Rogen and Vin had a Board of Directors meeting at the mansion first thing the next morning. One of the reasons neither had stayed over at Jewel’s house in the city. In addition to that, she’d been exhausted. Moreover, the two men needed to work out the new dynamic with Jewel.
Rogen left the meeting when it adjourned, heading to his office on the third floor. Vin followed.
Stepping inside, Rogen unbuttoned his suit jacket and stripped it off. Yanked the tie loose but left it on, in the event his father summoned him for other business.
He whirled around to hang the jacket on the coatrack in the corner and ran smack into Vin’s fist.
Rogen’s head snapped back from the blow.
“What the fuck?!” he erupted as blood from his split lip splattered across his white dress shirt and, goddamn it, his silk tie.
“That’s for telling Jewel about Holly.” Vin shook out his fist. He’d likely end up with bruised knuckles.
“Son of a bitch,” Rogen grumbled. “I forgot how fucking hard you hit.” He dabbed at his lip with two fingers. Pulled them away and stared at the crimson covering his skin.
Vin sauntered over to the wet bar and snagged a few cocktail napkins. He returned to where Rogen stood, still a bit dazed from having his bell rung. Vin handed over the white paper squares.
“I’d apologize,” Vin said, “except that you jacked all our programs by putting ménage ideas into Jewel’s head. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Oh, come on,” Rogen scoffed as he gingerly pressed the napkins to his lip. Winced. Waited a few seconds. Then dropped his arm and said, “You really believe the thought never once crossed her mind?”
Vin raked a hand through his dark hair. “She’s always been a bit on the adventurous side. But she’s never had the look in her eyes that she did last night. It was…” He groaned, apparently at a loss for the right word. So not like Vin.
Therefore, Rogen offered, “Demanding?”
“Yes. And just … so fucking hot.”
“Everything about Jewel is so fucking hot. That’s our problem, man.” Rogen stalked over to his desk. Swiped away more blood, then tossed the napkins in the trash bin. Draped his jacket along the back of his tall executive chair.
“Our problem is that we both fell in love with the same woman,” Vin told him. “At different times of our lives—and sole and separate from each other. Now we’re all reunited.”
Rogen speared his best friend with a pointed look. “Was it sole and separate?”
“Absolutely.” Vin dropped into a black leather chair in front of Rogen’s glass-topped desk. “I was always fond of her when we were kids. That’s nothing new. You understood I’d always felt protective of her, that there was just something about her that made me stick close. You experienced it, too.”
“So what changed?” Rogen asked as he slid into his own seat. “When did it change?”
Vin let out a long breath. “At first, I think it was seeing her so upset that you’d been sent to Trinity. I felt … I don’t know. Like I just wanted to let her cry on my shoulder, even though I didn’t have any answers for her. So I did.”
Rogen’s gut roiled. “I always hated that I’d hurt her by going away.”
“You really didn’t have a choice, Rogen. And she knew it.” Vin reached for a pen from one of the holders on the desk and tapped the end against his crossed leg. “The two of you sort of worked it out, though. You constantly e-mailed, called. Mostly using my phone so no one busted you. And when you came home, you snuck around so that you could see each other. Be together.”
“With your help,” Rogen conceded.
“Because you were both my best friends. At that time, that was all, Rogen. That was what I felt for her.”
“She said your relationship ‘evolved.’ What kind of bullshit term is that?”
Vin gave a partial eyeball roll. “You got me. Except that we were really comfortable and really volatile at the same time. Any little thing could set us off and we’d bicker like an old married couple. But that’d wear us out and we’d go cook something in the kitchen or watch a movie and suddenly everything was back to normal between us.”
“I sensed the underlying sexual tension, when we were teenagers,” Rogen told him, wondering if Vin would fess up or not.
Vin returned the pen to its holder and pushed to his feet. “Jewel came out of the womb beautiful. I’ve seen the pictures. She got to us both, in a lot of different ways. Did I have a fantasy or two about her when we were growing up? Hell, yes. I also had them about Bay and Scarlet. It’s just that Jewel was … Jewel.”
“Yeah,” Rogen said as he rubbed his chin, which only slightly stung, in comparison to his lip. “There’s just something about her. Bold and tenacious. Feisty. Sweet. I don’t fucking know.” He shook his head. “All I know right now is that last night felt like just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her and the two of—”
“Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Angelini,” Rogen’s assistant, Lane Emerson, came on the intercom of his landline. “You have a call.”