Mine (Dressing a Billionaire Book 3): A Romantic Comedy

by Jamie Lee Scott

  For the first time in my life, I said it first, but I took the long way around. I put my finger over Hugo’s lips.

  “There is so much good in my life, since I’ve come back to Texas. So many unexpected surprises. You and Stella being two of them. But here’s the thing, I need to know that you love me for me. Not because I’m a stylist to the stars and have such excellent taste.”

  I saw Hugo’s lips twitch into a smile as I leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth.

  “I always wondered if that was going to be a problem,” he said. “That you might not think I love you for you.”

  “Well, I don’t care. I am so head over heels, upside down, backwards, in love with you, that I don’t even care if you only love me because of my fabulous style and taste.” And then I held my breath and waited.

  “I’m going to be honest with you. These last few days I almost went back to my hermit ways. I felt as if I’d opened up to you and opened my heart, and then when we returned to Dallas, everything changed. But now I realize it was my fault. I should have asked you to stay, even though Kelsey was at the cottage, and I knew our conversation would take time. Hell, I should’ve included you in the conversation, so you could hear me tell her that I loved you. That I love you.”

  Tears rolled down my cheeks, and for the first time in weeks, they weren’t sad tears.

  “I’ve known you a matter of weeks, and I feel like I know you better than I knew Kelsey after decades.” He reached up with both hands and wiped the tears from my cheeks with his thumbs. “I love you, Maisy Tucker. And it tears me up to know that I almost lost you, because I didn’t tell you soon enough.”

  In between tears and sniffles, I managed to say, “So no more holding back. From now on if we have a question, we ask, and if something needs to be said, it gets said.”

  “Agreed.”

  I don’t know why I said what I said next, but I needed him to know. “I hope you understand that I don’t care if you lost everything tomorrow, and we had to live with my parents. I’d still love you as much then as I do now. Probably more.”

  Hugo laughed. “Be careful what you wish for, because when Stella finds out, we may be living at your parents house. And I may be unemployed and written out of the will.”

  Remembering my earlier conversation with Stella I said, “I think Stella would approve.”

  He pulled his hands from my cheeks, then leaned in close and kissed me. “Will you be mine?”

  “The question is, will you be mine?”

  We agreed to seal the deal right then and there on the couch in my office. And just as Hugo had gotten completely naked and slid on top of me, my office door flew open and I heard Bruce say, “Let’s go shopping!”

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  OTHER ROMANTIC COMEDIES BY JAMIE LEE SCOTT

  Dressing a Billionaire – Hello

  Dressing a Billionaire – Style

  Dressing a Billionaire – Mine

  See all of Jamie’s books at

  www.jamieleescott.com/books.html

  And now a sneak peek at my good friend, Bonnie Paulson’s contemporary romance, Odd Man Out:

  Odd Man Out by Bonnie Paulson

  Odd Man Out

  Bonnie R. Paulson

  www.bonniepaulson.com

  Odd Man Out

  Ryker changed his image to succeed at singing in a large band once before. With little payoff.

  His new band isn’t asking much, at least not at first, not something that would hurt him on a personal level.

  At least, until he considers Nikki.

  But Nikki, oh Nikki, with curves like a guitar who understands what working for a dream really means. His only obstacle to every other desire he’s ever sacrificed for – not his ex-band, not his ex-friend, not the Alzheimer’s slowly taking his mom, not even the façade of being the gay lead singer in an all-gay band.

  Just Nikki.

  But Nikki has dreams of her own. And catering to a man who cares entirely too much about what others think isn’t in her game plan. He could be an integral part of her goals – her hopes, but not hiding who is he and what he wants.

  Yet, sadly, that’s the funny thing about dreams. Sometimes they change. Sometimes they become less about him and all about her. Or less about her and all about him.

  Odds are they don’t change at the same time.

  If his dreams change, will hers?

  Chapter 1

  The Nordic gods had to be missing their king.

  Nikki dropped the whitish bar cloth into the bucket, splashing dirty water over its lip.

  Blond hair, shoulders almost too big for the doorway, tall-tan-glass-of-yummy walked in, backlit with afternoon sunlight.

