Chapter 3

R uth rubbed her forehead. "I mean, I appreciate your help…"

I pushed my chair back away from my desk, looking out the window. The pigeon smear was a bit ugly over the view. "Forget about it. I'm just glad the deal is closed."

"I'd back you up, you know. If you wanted to talk to María about it."

"There's no use. The company doesn't need internal conflict on top of everything right now."

She folded her arms. "It makes my blood boil that he just walks in and steals the glory."

I tented my hands. "Miguel Sanchez cannot do anything without stealing, lying, and pulling shifty business. That's something I've gotten used to."

"But still." She stood up, walking to my side, staring out the window with me. "You ever feel like he's targeting you?"

"All the time, Ruth. All the time. More than you know, actually. He's listed as special contributor to the real estate group that bought out my landlords and are kicking me out of my apartment."

"What?" She shot me a look. "Now, hold on. You'd better be screwing with me right now."

"Don't tell anybody. I don't need rumors going around."

"How the hell are you going to just not tell anybody? And let him walk all over you?" She gestured widely. "London, If something like that is going on, there's a lot more to this than just a workplace feud."

I put a hand over my forehead. "I know. And I plan on dealing with it. María doesn't need to get involved. She isn't my mother. And there's too much else already going on right now."

" Still. " She paused. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Not if this place folds, I won't." I sighed, hard, slouching over my desk. "If I'm out of a job, finding an apartment is going to be a wild ride."

She checked both ways before she stepped in closer, lowering her voice. "Have you started looking? For another job, I mean. I'm loyal to the end, but I'm not playing with accounting fraud."

"I'm not ditching this place." I stood up. "I have a new client I'm taking on, anyway. To the point where María took me off everything else I'm doing and has me working just on one."

"Oh, damn." Her eyes widened. "Someone famous?"

"María told me to keep it quiet, at least for now. All I'll say is it's enough money to get us through this and make sure Queen Pearl gets back on its feet." And for me to make sure I'd have a job. If this went through, the bonus I'd take home from it—well, finding a new place to live would hardly be a problem. And if it didn't?

Ruth studied me a while longer before she sighed. "Just don't get yourself killed trying to pull this off, okay? And watch your back. If Miguel really is involved in your home situation, well…"

"Right." I put a hand up. "I'll keep an eye out."

She folded her arms. "Make sure you rest this weekend, all right?"

I laughed. "Yeah… I'll treat myself. I'm going to the LIV Sunday party."

"Clubbing?" She raised her eyebrows high. "Never thought I'd see the day. Shouldn't you be going to a gay bar or something?"

"I'm not going to pick up women. Just…" I shrugged. There was no use trying to explain how it was for work. "Just blowing off some steam?"

She thrust her hands in her pockets. "Well, damn. All right, then, London. Have fun."

∞∞∞

The place was loud. Ruth was right—I wasn't a nightclub girl. Amelie must have been half-deaf, if María's intel was right that she came here at least twice a month.

Cameron Mercier's personal assistant, Amelie Douglass was María's best lead she could find for a quick pickup before my and Cameron's meeting on Tuesday. Make friends with the assistant, María had always told me, and the client's all yours. She'd been positively giddy when she'd scored the juicy intel about Amelie's regular clubgoing here.

She'd also warned me the Sunday party here was a big one, but I hadn't really realized the scale of it all. The crowd pressed in on me from all sides as I got to the dance floor, hands in the air, cheering, moving to the music, a thumping hip-hop number that made my teeth rattle. Streaks of blue and purple neon shone down from the dome-shaped ceiling, lighting up the dance floor, and I pushed my way out to the sides, where I managed to sneak a seat at the bar to order a Cosmopolitan. The bartender, strong and silent type, went about making it without a word, not that I'd have heard him if he'd said anything, and I took the opportunity to scan the crowds.

Amelie's look was distinctive, María had told me—long black hair and glasses with blood-red rims. Still, in the low lights here, it was impossible to make out much of anything, except—well, except for the man in a muscle tee sliding in next to me with a sly smile.

"Hey—"

"Gay," I said. He raised his eyebrows.

