Chapter 56
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It could have been me. It could have been the two Japanese families sitting close enough to see it happen. It could have even been Nicholas, from the utter shock of having a woman he'd never seen before reach out and grab his pants.
Whoever it was, it clearly wasn't enough to change things. The three of us stayed perfectly frozen. The hand remained.
I looked down at it. Nicholas looked down at it. Elisia looked down at it herself—proudly.
'Um...Elisia?" I cleared my throat softly, dying a million deaths. 'Do you think you could..." Goodness—how did I even say it? 'I mean, maybe it's time you let go—"
'Nicholas Huntington."
The introduction was as quick as it was strategic. He held out his hand between them, forcing her to release him in order to do the same. Banking on the fact that she wasn't left-handed. It also created some well-needed space. In order to have made her little move, she'd had to get right up in front of him—just inches away. A handshake changed all that.
She stepped back a bit to introduce herself more formally.
(By that, I mean...to shake his hand.)
'Elisia Campbell." She smiled widely, seductively. Flashing the entire restaurant a pair of perfect veneers. 'Avery thought the two of us might hit it off."
At the moment, Avery was currently thinking of ways to discreetly kill herself.
'Did she now?" Nicholas's eyebrows lifted ever so slightly, and he turned his fixed smile from her to me, scorching me with the heat of it. 'How very...insightful."
Insightful, sure. Everything about this just screamed insightful.
I couldn't even meet his eyes. I literally wanted to crawl inside my brand-new bag in a state of essential hibernation. Wait for this dreadful day to be over. Elisia, on the other hand, couldn't have been more pleased with the way things were going.
'Wasn't it, though?" She tossed back her hair, ‘casually' angling herself in such a way as to attract the most possible attention. 'From the second she mentioned your name, I knew the two of us would be a natural fit."
Nicholas's smile tightened, and his knuckles tensed white.
'Well, that's my Avery." Only from years of years of knowing him, could I hear the steel beneath the honey. 'Always has my best intentions at heart."
With that barb to my soul, he gestured to the table and the three of us sat down.
I tried not to look up. Tried to keep my eyes fixed on the table. But it was like trying not to watch a car accident from just two feet away. One that you'd manically engineered yourself.
'So Nicholasy," Elisia lay her large breasts upon the table, resting them comfortably on her place-setting as she leaned seductively forward, 'have you ever done anything like this before?"
The cleavage was distracting enough—I'd give him that. If Elisia really applied herself, I was sure she could use the things for some kind of demolition. Breaking down doors, and such.
But that wasn't what had my poor client temporarily tongue-tied. You see, upon sitting down, he'd suddenly realized that the girl he was supposed to be professionally ‘dating,' bore a freakishly impossible resemblance to a woman his father had married a few years back. A woman who—if memory served—Mitchell had divorced after she'd done to Nicholas beneath the table at Christmas dinner, exactly what Ms. Campbell had done seconds before shaking his hand.
I kicked him under the table, and he shook himself back to the present—blinking away the horror as he stared back into her cat-like eyes and tried to remember the question.
'I'm sorry," he tilted his head apologetically to the side, 'what was that?"
Elisia blushed, as if her irresistible attraction had derailed him. This was going to be even easier than she'd thought.
'I said," she leaned closer, pushing the breasts right up against his arm, 'have you ever done anything like this before?"
He glanced down, hesitated, then forced his eyes back up. Across the table, I hid my face behind a menu, slumping lower and lower in my chair.
'I...uh...I actually haven't." He leaned back with a casual smile, creating another well-needed bit of space. 'At least not under these kinds of circumstances. I'm sure Avy told you—"
'A company merger, blah-blah, cleaning up your rep
utation, blah-blah." She flashed an impish grin, as if she was being fucking adorable. 'She told me you need something steady."
I did no such thing.
Thankfully, a waiter appeared at that very moment, sparing Nicholas from having to come up with a response. The man looked over our rather odd trio for a moment, before lifting his pad of paper with a pleasant smile.
'Can I get you folks started with some drinks?"
Nicholas cleared his throat and glanced down at the menu for the first time, still trying to recover himself. 'Uh—yes, thank you. I think we'll start with a round of sake—"
'Oh, didn't Avery tell you?" Elisia interrupted again. 'I don't drink."
Nicholas's bright eyes glassed over. At this point, he was completely incapable of telling whether or not I was pulling a prank. 'You don't drink...today? Or on weekdays? Or—"
'Ever." She flashed him another smile. 'I'm alcohol-intolerant. It basically means that I can't process the stuff."
The waiter piped up excitedly. 'Oh—I have that too!"
I glanced between them in disbelief, before discreetly sliding my butter knife off the table and into my lap. At this rate, there was a distinct chance I was going to need to protect myself before the dust settled. Either from my seething client, or my own conscience, evening the score.
Nicholas looked like he was in his own personal hell as Elisia handed up her own menu so the two of them would have to share, then proceeded to order drinks for the entire table.
'We'll have two sparkling waters, please. And we'll start with two kelp salads as well."
Nicholas was staring at the table with a thoughtful, yet vacant expression. Clearly trying to keep his head down as much as possible and let this she-beast tire herself out. But his attention snapped up when she ordered in quantities of two, not three.
He glanced at her for only a moment, before turning to me with a slight frown.
'Some green tea, right Avy?"
Once again, Malibu Barbie couldn't help but interject.
'Oh," she glanced up at the waiter and pretended to look highly embarrassed, 'I'm so sorry. I was under the impression that Avery probably had work to do and wouldn't be joining us, seeing as these outings are supposed to be for just the two of us."
