BIG: (A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance) (18 page)

If he needed this—and when she looked at him, she saw some part of him did, indeed, need her to prove herself to him—then she would give him what he wanted. They’d talk later about what a head-fuck this was, how unfair and wrong it was to have put her in this position, simply because he wanted to see for himself if she would defend him, if tested.

For now, she had his back—as promised.

“I’m here on family business,” she informed Jenny coolly.

“Well, this is a private acquisitions meeting, so you can just run along.” Jenny waved her hand in dismissal. “I’m pretty sure your boyfriend can take care of himself.”

“Boyfriend?” Annalesa laughed in disbelief. Did Jenny really not know? How could she not know? Although, Annalesa had to admit—she hadn’t known him either, not at first. Not until she looked into his eyes. “No wonder you wanted a private meeting. Is that the only way you can get a deal? Playing the whore?”

“You’re still so naïve.” Jenny did her blouse button up and gathered their papers from the table. “This is the way the world is. When you’re on the bottom of the business food chain, there are things you have to do to work your way up.”

“Ric...” Annalesa turned to him and smiled as sweetly as she could manage. “Would you like to come clean and tell them how ‘low’ down the food chain you really are?”

“R-Ric?” Jenny looked up at him, going very pale. The papers in her hands fluttered to the floor, unnoticed, as the recognition overtook her.

“Who’s Ric?” The redhead looked confused, glancing around the room as if she might find another person to identify as the man-in-charge. Her gaze settled on Ric.

“R-Ric Ryker,” Jenny stuttered.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” The redhead snatched the folder and papers from the floor, talking the whole while. “You got us into this mess, Jen, you better get us out of it. If I get fired for this, I’m going to kill you.”

The redhead stood and glared at all of them before she stormed out of the room. There was a short silence after the door slammed shut.

“I can’t believe it.” Jenny looked at Ric with a mixture of awe and loathing. “You’re really Big Dick!”

“Call him that again, and you’ll lose your teeth.” Annalesa snatched a Samsung Galaxy off the table, swatting Jenny away easily as she swore and tried to grab her phone back.

Annalesa noted a text on the notification screen from a Lucas Bailey-Zandermeyer—
Honey, did you pull off the deal? When you home?—
but focused on finding the Ryker Arms’ home page on Google. She clicked on the page with all the pictures of the management team, featuring a particularly gorgeous photo of Ric, albeit with much shorter hair.

“Take a look.” She handed the phone back to Jenny. “You really don’t do your research, do you?”

“You lying bastard.” Jenny stared between Ric and his picture, going paler by the moment.

“When did I lie?” Ric shrugged. “If I recall, you weren’t really interested in formal introductions.”

Jenny’s eyes narrowed. “I should sue you for harassment.”

“How will you make that stick?” Annalesa laughed.

“It’s such an obvious set-up! We have a history, and he flew us here to meet him today—
first class
.” Jenny’s gaze narrowed at Ric. “You know as well as I do—he could supply props for an action film to just about any production company he wanted to—but he chose
mine.
”

Annalesa couldn’t argue with that and felt sick, realizing how much planning had gone into this moment. But then she saw Jenny wiping her hands on her skirt like she was rubbing away the thought of touching the old Ric and the disgust on Jenny’s face made her furious all over again. Annalesa felt as if her body was vibrating with rage, from her heels to the back of her neck, and fought hard to keep the tremble out of her voice.

“I know you, Jenny. You’re still the same bloody cunt you were in high school,” Annalesa snapped. “If you push forward with some sort of suit, it will be your word against his—and
mine.
Because I saw you shaking your tits in his face and your little friend feeling him up, but Ric didn’t touch either of you.”

“No one will believe him.” Jenny glared back and forth between them. “Trust me—you’re going down for this
, Big Dick.”

Annalesa would have tackled her to the floor and pounded her if Ric hadn’t been there to catch both of her upper arms in his big hands, pulling her back against him.

“God, you two are sick.” Jenny shook her head in disgust. “You’re still protecting her, after the way she treated you?”

Annalesa felt Ric’s grip tighten on her arms and winced.

“Oh God, we made so much fun of you.” Jenny laughed, and it was an evil sound that made Annalesa’s stomach flip. “Annalesa was always the worst. We never would have made fun of you, but she had this game she liked to play. We’d try to out-do each other. Do you remember?”

“No.” Annalesa could barely speak through clenched teeth.

“She’d start off with, ‘My stepbrother is so fat...’ And we’d all fill in the blanks. Some of them were really funny. Annalesa was the best at it, though. Let’s see... my stepbrother is so fat… he’s the reason they invented double doors!” Jenny let out a peal of laughter “My stepbrother is so fat… the only letters he knows are KFC...”

Annalesa felt Ric’s body tense, like a lion ready to pounce.

“Stop it.” Annalesa tried to go after Jenny again, but Ric was still holding her too tightly.

“Oh! Oh!” Jenny giggled. “My favorite one—my stepbrother is so fat he sat on my iPhone and it turned into an iPad!”

“Get out.” She could barely get the words out. Her throat felt tight, hot.

“You can lose all the weight you want,
Big Dick.”
Jenny looked over Annalesa’s head at Ric, emphasizing his former nickname with relish. “You’re still the same pathetic loser you were in high school—and you always will be.”

