Page 205 of Tease Me


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Clarity struck Lance. “Wait, did you buy her coffee?”

“Did I—yeah, why?”

The slow smile that crept onto Lance’s face was a prelude to his exhaled laugh. “Did she ask if you were involved?”

“No,” he said. “We were just two people talking.”

Though he had worked the question into conversation. A boyfriend wasn’t prohibitive, just meant he’d have to work harder and maybe longer. Whatever it took, he wanted a fair shake with Rainie. For the first time in his life, he was anticipating a meeting that wasn’t professional.

“Want us to do some digging?” Ethan asked. “Put our people on it? Find out what we can about her?”

“No,” he said, scowling in disgust. “I’ll learn about her as she tells me. Why should we suspect her of anything?”

“Just don’t start sending her pics until we’ve vetted her,” Ethan said, suddenly serious. “Just because you don’t recognize her, doesn’t mean she hasn’t recognized you.”

“I’m not famous.”

Ordinarily, he understood the need for discretion. The women he’d been intimate with had their own careers and reputations to be concerned about.

“No, but you’re rich,” Ethan said. “Come on, man, I don’t have to talk to you about blackmail or extortion.”

“It would’ve been impossible for Rainie to be in the exact right place at the exact right time to run into me,” he said. “I didn’t even know there was a coffee place there, let alone know I’d go into it.”

“Still, just humor me,” Ethan said. “Maybe she’s an opportunist.”

Rich didn’t mean instant recognition. The companies he owned, and yes, there were scores of them, weren’t the type of companies that put him in front of the camera lens. Not in the mainstream media anyway. Sometimes he might do an interview for a college or some blog online, but they were niche markets. Once in a while, a request came up for him to go on television, but he much preferred his team sending a statement on his behalf than commenting on whatever current situation the media wanted his take on.

Someone on the street was more likely to know his name than his face. He’d never had a problem walking around. People didn’t hound him. Sure, okay, so most of the time he was driving or being driven rather than wandering around. But if he had to get from A to B on foot, he wouldn’t be chased down like some others who came to mind.

A few of his friends were notorious. Not Lance and Ethan. Zairn? Roxie? Yeah, being chased down was routine for them. Maybe Knox and Jane too. He didn’t envy either couple that attention.

“You have to meet Rainie to know there’s just no way,” he said, smiling at the memory of her.

Even though she was clumsy, he couldn’t imagine Rainie had a single bad or manipulative bone in her body. Maybe that was why he was so enraptured. Every other woman he’d dated had an agenda. They were driven in their careers or their personal aspirations. Of course he had the means to fund any kind of lifestyle a girlfriend or wife desired, and he’d have no problem doing that. But there had to be something more between him and a partner for him to consider tying the knot. Until he met Rainie, he hadn’t known what that was. With her, everything just clicked.

A big believer in instinct, his gut had made him a very rich man when it came to figures on paper. His intuition had never reacted to a woman the way it reacted to Rainie. Sure, it could be his libido screaming at him, but it was more than that. He’d wanted women before. Been mad with lust, eager to the point of desperate to sink himself into a date. He knew lust. Recognized it. Whatever was going on with Rainie was something else. Something new.

“I’d love to meet her,” Ethan said. “We’ll make space in the schedule. Lance?”

“Yeah,” Lance replied. “I need about ten days here, maybe twelve, and then we’re good.”

“I wasn’t inviting you to meet her,” he said, struck by something he’d never had to consider before. “I don’t have anywhere to put you.”

Both of his friends enjoyed that truth. “Topher made sure the couch pulled out,” Lance said. “Worst comes to worst, we’ll buy the building.”

He shook his head at his amused friends. “Real estate? Our latest venture?”

“There’s a lot of money in property development.”

“A lot of red tape too.”

“Zairn has a place in Chicago, doesn’t he?”

Yes, he did. Though he didn’t know where exactly.

His friends would have to meet Rainie eventually. Ten days might not be enough time to get their relationship to the point of her meeting the people in his life. He’d also have to find a way to explain why Lance, Ethan, and every other friend of his, were in an affluent, and arrogant, sphere. He didn’t want to lie to her anymore than was absolutely necessary.

“Leave it with me,” he said. “I have to get my bearings first.”

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