Chapter 24 #3
Painting on a blank smile, Nolan said, “Of course. I should be getting back to Cressida.” Then he turned on his heel, looking completely at ease.
Me, on the other hand? I hoped I didn’t look as manic as I felt.
As Anton whisked me away, I felt like freaking Tinkerbell next to his massive size. “You missed your calling as a Viking. Or a linebacker,” I told him, the words popping out of me without my permission. Damn nerves.
But Anton took it in stride, tossing his head back in a throaty laugh.
Wow, okay. Attractive much. Must be something in the water in San Francisco.
“I’ll take it,” he said with a smile that I found more charming than I had any right to.
But Nolan had said he was, ah, a bit promiscuous, so maybe this was all part of his act.
“I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Anton Alistair. ”
“I know.”
He lifted a brow.
“Ah, I mean, I’m Val. I work for Nolan. And I’m friends with Daphne. She’s mentioned you.”
At that, he leaned forward. “Has she?”
Mierda. “Yeah. Said you were the most irritating man she’d ever met.” Nice save, I think?
He let loose another laugh, somehow more delighted than bummed. “I do make a habit of mucking up her calendar. Hazards of the job. And yeah, maybe part of me likes tugging on her pigtails.”
“You should just ask her out,” I said, then froze. God, could I have crammed my foot any farther into my mouth? What is with all this word vomit? The whole evening had me feeling out of sorts.
“Oh, believe me, I have. But she’s not interested, and I only ask a woman out once. No means no, not ‘try harder’ or ‘keep asking me repeatedly until I’m too uncomfortable to refuse.’”
That earned him some points. “Consent is sexy,” I agreed. “Did something happen between you two that made her uninterested?”
With a snort he said, “Yeah, working for Nolan and being around asshole billionaires like us all the time. She knows all of our games, and she wants none of it.” But something behind his eyes told me there was more to the story.
“Can’t say I blame her.” As if I wasn’t currently dating—fooling around with?—one of those billionaires myself. But Nolan was proving every day how different he was from what I’d expected.
“And what about you, Val?”
“What about me?”
“Are you going home with anyone tonight?”
“Am I—?” I cut off, spluttering. “Are you asking me to go home with you?”
“From the look on your face, I can tell that idea is about as appealing as chugging vinegar,” he said, laughing good-naturedly.
“No, it’s—I mean, I’m flattered of course, but I’m, um, going home with someone else.” Mierda. Then he might actually think I mean Nolan since the media knows I live with him. “Er, I mean, I’m seeing someone. He’s not a billionaire. Not that it matters.” Stop talking!
But Anton only chuckled at my babbling, spinning me across the dance floor.
“Not to worry, Val. I had to try. You’re too gorgeous to ignore.
” Then he pulled me back into him, holding me a polite distance away as he cast his gaze about the room.
“This is a nice send-off party for Hale’s Peak, since the Kellers are—”
“Anton!” Daphne said, charging over and poking a tiny finger in his bulwark of a chest, brandishing her phone like a pitchfork. “What the fuck did you do to my inbox? Why do I have fifty-two meeting requests from you?”
With a wide grin, he said, “Couldn’t make up my mind on a time.”
Huffing, Daphne said, “Val? I’m cutting in. I need to have words with this bag of dicks, please.”
I bit back my laughter and broke away from them, making a beeline for the bar in the hopes that Nolan would notice and meet me there. A minute later, he did. When he leaned forward as if to grab something from behind the bar, his lips brushed my ear. “Did you like his hands on you?”
“I didn’t mind,” I murmured, looking in the opposite direction and grinning at the dark look he gave me.
“Wish it had been yours though.” But Anton’s words before Daphne had cut in came back to me.
Send-off party? He probably just meant as an early end-of-season celebration.
I was about to ask Nolan about it, but with the…
hungry way he was looking at me, I didn’t think he was up for a conversation.
“There’s an empty office at the end of the hall on the second floor admin wing,” he said in a low growly voice, proving me right. “Meet me there. Ten minutes.”
The need to feel his hot skin against mine, to have him between my thighs and be entirely at his mercy rushed through me with an urgency I couldn’t ignore. When the song ended, I made my way back to the table to show face before disappearing with Nolan.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked when I reclaimed my seat.
“Hugh is chatting up some dude at the bar, and Frankie is shredding the dance floor,” Austin said.
“Yeah, and Dominic is watching her like a hawk for some reason,” noted Cora, who had taken an empty seat. She tossed back a double shot that smelled like tequila, then took the one that was in front of the empty seat beside her.
“I noticed that too,” I said, but as I glanced around the ballroom, I saw Tess deep in conversation with Cyrus, of all people. Probably trying to sell him on giving us more money to get the smell out of the carpets.
A few seconds later, Frankie plopped into her vacant chair, sweaty and exhausted.
“You’ve got some explaining to do,” I said.
Frankie swirled her wine with a sly smile and shrugged. “Ryan’s a good dancer. What can I say? I like dancing.”
I snorted. “Yeah, you like the horizontal dance with no pants the most.”
“It doesn’t have to be horizontal. Vertical, diagonal, upside down—it all works.
” Frankie winked and her gaze shifted to Ryan’s tall form leaning against the bar.
But then she saw Dominic at the same post he’d been at all night.
And he was frowning at Ryan as if he could make him disappear through sheer force of will.
“Dom has been eyeing you all night,” Cora said. “You should talk to him.”
With a toss of her short black hair, Frankie said, “Nah. If he’s interested, he’ll come to me.”
“You love hunting men down and eating them alive,” I said, surprised. “That’s kind of your thing.”
“Yeah, well, now I’m luring them to their deaths on the unforgiving shore with my sweet siren song,” she said, then grew pensive, tapping a nail against her glass as she ran her eyes over Dominic’s chiseled frame. “This one is different. I want to see what he does.”
“Playing with your prey,” Cora said with a nod. “I like it.”
A few seconds later, Tess tapped the microphone to announce the winners of the silent auction. Perfect timing. I made my muttered excuses and took my chance to disappear to the second floor.
As I wandered toward the end of the hall, a door cracked open and a hand shot out, yanking me into the darkness.