Chapter Five
Jordan lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to knock a day’s worth of work from his skull. He didn’t need to look at the clock again, to know they had to be downstairs in less than ten minutes. “You almost ready?” he called. When Chloe didn’t answer, he sat up with a frown and turned his gaze toward the bathroom, where she’d been for almost forty-five minutes. “Chi?”
“You haven’t called me that in ages.” She moved into view.
His breath caught and his thoughts froze. “Wow.” Instead of pulling her hair up the way she usually did, she let it fall in loose curls around her shoulders. Which were bare, except for the thin straps of a dress he’d never seen before, that hugged her torso and flared from the hips ending halfway down her calves. If he sketched her right now, he’d add red wings and matching horns and turn her into a stunning succubus. “What are you wearing?” Crap, that probably came out wrong.
She frowned—yup, definitely wrong—and crossed her arms. “I didn’t bring anything nice besides business clothes with me, so I grabbed this at lunch. Also—excuse me? You did see her. All coiffed and put-together and perma-pressed. Do you think she even owns a free T-shirt with a company logo on it?”
“And she saw you. And she said she’d be there tonight.” They couldn’t do this if there was jealousy.
“Should I change? You look comfortable. I should put something else on.”
He stood and closed the distance between them to grip her fingers. “You look gorgeous, and you still would if you changed. Which you don’t need to do. I promise everyone in the room will be watching you for all the right reasons.”
A little smile crossed her face, and she leaned her forehead against his shoulder for a moment. “Okay. Let’s go.” She smoothed out her skirt, and let him lead her to the hall and then the elevators.
Jordan’s reassurances weren’t lip service or false praise. He knew exactly how lucky he was to have Chloe and the life they shared. In high school, he was the gross computer-club nerd who drew the kinky-nasty pictures everyone sneered at him for. The art was worth nothing to him except the distraction it provided from real life. When Cord—who later became Rinslet—offered him a head-artist job at eighteen, he thought he’d died and gone to heaven.
Then he met Chloe, and everything before paled. She did the same thing with words that he did with images. They clicked, they fell fast, and between the two of them, they grew their careers and recognition to epic levels. He refused to let either her or himself go back to being the timid high-school kids who were bullied and who cared what anyone else thought. This job and life defined him, and he wasn’t surrendering them.
He wrapped an arm around Chloe’s waist when they stepped from the elevator, and pointed them toward the hotel restaurant. As they drew within visual range, Chloe slowed, and then stopped. “I’m going back upstairs to change. Apologize for me, for being late?”
“You’re not going to change.” He tugged her closer. It took him a couple of seconds of scanning, but he found the reason for her reaction. Liz stood near the entrance, in a fitted T-shirt and jeans. Both were too vibrant and had too many creases in the wrong places to be anything but brand new. “You look incredible, and I’m not saying that to make you feel better.”
“But you’re dressed down, and she’s dressed down...”
He loosened his grip, but didn’t drop his arm. “I’ll let you go if you really want, but I can almost guarantee she made the same call you did. It means she already cares what you think, and you’re going to impress her by being you.”
“Except this isn’t me.”
“It is you. You picked the dress. You’re the person wearing it. And we can spend all night trying to out-logic each other, or we can do this.” He nudged her forward, leaned in enough to brush the edge of her ear with his lips, and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Imagine how much fun it’ll be for her to undo those buttons running down the front of your dress. One. At. A. Time.” The words painted the image in his thoughts, and arousal rolled over his skin.
“If she’s interested.” Despite the words, the argument vanished from Chloe’s voice.
“Only one way to find out.”
Liz was staring at something Jordan couldn’t see, as they drew closer. She looked up and gave a light laugh when she saw them. Chloe’s footsteps slowed, but Jordan nudged her forward.
Liz nodded at the dress Chloe wore. “I almost bought that yesterday. I’m glad I didn’t.”
“Oh?” Chloe frowned.
“You look better in it.”
