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I shook my head. “Ruffians,” I repeated in a hushed voice. “On the way to your limo? My god. Did they attack you? Did you hurt yourself running away?”
“Run? Why the hell would I run?” he demanded, eyes narrowed in genuine annoyance. Then, like he’d remembered he was supposed to be in character, he straightened in his seat. “No, my good man, I attackedthem.” He nodded once, like he was convincing himself. “I wasn’t trained in martial arts for nothing. But I may have injured myself in the fray.”
“How devastating. Is it your trick knee, sir?” I leaned toward him to palpate his knee, ignoring the hitch in his breathing when I touched him. “Let’s see… it doesn’t feel like anything’s out of place…”
While I had intended to call his bluff, I hadn’t expected my hands to relish the job I’d given them. Rowe’s legs were shapely beneath his dark pants. The muscles curved under my touch and bunched as I squeezed them.
I looked up suddenly to meet his eyes before moving my hands down slowly over his calf. “Or is it your ankle?” My voice suddenly sounded rougher.
“I-it was Sally Struthers!” he blurted, yanking his leg away. “I was trying not to offend your delicate sensibilities since I know you’re a polo fan, but I can’t lie to you, Bash! I don’t really have an injury. What really happened was that as I was watching television, a commercial came on the air. This woman spoke so eloquently about how cruel humans can be to our poor animal brethren, and I-I decided then and there that I cannot force that indignity on my poor horse ever again. In fact, I think I’m going vegan.” Rowe crossed his arms in front of his chest. “It’ll be another of my—”
“—quirky billionaire eccentricities,” he and I finished at the same time.
I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing in Rowe’s face. Christ, this was fun.
“Being vegan is going to be quite a change for you, Mr. Chase. Does that mean you’ll want to cancel your big-game hunting trip for next month? And what will that mean for your Texas cattle ranch?”
Rowe’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “Sterling Chase hunts big game?” He blinked. “I mean. I mean… Sterling Chase doesnothunt big game. No, sir. Not anymore. Cancel the trip immediately and put the cattle up for auction.”
I had to bite my tongue against a laugh. Even while bullshitting me, he was pretty damned cute, and part of me wished I had a cattle herd to sell on his behalf.
After pretending to type a note in my phone about selling his fictional ranch, I regarded him for a long moment, watching the afternoon sunlight filtering through the skylight gild his hair while he tried not to squirm under my gaze.
The man was so nervous I could practically feel the molecules in the air around him dancing with it. Yet here he was, in a car heading out of town, still doing his own flawed, adorable impression of a quirky billionaire, despite his nerves. I remembered what he’d told Miranda last night, about how letting fear hold you back was a waste of your life, and I couldn’t help feeling a grudging respect for the man.
I blinked and forced myself to look away. That kind of thinking was exactly the shit Silas and Kenji were worried about. I was here for flirtation. For fun. To fuck with the man and then, if he was amenable, to fuck him. To sort the truth from his lies. I immediately resolved to get this interaction back on track.
“You seem a little… tense,” I noted, leaning toward him to study his face more closely.
“D-do I?” Rowe leaned back against his seat.
I lowered my voice to a purr. “If you want, I know something that could help with that, Mr. Chase.”
His eyes widened.
I leaned in closer… close enough to see the tiny birthmark under his eyebrow and a spot on his cheek he’d missed while shaving. His lips parted, and his breath came out in a shaky, needy sigh that made my blood thrum.
Abruptly, I shifted left and grabbed the coffee cup I’d placed in the holder earlier.
“Coffee!” I said triumphantly. “I grabbed that new flavor you liked so much from your favorite bakery.”
He shut his eyes for a moment. “C-coffee. Right. Good.” He accepted the cup with a small smile. “You know me and my coffee.” He took a large sip and immediately choked. “This is… uh. This is very sweet.”
“Just the way you like it. Caramel-fudge-accino with extra pumps and double whip.” I beamed. “I made a note of it, per your last email. Oh, speaking of which…” I pretended to consult my phone once again. “I scheduled your colonoscopy for next week, and I took the liberty of changing your full-body wax to this Thursday since you’re back in town early.”
“You… but…”
“Also, your mother called to set you up on a date with her friend’s daughter. A woman named—” I squinted at my phone screen as if attempting to suss out the details. “—Jade, who’s a studio art major at NYU, runs fifteen miles a week and practices something calledReiki. Sounds fancy. Also, she’s not, and I quote, ‘out for your money, darling.’ Unquote.” I looked at him seriously. “Now, I know the situation with Bubbles must be fresh in your mind, sir, but since he’s happily married now, I’m sure he’d want nothing more than for you to find love again. So I set that up for Friday.” I winked and added in a whisper, “After the wax.”
Rowe’s eyes had gotten wider with every additional detail before he firmed his jaw. “My mother doesn’t know I’m gay,” he said gruffly. “Make an excuse and cancel the date. A-and I don’t need a body wax. I don’t have any, um… Just cancel it.”
Well, then.
He turned to look out the window, staring at the trees that bordered the highway now that we’d escaped the city and were heading west. His hands were clenched together tightly in his lap.
“What can you tell me about the man we’re going to see? Have you met Devon before?”
I wanted to reach out and grab Rowe’s hands in mine, to tell him not to worry because Dev was one of the sweetest, gentlest humans I knew. But the truth was, Dev was probably not going to be friendly—especially not after hearing from Silas that Rowe was a fraud. And I’d lied last night when I said everyone on the board knew lots of people outside Sterling Chase who’d invest in Rowe’s project. These days, Dev made it a point to talk to as few people as possible.
