Club Prive (2 page)

He chuckled and his smile broadened. “I agree. Always happy to help a damsel in distress.”

“Thank you so much. I owe you one.”
Again, a mental kick. Where was the quick wit and sharp tongue that had gotten me rave reviews by my law professors?

“Indeed.” He handed me the notepad with yet another beautiful smile. When I grabbed on to it, he held it tight for just a second longer. “I hope I get to collect the favor one day,” he said, gazing at me with a faint twinkle in the depths of his deep blue eyes. After what seemed like forever, he finally let go of the notepad.

The blood rushed to my cheeks even more intensely than before, and I spun around without saying another word and hurried back to my seat.

With an audible sigh I slid into my chair, as the girls stared at me curiously with their mouths half open.

“What? You ladies haven’t ordered me another drink yet?” I asked as I showed them the notepad with the ten digits. Krissy snatched it out of my hand.

“His name is Gavin? Hmm, it’s probably a fake number,” she said. Annoyed, she pulled out her iPhone, keyed in the numbers and pressed enter.

We all glanced over in the direction of Gavin, who now lifted his phone and held it up against his ear.

“…Hello.”
His voice echoed over Krissy's phone.

Krissy quickly disconnected the call and looked at me. I tried to hide my shock with a grin.

“So, where is my drink? I’d like another Lemon Drop.”

“Good for you,” she said with a smirk. “When are you going to call him?”

My face fell. “I’m not. That wasn’t part of the deal.”

Something about my tone must’ve made Krissy realize that this wasn’t the time to keep pushing, because she got me another drink and didn’t say anything else about calling Gavin.

The new drink started to calm my nerves. I couldn’t help but keep glancing over Gavin’s way to snap more mental images of the delicious eye candy. He wasn’t sitting by himself anymore. An older guy, in his mid-forties, was now engaged in deep conversation with him. Could this be his boss? He looked like a CEO in his expensive tailored suit and five-hundred-dollar shoes. He was quite good-looking for a man of his age, with a slender body. His profile spoke of power and ageless strength. His sharp, dark eyes said he was as intelligent as he appeared. Very likely his boss.

The bar was now crowded with people, some of them dressed in business attire, others in the dress casual of many workplace Fridays. Cool people and inexpensive drinks were the norm here, making Huggins a popular after-work stop, especially for Friday happy hour. In many places around Midtown, drinks would go as high as eighteen bucks apiece, so the nine-dollar happy hour martinis here were a steal in comparison.

“Hey, snap out of it, girl,” Krissy said as she interrupted my little daydream. “Are you coming with me or what?”

“Coming with you where? What are you doing?”

“I said that I needed to get my nails done before we go out tonight.”

“Sorry, I can’t go out tonight. I
have
to work on my paper. It’s due in three weeks.”

“You never go out. I can’t believe you are just going to sit home on a Friday night after being hit on by the hottest guy in town.”

“Stop it, Kris. There is more to life than going out every weekend and besides, I came
here
, didn’t I? See, I go out.” I ignored the fact that it was actually on our way home and the appetizers I'd been snacking on would be my entire evening meal. “Also, he wasn’t hitting on me. I was hitting on him, remember?”

Krissy had finished her Master’s Degree last year. Due to a family crisis two years ago, I’d gotten a year behind her. Hence the reason I was still slogging through my classwork while she could party every weekend.

I glanced over to the bar to get another look at Gavin but he was gone. I’d never noticed that he left. Dammit.

So much for that. He hadn’t even made an attempt to speak to me again before he left the bar. Whatever. It wasn’t like I was ever going to meet him again. Sure, I had his number, but no way was I going to call him. Not only was it not suited for me as a woman to call up a man and ask for a date, but he probably just gave me the number to help me win the bet. Not because he had any real interest in me or was attracted to me. Why would he be
?
Guys like that always had Victoria’s Secret models hanging on their broad shoulders, fulfilling their every desire. Not that I saw myself as ugly, but I was the kind of woman who was generally overlooked. Long curls framing a cute but forgettable face. Brown eyes the color of dark chocolate, pretty enough, but not the kind that seared into a man's memory. Even my build was average. Not thin, but not really curvy either. My chest wasn't small, but it was far from large enough to attract attention. Like I said. Average.

With one swift move, I picked up the notepad from the table, tore out the page he had written on and crumpled up the paper.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Leslie exclaimed.

“I’m not keeping that.” I threw the paper ball in her direction. “Here, you can have it.”

“Thanks, I will,” Leslie said, smiling as she uncrumpled the paper and stashed it into her purse.

It was time to call it a day. My drink was almost empty and, if I didn’t get started on my paper, I'd be a nervous wreck by the end of the weekend. That was never a good way to start the workweek.

Despite objections from Krissy, I bid my friends goodbye and headed for the street to hail a cab.

After giving the cabbie directions to my apartment building, I let my thoughts go where they wanted. I couldn’t get the exhilarating incident out of my mind. I wished that Gavin had somehow said goodbye before he left. But maybe that had been difficult for him because his boss was with him. No matter what, there had been something mysterious and exciting about Gavin that was hard to pinpoint.

I sank down deeper in my seat and imagined his breathtaking eyes staring right at me. Had it been foolish of me to give Leslie his number? How would I know if he was interested unless I took a risk? I was willing to bet that Leslie would take that risk, though with her looks and curves, it wasn’t much of a risk. Guys never turned her down, even guys as gorgeous as Gavin.

