Piper: The Casanova Club #1

by Ali Parker

  Meet them all. She didn’t say anything about it being nice to have a shot at being the woman they all pursued next year. There was probably no doubt in her mind that I wouldn’t make it that far.

  After seeing him, I realized she might be right. If these guys were all of that caliber, I was in big, big trouble.

  “His name is Max,” Ava said. “At least you’ll know one friendly face in the room. You’d better hurry along. You’re up in two minutes. Down the hall, last door on the right.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Good luck.”

  The walk down the hall probably took about fifteen seconds, but it felt like I was walking down its length for twenty minutes. Each step took more time, and when I reached the end of the hall, I was lightheaded, and my heart was fluttering wildly in my chest like a trapped bird.

  This was it.

  This was the moment where everything was at stake. If things went badly in there, I could kiss my future goodbye; well, the future I was dreaming of creating for myself and my family. If I messed up my shot at the money today, I would be sealing my fate and would be working at Piper’s Paradise for years. Maybe even decades.

  Maybe I’d be running it in twenty years or so, and I’d have a child of my own helping out around the place.

  I shook my head. No, I wasn’t going to let that happen. I’d made it this far, and there had to be a reason for that.

  Now was not the time to throw in the towel.

  I lifted my chin and took a deep breath. As I exhaled, I closed my eyes and continued to breathe slowly and deeply. I ran my hands over my stomach and willed the nausea to settle. I just needed to get through the next thirty minutes.

  Fate sat on the other side of the door.

  I opened my eyes and stared at the dark oak surface. There was nothing to be afraid of. I was just walking into a room to be scrutinized, analyzed, evaluated, sized up, and checked out.

  “Like a band aid, Piper. Come on. One. Two.” I paused, took one last breath, and forced myself to smile. “Three.”

  I opened the door and stepped inside. I didn’t slow my momentum. The first thing my gaze fell upon was the empty red chair. I moved toward it. The room was silent, and I didn’t look up to see who I was sharing it with until I was sitting down. Then I lifted my head with my smile on my lips and looked around at all the handsome faces. “Hello. My name is Piper. I’m a last-minute addition to the line up. Is Mr. Lee here?”

  I realized that he was not. There were only twelve men in the room.

  It took several seconds for someone to answer me. The silence between my question and their answer was thick and heavy, and my mind screamed at me to get the hell up out of the chair and walk out of there. I did not belong in a room full of Gods such as these.

  “He’s not here,” the man closest to my right said. He had blond hair, blue eyes, and an all-American look. I imagined that he probably grew up in a colonial-style house with a basketball hoop mounted above the detached garage. I guessed he had a dog. A family breed. Maybe a golden retriever. I bet he and his dad used to play catch in the front yard, and all the neighbors used to look out their windows and wonder how perfection such as this existed.

  I shook my head to clear the jumble of thoughts that had risen within it, just upon looking at one of them for longer than five seconds. “Sorry,” I said. I regretted it instantly. Janie had told me I needed to be myself, and I wasn’t the meek girl who sat in the corner. I was Piper fucking James, and I was here to be chosen. “I will speak with him later. We’re on the clock, aren’t we?”

  I looked around at all of them. They looked at me and then at each other.

  “Do any of you have any questions?” I asked. I needed to get this show on the road. What was holding them up? Was it so obvious that I didn’t belong here? Did I look cheap? Did I smell like the restaurant?

  Oh shit. I fought the urge to smell my shirt.

  “Nice to meet you, Piper,” one of them said. I turned to look at the speaker. It was Max, the same guy I’d bumped into outside. He smiled at me. “I was hoping you’d make your way down here.”

  I lifted my shoulder and gave him a coy smile. “That wasn’t a question.”

  Laughter flowed around the room. It was deep and masculine, and I swore I could feel the vibration of it through the soles of my pumps.

  It was enough to get the questions started. They came at me one after the other, and half the time, I wasn’t even able to pinpoint who was asking them.

  “How’d you convince Jackson to let you in so last minute?”

  “I have friends in high places,” I said. Vague was better. Maybe I could mask myself with an air of mystery, and that would be enough to get me through this round.

  “What do you do for a living?”

  “I’m a student actually. I want to have a career in pediatrics.”

  “Does that mean you want kids?”

  “No, that doesn’t mean I want them. It means I want to work with them.”

  “Do you want children?” someone else asked me.

  I appreciated the rephrasing of the question. I sought him out. He was dressed in all black and had a Texas accent. He was hotter than sin, and half of his face was in shadow where he sat at the back of the room. I nodded. “Yes, I do.”

  “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

  “Probably still in school. I’ll still live here in the city to be close to my parents, and maybe I’ll have a home where I can have them over for Christmas dinner so I can cook for them for once and they can relax. They work almost three hundred and sixty-five days out of the year, you see. And I’d like to have a dog. I’ll be well traveled by then, too. I’ll have seen Venice and Peru and Cairo. I’ll have—” I stopped talking abruptly and looked around at them. They were all silent and listening. “I’m sorry. I’m rambling.”

