“How have you been, David?”
“Just fine.” He smiled tightly. He seemed a little less content today. Maybe he was lonelier than I thought. I was going to ask him about it when I got a text from Jude announcing that he’d be late. As much as David’s punctuality didn’t surprise me, Jude’s lateness didn’t either. He was late to everything. He was also the youngest of us, a wealthy young dragon with no direction and particular plans about finding it. But he was always fun on evenings like this. I texted Jude a thumbs up and David crossed the room to make himself a cocktail.
“Pour me a vodka martini?” I said, sitting on my couch that faced out to the glass wall with it’s vista of the city and the park. “You make them best.”
“Sure thing.” David made us drinks and when he sat down, I asked him how he was really doing and he only shook his head. “I’ve been working a lot more. From home. It’s a little overwhelming at times. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
“Maybe you should get an assistant?” I asked him. David was a financial advisor. I think he did it mainly to distract himself from thinking about that “dark past,” whatever it was. But I knew the only staff he had on at the mansion was a housekeeper and a gardener. He probably needed support staff if he was juggling multiple clients.
“Maybe so,” he murmured, frowning into his drink.
“Justin! Hey.” Jessie burst through the elevator, his hands spread wide, a big grin on his face.
“Jessie!” I started to stand and he waved me away, making a beeline for the wet bar and pouring himself a highball full of my most expensive bourbon.
“How are you guys?” He nodded at us and gave us both that searching gaze he had before sitting on the arm of the couch with his drink. He took out a cigar and said, “I’m not going to light it. I just want to hold it.”
“You can smoke a cigar in here,” I said, laughing.
“Thanks, Justin.”
Jessie had always made me nervous. He’s perfectly nice in person...most of the time. If you say the wrong thing, he can get quickly intimidating, even to me. I guess that’s why he makes me nervous. None of the other guys in the club intimidate me. David implied once that Jessie was in the mob and I didn’t know if it was true and I wasn’t going to ask but it wouldn’t have surprised me. He acted sort of like a real mob guy; careful and quietly observant but potentially very threatening. But he was a good friend and that was good enough for me anyway.
Once Jude showed up, we all sat around and sipped our cocktails and caught up with each other. I was quiet, feeling a little hesitant to explain about Nicole. They all knew about the slipping stock lately, but everyone was being optimistic. I felt the conversation coming around to me though. They were going to ask me if I was seeing anyone. I was sure of it. David and I tended to be the playboys of the four of us. Jessie and Jude were quieter. I had a feeling they didn’t put themselves out there much.
I was just about to head off the conversation by suggesting we go for a flight over the bay later when David said, “So, Justin? Any super-models we should know about?”
Before I could answer, Jessie said, “Oh, didn’t you guys see the pics of him and that girl at Leighton on Twitter? I was going to ask about it. She’s cute! Who is she?”
I licked my lips and took a swallow of my martini. “She’s a...fake girlfriend.”
Everyone stared at me and Jessie slowly said, “Fake...girlfriend?”
I sighed and told them the whole story. It sounded a little crazier when I tried to explain it and yet, it had been working, I could already tell. I was optimistic about it.
“She’s really good at it too,” I said fondly. “She’s delightful. Also, she’s a dragon. That’s why I chose her. She has a son too. He’s adorable…”
Everyone was chuckling and giving me knowing looks and I frowned. “What?”
“You like her,” Jude said shrugging. “I mean it sounds like you like her.”
“Yeah…” David was making a face, his mouth twisting up. “I don’t get why she’s just a fake girlfriend? Sounds like a mate-”
“She’s not my mate,” I said quickly. “I haven’t...It’s not… She hates my guts.” When I said it out loud, I felt an awful kind of sadness. It felt like a hole in my gut. “I mean she’s good at what she’s doing. She can be polite but… She clearly hates me.”
“You should bring her over to see your hoard,” Jessie said, winking. “She’ll be yours for sure.”
I chuckled at that and rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah, nice idea. I don’t think a woman like her would be so easily won over by a pile of gold. Even if she is a dragon.”
