AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They had been brothers for thirty years. Never had they not had each other’s back. Not once. And there had been plenty of times that Gabe had saved the behind of his rebellious teenage brother hell-bent on wreaking havoc.
Cole released a long breath before turning to make his way inside his suite to replenish his drink.
“I’ll be there,” he promised.
Four
He really hates me.
Jillian took a deep sip of champagne as she stared across the original CRESS restaurant at Cole. When she’d walked into the Midtown Manhattan restaurant filled with nerves but still feeling beautiful in her elegant attire, she never assumed his anger was still so visceral that he would barely glance at her when their paths crossed.
It was as if she hadn’t existed.
“Hello, Cole,” she’d said with a smile.
“Jillian,” was his cold and clipped response as he’d barely broken his stride past her.
It hadn’t helped that he’d looked dark and sexy in his tuxedo with a crisp haircut and groomed shadow of beard. Just a gorgeous man. With an equally devastatingly fit body. She remembered it well.
“Jillian! It’s so good to see you!”
She shifted her gaze to find Monica walking toward her in a white satin gown that fit her curvy frame like a second glove. “Wow. Love and lots of money suit you. You look gorgeous,” she exclaimed as they shared a hug.
They’d both served at the pleasure of the Cress family as chef and maid. During that time, they had been friendly but not close. Still, it was good to see her. And in that moment of nursing hurt feelings because her former lover had treated her as a stranger; Jillian could use a friendly hug.
“You’re the one. I love this,” Monica said.
She stepped back to eye Jillian from her upswept curls to her sheer black, exposed-corset bustier draped with black-sequined fabric across her breasts and around her waist to trail down one leg of the satin palazzos she’d paired with the daringly risqué top.
“Thank you,” Jillian said, trying to forget she’d wondered what Cole’s reaction would be to her ensemble when she’d selected it last week from an exclusive women’s boutique in San Francisco.
All for nothing.
“Congratulations on the new position,” Monica said, stopping one of the uniformed waiters who passed by with a tray of flutes filled with vintage champagne.
Jillian remained silent to the praise. Her eyes had locked on a beautiful redhead with reality-defying breasts, uplifted by the bodice of her strapless emerald-green dress, saunter up to Cole and press a kiss to his cheek. She wound her arm around his. The move was clingy and possessive.
“Ohhhhh,” Monica said, drawing the word out.
Jillian glanced over at her. “What?” she asked, feeling her heart pound.
“So, it was Cole with the naughty note of the ‘taste of you lingering on his tongue’?” Monica asked with a sly look before taking another sip of her champagne.
Last year, Monica had been cleaning the kitchen and found one of Cole’s sexy notes in Jillian’s monogrammed cutlery bag. When she’d attended her first event with Gabe at the Cress townhouse as his girlfriend—surprising everyone including Jillian—she had asked which of the Cress men had written the note. Jillian had kept the truth a secret.
Until now.
“What gave it away?” Jillian asked.
“The look you just gave Cole and Kimber,” Monica said. “So, I assume you kept your word of it ending once you left your job at the Cress townhouse.”
Silly of me.“Something like that,” Jillian said.
“Well, this should be good because the last thing Nicolette wants strutting around a Cress, INC. event is a woman with low IQ and high hem,” Monica said.
“I’m sure he’s just fine with both,” Jillian drawled, chancing another look across the restaurant.
They weren’t in the same spot.
