Luka’s eyes flashed silver in surprise. “Big step.”
“Well, she is my girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend?” Luka whistled. “Well, well. Peter Pan’s all grown up.”
“Shut up, Luc.”
He threw an arm around the back of the couch with a grin. “When do I meet your Wendy?”
“You don’t.” Ryder was just getting used to the strong feelings he had about Hailey without his Handler poking at them in front of her.
“New company rule I forgot to tell you about. As your Handler I need to approve all girlfriends. Especially if they have you all gooey eyed.”
Ryder held up a finger. The middle one. “I’m not gooey eyed.” He hoped.
“Uh-huh. It’s BYOB tonight, right?” Luka said, switching tactics.
“No. Hailey’s stocked the bar with enough to outlast even you.”
“She’s stocked it with blondes? That’s a good woman you’ve got there.”
Ryder looked at him, curious. Though Luka was often snapped by the paparazzi with various women, he never arrived at events with a date. “Who’re you planning on bringing?”
Luka smiled a canary-got-the-best-of-the-cat smile. “Nobody in particular.”
* * *
“Director?” Gregor knocked on the door and spoke through the wood. “Handler Luka wishes to see you.”
The door opened as per the Director’s silent command.
Luka patted Gregor on the shoulder as he sauntered in. “Nice,” he approved.
Seated in her chair, Clare gazed over her half-moon spectacles. “Bothering with etiquette, Handler?” she said in a voice half-chilled. “What is it you want this time?”
“I can’t be nice to Gregor?” Luka deliberately used a mild tone as he wandered around the spacious office with his hands in his pockets. “I thought I’d save him the panic attack this once.”
“How gracious.” Clare steepled her hands and leaned back. A diamond pendant on a chain dangled around her neck, winking at him. It was the only part of her that would.
Luka picked up one of the priceless objets d’art that Clare had positioned around the room. “I thought so,” he said as he bounced the glass from one hand to the other.
“You’re trying to annoy me.”
“Is it working?”
“Your presence does just fine.” The glass disappeared from his hands back to its original spot.
“Ouch.” Luka grinned and headed for the couch where he sprawled. “You’re getting vicious.”
Clare delicately slid her glasses off and folded them up. “Is there something specific you needed to see me about? Yet one more of your Genies acting out?”
“That was almost sarcasm. You’re hanging around me too much. Before you know it, you’ll actually crack a smile.”
Clare did not look amused. Of course, she rarely did. Queen V. had nothing on her. They’d probably been buddies back in the day.
The pearl flecks in her eyes grew stormy as he kept quiet. “Luka.”
“All right.” Luka kicked up his feet. “I came to give you the opportunity of giving me my prize now.”
“Your prize?”
“Uh-huh.” Luka pointed at her. “Ryder’s not only taking Hailey to Leo’s party; he called her his girlfriend.”
“And this matters because . . . ?”
“No.” He shook his finger. “No getting out of this, Blondie.”
“Don’t call me that.” There for an instant, the pearl flecks gleamed hard with annoyance.
Victory. He loved to rile her. “We agreed. If Ryder took Hailey to the party, then that meant she was more than a conquest. I think he’s gone even further, which means not only was I right, I am a prophet of love and you should bow down and worship me.”
One minute he was sprawled on the couch.
The next he was sprawled on the floor.
He tutted from his prone position. “Immature, Clare.”
She didn’t acknowledge the push. “Luka, I know you don’t understand this, but I actually come here to work.”
“Huh.” He scratched his chin. “Okay. Crazy idea, but I’ll go with it.”
He swore he could almost hear her back molars grind. “What Ryder does with his personal life is his business.”
“Except it wasn’t when lottery sales went up after the Star article.”
“True. And if she’s his ‘girlfriend,’ that should bring us some decent publicity. We can schedule another article. Beyond that, I don’t see why I should care.”
Luka pushed to his feet and prowled toward the desk. He planted his hands. “Say it, Clare.”
“Say what?”
“You know.” He dared her with his eyes.