“Have you kissed her?” Jude said.
“No…” I thought of her eyes on mine when I stroked her cheek. I’d almost leaned in. “We’re going to need to. Eventually. The press loves that stuff.”
“Good,” Jude said firmly. “You need to kiss her. See what happens. I think there’s something to this.”
“But enough about me,” I said, and the guys all snickered and gaped at me.
“Did he just ‘enough about me?’” David said. “I think this girl has gotten to you.”
“Whatever,” I said, turning a little red. “Tell me how you’re doing? What about your love lives?”
They all looked at each other a little sheepishly. David took a swallow of his drink and said, “No regrets here.”
I doubted that. I know my friends too well. I think they were all as lonely as I was. But I didn’t press the issue.
There was a charity ball for Children’s Heart Association the next Friday and Joanie had it down as the next event I should go to with Nicole. Again, the days leading up to it felt interminable. I couldn’t think of a single reason to talk to Nicole or see her at work, even a weak reason. On Wednesday, I finally remembered to offer Nicole some free child care for the charity ball but even that I handed off to an assistant as I had no idea how to find good child care and I was busy anyway. I didn’t even have an excuse to talk to Nicole about the event. Joanie did that. I kept almost inviting Nicole out just for coffee, just to talk. I missed her. Yet, I resisted. I couldn’t stand the thought of expressing some interest if she was only going to hate me either.
I’m used to being confident and getting what I want. The idea that I couldn’t have Nicole was driving me to distraction.
On Friday night, I realized that I hadn’t had a flight all week. I hadn’t shifted at all. I have enough room in my tower to shift, if only to walk around. I hadn’t bothered this week, caught up in one thing or another. That meant I was even more riled up than usual. My dragon was edgy and it hadn’t forgotten the tension between Nicole and I either. My dragon wanted her dragon. Her blood was calling to my blood. It was going to take all my self-control to hold myself back from making some move that would drive her away. That was further complicated by a text from Joanie saying that we should be seen kissing in public. Great.
At six, I was back in the town car again. This time I was wearing a new charcoal suit. It was classy but understated. In the old days, I might have worn something brighter and maybe more attention-getting. But now I was Mr. Settled Guy. I was playing the good, responsible CEO. So I went with something mellow. Besides which, I had a feeling Nicole would be stealing the show from me anyway.
I was getting used to the flights of stairs up to Nicole’s door, though I wasn’t used to her lack of security. I thought I might have someone offer to fix that for the landlord and put a little pressure on them if they attempted to refuse the help. I didn’t like the thought of Nicole and Tyler being unsafe. The very thought of it really pissed my dragon off.
I knocked on the door and found myself practically vibrating with anticipation. I’d thought about Nicole all week. As much as I’d tried to distract myself with work, she was the forefront of my thoughts. It was getting harder to pretend there might be something more here than just physical attraction and our common shifter nature.
“Hi.” When Nicole opened t
he door I froze for a moment. I think I might have actually lost a few seconds of time and stood there looking pretty stupid.
Nicole’s dark hair was twisted up with little ringlets hanging down. She wore a wine colored gown off the shoulder, the swell of her breasts just barely peeking out of her low heart-shaped neckline. She was breath-taking. She wore no jewellery. I honestly didn’t think she needed any either. Though it was hard not to imagine the effect a gold necklace might have on her, it would have about killed me.
“You look...fantastic.” I swallowed and rubbed the back of my neck, turning quickly to make my way down the stairs without helping her. I should have. I liked to be a little gentlemanly. But I was startled by her beauty. I heard her chuckle behind me and lock her door before following me down and just as quickly I felt stupid for immediately acting strangely.
Out on the sidewalk I paused, taking her all in again. She looked up at me with a wry smile on her face. Her lips were painted a wine color too. She had a smoky eye. Her neck seems long with her low neckline. I wanted to graze the line of her throat with my knuckle.
Instead I frowned and said, “Um so...child care? Good?”