My menu came down and I looked at her with cold amusement.
Really? Two hours ago, you were groveling in my office. Now, you're dismissing me as the help? That's really the way you want to play it?
No matter how furious he might be with me at the moment, the snide comment was enough to crack even Nicholas's charming façade.
'You can't be serious—"
'I can go," I volunteered, suddenly hopeful as I half-rose to my feet.
Nicholas's hand shot out so fast, it's like it was super-charged.
The speed with which it happened was quite simply baffling, and the way he clamped down upon my wrist required some sort of explanation. He countered both discrepancies with a dazzling smile, flashing those dimples that never failed to get him out of a pinch.
They certainly didn't disappoint now.
'Don't be silly," he forced me back down with a deceptively iron grip, as both the waiter and Elisia swooned in unison, 'you and I always take these introductory meetings together."
This time, I made the mistake of accidentally meeting his smoldering gaze. While his smile remained, his eyes quite simply promised death if I left him alone.
I yanked free my wrist with a smile of my own, and rubbed it discreetly under the table.
'I always have time for you, Nicholas..."
'How sweet," he said dryly, before turning back to the waiter. 'She'll have some tea, please."
As the waiter hurried off, more confused than ever, I made a valiant attempt to pull myself together and take control of things once again.
I'm not going to lie—the crouch-grab threw me for a second. As did the fact that a girl I'd thought was simply ambitious, was actually a certifiable psychopath. But if my time spent working in public relations had taught me anything, it was that everything was a matter of spin.
This may have been my mistake—one derived from an ill-conceived plan based off an even more ill-conceived notion I didn't fully understand—but I would fix it. I simply had to.
Otherwise, I'd be using that butter knife sooner than I thought.
And since Hurricane Elisia was obviously a destructive force that none of us had the means of containing, I would simply have to act like the joke was on me too.
'So, Elisia," I interrupted her mid-rant about the benefits of testing certain kinds of make-up on animals first, 'tell Nicholas a little bit about yourself. The same things you were telling me."
He shot me another testy look, but she was more than willing to oblige.
'Well, I just got a modeling contract from Ford. The thing lasts for an entire—"
'That's right!" I interrupted quickly. No need in him finding out that even her new employer had given up on her already. 'A prestigious contract. What else?"
Come on—give me anything. Anything I can use.
'I'm allergic to peanuts."
Nicholas and I both blanked.
Okay, uh...literally ANYTHING besides that.
'Well to be honest, my life's pretty much an open book." She started trailing a sharply manicured fingernail across the tablecloth, inching it closer and closer to Nicholas's side. 'I just got to New York from a town in Oklahoma—of all places—so I'm brand new. Just looking for someone to show me the city. Someone who won't be afraid to get their hands a little dirty—"
'That's right," I intervened, leaning forward to give the speech myself. 'She just got to the city, so she's brand freaking new. No scandal. No skeletons in the closet. How many models, heiresses, and actresses living in New York can say that with a straight face?"
Granted, Elisia looked like she was ready to change that scandal thing in a big hurry...
'I also really like Zumba—" she ventured again.
'She comes from a mid-western Protestant family. No criminal record. No sex tapes that she swore she didn't have, but a month later, the entire internet is watching her in a bee-keeper uniform, committing every blasphemy under the sun."
(Texas. Ten months ago. Don't ask.)
'She doesn't drink. Doesn't smoke. And in the last election, she voted the same way as over half of the board."
'Wait a minute," Elisia set down her sparkling water, 'how do you know which way I—"
'Plus—her great aunt is actually Robin Campbell. As in, famed New York Times journalist, Robin Campbell."
It was a massive point in my favor. Although, to be fair, it was also something I'd found out only after scheduling the meeting.
Elisia fiddled with her straw, pouting because I was the one talking. 'We don't really talk to that side of the fam—"
'So you see?" I locked eyes with Nicholas across the table. 'She's just about perfect."
On paper. In real life, she was probably classified as some kind of sexual predator.
Elisia giggled and blushed, throwing me a ‘thanks for talking me up' wink, before turning to bat her eyes at Nicholas some more. 'I guess it looks that way, doesn't it?"
But Nicholas only had eyes for me. In fact, the longer we stared at each other, the harder we found it to stop. But the longer we stared, the more it looked like he was starting to understand.
A dawning glimmer of realization started dancing in his eyes, and for the first time since he'd been groped in front of those Japanese tourists, his lips curved up in a genuine smile.
'She is perfect, isn't she?" His sparkling eyes never left my face. 'For the company."
...but not so perfect for me.
My face blanched as every single bone in my body locked into place.
Yep—he'd come to the exact same conclusion I'd come to myself, plotting on my bed just a night before. The burning question of why, was still completely beyond me. Why the hell I'd want to create the distinction. But at this point, it hardly mattered.
I'd been found out. Outed. Finished. All my scheming and trickery exposed for all the world to see. Nicholas knew the truth. It was written all over his face. There was no way in hell I would have actually selected this kind of girl for him. This kind of girl wasn't fit for anybody.
But maybe...just maybe I could somehow manage to deflect some of the blame.
'It's always such a...a treat when you read about someone on paper, but then get to know the real thing." I laughed lightly. 'Elisia's so...vivacious in person. I really had no idea—"
'Oh, don't be so modest. You must have had some idea." Nicholas leaned forward, suddenly enjoying himself. Without missing a beat, he reached over and took Elisia's hand. 'Otherwise, I can't think of a single reason why you would have pulled dear Elisia's name out of the hat."