“No, I don’t.” She stared at him coolly. “I don’t see how his calling her his girlfriend has anything to do with love.”
Luka narrowed his eyes. “Fine. You want to improve the original bet? I’ll play. Ryder loves that woman. It’s only a matter of time until he proves it beyond even what you can disparage.”
“Been reading the dictionary, Luc?” She raised her eyebrows.
“I could give you a couple more words if you want.” He smiled when her eyes narrowed infinitesimally. “Ryder will prove me right and when he does, not only will you admit I know people better than you, you’ll also have to call me Prophet for an entire week.”
“Why do you care so much?”
Taken aback by the question, Luka was briefly flummoxed. “I just do,” he said, unable to come up with a better answer.
Clare picked up her spectacles after a short study of his face. “When I’m proven right,” she said, sliding them back on, “you are going to come into work at eight a.m. and leave at six p.m. every day for a month. You will also not visit my offices unless you have an actual work matter to discuss, and if you do, you will use appropriate language and manner befitting a Handler to his Director.”
“Blondie, you’ve got yourself a bet.”
30.
The party, from what Hailey could see, was a raging success.
Light had fallen to darkness hours ago, but the special torches she’d ordered had been lit and wedged in the sand. Firelight leapt all around the mile of beach she’d secured with the right officials. A twenty-foot-square woven mat stood as a dance floor—with a harder underlay so people didn’t trip and fall—with the best DJ in Malibu spinning his stuff into the night. A buffet table spread with fresh fruit and nibbles stood higher on a slope, nearer Leo’s house, which was as fabulous as she’d suspected. Security stood on alert to prevent anyone from invading Leo’s privacy.
Across the way, a chef also worked the biggest barbecue she’d ever seen, with a built-in pit Ryder had created in the space of two seconds. A line of people dressed in grass skirts, coconut bras, Hawaiian shirts, and shorts, snaked from it, while others grooved on the dance floor or attempted to shimmy under the limbo pole. A trick that would get even harder once the free bar she’d erected near the buffet, complete with palm fronds and a shirtless bartender—yes, that was for the female guests—kicked in.
Amid the crowd weaved dancers she’d hired to do Hawaiian dances, something the men all seemed to appreciate. Which reminded her, she needed to learn how to do one of the belly tricks she’d seen a brunette do earlier. Ryder would lose his mind.
The scents of roasting meat and vegetables mixed with the flowers she’d strewn around, creating the image of the tropics. She didn’t know if it lived up to it—most of the guests after all could flash themselves there in a couple of minutes—but Ryder had been elated and Leo, who’d been reluctance personified, had even dredged up a smile.
She spotted him now, leaning against the railing of his beach house’s deck. Ryder had gone to get them cocktails from the bar but had gotten waylaid by “fans.” Despite their skimpy coconut bras, Hailey didn’t even feel a speck of worry. Ryder was so not the cheating type. After all, he was honest. To the point of yes-your-ass-does-look-big-but-that’s-a-goo
d-thing bluntness. And he cared about her.
Feeling pretty good about life in general, she decided to make her way up to Leo on the deck. She liked Ryder’s twin. He might be less “out there,” but he was charming and funny in his own way. And he loved Ryder, so that put him in her good books automatically.
“Enjoying the party?” she called as she held up her long tropical-print skirt to climb the steps carved in the slope.
Leo glanced over and his eyes warmed. “It’s great. Really.”
“You know,” she said, settling on her elbows beside him. “It’s not just for looking at.”
“But it makes a pretty spectacle.”
Hailey smiled. “You didn’t want the party, huh?”
“Ryder wanted me to have it.”
“But you could have refused to let him host it at your house.”
Leo glanced at her. “Ryder wanted me to have it,” he repeated.
Her smile grew. They stared in companionable silence for a moment, watching the revelry. Any minute this group was going to start breaking out the magic tricks, and Hailey for one was curious what happened when Genies got drunk and wild.