  Squinting at the bright backdrop since being accustomed to the dim bar, Nikki afforded him a thorough once-over before bending down to retrieve the rag. Nothing wrong with admiring the goods that arrived, even the unavailable items. Who was she kidding? In Sprites, they were all unavailable.

  Standing, Nikki shoved her hair from her face with the back of her wrist – in vain – nothing was fixing how she looked at that point.

  Eyes readjusted, Nikki noticed the bright pink flier emblazed with audition information waving in his hand.

  She slapped her hip and smiled. “Are you here for the tryouts?” The god turned toward her and she swallowed a gasp. What the hell was he doing in her bar? Tossing the towel in the sink and rinsing her fingers, she grimaced. All the hot ones were gay, but not this one. He was infamous and not for kissing boys.

  He approached the bar and motioned toward the stage with a nod. “Yeah, thanks. Is there a lot of competition?” His words had been dragged across velvet, drenched in whiskey, and laid out to dry in the salty air of a sunny beach. Damn, he hadn’t changed.

  “Probably not for you, Ryker.” Nikki tapped her wet finger on the counter.

  Ryker jerked back. He looked behind him. Two men dressed in metro-pizzazz sat at a long table a few feet from the stage. Their heated voices crossed the forty or fifty feet to the bar in palpable, undefined frustration.

  “Don’t worry.” Nikki rubbed a glass with her rag, more irritated than she should be. “Keenan and Billy can’t hear us. I doubt they’d even care.” But that wasn’t true, was it? Those boys wanted nothing more than to be famous and if Ryker was in their band, he’d rocket them into the most outer orbits of fame.

  He ducked his head. “How’d you know it was me?”

  She offered a bitter laugh tied to disillusioned sadness. She was a fan with failed hopes. “You can ditch the black hair and apparently fake tattoos, but your face? Your voice? Ryker, no one sounds like you. Once you spoke… well…”

  “Do you think it’s going to ruin my chances?” His unavoidable magnetism did things to her insides. Grr.

  Billy would freak when he saw that Ryker Steele had come to the auditions.

  Might as well get the introductions over with. Nikki tied on her apron and rounded the end of the bar. He didn’t have to know he’d been her favorite member of Dagger. “I’ll take you over.” Like stalker-favorite.

  Drastically different from the all-black clothing he’d worn in his posters and album covers before, the light blue t-shirt softly molded to the rounded angles of his pecs. Nikki ignored her overly moist mouth.

  Chairs sat on tables lined along the wall. Dark carpet faded to faux-wood linoleum until running into the stage. Nikki glanced over her shoulder. Low lighting glowed on the golden grain and sparkled off snifters and martini glasses. Classy tinged attitude. Her pride and joy. Was he impressed?


  Beside Keenan, Nikki motioned toward the Viking. “You’ve got a hot one here, fellas.” She clenched her jaw from using more angry tones that she couldn’t explain. “Ryker Steele.”

  Billy checked out a list, multi-toned jewelry dangling from his ear with small tinkles riding on the air. “Ryker Steele? You mean, Ryker Steele from Dagger? Singer-slash-songwriter-slash-multi-instrument-talent Ryker Steele? That one? You’re joking, right?” He laughed and nudged Keenan’s shoulder.

  But Billy’s boyfriend didn’t share the joke. Instead, he stared over Billy’s head at the blond giant just feet away.

  Nikki understood the awe. She leaned down to Keenan’s ear and whispered, “I know, right?”

  Following Keenan and Nikki’s gazes, Billy turned as if stuck in tar, slow and painful.

  Ryker’s sideways glance at Nikki and tight eyebrows signaled the staring and gaping had gone on long enough. He cleared his throat, but no one moved.

  Nikki slapped Keenan on the back. “This is Keenan and the red-head next to him is his boyfriend, Billy. Outside of the group, though, no one knows they’re taken. It’s all part of the image, you know.” She winked with exaggerated cheek movement.

