Australia: Wicked Mistresses(86)
“Well, big brother, it’s your night, and not before time.” Adam appeared out of the throng of people and saluted him with his glass. Nick reciprocated, and the brothers leaned with their backs to the bar, surveying the party.
“They look cozy,” Adam commented, indicating their father and Jordan. “When are you going to let the best-kept secret out of the bag?”
Nick and Jordan’s public relationship had sent the press into a frenzy, coming on the heels of the court case. Their expected engagement even had punters at the betting agency jostling for odds. “Soon,” Nick replied. “I didn’t want to steal Dad’s thunder tonight.”
“I suppose I’ll have to come home for the wedding.”
The happy couple wanted to get married as soon as possible, but Elenor confirmed that, even though he technically wasn’t talking to them, her husband would expect the biggest and most flamboyant wedding ever staged in Wellington. They were doing their bit for family relations. It just wasn’t possible to organize such a huge event before Adam left for England.
“You’ll be back in the next few months, anyway.” Nick turned to Adam, but his brother wasn’t listening. He was watching something or someone in the crowd. Nick followed his gaze and, sure enough, it was his personal assistant who held Adam’s rapt attention.
Nick sighed. His brother hadn’t taken his eyes off Jasmine all afternoon. Jordan had even commented on it. Hell, if he honestly thought Adam would ever settle down and take a woman seriously, Nick would be delighted in his choice. But Jasmine was too nice a person, and too valuable an employee, to have her heart broken by her boss’s careless brother.
He took Adam’s arm and turned him slightly. “I’d like to introduce you to a couple of our new corporate executives, Sandra and Melanie.” He indicated two extremely attractive women in their twenties, deep in conversation by the punch bowl.
Adam didn’t even look over. Jasmine had retreated to the corner of the room and slid her jacket off the back of a chair.
“I think I’ll hit the road,” Adam said, and drained his glass.
Nick laid a hand on his brother’s arm. “Adam, you’ll be gone in a day or so. Don’t start anything with her.”
Adam turned his light brown eyes on him. “I can give a woman a good time without breaking her heart, you know.”
Nick knew there was little use in arguing once Adam’s mind was made up. He was devilishly stubborn. Nonchalance might be a better weapon. “I’m only trying to keep you from making a fool of yourself. A woman like Jasmine wouldn’t even give you the time of day. You’re just not her type.”
His brother only smiled, and giving him a look that clearly said, “Wanna bet?” Then he hightailed it toward the exit after the departing Jasmine.
Nick smelled Jordan’s perfume and turned his head as a vision in red walked up to him. “I think your brother has just broken the hearts of every single female here by leaving,” she quipped.
Nick gave her a rueful smile. “I should know by now that saying ‘no can do’ is like a red rag to a bull where Adam’s concerned.”
Jordan raised her brows.
Nick put his arms around her waist and pulled her in close. “Never mind. I have much more important things to think about. Such as—” he nuzzled her ear “—when can we leave?”
“Where are we going?” Jordan picked up his glass and stuck her nose into it, inhaling.
“I have a private function to attend at a certain hotel.” Nick bumped their lower bodies together suggestively.
Grimacing at the smell of his Scotch, Jordan raised her eyes to his innocently. “I thought we were giving up the hotel on Fridays.”
“Now why would we want to do that?”
“Because it’s environmentally unfriendly, all that cleaning and polishing and lighting and so on.”
Nick looked down into her shining eyes and beautiful smile, and silently thanked the Lord for cantankerous old men.
“And anyway,” Jordan continued, “I spend half the week at your place and you spend the rest at mine.”
“We’re not married yet,” Nick told his secret fiancée, “and until we are, you’re my Friday mistress.”