Ring! Ring! Rin—
“Yes?” Julian snapped without looking at his phone. It was nearly ten in the morning and he had already found Sia working in her home office, so he’d left her to work in peace while he went through his daily routine.
“Whoa! What crawled up your ass and died?”
“Abhay,” Julian greeted his best friend with a laugh. “When did you get back?”
“Been ages man!” Abhay joked. “I came back this morning and saw you were gone. Christian seemed worried though. Heard you got shot yesterday.”
“Yeah.” Julian sighed. He’d managed to send in his report last night via email, directly to his brother, before he’d gone to Sia’s room. However, he’d left his phone in his room after that and when he’d gone back to take a quick shower a few minutes ago, he’d discovered nearly fifteen missed calls from his brother. Chris
“We can’t . . . I can’t do this.”Julian frowned. “Can’t do what exactly?”“This whole thing . . .” she said and trailed off, pointing vaguely between the two of them. “Whatever happened last night . . . was a mistake, Julian. It can never happen again. I can’t let it. Both of us have very different priorities. So please, let’s just forget that anything ever happened last night and move on.”“And what exactly happened last night?” Julian said a little too harshly, causing Sia to flinch. He wanted to apologize, but his pride was hurt badly. “We kissed, that’s it. It’s not as serious as you’re making it out to be.”Sia had thought that Julian might respond in such way since he was known to pass from woman to woman without a backward glance. But what she felt was anything far from relief. Angry? Yes. Jealous? Yes. Disappointed? Hell, ye
Julian didn’t get distracted easily and that was a fact, because if he did, people could get hurt. It was something that had been drilled into him from the very first days of training and he had never forgotten that ever since. But today, after nearly eight years of being in the business, he’d been caught unawares and that too, by a thirteen-year-old. What was Sia doing to him?“How much have you heard kid?” he asked, running his hands through his hair.“Enough,” Leo said and raised an eyebrow at the door behind him. “Let’s go somewhere else, shall we? Unless you want Mom to come out and join in on the fun?” He gave another amused look at Julian.He wondered if the kid saw far too much than he should.“Let’s go,” he said and the two of them moved out of Sia’s room before she could hear anything more.It was nearly two in the afternoon by the time he had finished
It was finally Friday, a month after Julian had taken Sia fabric shopping.It was also the day of the fashion show, and Sia was nervous as hell.“Relax Mom, everything is going to be fine,” Leo reassured his mother, but that hardly calmed her nerves.“Is she always like this before a show?” Julian asked from beside Leo, careful to keep his voice down so only the boy could hear him.“Yup!” he answered, popping the p.Sia took a deep, shaky breath and sat down in her private makeup van and finally looked at the two.Over the past four weeks, the pair had become as thick as thieves. It had started the day after she’d told Julian she couldn’t play this game with him and he openly challenged her to resist his charms. The next day, she had woken up to find Julian and Leo playing basketball. She had been jealous, of course. She was the one who taught him how to play, and now her son had someo
“You go ahead. I’ll be there in a minute,” Sia told the man with the clipboard and then waited ‘till he was gone before turning to the others. “Leo, honey, go ahead and sit in the VIP section. Millan’s there and Julian has assigned someone to go with you.”Seeing the torn expression on Sia’s face, Julian quickly said, “Don’t worry, my men will watch after him.”She hesitated at first but then nodded her head in defeat. With a hug and a few kisses, she finally let Leo go, leaving her and Julian alone in the dressing van.“And where’s mine?” Julian said with a raised eyebrow. He expected to receive a heated glare or a gritted out insult. Hell, he even expected to get slapped across the face.However, Sia suddenly pulled him down by the collar of his jacket and kissed the sense out of him. Her lips were soft and they tasted of strawberries that Julian had learned was the flav
Julian’s eyes followed her every move. He had made immense progress with Sia, and he was glad that the woman who had thrown herself at him a few moments ago hadn’t hampered that.The past three weeks, he had worked extra hard to make her notice him. He had stayed so close until he was already breathing down her neck. He had to remind himself that he had to give her some space as well. He’d found that he couldn’t help it. Sia was slowly becoming his little brand of addiction, and he didn’t want to stay away from her. He couldn’t even if he tried.He’d also learned a great deal about Sia from Leo. He had told him stories of how Sia had coped with taking care of him and studying in college at the same time. He had also told him about some of Sia’s likes and dislikes. Julian had already noticed some of them on his own. Like how she would rather chew on a pin than her nails when she was stressed, or how she liked to pull her h
Julian went to the exit door and met Abhay at the back of the auditorium. He had already warned all his men inside the auditorium to keep their eyes glued to Sia since he was only going to step out for a moment to check on the men he had situated at any possible point of entry and exit within the area. As soon as he reached Abhay after doing a perimeter sweep, he earned a whistle from the other devil.“Not bad, Lucifer. The designer seems to be doing a good job on your fashion sense,” Abhay mocked while giving Julian a once-over.“You’re not bad yourself, Beelzi.” Julian smirked as Abhay made a face at the nickname.Since the two of them were known as troublemakers, their team liked to call them with special nicknames. If Julian was Lucifer, then Abhay was Beelzebub. The bad boys from hell. Although Abhay didn’t have quite a reputation as Julian, he had earned the nickname because of his close friendship with Julian. But nickn
Sia breathed a sigh of relief as the last of the reporters left her in peace.She knew that she desperately needed their help in portraying her in a good light, for the publicity of Magenta Fashion, but she couldn’t help but be on edge.Reporters had a way of adding hidden meanings to questions that appear innocent on the surface, eliciting answers from people and twisting them so they’ll mean something else. To the careless, answering any or all of their questions could mean the demise of their careers.After the interview had been over, she grudgingly asked around for Julian once again and her excited secretary, Millan, had informed her that he, along with Leo and a “hot” friend of Julian’s were waiting for her near her makeup van.So, she didn’t wait for the after-party and instead started for her van after talking to the security detail who was working under Julian.“I’ll escort you,” was the man&rs
Sia woke with a start and, after much difficulty, opened her heavy-lidded eyes.Everything was black at first, and her mind was completely unfocused, throbbing from a terrible headache. Where was she? And why did she feel so groggy? The last thing she remembered was getting out of the auditorium after the press conference and seeing her makeup van. And then . . .She brought her hand up to her head and staggered as the events finally came back in a rush.She had been kidnapped.Sitting up so fast that it gave her almost a whiplash, she looked around as her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness.Cardboard boxes filled her vision. They were piled up, one on top of another, forming neat piles all around the small room. The only source of illumination in the room came from a tiny light bulb hanging from the ceiling. She lay on the cold hard floor which was covered with dust and dirt and the torn remains of boxes. She recognized some of the lab