Page 4 of The Arrangement (Executive Suite Secrets #3)

LIAM ROSE

My hands were shaking as I carried the rum and Coke I’d barely remembered to pick up along the corridors of the museum and through an employee door. At last. Away from the guests who were wandering the building following the concert.

Rome.

Rome Ashbridge.

Here. In Cincinnati.

That should have been impossible.

How was he here ? He shouldn’t have been here. The asshole should have been living far from here, like New York or LA. Possibly even London or Tokyo. I thought his family was still in Rhode Island. Why wasn’t he there ? Why did he have to be here ?

I paused in my flight to chug half of my drink. The rum socked me in the jaw, burned my throat, and heated my chest. The bartender must have felt bad for me because that was far more rum than Coke.

With a groan, I continued to the lab, where I spent most of my time, and punched in the security code.

The light on the pad changed from red to green, and a mechanical click announced that the door was unlocked.

I jerked it open and stomped inside to find Emily perched on a tall stool, her back bowed as she leaned forward with a brush and removed some dirt from the fossil that she was attempting to free from the stone.

She glanced over her shoulder at me for a second and then returned to her work.

“You know, I think this is going to be an excellently preserved brachiopod once we get her free,” she stated.

The words were barely out of her mouth when she sat up straight and lifted her gaze to the digital clock on the wall with its red numbers glaring at us.

“Wait a minute.” She placed her brush on a tray and twisted on her stool.

“What are you doing here? It’s not my turn to socialize yet.

You still have another twenty minutes up there. ”

“There’s no way in hell I’m going up there again,” I moaned and swallowed the last of my drink.

With a shudder, I slammed the glass on a table with a heavy thunk .

The alcohol rushed to my head, but in my defense, I had eaten little today because I’d been anxious about mingling with all those people at the party. Plus, I wasn’t much of a drinker.

Regardless, I still knew what the fuck had happened, and there was no way I was returning to the party, where I’d have to face Rome.

“What happened? Some scary old lady with more money than sense make a pass at you? Pinch your ass?” As she spoke, she lifted both hands and made pinching motions with her index fingers and thumbs while scrunching up her face.

That was a frightening image, but my reality was far worse.

“No, I ran into someone I know.”

Emily lowered her hands, and her brow furrowed. “Really? Someone you’ve met recently?”

“No. Someone from my childhood.”

“Wow! That’s crazy…and apparently a bad thing.” Her enthusiasm faded at the end as she read my face.

Emily Luo was the one and only friend I’d made since moving to Cincinnati six months ago to work at the Museum of Natural History and Science.

She’d taken one look at me and decided to adopt me although I was six years older than her.

Emily was a Cincinnati native and knew all the ins and outs of the area, which meant she was determined to make sure I loved living here as much as she did.

Following my first encounter with the area’s unique Cincinnati-style chili, I was skeptical.

“It was Rome. Rome Ashbridge.”

Her full lips dipped into a deep frown. “The name sounds vaguely familiar, but I don’t think I know him.”

“You’re an introvert. You know every fossil in this building on a first-name basis. People aren’t your thing. But they’re not my thing either,” I muttered.

What kind of fucking luck was this?

When I thought my knees might give out, I pushed off the door that had been supporting me and shuffled over to a rolling stool.

Emily returned to her stool and put her feet up on one of the support bars between the legs.

She rested her elbows on her knees and put her chin on her hands, giving every sign that she was prepared for a long, detailed story.

“So…who’s Rome Ashbridge? You said a childhood friend. What did he do? You’re as white as a ghost. And that’s saying something. You could already pass as Casper’s Scottish cousin.”

I threw her a withering look, but she didn’t even blink at me. “Says the woman who slathers a pound of sunscreen on during a cloudy day and whips out her umbrella at the first hint of the sun.”

She ran a hand along her pristine white cheek. “My father is Chinese. I’m supposed to be this pale. It’s normal. You’re too pale right now.” She lifted her hand from her cheek and waved her fingers at me. “Back to your story. What did Rome do?”

I sucked in a deep breath and held it for a count of five before releasing it, trying to steady my frazzled nerves. “He kissed me.”

