Her eyes dart over my shoulder just as a couple walks past our table. The woman looks at Piper with a huff and a judgmental expression, but the man with her pulls her along. So it begins. Piper is going to draw even more interest as the dining room fills up and everyone who is anyone sees her and starts slinging rumors.
“Ignore it,” I tell Piper. “Just focus on me. Besides, we’re here to be seen, remember? This is all part of the plan.”
She nods at me and adjusts the strap of her red silk dress. As I watch her, my chest hitches. Something aboutthe graceful movement of her fingers, the reminder that she isn’t wearing a bra, the curve of her neck as it meets the slope of her shoulder… I think I just learned firsthand what people mean when they say a woman’s beauty takes your breath away.
I’ve had her body in my hands, of course, but I haven’t taken the time to enjoy every inch of her. It’s a misstep I’m going to correct tonight.
I clear my throat and take a drink of wine, attempting to snap myself out of my daze.
“Let me guess,” she says playfully. “You were the rich kid who bought his term papers off the internet and intimidated all his teachers into passing him, even when he cut half his classes.”
“That’s a terrible guess,” I say, shaking my head. “You really think I could cheat my way through school and still end up where I am now?”
Her eyebrows arch. “Of course. That’s the way the world works. At least, if you’re a rich white male. Maybe I’d be able to guess better if I knew more about you. I can only base my assessment on this arrogant, alpha male thing you have going on.”
“It’s not arrogance. It’s confidence. There’s a difference,” I point out.
“Spoken exactly like an arrogant person,” she shoots back. “And an alpha.”
She smiles teasingly, and my blood heats as a replay of the other night goes through my mind. Piper has no idea how alpha I can be. I’ve been holding back, working her up to it, letting her ease into obeying my instructions and meeting my demands.
It’s time to change that. Soon. But right now, I’m enjoying this lighthearted banter more than I would have expected. This kind of exchange isn’t typical for me.
“Bad horror movies and exotic dancers. That’s what I was interested in. The worse the movie, the more I liked it.”
“So slasher films and strip clubs?”
I shrug. “Yeah. I was a typical teenage boy, I guess.”
“I’d never call you typical, even if your interests were.” Cupping the globe of her wine glass in one graceful hand, Piper assesses me in that way I’m coming to enjoy. “You ended up doing pretty well for yourself, so all those bad movies and exotic dancers didn’t seem to hurt you too much.”
Our appetizer arrives. It’s goat cheese wrapped in golden, paper-thin phyllo dough, served with fig preserves and toasted walnuts. She eyes the food suspiciously as I place some on her plate, but I gesture for her to try it and when she does, a little moan escapes her. “Truthfully, I wasn’t an ambitious young man,” I admit. “My father made it easy for me to ride on his money without any effort and although I’m ashamed about it in hindsight, for the longest time, I just went with it. My first job out of college was with my parents’ hotel group, and I barely had to even show up to get my paycheck.”
“So what changed?”
“I guess…my life became purposeless and boring. I felt stuck. I decided I had to do something to get out of the hole I’d dug myself into. But I had no direction. No idea what I wanted to do. I ended up at Ernst & Young in Manhattan. Not because I was qualified, but because my last name opened doors even when Ididn’t want it to.”
Her forehead furrows. “You hated it, didn’t you? Sitting behind a desk all day at a Big Four accounting firm?”
“Bingo. It was the same thing, day in and day out. I thought I was carving my own path, but instead I was just…on a parallel path to what my father always wanted for me. And then my buddy Becker came a-knockin’ with an offer to become a partner in a new business venture and help him expand into brand new areas, and the rest is history.”
“So you needed The Quattuor Group just as much as it needed you,” she says.
The chuckle that comes from my mouth surprises me. A middle-aged woman walking past does a double take, then pegs me with a curious look. She’s vaguely familiar, but I can’t immediately place her.
“Nathaniel? How nice to see you.” She looks Piper up and down, smiling tightly. “And who is this?”
I’m about to respond just rudely enough to get rid of her when I suddenly realize who she is. Bianca Lancashire, one of my mother’s friends, and a notorious busybody. Whatever I say will get back to my mother before I can take another sip of wine. This woman is ruthless when it comes to gossip and enjoys splattering other people’s problems all over socials.
“Mrs. Lancashire, how nice to see you,” I say, sidestepping her question about Piper. “What brings you to the city?”
“Harold has a work event. You know, I just had dinner with your mother last week.”
My forced smile hurts my face. “That’s nice. She always enjoys your company.”
Piper stares at her plate, careful not to make eye contactwith Bianca, as if she’s trying to remain invisible. The point of our agreement is to show her off, but she’s clearly not comfortable in front of this woman.
Movement behind Piper draws my attention. The man who has been focused on her most of the evening gets up from his seat and walks away. Good. I’m tired of him staring at her. It suddenly occurs to me that he might have been a paparazzi undercover, posing as someone having a nice solo dinner. Damn it. I was so distracted by our conversation that I didn’t keep a close enough eye on him.
