“I have to do something,” I argued.
“No, you don’t. Just listen.”
“That is a matter for family court,” the irritated man said from his spot on the bench. “Take it up with them. Motion to dismiss is denied.”
“There’s no way they’ll pursue it.”
“How do you know?” I asked. “Natalie is a vindictive bitch.”
“With the charges she’s facing, even a first-year law student would keep her away from any unnecessary legal proceeding. Especially family court.”
“You’d better be fucking right.”
“Even if they did file charges, I doubt there is a judge in California who wouldn’t dismiss the case immediately given the circumstances.”
He was right, I had absolutely nothing to worry about, other than the fact I was ready to commit multiple felonies over a ridiculous empty threat. I would have felt that way about anyone being unjustifiably threatened, right?
Unfortunately, I knew the answer was something to the effect of “Hell no.”
Juli
Before Thomas, it had been quite a while since I’d been fucked hard enough to make sitting uncomfortable, but for the third, or fourth, time in a month, I found myself squirming in my chair. This time, I just happened to be sitting in one of the most expensive restaurants in Southern California.
Across from me, Marina hadn’t missed a thing. My first adjustment had her raising a brow in question. Realization dawned on her after the second. The third invoked some empathy. With every subsequent movement and wince, she fought back laughter.
If only she knew who had put me in such a state. Even with several hours of separation, I still had no idea what to think of the situation. I’d gone straight to my home office, made a few calls, and had dinner arranged before rush hour.
Brady was in town, and there was no way he hadn’t already had plans, but he and I both knew there was no way he’d miss taking another ride on the fame train.
The breakup rumors Finn had told me about turned out to be more saturated than the previous round, so we had to act quickly and up our game. Brady and I drew attention so Marina and Tate could slip into the restaurant unnoticed, but once we were all seated, we became fast and loose with their identities.
Even with the sky-high prices and a solid reputation, the establishment hadn’t afforded the rich and famous much privacy over the past few weeks. Speculation ran through the office that a server was selling cell phone pics to the tabloids, which was exactly why I chose the place.
With the rumors floating around, having them go out alone would seem too obvious since they were notorious homebodies. So I set up a double date, which would be a little more believable, even if it was with their publicist. Since Brady and I had already been seen in public together, he was the natural choice. As annoying as he and Saul had been, if I’d shown up with anyone else, it would’ve made me seem like the tramp that I was and the assumption would have rubbed off on my friends by association.
Since the moment the four of us settled at the table, Brady had constantly been touching me and moving too far into my personal space.
After we finished our appetizers, Brady, who was seated on my right, leaned in and nuzzled my ear. While the sensation of his warm breath on my neck would have dampened most women’s panties, as usual, it made me want to crawl out of my skin. Instead of jerking away, I turned to face him in an attempt to put a little bit of distance between us.
But it didn’t work. Instead of backing away to give me room as I shifted in my seat—which, of course, made me wince—he stayed still, leaving mere inches between our faces. In my peripheral vision, I caught Marina and Tate leaning in close, making lovey eyes at each other, and knew I couldn’t ruin the moment by pulling away.
Before I could figure out an escape route for my lips, Brady’s crashed into them, which ruined the scene in a different way.
Never having seen me do more than what was necessary to draw attention, my friends looked on in shock as Brady plundered my mouth. From my terrible angle, I couldn’t see them clearly, but Marina looked almost disgusted and Tate appeared as if he were about to Hulk-out on my dinner companion.
As I was trying to discreetly push him away without making any more of a scene, Brady was forcibly pulled off of me. The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed through the now-quiet restaurant.
I freaked.
“Tate, no!” I couldn’t let him be involved in a fight, even if he was defending my honor. But as my brain attempted to sort out what was going on around me, I saw Tate still sitting next to Marina, looking concerned as well as mildly embarrassed.
Turning my attention to the scuffle, my heart beat double-time. Fear? Anger? Embarrassment? Lust? No way could it be lust. But as I heard, “Don’t you fucking touch her! She’s mine!” I didn’t have a say in the matter. At the sound of the possessive words, my poor, abused pussy was ready for another round.
