never been married and that you’re thirty-six years old. Is that right?”
“Yes, it is.” I had no idea what the man was getting at or what my lack of wedding bells—or my age, for that matter—had to do with anything.
His lips pulled up to one side as he asked me another question. “Does that mean you’re not entirely heterosexual then?”
Stunned, I sat there in disbelief. Is this jackass kidding? “I am entirely heterosexual, Stone. What are you trying to say? And why is that relevant to WOLF?”
With a shrug, he went on, “Men your age are usually either married or at least divorced. And most men your age have children. Any children no one knows about, Artimus?”
This guy wasn’t turning out to be what I thought he was. I looked at Julia. “I thought you said he was good, Julia. Not some asshole with an agenda to ruin me.”
Julia stopped messing with her cell to look at Price. “The remainder of the questions you ask will be aimed at getting to know Mr. Wolfe and his company,” she tapped her nails on his desk, “I’ve heard you call him by his first name several times and I don’t want to hear that again. He is Mr. Wolfe to you, Mr. Stone. One more irrelevant question and this interview is over.” She held up the consent form to show him. “And I will shred this consent form, and you won’t have one word you can write about Mr. Wolfe. Do you understand me, Mr. Stone?”
All he did was nod and look a bit pissed. But after that, the rest of the interview went fine. I had to admit that Julia had not only surprised me with the way she’d handled the situation, but had impressed me more than she already had in the past. And I’d already found her very impressive.
After the interview was over, she and I got into the back of my car, and the driver took us back to the office. Julia hadn’t been herself the whole time we were in Price Stone’s presence. I wondered if she felt about him the way I had. “That man was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. What did you think of him, Julia?”
She nodded. “That’s a good way of putting it. He gives off a bad vibe.”
He did more than that. “He looks like some upright, great guy. I think it’s the blond hair and blue eyes—they make him look trustworthy and charming, which I doubt he is. I can see right through that man. He’s not what he seems to be.”
“I agree.” She looked out the window, seeming kind of melancholy. “But none of that matters. You don’t ever have to deal with that man again. He’s a thing of the past. Don’t give the jerk a second thought.”
I knew she was right. Why waste an ounce of time or energy on a man like Price Stone?
But I did want to say one more thing. “Julia, he acted like he was jealous, in my opinion. Like it was all some pissing contest to prove he was a better man than me. I can’t figure out any other reason why he’d question my sexuality like that. Do you think he has a thing for you, and that’s why he acted that way?”
She shook her head. “No. I think he’s just an insecure asshole. Now, let’s not talk about him anymore. He leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”
She was right about that. He’d left a bad taste in mine too. So I moved on to other business. Not that it was really business so much as social, and step one in my plan to get Julia to see me in a romantic light. “Do you have any plans for Saturday night?”
“This Saturday night?” she asked as she pulled up the calendar on her phone.
“Yes, this one.” My nerves began to kick in. I took a deep breath to calm them. Please be free.
Tapping the screen of her phone, she said, “I’m free.” She looked at me. “Why do you ask?”
Please say yes. “I’ve been invited to a charity event. The invitation has a plus one, and I thought, since it’s only a day away, that you might go to it with me.” She looked like was on the fence, so I added, “I’d hate to have to try to get a date last minute. I hope you’ll come with me and save me the problem of finding one.”
It was the right approach—she was always ready to help someone who needed it. “In that case, I’ll be happy to go with you. But I have no idea what I should wear to something like this. Do you?”
You’d look great in anything.
I didn’t say that though. “I’ll send something over for you to wear so you’ll feel comfortable and will fit in with the crowd.” I wanted to buy her something anyway. I loved looking at things and picturing her in them. It had become a hobby of mine, although I’d never meant for it to become one.
Julia rarely left my mind. I fell asleep thinking about her, dreamt about her, and even woke up thinking about her. Anytime I found myself without something to think about, there she was.
The event should have some dancing at it, and my arms already ached to hold her while we danced. It would be the first time I’d get to hold her the way I’d been dreaming to. If she could dance. “Julia, do you like to dance?”