“So why has my brother abandoned you?” Leo asked, shifting so he could turn toward her. His white shirt was unbuttoned and it flapped around his torso, bronzed from many Malibu days. No loud Hawaiian shirt for Leo, although Ryder had argued at length about how much of a fun sucker he was being.
Hailey indicated the mob with a sweep of her hand. “He’s courting his fans.”
“You’re not angry,” Leo observed with surprise.
“Why should I be?” Hailey caressed Ryder’s face with her gaze.
As if he felt it, he turned and sought her out. He threw her an apologetic look before signing something else the women found. Hailey had her money on Double Ds flipping out a boob next.
“I’m glad he has you.”
At Leo’s semiserious statement, Hailey threw a teasing look at him. “Because of all the prime whipped jokes you can make?”
One side of Leo’s mouth lifted. “Because you love him enough to let him be him.”
It was as if he’d punched her. All the air flew out her mouth as she gaped at him. Ice crowded her blood, froze her where she stood. Her mind went blank.
“Don’t worry; I think my oblivious twin is unaware of it,” he assured her with a grin, clearly not picking up on her distress. “But as an observer, I can tell.”
She ran a self-conscious hand down her hair, which she’d braided into two fat plaits. No. Leo was wrong. She might care about Ryder a lot, but love was way off base. Way too serious. Sure, she wanted Ryder to be happy, got that glow when she was going to see him or when she was thinking about him, damn near cracked her cheeks smiling when she was with him, but . . .
Emotion body checked her as she glanced again at Ryder. Shadows weaved over his face as he gave an awkward smile to one woman and shook his head. A thousand memories of different smiles flashed in her head, stopping on the one when he’d asked her to “go steady.”
Did she love him?
Her heart expanded as she took in a shaky breath.
Christ, Lawson.
Unease slithered in her belly and churned, frothing like an ocean about to storm. It was too soon. Too soon for that kind of emotion. She didn’t want that kind of risk, not now when her life was actually fun and free and good. Damn it, she’d finally got their relationship where she wanted it. Easy, but with a few strings. Why did she have to go and complicate it?
Leo’s eyebrows were lifted, waiting for her to say something.
“I, ah . . .” She cleared her throat, shoving her worries away so they wouldn’t show on her face. It wasn’t as if she had to do anything about it now. There was time to figure out what to do. “We’re taking it slow so . . .”
“Yeah, Ry’s gun-shy. And he told me about your ex so I get why you wouldn’t be ready to rush into anything.”
“He told you about Ethan?”
“Not so much the name, more a description.” His smile was innocent.
She had to smile, despite the knots in her belly. “Yeah, that sounds like Ryder.”
The music drifted around them as she considered Leo’s earlier words. “What did you mean I let him be him?”
“Other women he’s had in the past have been annoyed when women are all over him. But Ryder . . . he can’t stand to see someone sad.”
“Yeah. I figured that out.” She thought back to the auction and gave a rueful shake of her head.
“I’m glad.” Leo lifted the beer bottle he’d been dangling over the railing and tipped it to her. “To one hell of a party.”
“I’ll drink to that. If I had one, of course.”
They both looked back to Ryder. He shook his head at something Double Ds said, gestured at the bar, when . . .
Yep. There went the bikini top.
* * *
Ryder eventually extracted himself from the overeager brunette with—okay, honesty—the truly fantastic tits, hoping beyond logic that Hailey hadn’t also seen the enthusiastic hug the brunette had given him. While it had been interesting, it hadn’t interested him.
Which was nice. It kind of confirmed what he’d been feeling all along—that Hailey was the one for him.
And whaddya know? It was getting less panic inducing to think like that.
He got Hailey’s drink and a beer for himself and threaded through the throng, up to where she was laughing with his brother. The woman slayed him.
Other women would want to dance, limbo, teasingly dart into the surf.
Hailey left the party to talk to his twin.
He approached them with a sheepish grin. “I come bearing alcohol.”
“And probably a heck of a lot of baby oil,” Hailey said, taking the coconut he offered. She sipped through the straw. She was smiling, but there was something peculiar in her expression. Annoyed? “So, Leo and I have odds on this—were they fake?”
