HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Adrian

10 vouchers

The first sign that something was about to disturb the rhythm of my day came from Felix, who walked into my office without knocking, which he never did unless there was a reason worth interrupting me for.

Julian’s here,” he said.

I didn’t look up immediately from the papers in front of me. “Here as in downstairs, or here as in already walking around like he owns the place?”

The second one.”

I set my pen down slowly, already feeling the familiar tightening that came with hearing that name said out loud in my own building. My half brother had a way of entering spaces like he had been personally invited by the walls themselves, / charming security at the front desk and making the whole floor feel looser within minutes of walking through it.

I stood and walked to the glass wall separating my office from the rest of the floor, and there he was, already deep in conversation with two of the junior staff near the printer, laughing at something one of them said like it was the funniest thing he had heard all week. Julian had that effect on people. He made them feel interesting just by paying attention to them.

People always said we looked alike, and I supposed there was truth to that, the same jaw, similar height, a shared way of tilting our heads when something amused us. But where I held myself like a man permanently bracing for the next problem. Julian moved like nothing in the world had ever truly cost him anything. He smiled easier, laughed louder. touched people’s shoulders when he talked to them like physical space was something other people worried about, not him.

I watched him work his way slowly across the floor, shaking hands, asking names, charming his way through a room of people who had no real reason to fall for it except that he made falling for it feel effortless. And then I saw him stop near Bianca’s desk.

She looked up from whatever she was working on, and I watched the exact moment Julian’s face changed, just slightly, the kind of shift only someone who had grown up watching that face for years would catch. His smile widened, his shoulders straightened, something in his eyes sharpened the way they always did whenever he found something he wanted to spend more time looking at.

He said something I couldn’t hear through the glass, and she smiled back, politely, the kind of smile she gave everyone who wasn’t me. He extended his hand and she took it, and that was when the second thing happened, the thing that made my jaw tighten without my permission.

He held on, not for the normal second and a half a handshake was supposed to last. Longer, long enough that I saw her glance down at their hands briefly, like she had noticed it too but wasn’t sure what to do about it without making a scene over something so small.

Julian leaned in slightly, said something else, and I watched her mouth move in response, something about her position, her role, whatever polite explanation she was giving him about what she did there. He nodded along like every word out of her mouth was the most fascinating thing he had heard in months, and still, his hand stayed wrapped around hers.

Something cold settled in my chest, spreading slowly outward until it reached my fingers, my jaw, the back of my neck. I really felt really uneasy.

I had seen this exact expression on Julian’s face before. I had spent years convincing myself it meant nothing, that it was simply who he was, charming and reckless and ultimately harmless, a man who flirted with waitresses and old women at family functions with the same easy energy, someone whose interest in people burned bright and faded just as fast, leaving no real damage behind once the moment passed.

I had believed that story for a long time, long enough that by the time I learned how wrong I was, the damage had already

13:56 Thu, Jul 2

Chapter 56

10 vouchers

been done, the kind that didn’t undo itself with an apology or a joke or one of Julian’s easy smiles meant to smooth things

over.

I had ended a marriage because of exactly this look on his face, the harmless looking interest that turned into something else the second nobody was paying close enough attention. I had told myself afterward that I would never again mistake that particular smile for something safe.

And now here he was, three years later, wearing that same expression while holding my assistant’s hand a full two seconds longer than any handshake required.

I stood there behind the glass, hands pressed flat against the edge of my desk, and made myself breathe slowly before I did something that would draw more attention to the situation than I wanted.

Reacting visibly would only make it worse, would only give Julian something to notice and enjoy noticing, because if there was one thing my brother loved more than charming a room, it was discovering exactly which strings he could pull to get a reaction out of me.

I was not giving him that satisfaction. Not this time, not with her. I picked up my phone and called Felix before I had even fully worked out what I planned to say.

“Get up here.” I said the second he picked up.

I’m literally three desks away from you, you could just…”

“Felix.”

Something in my voice must have told him this wasn’t the moment for jokes, because he appeared in my doorway less than twenty seconds later, eyebrows raised, clearly trying to read whatever expression I was wearing.

“I need you to give Bianca something to do,” I said. “Now. Something that pulls her away from the floor immediately.”

Felix glanced past me, through the glass, toward the exact scene I had been watching, and something in his face shifted with understanding. He had worked with me long enough to know exactly who Julian was and exactly what history sat underneath that particular look I knew I must have been wearing.

“What kind of something?”

“I don’t care. Make up a meeting. Tell her there’s a file she needs to pull from the archive. Tell her there’s a vendor call that suddenly needs her on it. I don’t care what it is, Felix, I just need her away from him in the next two minutes.”

Felix hesitated for half a second, clearly weighing whether to ask the obvious question hanging in the air between us, why I was suddenly inventing emergencies to separate my assistant from a man who was, on paper, just a visiting relative being friendly with staff. He decided against asking it, which I appreciated more than I said out loud.

“On it,” he said instead, already turning to walk back out.

I watched through the glass as Felix approached her desk a moment later, leaning down slightly to say something I couldn’t hear. Bianca’s eyebrows lifted, surprised, and she glanced briefly toward Julian, offering some kind of polite excuse I assumed Felix had handed her, before gathering a folder from her desk and standing.

Julian’s face didn’t fall exactly, he said something to her as she stepped away, something that made her laugh briefly over her shoulder before she disappeared down the hallway with Felix beside her, already walking faster than the situation probably required.

Julian straightened, looked around the floor once more like a man checking whether anyone else worth his attention. remained, and then turned and walked directly toward my office.

He knocked twice on the glass, and pushed the door open before I had said anything in response.

2/3

23

Chapter 56

10 vouchers

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify