by Anita Claire
As I turn to introduce Nate, I see he’s looking at Flint with the eye of warrior. Nate extends his hand keeping a grip on my waist “Nate, Juliette’s boyfriend.”
Flint doesn’t flinch from Nate’s aggressive stare as he shakes his hand and amps up the situation with his own stare. “Flint, CTO. So, Nate, you work high tech?”
“No, sports medicine.”
“What, are you a trainer or something?”
“No. Orthopedic Surgeon.” Nate says as he pulls me in.
Luckily Flint’s interrupted from this testosterone laced introduction by Terri, who gives me a sneer as she tells Flint in a sweet voice he’s needed in another room. Then she physically escorts him away.
Turning back to Nate, I say in horror, “That’s one of the founders of my company. Why were you so Neanderthal to him?”
Watching Terri and Flint retreat through pinched eyes, he responds, “That guy’s been checking out your ass for the last half hour. I wanted to make sure he realizes you’re taken.”
Wow, I don’t know if I’m flattered or alarmed. I’m glad he wasn’t as protective of me when we were around Mark and Roger.
“What’s with the blond who’s trying too hard?” Nate asks.
“Terri? Who just pulled Flint away?”
“Yeah, are those two together, or does she just want to be with him?”
“I heard she was with Sid, my VP.”
“Sid should be watching his back because she’s definitely on the make, and not happy that Flint has his eyes on you. Though, I don’t like knowing he has his eyes on you either.” Nate says as we walk around the death star model. Wow, Nate is surprisingly good at picking up what’s going on around here, much better at it than me, but I don’t think Flint’s interested in me that way. Anyway, it takes two to tango, and I’m happy dancing with Nate.
After our turn on the Millennium Falcon, Chewbacca tells us that desert will be served and the band will be playing in the other room.
Nate looks at me and tips his head toward the other room. “We’ve never danced together.” He threads his fingers through my hand.
“It had better be slow dancing, since I don’t have much room to move in this dress.”
Smiling, Nate says, “I’d like to do some slow dancing with you.”
On our way to the bar, before we head into the other room, we run into Megan, Caroline, and Kami—all looking festive in their pretty party dresses.
As the women I lunch with check Nate out, I make introductions, then ask, “Where’s Jessica?”
“Oh, she’s been hanging with that product manager she’s been chasing since last month.”
Then I step right in it, “Caroline, where’s Jeremy? I thought you were bringing him?”
The other women roll their eyes as Caroline gets this really sad look, bites her lip, and says, “We drove over together, but as we were entering the lobby, he told me he left something at home. He hasn’t come back.”
Standing there without a clue of what to say next, Nate dives right in. “Can I get you ladies a drink?” He ushers us over to the bar. In my ear, he says, “Christmas parties bring out the crazy.”
We then head into the dining room and search out the table where my group is sitting. The band starts playing a nice, slow song. Leaving my clutch and wine glass on the table, Nate takes my hand and leads me to the dance floor. Leaning into him, I say, “This is where I work; please don’t put your hands on my ass or any non-G rated locations.”
Smiling, Nate pulls me tight. “Just G rated dancing tonight. I’ll leave the X ratings for tonight’s show…when I get you in my bed.”
As he twirls me around the floor, all I can do is smile as I gaze into his wonderful blue eyes. I’m real lucky to have found a good guy like Nate.
Appendix – A - Books in “The Princess of Silicon Valley” series
Book 1 – Meet Me in Silicon Valley – The Juliette Trilogy
Book 2 – Kiss Me in Silicon Valley – The Juliette Trilogy
Book 3 – Be with Me in Silicon Valley – The Juliette Trilogy
Book 4 – Nate
Book 5 – Jennifer and Rocket
Book 6 – Isabelle
Book 7 – Hita
Book 8 – Olivia
Book 9 – Meredith and Sam
Book 10 – Kelly
Appendix – B- Characters
This story has a lot of characters. To help navigate all these characters I have included my character chart.
Princesses – college friends
- Juliette Cole – Snow White – long dark hair with curls, white skin, brown eyes
- Meredith Price – Cinderella – morning running friend – blond hair blue eyes – works biochem, lives with her college boyfriend Sam
- Hita Chamarthi (pronounced Heeta) – Pocahontas – works with Juliette – parents came from India
- Isabelle Becker – Belle – dad white, mom Chinese
- Jennifer Takahashi – Mullen – Asian –Hawaiian – teaches middle school, crafty
- Olivia Habibi - Jasmine – middle eastern – med student
- Kelly Flannigan - Marida – wild red hair – very athletic, wild energy
High school
- Grayson (Gray) Barber - Fenced with Juliette–law student – brown eyes
- Elizabeth Wilder – high school queen bee
- Cassie – high school friend, lived in LA
- Cody – Cassie’s ex-husband
- Luke Tomlin – Cassie’s boyfriend - professional football player
Work
- Caroline - works in the client side department –has bad relationships
- Kami - works in the client side department, on the chubby side
- Mark – nice coworker – annoying dog Buddy
- Roger – boss – late 20’s early 30’s, from New Jersey
- Flint CTO – Matt Flinter, Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer
- Tyler – CEO of the company
- Sid - VP engineering
- Rajive – fellow new engineer
- Jim – macho engineer
- Jessica – manages swag – lives in SF
- Megan – works in web design – Asian, dresses artsy – lives in SF
- Terri - round face, blond hair, blue eyes
Additional characters
- Nate Lombard – MD, opposing player’s brother, 29 years old, tattoo on right arm, brown curly hair and blue eyes
- Leigh – Older sister , 5’8”, same coloring, very thin
Swimmers
- Zach – Abs guy –dark hair and steel gray eyes - engineer
- Kevin – half Asian - engineer
- Austin –blond hair - engineer
- Amanda – Kevin’s girlfriend
- Sean – dark hair
Author’s Notes
Writing this series has been an incredible experience. I’ve spent many enjoyable hours developing Juliette and her wonderful group of friends. I hope that you have as much fun reading about them as I have had creating them.
I’d like to give a special call out to my wonderful beta readers who gave me great insight, Ann Quesinberry, Deb Kiger, and Margie Dean.
For more on The Princesses, my blog, and a visual tour of the places Juliette has visited, you can go to my website: http://www.anitaclaire.com or friend me on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/anitaclairebooks.
To sign up for my e-mail list—which will only be used to notify you when the next Princess book becomes available—go to: http://www.anitaclaire.com/blo02/02blo02.htm
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