7: THE OTHER BROTHER

DELILAH

I stretched, looking at the time. Seth and I had been talking for over three hours, which had finally left me more than a little parched. At first, they were general interview questions. Things like where he was born. How his relationship with his brother was. Where they got the idea of their products from. All entirely normal interview questions.

Slowly though, in the first hour, our conversation transformed. Instead, we began to talk about some of our favorite hobbies, childhood memories, and how we shared a love for family board and dice games. I found Seth to be more normal than I expected him to be. While he and his brother had amassed a fortune, he pretty much just tended to his hobbies outside of his day job. Tinkering on vehicles, fishing, video games, foraging—and even macramé that went hand in hand with some gardening skills.

His ambition seemed to be at rest now that they had a company that was successful and had steady business, catering to whatever it needed when Cole asked him to do it; or when they needed another face to handle the staff since Cole wasn’t the best people person according to Seth. We had talked so much that my throat began to feel the need for a refreshment.

“Do you happen to have anything to drink?” I asked after a moment of silence as I watched him slowly hook something onto the engine.

“Oh uh, no not really. I haven’t stocked up in a while. There’s a store though if you walk for about three or four minutes that way and stretch your legs a bit. I’m almost done here and then we’ll head to our place and I can get you to the guest room.”

I didn’t react negatively towards the word guest room. We had already discussed a little about what was to come. When he said place, it was a small estate. Something I was well aware of, and their guest room while attached was also a whole separate wing of their custom-designed house. Research I had done about the few parties they hosted yearly had explicitly detailed the custom home; though it was cryptic on what it looked like on the inside.

When Jewel had left, my first instinct was to panic. Realizing that half of what I owned in clothing was now with a strange woman who seemed like she was the vindictive type. Which had been what opened up the conversation in the first place.

Seth had reassured me that I would find my bags on the bed of the guest room when I arrived, whether he or Cole saw to it was questionable considering he didn’t bother to make a call. However, it wasn’t hard to fire off a text message considering we both had occasionally taken a peek at our phones more than once. While his might be work-related… mine unfortunately were mother-related. So much so—I needed to stretch my legs anyway to make a call. One I wanted to tackle with a soda or tea in hand first for the dopamine kick after I got off the phone.

I would need it after talking to my mom.

“No worries, I’ll be back shortly. Do you want anything?” I asked, already taking my time to tidy my small area that was a recliner and a few notes that were now long forgotten as to what was even written down.

“I’m alright, I still have half a Gatorade sitting in there, I just didn’t think you wanted to share my germs.” He grinned, winking at me and I couldn’t do anything but feel my cheeks burn from the amount of smiling I had already been doing.

Seth was naturally funny, and despite first impressions with Jewel; very kind.

“Good perception,” I said, covering my mouth as he came out from behind the Jeep, pointing at his face. “I hate the flavor of Gatorade and oil.”

Seth raised his eyebrows, touching his cheek, a large dark smudge coming away and spreading to his hand he looked down at. As he gave out a small curse, I giggled, climbing out of the chair to stretch my legs. After taking a moment to move my body, I reached down to fish out just my wallet, deciding it would be easier for a quick walk instead of my entire purse.

Within moments I was out the front door, and breathing in the beautiful day. I had several moments to take in my surroundings as I stood on the balcony of the small porch. Looking up at the trees and feeling the warmth on my skin as I took a step down the three stairs that connected to the gravel.

The sound of a lighter catching made me flinch, my head whipping behind me and to the side.

Cole was just outside against the wall near the door, now smoking a cigarette. I recognized him only after a moment because the sun was so bright. His figure blurring with the shadows against the harsh glare I stood under. Forcing me to take a step back up under the shade of the trees and door’s awning to get a better look at him. Surprised to see him considering there was no vehicle in the parking lot and we hadn’t heard one pull up.

Besides their general build, they looked very little alike. His hair was almost black where Seth’s was brown and his eyes a bright green—a giant contrast to his brother's soft almost amber-golden eyes. While their features were somewhat identical—Cole seemed to be perhaps a fraction taller and thinner whereas Seth was a bit more compact from what I could tell beneath the leather jacket. Cole also sported tattoos… a lot of tattoos by what peeked out. One of which was an x-ray of a mouth on the back of his hand, making him look almost skeletal and threatening if he ever covered his mouth.

