Veronica blinked. Clients like him very rarely apologized. “I’m perfectly fine,” she said.
He gave her a look that stated clearly, he didn’t believe her.
“Either way, you don’t deserve to deal with my annoyance.”
Veronica cleared her throat. Her voice was still quiet when she asked, “May I ask why you’re so upset?”
Jasper dropped the tablet on the table and shoved his hands in his pitch-black hair. He tugged at it sharply and his emotions calmed even more.
Veronica bit back a wince. The edge of pain he’d used to calm himself echoed throughout his broadcasting emotions. He was calmer, but it hurt her when he hurt.
Goddess, this man had no filter, no protection around his feelings.
“I don’t really want to be here,” he muttered.
Veronica blinked. Now, this wasn’t an issue she’d ever run into before.
“You don’t want to be here?” she repeated. When he shot her a dry look, she asked, “Then, why have you joined our service?”
“My family,” he admitted. “Specifically, my mother. My brother is getting married soon and she’s adamant that I bring a date to the wedding.”
Veronica blinked at him several times in silence. The man was gorgeous and, if his words were anything to go by, wealthy. Why on earth would he have trouble attracting a female?
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, straightening in his chair. “I shouldn’t have trouble finding a date for one event, right? Hell, I could hire someone.”
Veronica didn’t answer.
He released a bark of laughter. “What you don’t understand is that, in my family, our wedding celebrations last for days. She would have to stay with me for an entire weekend. If I hire someone, my mother will know and I will never hear the end of it. She’s a brilliant woman. The fact that my date doesn’t know a damn thing about me would be a giant red flag for her.” He sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face. “I’m nearly fifty. According to her, well past the age when a djinn should have met a mate and settled down. She’s also eager for grandchildren now that she’s passed the century mark. She keeps talking about wanting to enjoy them while she’s young enough.”
He threw his hands into the air, an explosion of general frustration emanating from him hit Veronica. It wasn’t a sharp emotion, more like loving irritation, so it wasn’t as painful.
“She’s going to live to be at least a thousand! She has at least six or seven more centuries before she’s a senior citizen and won’t be able to keep up with children.”
Veronica cleared her throat again, gaining his attention. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re here,” she said.
“I need a girlfriend. Someone who interests me and who is interested in me. It doesn’t have to be serious. It doesn’t have to turn into marriage, but it needs to be real. It’s the only way I’ll keep her off my back.”
“Surely your mother isn’t that bad?” Veronica said, forgetting herself. It wasn’t a question she should ask a client.
“Oh, my dear…” he trailed off. “I’m sorry. I’ve just realized I never asked your name. That was terribly rude of me.”
“I’m Veronica Salt,” she said. For some reason, she held out her hand to shake his, something she almost never did.
When he took her fingers in his, heat shot up her arm, through her neck, and out of her scalp. It was scorching but not painful.
He released her quickly. “Sorry. Djinn have different elemental associations and mine is fire. Sometimes, when I’m upset, it slips. It shouldn’t hurt you, but it can be disconcerting.”
“It’s okay,” she assured him. After the emotional battering she took on a daily basis, a little heat wasn’t too bad.
“I’m Jasper Bayat,” he continued. “And, as I said, fire is the element of my ancestral line. Knowing this, you should understand how my mother could burn my life to the ground, quite literally.”
Veronica had to smother a smile, but he saw the twitch of her lips anyway.
“You can laugh,” he said. “It is somewhat amusing that a forty-nine-year-old man and his forty-year-old brother are completely terrified of their hundred-year-old mother. Unless you’re the man or his brother.”
She laughed a little. “Your mother actually sounds lovely.”
He gave a mock shudder. “Don’t say that. I think she uses magic to spy on me. Before you know it, she’ll have you sitting next to me at every family dinner in hopes we’ll marry and give her twenty grandchildren.”
