My Step-Dad's Brother(27)

“My assistant should have explained when she called yesterday.” He sent an irritated glance towards his door, as though she could see him. “You’ve been named in Jonathan’s will.”

“Why would he even do that when we’d never met? I mean, I didn’t even know he existed,” I mumbled the last part, cringing a little at blurting it out like that. “When would he have had time to add me to his will?”

“Jonathan was a man who knew how to get things done quickly.” I held back an inappropriate giggle while thinking about how fast my mom had to have moved to get him to marry her so swiftly. Apparently spritzing men’s cologne in a high-end department store finally paid off. “And considering the size of his estate, he didn’t want to leave anything to chance once your mom was a part of his life.”

I couldn’t help but think of all the men who’d paraded through my mom’s world while I was growing up. As different as we were and despite the distance between us, I loved her dearly. It was deeply saddening to know she’d finally met a man who apparently treasured her the way she’d always wanted, only to die shortly afterward.

I stood, intending to step away for a moment to gain control of my emotions before I ended up sobbing in front of a stranger. My stomach had another form of embarrassment in mind instead. The breakfast burrito I’d gobbled down this morning crept back up my throat. My gaze darted around the room, frantically searching for a place where I could vomit. “I think I’m going to be sick,” I mumbled past the hand I’d slapped over my mouth.

The lawyer rolled his chair back and started to pull a trash can out from under his desk. I didn’t have enough time to wait for him and scampered around to his side, falling to my knees and thanking my lucky stars when my puke hit the bottom of the trash can. A couple minutes later, once my stomach was empty, I realized I’d trapped Mr. Wilkinson in his chair because the wall was right behind him. Grabbing the handkerchief he was holding out for me and lifting it to swipe at my lips, I felt my cheeks heat as I rose to my feet again.

“What the hell are you doing here, Jade?” The question was growled from behind me in a raspy voice with which I was intimately familiar. I swiveled on my heel and came face-to-face with Lucas St. James. In his three-piece suit, with his dark hair perfectly styled and chocolate brown eyes glaring daggers at me, he looked nothing like the man who’d left me tousled and naked in a hotel room bed six weeks ago. “And why the fuck were you giving my dad’s lawyer a blow job under his desk?”

I felt the little blood which was left in my face after my puke-fest drain. I wasn’t sure if it was because Lucas had just said “dad” which meant he was most likely the step-brother in question or if it was the blow job insult.

Mr. Wilkinson jumped to his feet and threw his hands up in protest. “She was doing no such thing, Lucas. You should be ashamed of yourself for even suggesting something so untoward of this sweet young woman.”

Lucas’s gaze dropped to my lips, his eyes heating. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d bet that he was remembering me on my knees, doing exactly what he’d just accused me of. But to him, not the lawyer. “I’ve done a hell of a lot more than suggest it.”

Yeah, that’s exactly what he’d been doing. My cheeks heated in embarrassment as the lawyer looked at us questioningly. Lucas had spoken low enough that he couldn’t hear what he’d said, but there was no mistaking the tension between the two of us.

“Please, why don’t the both of you take a seat so we can go over the details of Jonathan’s will?”

I circled his desk and dropped back down into the chair I’d been seated in earlier. Lucas moved forward, coming to stand to the side of the desk instead of taking the other seat. My gaze slid up his body, enjoying the sight of his long legs and lean torso, before coming to rest on his face. His attention was directed away from me, and I took advantage of the moment to savor the masculine beauty of his face. My fingers itched with the desire to paint him, to finally do justice to the portrait I’d started over again at least a dozen times when I should have been focused on the paintings for my first show.

Our weekend together was supposed to have only been a fling, but I’d quickly become fascinated by Lucas to the point of distraction. If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in meeting a looming deadline for my show while also dealing with my mom’s death, I probably would have tried to find him weeks ago to convince him that I hadn’t known who he was and to see if this obsession was a two-way street.