  Billy stood, as if still partially frozen. “Are you… Are you auditioning? For my band?” At Keenan’s slight cough, Billy glanced at the ebony-skinned man on his left and then shook his head. “I mean, our band? Are you auditioning for our band?”

  Red heat climbed to Ryker’s face. He held up the flier to chest level. “Well, yeah, I was hoping I could try out for drummer.”

  His comment broke up the staring and Nikki, Keenan, and Billy exchanged narrowed looks. Nikki pointed her finger – very unladylike, but there it was – at his broad chest. “Uh, you’re a singer.”

  Ryker tilted his head and threw her a half-smile. “Just teasin’.”

  Billy and Keenan chortled.

  Huh, funny man. Nikki arched her brow and turned away.

  He had to be kidding. No way was he going to win over his old fans with a little bit of Cali charm and cleaned-up all-American looks. How cliché – blonde hair, blue eyes, tan skin – arms that she wanted to rub against. The pacific coast of Washington State didn’t have enough sun in a La Nina year to create a tan that dark.

  Beating a hasty retreat into the storage area, Nikki fell against the boxed syrups stacked by the wall.

  Head leaned back, eyes closed, she pictured the blond dream as if he stood before her. His blue eyes pierced her. And his voice… caressed her. She’d never dreamt she’d actually meet him, in her bar, auditioning for the house band.

  As if on command, suddenly his voice filled the bar as he crooned the words to her favorite song.

  Her eyelids snapped open. His words curled around her. Goosebumps rose all over her body.

  She pivoted to watch him from the doorway. Shivers shifted the nerves under her skin.

  He filled the stage. Regular blue jeans displayed his legs to perfection. The t-shirt which could have been painted across his shoulders, across his chest and down…

  The man sang his heart out – acapella.

  Nikki swallowed. Awestruck. Her throat tightened. Unexplainable sadness overwhelmed her. Success would be difficult with all the rumors surrounding his departure from Dagger still rampant on the gossip vine.

  Even after two years… Nikki sighed and turned her head. The red stamp on the sixty day notice of her mortgage papers caught her attention.

  If Billy were as smart as she knew him to be, he’d sign Ryker. But with all the notoriety, well, who knows.

  Annoyed and more than a little dispirited, Nikki untied her apron, rolled it into a ball and tossed it in her cubby behind the syrups.

  Sick of being alone, sick of men looking for one-night stands with other men at the bar, sick of being nothing more than someone to borrow lipstick from or to give the drink order to and, dang, if she wasn’t tired of the responsibilities associated with running her own business – when she’d started it’d been an adventure… but…

  “Nikki. We’re done. Can we get some drinks before we go?” The long-absent cheer in Billy’s voice was enough to pull her attention from her own woes.

  She left the small pseudo-office.

  Billy glanced at the Viking from under his lashes. Crap, trouble would brew before too long. Keenan’s legendary jealousy would destroy something valuable.

  “Two dirty vodka martinis, boys, and for you, Mr. Steele?” Nikki returned to the serving area and tried not to bite the tip of her tongue off. He watched her. And, not the way a fallen rock star watches a woman, but the way a Viking Lord would – itemizing her with his eyes and planning all kinds of delicious acts – ugh, too many Fabio-covered historical novels. The crazed fan portion of her smoldered only to be stamped out by the possible truths the band and Ryker had never clarified.

  “Sex On the Beach, please.” He held her gaze before she turned away.

  Nikki rolled her eyes. Seriously? A come-on? What the hell… She emptied green olive juice into the shaker. “Funny. I always took you as more of a frothing beer kind of guy.” Was he making fun of her friends? So help him, he’d hurt – bad – if he was.

  “Doll, that’s sort of stereotyping, isn’t it? I like beer sometimes.” Billy draped his stern business persona around himself and scowled at Nikki. A moment passed and he considered Ryker. And nodded. “You know, she has something, though. When you sang for Dagger, you weren’t gay, were you?”

  Keenan rubbed his hands together. “Like maybe you were pretending to be straight, but that’s why you’d left the band?”

  Nibbling on the edge of her lip, Nikki peeked at Ryker from behind a swath of bangs. Keenan had pegged a huge rumor that had run around about him and his previous band.

