AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After giving her one more kiss—he couldn’t resist—he climbed to his feet. Which was no easy task considering the pain he was in after spending the night on that ridiculous sofa of Desi’s.
If he didn’t know any better, he would think Desi had bought the thing for the sole purpose of making him as uncomfortable as possible. Except it wasn’t as if furniture stores just had these things lying around. No way could she have gotten it there on such short notice. Which meant, unbelievably, that she actually liked the thing.
“I’ll be home around seven,” he told her after hustling into the bathroom and grabbing his shirt off the back of the door. He buttoned it up as he slipped his feet into his dress shoes, then grabbed his briefcase and headed for the door.
He changed course at the last second, detouring to the kitchen to drop another quick kiss on Desi’s lips. “If I’m going to be late, I’ll text you.”
“I actually have a gala to cover tonight, so I won’t be here when you get back.”
“A gala? Where?”
“SeaWorld. It’s for Save Our Oceans—a lot of Hollywood types are supposed to be there as well as the business elite.”
“Save Our Oceans—that’s a good cause.” He raised a brow. “Want a date?”
“A date? You mean, you really want to come?”
“Well, the last gala we attended ended pretty well, I think. So, yes. I do want to go.”
She laughed. “I’m not going to have sex with you on the balcony at SeaWorld.”
“A guy can dream.” He pulled open the front door. “I’ll send the helicopter for you and we can meet up at the gala. Sound good?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
He didn’t like the uncertainty in her voice. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, it’s just… I’ve never been in a helicopter before.”
“Oh, right. Would you rather drive? I can send a car for you—”
“I’m a big girl, Nic. I am more than capable of driving myself to San Diego. That’s how I met you, after all.”
“I’ve never once doubted your capabilities. I just thought I’d have a car bring you down, we could spend the night at my place and in the morning I’ll fly with you back to LA. The first time you ride in a helicopter shouldn’t be by yourself. There’s no fun in that.”
“But what about you? You’re working in San Diego tomorrow, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but the helicopter has to fly back to San Diego anyway. I’ll catch a ride.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’ll catch a ride?”
“Okay, fine, I’ll make them give me a ride.” He glanced down as his phone beeped with a text. The pilot telling him they were waiting for him—as if he hadn’t heard the noise of the approach. “I’ve got to go,” he told her, “before all your neighbors revolt. Does the plan sound good to you?”
“Yes, the plan works, Mr. CEO.”
“I think you’ve got me confused with my brother. I’m CCO. It’s a very different thing.”
He ducked out before she decided to throw something at him, and as he closed the door behind him, he couldn’t help thinking that Desi was right. It did sound good. And so did everything else about their arrangement at the moment. Well, everything except that damn couch.
Thirteen
He’d sent a limo for her. An actual limousine, long and black with tinted windows and a driver in a full suit. And not one of those rental limousines, either—no, this limo belonged to Bijoux, and was at the disposal of the Durand brothers only. She knew that because she’d asked the driver, who had been more than happy to wax poetic about his employers.
Of course he had. Everyone loved Marc and Nic Durand. Everyone except her, she assured herself as she uneasily settled into the plush leather seats. She was woman enough to admit how wrong about them she’d been when she’d taken the word of a source who was more disgruntled employee than whistle-blower. She was even woman enough to admit that she liked Nic—he was pretty impossible not to like, after all, considering how kind and charming and supportive he was being.
But that didn’t mean that she loved him. And it certainly didn’t mean that she was on her way to falling in love with him. She barely knew the man after all.
And if that wasn’t strictly true—if she knew his favorite color and how he liked to walk barefoot on the beach at midnight and that he gave huge amounts of his money away to those less fortunate and that he believed in standing up even when no one else would and that he liked his coffee with the teeniest drop of cream in it—well, that really wasn’t that much to know about a person, was it? It certainly wasn’t enough to make her fall in love with him when she had sworn she would never do that. With anyone. Ever.