“Yeah?” She laughed and nudged me so that I relaxed a little. “Yeah, very good. Thanks for that. She knows all the books Tyler likes best already.”
“You really do look amazing,” I mumbled as we walked toward the car. “I’m giving my personal shopper a raise. Not that you wouldn’t look amazing in any dress. Not that… You know what I mean?”
Nicole looked half-worried and said, “Are you alright? You seem off?”
I stopped short and gave Nicole a long look. It struck me that she was totally unaffected. What had happened with the spoon and at the door had really just been fleeting moments and probably all down to my own attraction to her. She was doing the job I’d ask her to do and that was all. In fact, it was probably wrong of me to even slightly push anything else onto her when I had all the power. It was a dick move and the kind of thing that had made her hate me in the first place, I’m sure. I had to be better than that. I had to put all my feelings away and focus on the job of reinventing myself.
I nodded curtly. “Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go.”
We rode in the car in dead silence. It felt strange and wrong but I was trying to be professional. I sat there, staring straight ahead, with my hands in my lap like some kind of robot. It was as if this woman had made me forget how to be normal. Maybe that was because I’m usually just...myself. When I’m smug, it’s because I’m feeling perhaps too confident. It’s not an act. When I’m pissed, I’m pissed. When I want somebody, I let them know. I had no idea how to act as if I didn’t have some kind of feelings for Nicole because...I did.
Nicole cleared her throat and finally said, “Joanie said we need to kiss. I talked to her for a while actually...on the phone. She said she’d like photos of us being affectionate. So...kissing.”
I clenched my fist and I felt a little bit of fire ripple through my blood. Joanie needed a talking to. “She should have talked to me about that,” I said fiercely. “Not you.”
“I think we should practice some kissing,” Nicole said. Her voice sounded loud suddenly in the quiet of the car but I knew that was my mind, startled at what she was saying.
I knew this would be coming up soon, but I wasn’t ready. How on earth could I kiss Nicole and not betray that I wanted her? I couldn’t allow myself to be a rotten kisser. I just had too much pride for that.
“Right,” I muttered. “Okay. Let’s just get it over with then.”
Nicole seemed mildly chagrined about that but I ignored her and turned to her. I was frowning, my brow furrowed, my fists clenched at my side. I suddenly felt like I was fourteen-years-old again, kissing a girl for the first time and having no idea what I was doing. The truth was, that inside my dragon was losing its mind, wanting to kiss her and hold her so badly.
Nicole faced me and I couldn’t bear to look in her eyes. I wouldn’t be able to kiss without some feeling in it if I did. She looked uncertain and the scent of her so close drew me in as the town car slinked down the street. I reached up to cradle her head and leaned forward and her mouth met mine. Any plan I’d had not to betray myself immediately flew out the window. I would have needed coherent thought for that, and I couldn’t think about anything at all as Nicole's soft, sweet lips pressed against mine. I heard her little intake of breath and it spurred me on. I nudged her mouth open, tentatively and without presumption. She opened her mouth to me and the spark that I felt between us became a flame when her tongue touched mine. I leaned back slightly, experimentally, and licked at her tongue as I stroked her cheek. She moaned a little into my mouth and that was the end of any attempt to keep this “professional.” We were passionately making out now and her arms came up around me. She clutched at my back and I held her as I explored her mouth, pulling away only to lay soft kisses along her jaw and down the line of her throat. the scent of her coupled with the warm, soft feel of her skin making me growl and want to breathe fire.
The car lurched and the jolt of it made us break apart, the two of us breathless and gaping at each other in surprise. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I should have known my desire would take me over and, if I’m honest, that my feelings would take over.
“Justin,” Nicole said, reaching out to squeeze my hand.
I never heard what she was going to say because my driver said, “We’re here, sir.”
I had not even begun to compose myself before a doorman at The Waldorf was opening my car door and helping Nicole out of the car. I followed and we stood on a small red carpet lined with a velvet rope as cameras flashed in our faces and other attendees mingled and strolled toward the entrance, having their pictures taken and answering questions. It was a high profile event. It raised a lot of money for a worthy cause, but it was also a place to be seen.