Chloe finally relaxed against Jordan, and her gait was more natural as the host led them to a booth near the back of the restaurant. He felt more tension evaporate—his or hers, he wasn’t sure—when Liz took a seat and Chloe slid in next to her. He took the bench seat across, not hiding his study of the two women. When he made the concession and invitation yesterday, this experiment was for Chloe—finally seeing if they could bring reality to the fantasy. Now, as he watched them sitting next to each other, his mind skipped ahead to the possibilities. They were two sides of the same coin. Refined, flipped to carefree.
Until now, he hadn’t put much though into the reality of the situation. What if the three of them didn’t get along? Did they have anything in common? Did that matter if it was just sex? Questions without answers. However, the more the idea lingered, the more powerful the images it summoned. Watching Chloe make out with another woman. Stripping her down. Burying himself to the hilt inside her, while she and Chloe explored each other.
His pulse roared in his ears, and his cock strained against his jeans. He needed to dial that back.
“Boop.” Chloe reached across the table and tapped his nose, jarring him back to the now. “You’re staring.”
“I absolutely am.” He gave them both another glance, and then took a long drink of ice water to cool his heated blood.
“SO... YOU WORK TOGETHER. Did you meet before or after you got your jobs?”
Chloe wasn’t sure how much to offer. Answering that question could go on a lot longer than Liz probably realized. “After,” Chloe said.
“That’s it?” Liz’s question had a teasing lilt.
Jordan leaned in. “If you ask a binary question... Seriously though, how long do you want to be here tonight? There’s a lot of story to tell.”
“Start at the beginning and leave out the boring bits,” Liz said.
“There are no boring bits.” Chloe could do storytelling with an open invitation like this. “We were young. Starving artists, struggling to make our way in the world.”
Jordan gave a fake cough. “We weren’t starving. We were both fresh out of high school, still living at home, and sifting through college acceptances and student-loan paperwork.”
“What he said.” Chloe was glad he joined in. It was more fun when they bounced the words off each other. “This little gaming company decided to step outside the box and ditch their distributor. They wanted to give censors the finger and were bringing on fresh talent, to help.”
Their waiter interrupted, to see if they were ready to order. Chloe hesitated over getting something alcoholic to drink, but if she was going to make a fool of herself tonight, she wanted to be sober. Drink orders in hand, the guy left them alone again.
Liz shifted her position, to lean halfway against the wall, which had her facing both of them. “That was Rinslet?”
“They were Cord at the time.” Chloe plucked out the highlights of that transition. The hostile takeover of the company. Losing her job. Watching Jordan work for the enemy.
Liz grinned. “I know them. Zach Johnston and Scott Evans.”
“McAllister.” Chloe relaxed more as the conversation continued. She’d worried this evening would go bad, and psyched herself out for no reason. This conversation was pleasant and Liz was easy to talk to.
Liz waved a hand. “Right. I’d heard that. Mercy’s older brothers butted heads with them in high school. Ha
ted Zach. Always lost to him in debate meets. My dad did advertising for the Evans Motor Group.”
“Yup. That’s Zach,” Jordan said. “Question, Liz.”
“Sure.”
“Chloe is going to smack me for this, but if all you rich Utah people know each other, how come you didn’t know who George Debson was?”
Liz’s cheer vanished, and she paled the way she had yesterday, while talking to Stew.
“You’re right.” Chloe glared at him. “I am going to smack you. What the hell?”
Jordan shrugged. “Everyone’s talking about it. We get it out of the way, and then the question isn’t distracting anymore.”
“The question wasn’t distracting to begin with.” Chloe didn’t dwell on the curiosity Stew’s questions raised last night. She wished now she’d kept the story from Jordan. At least those details. Except keeping anything from him felt wrong.
Liz fiddled with her ring finger, the way she did in the bar. “He’s right. I’d rather have the information out there. It’s not as if it’s a secret, and anything that’s not public yet will be soon enough. George isn’t from the same kind of money.”
“Because there’s different levels of rich.” Jordan didn’t sound convinced.