"What'd you say?"

"I'm gay. Sorry. Thanks."

He scowled. "Well, fuck you too," he said, turning away, and every now and then, I enjoyed the curse thing, because he moved to stand up and something gave in the barstool with a crack and pitched him forwards, and he staggered face-first into the back of a bigger guy, who shot him a look. Tough-guy act immediately gone, he scampered into the crowd just as the bartender set down my drink.

"Good news, then," he said, his voice a deep rumble. "Girl at the table there's been giving you some eyes."

"What?"

He cracked a dry, sardonic smile. "Assuming you actually are gay and weren't just getting rid of the guy."

I followed his gaze, and I felt a nervous numbness in my hands and a cold flush across my face at the sight—in the seats off to the side of the dance floor, secluded under the cover of the mezzanine and tucked away where it was darkest, was a woman with long, dark hair and glasses with blood-red rims. And even from here, I could see the way she was looking at me—a gaze that was completely deconstructing, analyzing.

No… more like undressing. I gulped, a nervous lump forming in the pit of my stomach. She matched the description too well. What were the odds of the assistant not only finding me first, but looking at me with that expression?

The bartender turned back to the next customer, and it felt like he'd cut a tether, leaving me to drift—and drift I did, towards the woman, like an invisible cable was pulling me in. I tried to reason that this was just a big lucky win, that this whole thing was right in my reach if the assistant might have been attracted to me and that I couldn't let it go, but… I'd be lying if I said that was all.

The woman was gorgeous, wearing a black wrap dress and heels, sitting far back in the seat with one leg kicked up over the other. More than that, though, there was something magnetic about the way she looked at me—the intensity of that stare, and the heat of it when our eyes locked, made it feel like the rest of the club didn't exist.

So I stood up, and I walked towards her, my heart in my mouth. And I'd barely gotten within earshot before she gestured me to the seat next to her.

She seemed to have booked a table for herself. That couldn't have come cheap in this kind of club. Cameron must have paid nicely.

"Cosmo?" she said, looking at my drink. "Well, aren't we adventurous?"

I felt her eyes on me, sizing me up, and I was suddenly hyperaware of my posture, of my gestures, everything. I'd dressed nicely, a muted gold form-fitting dress and sleek heels, more classic than her risqué chic look, but I suddenly wasn't sure if I'd put in enough effort.

But I knew the game. I met her eyes and raised my eyebrows, nonthreateningly, a relaxed smile, and I sat down where she'd gestured me to. "If we're being honest?" I said. "Coming here tonight was the adventure. I couldn't handle an adventurous drink on top of it."

"Don't tell me it's your first time here." A smile played wider over her lips, but there was something to it—something that was just so blatantly hungry, taking me in. I'd gotten less naked checking-out from drunk guys in dive bars. I liked it a little too much right now.

"Well," I said. "I guess I'll keep it a secret, then?"

"No need for secrets," she laughed, and she shifted her posture, leaning in towards me. "Amelie."

I flushed with a sudden self-consciousness. She had to know Cameron and I had a meeting on Tuesday. If I gave her my actual name, would it end this—whatever this was?

I knew it was a disaster waiting to happen if I lied—if we saw each other on Tuesday and she realized I'd hidden it. But something in my stomach drew so tight it wouldn't let me break the moment. Horny decisions never got anyone far in business. But Amelie's red lipstick, that look in her crisp blue eyes, the gentle point of her chin and the swoop of her collar—it was making it hard to think.

"Cara," I said. "Pleasure to meet you, Amelie."

She swiped her tongue over her lower lip, and a weight dropped in my stomach as she did. "Pleasure. And an honor to be the first one to make a move on you in this club."

I could keep my cool in a million situations, but this? This was a lot. My dating life had been long quiet, nothing for years except a two-year relationship that had carried all the heat and passion of a dusty old moon rock. Nothing had prepared me for the heat through my body right now.

I gestured back towards the bar. "Sure you're not the second? I think you were watching close enough to see the guy there."

She smirked, sliding a little closer to me. "Trust me, Cara, I was watching close enough to see that didn't count."