  The one with the Texas accent shook his head. “Please. Keep going.”

  I swallowed. “Okay.”

  I didn’t know where else to start. The words had sort of started tumbling out of me, and now I couldn’t put them back. They were out there, floating around, revealing so many truths about me. Maybe I had said too much already. They knew my parents were working class, and they also knew I probably had never left the country.

  But Janie had told me to just be honest. She thought that was my best course of action. What else did I have to lose at this point?

  I cleared my throat and carried on. “I’ll have helped my brother get out of his current job. I’ll have more time to volunteer at the women’s shelter and more money to donate to more than just one charity. I’ll be able to take my best friend out of the city to somewhere tropical like she’s always dreamed. Now, I’m drawing a blank.”

  The Texan leaned forward on the table. The men around him watched me closely as he spoke. “Did you notice that you only mentioned two things in all of that that were for you, doll?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  He counted on his two fingers as he named them. “The dog and the travel. That’s it. Everything else was for other people.”

  “Oh.”

  He chuckled softly. “I think there is only one more question I’d like to ask you, Piper.”

  I nodded. “Go ahead.”

  “In this dream of yours, five years from now, will you be in love?”

  Love.

  I wanted it more than I wanted any of the other things I’d said. Why had it not been the first thing that came out of my mouth? I was here to find love, after all, and not saying it probably made me look like a gold-digging floozy who was only here to stick my hands in their pockets in search of loose change.

  Had I not said it because I didn’t think it was possible for me to find someone? Or had I not said it because I didn’t think I deserved it?

  “Piper?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “Will you be in love?”

  I met his stare. He stared right back. I wasn’t intimidated. I was comfortable under his gaze.
I just needed to find the right words, the words that would save me from my colossal fuck up.

  “If I’m not in love, the other things won’t mean anything,” I said. “I want someone to share all of that with. Someone who will be there to remind me where I started and how far I’ve come. Even though they weren’t there in the beginning.”

  The Texan leaned back and gave me a smug smile. “Pleasure to meet you, Piper James. An absolute pleasure.”

  The rest of the men nodded like they were in on a secret I wasn’t privy to.

  Chapter 24

  Camden

  The interviews ended just before seven. As soon as the door closed behind the last girl, all twelve of us looked around the room at each other.

  Cooper spoke first. “So, the new chick.”

  “Leather pants,” Easton said.

  Max grinned. “Sexy legs.”

  “Those lips,” Joshua said.

  Jeremiah nodded. “And her eyes.”

  “Her answers,” Asher said. He tapped his knuckle twice on the table. I’d noticed him do it a few times over the course of the last few meetings. “She’s the only one who didn’t feel like she’d said the same things over and over in front of a mirror for the last month to make sure she got it just right. It was natural.”

  “And genuine,” Miles added.

  “I like her,” Easton said.

  There were unanimous nods throughout the room.

  I stood up and adjusted my suit jacket. “Shall we head down then? Jackson said we go to dinner after the last girl.”

  Everyone else got to their feet. Some of the men had to pause to put their jackets back on. Others quickly finished their drinks, and I headed out, leading the pack out to the elevators. We stood solemnly, our minds buzzing with thoughts, and stepped onto the elevator when it came up to greet us. The ride down to the main floor was silent, and I wondered if the men were all thinking the same thing as I was: Piper James was a bit of a gamechanger.

  I wasn’t all that interested in finding a woman throughout this whole process. If it happened, I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing where it led, but there wasn’t a single part of me that believed this whole thing could end with me being engaged.

  This was a construct. It was designed for people to fall for each other. I didn’t like being put in a box and coaxed through. And the woman I ended up with would feel the same way.

  When we got out of the elevator, we crossed the lobby and went out to the valet parking where three limousines were waiting. Feminine giggles came from the open windows, and we realized we were all sharing the limos from the Casanova to the restaurant and nightclub.

  Some of the men hurried to get into the cars, while others took a moment to get some fresh air and scope out the vehicles. It didn’t take a genius to realize they were trying to pick their car wisely.

  They wanted the vehicle with the girl they were interested in.

  I was about to pile into the limo at the back of the line when I heard a familiar voice talking in hushed tones behind me. I glanced over my shoulder with one hand on the top of the limo door and spotted Piper off to the side of the lobby doors. She was pacing back and forth and had her head down as she spoke on the phone. Her hair hung in front of her face like a curtain. I couldn’t see her expression, and she couldn’t see me watching her.

  I could pick out some of her words as she paced. “No. No, I can’t come in tonight. I’m sorry.” She paused and took a deep breath. I watched as she lifted her head and tilted it back. Her eyes were closed as she reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I never said I could, Mom. I know things are tight right now, but I need you to cut me a little slack. Please. This is temporary. It’s only for the weekend, and then I’ll be back. Mom.” She opened her eyes and looked back down at the ground. “Mom?”

  Piper took the phone away from her ear and stared down at it. Her expression was drawn and worried. For a moment, it looked like she was about to cry.

