“Of course.” His voice came out high and reedy thanks to his pinned throat. “You’re right. Surely the great Kai Young is too smart to do something as stupid as fraternize with a Valhalla bartender this close to the CEO vote.” He choked out another pained breath when I pressed my arm tighter against his neck.
“Kai.”
The crimson receded from my vision at the sound of Isabella’s anxious voice.
I dropped my arm and glared at Victor. He straightened and coughed before continuing, “Voting members are real sticklers when it comes to scandal. One of the chief executive candidates for Greentech lost the position a few years ago because of an affair with the nanny. Fifteen years of hard work, down the drain.”
I remembered. The scandal had dominated the news for months.
The difference was, I wasn’t married. I could date whoever I wanted.
Tell that to Valhalla and the board, an insidious voice whispered.
I gritted my teeth. Triumph slowly replaced the apprehension on Victor’s face. He’d hit his target, and he knew it.
“You’re a CEO,” Isabella said, coming up beside me. “So obviously, corporate boards don’t care that much about scandals. Didn’t your car get blown up earlier this year?”
Victor’s face flushed scarlet. The fiery destruction of his Porsche had made headlines in the spring.
He never found the person responsible, but his list of enemies was miles long. It could’ve been anyone.
Normally, I abhorred the senseless destruction of property, but I found it hard to summon sympathy for him. No one died. The only things hurt were his ego, his car, and his reputation, not that the latter had been great to begin with.
“Isa!” A man in a linen shirt and pants entered the room, cutting off Victor’s response. “There you are. I was looking for you.”
I recognized him immediately as Oscar, one of the gallery’s featured artists. Tall and lean, with shoulder-length black hair tied in a ponytail and a string of puka shells adorning his neck, he looked like he should be hanging ten in Hawaii instead of headlining an exclusive art exhibit in Chelsea.
He brushed past a surprised-looking Victor and draped an arm over Isabella’s shoulders. My spine pulled taut.
“I’m giving my speech soon. Thought I’d bring you up there with me, considering you inspired one of the pieces.”
She wrinkled her nose. “No, thanks. I hate speeches, and this is your night.”
The brewing violence from earlier had dissipated, replaced with another type of tension.
“Isabella, I wasn’t aware you knew Oscar,” I said with a tight smile, fighting the urge to yank his arm off her.
“We more than know each other. He’s one of my favorite people on the planet.” She beamed up at him.
A muscle ticked in my jaw. “How lovely.”
And what am I? Chopped liver?
I didn’t like the jealous, territorial caveman I became whenever I saw her smiling at another man, but nothing about my attraction to her had ever been rational.
Isabella blinked at my curt tone before amusement crept into her eyes. “Oscar is—”
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” A beautiful Asian woman came to an abrupt halt next to the wave sculpture.
Victor had disappeared. I hadn’t noticed him leave, but good riddance. “We didn’t mean to interrupt.
We weren’t, um, expecting anyone to be back here.” A delicate rose colored her cheeks.
Next to her, a familiar-looking man with brown hair and icy green eyes surveyed us like it was our fault for interrupting them even though we were here first.
Typical Volkov.
“Alex, Ava, good to see you.” I masked my irritation over Oscar and Isabella with a smile. Why is his arm still around her shoulders? “I didn’t know you were in the city.”
“Ava wanted to see the exhibit, so here we are.” Other than a touch of softness on his wife’s name, Alex Volkov’s voice was cold enough to send the temperature of the room plummeting.
The notoriously aloof real estate billionaire possessed the warmth of an Arctic ice cave, but he’d mellowed considerably since he started dating Ava a few years ago.
We were friendly, if not friends. He owned the skyscraper housing Young Corporation’s New York headquarters as well as half the street where I lived. I regarded him the same way I did Christian Harper, but at least with Alex, I knew what I was getting. Christian was a wolf dressed in custom-tailored sheep’s clothing. Dante had offered several more times to have him dig up dirt on Rohan Mishra and the other CEO candidates, and I’d declined every time.
Dante was comfortable pushing ethical boundaries, but I refused to win by cheating. There was no glory in false victories.
Speak of the devil.
“There’s a secret party back here and no one invited us? I’m offended.” Dante’s deep drawl preceded his appearance around the corner with Vivian by his side. “I was wondering where everyone went.”
“I believe the vast majority of guests are still in the main exhibition area,” I said dryly, wondering how my intimate meeting with Isabella had devolved into this circus.
Then, as if the room wasn’t crowded enough, Clarissa swept in like a storm, her expression severe.
“Uh-oh.” Oscar finally dropped his arm from around Isabella’s shoulders. “I think I’m in trouble.”
He didn’t sound particularly concerned.
“There you are,” she said in a clipped voice. “Your speech is in three minutes. You have to come with me. Now.”
I’d never heard Clarissa sound so irritated, though to be fair, I hadn’t talked to her in years before she moved to New York.
“I’ll be there.” Oscar didn’t move. She didn’t budge.
After a moment of silence, he sighed and followed her out. The rest of the room trickled out after them.
I fell back so I could walk next to Isabella.
“You two seemed friendly,” I said. “How do you know each other again?”
Her eyes danced with renewed laughter. “Kai, Oscar is my brother. His real name is Felix, but he used our father’s name as his artist pseudonym. It’s his way of paying homage.”
Her brother?
A wave of shock rippled through me. I glanced at the back of Oscar’s—Felix’s—head. “How…”
Despite his dark coloring, Oscar/Felix was obviously white. Isabella was Filipino.
“His parents died when he was a baby,” she said. “My parents were his godparents before they legally adopted him. He’s been part of the family since before I was born.” Her dimples popped up again. “See? No reason to be jealous.”
Heat touched my skin. “I wasn’t jealous.”
“Of course not. You look at every man like you want to rip them to shreds and barbecue them.”
“If we weren’t in public,” I said, my voice low and calm, “I’d put you over my knee and punish you for your insolence alone.”
Isabella’s breath audibly hitched. “You wish.”
A smile edged my lips, but it was a Pyrrhic victory because not being able to follow through on my threat was as torturous for me as it was for her.
We poured into the main exhibition room, where Oscar/Felix had already commenced his speech.