New York was a big city with over eight million people. Even if we both lived here for the rest of our lives, it would be unlikely for us to ever run across each other’s path again. Unless, of course, we both one day happened to be back at Huggins Bar and Grill for yet another happy hour. I made a mental note to come back next Friday. Just in case.

Chapter 2

As long as I could remember, I’d wanted to be an attorney of law and, finally, at age twenty-four, I was close to my goal. For almost a year now I had been working as a paralegal in the Law Office of Webster and Steinberg while finishing up my last year in law school. I needed the income to help pay for the tuition. Unlike many of my fellow students, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon, and scholarships only went so far. Now that I was close to graduating – hopefully by the end of the semester – it also likely meant I’d be saying goodbye to the firm, unless they decided to offer me a position.

I’d enjoyed working at Webster and Steinberg. The office had old-world charm with oak panels, dark colors and a scent of musk and leather that filled the offices and hallways. My boss, Mimi Styles, was a brilliant divorce lawyer, and I was assigned as her personal file clerk and paralegal. I liked my job, even though it was mostly repetitious secretary work such as sorting case files, but once in a while I was asked to help with case research. Despite the fact that working as a paralegal was nowhere as exciting as what was seen in popular TV shows, it did give me the opportunity to study and experience the job as an attorney in real life, instead of just learning theory from the books. Maybe the added experience would put me at the front of the line when it was time to approach a firm to apply for a position as an attorney.

“Carrie, where are the notes for the Howard Weiss case?” Mimi stood in front of my desk looking completely desperate.

“They’re almost ready, Ms. Styles.”

“Well, please hurry. The meeting starts in less than an hour and I want to go over the case once more before it starts.”

“Absolutely. I’ll bring them to your office in ten minutes,” I said, trying to hide my panic at being behind schedule.

I knew that the meeting was very important to Mimi, as it was the introductory meeting with a new and very powerful client, Howard Weiss. He was a true real estate mogul, but not just any real estate mogul. In fact, he owned some of the biggest office buildings in Manhattan, and had a net worth in the billions. He was also about to become single. The reason he was coming here today was to discuss his upcoming divorce. If Mimi got this case, it would be huge for the firm.

This morning had not started out well at all, much too hectic for my liking. First, I’d overslept. I had worked on my college paper until three in the morning, and then my alarm hadn’t gone off. A short power shutdown in the building had reset the clock sitting on the bedside table next to my bed, and of course, I hadn’t used my phone, even though I’d constantly told myself that it was smarter to have two alarms rather than just one. So instead of my usual eight-thirty arrival at the office, I had run in to work all flustered, ninety minutes late, which was not at all like me. I prided myself on always being very punctual, almost to a point where my coworkers could set their watches after my arrival.

I was able to finish the notes, collect all the research and organize it rather quickly. There were definitely some benefits to being organized, and I was smiling as I walked into Mimi’s office and handed her the file.

“Thanks, Carrie,” Mimi said with a sigh of relief. “Listen, I need you in the meeting taking notes, so don’t go too far, okay?”

“No problem. Actually, I’ll go get the conference room ready now,” I replied, eager to make up for being late.

I stepped into the large conference room and started preparing for the meeting. As I placed notepads and pens in front of each seat and set the table with coffee cups along with little plates for the butter cookies, my mind drifted back to last weekend. Krissy had been harassing me nonstop for refusing to go with her to a club for the third weekend in a row.

“You are becoming like a Mormon,” she had said mockingly. “You need to relax and get your mind off those stupid books once in a while.”

I knew she was right, but every time I’d tried taking a break from studying I felt guilty. I was the first in my family to ever finish college, so the pressure was in the back of my mind all the time. In reality, I doubted anyone would notice if I got an A- instead of an A+ on a test, but my personality was the type that insisted on giving a hundred and ten percent, nothing less.

I finished setting up for the meeting just as Mimi entered the room. Usually, she was the calmest person I knew, but today she was all over the place.

“How do I look?” Mimi asked and looked straight at me.

Surprised by her unusual question, I was dumbfounded for a second. “You look great,” I finally replied, thankful that it was the truth.

Mimi actually looked better than usual. Her outfit was sexier than her standard skirt or pants suit, and she was wearing more makeup. “Thanks. I can’t believe I’m actually a little nervous about this meeting. Oh well, I’m sure it will be fine.”

There was a knock on the door, and Mimi’s secretary, Elise, entered the room. “Howard Weiss is here,” she announced.

I was busy shuffling through the file, so I didn’t look up when Mr. Weiss entered and said in a deep voice, “Good to see you again, Ms. Styles. This is my friend and consultant, Gavin Manning.”

The mention of the name Gavin made me stop everything I was doing. It was as if an electric shock had just gone through my body, and when I looked up I was staring directly into the same deep blue eyes that I hadn’t been able to get out of my mind. He didn’t seem as surprised to see me as I was seeing him, but he remained quiet. I assumed that he didn’t want anyone to know that we had already met before. Explaining how we’d met would be a bit embarrassing, and I appreciated the discretion.

“Good to meet you, Mr. Manning,” Mimi said. “This is Carrie Summers, my paralegal. Please sit down and let’s get started.”

My mind was running like wildfire. I couldn’t believe that Gavin Manning was here. And to make matters even more bizarre, Howard Weiss was the same guy who had been in a deep conversation with Gavin at the bar.

Was it a coincidence? It had to be, right?