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Stella’s voice faded into background fuzz and his brain blurred in much the same way. It wasn’t hard to admire Taylor before, but now that he’d had his lips on hers, he could easily imagine pressing those lush breasts to his chest and sampling her neck, smelling her soft perfume as he allowed the tip of his tongue to dip into her cleavage...
“Royce?”
By the sound of Stella’s voice, that wasn’t the first time she’d said his name. He jerked his attention to her, raking over Brannon’s grouchy visage on the way. Stella smiled patiently. “The numbers you wanted to share?”
“Yes, thank you, Stella,” he replied evenly. He flipped from one screen to the next on his tablet and pulled up the report, but the numbers stopped him cold. They were wrong. This wasn’t...
Fantastic.
The report he’d queued up was from last quarter, not the careful one he’d been preparing for the bulk of the morning.
“Um... One second.” Aware of every pair of eyes in the room on him, he opened a file in the Cloud and hoped to God he’d remembered to back it up there. Then he remembered he’d emailed it to both Brannon and Taylor. All he needed to do was pull up the sent email to access the correct report. He opened his mouth to tell Stella as much when Taylor spoke.
“I can take that question, Stella.” Warm hazel eyes swept over him, almost slate gray against the backdrop of her black dress. “Royce and I were discussing that this morning, and there was some confusion as to who was presenting. It appears that the numbers for this quarter showed a nice increase going into next...”
Royce, rapt, listened as she smoothly read the numbers he’d crunched this morning, numbers he’d planned on presenting. He hadn’t expected her to take over for him. But she had, sliding in and saving his ass as easily as she’d tugged his mouth down to hers last weekend. Impressed by her knowledge and ease with the topic, he couldn’t tear his eyes off her for a solid minute.
When he did, it was only because he felt Brannon’s gaze pinning him where he sat. Taking in his brother’s ire was nothing new—there were plenty of times when they’d seen the world differently. Their father assured them that it was healthy for brothers to bicker, but Royce didn’t think this situation was what Jack had in mind.
Locked in silent battle with Taylor between them, well... There was nothing healthy about it. It was bordering unhealthy. Royce could feel the animosity radiating off his brother and hoped to God no one else picked up on it.
He wouldn’t stand for it.
Within ThomKnox were their careers—all of them. The entire Knox family’s and Taylor Thompson’s, too. His father was retiring soon and her father had left her with bigger shoes to fill as well. They were the next generation of ThomKnox. Time they started behaving like it.
Royce had never, to his memory, missed his cue in a financial meeting—in any meeting. The wild card that had changed everything?
Kissing Taylor Thompson.
The last intimate moment they’d ever share.
He had to put this behind him—for the sake of their future. His eyes clashed with Gia’s and she quirked her lips in amusement as if saying Something on your mind, big brother?
Yes.
And he couldn’t afford to have his mind anywhere other than work. The company was about to undergo a massive transition. Either Royce or Brannon would be CEO soon—they’d each been groomed.
The smoother the transition went, the sooner they could return to their regularly scheduled programming.
Royce glanced at Brannon, only this time he’d made a decision. He was going to have a conversation with his younger brother—whether Brannon wanted to or not.
