Undercover Billionaire (2 page)

“Give it back, please?” Gracie tried to make it sound less like a demand and more like pleading, but she was terrible at pleading.

“I can’t, Gracie. What if someone sees you? That whole speech you did that moved everyone to tears will be ruined by you walking around with liquid nicotine between your fingers. Besides, I think you should quit,” Scarlet put her purse back on the hook in the coat room and shrugged one shoulder as if to say she was sorry.

“Fine, but if I can’t have my cigarette, then can I have an extra piece of cake?” Gracie asked as if she were asking her mother. Scarlet knew her friend was being facetious and rolled her eyes. Just as they left the coat room, Sebastian showed up in the foyer.

“There you are! The music’s started and dinner’s over, so I was wondering if you would care to dance?” he asked pointedly toward Scarlet. Gracie was staring openly at the stranger and her eyes had glazed over. Scarlet had a moment to thank the Gods she wasn’t as affected by him as some other women appeared to be.

“I, uh, have to go make sure dessert is running smoothly and then I have to-” she stopped as she tried to think of another excuse.

“She has to find me someone to dance with first,” Gracie said seductively as she took Scarlet by the hand and led her room the foyer and into the dining room. The tables were being laden with desserts while some of the guests were already dancing. It was obvious by a few glances at the cheesecakes and pies that the women dancing desperately wanted a piece, but they were too concerned about their figures.

“Gracie,” a familiar voice called out. Scarlet sighed as she turned around while Gracie did and saw Sebastian hauling his uncle by the arm. Jacob didn’t look pleased until he laid eyes on Gracie and then he smiled.

“Well, if you would have told me
this
was who I was dancing with, I wouldn’t have objected,” Jacob said as he straightened his suit jacket.

“I think I’ve found that dance,” Gracie whispered to Scarlet as she took Jacob’s proffered hand.

“Now that you’re free from the dance duty and it looks like dessert is finding its way from the kitchen just fine, would you mind giving me that dance?” Sebastian held out his hand expectantly and Scarlet thought about pointing out that she was wearing torture devices on her feet, but avoiding him again would be rude.

“I guess I could,” she smiled politely as she took his hand and let him lead her onto the wooden floor reserved for dancing.

“So you co-own this organization, huh? You know, I expected women with razor sharp teeth and claws rather than nails, not women who looked harmless.” Sebastian twirled her and she had a second to feel annoyed before he smiled at her. “But I’m sure you’re not harmless,” he used his sultry voice on her again.

“You would be sorely mistaken if you thought I was,” she confirmed. “Jacob never told me about having a nephew. To tell the truth, when he told me he was bringing you, I expected a teenager at best,” she admitted.

“I think he would agree I act like one sometimes, but I’m a bona fide man.” He’d drawn her closer as he spoke and she could feel his hips brushing with hers. “I’d like to show you how much of a man I am,” he whispered close to her ear. Scarlet felt her face light up as her name suggested and avoided his gaze.

“Right, well, I’m not sure that’ll be happening anytime soon. You see, I’ve got a thing against sleeping with guests of any kind,” she told him firmly as she tried to wrench her hand free. Scarlet felt silly for thinking the guy who was a little outgoing wouldn’t be anything more than a jerk. He was the type of men she tried to avoid in her life. Men like Jacob, his uncle, were safe and kind. Men like Sebastian were dangerous and unpredictable.

“That’s too bad because I think we’d be a great match,” he told her, oblivious to her embarrassment or enjoying it, she couldn’t tell.

“Sebastian,” she waited until she had his full attention, “You’re coming on a little too strong and to tell the truth, you’re starting to make me feel uncomfortable.” There, she’d spoken up and told him the truth. It was hard for her to tell others when they were making her feel as if she needed a bottle of sanitizer, but it was even harder to tell a guy to back off when what he said both enraged her and made her feel a different sort of warm all over.

“There they are,” Sebastian said with a grin as he loosened his grip on her hands and kept his hips at a respectable distance. “I knew you had teeth and claws somewhere.”

“I beg your pardon?” she asked as she tried to give him a reprieve, but he didn’t take it.

Instead, he squashed any feelings she had toward him the moment he opened his mouth the final time during their dance. “Women like you always have teeth and claws hidden, at the ready, in case they need to rip a man to shreds. It’s kind of a turn on, but I prefer easy,” Sebastian admitted.

