He nodded and pulled out his phone, quicklymaking notes. “Morning or afternoon?”
“Afternoon.” I had no idea what was on myschedule but probably nothing important. “How does three work for you?”
“Fine.” He glanced up. “Your place orcoffee shop?”
I shrugged. “My place.”
If he were a real stranger I’d have insistedon meeting him in public, but he was only kind of a stranger at this pointconsidering the background check and all.
“That’s fine.” He focused back on thescreen. “Address?”
He was one of the last to leave, so givingit out was safe. After he had all the details and said he would be emailing meon Tuesday morning to remind me of the appointment, he glanced over at anotherstraggler. “Ready, Rowan?”
He looked back at me. “Dakota, meet one ofyour biggest fans, my friend Rowan.”
The slight emphasis on the way he said “fan”and “friend” made it clear Rowan knew what I wrote and that he really was justa friend. Both of which were good to know but slightly stressful. “Nice to meetyou.”
I stuck my hand out and automatically wentinto author mode, smiling and focusing on him like he was incredibly important.I hadn’t done so well at my first live signings, so my publisher made me takelessons on being more personable.
It’d sucked.
Rowan giggled. “That was cool. It’s likeyou’re another person now.”
I had no idea what to say to that.
Luckily, Tristan was there to step in.“Dude, we had this discussion. Real author people are insane and only pretendto be humans when you tell them to function.”
Rowan turned to Tristan and smiled, almostlike he was pointing out a cute animal at the zoo. “I forgot. It was just soexciting meeting him in real life.”
I was never going to get used to the factthat people were excited to meet me.
Rowan looked back at me and gave me alittle wave, then smiled at the rest of the guys who were being nosy. “Thanksfor giving me the chance to meet so many people. I’m definitely going to put inan application when you’re ready.”
Well, that was one good thing about theevening. Most of the people we’d talked to were excited about the club. A fewdidn’t really want to play in public, but had said they were going to sign upjust to mingle and make more friends in the lifestyle.
It made me glad we’d arranged for thelounge area in the club to be so big. Maybe hiring Graham had been a good ideaafter all.
As they headed out the door, what I wassure were the last remaining party guests came out of the living room and leftafter making small talk for just a moment. When everyone was gone, Austinclosed the door and Tanner called down to the gate to double-check thateveryone had left.
Clay was making one last sweep of the houseas we filed back into the living room, crashing exhaustedly into Austin’sfurniture. Sighing, I looked around. “I don’t have to do any more parties,right?”
Yawning, I ignored the laughter. “It wasgood to see that people want to come and weren’t frustrated by the securitymeasures, but I’m really not a party person.”
Austin giggled. “You met the sexiest guyhere today, though, and he seemed quite smitten with you.”
Groaning, I sank deeper into the chair andfought off another yawn as I stared up at the ceiling. “I shouldn’t flirt withthe guy who’ll probably be my assistant.”
Shane laughed. “When did that become therule around here?”
Laughter rolled around the room and Tannerspoke up. “I think that ship has long since sailed. I saw how you were lookingat him.”
“Fine. I’m sure flirting and probablysleeping with my new assistant will turn out to be a great decision.” I was relativelysure I was being sarcastic, but Austin giggled again.
“Oh, and think about all the wickedfantasies you can live out. He can spank you for being an asshole boss or youcan pretend to sexually harass him and he puts you in your place or—”
“Stop that.” Wade stepped in, throwing apillow at Austin. “You’re going to get us completely off track.”
I could feel Wade looking at me, so Istraightened just enough to focus on him as he said, “He seemed sincere when wetalked.”
