Not So Nice by Emma Lyon
Nathan
“This isn’t going to work,” Ryan said abruptly when we arrived outside the private dining area reserved for the summit.
I glanced sidelong at him. Hell, I’d barely been able to keep my eyes off him all evening, ever since he’d emerged from his room in the blue shirt and charcoal pants the concierge had sent up when they’d arrived from Beatrix. He looked even better than when he’d tried them on at her shop.
I’d been half-waiting for him to say something like this. It was probably too much to ask for him to lie to people, even ones he didn’t know. Ryan had a stubborn streak when it came to things like personal ethics. Like most people, he sometimes had a hard time seeing the big picture.
Though lately I was starting to wonder if maybe I was the one missing the big picture.
“You can back out if you want,” I said, as grating as the thought of losing this chance with Lorde was.
Ryan looked startled. “No, I just meant that no one’s going to believe we’re actually together. Look at us.” He waved his hand to encompass the two of us, meaning what, I wasn’t sure. “We’re standing like a foot apart from each other. You haven’t touched me once since we got down here.”
At touched, something woke inside and traveled straight to my groin. So Ryan wanted me to touch him. I was not at all averse to that.
Because we’re supposed to be dating.
I snapped out of the X-rated movie my thoughts had ventured down. “Is touching appropriate? You do still work for me.”
Drier than the desert, he said, “I think we’re past appropriate, don’t you?”
He had a point. And I’d been itching to touch him all day. “You’ll have to let me know the boundaries.” I posed it to him like one of the challenges we’d been giving each other all day.
Ryan didn’t miss a beat. So far he’d proved a more apt player of the game than I expected. “Put your hand on my back.”
I moved closer to him, not missing the way his pupils widened and his breath caught, and put my hand on his lower back. “Like this?”
“Lower,” he said, a bit breathlessly.
I slid my hand down to where his dimples would be if he had them—did he have them? I had a sudden burning need to know—and let my index finger rest at the top of the crack of his ass.
“How’s that?”
Ryan sounded slightly strangled. “I didn’t say you could feel up my ass.”
I laughed and moved my hand up an inch. “Noted. How is that?”
“Fine,” Ryan said, still breathless. “And lean in a bit. Like I’m the only other person in the room.”
“Hm.” I leaned in, smelling the bright citrus of his shampoo. It was intoxicating. He was intoxicating. For a moment I forgot why we were there. I wondered if I could talk Ryan into going back up to my room instead.
Our room.
“What are you going to tell people when they ask what made you finally settle down?”
Talk about a splash of cold water on my burgeoning lust. “They won’t ask. They’ll simply speculate.” At his skeptical look, I added, “And if they do ask, I’ll tell them you charmed me with your exceptional skills as my PA.”
Ryan snorted. “They’ll think my PA skills ran to giving you blowjobs under your desk.”
I was already half-hard, and his words sent more blood rushing south. “I wish I’d thought to write that into the job description.”
He jabbed me with his elbow, which at least helped kill my hard-on. “I’m being serious.”
“So am I, particularly since you just described your blowjob skills as exceptional.” But he was right, it was time to go to work. “Ready to go in?”
He sighed. “Yes.”
I couldn’t help murmuring in his ear as we stepped through the doorway, “You’re killing me in that shirt.”
The back of Ryan’s neck flamed red.
* * *
He was good. Better than I expected. He was charming and funny and self-deprecating, but not too much. We spent some time talking with a couple I knew—they owned a small startup I’d invested in, something to do with advanced GPS tracking—and the wife was ready to take Ryan home with her by the time her husband convinced her to try the food at the buffet.
“See? You’re a hit,” I told him, as they moved to the buffet and Ryan and I found a quiet corner.
Ryan sipped the club soda he’d asked for when I’d gone to get us drinks. I was nursing an Old Fashioned. I didn’t want my head clouded by alcohol, not tonight. Lorde hadn’t showed yet, but I’d checked and he’d registered earlier, so it would be surprising if he didn’t make an appearance at some point during the evening.
“I feel like a fraud,” Ryan muttered.
“You look delectable.” I didn’t know why I felt the need to compliment him every five minutes, except that it was true. And it was driving me crazy.
