Callum had a point, but he hadn’t been the one to introduce his brother to the devil. He didn’t know how deeply that gouged. It was one thing to lose his career and carry on. It was quite another to aid the ruin of a beloved brother’s life and try to move forward without profound regret.
“I told you what Claire said. He’s been following her after work. I think he’s trying to make sure she gets home all right. That has to mean something.”
“Rory, I have a woman who follows me home from work all the time, and we call her a stalker. Don’t make this something it’s not. Unless he steps up and declares his feelings, I’m not backing down. I’m going to Tori’s office and I’m going to make a few things plain to her.”
“What is going on here?” Oliver asked the pair of them as he turned the corner, his eyes narrowing as he took in the sight of them awaiting the lifts. “Where do you think you’re going, Cal?”
Callum flushed a nice shade of pink. It was good to know someone could still bring the bugger to heel. “Downstairs. I have business that needs tending.”
“He’s going to see Tori,” Rory explained between clenched teeth. “For personal reasons.”
“You’re such a suck-up,” Callum said, turning on him like they were still ten and seven and Oliver had been the authority figure in their lives at the ripe age of thirteen. “My intent is none of your business. Neither one of yours.”
“Everything is my business. What is going on between you and our publicist, Cal?” Oliver’s tone dripped with chill. His face could have been carved from arctic ice.
Rory was actually quite pleased not to find himself on the receiving end of that stare.
Callum glared back stubbornly. “Nothing.”
“Good,” Oliver replied.
“Yet,” Callum clarified.
Hell. Rory got between his two older brothers. “I’m handling it, Oliver. He’s got it in his head that he can date her. You know what he’s like when he’s at loose ends. It’s not serious. She’s a pretty girl, and this is what Cal does.”
“It is serious and I won’t pretend otherwise. I’m not a child with a new toy,” Callum replied.
“Then stop behaving like one,” Oliver growled back.
Callum didn’t seem to understand the threat their eldest brother posed because he stepped into Oliver’s personal space. “I’m in love with her and I intend to give her what she needs and deserves. I want to be a better man for her, provide for her, and build a life with her.”
“I forbid it,” Oliver pronounced, then turned to go.
That annoyed Rory a bit, too. Did Oliver truly think he was some sort of king who could dictate his siblings’ lives? It rankled, but he told himself Oliver needed more time to heal. He needed to feel in control until that day came.
“I think what Oliver is saying is that, according to company policy, we really shouldn’t date anyone from the office,” Rory ad-libbed.
“There’s no rule.” Callum didn’t know when to stop. “I looked. And he can’t stop me.”
“I bloody well can,” Oliver turned back, shouting. “I control the purse strings, Callum.”
“Maybe Rory’s but not mine. You might think I don’t have a brain in my head, but I was careful with my money. I was paid millions and I didn’t spend it like it was water. I put it all away and it’s waiting there for me and the woman I love. It was always for her. I simply didn’t know who she was until now.”
“She is engaged,” Oliver said, his voice tight. “Promised to another man. She wears his ring, yet you would go after her? You would take what doesn’t belong to you?”
“Does she truly belong to him? He can’t put a ring on her finger, then leave her for months at a time.” Callum softened marginally. “It isn’t right. And it’s not what happened with you and Yasmin. I’m not intending to seduce Tori into cheating. I intend to show her I’m the right man for her.”
Oliver flushed a furious red. “You don’t think all the times my friends took my wife to bed they weren’t trying to show her they were right for her?”
“I think we should calm down.” Rory realized he’d have to be the voice of reason.
Oliver utterly ignored him. “You think they gave a damn about her wedding ring when they fucked her behind my back?”
Callum stood his ground like the idiot he was. “They didn’t love her, Oliver. They used her. And she used you. This situation is different because I love Tori.”
“You told Oliver you wouldn’t bring a date to the fundraiser.” The argument was stupid, but Rory couldn’t think of anything else to say just then. He needed time to talk Callum out of this foolishness.
Instead, Callum rolled the famous blue eyes that had gotten him laid repeatedly since puberty. “I’m not. Tori is not a mere date. If I do this right, she’ll be my fiancée. That should solve many of our problems. My wild reputation will certainly die down, especially after we’ve married and I’ve gotten her pregnant a couple of times.”
That did it. The notion of his athletic god of a brother impregnating the woman Rory loved finally unhinged his red rage. A vision of Tori, belly curved with a baby, floated through his head. In Rory’s estimation, those children should be his. He’d been willing to give up his happiness for Oliver, who’d been devastated by his late wife. But he refused to relinquish Tori to his selfish, good-for-nothing-but-scoring-a-damn-goal sibling.