Emily said nothing. Just stared. I wasn’t sure what she was expecting me to say next.

“Tonight?” she shrieked.

“No! When we were kids. It was a few weeks ahead of my thirteenth birthday. We were standing in my backyard, trying to figure out what to do, and he kissed me.”

Emily’s head tilted to the side as if she were still attempting to puzzle out what I’d told her. “Like…”

“He kissed me, and my mom caught us,” I added, and it was like watching a light flick on.

Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell open to form a long O.

“That fucking asshole! Why would he ever do something like that? We were friends. I’d never given him any sign that I felt anything toward him other than friendship. But he had to ruin everything.”

“Did your mom freak?” Emily asked.

“Freak is an understatement. She lost her mind over it. She called his mom and made all kinds of wild threats. Took me out of the school I was attending so there was no risk of seeing Rome there. No matter what I said, she didn’t believe I wasn’t gay.

After that day, I wasn’t allowed to have boys as friends.

Next, she was afraid I’d get some girl pregnant to prove I wasn’t gay, so she was constantly watching me like a hawk until I moved away for college.

The only time she relaxed was after I married Fiona. ”

Of course, that happiness turned to disappointment following our divorce four short years later.

“Bit of a homophobe, huh?”

I threw her a look.

Emily shrugged. “Okay, a raging homophobe.” She bit her lip and dropped her gaze to the floor. “You know…we’ve never discussed this, but…”

“I know you have a girlfriend,” I said with a weary sigh. “I overheard you talking about her with the new intern. Claire?”

Emily snorted. “Not even close. Grace.”

Now it was my turn to shrug. I was good with fossils. Bad with people. “The point is, I’m not a homophobe. At least, I try hard not to be. I believe everyone has a right to be happy. That being said, I would feel more comfortable if men weren’t hitting on me.”

My friend’s wariness melted away, and her wide grin returned. “I wouldn’t worry about that. You’ve got this whole pissed-off porcupine vibe about you. It would be a shock if anyone dared to ask you out without wearing armor.”

Lovely .

My divorce from Fiona hadn’t been messy and was borderline amicable. I still held some hope of finding love and marrying one day. However, Emily was helping to cure me of that delusion.

“Shit. I’m sorry you had to deal with that as a kid,” Emily murmured.

“What I don’t understand is why he did it in the first place? He never returned and apologized. He ruined the rest of my childhood and what relationship I had with my parents. Couldn’t he at least have come back and said, ‘ My bad. It was just a joke ’?”

“Maybe it wasn’t a joke,” Emily suggested, her voice a thin whisper.

I had considered that. Briefly, when my temper had cooled years later, and I’d been living on my own. I’d wondered if maybe Rome was gay, and I’d been his first crush. But that scared me more than the notion of him playing a thoughtless joke on me.

“I guess I’ll never know because I have no intention of ever speaking to him.

” My hands were still trembling, and I wished I had another rum and Coke within reach.

But it wasn’t necessary. This time, I’d been blindsided.

I’d had no idea that he was living in the city.

Now, I did, and I could keep a better watch for him.

Avoid him if by some slim chance we crossed paths.

The plan had formed in my mind as the security door beeped and unlocked.

We both looked up to see Dr. Linda Case stride in with wide eyes and an enormous grin on her full red lips.

This didn’t feel like a good thing at all.

While she might be a paleontologist like I was, she’d handed herself over to administration years ago.

It had been at least two decades since she’d stepped out into the field to dig in the dirt.

Her focus was the budget, making sure we weren’t spending too much money and that we were constantly raising the funds needed to continue our operations.

It was a hell I hated dealing with and was all too happy to leave in her hands.

Except it didn’t stay in her hands. The continuous need to raise money spilled through her fingers and rained on our heads.

“Liam! Liam, my beautiful boy! Oh, Liam, you are a treasure!” she gushed as she clacked across the tile floor on frighteningly high heels, particularly for a woman of her somewhat advanced age. Didn’t she worry about snapping something, like a hip or her neck?

“Dr. Case…is there—” I didn’t get the chance to stammer anything else out. She walked up to me and squeezed my shoulders with her bony hands. I stood, fearful that she was going to embrace me, pressing my face into her stomach.