Page 34 of Hate On

He was just…well, he was fun.

And he made her laugh. He understood her on a level a lot of guys didn’t. When she started talking about things going on with the family mines, or advancement in gem technology, his eyes didn’t glaze over.

Hegother.

That wasn’t a bad thing, was it?

She closed her eyes and groaned as she realized that her mother just might be right. A good ten minutes had passed with her sitting there staring at the same page on her tablet, yet if she’d read anything, she had no idea what it was.

Her phone buzzed and she looked over at it, a small frisson of worry lighting inside her. Sometimes, the texts that came this late were from her brother and that never signified anything good.

But it wasn’t her brother’s picture that lit up her screen.

It was Roman’s.

She tapped the message and her breath caught at what he’d written.

ThoughtI’d take you up on that offer to hook up. Meet me at my place in thirty?

Julianna bit her lip.

It was late.

She should get some sleep.

She should maybe show some caution, because if her mother was right…

She tapped out a response.

I’ll be there.

13

Roman

He’d threatenedtodemotehim.

Roman was still in shock about it.

Out of all the things that could have happened in the past few days, this was the last thing he’d expected.

His last encounter with his father had been terse to the point of being ugly and Michael Montrose’s parting shot had been, “If this goes sideways, don’t be surprised if you end up getting demoted, Roman. I still can’t believe you fucked this up so badly.”

Humiliation and anger burned in the pit of his belly as he paced the confines of his condo.

It had never felt so…confiningbefore.

He felt like he’d come out of his skin and the idea of being trapped in here with nothing but his own anger was more than he could handle.

He had his phone in hand before he realized it and Julianna’s number was on the screen.

Why was he thinking about calling her?

It washerfault this entire mess had happened.

Except…was it really?

All she’d done was exactly what he would have done—whatever was necessary to protect her best interests.