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I sighed and dropped my phone into my pocket as Samantha opened the meeting room door. “Gentlemen, this is Aidan Winters,” she said smoothly. The brothers introduced themselves—Rob was the taller one, Jared was shorter with shaggier hair—and Samantha looked at me. “Do you have everything you need?”
Everything except you in here, sitting next to me and getting me through this damn meeting. “Yes, Samantha, thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she said politely, leaving and closing the door behind her.
Rob Egerton put his hands in his pockets, his grin exactly matching the shit-eating one on his brother’s face. “Samantha, huh?” he said to me. “Is she single or what?”
“Excuse me?” I said.
“She’s hot, man. Really fucking hot. I mean, that ass.”
Jared Egerton shook his head. “The Man in Black,” he said. “No wonder he’s a legend. He gets the best pussy in New York.”
I looked from one brother to the other, waiting for the shoe to drop for either of them. It didn’t.
Seriously. Why was everyone but me so direly fucking stupid?
“That’s all you have to say?” I prompted them.
“What?” Jared said. “I’m just saying I’d do her, that’s all. No big deal.”
“Okay,” I said to the Egerton brothers. “We’re done.”
“You kicked them out just like that?” Noah laughed through my speakerphone. “You’ve always been ballsy, Aidan.”
“That’s one word for it,” Alex said from Dallas.
Dane said, “What did they say?”
We were on a conference call. I was alone in my penthouse, because I’d been too fucking angry to stay in the office and keep my cool. I was sitting in my home office, my phone on my desk. I had my laptop open and was scanning through reports as we talked. “They were surprised, then they said some shit about me being an oversensitive pussy, and then something about how I would be sorry. I confess I wasn’t listening by then. And then I escorted them out.”
“Don’t mess with the Man in Black,” Alex said. “You don’t even sound angry.”
“Angry?” I raised my gaze from my laptop, thinking. “That’s an interesting thought.”
Dane groaned. “Oh, no. You’re definitely angry. Those guys are fucked.”
“I can behave,” I told him.
“They’re totally fucked,” Alex agreed.
“You’re a cold, cold bastard,” Noah said. It was early in L.A., and I heard him crunching on something, probably cereal. “You have a sliver of ice where your heart is supposed to be.”
I frowned, annoyed. “All right, let me ask officially. Does anyone have a problem with what I did today? An objection to me kicking the Egerton brothers out of the building for referring to my assistant as pussy?”
Silence.
“Speak now or shut up about it forever,” I said. “Three, two, one.”
“It’s fine, Aidan,” Dane said. “They were out of line. We don’t do busin
ess with guys like that.”
“Note to self,” Noah said. “Do not make a comment about Samantha, good or bad. No matter what. Just stay off the topic entirely.”
He was ribbing me, and I was going to argue, but I decided against it. “You know what? You’re right. No comments about Samantha. She’s off limits. I’m bringing her to Chicago, by the way. None of you even breathe in her direction.”
“Jesus, you’ve never talked about a woman like this,” Alex said. “What’s going on?”
