Page 55 of Savage Suit

“Why do you want to know about her?” Reid asked with suspicion.

“Because I fucked a stranger at the ball,” I snapped, frustrated at their stonewalling. I didn’t need the back and forth, just answers. “I think I’ve solved the mystery of her identity, but I want to be sure.”

“Who do you think she is?” Nicholas asked.

“You almost sound smitten.” Reid smirked.

Fuck, I was that and more. “Smitten?” I scoffed. Even if I could explain my feelings, hell would fucking ice over before I opened to either my brother or my cousin. “I have never been so enamored to chase any woman, and never will be. This is merely for confirmation.”

“Why is this suddenly a priority?” Nicholas asked, eyeing me.

Reid sipped his old fashioned. “Oh, I don’t know, Nick,” he drawled, after swallowing, “leave the old man alone. Being besotted by a woman may be just what he needs.”

“For?” Nicholas asked, beating me to the punch.

“It doesn’t matter,” Reid said with a sigh and glanced away. For a moment, he lost himself in thought before he drank again, then looked at me. “I’m with Nick. Why is her identity suddenly so important you ordered this meeting?”

Pausing, I hesitated. If I blurted Ryan’s name, then I’d have other problems. Mainly, her employment. While I could override any objections presented, it would set a bad precedence and feed the flames stoked by the article. Besides, one night of drunken sex wasn’t the issue. It was me. My reaction to her. My thoughts of her.Bothhers.

“Do you know Q’s last name?” Nicholas said into the silence. “Fuck, what’s her first name?”

“Uh, well, sorry, no.”

Reid was lying. “I want the fucking truth now,” I ordered.

“We’d only been dating for about, uh, a month.” Reid glanced between my brother and me, then offered a careless shrug. “We hadn’t graduated to last names.”

Nicholas choked, narrowed his eyes at Reid, and opened his mouth.

“Not a fucking word,” I warned.

“What do you mean, Noah?” Nicholas snapped. “It is easy for you to demand silence because this asshole didn’t bring his piece of ass to your fucking place.”

“Shemade herself into a piece of ass, fuckwad,” Reid snarled, sudden anger flushing his skin. “I fucked up once or twice, so she walked away from me and has refused all calls.”

“Over the course of a month, you fucked up once or twice?” I asked.

Reid looked markedly miserable. “I don’t want to talk about her, Noah.”

“Yousound smitten,” I said, surprisingly sympathetic.

“Speaking of smitten,” Nicholas spat, ever the asshole, “youdosound deeply into that state yourself, Reid, toward a woman whose last name you didn’t know.”

Reid drained his glass. “How the fuck’s a name important? If she’s a raving bitch, she could be a Rockefeller and I wouldn’t want her.”

“You haven’t been spotted anywhere in recent weeks,” Nicholas said, pointedly ignoring Reid’s explanation to glower at me. “There’s no woman linked to you in months. The only women you’ve run across are those interviewing at KMG, so give me her name or who you think she might be, and I’ll have Megan run a background check. We’re already graced with one of your obsessions. Mother. We don’t need to add another one to make us miserable.”

“You’re a fucking asshole,” I snarled, low, while even Reid winced.

Nicholas glared at me. “I’m beyond—”

“Leave off, Nick,” Reid interrupted. “We’re not here to discuss Aunt Réjane. We grieved in our way. At least give Noah that much courtesy.”

“I was to be keynote speaker at Impact, one of the most prestigious conferences there is,” Nicholas said bitterly. “On my way here, I got a call to uninvite me from addressing the attendees. Why? Because of your fucked up practices, Noah.”

“My ‘fucked up’—” I used air quotations — “practices aren’t anything new.”

“They may not be new, but they’ve never been public,” Nicholas countered. “So you see, Reid, Noah’s obsession, hisgrief,is more than I can bear.” His eyes blazed. “Do you know what the asshole wanted me to do? Bar my wife from going on a business trip? He’s fucking insane and fixated. He couldn’t have his fucking way and keep her out of the company, since our personal ties crosses yet another one of his fucking rules.”