  Not to be outdone, Billy held up his hand. “Right. America’s ladies’ man isn’t going to go straight for di—”

  Ryker’s low laugh cut off their comments. “No. I wasn’t gay. I’m not gay. But I understand what you guys were saying about finding a niche in this community. At such a great location, it’d be unheard of not to seek that.” He rested his hand on the bar and looked from Billy to Keenan and flicked his eyes over Nikki. “I’m not gay. So if you want me in your band, we need to figure out how to play this. Can I be the straight member? The unknown?”

  Silence fell, spoiled only by the dribbling of the alcohol through the strainer.

  Putting the mixer down, Nikki sighed. “You guys didn’t tell him? What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Shamefaced with their eyes downcast, Keenan and Billy shrugged.

  “Oh, come on.” She shoved the dirty drinks across to the two men and eyed Ryker. “The point of this band is to establish a niche in the gay community. Since we’re far enough away from Seattle, locals don’t have a ‘safe’ hangout and that’s what we’ve made Sprites into. The band represents that. Think Village People, Queen, that sort of thing. We’re targeting a specific niche and hoping to harness the loyalty in that department.” Nikki waved at the stage. “If you join the band, the idea is that you’re gay. You can’t exactly pass that one off, though can you?”

  Why ask, they all knew the answer. He was probably judging every last one of them where they stood.

  Keenan rushed in. “Billy has researched demographics and target markets until every niche has been explored. He knows his stuff.” Walnut shaded hands traipsed over Billy’s biceps in a proprietary manner. “And he’s run everything by Nikki and she’s agreed to sponsor us.” He bopped his shoulders, necklaces clinking with the motion and shoved a hip out. “I’m going to be honest, you seem a touch butch for the image we’re striving for. We can play it off by adding a fabulous pair of leather pants to accentuate your legs. Maybe Barbie you a bit.” He raised his eyebrows and looked to Billy then back to Ryker on the idea.

  His partner sliced disgust into the conversation with sharp words. “Are you kidding? He’s perfect the way he is. I wouldn’t change a thing.” Billy waved his hand t
oward Ryker and looked him up and down. “The butch is perfect. Yummy and marketable. He’s every man’s dream. I’m digging that you ditched the goth-rocker look. Dagger was phenom, but our band is going to be much stronger.”

  Crushed, Keenan glowered at the ground. His lips turned down and his shoulders back. A pink-tinge colored his dark cheeks. “Are we just going to let him be straight? That doesn’t do much for our look.” He looked to Nikki for support.

  She winced. He’d been her favorite, been a lot of women’s – and men’s – favorite. But he’d abandoned that role and no one knew why. Nikki needed money and, let’s face it, her scruples had an expiration date.

  Ryker didn’t respond. Keenan and Billy had certainly given him enough to think about. The band needed a singer, she needed the band, but what did he need? Nikki plopped a straw into the tall drink and stretched it across to the Viking. “What do you think, Mr. Steele?”

  He sliced his gaze to her face. “I’m not comfortable actually saying I’m gay.” He held up a hand. “Nothing is wrong with it, at all. I just don’t feel comfortable lying. I’m straight. I like women.” Ryker’s gaze raked her. “All kinds. And if I do this, I’d have to give up dating, you know?” A wealth of meaning enriched his eyes, like he’d meant to ask her out or something. But he was the famous Ryker Steele and Nikki was just Nikki. Ryker blinked and looked at Billy. “What exactly do you see me doing to keep up the image?”

  There was her wishful thinking again.

  Billy stepped from Keenan’s clinging grip. “We’d need to cultivate the rumor that you left because you’re homosexual. Maybe do a blog post or declare something like dating a man or something.”

  Hand wrapped around the pink and orange drink, Ryker lifted his mouth from the rim. He held the straw in his hand. “I’m not going to actually date any guys, Billy. I’m sorry, but I don’t swing that way.” He grinned. “I am willing to act the part for the chance to sing again.” He paused, the moment ripe with excitement. “Does this mean I’m in?”