Chapter 3
ISAAC
Jasmine glared at me from across the nightclub, those dark eyes narrowed to within an inch of their lives, her chin lifted ever so slightly in defiance. Her long, raven-black hair was loose tonight, cascading over her shoulders and shimmering with the multi-colored lights shining down from above.
As always, she was a fucking showstopper, drawing attention from every man in her direct vicinity without even trying. Jaws slackened and several guys pointed at her discreetly.
Not that I blamed them.
Before I’d hung out with her a few times, I’d had a similar reaction to her looks, and tonight, she’d dressed to make a man want to drop to his knees and beg to take her home.
The curves of her hips were on full display in jeans that looked like they’d been painted on, her crop top showing off a flat stomach and a decent amount of cleavage.
“What are you smiling at?” Brady nudged me with his elbow as he leaned across the table to follow my line of sight.
Before I could follow the bizarre instinct to put myself between them so he wouldn’t see her, he let out a low whistle between his teeth, letting me know that it was too late. “Who the hell is that? And why does it look like you’ve already pissed her off?”
As if she’d heard him, Jasmine rolled her eyes so hard that I was worried she might fall over. Then she spun around and marched toward a group of shiny, pretty people standing near the bar.
Brady laughed. “Whoever she is, I don’t think she likes you.”
“She doesn’t.”
“So why were you waving at her?”
“I wasn’t,” I said. “I was trying to get her to come over so I could say hi. Just being polite.”
He snorted. “There’s nothing polite about that girl.”
I almost shot him a Jasmine-level glare of my own, but if I did, it would become exhausting. He’d never stop giving me shit about being protective of her—and I shouldn’t have felt that instinct flare up at all.
Fuck, why? It’s not like she’s anything of mine.
Even so, I stood up, deciding to take matters into my own hands. If she wouldn’t come up here, I’d go to her.
I jogged down the few stairs to the main floor and weaved my way through the crowd, smirking when I realized she’d put her back firmly to me. Bending my head a little lower, I put my mouth right near her ear from behind, doing my best not to inhale the scent of her.
The Saads owned a perfume empire and these women always smelled good enough to eat. I’d learned my lesson about breathing around Jasmine some time ago and now I avoided it when I could.
“Fancy seeing you here,” I murmured, then straightened up before my next inhale. “What are you doing here, Jasmine? I didn’t know you were coming back to town.”
Her shoulders dropped on a sigh, but she turned to face me, lifting her gaze up to mine and holding it intently. “What am I doing here? No, I think the question is what are you doing here?”
“I was invited.”
“So was I.” She pursed her lips for a beat as her gaze moved from one of my eyes to the other. “I don’t believe anyone would actually have wanted you to come with them.”
I laughed. “You think I broke into a nightclub and forced those guys to let me sit at their table?”
She rocked her head from side to side, pretending to seriously consider it until she shrugged. “I think you’re capable of anything as long as it annoys me.”
“True.” I grinned. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“Well, I already have.” I slid my fingers into my pockets and glanced at the group behind her. “Are those your friends?”
“No.” I couldn’t hear it, but it sure looked like she let out a soft scoff. “One of them is. Nicole Royal. Do you know her?”
“I know of her.” Every guy who lived in this city knew who she was.
There had been a time when I might’ve tried to get an introduction, and I was probably crazy for not pushing my luck, but I kept my attention focused entirely on my sister-in-law’s sister.
“Come sit with us for a while. It looks like you’re bored out of your mind with these people. ”
Her eyebrows hiked up. “How on God’s green earth did you know that?”
I shrugged. “You got here less than thirteen minutes ago and you were already looking around, silently begging me to save you.”
She snorted. “I was not.”
“You were too.” I jerked my head toward the VIP section. “It’s a little quieter up there and we’ve got beer.”
She glanced at the bright pink cocktail in her hand, still filled to the brim. I hadn’t seen her take a sip yet, but that was probably a good thing. They hadn’t even been to the bar yet before it had been pushed into her hand by one of the shiny, pretty people.
“It looks like an engineer convention up there,” she said after taking a quick look around my table. “Why are they all wearing collared shirts and slacks to a club?”
“Because it’s frowned upon to go out naked,” I replied without skipping a beat. “Now come on. My beer is getting warm.”
She held my gaze for another beat before she finally sighed. “Fine, but only because you have beer I can trust.”
“Obviously.”
I led her up to our table, ignoring the way my friends gawked at me when I arrived with her in tow. After a quick round of introductions, and most of my friends almost swallowing their own tongues when they shook her hand, they shuffled around to make room and she slid into the seat beside mine.
“Jasmine Saad,” Andrew, who worked with Brady, said once we were settled. He sucked his lower lip into his mouth, his eyes narrowing with thought. “Why does that name sound so familiar?”
“Probably because Isaac’s brother is married to Deja Saad,” Brady said, the puzzle pieces obviously clicking into place for him about how I knew this exotic beauty. “You’re her sister. Am I right?”
She nodded, but then Andrew shook his head. “No, it’s not that. What do you do for a living? I know you from something else.”
“I do whatever I want,” she said, the table going quiet for a moment in the wake of her statement.
It’d been a bold strategy though, telling a group of strangers something like that.
Finally, she sighed. “I also do some modeling, but it’s mostly overseas for now.
I’m the face of my family’s company, so once we’re established here, you’ll probably be seeing me on billboards. ”
My eyes slammed shut for a beat. Shit, that’s not going to go over well.