Shaking off the disturbing nature of my thoughts, I got to my feet and tried to pull Thomas off of Brady. Short of flashing my tits in his face, there wasn’t anything I could physically do to get him to stop. Instead, I got as close to him as I safely could in the given situation and said, “What’s going to happen to your son if you go to jail?”
Brady’s body man sucked. Thomas had already begun to calm down by the time he came to break up the fight. Drew and Sam had come out of nowhere, flanking Marina and Tate before Thomas had laid a hand on Brady.
“You’re gonna pay for that, motherfucker!” Brady spat at Thomas. “I’m pressing charges!”
Getting between the two riled up men, I caught Brady’s eye and quietly said, in what I hoped was a menacing tone, “You will do no such thing. If you know what’s good for your career, you won’t even think of getting on my bad side. I don’t care how much your contract is worth to Tremont, I
will
ruin you.”
With an ugly snarl on his typically handsome face, he turned and let his bodyguard escort him from the premises.
“You guys should go home,” I said to my shell-shocked friends. “I have a big mess to clean up, and it’ll be best if we put a lid on the live action part of the evening.”
As Drew and Sam led them toward the kitchen to exit through the back door, I turned to Thomas. The heat of the moment was over, and whatever feelings I had were no longer of the sexy variety. “What the fuck was that!” I’d said those exact words to him three times in one day, but this time, I was fucking pissed.
“Hell if I know!” He had no right to be angry. Fucker.
Seeing someone had thrown a wad of cash on the table, I stormed out of the restaurant and headed to the valet stand to see about getting a cab. Before I could make my request, Thomas reached over my shoulder and handed a ticket and what appeared to be a few twenties to the attendant.
“I’m sorry, okay?” Thomas said, his mouth close to my ear. I hated that his proximity didn’t creep me out the way Brady’s had. “Thanks for looking out for me in there.”
Crossing my arms in a huff, I replied, “I did it for Colton.” Even though I knew Thomas wasn’t stupid enough to bring him along, my eyes instinctively looked for him anyway. “Where is he?”
“We were visiting my parents when he showed me a picture someone tweeted of you looking really uncomfortable. He’s still there.”
“You just left him there?”
“My parents don’t live very far from here, and he more or less shoved me out of the house.”
“Why would he do that?”
“If you haven’t noticed, he’s rather protective of you.” Looking away, Thomas added, “Apparently, he isn’t the only one.”
“I don’t need you to rescue me. I’m not a damsel in distress. He wasn’t hurting me.” I’d always taken care of myself just fine. Having Thomas swoop in like he thought he was a fucking superhero was irritating as fuck.
“I’m sorry. I know you can handle yourself—you’re the toughest chick I know—but I couldn’t stand the thought of him touching you, let alone the sight. When I saw you struggling, I wasn’t able to stop myself if I wanted to, and I didn’t want to.”
The valet pulled up with Thomas’s car. “Did you get a ride here?” When I nodded, he asked, “Will you let me drive you home? We can stop and pick up Colton so he can see for himself that you’re all right. I’m sure he’s seen the entire thing online by now.”
“Shit. I have to work.” Part of what made me excellent at my job was my ability to sit back and watch for a while. Jumping the second something happened—reacting before the entire picture came into focus—was never a good idea. Sometimes the wait was an hour, sometimes a day, sometimes a week. I could use my phone to keep an eye on things from anywhere, including Thomas’s car while he ran in to get Colton. “Okay.”
Fucking confused, I knew how I justified the act of getting into Thomas’s car, but I had no idea
why
I did it. We rode in silence for about ten minutes before pulling up in front of a rather large house.
“You ready?” he asked as he shifted the car into park.
“I’ll wait here.” Ready to check out the initial damage, I retrieved my phone from my purse and pulled up the web browser.
“You know he’s going to be loud and hyper when he sees you. If you come in, that energy will disburse throughout a large space. If you stay, it’ll be confined to this little car.”
“How about I get out and lean against the car while I wait?”
“How about you come in and wait in the foyer?”
“Why do you want me to come in so badly?”