I got a rush when I said, "You've been watching intently, huh?"

She laughed. "Is it a surprise? I didn't think I was being subtle."

"Well. Maybe not."

She picked up her drink, a Manhattan—not the most adventurous choice herself, but it suited her—and she swirled it in one hand. "So, why tonight, Cara? Why the adventure?"

I was looking for you so I could butter you up to make a deal with your boss. That would be a mood-kill. I wouldn't normally share too much, but… the moment got away from me. "Someone stole the credit for a big win I pulled off at work. Made me wonder why I'm putting so much of myself into my work. Why I'm being so…"

A smile tugged at one corner of her lips. "Such a good girl?"

My body flushed, hard. Was I really this simple? I mean— anyone would be with someone like her saying that. "I thought this place seemed like a good one to stop… being a good girl."

"Tell me about it, Cara." Her voice was a warm, husky thing that felt like it vibrated through my body, as she took a sip of her drink and set it down on the table. "You and I have a lot in common, I think. Being so dutiful and proper at work. But it's not who I am. And it's not who you are, either, is it?"

"It's…" I'd never questioned it. I'd just been saying that. And maybe it was just that I wanted to agree to everything she was saying, but I had to wonder how much it was me. Honesty won out—more than I'd known I had in me. "You know? I'm not sure."

"But you like to explore."

"Oh." I set down my drink, tenting my hands. "And how would you know that?"

Amelie liked a challenge. She flickered a wicked smile at me. "Because you're here, Cara. Because you came over when I looked at you. You don't do that very often, do you?"

"And you're the expert on the subject?"

"I've been there. So used to watching my reputation, looking to the long term… being good. But it turned out, I liked to explore, too. Even if I didn't know how."

A hot flush ran through my face, down my neck. A sense of being laid bare, of Amelie seeing everything I was all of a sudden—everything except for my actual name—I liked it at the same time that I was terrified of it. "You seem to have worked it out okay for yourself."

"Mm. It's a work in progress, you know." She placed a fingertip, gently, on my bare shoulder, sending an electric pulse down my spine. Slowly, gauging my reaction, hunger in her eyes, she trailed it slowly down my arm, the touch of her skin on mine like fire the whole way down. "Aren't we all?" she said.

"You could have fooled me…" I watched as she trailed down to my wrist, and then slowly, back up—challenging me to pull away. I wouldn't dream of it. Not at this point. "You seem like a natural."

She laughed. "I just have a bit more experience at this point than I imagine you do, Cara."

My body hummed with a sort of alertness, aliveness, that I wasn't accustomed to as she danced her finger up to my shoulder and then across my collar, a flirtatious touch roaming over my body. "How do you know that?" I said, my voice strained against the way my breath was getting shorter. "I could have plenty of experience."

"Oh, don't try it, Cara," she laughed, eyes twinkling. "You have good girl written all over you. But what's the cliché? Making good girls go bad for a weekend?"

I bit my lip. "There's not long left in the weekend, is there?"

"Hm. An astute observation." She pouted a little, pretending to mull it over, before she fluttered her eyelashes at me and, with that impish smile, she ran her fingers down my front—between my breasts and along my waist, pausing around my navel, and I unconsciously arched into it, letting out a soft, pitiful noise. I'd never gone half as quickly into needing someone. I'd… I'd always been the one guiding people into wanting something. Always been the one taking the controls on how someone felt. Letting someone else take the wheel and drive me to want her was such a mind-numbing pleasure, I couldn't pick my thoughts out from each other. Her voice was suddenly the only sound in the club, murmuring low. "I guess we don't have much time to waste, then, do we?"

"Mm… I'm sure it's easy for you. With a face like that, you could probably corrupt anyone."

"Corrupt," she laughed. "What a heavy little word. Maybe liberate? Isn't it so exhausting having to be good all the time, do things right… consider how people are going to see you?"

She could have said anything and I'd agree. I nodded. "Exhausting… yeah."