“Hello, dear little reporter,” he drawled with a grin playing on his lips. He leaned against the side of the building looking me up and down. “I wondered how long it would take for you to head outside to get away from my brother.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, folding my arms slowly in a disapproving manner. Unlike Seth, he was immediately talking down about his brother. That was surprising, did he have a power complex? “I had to make a call, and I wanted a drink.”

“So he didn’t bore you to death?”

I smiled slightly with a shrug. “Not at all, it was a great conversation. It would be great to have a one-on-one with you too since the article is about both of you. I just hadn’t gotten the pleasure of meeting you yet to ask.”

Cole took a long drag of his cigarette; a sly smile still on his lips. “Guess we’ll just have to do it now since we’re headed in the same direction. Your call will have to wait.”

If he was expecting me to protest or get upset, he was sorely mistaken. It was one phone call I didn’t want to make. Ever. “Sounds good, do you remember which way the store was? I think Seth pointed that way.” I pointed up the road, making Cole take another drag off his cigarette, eyeing me lazily.

“Not worth your calling? A boyfriend?” Cole asked, throwing down his cigarette and sliding past me to smash it with his foot into the gravel. Only to immediately light another. Instead of leaving it like I thought he might, he bent down, moving it to a small can I hadn’t seen before beginning to lead the way. Curious about the small gesture, it saying measures about his character.

I began to walk, crossing my arms despite the glimpse of humanity I saw in him. Focusing on my own needs first. Cole kept pace immediately, perhaps only a step or two behind due to smoking. Cole’s eyes burned into me any time I glanced at him, making it all the more unnerving to be around him. Not to mention the raw physical attraction he seemed to exert. Where Seth had his endearing charm that enhanced his boyish features. Cole was the polar opposite, having those dark, bad-boy undertones that were causing my digits to tingle.

It didn’t help that his questions were highly personal and disarming when he was that attractive.

“No,” I finally answered, leaving him with something simple.

He turned around, walking backward with a dead cigarette in hand now as he cocked his head at me. “You’re not going to tell me who you’re calling?”

I looked at him carefully. “I was hired for an interview, Mr. Harris. My personal life isn’t something I care to share.”

He didn’t even look a little taken aback, taking another drag off his cigarette, before realizing it was out and shaking his head. “Alright then. Ask away. I’m an open book.”

“What made you and your brother want to invest in the razor business?”

“No comment.”

“Who came up with the design?”

“No comment.”

I tried not to lock my jaw, the amusement growing in his features. A sly sexy smile filled his features. I knew what I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask why he would hurt his brother because it was obvious which brother had messed things up.

“Do you ever see you and your brother no longer investing in a business together in the future and parting ways?” I asked finally, deciding on the best-loaded question I could think of.

Cole opened his mouth and closed it. No longer amused. “No. No comment beyond that.”

I smiled as he took a step back to relight his cigarette, walking forward to check one of the bushes on the side of the road. Surprised when I saw fruit growing on it. “Blackberries?”

“They grow wild here,” Cole replied, staying several paces away. “You realize I was the one that hired you, right? You should be nicer to me.”

The comment made me snort as a soft, juicy berry fell into the palm of my hand. “If you can’t tell, I’m attempting to be as professional as possible, but you’re making that very difficult, Mr. Harris. Your manners aren’t anything like your brother’s. You keep asking me personal questions, which makes me wonder if you had an ulterior motive for my being here.”

Cole smiled, his hand coming to his mouth, making me almost want to shiver. The effect was sexy, and he likely knew it when he had put it on his hand. If there was something to be said about these brothers, they had a walking sex appeal that rivaled most men.

He certainly wanted something from me, and it wasn’t what I had been hired for. That much was obvious now that I had met Cole, and how clueless Seth seemed to be about what was supposed to go in the article.

So what did he want?

“I’ll be honest, Miss Delilah. I hired you because I want you to find my brother a wife.”