“Oh god, my lipstick,” Nicole muttered. She started to cover her mouth and I tittered and gently pulled her hand away. She must’ve been wearing something especially tough and smudge-proof because she looked just fine to me. You couldn’t tell she’d been sucking face with me in the back of my car.
“You look perfect,” I said in her ear, and I felt a little weak-kneed when my lips brushed her hair.
“Thank you.” She took my hand and squeezed and my stupid and apparently impressionable heart thought, for a moment, that it meant something. But just as quickly, she turned to beam for the cameras flashing in our faces as we made our way down the carpet to the entrance.
It was my own fault, I felt. I’d asked for a fake girlfriend. I was getting a brilliant one, and it was starting to put cracks in my heart.
I soldiered on and led Nicole into the grand ballroom where somewhere our table waited. The place massive and all decorated in deep red and dark gold as servers moved throughout the crowd, offering drinks and canapés. I pretended I was good at pretending. I put on a smirk and preened. I acted as if I were showing off Nicole, as if she were mine. She was meant to be a trophy really. That was the plan. I found myself suddenly souring on the entire night as much as I’d been looking forward to seeing her. This felt painful. I suddenly hated all these people I was supposed to be kissing up to or ignoring, depending on who they were. It all felt as phony as this relationship.
“Richard, good to see you.” I grinned at him, as if I hadn’t just seen him a week ago.
We greeted half the people we’d just seen at the brunch, but the place was filling up quick with others. Some had flown in all the way from Silicon Valley just for this event. We mingled with all of them and Nicole was as charming as ever, striking up conversations and looking as if she were genuinely interested in everything they were saying. I watched her, admiring, when I got a break in the chat. She was holding a champagne glass and talking to some new start-up CEO, her eyes bright and sharp with intelligence.
When the CEO wandered away to talk to somebody I asked her, “Are you actually enjoying this?”
Nicole threw her head back and laughed and I was hypnotized by the line of her throat, the chime of her laugh as her bright eyes dances. “No! God, no.”
“Huh.” I shook my head and took a long drink of champagne. “Well, you’re really good at faking it.”
Nicole gave me a funny look then and said, “I guess so.”
A string quartet began to play and that was the signal for us to take our seats. There would be some entertainment; an opera singer doing a few arias, a couple of speeches, some ballet. Then there would be dinner and dancing. I’d been to a million of these things since I’d made it big with Koinage. They were sort of fun actually, if you had a good date. I had a good date, and I was still miserable this time.
We watched the entertainment and the speeches and it all went by too slowly as my mind drifted, my body keenly aware of Nicole next to me. She was good at faking it, she’d said. I had to think that was about the kiss. She’d really sold it. I’d probably taken it too far really. She’d gone with the flow but that was probably bad behaviour on my part yet again.
I leaned over in the middle of “O mio babbino caro” and whispered, “I’m sorry I got carried away.”
Nicole chuckled and shook her head. “When?”
“Kissing you,” I whispered. My lips brushed against her hair and I let my eyes slip shut for just a moment, trying to remember that sensation. I pulled away and took another swallow of champagne but Nicole was staring at me and looked far too serious.
She leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I liked it. I wanted it.”
I couldn’t speak. I’d been with women, women who were considered the most attractive in the universe. To me, none of them held a candle to Nicole, and now she was looking at me with the fire of her dragon in her eyes and she took my hand under the table.
There were lots of couples at the benefit and some of them were vaguely canoodling within the bounds of a formal event. Now I leaned over and kissed Nicole once, chastely and sweetly. I felt her lips smile against mine, promising maybe something more and my heart left in my chest. My dragon wanted to get us out of there immediately; take her back to the hoard and lay her down on the gold and give her as much pleasure as she could bear. But I remained a gentleman, and sat there with her by my side, a soft smile on her face as we listened to “O mio babbino caro.”’
Dragon's Fake Mate Page 7