Scarlet pulled her hands from his warm grasp and turned on her heel. She resisted the urge to stomp her right foot like she was a child and instead sashayed away from  him to give him a clear view of what his abrasiveness made him miss out on. Jacob tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around to a rather pithy looking uncle.

“I thought it was Vera who caused all the scenes, but I’m starting to think it’s not the women, but you.”

“Come on, it wasn’t that bad,” Sebastian said as he watched the woman waltz away from him like a professional. She’d ditched quite a few men in her lifetime, he was sure.

“You just insulted the owner of the largest organization dedicated to women in the state, and you managed to do it within a few sentences. Do you know how much income her organization brings me?” Jacob hissed as he grabbed his nephew by the elbow and dragged him off the dance floor.

“Hey, I thought it was about helping people, not about the money,” Sebastian accused as he tried to change the subject from his screw up to Jacob’s crass comment.

“It
is
about helping people, and the money doesn’t hurt. I’d do it for free, but giving them half off is the best I can do. Look, this is about the fact that you insulted a woman I happen to admire as a friend, Sebastian. I
need
her business partnership as well as want her respect, and you’re starting to make me look like the babysitter to a billionaire playboy who doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut,” Jacob tried to keep his voice low.

“Well, I’m sorry, but you’re the one who dragged me to this stuck up, snooty party that doesn’t even have a
bartender that will serve shots
,” Sebastian retorted angrily.

“It’s a benefit party. They serve wine and mixed drinks. In fact, you’re lucky there’s alcohol at all considering some of the women benefiting from this party are alcoholics!” Jacob’s voice began to rise and when he saw two people were openly staring at him and his nephew, he felt his ears turn red. He should have known bringing Sebastian would be a mistake. The man was used to women who lunged at him with their panties already off, not women who had sophistication of any kind.

Sebastian didn’t bother continuing the show. His jaw was set and his teeth ground together as he fought the harsh words that were trying to exit his mouth. He could tell Jacob he was acting like he was one of these people when he wasn’t. If he hadn’t been pushed like Sebastian to get out of the dumps they were in, they would have never made it to where they were. The street rat was still inside of them, and Sebastian was the only one to admit it.

“I’m sorry I jeopardized your reputation,
uncle
,” Sebastian spat before he walked calmly from the scene and headed for the foyer to call a cab home. He wasn’t too wealthy to know when a cab was necessary.

The sound of heels clicking after him heightened his senses and his ears perked unwillingly. It wasn’t the voice he had been hoping for. “Sebastian, wait! Jacob can be a bit of an ass sometimes, believe me I know, but that doesn’t mean you have to leave,” Gracie chirped as she tried to catch her breath. She’d watched the fight and wasn’t trying to keep Sebastian from leaving for her own reasons. Gracie saw the way he looked at Scarlet and was amazed that the look had been returned if only for a few seconds. He
couldn’t
leave, not if there was a chance Scarlet might actually get laid for once in her life.

“Honey, you’re a beautiful woman-”

“Oh, don’t embarrass yourself. I’m not coming after you for sex, cowboy,” Gracie crossed her arms over her ample chest and made him feel as if she’d dunked his head into a bucket of ice cold water with just one look. “I’m coming after you because you like Scarlet, don’t deny it, I saw it. And if she’s got any chance of having fun in her life, it’s with a guy like you. So I tell you what, you’re going to get back in there and you’re going to talk to her like she’s a human being, and in exchange for your niceties, you might get some of the best sex of your life.”

“Might?” Sebastian asked as he put his hand in his pocket. He was enjoying the way this woman spoke. She was nice to look at and she could carry on an interesting conversation, but something about her that would have done it for him before was not doing it any longer. Sebastian grew frightened and thought about taking her into the coat closet to prove that he wasn’t hung up on a dark haired, honey colored eyed woman.

“If you’re a good boy,” she cajoled as if she were talking to a puppy. “Now, straighten your tie. It came undone while you were storming away from Jacob,” she saw the look on Sebastian’s face and rolled her eyes. “I’ll keep him occupied if you promise to straighten the tie.”

Sebastian didn’t have to think twice. He’d felt the attraction to the woman as soon as he’d danced with her, and he didn’t want to be thinking about her while he was with Vera later. He’d convince her to go out on a date with him tomorrow evening so he could have her out of his mind, and then he’d move on with his life. It was a simple as that.

