“We’ll be there, and I assure you I wouldn’t have mated him if he couldn’t impress our board members and clients.” Lie.
Maybe he knew that by the narrowing of his eyes, but he didn’t call me on it. Well, he certainly knew how to give you enough rope to hang yourself with.
“Then there’s no more to be said at present. I’m sure you have a great deal of work to finish after your little stunt on Friday. I’ve already alerted your assistant to be here by eight.”
Christ, she didn’t get paid enough for that. And neither did I, come to think of it. But I managed to nod, smile, and escape his office without gritting my teeth audibly.
I’d intended to go and work from home.
Looked like I’d be doing my penance—or the first part of it, anyway—by spending Sunday here.
***
Dimitri and I spent Sunday night—or what was left of it after I finally dragged myself home at eight following a full twelve hours without a break of working through client files—prepping him for the dinner party. He was more cooperative than I expected.
Well, sort of.
I’d already told him about my confrontation with my father, and he’d laughed his ass off. “I didn’t know you were such a manipulative little weasel,” he said, sounding like he didn’t mean that as a compliment, exactly. I tried not to be hurt, and it helped when he added, “You did good, Brook. But I so wasn’t intimidated.”
Yes, because to an alpha, that would be the main point to keep in mind. I didn’t roll my eyes, but it was close.
“I know,” I said, getting my own back by patting his arm condescendingly.
He glowered at me, but he paid attention and didn’t complain when I set the table with a whole bunch of cutlery and wine glasses and gave him a briefing on what you drank with different types of food.
It was when we got to the dinner conversation portion of the tutorial that he started bitching.
“I’m not going to pretend to be something I’m not, and I’m not going to spend the whole night lying,” he groused as I told him, admittedly for the third or fourth time, not to mention anything from his life before meeting me. Like,anything. “If they ask me where I go skiing or something, what am I supposed to say? I’m not a rich guy. I don’t have a rich-guy past.”
“Then you fudge, okay? You don’t have to lie, exactly. You just don’t have to tell the truth. You say something like: ‘I’ve heard Aspen is great. Are you a skier?’ And then you let them talk about themselves. People love talking about themselves.” I rubbed at my temples, wishing I could take my glasses off and close my eyes. Werewolves weren’t prone to headaches, but my eyesight gave me those, too. Lucky me. “If Jerry likes you, this whole plan falls into place. And he’s not actually so bad. He’s really old-school, but he kind of likes me. It helps that he thinks Blake is one step above something that lives under a rock.”
Dimitri grunted, rolled his eyes, and nodded.
“All right, so Jerry’s daughter is—”
“I think that’s enough for tonight,” he cut in. We were sitting on the couch, and I’d started to slump a little lower into the cushions. I forced myself bolt upright again. “Seriously, Brook, you’re about to pass out.”
I blinked at him, trying to clear my rapidly blurring vision.
“I’m fine.”
He sighed, and before I could stop him, he reached up and snatched my glasses off my face, folding them neatly and putting them on the coffee table—out of my reach, when I tried to grab them back.
“You’re not fine. Lie down, put your head on the end of the couch, close your eyes, and tell me about Jerry’s stupid family that way.”
How had he known my eyes were hurting me? Could he feel it through the bond? Or was he simply way more observant than I’d given him credit for? I did what he told me, and I felt a lot better, the throbbing in the front of my skull easing and my body starting to relax.
By the time I’d finally emptied my head of everything I knew about Jerry’s stupid family, I’d drifted halfway to dreamland, and I didn’t resist when Dimitri took my hand, pulled me up and off the couch, and chivvied me up the stairs.
If Jerry liked him half as much as I did, I thought sleepily as I fell into bed, we were home free.
My eyes popped open, and I stared wide-eyed into the darkness.
Liking Dimitri wasn’t supposed to be part of the plan. I was using him for a purpose, just like he was using me for money. Getting along okay, sure. That was great and necessary. But…more than that? It gave me a miserable, unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach.
And it took me a while to calm down and go to sleep after all.
Chapter 10