Ryder glanced at her sly look to his grinning brother. “Is there any way I can answer this question without you throwing your drink on me?” he wondered.
“One way.”
He thought. Ah.
He pulled out the big guns, a lazy smile he knew damn well made her pulse flutter. “Who cares? They weren’t as good as yours.”
Hailey pinked up. “That wasn’t what I meant.”
“Then what?”
“You could’ve said you didn’t notice because you moved away immediately.”
“Well, I did move away but any man knows when boobs are fake when they’re pressed up against—isn’t this a great night? And that moon, wow, is that big.”
Hailey’s lips twitched. “Nice save.”
They chatted with Leo for a while, Hailey eventually losing the strange pinched look, taking note of when the revelers started letting a little looser. A few magic tricks, a little nudity.
His kind of party.
Though with Hailey in that light-blue-print skirt that dragged along the ground but for the insanely high slit that went into naughty territory, Ryder was starting to get ideas about a different kind of party altogether. A very private party. For two.
He knew Hailey was concerned about leaving Leo, but Ryder knew his twin. He’d done his social rounds earlier, now he’d be content to enjoy it from above. Leo liked to socialize with a distance between him and a crowd, like sitting in a pub and reading. No amount of pushing would get Leo down into the mob.
“One hell of a party,” a familiar voice drawled as Ryder was trying to come up with a way to get Hailey on her own.
The three of them swiveled their heads. Luka stood, one hand in his cargo shorts’ pocket.
Leo’s eyes widened. “What are you wearing?”
“Yeah, I gotta back Leo up on this.” Ryder had to laugh. “Where the hell did you find that?”
Luka inspected the Hawaiian shirt he wore. Burnt orange with vivid green palm trees and blue waves, it was a finger to good taste. And s
uited the Handler to a T.
“What?” he said, picture of innocence. “I thought this was the theme.”
Leo raised his eyebrows. “Bad taste is a theme?”
“No respect for your elders. Or betters. Or more superior karaoke singers.” Luka spied Hailey then and the smile upped to deadly. “This must be the woman we’ve all been waiting for. Wendy, isn’t it?”
Ryder sent him the death-ray glare.
Which was promptly ignored.
Luka held out a hand. “Only kidding. Luka, Handler Extraordinaire. You must be Hailey Lawson.”
Hailey gave him a hesitant smile and slid her hand into his. “You’re Ryder’s boss?”
“Mmm. So they tell me.” Luka didn’t let go of her hand as he studied her. “My, my. You don’t lack in the looks department.”
Ryder cleared his throat with a pointed glare at their joined hands. “You’ll have to forgive Luka,” he said as Luka let Hailey go with a smartass grin. “He doesn’t know how to be around people.”
“Sure, I do,” Luka countered, hands back in pockets. “It’s people who don’t know how to be around me.”
Ryder saw Hailey smile. He glanced at her pink cheeks and scowled. He knew the female staff who worked at WFY all went giddy went Luka walked into a room, something about hair as black as sin and silver eyes like smoke, and he knew how to be charming if he wanted to be, but Ryder had assumed Hailey would see through Luka’s BS. Not that he was jealous.
“So, how’s it going?” Luka directed this to Leo. “Ready to kiss the ground and thank the gods for your eternal life yet?”
“You don’t think I start the mornings like that?”
“I know I do. Though I must vacuum more. Dust, you know. It gets stuck to my lip balm.”
“You have a problem.”
“So everyone keeps saying. Still.” Luka wandered closer and gazed at the party laid out before him. “One hell of a show. All your doing, Ms. Lawson?”
“Hailey, and yes. As per WFY’s agreement to cover the charity money.”
“Money?” Luka caught Ryder’s warning look. “Oh. Yeah. We paid that money. Yes siree Bob. We wrote that check, signed it. Sent it promptly. All from us. Nobody else.”
Ryder rolled his eyes to the sky.
His Command Page 28