Tess #2
He wouldn’t have to know I was thinking about someone else.
“I know stupid,” I assured him. “Your stupidity is welcome here.”
He smiled, letting his dimple fully shine.
“I appreciate that, thank you. Adrienne is after me because she heard my company’s looking to back a nonprofit.
PR and philanthropy and all that. We’ve put it in our budget but haven’t yet found the organization we want to sponsor.
Anyway, she believes her charity would be the quote unquote perfect fit.
It’s not. I’d prefer to let her down in an office setting rather than ruin her evening. ”
My ears perked as though I were Pavlov’s dog and a bell had rung. “Now would probably be a bad time to tell you that I match businesses with nonprofit sponsorships.”
Well, I didn’t. Kendra did. She built the company herself—her idea, her vision, her family’s money as the seed.
Me, I was more or less a glorified assistant.
Not what I’d set out to achieve when I’d accepted my scholarship to Georgetown, but it was a good paycheck, I didn’t have to move back home, and in this day and age, wasn’t that all a person could hope for?
Point was, I was involved enough in the ins and outs of the business that I knew how to sell it, and even though I’d been turned down by Kendra on several occasions when I’d asked to let me do just that, I was confident that I could do the job.
The dimple disappeared from Green Eyes’ face.
“I’m sorry,” I said, realizing my faux pas. “Here you are trying to enjoy your night, and I’m turning it into business.”
“That’s not what I was thinking at all. I’m actually interested. Like I said, we’re after a sponsorship. In fact, we’re behind our deadline at selecting one. I just thought maybe it was too presumptuous of me to try to pursue that at a party.”
Oh, I liked this guy. Willing to turn pleasure into business at the drop of a good opportunity—that was my kind of man.
On the other hand—I looked down at my empty glass—I had consumed quite a bit of alcohol. And Teyana would kill me if I walked out of this with a deal rather than a fuck.
Besides, I couldn’t do shit without Kendra. Not only was she out of town for who knew how long “finding herself,” but there was also no way I was admitting to her that I’d stolen her invite.
“Tell you what,” Green Eyes said, apparently sensing my hesitation. “I don’t have a business card on me. Give me your phone.”
Without questioning him, I unlocked my cell and handed it to him.
He tapped away on my device. “I’m adding Julie Sanchez to your contacts. That’s my assistant. Call her next week and schedule an appointment. What was the name of your organization? I’ll give her a heads-up.”
It wasn’t enough time for me to think up a lie, so I told the truth. “Conscience Connect.” Maybe I could pass the info on to Kendra without telling her how I got it. It was part of my job to find leads for her after all.
“Fantastic. I look forward to discussing more.” He gave me back my phone, his eyes focused somewhere behind me. “Meanwhile, I’ve been spotted. I have to get out of here. Hopefully we’ll see each other again later.”
His last words were full of all the heat I’d been looking for earlier in the conversation.
Too bad there wouldn’t be a later. Now that I’d given him Conscience Connect, a hookup was out of the question.
It would be too easy for him to figure out who I was—or rather who I wasn’t—and friend or not, I wasn’t about to risk my position with Kendra.
But maybe if I hooked up her company with his...
“Wait,” I said, realizing I’d neglected to get some crucial information. I skimmed the crowd. “I don’t even know your name.” I was talking to myself, though, because he’d disappeared.
“I’m pretty sure you can just refer to him as Mr. Sebastian when you call his secretary,” the bartender said. “Can I get you a refill?”
I ignored the question and the fact that he’d been eavesdropping because I was currently freaking out.
“He was a Sebastian?” My face felt hot, and it had nothing to do with the alcohol I’d been drinking.
I’d been talking to a celebrity. A Sebastian in the flesh.
Thank goodness I hadn’t known before. I would have definitely said something stupid.
It was possible I’d said something stupid anyway. I scanned back through our conversation, looking for anything cringeworthy. Everything I could recall was pretty banal.
This definitely meant I couldn’t pass the info on to Kendra, though.
I’d already tried to suggest approaching the Sebastians on several occasions, and she’d instantly nixed it every time.
Something about their family being too close to hers, wasn’t appropriate, blah blah blah.
I wasn’t a rich girl. I didn’t understand all the rules of society.
Too bad because Mr. Sebastian and I had had a connection. I was pretty sure I could have sold him. What a deal that would have been.
“Oh my God, he was a Sebastian,” I repeated to myself.
“There are several of them around here,” a voice said at my side. An annoyingly delicious and familiar voice. “Dime a dozen.”
I turned to find myself face-to-face with the stupid-hot player, and damn if he wasn’t even hotter close up. “You,” I said, a bit scornfully because I was feeling contemptuous about the way he lit every nerve in my body on fire.