Working Stiff:Casimir (Runaway Billionaires #1)(36)

Arthur rolled his eyes. "So you became a manwhore like the rest of us, did you?"

"Good God. Look who's talking," Cash admonished him.

"Me? I'm as pure as new-fallen snow at Gstaad." Arthur turned back to  Rox, his silvery eyes sparkling. "But Maxence's past is tawdry. I can  find all sorts of references on the society pages."

"They still have those?" Rox asked.

Arthur huffed, pretending to be offended. "What else would they have to write about?"

"Politics. Science. Sports. Who are you guys such that you should be  written about in the papers? I'm sorry, but I don't recognize any of  you. Cash here is an entertainment lawyer, and our clients get talked  about, but they don't talk about us at all."

Arthur leaned over the table to look past her to Cash, a huge grin spreading over his face. "Really?"

Cash growled at him, "I'm a lawyer. And that's all."

"You haven't mentioned anything about the places with high ceilings?"

"There's no reason to."

"For three years?"

Cash enunciated very clearly, "No reason to."

Arthur sat back in his chair, his eyes wide with amusement, and Rox was  totally going to cross-examine Cash about all that later.

"Of course, you're just a common working stiff, just like the rest of  us," Arthur glanced at Rox. "And with this little biscuit puttering  around your office all day, I'll bet you were-"

Cash rose in his chair. "Arthur, do you mind!"

Maxence's dark eyebrows were raised high, but he looked away, toward the deck and the sunlit ocean beyond.

"Anyway," Arthur said, stretching his long arms above his head. "Where  shall we go tonight? Is there a nightclub around here? A theater? A  concert?"

"Oh, we live a very quiet life up here," Cash said. "I thought we could  build a fire in the fire pit on the deck outside and have a drink."

"Good Lord." He turned to Rox. "Is this your doing? Is he ready to  settle down and succumb to the lethal matrimonial virus that seems to be  going around?"

"Oh, Lord, no," Rox said, waving her hands. "Cash and I just work together. We're really just friends."

"Oh, well, if you're just friends. I must have misunderstood. What are we doing tomorrow, then?"

Cash said, "Rox and I are working on some very important contracts.  There are some irregularities, and we are scouring through hundreds-"

"Tomorrow is Sunday," Arthur said, gesturing and catching his tipping  wine glass before it spilled. That was a pretty impressive save,  considering that he had put down most of a bottle of wine by himself.  "Surely you won't work on Sunday. You would have something to say about  that, wouldn't you, Maxence?"

Maxence tilted his head and paused, holding a bite of roasted potato on  his fork. "I'll have to find a church for Mass. Perhaps you would like  to go with me?" he asked Cash.

"I'm Protestant," Cash reminded him. "The Dutch people are Protestant."

"Not all of them, and we wouldn't turn anyone away," Maxence said, his voice low and gentle.

"Oh, of all the sanctimonious bullshit," Arthur said. "God, Maxence. We're not here to bore Casimir until he flees from us."

"Why are you here, then?" Cash asked him.

Arthur continued, "Surely we can find something more interesting to do  than going to church." He turned his silvery eyes on Rox. "What do you  usually do on Sundays?"

"I volunteer at an animal shelter," Rox said.

Maxence lifted his eyes, and he smiled.

Wow, with those dark eyes and perfect cheekbones, when he turned on the  smile, he was truly breath-taking, even if he was a tad on the skinny  side.

A small, lustful part of her brain noted that low body fat revealed  abdominals and other musculature. Under those black clothes, you could  probably see every striation on the muscles that criss-crossed his body.

Okay, she wasn't looking. He was going to be a priest, the kind that gave up women and marriage.                       
       
           



       

And she was sleeping with Cash. Or at least she had once. He hadn't ghosted on her yet, though he was sure to.

But damn. What a waste.

She still told the lustful part of her brain to shut up and quit ogling the priest.

Maxence smiled at her, those dark eyes alight, and said, "Tell me about the animal shelter."

"Yeah," Rox said, blinking and looking at her hands. "It's not  glamourous. I clean the cages and fill the food dispensers, and I help  with the paperwork and accounting and stuff. If you guys wanted to come,  we always need dog walkers and kitten socializers."

"Kitten socializers?" Arthur asked, his dark eyebrows rising. "That's a job description?"

"Yep," she said. "They need to be played with and held and petted so  that they're not afraid of humans. There's a short window. If they're  not properly socialized for at least several hours every day, they'll be  feral their whole lives. They'll be essentially unadoptable as pets. We  try to find them placement as barn cats because it's the only way that  they're happy at all."

"Good God, Casimir! Kitten socializers! Why wasn't I told that this was a  thing? All these years, I've been throwing charity balls and buying  overpriced lots at charity auctions, when I could have been saving my  immortal soul and proving my scant worth as a human being as a kitten  socializer. Come on, Caz. For the love of God, I must give generously of  myself."

Cash raised one eyebrow at him. "It's just a lark to you."

"And yet I shall socialize the kittens! Even you, Maxence, must admit that this is a worthy cause."

"Well, yes. After I find a church for Mass-"

"Oh, come on. You can skip it."

"Actually, I can't." He sopped up the last bit of sauce with the last  chunk of chicken from Arthur's plate and glanced at the windows, where  the sunset glowed over the ocean. "Indeed, if you'll loan me a room,  Casimir?"

"Of course. I'll be right back, Rox. If Arthur tries anything, just yell and I'll kill him when I get back."

"You guys throw around that killin' thing awful casually for someone  who's never held a gun," she called after Cash, but he just laughed as  he walked away with Maxence, probably to one of the other guest rooms he  had shown her on their tour.

She was turning back to Arthur, saying, "So, what do you do-"

Arthur was leaning toward her, nearly nose-to-nose, and his pale eyes  were perfectly serious. He said, very quietly, "Tell me quickly about  the accident. Ana couldn't tell us much, just that he had his spleen  removed and some dry facts about the car, and he's such a private person  that he won't. What has happened to Casimir?"

The switch in him astonished her again.

She said, "It was really bad. His car flipped at least twice, and the windshield shattered and came in at him."

"It sounds like you saw it happen."

She nodded. "I was right behind him. They had to use The Jaws of Life to cut him out."

Arthur blinked, flinching. "Scars?"

"The windshield sliced through the air bags and cut him up. Lots of  little cuts and scrapes all over him. They're fading fast. In a month,  most of them will be invisible."

"It must have been bloody."

"He was really beaten up. Both his eyes were swollen shut, and he had  bruises all over him. The air bags hit him hard, but they saved his  life."

Arthur laid both his hands flat on the table on either side of the empty  plate. "He must have hired nurses to take care of him afterward."

"I stayed with him. After he got out of the hospital, he just needed  someone to make sure he was okay and eating and stuff. He didn't need a  nurse."

Arthur nodded. "So, his spleen. There is a scar?"

"On his side." Rox pointed to her own ribs. "Near one of his tattoos. You know about his tattoos?"

"I helped him design them."

"Oh. Wow. You did a great job."

"And that bandage on his face?"

"I still don't know."

Arthur looked above her head. "Here he comes."

Rox was still gaping at Arthur.

Arthur settled back in his chair, and his smile turned sultry. "So how  long have you two been together? And just how happy are you?"

"Back off, Severn," Cash said as he walked in.

Severn? Wasn't his name Finch-Something?

Must be a nickname or something.

"I was merely asking," Arthur said and winked at Rox. "You never know  what could happen, three adults with natural inclinations. It's not like  we've never explored that." He told Rox, "I'm discounting Max. He's  evidently decided to opt out of any games because he's such an  aesthete."