We sat in silence as those around us finished their meals and our plates were cleared. When Titan’s name was called for his keynote address, he turned to me.
“Don’t go running off. We have a date when I’m finished.”
I gritted my teeth and stared longingly at the exits. Well, all but the one in Con’s direction. I deliberately avoided looking that way. I didn’t need to give Titan any more ammunition. Although it seemed he already had plenty.
As Titan gave his speech, I couldn’t stop myself from trying to figure out what the hell he could possibly want from me. He made it clear it wasn’t sex. But he also made it clear that it wasn’t something I’d do willingly. True to his word, he kept it short, and ten minutes later he was rejoining me at the head table. The award-winners received their recognition from the executive director, and the event was officially over. I stood, desperate to get the hell out of the room, but Titan grabbed my elbow.
“This way, my dear.” He led me toward the door, directly past where Con was speaking with the boy from his gym.
Con’s expression darkened when he saw Titan’s hand wrapped around my elbow, but I just smiled and placed my hand over it. I didn’t want Con to think I was being manhandled, which I was, out the door. There was no telling what he’d do. I’d have to explain it later.
I stood next to Titan at the valet stand and waited while they brought around both of our cars.
He helped me into mine and told me to follow him to Emeril’s Delmonico. Given the public nature of the location, I wasn’t as uneasy as I would otherwise have been. But still, I really had no idea what I was walking into.
I caught a glimpse of Con striding toward the valet as I pulled away. His eyes were hot and hard.
I had a feeling my explanation had better be good, or this deal of ours would be over before it started.
Ten minutes later, I pulled up in front of another valet stand and handed off my keys. Titan once again took my arm, but didn’t speak as he led me to the maître‘d. A few words exchanged and we were ensconced in a private dining room. So much for thinking a public location would be safer. But I supposed this might be better if we were going to argue, and he was going fling around accusations about Con and me.
I declined when he offered me a glass of wine, but he filled it anyway, saying, “You’re probably going to need it.” I was finding his high-handed nature incredibly annoying.
I purposely didn’t speak. I waited in sullen silence while he sat back and eyed me.
“Oh come on, Vanessa. That’s a thousand dollar bottle of wine you’re shunning.”
“And you think that impresses me?”
His boyish grin was almost infectious. “I guess that’s a no. I’ll be taking notes, in case you’re wondering.”
“The only thing I’m wondering is what the hell you want.”
He nodded and sipped his wine. “I think that’s pretty simple. I want you.”
“Well that’s a problem, because I’m not interested.”
“Right, because you’re fucking the one guy who shouldn’t have been allowed in that room tonight.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Nor would I be filling him in.
“Maybe not, but I watched him haul you into that coat closet. If you didn’t have something to hide, you wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
“If you’d be so kind as to cut to the chase, I’d like to get home and get my beauty sleep.”
“I kind of like it when you pull out that bitch tone on me.”
“I don’t give a damn what you like.”
As though I’d flipped a switch, Lucas Titan’s joking mood evaporated.
“All right, then. This is the deal: essentially, I need you to do for me what you were doing with Duchesne.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I need access to the upper circles of New Orleans’s society. For instance, the one your father orbits.”
The reason I was sitting here became much clearer. “And you’ve managed to burn the bridges that would have let you get there on your own.”
He lifted his wine glass as though toasting me. “You’re not only beautiful, but smart.”
“And you need this badly enough to blackmail me into helping you?”
He tsked at me. “Blackmail is such an ugly word, Vanessa. I prefer mutual assistance with repercussions for failure to deliver.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You sound like a lawyer.”
“Rest assured, I’m nothing but a simple engineer.”
“I get the feeling there’s nothing simple about you, Titan.”
“And I already said you are as smart as you are beautiful.”
“And if I agree? You’ll, what? Forget you saw anything—even though I maintain you didn’t see what you thought you did—and you won’t intentionally destroy my chances at the executive director position?”
“Exactly.”
Two deals in one night with two very different men. It was exhausting. I wanted to curl up in my bed and forget this night had ever happened.
“Then you better lay out exactly what you want from me, because if I don’t agree to it up front, I’m not agreeing to it at all.”
His lips curled into a mocking smile. “I really do like you, Vanessa.”
“And like I said before, the feeling isn’t mutual.”
“Then you better be a hell of an actress, sweetheart. Because to hold up your end of the deal, you’ve gotta sell it.”