While Jasmine lived her life as an heiress unapologetically, I doubted any of these guys had ever met anyone quite like her. Andrew proved me right when he frowned, his head tilting slightly and confusion clouding his eyes.
“So you’re basically on a full-time vacation?” he said. “I don’t mean any offense, but it doesn’t sound like posing for some pictures is stressful work.”
Her expression cooled several degrees, a sharp smile spreading on her lips. Unfortunately, I’d seen that look before and it never ended well. Chances were she’d never met guys like these either, and even though I knew Andrew truly hadn’t meant any offense, she’d definitely taken it.
“So, what? Just because I don’t wear boring, ugly clothes and worship my laptop, that means?—”
“Easy,” I cut in before either of them started an international incident. “That family company she’s the face of is GlobalStar. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. They only own half the real luxury brands in the world and they have a stake in most of the others.”
Understanding started to dawn on Andrew’s face and I knew he was probably putting it together where he knew her from now, but I kept going.
“Jasmine here is also underselling her role in both building those brands and selling them. She’s involved in almost all of their campaigns across the board, so she models for their silk collections, their perfumery, their skincare and cosmetics ranges, and probably a few others I’ve forgotten about. ”
I looked around the table, seeing stunned expressions all around, but not from Jasmine. Instead, she was smiling at me like I’d impressed her. Then she glanced back at Andrew. “We’re all over Europe and Asia, and America is next.”
He held up both his hands. “Fair enough. I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to offend you. I was mostly just teasing, but on that note, I’m going to get another drink and maybe dance a little bit.”
Seconds later, he was gone and most of the others went after him, only Brady hanging back to smirk at me before turning to Jasmine. “I’m trusting you to make sure he has fun. Don’t let him leave until at least midnight and if he tries to, knock him out and come find me.”
She giggled, but before she could respond, he was gone too, disappearing after the rest of our group toward the bar. Once we were alone, I sighed and poured her a glass of beer from the pitcher on our table.
“Well, would you look at that? You managed to scare away all my friends.”
She snorted. “I don’t think that was me.”
“Oh, it definitely was. I’m not pretty enough to make them so awkward that they run.”
“Did you just call me pretty?” Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “Isaac Thayer, I think you just accidentally complimented me.”
“You’re right.” I groaned. “The strobe lights must be affecting my judgment.”
She laughed, her face lighting up with amusement and those dark eyes glittering as they focused on mine. “I crashed your celebration, didn’t I?”
“I asked you to.”
Her gaze drifted back to the group of people she’d arrived with below. “You really didn’t have to rescue me.”
“I’d never hear the end of it from Colin if I didn’t. Where did that cocktail even come from?”
She shrugged. “Some guy Nicole knows. It’s always like that with her, but since we’re celebrating, I won’t bore you with the details.”
“Details never bore me,” I said, but then I realized the social details of her life probably would. “Besides, this isn’t the real celebration. Your sister is arranging that for this weekend.”
“I heard.” She brought her eyes back to mine and smiled. “I also heard that I’m coming to your party.”
“I’m sorry.”
She laughed again. “Thanks, but I should warn you that my father might just turn it into our engagement party if you continue to seduce him with your engineering prowess.”
I nearly choked on nothing but air, more stunned than I’d ever been in my life. “My what now?”
“Relax. God, the look on your face right now,” she said, laughing again. “Over my dead body would I marry you, but Dad thinks you’re going places, which to him means that he has to set us up immediately.”
She rolled her eyes, not at all looking like any of this was bothering her. For some reason, I felt a tiny, completely irrational stab of disappointment somewhere deep in the recesses of my being. That was ridiculous, though.
I’d never even considered getting married, let alone marrying Jasmine, but still.
Knowing Deja as well as I did these days, I recognized this brand of certainty.
Jasmine’s assertiveness was a family trait, which meant I had to tread lightly and not let her know that I might or might not have given it some thought if Basel had pitched the idea to me instead of her.
She would be furious and never speak to me again.
“Well, in that case, I’ll be sure to keep my engineering prowess far away from your father at the party,” I said lightly. “We wouldn’t want him thinking that I’m going any further than I already have.”
“Thank you,” she said happily, bringing the glass to her lips and taking a long sip.
She hadn’t even swallowed it yet when an overly dramatic voice swept across the table, Nicole Royal herself suddenly appearing in front of us.
“There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.
Why are you up here instead of the dance floor with me?
” Her hands landed on Jasmine’s shoulders, those green eyes that probably starred in a hundred men’s fantasies a night wide and exasperated. “Let’s go, Saad. Stop being so boring.”
“I’m not.” She scooted closer to my side, even leaning into me a little bit as she shot her friend a look I couldn’t quite see. “Isaac is going to drive me home tonight.”
“I am?”
Nicole blinked rapidly before finally sparing a glance in my direction. A slow smile started spreading on her lips as she took me in. Then she turned back to Jasmine. “Oh. Right.”
“Right.” Jasmine grabbed my hand and her purse, then started pulling me out of the booth. “We’re just going to go now, but I’ll talk to you later.”
I didn’t remember agreeing to any of this, but the next thing I knew, Nicole was watching us leave with a knowing look in her eyes and a truly devious but approving grin.
I followed Jasmine, letting her tug me out of the club even as I wondered what the hell was happening right now—and why the prospect of spending the rest of the night with her instead of my friends wasn’t nearly as awful as it should’ve been.