by Nana Malone
“Done.” I seriously doubted there would be any good parts, but I wasn’t telling Faith that. My friend had gone out of her way to have me look like a million dollars, including busting open a dress she hadn’t worn. Faith deserved to believe in the fairytale that life had momentarily become. I’d burst that bubble tomorrow.
I did one more twirl in the mirror, enjoying the feel of the soft jersey material of the backless silver dress. It really was beautiful. From the front, the classic scoop neckline was more demure, but the back was the daring portion, being completely backless. The material started again just before the top of my ass. If I moved wrong, there'd be crack for the whole world to see.
The door buzzed, and my lungs froze. I didn’t remember to breathe again until Faith jumped up.
“I'll get it. You should make an entrance.”
I waited thirty seconds before going out to meet him. When he caught sight of me, Alexi stared then he swallowed, and I watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down.
“You look beautiful.”
My skin flushed. I bit my tongue and murmured, “Thank you. Let me get my jacket and purse.”
When I trotted into the living area, Faith fanned herself. “Wow. That man knows how to clean up. Hell, even scruffy, he's pretty. Don’t forget… tomorrow, I get to live vicariously.”
I grinned. “Okay, okay. You're sure I look all right?”
“You're perfect.”
We bumped fists, and I tried for nonchalance as I went back into the foyer. “You ready?”
Lex nodded slowly then helped me put my coat on. “I hope you told Faith not to wait up. I have a full night planned.”
“Oh, do you now?” I smirked.
He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “That's not what I meant. I actually have a long date planned.”
“Sorry. I couldn’t resist teasing.”
He grinned. “Oh, don’t be. I also have high hopes.”
“So where are we going?”
“Well, I promised you a proper date out on the town, so that's what we're going to do. I've taken some precautions so we don’t have to deal with the paparazzi tonight, but just be aware anywhere that’s not private will be open season, so you'll have to wait to jump my bones until later when we're alone.”
“You're incorrigible, you know that?”
“It's the oddest thing. I feel like I've been told that before.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek as I thought about the one thing that could ruin my night. I didn’t want to spoil the evening before we even got started, but I needed to know what I'd have to face tomorrow. “Will it cause problems for Gemma? I know they've been pretty relentless with her too, the newshounds.”
I had seen the coverage on Sky One as the paparazzi had dogged Gemma coming out of the gym, asking what she thought of her boyfriend’s new paramour. She'd been more gracious than she had to be, stating that she didn’t own Mr. Chase, and who he chose to spend time with was none of her business.
“Gemma's okay. She actually encouraged me to do this right and not take you to some pub. Not that I would have. But she said every woman deserves to be treated like a princess.”
“She's nicer than I gave her credit for.” I tucked a braid behind my ear.
“Yeah, Gem's great. There's a reason we've been friends for years. But she's not the woman I'm into. Tonight, all my focus is on you and making you comfortable.”
I nodded. “Sorry. Just one more question, and we can let this go.”
“It's okay, Abbie. Tonight, I have no secrets from you.” He took me through the back door that led into the garden. Through there, we escaped though the opposite garage into the neighbor’s driveway. Faith had already spoken to them about starting to park her car there for the time being.
Lex led me out to the waiting silver BMW sports car and opened my door. I slid in and once again couldn’t get used to the plush interior. The soft leather immediately enveloped me in warmth. He'd heated the seats for me. I hated to admit it, but I knew I could get used to that kind of treatment.
“So, what happens with Gemma now?”
The engine purred, and he bypassed all the paparazzi with a small smile as he merged smoothly onto the M1. I tried not to look out the window at the cars whizzing past. He drove like a demon from hell, but also in a controlled manner that said he knew exactly what he was doing.
“It will likely be in the papers either tomorrow or the next day that she's come out as a lesbian. She’s telling her family tonight.”
I winced. “I feel like the catalyst that pushed her into this. No one should have to do something like that until they’re ready.”
“It's not your fault, Abbie. She knew this day was coming eventually. She and Jacinda have been getting closer, and Jacinda is out and proud. She wants a full-on relationship. Plus, Gem and I have acted as each other's crutches for so long it was time to sever that. Neither one of us could live a full life while we depended on the other like we did. She’s stronger than she thinks. And even if her parents won’t stand by her, she has me. As a friend, of course.”
“Of course. And what about you? I’m sure your parents were counting on an Alexi and Gemma union.”
“Well, I've been telling the old man for years that I wasn't going to marry her. He just chose not to listen. My mother, on the other hand, knew something was off. I think she thought I was the one in the closet. She's always asking me if I have passion in my life. It's really awkward.”
I covered my mouth with my hand. “Oh no. She doesn’t.”
“She stopped asking the day we hung out in Brixton. She knew I'd met someone. I tell you she has a sixth sense about these things. She stopped thinking I was gay as soon as the pictures came out.”
I blushed. “I'm mortified.”
He took his hand off the gear shift and patted my hand. “Don’t be. She'd love to meet you.”
My eyes darted to his. “Uh, okay.”
He grinned. “You know. When it's time.”
“Right.”
Lex cut off three cars to pull off the M1 and slid onto the surface streets of central London. His driving became even more haphazard, and I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to watch.
