Julian could already taste the satisfaction of watching the “news” affect and disgruntle his overprotective mother. She, who had sent him to Spain, France, Russia and Africa to separate him from his best friend. She, who had warned him if he ever touched the only girl he’d ever truly cared for, he might as well not consider himself a part of the Gage family anymore.
Yeah, it gave him pleasure, perverse pleasure, to see if she would make good on her threats. A part of him savored the fight with her even though he loved her. It had hurt him, incredibly, to be judged and condemned by his entire family for a sin he hadn’t yet committed.
He’d been punished since he was just an adolescent, and he’d been suffering ever since.
Yes. It felt good to rebel against them. To give them the exact thing they were afraid of. Because soon they would see how wrong they’d been about him. Dead. Wrong.
So now that she was narrow-eyed and thrusting her chin out in warning, Julian ducked his head to her height and kissed her cheek smoothly, unperturbed by her bravado. “If you heard that Molly is with me, then you heard the truth, Mother. Now you can finally make good on your threat and disown me.”
Eleanor drew back with a shocked little breath, genuinely traumatized by his suggestion.
Julian wanted to assure her he didn’t need the trust his father had left anymore. He could live lavishly with his savings alone, plus he already had a promising business ready to launch, with several billion-dollar companies lined up as clients for his PR services. Instead, he smiled at her to defuse the tension and tucked a wisp of ebony hair behind her ear.
“You knew this would happen, Mother,” he said softly. “Just as I knew someday I’d have to prove to you how much I want her and how far I’m willing to go.”
Her eyes, the only ones in the family that were green like his own, flared wide with accusation. Julian waited for her comeback, but words seemed to be failing her at the moment.
He really wished that if his mother was staring at him as if he were a monster, it was because sweet, lovely Molly was crazy about him, couldn’t keep her hands off him and was letting him have his way with her in bed, in the shower, in the car, in the kitchen and in every place he could think of. And not because of this idiotic little lie.
He needed her to be his.
He didn’t know how much longer he could wait, or what it would take for her to realize she and Garrett weren’t compatible in any single way that she and Julian were.
“If you think I’m going to let you use that girl like all those Janes you go out with, you’re sorely mistaken, Julian John. I’m like that girl’s mother.”
He nodded in agreement. He had definitely understood the position his mother had been placed in two decades ago when the Devaneys had been brought to the house. She had been a recent widow with three young sons, feeling responsible for the death of an employee who left two young daughters orphaned. His mother, always stern but nonetheless a loving woman, had taken them in, but hardened her position with her sons in the process.
It was too much on her nerves to ever think the boys would harm the girls in any way; after all, they owed them their father. And yet nobody had ever understood that Julian did not want to hurt Molly. Just as he did not want to hurt his mother now. It just was what it was.
He wanted Molly. And no one was going to stop him from having her anymore.
In feigned aloofness, he grasped one of her jeweled hands and indolently patted it between both of his. “Why don’t you have a little more faith in me as well, Mother? And let us be happy together, for once.” Before he left to greet Landon and his wife, he grumbled, “I’d never hurt Molly. Ever. And it hurts me that you even think I would.”
* * *
Molly stood at the other end of the living room with Kate and Beth, who was being brought up to speed on all the excitement.
“I can’t believe this. Landon and I leave for two months, we come back and you and Julian are dating?”
Molly waved a hand excitedly. “We’re actually way past that, Beth. I’ve moved in already.” She nodded proudly, then added, “But you know, that’s exactly how shocked I felt when I emerged from a long creative streak in my studio to find out Landon had remarried. I didn’t even have a clue he’d met someone. Julian should’ve kept me up-to-date all those nights he brought Chinese food!”
Looking past Beth, Molly spotted Landon, another gorgeous Gage specimen. He kept glancing in their direction as he addressed Julian, and although Landon was not a man easily perturbed, even he appeared slightly confused as he spoke to his youngest brother this evening. Garrett joined them within seconds, and Molly could just sigh at the sight of his broad back. She could imagine their next kiss and already knew it would be as hot as the first….
With a wistful smile, she watched the three men, all of whom she adored. The chandelier lights caught on Julian’s streaked golden hair, which sharply contrasted with both of his older brothers’ dark coloring, and she melted with tenderness for him. Just to think Julian might be taking crap from his brothers because he was supposedly dating her only endeared him to her more. Would Garrett do something like this for her?
While Julian lounged around effortlessly, seemingly careless to everything they said, Garrett stood sterner, more tense and, hopefully, already jealous. Landon, however, had never looked so utterly relaxed. Like a man completely satisfied with the state of his life and thoroughly in love, as was evident from the frequent looks he stole in Beth’s direction.
“Landon said he always knew this would happen,” Bethany offered in a private whisper, oblivious to her husband’s attention across the room as she leaned closer to Molly. “When our plane landed, he called his office and heard about you two from Garrett. He wasn’t even surprised about it. He said it was inevitable.”
“He did?”
It was a shock to Molly.
Because who on earth would ever think Julian and Molly could be more than friends?
It was ridiculous. Molly didn’t even like to date. And Julian was a playboy.
Plus, the Gage family still viewed her as a child, except for Garrett, who seemed to be the only one who’d realized she was now a full-grown woman. A kissable grown woman.
Still reeling at the idea, she looked back at the group of men, intending to admire Garrett from afar and remind herself why she was so in love with him, but her gaze snagged on Julian as he calmly explained something to his brothers.