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Raf silently toasted his friend, and the others raised their glasses as well. "Good luck with that. Let him know we’re all here, when he wants to see the light of day again."
Aidan grumbled something purposely unintelligible even to their sharp hearing and knocked back his glass. "Tomorrow. Tonight we’re going to relax."
Raf eyed his glass as soon as it was empty. "I should probably go." He knew if he poured another drink, it would keep him here longer, and he’d had more scotch already than he’d intended.
"You okay to drive?" Aidan asked, sliding out of the round bench seat to let Raf up.
He nodded. "I’ll be fine. Probably should’ve had less, but…" He just shrugged. It wasn’t usually a concern at the rate their draconic metabolisms ran through the alcohol.
"Fair enough. See you later, then." Aidan raised his glass in farewell.
Rafael made his way to the reserved parking space he had at the back of the club, sliding behind the wheel of his Tesla and quickly turning in the direction of the more commercial side of downtown. He took his time, since he was still ahead of schedule, but it allowed his thoughts to drift. Would the pretty lawyer be the one bringing the contract to him to sign? She had been the lead lawyer for the Apptec people, but Raf wasn’t sure if that meant she’d be the one to complete the contract or if she would be able to foist it off on a flunky.
He snorted, amused at himself. What did it matter? The human woman wasn’t more than a passing curiosity. He needed a shifter woman if he was going to look for a companion. Maybe he should, if he was so distracted by the lawyer’s appealing person. Even human women could be fun, but he preferred to stick to shifters who knew what he was—fewer opportunities for his nature to become public or to mess up the dynamic of the relationship, if you could even call it that. There weren’t any humans he trusted enough to keep his shifter status secret.
Which reminded him, he was still feeling the itch to shift. How long had it been? As he turned into the parking garage of his building, he couldn’t recall exactly. Too long, apparently. He should take the coming weekend off and fly out to one of the many national parks in the Rockies. There were places remote enough that he could safely assume no human would stumble across him. Anywhere far enough from the airport that no low-flying airplanes would be confronted with a dragon.
As one of the VIPs of the building, he had a parking space in the small lot directly under the building itself, which allowed him to take a private elevator straight to his top-floor office. His employees didn’t have to go far to get from the garage next door, but it was a convenience Raf missed when he found himself waiting for elevators in other buildings.
He stepped into the top-floor hallway and was surprised to see Zach knocking on his office door with the pretty brunette, in a lavender pantsuit today. "Am I late?"
Both turned at the elevator’s ding, breaking out in smiles. Zach shook his head. "No, I figured you wouldn’t mind if we showed up a bit early."
"Not at all." He unlocked his office door and entered to hold it open for them, gesturing them to come in with his social smile.
His lawyer approached his desk then turned. "Raf, have I introduced you yet?" The negative head-shake made Zach wince, looking sheepish. "I’m sorry, I should have thought. Raf, this is Ashley Seaver. Ashley, Rafael Brantley. I know you were both present in the meeting yesterday, I just assumed you’d already met."
Raf followed the pair to the desk and waited for the woman to shift her briefcase to her left hand so they could shake. "Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Seaver."
"Ashley, please. As soon as you’ve signed these, there’s no need for us to stand on ceremony." Her grip was firm and professional, but her skin was soft and he felt his palm tingling at the contact.
It’s been longer than I thought since I touched a good-looking woman. I should really do something about that.Even so, he filled his senses with Ashley—her athletic curves, her scent made up of vanilla, lavender, and something gently floral, and her melodious voice. Just being beside her made him more aware of her; everything he sensed appealed to him, unlike most humans. Even his draconic intuition liked her. She shifted her briefcase to the open corner of his desk and pulled out a stack of paper, flipping through to make two identical stacks, which she then shifted to have the last page of each on top so he could sign. A scrawled signature was on the first line of each, labeled Arthur Pierce.
Raf picked up a pen and signed each as neatly as he was able, feeling the need to avoid being anything like the jerk of a CEO who had bought his creation. "There you are, Ashley, two signed copies. I take it one of these is ours?"
She nodded, so Zach picked up one copy as she returned the other to her briefcase. "Thank you very much for your time, Mr. Brantley."
"Rafael, please," he told her with a smile, echoing her words.
"Rafael," she repeated, her smile growing.
"Would you care to join us for a drink?" He wasn’t sure where the words came from; he hadn’t been intending to ask her. "I told Zach and Nate I would take them out for a celebratory drink at Club Phoenix across town."
Ashley’s eyes widened a small amount, though she hid her surprise well. "I’d be delighted to. I don’t know Club Phoenix, though. Where is it?"
Raf and Zach shared a smile. A few of his employees knew he was one of the owners, but he didn’t go around telling everyone he met at work, it wasn’t the kind of professional connection he wanted to make with other tech companies. He bent to open the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a business card, one of many. "Here."
Again her eyes revealed only a tiny fraction of her reaction to seeing his name embossed on the dark card with Club Phoenix’s fiery logo.
"If you get there before I do, just tell the bouncer you’re there to meet me and show him the card. I don’t give them out to just anyone, so they’ll let you in." He didn’t add that she wouldn’t be charged the cover fee, either. "Hang onto the card, if only for that reason later on." He grinned to show her he was at least partly joking, then looked at Zach. "Do you want to go get Nate, or shall I?"
"Go ahead. I should drop this in my office before we go." Zach nodded at Ashley as both lawyers turned for the door. "See you in a little bit."
Raf took the stairs down one floor to find his programmer and then made his way quickly to his car. He was a little too eager to offer Ashley a drink, but he couldn’t help it once the words were out of his mouth. That scent was going to tease his nostrils for a while. There was something familiar about it, too, but he couldn’t place it. He could ask his friends, but they may not be able to help.
Raf frowned. On second thought, Aidan and Chas were entirely too good-looking to introduce to her. Why it mattered so much, he couldn’t quite put words to, but it did.
Chapter 4 - Ashley