“Abbie, do you feel sick?”
I shook my head. “No. Your driving just scares me a little.”
Alexi chuckled. “Remind me not to take you to Italy or Germany then. I drive slow here in comparison.”
My heart leapt at the idea of traveling together, but my brain tamped it down. Just because he no longer had a fiancée didn’t mean we'd be riding off into the sunset together. We still had a few things to work out.
Suddenly, Lex swerved into an alley and stopped the car.
I looked around. “Are we hiding from paparazzi?”
He laughed as he shook his head. “No. This is the VIP entrance. I'd still like to keep tonight about us and not the side show, if I can.”
Out of nowhere, a tall Asian man in a dark suit appeared and opened my door for me. I stepped out, and my breath caught as I stood next to him. He was huge. Not just tall, but also massively wide.
When he spoke, his voice was all polished Brit. “Good evening, Miss Nartey, Mr. Chase. I trust you'll have a pleasant evening.”
Lex led me through the side door, and immediately the aroma of delicious food assailed me. Ginger and garlic were the first scents to make my mouth water. “Wow. I want whatever smells that good.”
“You'll have to be more specific,” Lex said with a smile. “It all does.”
The hostess appeared in the candlelit hallway and led us to a private table. There were no other patrons in the room, but when I leaned back, I could see into the main restaurant, and the place was packed. I also had a view to the street, and there was a small hoard of people waiting outside. “Where are we, exactly?”
“It's this new Vietnamese fusion place called Pho. I know the owner, so I called in a favor.”
Once seated, I leaned forward. “I
know it's uncouth or whatever to ask this, but sometimes you just gotta know. Just how do you know all these people? And how many favors do they owe you?”
He laughed. “Andrew, my mate from University, is the owner. He spent a summer trekking through Vietnam and fell in love with the culture and the people. Eventually he married a Vietnamese woman. They moved back here and opened the restaurant.”
“Wow. It's a beautiful place. Is he your age?”
“No, he's a little older. We used to play cricket together.”
Cricket. Right. I shifted uncomfortably at the thought of just how little I knew about him.
Waiters brought around tea, and Alexi ordered our drinks for us. Once drinks had arrived and our food orders were put in, he sat back and studied me, a slight crease forming in his forehead. “You have to tell me. Is this too much, not enough? I'm finding you very hard to read right now.”
I was hard to read? “Oh, no, it's fantastic. Faith and Sophie mentioned this place when they took me to Camberwell to hide me last weekend. We were looking to do a girls’ night, but they said it was impossible to get in this place. So it's really nice to be able to actually eat here. I'll have to remember all the flavors so I can tell them. Sophie, of course, will insist that we try to recreate the meals. For someone who doesn’t cook, she's really adventurous in the kitchen.”
He frowned slightly. “Your friends aren’t exactly fans of mine, are they?”
I hadn’t prepared for that question. “No, it's not that. I think they were unhappy that I lied to them about who I was seeing, and they worry about me. Especially Sophie. But Faith is in your corner. Sophie will come around.”
He winced. “Abbie, about—”
The first course of hot soup arrived, and my stomach grumbled as the aromas of ginger and onions hit my nostrils. “Wow, I didn’t realize I was so hungry. Faith kept trying to feed me before I left since we weren’t sure where you were taking me for dinner.”
He laughed, and it softened the edginess in his gaze. “She thought I'd be starving you?”
“No. More like she thought we'd be going somewhere pretty but where the food wasn’t very good, or the portion sizes would only be enough to feed a size-zero anorexic model.”
He laughed. “Oh, no. I pay attention. I even made sure nothing has mushrooms in it. And I've seen you eat, remember?”
I flushed at the memory of the weekend we spent together and the way I’d devoured the breakfast he made me. “Yeah, I'd forgotten about that.”
“I remembered.”
I met his gaze. Time to bite the bullet. If I didn’t do it now, I'd get caught up in the romance, and I still had questions I needed answered. “So last Sunday, you said you couldn’t tell me anything about what was going on with you for another week. Can you tell me now?”
He wiped his mouth with his napkin then gently placed it back in his lap. I couldn’t help but marvel at his impeccable table manners. Of course, he’d probably had a lifetime to learn all of the appropriate spoons and forks. All I'd really learned was to start on the outside and work my way inward.
He cleared his throat. “It all had to do with work, really.”
My brows shot up. “So, what is it you do, anyway? I don’t think you’ve actually told me.”
His smile was bright and warmed me. “Well, as of Monday, I will no longer be the owner of the Take Back the Night software application.”
“What happens on Monday? Are you leaving?”
His mouth tightened, but then he answered smoothly, “No. Final sale of my company goes through. Then I’ll just be the acting CEO until they can get someone else to fill my shoes.”
My mouth fell open. “Wow. I had no idea.”
“How could you? I didn’t exactly tell you.” He took a sip of his scotch. “You weren’t supposed to have an idea. If anybody had a clue and leaked it, the deal would have been off. Hell, it’s still supposed to be a secret until Monday.”
“Why?”
“My father, for one. If he finds out about the deal, he’ll try for a hostile snatch of my company.”
