Page 37 of The Tiger in the Sack

Not fast enough.

Huh.

“Welcome back to the Broasis Brotel, Julinator,” Fox said.

“No,” I said, without looking up from dropping my keys on the hook. “We’re not calling it the Broasis Brotel.”

“The Brotel Broasis?”

“Still no.”

Fox rolled his eyes. Then he looked at Jules and winked.

Jules, who had been composed for approximately four seconds, lost several degrees of that composure before getting it back. Her chin came up. Her expression settled into the one I recognized as her armor. The Jules-is-flustered face that she’d been perfecting since she was about six and had realized that seven older brothers meant she could never let anyone see her rattled without immediate tactical disadvantage.

She was flustered.

I filed that away. I was going to need that later.

“You are the chaos agent we need,” Fox said.

“Isak calls me that?”

“Constantly. It’s affectionate.”

Jules considered this with the expression of someone deciding whether to be pleased or suspicious. She moved the popcorn bowl approximately two inches to the left on the cushion beside her, which was not an invitation to sit there.

Fox sat there.

I walked to the fridge, got a water, drank half of it, and stood at the counter thinking about the shoot. About the way Clover moved, the way she had been so damn competent from minute one until she’d dismissed us.

About the fact that I had blurted how hot she was on camera and she’d handled it with more professionalism than I deserved and then moved on without looking at me. I didn’t know what that meant but the not knowing had been sitting in my chest all afternoon like a stone.

Behind me I heard Jules say something low to Fox. Fox laughed quietly.

I did not have the spoons for that. I turned around and glared at them both.

They were on the couch facing me. Jules had the popcorn bowl back in her lap. Fox had a handful of popcorn and was watching me like one of those gifs waiting for the drama to unfold. They had the combined energy of a panel of judges that had already reached a conclusion and was waiting for me to sit down so we could begin.

“Sit down,” Jules said like the friendliest of invitations.

I knew better. “I need to get ready.”

“Oh, yeah? For what, my dear rakish brother?” She tipped her head to the side and smiled, batting her eyelashes at me like the sweetest of baby sisters.

Shit. I was in for it now.

Fox reached for more popcorn and Jules held the bowl out without even looking. “Ooh, yas. Rakish like the Duke of Hastings. Good call, Lady Julesington.”

This was bad. Very, very bad. I did not need an alliance from the two nosiest people in my life. I had to put a stop to this immediately. If not fucking sooner.

I sat in the chair across from the couch. Not the couch. The chair. Some instincts were self-preserving.

Jules looked at Fox.

Fox looked at Jules.

They’d known each other for five minutes and were apparently besties now.