“Ric, let me go,” Annalesa struggled against his hold, her hands clenched into fists so tight they hurt. She couldn’t see anything but red.

“Please do.” Jenny grinned. “I can add assault and who knows, maybe attempted murder, to the lawsuit.”

“Fuck you, bitch,” Annalesa snarled, and she wrenched herself forward so hard, Ric almost lost his grasp on her. At the last minute, he grabbed her back to him, putting his big arms around her so she couldn’t get away this time. She didn’t know how he could just stand there and let Jenny talk to him like this.

When she twisted her head to look back at him, Ric shook his almost imperceptibly. Annalesa felt her body relax a little when she looked into his eyes and she turned back to Jenny, finding her voice again.

“It wasn’t me who made fun of him,” she said softly. “And if I’d heard you,
any
of you, saying anything like that, just once, I would have killed you.”

“You didn’t have the fucking guts then and you don’t now.” Jenny rolled her eyes. “We only kept you on because you were so fucking naïve. You were like a dumb dog who slinked around no matter how many times we kicked you.”

“It’s time for you to go.” Ric didn’t raise his voice but he didn’t have to.

“Fine with me.” Jenny slipped her phone into her pocket and slung her purse over her shoulder. “I’ll see you in court.”

“You won’t be suing anyone.” Annalesa watched as Jenny crossed the room toward the door. “Unless you want Lucas Bailey-Zandermeyer to know what a slut you were in high school.”

Jenny stopped, her hand on the doorknob.

“Unless you want him to know how many times you took a train to New York to have a little procedure, so your daddy wouldn’t know you’d done it again.”

“Shut up.” Jenny glared over her shoulder at Annalesa, her face pale.

“I’m sure Lucas Bailey-Zandermeyer won’t be hard to find and message on Facebook or Twitter.”

“True, that,” Ric murmured. “He’s her boss.”

“Oh Jenny.” Annalesa shook her head sadly. “You’re still sleeping your way to the top, aren’t you?”

“Fuck you.” Jenny glared at them, narrowing her eyes. “This isn’t the end of this.”

“Yes, it is,” Ric replied. “If you come after me, or Annalesa, or anyone I care about, ever again, you won’t even remember your own name when I’m done with you. Telling your fuck buddy about the other guys you’ve screwed over through the years, and the dozens of fetuses you’ve left in the trash along the way, will just be the cherry on the shit-cake I’ll make you sit and eat for the rest of your miserable little life. Now, get the fuck out of here.”

Jenny took one long look at them both, humiliation burning in both cheeks.

“You two deserve each other,” she choked and then fled from the room.

Annalesa watched her go, feeling Ric’s grip on her finally loosen.

“I wanted to scratch her eyes out,” she told him, still looking at the door where Jenny had disappeared.

“I almost let you.” He chuckled. “But she was right about that. I didn’t want her to have a real reason to go to the cops.”

“Probably best.” Annalesa took a little, shuddery breath. “I might have actually gone too far and strangled her.”

She looked up at him, feeling her mouth trembling and her eyes filling with tears at the triumphant look in his eyes. He gazed down at her and his smirk softened to an expression of pride. It warmed her for a half-second before the anger at being set up took over. Suddenly, she wanted to smash the nearest chair over his head.

She sprinted out of the meeting room, heading for their suite. Ric’s shock at her sudden bolt gave her a head start and she tore up two flights of stairs, getting to her room and slamming the door behind her before he could get to it. She leaned against it, panting—she really needed to work out more, she told herself—trying to catch her breath and get a hold of her temper.

Ric bellowed on the other side of the door, but she didn’t answer. She heard his muffled curses and smiled, knowing he couldn’t get in. She needed time to think. Time to absorb what had just happened in the conference room. She still couldn’t quite believe it had been real.

A moment later she heard rattling, and he exploded into her smaller room from the adjoining door of the deluxe suite.
Crap
—she’d forgotten about that. The room was dark, making his outline seem huger—even bigger than he actually was. She stayed where she was, leaning against the door, wiping the tears off her face as he switched on some lights and came to stand over her.

She didn’t look up at him, but she felt his presence, could see the rise and fall of his broad chest. Then he surprised her, raking his fingers lightly through her hair, tilting her head up and forcing him to meet his eyes. His gaze was soft, almost loving. He looked like the Ric she’d spent her whole, wonderful, romantic weekend with.

“Did I pass your shitty little ‘test’?” She swallowed back a rising sob.

“You did. And then some.” Ric pulled her against him, his lips brushing her hairline. “You were a little tiger. I couldn’t barely hold you back.”

“I wasn’t doing it just for you!” Annalesa snatched herself out of his grip and stormed across to the bar, yanking up the bottle of brandy they hadn’t put away earlier. She took a long swig without bothering with a glass.

He took a step forward and she warded him off with a palm. “You need to give me a minute.”

She half-expected him to pounce across the room and snatch the bottle, but he stayed back, lowering himself onto the little couch in the room’s living space. She grabbed a glass and poured herself a generous double, tossing that off and then getting a glass of water. Her throat burned but her nerves were beginning to steady.