Exquisite

They're Not Stealing My Virtue

~Damen~

"Valdez, ring me in?"

My brother's personal assistant/ bodyguard, whose dark head was buried in a sheaf of papers looked up at my voice, giving me a quick grin as a greeting. He was devilishly handsome in a way that wasn't quite classic and always gave me the impression of a man I could never quite trust.

Or maybe it was just because of how shamelessly he flirted with Vivienne.

"Nice to see you here, Mr. Everett." I nodded shortly and he picked up a landline phone before speaking into it in hushed tones. "He's waiting for you inside." He pressed a button on his desk and I heard the quiet sound of Cassien's office unlocking from the inside; I had never been able to figure out how that worked.

My elder brother was, in many ways, the dark sheep of the family. Quite literally because he was the only child out of the three of us to inherit our father's dark hair and eyes as compared to Vivienne and me, who had our mother's golden hair and irises.

Figuratively because he was the head of what was quite possibly the biggest smuggling ring of the country.

He looked up at my footsteps, a grin lighting up his face. One of those many crappy magazines that Viv liked to make fun of had named us the hottest duo of the business world, with several hints that suggested that it was difficult to believe we were both siblings.

"Sorry had to bring you here, kid." I rolled my eyes; he was barely a year older than me. "Congratulations on overtaking Delta, by the way. I was going to call you but some work came up."

I shook my head, the previous apprehension about his reason for calling me here rising its head like a cobra. "What's going on?"

Cassien exhaled, leaning back in his chair before unbuttoning his suit. I had learned that from him; no matter where he went, even if it was just the mall Cassien never ditched his suits. His wardrobe was larger than Vivienne's and I was quite sure the value of all his suits put together could bring a small country out of debt.

"You remember Jordan? Jordan La Rue?"

I frowned, the name ringing slight bells but I couldn't place it exactly to a person. "Not really, why?"

"He runs a gold mafia - I've delivered a few of his shipments abroad." It suddenly struck me like a lightning bolt and I gasped. "Of course. How could I forget? He's the one who bought seven of Viv's paintings at her inauguration."

Cassien nodded but his eyebrows had pulled together in a tight knot. "I had always wondered why he did that ... Vivienne is brilliant but he's not the kind of man who would just buy art for the aesthetics."

"He wants to meet for dinner tomorrow," Cassien said with measured words, the coal-black pits of his eyes searching mine. "And he wants you to come along."

Despite myself, I froze. "What?"

To say this was strange would be laughable because seeing Cassien's face, I knew he was expecting this reaction from me. Even though we were brothers, Cassien and I had strictly distinct socials circles for obvious reasons; he had always ensured that I never have to be dragged into the forefront of his filthy world.

I ran our legal shipping business plus all our sister companies as the CEO in full view of the world while my brother operated in the shadows, keeping pretenses for the outside world as an eccentric, playboy musician.

For the leader of one of the most feared gold mafia in the continent to call both of us for dinner together wasn't just absurd, it was breaking every rule that we had ever made to ensure that our worlds don't clash together.