you had a sturdy backbone somewhere in that stacked little body of yours.”
“I’m not leaving,” Susan said. “You have no authority in this company.”
“My mother has been trying to make me a partner for years,” Toni said, and though she wasn’t necessarily ready to take that step, Susan had no way of knowing that. “Trust me, you’re fired.”
Toni slid out of Julian’s grasp and headed for the door. She needed to talk to her mother—the real boss of this establishment—as soon as possible.
“I didn’t take your journal,” Susan called after her.
“Fired. Do I need to spell it for you? It starts with an F and ends with a U,” Toni said as she stormed out of Susan’s office with Julian on her heels.
“Remind me to never get on your bad side,” Julian said.
“Susan’s been rude to me since day one.”
“Only because you never stood up for yourself.”
Toni scowled at him. “That’s no excuse to be an asshole.”
“Most assholes don’t need an excuse. So how are things going with your new boyfriend? I saw your story about him. Makes him sound like a whiner.”
“Not my story,” she reminded him.
“But he is your boyfriend?” Julian wiggled his eyebrows at her.
“Yes, I told you he was in response to those badgering texts you sent.”
Julian pouted. “You never did send me proof.”
“I’m not sending you a naked picture of my boyfriend, Julian!”
“Then I don’t believe you.” Such the little manipulator.
“Believe whatever you want. I’m lucky he didn’t dump me after what Susan did.”
“I’m still not clear what she did that has you so pissed off.”
“She stole my journal and published secrets I’d written in it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!” Though her certainty was diminishing by the second.
“How would she know to steal your journal? Or even how to get her hands on it?”
“How the hell should I know?” she screeched.
Julian leaned away from her, apparently deciding she was too scary to keep pestering.
She stopped at Julian’s desk, which was situated in front of her mother’s closed office door and waited for him to buzz her via his intercom.
“Your mother’s in a meeting downtown,” Julian said. “She won’t be back for at least an hour.”
She tossed her hands in the air. “Why didn’t you tell me that before I walked all the way down here?”
“Because I was starting to believe you two switched bodies or something. I’ve seen that fire in her hundreds of times, but I’ve never seen it in you before.”
“You should be glad you’ve never made me that angry.” Toni rubbed her forehead, fatigue setting in now that her so-called fire had burned itself to embers. “I guess I’ll work on the book until she gets back. Will you call me in my office when she returns?”
“Of course.”
Toni turned to head back toward her office, and Julian fell into step with her again. “So is their drummer, Steve Aimes, really gay? Because I would very much like you to introduce me to him.”
“Nope, he’s not,” Toni said. “You shouldn’t believe everything you read in the tabloids, Julian. Or anything you read in the tabloids.”
“Damn. I have such a boner for that guy. Are you sure I’m not his type?”
“I’m positive. He’s the biggest womanizer of the band,” Toni said. “Well, he is now that Logan is mine.”
“Prime man meat there as well, Miss Toni. Excellent score.”
“Um, thanks?” She wasn’t sure how to respond to that compliment. Because yes, Logan was gorgeous, and that had probably been why she’d succumbed to his charms so quickly, but now that she knew him on a deeper level, he was so much more than a handsome face and a big dick. “I have to work now,” she said as Julian followed her into her office, apparently still wanting to talk about men.
“So those other two guys, Trey Mills and the bodyguard . . . Any chance I could enjoy some threesome action with the two of them?”
Toni grabbed Julian by the arm and shoved him into the hallway. “Is dick all you ever think about?”
“Yes,” he said as Toni closed the door soundly in his face.
She raked her fingers through her hair, snagging them on tangles. Her mind was spinning at a million miles per hour. If it hadn’t been Susan who’d stolen her journal, then who could it have been? Maybe it had just been a random hotel maid or other stranger reading all her personal thoughts. Sharing them with the world. She glanced at the clock, surprised to find it wasn’t even nine yet. It was