“Don’t you?”
Kieran doesn’t answer the question. He simply continues to study me like he’s trying to read through my skin. Like maybe if he works hard enough, he can peel through enough layers to find whatever redeeming qualities his brother has unearthed. “Olivia, eight years ago we had an agreement and you broke it.”
“No I didn’t.”
“We shook on it,” he insists. “The parameters of the deal were crystal clear and yet my brother still knows that I paid you to screw him.”
“He figured it out when you texted me while I was still in the room—which was unbelievably stupid, Kieran. That’s not my fault though.”
He waves off my explanation. “Well, I wasn’t paying you for pillow talk. How was I supposed to know that you’d be lurking around our suite after your business was done?” Kieran folds his arms after he finishes speaking and cants his head to the side, almost like he’s putting on a show and acting out the part of evil personified. Every motion, every gesture, is the textbook impression of cruelty. It borders on cartoonish, honestly—like Kieran hasn’t lived a real moment in his entire life, like this person is the only one that he can pretend to be.
I breathe out slowly, aware that I can’t underestimate my opponent, and say, “Kieran, it happened eight years ago. I don’t know why you’re bringing it up.”
He blinks a few times, like Davis used to when he was still in the habit of making me miserable. “I can see this conversation will probably be much more taxing than it has to,” he mutters offhandedly. “Fine. Let’s cut to the chase: Get away from my brother.”
It takes me a moment to process what he’s saying. Confused I draw back, which seems to just annoy Kieran.
“Because you’re going to ruin him,” Kieran explains before I can ask him why I would distance myself from the first guy who has ever made me feel so completely adored. “Do him a favor and get out of his life.”
“No,” I counter, somehow holding back the astonished chuckle that dares to escape. “Hell no.”
“No?” When he says the word, he says it with distaste that only a boy who has never been told “No” could ever summon.
I shake my head. “Davis and I are adults. We’re not doing anything wrong.”
“Really? Because last I checked, he’s about forty floors up and there’s a company personnel manual with a nice, clear section on fucking coworkers and sexual harassment.”
“He’s not—”
“You’re an intern, Olivia,” Kieran stresses, as if I need reminding of that fact. “There’s not a PR magician in the city who could spin this well. Don’t kid yourself.”
I look away and breathe out, wishing that would abate the tension rising in my chest. “Are you threatening to out us?” I ask quietly, aware that I probably shouldn’t put the idea past him.
Kieran ticks a shoulder upwards. “No need. It’s bound to end eventually, so I’m telling you to do it now.”
“Why would it end?”
“Because this was always a fantasy,” he answers with undeniable certainty.
Against my better judgment, I swallow hard and look away. I’m not sure how he’s able to break into my thoughts like this, but it’s almost as though he has a passageway to my brain. He breaks down my defenses as if they were made of nothing more than cardboard, and it’s clear that he has exactly what he needs.
If it weren’t so vindictive, it would be impressive.
“What did you think was going to happen?” Kieran continues, shrugging his shoulders again as he speaks. “That you’d somehow convince him to take care of you for the rest of your life, and you’d never want for anything again?”
I don’t know how to respond at first. It’s true—Davis did buy me, but it’s not so simple. Not anymore.
Kieran finally stands from his seat and walks over to the small window, where I have a sorry view of the building across the street. He looks out, tapping his knuckle on the glass a couple of times before he turns to face me once more and says, “Too many people know about Amsterdam, Olivia. I know. Gray and Peter Davenport know. Walsh Webster knows. They all were there when Davis threw a chair in my direction the minute I got back to the Waldorf Astoria. Really, it would be a matter of time until everyone finds out. Their sister Elizabeth would know—and she went to Wharton, so she probably knows some of your classmates. Hell, even our sister Julia would probably find out that Davis lost his virginity to a whore. Maybe our parents too. Did you think they would all welcome you into the Ridgeway family with open arms? That you would accompany Davis to Gray’s wedding and sit with our father like you didn’t exchange your body for money all summer?”
The mention of the contract makes me freeze, the sudden pain of betrayal hitting me. I was so stupid. “Did Davis tell you that?”
“Oh, so I’m right?” Kieran inquires, bowing to draw eye contact from me. “He paid for you again. He bought you like he buys everything else. Clothes, trips, dinners, whatever. When people like us want something, we buy it. That’s what Davis did.”
“I thought—”
“Look, I’m not here to fuck with your head,” he claims, despite the fact that my head can only be described as good and fucked at this point. “I’m here because you caused a lot of problems in Amsterdam and it cost me my relationship with my brother. You broke his heart and now I can see you’re doing the same thing again. The difference is that now, the stakes are even higher. This company is my life.”
Over a long pause, I note the tight expression on Kieran’s face. It popped up when he mentioned that his relationship with Davis is basically dead, and I wonder what the real motive is here—the company or Davis. I’m not a masochist though; I don’t bring it up. I simply remind him, “You don’t even work here.”
He raises an eyebrow, which makes him look so refined that I have to assume that he’s practiced that look in the mirror. “Inheritance. Shares.”
“A minor sex scandal is not enough to derail a Fortune 10 company.”
“But it is enough to make our father reconsider putting Davis at the helm. That matters to you, right?”
It certainly does, but I don’t acknowledge it. “I knew what this was.”
“Do you?” His expression is skeptical. “Davis hasn’t been hinting that he wants to be with you after the summer? He hasn’t been dropping comments about how much you mean to him? I know my brother, even if he doesn’t want me to. The guy is sentimental. Soft-hearted. Not like you and me.”
“And what’s so wrong if he wants to be with me?”
“Haven’t you been listening?” Kieran snaps, obvious frustration in his tone. “You don’t belong in this world. In our world. No matter what, you’ll always be a whore and an interloper.”
You don’t belong in this world.