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“Both, Harper,” he bites out. “I have this under control. I have everything under control.”
“From where I’m standing, that’s questionable.”
Shock runs through me at the sound of Eric’s voice. I rotate to face the door to find him standing there, looking like a rebel with a cause, his dark hair a rumpled sexy mess, his jaw shadowed, and apparently, he left his suits in his hotel room, at least today. He’s dressed in faded jeans and a Bennett Enterprises T-shirt that hugs his hard body, his brightly inked arms in full, colorful display, his message clear:The bastard is home. What are you going to do about it?And when his blue eyes meet mine, they burn a path along my nerve endings, and deliver yet another message, one meant for me and me alone—I’m here for you.
Chapter fourteen
Harper
Ican’t breathe with Eric’s unexpected appearance, with the proof that he didn’t ignore my email, that he didn’t ignore my plea for help. He simply answered me in person, but when Isaac demands, “What the fuck are you doing here, Eric?” I’m suddenly trapped, a rat in a cage between two bigger beasts, and I don’t know how to react. I don’t know if this is what Eric wanted.
“Good to see you, too,” Eric says dryly.
Isaac leans on the desk, perfectly manicured hands pressed to the hardwood surface. “Seriously, Eric,” he says. “Whatthe fuckare you doing here?”
Eric doesn’t look at me. He focuses on his brother, his lips, those beautiful lips that I know to be oh-so-punishing when he wants them to be, lifting ever so slightly. “I’m family,” he says, those words pure sarcasm. “Why the fuck haven’t I been here soonershouldbe your question, but you know, you never call, you never write. It’s really heartbreaking.”
Isaac narrows his eyes on Eric and he pushes off the desk, unbuttoning his suit jacket and settling his hands on his hips, his gaze raking over his brother—no, his bastard brother. “You can’t afford a suit with all those millions I hear you made?”
“A billion,” I say before I can stop myself. “He’s a billionaire now.”
Isaac’s attention rockets to me. “Bullshit.”
“It’s true,” I assure him, because while yes, I’ve randomly read up on Eric’s successes, Gigi told me before I ever left for Denver. “He just hit the billionaire mark.” I can feel Eric’s attention settle on me, heavy and sharp, and I suddenly regret those words. Now, it seems like I went to him, chasing his money.
My gaze snaps to his, the connection jolting me—my God, this man affects me. “You’re very successful. That was my point.”
“Was it now?” he says, shadows in his eyes that I do not wholly understand, but I am certain they relate to the bastard and the princess, and not in a good way. He thinks I’m one of them. He thinks I went to him with an agenda that wasn’t what I claimed. He thinks I used him and now, he’s here to make us all pay.
“I have work to do and so does Harper,” Isaac snaps. “We’ll have to have the happy reunion charade later.”
Eric dismisses this idea in four words. “Later won’t work for me.” He advances into the room, all long-legged swagger, to stop in front of Isaac’s desk. “I’ve been hired to do a full audit of the company’s operations and paid well enough to ensure I’m willing to spend time here.”
My cheeks heat with anger and embarrassment. I’m right. He’s not here for me. Gigi paid him. Of course, she did. I told her not to. I told her that would change the dynamic of his presence here. Isaac laughs. “No one paid you to audit our operations. I’m the president and my father damn sure wouldn’t have called you in.”
I grip the back of a chair, my only shield in the war of brothers I’ve never quite experienced until now. I wonder if I knew how bad it was would I have gone to Eric, but who am I fooling? I would have seized any excuse to see Eric again. I all but craved another encounter with him. I still do, even knowing now that he most likely isn’t here to help me.
Eric perches on the edge of Isaac’s desk, power radiating off of him as if he’s just taken ownership of the entire room. “You’re scared shitless that Pops is up to his old games, aren’t you?”
There’s a flicker of something in Isaac’s eyes that he quickly banks, but I saw it and if I saw it, Eric saw it. “I’ve earned my place here. He trusts me. So, no, asshole. I’m not afraid of anything that has your name attached to it.”
“No?” Eric presses, his hand settling on his powerful thigh, muscle flexing beneath his ink, a portion of the jaguar exposed, lines of numbers beneath it. I wonder about those numbers. I wonder if he wanted that jaguar to be exposed to mock everyone in this building, including me.
“No. We both know you rode Grayson Bennett to the bank. Is there trouble in paradise? You need a new ride? It’s too late for that.”
“You’re not afraid of anything with my name attached,” Eric repeats. “Interesting and good to know. That’ll make it easy for me to get everything I need from you.”
“The only thing you need from me is a kick in the ass to get out of my office. I have work to do.” He swats at Eric like he’s a gnat, the bastard brother, only this bastard brother is a billionaire who is smarter than him. I fight my urge to protect Eric. He can protect himself and I’m terrified that Gigi has given him the opening to destroy us.
“You’ll get himwhatever he wants.”
At the sound of Gigi’s voice, I turn to find her standing in the doorway, and at five-foot-one with flaming red hair and piercing blue eyes, she might be seventy-seven, but she’s a force to be reckoned with. “You underestimate me, boy,” she snaps, her voice louder than one would expect her capable of at her advanced age, but her hand trembles, and I swear Isaac does as well. “I told you I need to know what’s going on,” she adds, curling her fingers into her palms. “You told me to rock away in my rocking chair, which by the way, I don’t own a rocking chair.”
“Grandmother—”
“Gigi,” she amends. “I’m Gigi around these parts, the woman who started this place, like Harper’s father started her family’s business. Now let’s get real for once. Either there’s something going on you don’t want to tell me about or there’s something you don’t know. Your brother will figure it out.”
“No,” Isaac says in instant rejection. “No, he will not. There’s nothing going on here but normal business. You will not disrupt our operation. You’re getting old and paranoid.”