The argument became moot when light flooded the front of the house and Colton bounded through the front door, immediately followed by a woman who appeared to be in her mid- to late-fifties.
Thomas jumped out of the car while I stayed rooted in the seat. Colton was no longer scary, but Thomas’s mother—she was fucking terrifying.
Staying as still as I could and praying to go unnoticed didn’t have a very good chance of working, but it didn’t have an opportunity to fail on its own when Thomas’s irritating ass came around the car and opened my door.
There was no fucking way to get out of it now.
Colton bolted straight for me, and his grandma was hot on his heels. Before I could brace myself, the kid nearly plowed me over. I likely would have fallen on my ass if Thomas hadn’t been standing behind me, ready for the impact.
“Juli!” Colton yelled. “Did Dad really beat up Stryker? Did you see the pictures?”
Within seconds of being released from his vise-like hug, the latest model iPhone was shoved in my face. On the screen, there stood Thomas, fist drawn, looking angry as fuck.
Marina and Tate were obscured in the photo, thank God, but this would not look good for Thomas when he had to go back to court to deal with Natalie and any unresolved custody issues.
Colton’s fingers flew over the screen, showing me site after site gossiping about the incident. There was no question about it—the kid was good.
When his phone was still for more than half a second, I noted it was only about eight thirty, which wasn’t surprising based on how long we’d been at the restaurant before dinner was disbanded.
“What’s your bedtime on weekends, kid?” I asked as I tried to focus on Colton’s phone. Or better yet, trying to focus on anything other than the woman whose gaze I could feel locked onto me as she chatted with her son a few feet away.
“Nine thirty.” Colton looked at me with mischief in his pale blue eyes and then instantly transformed into a sad puppy. “Daddy? Can I stay up late? It isn’t a school night, and I haven’t seen Juli for a long time.”
This kid was better than good. If Thomas didn’t think acting was a waste of time, I’d definitely take him on as a client. My stomach soured at the remembrance of what Thomas thought of my job, but I didn’t have the time or desire to think about it.
“We’re dropping Juli off at home, so there won’t be a reason for you to stay up.”
The little bastard turned those sad eyes on me, and even though I’d watched him get into character and knew it was all a manipulation, it still got to me. “Wanna come over and hang out for a little while? Please?”
“I can’t, sweetie. I don’t have my car, so once you go to bed, I wouldn’t have a way home,” I explained, hoping he wouldn’t think of taxis or Uber and no one else would bring it up.
“You could spend the night again.” The pouty face was gone and in its place was one full of hope.
Without thinking, I looked up, trying to find a way to get out of this, but found Colton’s father wearing an identical expression, and his grandmother was as close to beaming as she could be without having light bulbs in her eye sockets.
“Hello, dear, I’m Jeane. You must be Julianne.” Without missing a beat, she moved into my personal space and hugged me. The woman who gave birth to the man who’d fucked me so hard my pussy still ached was hugging me.
It wasn’t one of those fake, polite, stiff, barely touching, rich people hugs. It was a full-on, mama-bear hug you’d expect to get after not having seen your mother in years. The kind I had grown to expect from my own mother.
My face warmed as I realized Colton had asked me to spend the night
again.
How could a mother be happy about a strange woman—even one who was insanely hot and awesome in every way—spending the night with her son and then being invited to do so again by her eight-year-old grandson?
“We’ve heard so much about you,” she said after loosening her hold. Her hands moved to my upper arms and she looked at me the way I’d imagine a four-year-old girl would look at a rainbow-striped unicorn saddled with buckets full of ice cream cones and cotton candy.
“Y-you have?” In complete disbelief and slightly more panic than I’d had before, I turned to Thomas for a reasonable explanation.
“Not from me,” he said, looking completely innocent. Just a few minutes earlier, I’d taken the measure of this branch of the Ramsay family tree and wasn’t sure if I should believe him or not.
As I began debating ways to get the fuck out of there, Jeane came to Thomas’s rescue. “Colton talked about you non-stop after Tom left, and Finn may have mentioned you once or twice.”
That explanation didn’t help. At all. Not even a little. Although Finn’s involvement did explain why she’d called me by my full name.