Chapter 37
JEREMIAH
“Another shitty day done and dusted,” I murmured to myself, walking into the private bathroom in my office. The only upside to the day was Stephanie agreeing to come with me tonight. My father had been breathing down my neck all week, which was bad enough.
But then he told me this morning one of our investors was a benefactor to some charity in the city. They were hosting a fundraising event tonight, and dear old dad took the liberty of confirming my attendance without bothering to tell me about it. Apparently, one of us had to be there, and he already had plans.
The only reason I wasn’t trying to get out of it was because Stephanie said she’d come with me. A fact my father probably wouldn’t be happy about once he found out. But she was the only woman I wanted on my arm.
Jack told me once, long before I owned more suits than I could count and actually wore them on a regular basis, to always keep at least one tuxedo on hand for last minute black tie events. At the time, I thought he was full of shit.
But now, as I opened the slim closet tucked beside my cramped shower in the office and withdrew a tailored, laundered tuxedo from it, I was grateful for his advice. Sometimes it felt like he imparted all these tidbits to me knowing I would need them one day.
Impossible, but I couldn’t totally shake the feeling that he’d known somehow. I shoved the thought back into the compartment it came from and took a quick shower, looking forward to seeing Stephanie in the dress I chose for her.
It had been an easy choice once I had the personal shopper I used send me some options. As soon as I saw it, I was dying to see her in it. If the color in the picture held true, it should be the same color as the rims around her pupil and iris, the same as the diamond-like patterns the flecks between the rims formed.
The fitted bodice was also bound to have me going out of my mind, but I would suppress my urge to rip it off her. Probably. The personal shopper assured me it would fit her like a glove and make her feel gorgeous, another reason why I chose it—so it wasn’t all selfish.
I dressed in the tuxedo after my shower, only bothering to check I was all buttoned up before leaving the bathroom. When I got to Stephanie’s office, she was ready and standing in her dress.
“You look...” I breathed, pausing in the doorway. Speechless for the first time I could remember. “Stunning.”
Now there was the understatement of the century. She treated me to a dreamy smile, holding her arms out to her side to spin around. “I feel like a princess.”
“You look like a princess.” I wasn’t even over-exaggerating. She looked breathtaking, fit for any royal event. And I’d actually been to a few. “You’re beautiful, Steph.”
Her smile was radiant when she stopped spinning, then her gaze settled on me and the smile disappeared. Eyes raking up and down my body like I did to her less than a minute ago, she swallowed and got a slightly dazed look in her eye before she blinked.
If I was wondering, she was definitely still attracted to me. I’d been told on a few occasions I cleaned up well. It was nice to know she agreed. When she found her voice, she cleared her throat primly. “Thanks, you don’t look too bad yourself.”
“High praise,” I said, striding across her office to open the door. I needed to get out of this building. The air in here had been choking me since before noon. “You ready to go?”
“More than ready,” she said, already coming up behind me. I was about to open the door when I felt her small hand lightly come to rest on my bicep. When I turned to face her, I found her standing less than a foot away from me. Eyes wide and excited, she smiled shyly. “Before we leave, I just wanted to thank you. This is all… I don’t even know what to say. It’s too much, but it’s so beautiful.”
I returned her smile, feeling the same strange catch in my heartbeat I felt earlier this week. I really had to remember to call Dr. Adams if this didn’t stop soon. “It’s not too much. It’s the perfect amount. You deserve to be spoiled. And if I get to see you in it, then it’s just so much better.”
Pink tinged her cheeks, and her eyes dropped to my lips for a moment before she pulled her lower lip into her mouth. I couldn’t remember ever having wanted anything so bad as I wanted to tug it free. With my teeth. “What if I wanted to go home and just pretend to be a princess all night?”
“I would let you go do it, but you’re going to feel more like a princess when we get to where we’re going.” I was hoping the pretentious jerks that usually attended these functions would behave themselves tonight. I didn’t want Stephanie to regret saying yes to coming with me.
She leaned her head to the side, not letting go of my arm. “Where were we going again?”
“You’ll see when we get there.” I grinned, stepping away from the door so she could precede me. “Now come on, before we’re late.”
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly, sweeping past me in the dress that was already making me regret choosing it if I wasn’t going to be the one taking it off. “Can’t be late to an event you don’t know about.”
“Nice try woman, but I’m still not ruining the surprise.” I followed her to the elevator. This time on a Friday, the office was mostly deserted. The few people who saw Steph and I leaving together all dressed up weren’t usually responsible for feeding the rumor mill, but I was beyond caring about it anyway.
I decided earlier in the week I didn’t really give a fuck who saw us together or what they thought. Most of what they thought was probably true anyway. My father was the only one who could reprimand me, and he already knew we “carpooled.” He’d given me more than one earful about it this week.
The fundraiser was being held behind one of the most closely guarded doors of all the closely guarded doors in a city where there were more of those than any tourist would ever imagine. This particular set of doors hid behind them the exclusive Blackstone Club.
Housed in a nondescript building, membership carried an initiation fee of over fifty thousand dollars—excluding the annual membership fees.
How Dad’s investor arranged for an event of this nature to be hosted here was a complete mystery to me. Jack and I became members pretty much the day we attained the age of majority, a membership requirement. But most people didn’t even know the place existed. You didn’t only have to be super wealthy to become a member, but you had to meet a strict set of criteria and be invited from the inside.
Stephanie gave me a strange look when we arrived outside the club’s doors, which didn’t have a secret knock to gain access but might as well have for the rigorous process of gaining access I knew was happening behind the scenes.