I’d gotten a long-winded text from Lindsey earlier after the picture from lunch broke over social media, the short version of which was, if you break his heart I will kill you. I didn’t know an aunt could be so protective of her nephew.
I didn’t tell her it was only a ruse, because that was the kind of thing that would only come back to bite me.
It was starting to feel less and less like a ruse.
I put my hand on his back and leaned in. “No one’s been able to take their eyes off you all evening.” By which I meant that I hadn’t.
Ryan snorted. “I doubt that.” He nudged me with his elbow, distracting me from my thoughts. “Isn’t that him?”
I followed his gaze and saw Gabriel Lorde over by the door talking with someone. Next to him was his husband, who was scanning the room while Lorde talked. Probably looking for the bar, if he was as bored by shop talk as I often was.
Lorde looked more like a rugby player than a computer geek, tall and built in his brown suit, large hands gesturing in support of whatever point he was making. I was already more than familiar with his blunt style.
He looked over and frowned when he saw us. He turned and said something to his husband, then somewhat to my surprise headed our way. I thought I’d have to be the one to chase him.
“Game on,” I murmured to Ryan, as Lorde approached.
“Graham.” He spoke my name like he’d just eaten something sour. “I’m surprised to see you here. I didn’t think you liked these sorts of things.”
“Why wouldn’t I? All the best and brightest coming together to change the world.”
Lorde snorted. “You’ve always struck me as someone who prefers to go it alone.”
“You’re not going to accuse me of having a large ego, are you? Because there’s no one in this room innocent of that.”
Lorde shrugged. “It’s not your ego I have a problem with.”
True. I knew exactly what his problem was.
Time to test drive the new me. I turned to Ryan, who’d been quiet. “Ryan, this is Gabriel Lorde. He owns SandBox, one of the hottest gaming companies in the last few years.” I couldn’t resist buttering up Lorde with some easy flattery. Ass.
“Nice to meet you,” Ryan said politely.
“This is Ryan Blake, my…” I searched for the right word. Partner implied we were living together, which might be harder to pull off. Boyfriend sounded so adolescent. But it was the only term that fit. “…boyfriend,” I finished.
Lorde didn’t bother to hide his skepticism. “Really.” But he shook Ryan’s hand.
Lorde’s husband appeared at his side with two drinks, which necessitated another round of introductions. “So, Ryan, how did you and Nathan meet?” asked the husband, who’d introduced himself as Tristan. He seemed somewhat more housetrained than Lorde, who glowered from the sidelines.
Ryan glanced at me, and I realized we hadn’t synched up our relationship origin story. I’d been understandably distracted. “I worked for him, actually.”
Lorde snorted. “That must have been interesting.”
“Oh, it was,” Ryan said, eyes sparkling. “Somehow I managed not to throttle him daily, but it was an effort.”
Lorde guffawed. I frowned.
“I can relate,” Tristan said to Ryan. “I was one of Gabriel’s developers. And he is not easy to work for. It finally got to the point where it was either quit or ask him out.”
Lorde’s frown mirrored my own.
“Right? I mean, Graham called me away from my grandmother’s birthday party once to fetch something for him.”
I said loftily, “I believe I sent her flowers for that.”
“I believe you had your PA send them for you,” Ryan returned dryly.
Lorde laughed.
That was possibly true. Still. “I hope I’ve made it up to you since.”
Ryan smiled. “You have your moments.”
His smile stole all the air from my lungs. I had the sudden urge to dump this entire plan and spirit him back up to the hotel room. I needed to stop fantasizing about stripping his clothes off and instead work out how to sweet talk Lorde some more.
One of the organizers appeared at Lorde’s elbow and murmured in his ear. “They want me to say a few words,” Lorde said gruffly, when the organizer had left. “Excuse us, please.”
Tristan was more pleasant in his goodbyes. As the two of them moved to the front of the room, I leaned down to whisper in Ryan’s ear, “You enjoyed that entirely too much.”
He smiled, eyes still twinkling. “I feel like it was earned.”
“I like it when you smile,” I said, something about him pulling the words from me.
Ryan frowned. “I’ve been smiling all night.”
“Yes, but that one was just for me.”