"Don't get me wrong, Cara. I'm the same way. It's not like I'm here all the time. I have my own well-behaved life outside of this club. And I thought when I saw you that you could be exactly the kind of girl to liberate me…"

"Oh, yeah?" I bit my lip without meaning to when she danced her fingertips along my waist, over to my side, resting on my hip. "Me with my tame drink, adventuring just to come in here?"

"You exactly. I couldn't take my eyes off you when you came in here, wandering eyes trying to make sense of the landscape, find out what it meant for you that you were here… and with your cute little pink drink, I couldn't resist. Telling the man off saying you were gay?" She laughed, a husky, murky sound in my ear. "I'd never felt so lucky in my life."

I laughed breathlessly. I'd never been described as good luck to have around before. "Please. You're good at this. I'm sure you've seduced plenty of girls." I gave her a challenging smile, the kind I knew she liked, and it was too rewarding seeing her eyes light up. "I happen to think it's… very attractive how upfront you are. So there's no need to lie and pretend I'm special."

She licked her lips, tilting her head down just a fraction. I could see the way her chest tightened, her neck slimming. The excitement of it all lighting her up. It was so damn exhilarating knowing how to do that to her. "Frankly, you are special," she whispered, inching closer to me, close enough I could make out the faint gold glitter eyeshadow she'd dabbed in the centers of her eyelids, the little halos of sea green on the inner ring of her irises. "Those eyes of yours…"

"Oh, pretty eyes? " I laughed. "That's the route you're trying? I know you can do better, Amelie."

"You do have beautiful eyes, but it's not that. Your eyes see things other people don't. You look at a person and you see things nobody else does. And when you look at me, I feel like I'm naked in front of you. And it's damn exciting."

My good sense got away from me. I swiped my tongue over my lower lip, my heart hammering. "We're already escalating to seeing you naked?"

"Don't tempt me too much yet, Cara. I don't want to rush. I want you to spend some time thinking about it first."

Whew. That one did me in. The openness of the declaration— think about me naked —and the way that hunger in her eyes was genuinely drinking me in, I felt a tingling sensation spreading through my body, flooding out from where her fingers still rested on my hip. "And how long have you been thinking about it?" I said, and she bit her lip.

"From the moment you locked eyes with me."

I'm going to have sex with a woman I just met. It was a heated sensation pressing into my awareness, blotting out all my other thoughts, but I couldn't deny it. There was no way I was saying no—not to those eyes, those lips, and that way she took me apart in just a few words. But—

But it was that precise moment that something in her bag buzzed, and she paled, a look of panic flashing over her eyes. She pulled back, taking her hand off my hip, and I felt the loss keenly—instantly wanting her back. She slipped her phone from her bag, and a vaguely queasy look flared over her expression.

I fought back the bitterness in my chest. This was a good thing. A relief. If we didn't go too far, Amelie and I could… sort things out and pretend this didn't happen. Maybe. But I desperately wanted her hand back on me anyway. Wanted that husky whisper in my ear again.

"Good girl life is calling you?" I said, trying to sound casual.

But she regained her composure, and she slipped the phone back in her bag, turning to me with the most loaded look I'd seen in my life—churning with desire, taking in every bit of me as much as she could. And then just when I'd been trying to pull myself out of these feelings, she cupped my jaw, and I was headfirst back in them, my head spinning as the feeling of her touch consumed my awareness.

"I'm still going to be thinking about it," she murmured, and it sent aching heat through my body.

"I—"

"Back to being good girls for both of us," she whispered. "But don't you dare forget. The next time I see you, Cara… I want you."

There was no use trying to get out from under her spell. She had me completely wrapped around her finger, and I ached for her—suddenly counting down the days until I might see her again.

"Me too," I whispered. "I'll… I'll wear my best for next time."

"So will I. I can't wait to show you."

And she kissed me. Just like that—she leaned in and kissed me squarely on the lips, a more loaded and passionate kiss than anything I could remember in my life right now, the scent of her perfume flooding my senses and leaving me spinning, the touch of her lips on mine like—like—like my consciousness melted away until there was nothing left but her.

She pulled away too soon, standing up, and then she was gone. I sank against the table, staring down at my shaking hands.