Liz’s cheeks darkened. “Yes. There are those people who are worth a couple million. They’re the ones with the houses in the upper Aves and along the benches. And then there are those with their names on buildings and car dealerships. George’s family was one of the former, and he wanted to become one of the latter. And yes, I refused to let anyone background check him or draw up any contracts, because I was madly in love and believed he was too.”
“I’m sorry.” Chloe’s chest ached at the sadness and resignation in Liz’s voice.
“It’s okay. Lesson learned, and with any luck, I escaped the worst of it.” Liz’s words sounded strained, and her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Now it’s out there. Besides, it’s indirectly the reason I’m here tonight.”
Chloe nudged her arm playfully, hoping to ward off the threatening gloom. “Ooh, there’s more to the story. Happy ending?”
Jordan snickered, and Chloe glared at him. The waiter chose that moment to interrupt with their drinks and ask if they wanted to order. Jordan told him to keep the refills coming.
Liz continued to fidget, but she looked up. “I’m hoping. The whole thing made me think...” She paused, to chew on her bottom lip and met Chloe’s gaze. “It’s like we talked about the other night. I’ve drifted for so long, hopping from one decision to the next based on what other people said I should do. Maybe it was time to explore what I wanted. And then Jordan said something about the two of you yesterday...”
Chloe raised her brows and glanced at him.
“I said you and I don’t get hung up on things like monogamy.” He seemed to realize exactly what Liz was talking about.
“Yeah. That.” Liz’s laugh was nervous. “So I figure I’ll get drunk, let down my defenses, and see what happens.”
“Except you ordered iced tea.” Chloe pointed out.
Jordan traced a finger along the back of Liz’s arm, drawing her attention. “Does that mean you’re interested?”
Liz’s pause made Chloe’s gut clench and twist in on itself. “I’m not sure what I’m agreeing to, but as a general statement, probably,” Liz said.
Relief joined the adrenaline churning inside Chloe. “Neither do we, if that helps. It’s kind of a vague wouldn’t it be neat if concept.”
“But he’s so casual about it.” Liz nodded at Jordan.
He usually was. Chloe slid her fingers under his. “Isn’t it sexy?”
“It’s pretty attractive, yeah.” Liz glanced between them.
Jordan cleared his throat. “Not that I mind the compliments. Keep singing my praises all night if you want.” He squeezed Chloe’s fingers and didn’t pull away. “Since we’re laying so much of this on the table, including you later if we’re lucky, we’ve talked about it before—fooling around with someone else. But we’ve never done it. Not that there are any expectations here. There’s a little bit of hope, if we all get to know each other and like what we see.”
Chloe braced herself to move out of the way. Liz was going to bolt now; Chloe could feel it.
Instead, Liz settled back. “See where the night takes us? I can live with that.”
“Exactly,” Jordan said. “And now for a hopefully far less probing question—which also comes later if we’re lucky—what are you doing for K.M.?”
“The advertising company I work for is helping them show off their new individual package.”
Chloe cringed and bit her tongue at the innuendo. Was it on purpose or a slip?
Liz giggled and ducked her head, before looking back up. “I can’t believe I phrased it that way.”
“Jordan’s been playing around with that. He thought their commercial package was overwhelming, but this smaller one is more his size.” Chloe adjusted her weight on the bench, letting her leg nudge and then rest against Liz’s. Warmth fluttered inside when Liz didn’t move away.
Liz smirked and gave Jordan her attention. “What are you doing with it?”
“It’s an animation package.” His flat well-duh tone was laced with amusement.
“Yeah, I get it.” Liz laughed. “You stroke it. Fondle it. Run your finger over the tip, to make it move the way you want.”
Jordan wiggled his eyebrows. “You know your packages.”
“Not as well as I’d like to.”
Chloe wondered how long this would go on if she let it, then bit back a snort at the word long. “He’s animating his drawings. Turning them into cartoons.”
“She’s being generous. Without her script, they’re simply moving drawings.”