She nodded. “I have no idea if I’m any good or not, but I give it my all.”
“That’s good to hear. There should be dancing at this event. I haven’t cut a rug in a while.”
One dark brow cocked. “Oh, you mean like dancing, dancing. Like with partners? Not dancing by yourself, right?”
“Yes, I mean the type of dancing where I lead, and you follow. That kind. Can you do that?” I crossed my fingers on the side of my leg, where she couldn’t see what I was doing. It was childish and silly, but I couldn’t help myself.
Her head bobbed. “It’s been a long time, like probably since senior prom, since I danced that way. But I’m game if you are. I might step on your toes a little at first, so as long as you can handle that, we can give it a try.”
I could handle her stepping on anything. As long as I got to hold her in my arms while she did it. “I think I can handle that.”
“Do you think it’ll be fun?” she asked, her hand sliding through her silky hair.
With her, everything is fun.
“We’ll make sure it is.” Taking my cell out, I pulled up the website of the charity to show her the webpage with all the information about the event. Holding my finger on the web address, I copied it and emailed it to her.
She looked at her phone as it dinged, and didn’t say a word while she checked it over. “This does look cool. The Humane Society does such great things for animals. That’s so nice that you donate to their cause.”
If she thought that was nice, then she’d love what else I did for that cause. “My family has always been a big supporter. I even let the Humane Society foster some of their animals that are harder to place at my home in the Hamptons.” I pulled up some pictures of the various animals who were guests at my home. “Stanley is the trainer I hired to take care of them and teach them how to behave before they’re ready to be put up for adoption.” I showed her a German shepherd that was a biter before Stanley got a hold of him. “Hans Gruber—his former name—is a success story. He was taken away from his owner, who had been using him as a fighting dog. When the police raided a dog fighting club, all of the animals were taken to the Humane Society.”
Julia put her hand over her mouth, her expression one of horror. “That’s horrible.”
“I agree. I took Stanley to see all the dogs and told him to pick out any of them he thought he could rehabilitate into suitable pets. Out of all twelve of those poor dogs, he only picked one who he thought could overcome the torture he’d been through.” I showed her the picture of the poor dog when we first saw him. “This is the way Hans looked before we got him.”
A long sigh came out of her. “There’s such sadness in his dark eyes. It kills me to think he once looked like that. The first picture you showed me made me think he’d never had a bad day in his whole life.”
Nodding in agreement, I put my cell away. “That’s the magic of Stanley. I’ll take you out there to meet him and his rescued animals someday soon. I think you’d enjoy that.”
“To the Hamptons?” she asked with wide eyes. “Wow.”
Looking at Julia in her fine clothing, seeing the way she held herself, and knowing how quickly she had been able to sink into the part of a professional New York City woman, it was easy for me to forget that there was an innocent girl underneath all that. One who had very little experience with life in general, and yet no one would guess that unless they talked to her for a while.
Julia was a mixture of so many things, and I was becoming increasingly certain that I’d never met anyone like her in my entire life—and probably wouldn’t ever again. She was a rare gift, and I was thankful that she had come into my life—no matter what happened between us after this point.
Taking my time with her wasn’t easy, but I thought it was crucial. I wanted to have a deep relationship with her, not like the casual relationships I was used to having.
“My oldest brother had a dog. Mom would only let us have one pet at a time. James’s dog lived until the day he left for college. We all mourned the loss of Petey so much that we agreed never to get another pet again. The sadness was just too much to take.” Julia sighed then looked out the window. “I still think about that dog sometimes. He hated thunderstorms and would hide under the closest bed he could find until the storm was over.”
“The animals at my home aren’t exactly my pets. I’ve never gotten attached to any of them, since I don’t spend any significant amount of time there. I have no idea what it feels like to lose a pet.” I thought about that for a moment and thought how shallow that sounded.
Too many things about me felt shallow. I needed to add some depth in my life. I knew Julia was the reason I was thinking that way. I wanted to be everything she’d ever want in a man. I wanted to be perfect for her, because I thought she was perfect for me.