I blinked, and my hand fluttered to my chest. “Wow. Is your relationship that contentious?”
“Yeah, you could say that. It's always been like that. He prefers Xander. Xander fights less. Dad tells him to do something, and he nods and smiles then does what he likes. I fight more.” Lex shrugged.
He went silent as the waiters reappeared and removed our soup bowls. Once they filled the table with heaping piles of dumplings, rice, and succulent smelling stews, they vanished and left the two of us alone again.
Only then did Alexi continue. “Mum is the one with the titles and the inherited wealth. Dad only got his wealth from leveraging Mum's connections, her name, and Grandad's money. It works for him, and he pretends to love me. I stopped trying to figure out my parents or why my father sees me as the bane of his existence.”
“That must be hard.”
He shrugged. “No harder than having parents who don't support you. At least I have my mum.”
“But you didn’t tell her about the job?”
He gave a sharp shake of his head. “No. She wouldn’t have meant to let anything slip, but it's easy to not be paying attention and out comes something pivotal.”
“Must be lonely keeping so much to yourself. Do you have anyone to confide in?”
“Nick, Gem. Sometimes Xander.” He gazed at me through lowered lashes. “Now you.”
I flushed. “I'm sure you have other people you can confide in besides me. There were three hundred people at your birthday party, for the love of God.”
Alexi shook his head, dislodging a dark lock that fell over his brow. “There are a lot of people who want the fun and the lifestyle and stand around wanting to be part of the entourage. I’d rather be on my own at my house, honestly. It sucks. I never know who I can trust or who just wants to be my friend because of who my cousins are or because of what they think I can do for them.”
My heart broke for the loneliness he must have felt. “No wonder you didn’t tell me who you are.”
He winced. “I didn’t think you were like that. Pretty much after talking to you the first time, I knew you weren’t. I've just never had anybody close to me.”
Tears pricked my eyelids, and I blinked them away rapidly. “Thank you for telling me,” I murmured. “What happens now? After the sale of the company? And what does the company do, anyway?”
His eyes gleamed. “Well, Nick and I built software that connects all the elite clubs, restaurants, bars, and lounges in one place. Kind of a social calendar for the fabulous set. Then we expanded it to include certain VIP accesses that aren’t accessible to everyone. We worked out a deal with all the Club Membership places like China White to allow temporary memberships for anyone we send them, for a cut, of course. And we keep it super exclusive. Anyone who wants access has to pay a pretty penny, and there’s only a set number of all-access passes. So for any given weekend, there will be two passes per club, or restaurant, or lounge, or show, or something. It’s first come, first served. Tonight, at midnight, for example, we'll release all the availability for next week’s venues. Sometimes we crash the system with all the people trying to get on. We eventually expanded to concerts, and then included lower access things like events and restaurants.” The excitement was clear in his expression, the way he gesticulated with his hands. He loved what he did and was really proud.
Wow. In a million years I never would have thought of that. “That's huge. I know lots of people who’d kill to get into the places you have access to. Hell, I'm a bit awed by it all. I wouldn’t want to do it on a constant basis, but they sure are fun once in a while.”
“Yeah, going out in London has proved to be a lucrative business.” He smiled ruefully. “Not bad for the kid who was never going to amount to much.”
“Maybe your father will surprise you. He should be proud.”
“Well, he won’t be.”
“I'm sorry,” I s
aid softly.
“For what?”
How could I explain that, even before I’d known about who he really was, I’d judged him? “For not seeing past the shine. I'm probably no better than the people you were talking about.”
He took my hand. “Well, you weren’t working on all the information, and you knew something was off.” He squeezed my hand. “I should have told you from the start.”
“I guess I understand why you didn’t.”
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’d like another chance. I feel terrible for how things turned out for you. I wish I'd just told you so you could have prepared or something.”
“It's okay. It's not like I would have done anything differently. I knew you were different the minute I laid eyes on you.” I raked my teeth over my bottom lip.
A smile tugged at his lips. “Then let me help you out with school. It’s my fault your parents freaked out on you.”
I shook my head and took my hand back. “Alexi, no. I was serious when I said I need to figure it out on my own.” And that was true. But why did I suddenly feel nauseous thinking about it.
His brow furrowed. “You have to accept help sometimes.”
I took a sip of water to cool my dry, itchy throat. “And I am. I actually have gotten a few photography gigs. A couple of the models that rent from Max have had me taking pictures for them. Jasper too. If I can keep it up, I can pay for school and my living expenses all by myself.”
His lips flattened. “You really won’t let me help?”
“Nope.” I shook my head.
He shook his head. “I really wish you would.”
I inhaled deeply, praying for the lightheaded and hot feeling to dissipate. I refused to be sick on this date. Refused. “I know. And it’s sweet that you want to, but no. Mom and Dad pulling the plug was maybe the thing I needed. If they hadn’t yanked my world out from under me, I would forever be beholden. Right now, I'm sort of free. I don’t have to take any bullshit. I'm not obligated to listen, and there won’t be any guilt when I don’t.” I paused. “Or at least not much.” The skin on my arms prickled with a flash of heat and I swallowed hard.