Liz looked between them. “You’re using K.M.’s engine for that? Don’t you have animation software at work?”
“No.” Chloe shook her head. Liz really didn’t know anything about the industry. “What we have at Rinslet isn’t made for distribution. The developers use it, but that’s not us.”
“I’d love to see what you’re doing with it sometime.”
“You want to watch me play with my package?” Jordan’s wink was exaggerated.
The weird facial tics were a bit much. Chloe swatted at him. “Are you done?”
“Most likely not.” He covered Liz’s hand with his free one, tracing his thumb over Chloe’s knuckles. “For personal or professional reasons?”
“I might tell Jonathan you thought his commercial package was too big.” Liz quirked her mouth in amusement. “But this is between us. I’m genuinely curious.”
“We have a copy upstairs.” Chloe winced when she realized how that sounded. “That’s not a line. Not that you’re not welcome upstairs. I— It’s where the laptops are. We can show you after dinner.” Not that Chloe could eat at this point. The joking was fun, but it didn’t untie her insides.
“If you two are waiting on me to order, don’t. I’m not hungry,” Liz said.
“In that case, do you want a sneak peek now?” Jordan slid from his seat and tugged Chloe up.
Liz stood too. “That sounds like fun.”
Jordan snagged the waiter. “Bill this to room 512.” He turned back to Liz and Chloe. “Shall we, ladies?”
Chloe’s anticipation spiked, and her thoughts stalled on a single question. What now?
“Evening, folks.” Stew blocked their path. The bottom dropped out of Chloe’s stomach. Better question—why now? He locked his gaze on hers. “I thought you three weren’t acquaintances.”
An irritated growl rumbled from Jordan’s chest. He was thinner than Stew but a couple inches taller, and when he moved forward, the blogger retreated. “I’ll catch up with you ladies in a minute.” Jordan didn’t look at Chloe, and irritated threat lined his words. “Stew and I are going to talk about Elizabeth Thompson and how uninteresting a story she is.”
Chapter Six
“Is he going to be all ri
ght?” Liz asked as they entered Chloe and Jordan’s room. She owed these two so much for repeatedly whisking her away from whoever that guy was.
Chloe nodded at a chair in front of the table that held two laptops. “He’ll be right behind us. Stew’s looking for the story you told us downstairs?”
“I guess.”
Chloe frowned. “It’s not a super interesting story. No offense—I’m sorry it happened to you, and it must have hurt like hell, but it’s not news.”
“No, it’s not.” Liz was grateful for the understanding.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, ladies.” Jordan’s greeting blended with the sound of the door swinging open and then shut again. “You still want to take a look?” He flipped open one of the computers and logged in.
“Yes. Definitely.” When Liz accepted the invitation upstairs, she wasn’t sure what to expect. Some of her nervous tension slipped away at the realization they were actually going to show her their work. Despite the bravado, thinly veiled jokes, and flirting, she wasn’t sure she was ready to take things a step further. Staring possibility in the face was more jarring than she expected.
The video started playing, complete with subtitles at the bottom. The visuals were gorgeous. “You drew these? You’re crazy talented.”
“Don’t sound so surprised.” Jordan wore what had to be a semi-permanent smirk. “I didn’t get here on looks alone. I needed some talent.”
Chloe rolled her eyes, but she didn’t look bothered by the comment. “Besides, it’s harder for a guy to sleep their way to the top.”
“You wound me.” Jordan clutched his chest and feigned falling from the chair, but caught himself before he left the seat. “Looks like these transcend traditional labels.”
“Ass.” Chloe tried to slap him, but he caught her fingers before they hit his arm and kissed the tips, one at a time.
Liz turned her attention back to the video, embarrassed at being in the middle of the intimate moment. At least she didn’t have to worry about things like jealousy if the three of them did hook up. Chloe and Jordan were obviously infatuated with each other. She reached for the volume control and realized it was already turned up. “How come there’s no sound?”
The Geeks and the Socialite Page 5