All Chapters of Kissed The Wrong Brother : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

For three full seconds, Amara considered running.It was a ridiculous thought. She was standing on the forty-second floor of a glass tower in a navy blazer she'd ironed twice, and there was nowhere to run except back into an elevator full of people who'd seen her walk in. So she did what she had done in every terrible interview of her life. She lifted her chin and pretended her knees weren't made of water."Mr. Whitlock," she said. "Good morning."Julian Whitlock studied her for a long moment. Then he walked around his desk, unhurried, and gestured at the chair across from it. "Please. Sit."She sat. He didn't. He leaned against the edge of the desk with his arms folded, close enough that she caught that faint scent of cedar again, and she hated that her pulse noticed it."Let's be clear about something," he said. "I didn't know who you were on Saturday.""Neither did I," Amara said. "Who you were, I mean. Daniel never mentioned his brother was the CEO.""Daniel doesn't mention me at

Julian told her his side standing at the end of the bakery counter, with her mother pretending to wipe a spotless display case and Chloe pretending not to breathe.Clause fourteen was real, he said. His father had written it two weeks before he died, and he had written it out of spite. The will didn't say scandal anywhere. It said conduct unbecoming, and a board loyal to Daniel would decide what that meant."I didn't know who you were at that party," Julian said. "I'd landed four hours earlier. I was hiding from my own welcome-home reception, and you grabbed me." He paused. "I'm telling you because you deserve to know exactly how much trouble that kiss could cause. Not because I'm blaming you.""That sounds a lot like blaming me.""It's the opposite. It's me saying we both have a problem, and I'd rather solve it with you than around you." He picked up the paper bag and set it in front of her. Inside was a box of her mother's shortbread, which he had apparently bought before he ever wa

The text had come at 11:47 the night before, from a number Amara didn't know.Meet me tomorrow, 7 a.m., Crane Street Café. Come alone. It's about Julian. —C.Any sensible woman would have deleted it. Amara read it three times, set her alarm for 5:30, and spent the rest of the night staring at her ceiling, feeling like a boxer who has been told which corner the other fighter will be waiting in.At 6:55 a.m., she pushed open the café door. The place smelled like burnt sugar and wet wool. Celeste sat in the window booth in a cream coat, hands wrapped around a teacup, looking small and worried and entirely too perfect for seven in the morning."Amara!" She half rose, her whole face softening. "You came. Thank God.""Here I am." Amara slid into the seat across from her and noticed three things at once. Celeste's phone was propped against the sugar jar, screen lit, camera facing the table. A man in a gray hoodie across the street was pretending to read his phone while holding it exactly at

"Amara," Daniel said warmly, brushing crumbs from his fingers. "There you are. Your mother was just telling me how proud she is of you.""I was telling him to get out," Mrs. Bennett said, without moving her eyes from his face."And I was explaining that I can't. I'm a customer." Daniel gestured at the shortbread. "Excellent, by the way. Slightly dry. You'd want to fix that."Chloe made a small, furious sound at the back table. Amara crossed the shop in six steps and stopped between her mother and Daniel, close enough to see the tiny smile that lived at the corner of his mouth."You have ten seconds to leave.""Or what? You'll call my brother?" He tutted. "He's got enough problems. Monday, in fact, is going to be a big day for him." He set a cream envelope on the counter and slid it toward her. "Read it.""No.""Read it, Amara. It's not a threat. It's a gift."Her mother's hand tightened on her arm. Amara picked up the envelope with two fingers, as if it might be warm, and pulled out a

Julian stopped at the edge of the table, and for a moment the whole corner of the restaurant seemed to hold its breath."Daniel," he said."Brother." Daniel leaned back with a smile that looked rehearsed in the mirror. "Come to join us? Pull up a chair. Amara and I were just catching up.""No, you weren't." Julian didn't look at him. He was looking at Amara, taking in her dress, her hands, the untouched wine, the set of her shoulders. "Are you all right?""I'm having dinner.""I was told you were being cornered.""By whom?"His jaw moved. "A text.""From Celeste," Amara said.He said nothing, which was an answer."She told you I was in trouble, so you came running with two men in suits." Amara folded her napkin and set it beside her plate. "I'm sitting here with a glass of wine, and the only person cornered is whoever's behind that fern with a phone."A small noise came from the potted fern. Chloe's head emerged, wearing an apologetic smile. "Hi, Julian."Julian's mouth twitched. It w