Scarlet ran a hand through her hair and cursed when she realized she’d messed up the little waves Gracie had helped put in. She found a pot in the kitchen and tried to use it as a reflective surface to get the hairs back into place, but she was a mess.
Calm down,
she urged herself as she fought back tears of frustration. The man had been an obvious pig, but she still felt a silly little twist in her stomach when she thought about his eyes. He hadn’t been a pig there. Not once had they wandered to her breasts or had they shown contempt. In fact, she could have sworn he might have been teasing her at the end of their odd conversation, but she’d taken it seriously.

“I’m sorry, but I have to clean that,” a willowy man apologized while he took the pot from her view and plopped it into a large, stainless steel sink.

“There you are. I thought I’d never find you in this maze,” a familiar voice whispered near her ear. Scarlet stood abruptly and felt mortified when her backside slammed into his front.

“What, come back to tell me about the horns atop my head, too?” she didn’t try to keep the sarcasm from her voice.

“No,” Sebastian tried to sound apologetic. “I came back to apologize for my rash behavior and wondered if we could talk somewhere not so crowded? Believe it or not, I’m not into being surrounded by hundreds of people.”

“It’s not even two hundred people, so it’s not hundreds,” she corrected. He looked embarrassed about her rebuttal so she tried to lighten it, wondering why she cared. “But I know how you feel. We can go upstairs,” she put up her hand as soon as the light in his eyes shimmered.  “Clothes will stay on and I certainly hope you learned your lesson about speaking to me like I’m some sort of demon from hell.”

“I think I have.” She had eyed him suspiciously before she turned to lead him up a flight of stairs that led to the second story from the kitchen. It led to a second story kitchen with the same equipment, but there wasn’t anyone using it. The facility she’d rented out was used to housing thousands of people, so a little over a hundred didn’t warrant a double staff.

Sebastian closed the door behind him gently and fought the urge to lock it. There weren’t going to be any compromising positions, so the two of them getting caught alone wouldn’t be as bad as he wanted it to be. “Now that I have you alone, I think I should dirty my knees a little to beg for your forgiveness,” he felt a smile coming on when he saw her lip twitch. “I was rude and obnoxious downstairs because I’m not used to talking to women with a refined sensibility-”

“Oh, don’t give me that crap. I don’t have a
refined sensibility.
You’re just not used to talking to women who aren’t used to being paid for sex, right?” He wanted to deny her assumption, but he had to think about it. He didn’t outright pay the women, but they did get gifts and dinner. That might actually be against the law; although, he was sure the women he slept with had some feelings for him. He
could
be likable when he wanted to be.

“You might have a point,” he admitted almost unwillingly. “Besides that, I had no right to talk to you the way I did. I did so because I was nervous. I’m not used to women who don’t throw themselves at me, and I was wondering if I could have a second chance? I know you sort of like me, I can see it in your eyes, Scarlet,” he said her name like a caress and she seemed to be falling right into it.

“You’re cute, Sebastian, but when a cute puppy pees on my rug, I’m still mad.” She let out a sigh that made him lose all hope of ever seeing her again. “But,” she waited until he looked up, “I still like puppies and I still let them into my condo. So, if you’re asking for another dance, I suppose you could have one.”

Scarlet didn’t want to let him know just how much his smile affected her. She allowed a tiny, crooked grin to break through, but that was all. Sebastian approached her with his hand held out and she took it hesitantly. His fingers were warm and his palm radiated heat like an oven when he grasped her small hand in his large one. If she weren’t wearing heels, their hips would never have brushed and she’d look like a little girl dancing with her father.

“So, may I start over?” Sebastian asked as he drew her close.

“I suppose,” she permitted.

“My name is Sebastian and I think the dress you’re wearing tonight looks beautiful. Would you mind telling me which angel you stole it from?” Scarlet snorted and hid her face from him as she laughed.

“That was the corniest line a guy has ever said to me, and I’ve been in some pretty seedy places,” she said between giggles.

“Well, at least I made you laugh. Your laughter is like the bells-”

“Okay, stop. Why don’t you try by telling me a little about yourself,” Scarlet managed a serious look as she flicked her hair away from her face. She felt a trickle of warmth where Sebastian’s fingers trailed against her cheek and brushed away a few stubborn strands.

“Well, I’m a man desperate for a first date,” he told her as he drew her close.

Scarlet felt her knees weaken when he didn’t smile. The man was serious and he was looking at her as if he needed a yes. She didn’t want to disappoint.

“I guess I could go for a meal sometime this week. I’ve got to eat sometime, right?” He smiled as he twirled her around to the sound of the music downstairs and she wondered if he always showed women the crass man before he showed them the one that had potential.