Staffan smirked. "Don't mind me."
Yanna glared in response. When she tried to get up, Constantijin pulled her back and murmured, "Stay, schat." She sank back onto him after that, never able to resist his tender commands.
Something in Staffan twisted at the tenderness in his friend's voice. He didn't like hearing it, didn't like to remember that once he had been like that with a woman, too. But unlike Yanna, that woman had ended throwing him under the bus and running Staffan over as many times as she could get away with it.
He said abruptly, "I want to go over the list of raffle draw winners for the tickets one last time." When the operational head of his fan club filed for sick leave, Yanna had volunteered to step in, thus becoming in charge of all promotions meant to increase funding for the club.
Yanna gasped, scrambling off Constantijin's lap as she exclaimed, "I forgot the list! I think it's in the car. Constantijin had it with him but I don't remember him taking it out."
Knowing that Staffan's words were only an alibi to get Yanna out of the room, Constantijin shot him a dark look before offering, "Let me get it, Yanna."
But Yanna had already fished out the car key from his pocket. "No, it's okay. Let me get it while you stay here and catch up with Staffan." She sent him a teasing smile. "I know you miss your friends."
Constantijin scowled. "I do not."
"Yes," Yanna sang over her shoulder as she skipped to the doorway, "you totally do!"
This constant teasing had at first bothered Staffan. In the years he had been going out with Chloe, they had only ever teased each other about sex. His history with Chloe had made him think that the other couple was unlikely to stay together for long.
Constantijin was an overtly sexual man, his appetite for women known by the entire world, while Yanna had obviously led a sheltered life. But after spending more time with the two, Staffan had realized that somehow the love-hate chemistry between the pair worked, and it did so in a way that he and Chloe had never experienced, no matter how intensely passionate things had always been between them.
The moment the door closed behind Yanna, Constantijin said, "Next time use another alibi. I don't want Yanna tired for no reason---"
"She's only going to tell your head of security to get stuff from your car," he said exasperatedly. "How hard can that be?"
Constantijin shook his head. "Wait until that girl on Facebook has her hooks in you and you'll know---"
"Just tell me if it's done," he growled, hating how the two made it appear as if he was stalking Saffi March. And he wasn't. He just … liked checking out what she was doing online because she was too amusing for words. And unique.
She was unlike any girl he had known. Through his near-constant digging online, Staffan had learned that Saffi was taking up some kind of deep-as-hell post-graduate degree that had to do something with fish.
A smile almost cracked on his lips as he remembered how she would post gushing thoughts about her paper on subjects like Ocean Law and Advanced Ichthyology. And between those posts, he remembered her comments on every fucking photo of him that made it to the social networking site.
God he's so … YUMMY.lol, she had commented on a photo taken of Staffan wearing nothing but a skimpy pair of black swimming shorts while he had been vacationing in Hawaii. The comment had aroused him – he very much liked the idea of Saffi thinking his body was "yummy" - but it also completely bemused Staffan how someone so obviously smart and proper like Saffi was also a diehard fangirl of his.
Constantijin's chuckle made him snap defensively, "What?"
His friend looked at him pointedly. "Apparently, there's no need to wait. You haven't even seen her in person and she already has you wrapped around her finger. That's so sweet."
"Shut up." He pulled on his collar, feeling like the air-conditioning in his room had stopped working. "Just tell me if you sent the tickets or not!"
Constantijin laughed. "It's done. Stop worrying."
Staffan's chest eased, and only then did he realize that he had been partially holding his breath. He had cared that much about the outcome, and the knowledge didn't sit well with him at all. "You're sure?"
"I got her signature on the acknowledgment receipt. She got the ticket."
"But do you know if she'll use it?"
Constantijin's smirk mirrored his own, making Staffan realize how fucking arrogant he could look when he was the one doing it. Irritatingly arrogant, he thought as Constantijin continued to smirk.
"Well?" Staffan demanded.
"That's what FB stalking is for." Constantijin's bark of laughter echoed throughout the suite when Staffan answered him with a one-fingered response.
His friend gestured towards his laptop. "Just fucking do it while Yanna's not here to tease you."
"Go to hell." But Staffan was already opening his laptop and indulging in his secret hobby for the past three months. By using the Facebook account of his fan club, he was instantly connected to Saffi's. And her page was very illuminating.
Staffan's eyes widened when he read the topmost conversation thread at her wall.
Seeing his expression, Constantijin swiftly crossed the room, standing behind his friend to read what was on the screen.
"Goddammit, Kastein. When did you turn into a fucking gossip?" He tried to close his laptop again, but Constantijin quickly swiped his laptop out of the table.
Helene: So you're all set to go to LA?
Saffi: Yep! I've got the concert and plane tickets already. *Sigh* What can I say? He loves me so much that he can't bear to go on stage without me watching from the front row.
Helene: ROFL
Saffi: No, really. He totally texted me that. He even said he's going to die if he doesn't see me!
Helene: Yeah, sure, sure. Enjoy the concert! So happy for you!
Saffi: lol I will. Thanks, Helene! Will post pics as soon as I can.
When Yanna came back, Constantijin was still in the throes of laughter and completely impervious to Staffan's scowls. Yanna frowned. "What did I miss?"
"Kastein," he growled in warning.
But his friend was suddenly selectively deaf. He said very seriously, "Let's just say I found out from an extremely reliable source that our good friend here will apparently die---"
As Yanna gasped, Staffan gritted out, "Shut the fuck up."
Constantijin laughed harder.
~~~
"L.A." Saffi's mother, Pearl, sounded shell shocked as she repeated the name of her youngest child and only daughter's destination. "And without the bodyguards?"
Saffi answered firmly, "Yes, Mom. Without any of the bodyguards."
A part of the five-way-call that Saffi had initiated, Senator Samuel March – who also happened to be Saffi's dad – answered darkly, "It's too dangerous."
"No, it's not. I bought first class. I'm checked in at a five-star hotel, and I've had the hotel hire my own driver and car while I'm here. You guys always tell me first class is enough to---"
"But L.A."
In spite of her resolve to stand firm, Saffi found herself smiling at the note of real distress in her mother's voice. There were several coughs from the other ends of the line, and she guessed that her other siblings, Steel and Silver, were doing their best not to laugh out loud.
Pearl Beaufort March was a lady's lady, a woman who could trace her lineage all the way back to its Mayfair legacy. She had been educated in an all girls' school and a ladies' college, and she had never taken the Lord's name in vain.
Saffi was honest enough to admit that she wasn't the most street smart person in the world, but Pearl was even worse, a throwback from centuries past, the kind who thought women were quite "brazen" to say ‘hi' to a man without a proper introduction.
"I'm going to be okay, Mom. I promise."
"But what about your fishies, sis?" This one was from Silver, who was three years older than Saffi. "Can you bear to leave them for the weekend?"
She rolled her eyes. "Hmph! As if you really care." Even so, she made a mental note to herself to call Mary, the undergrad student living across from her room. Saffi had to make sure Mary would indeed look after her aquatic pets.
Steel, five years older and the more serious minded of her brothers, asked quietly, "Can't you reconsider, Saffi? At least keep one bodyguard with you."
"No." She obeyed them all the time, and had no problems doing so. But this was different. This was … not for them to know about her. "You all know you can trust me, right? I'm not the type to go wild. You know that." She crossed her fingers as she spoke, hoping God wouldn't strike her dead for saying such a big whopping fat lie.
All for the love of Staffan Aehrenthal, she reminded herself.
"Fine," the senator said in a heavy tone. "You win. But only because you asked it as your birthday gift."