  Then she tucked her phone into her tiny purse and brushed her hair back off her shoulders. She turned, caught me looking at her, and walked toward me, her hips swaying with every majestic step.

  I held the door open for her.

  “Thank you,” she said as she slid in.

  I got in behind her, and the two of us found ourselves sitting beside each other in the very back seat. All the other women in the car turned slowly to look at her. Piper was completely unaware of their gazes as she put on her seatbelt.

  She was the only person in the car who’d bothered. She didn’t notice that, either. But I did.

  The limo pulled away from the curb, and glasses of champagne were passed around. I handed one to Piper. She thanked me with a smile, and the tips of our fingers touched.

  “I’m Camden,” I told her, holding out my hand.

  She shook it. She was the only one of all the women to actually shake my hand, rather than just hold hers out in the space between us waiting for me to shake it. I liked that. I liked that a lot.

  “Nice to meet you, Camden.”

  “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop before, but I have to ask. Is everything all right?”

  “Oh.” She blushed and shook her head at me. “Everything is fine. My mother just worries too much. You know the type. She’s kind of overprotective.”

  I chuckled. “She must not like the idea of you being here with us.”

  Piper bit her bottom lip.

  “Ah, she doesn’t know?” I asked.

  Piper giggled. The sound was like jingle bells in the summertime. Curious and bubbly and familiar. “No, she doesn’t know.”

  “If you’re chosen, what would you tell her?”

  “I’ve already laid the foundation that I might be going abroad for school.”

  “Clever,” I said.

  She shrugged one shoulder and took a sip of her champagne. I watched her throat as she swallowed. “We’ll see. It might come back to bite me in the ass. You can only keep something like this a secret for so long. Besides, I don’t have to worry about that right now.”

  The girl had no clue how fucking gorgeous she was. Her nonchalant attitude suggested she didn’t believe she had a shot at this, but she was so off base.

  The other women we’d met over the last two days were stunning, of course, but they were empty. Every answer they gave to every question asked was rehearsed and what they thought we wanted to hear. I doubted anyone gave any real honest answers back in that room, aside from Piper herself. It was clear to me that she knew who she was and she wasn’t going to try to mask that.

  Which was a great thing for me because I really liked who she was. Leather leggings and all.

  When we got to the restaurant, I made sure to stick close to Piper’s side. I opened doors for her and pulled out her chair to guarantee myself a spot beside her. As soon as I sat down, I was aware of every single man at the table checking her out as she shook her mane of rich brown hair over her shoulder and looked around her before reaching for the drink menu.

  All of the other girls were sitting timidly back as if waiting for one of us to order on their behalf.

  Piper ordered herself a rum and coke.

  The other women all ordered water and a glass of white wine.

  When it came time to order food, she asked for the maple salmon while the other women ordered various types of salad.

  And what was more, when the food arrived, she ate it, mashed potatoes and all.

  She had my vote. Without any hesitation, she had my vote.

  We moved from the restaurant to the club later into the night. Piper was pulled away by every single man to dance, and she seemed to be enjoying herself. I managed to steal her away from Miles toward the end of the evening and brought her outside for some fresh air. I draped my jacket over her shoulders and rested one hand in the small of her back to guide her over to a bench under an outdoor heater on the VIP patio off the back of the nightclub.

  “Are you having a good time?” I asked once we both
sat down.

  “Yes.”

  “You’re sure?”

  She chewed the inside of her cheek. “Sort of.”

  “What’s on your mind?” I asked. She had me genuinely curious to learn more about her.

  “Nothing really. I just… this whole thing is a little surreal to me. I didn’t expect all of it to start happening so fast. I thought I’d be able to, I don’t know, slow it down for a minute to step away and process. But I’m starting to realize that isn’t how this whole thing works.”

  “Do you think it will work?”

  She met my eye. The corner of her mouth twitched. “I think it can, so long as the two people who want it find each other and fight for it and don’t mess it up by doing something stupid.”

  I laughed. “Well, it worked for the last guy.”

  Piper gave me a knowing smile and looked away to stare out across the patio to the city lights beyond. It must have been close to midnight now. Her makeup wasn’t as perfect as it had been earlier in the day. It was smudged a bit in the corners of her eyes, and her lipstick had faded a bit. But I’d be damned if I didn’t think she looked better now than she had when I first saw her in the conference room.

  “He must have wanted it to work, then,” she said softly, and I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or to herself.

  Either way, she was right.

  * * *

  It was four o’clock in the morning. I was dead tired, and all I wanted was to head back to my room. But we had to sit here back in the conference room, sipping on water to cure the dizziness the alcohol had brought on, until Jackson came back with the result of the vote we had just cast minutes ago.

  I sighed and rubbed my forehead. Thankfully, everyone else seemed just as tired as I was. None of the guys were fucking around. They were waiting quietly.

  The tension thickened when the door opened and Jackson Lee walked in. He had a piece of paper in his hands, and he went to stand in front of us. He looked at the men around the table. “The votes are in. Does anybody have any last-minute things to add before I announce the name of the woman you have selected to be the Casanova Girl for 2019?”