The biting Seattle wind hit Brook the second they stepped onto the concrete stairs outside the side exit. She shivered, her bare foot curling against the freezing pavement.
Julian let go of her hand.
The sudden absence of his body heat made Brook's stomach hollow out. She wrapped her arms around her ribs.
"This is just a transaction," Julian said. His voice was stripped of any warmth. He adjusted the cuffs of his suit. "I shielded you from your problem. You shielded me from an arranged marriage."
Brook nodded slowly. Her brain was still trying to process the adrenaline crash. "How do we-"
Julian's phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out. The screen flashed with his colleague's name: Jaylin.
He swiped to answer, immediately pressing the phone tight against his ear, stepping slightly away so the biting wind would mask the sound. "Speak."
"Julian, you missed the afternoon meeting with the Carrillo team," Jaylin's panicked voice buzzed faintly against Julian's ear, completely inaudible to Brook. "The old man is threatening to pull your project funding."
Julian let out a harsh breath through his nose. "Tell my grandfather I'm already married."
Brook's chest tightened. The finality of the word married hit her like a physical blow.
Before she could process it, her own phone started buzzing in her cheap purse. She dug it out. It was Brenda.
Brook answered, pressing the phone hard against her ear. "Brenda?"
"Brook, where the hell are you?" Brenda sounded out of breath. "Kevin has been sitting in the lobby of the apartment building for an hour!"
The cold wind seemed to stop. Brook's lungs seized.
"Kevin is at the apartment?" Brook whispered. Her throat felt like it was lined with sandpaper.
"Yes! The guy I set you up with. He never went to City Hall!"
Brook's phone slipped from her ear. She turned her head slowly.
The man standing next to her was looking down at his phone, his thumb swiping across the screen with bored precision.
"You aren't Kevin Parrish," Brook said. Her voice shook so hard the words barely formed.
Julian looked up. His grey eyes locked onto hers. He didn't look surprised.
"I never said I was Kevin," he replied smoothly.
"Then who are you?" Brook's vision blurred at the edges. She gripped the metal handrail to keep from falling.
"Julian Cardenas IV."
He said it without a title. Just a name.
Brook searched her panicked brain. The name meant absolutely nothing to her. She had just legally bound herself to a total stranger. A stranger who wasn't her blind date.
Julian watched her face. He waited for the flash of recognition. The widening of the eyes that always came when women realized they were standing in front of the CEO of Cardenas Consolidated.
Nothing. Just pure, unadulterated panic.
"Do we need to get an annulment?" Julian asked. The words tasted strange in his mouth. He didn't want an annulment. He needed this piece of paper to keep his grandfather away.
Brook thought of Travis Boggs. She thought of his wet laugh and the way he looked at her like a piece of meat. If she annulled this, she had no legal protection. She would be dragged back to hell.
She forced her jaw to unclench. She shook her head.
"No," Brook whispered. "No annulment."
The corner of Julian's mouth twitched upward for a fraction of a second. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a standard-issue corporate business card, and held it out to her. It read Julian Cardenas, Project Manager in a crisp, unremarkable font.
"Call me tomorrow," he said.
He turned and walked down the stairs, leaving Brook standing alone in the freezing wind.
