Page 47 of Charming Deception

She grins. “Now there’s the girl I know and love.” She hops to her feet and opens the closet. “Put on that thong, and let’s find something hot for you to wear tonight. The sexually adventurous men of Vancouver are just waiting to meet you.”

I give in—Summer of Yes and all—and admit, “There’s a matching bra,” and pluck it from the drawer.

“Perfect.” She’s rifling through her clothes, tugging out pieces and tossing them on the bed. “One question. What if it turns out that this Jameson guy checks off all the boxes on your list?”

I roll my eyes to the ceiling. “Can I just focus on getting a job, some plates, and a way to pay rent, and then we’ll see about a guy fitting into the picture?”

“Sure, sure. I’m just saying, a man like that won’t be on the market forever. Don’t move too slowly if you see something you like.”

“Oh, Nikki.”

* * *

That evening, when Nicole’s friend Dani rolls up in an Uber to pick us up, we rally down to the lobby and push through the heavy glass doors, laughing.

It’s strange; I haven’t heard myself laugh like this in so long.

As we got ready for ladies’ night, we drank a couple of shots of Nicole’s favorite alcohol, Sambuca, while she told me all about the rock stars she’s met by now, because I asked. The list included the ones who own the nightclub she works at, the ones who come into the nightclub, and of course, Dani’s connections. Though, despite her best efforts, Nicole’s only ever managed to hook up with one of them.

A few years back, through Dani and her twin sister, Nicole met drummer Xander Rush, and screwed him, twice. But then, according to her, he ghosted her because she asked him to put her over his knee and spank her and he said, “I don’t know you well enough for that.”

For some reason we thought that was crazy funny, and I demanded, “How can a rock star be such a prude?” Because the two (giant) shots were already going to my head and I was getting lippy.

And I thought, This is what I never had.

I never, ever had this period in my life when I lived wild and free with my girlfriends, got dressed in sexy clothes and put loud music on and did shots and went barhopping and flirted with men I’d never see again.

Or hooked up with them for the night.

I lived in a town where everyone knew everyone, and there was only one bar, and anyway, I hadn’t been truly single since I was seventeen, but still.

When I told Nicole about this sad lack in my life, she said soberly, “You just described every night of my life,” and I laughed my way right out her front door.

When Dani’s Uber honks at us from the street, Nicole heads toward it along the sidewalk, but I stop in my tracks. I stumble a little as my attention is seized by the view across the street.

The laughter dies in my throat.

Parked at the curb directly across from Nicole’s building is a gleaming black limo, and a man stands next to it, staring at me.

A tall, strikingly gorgeous man with wavy, sun-kissed hair and light-blue eyes. He wears tight, deep-blue dress pants that showcase his long, muscular legs and a fitted button-up shirt the same color as his eyes. And a tie.

His clothes look like they might split open if he flexes.

Jameson Vance has the body of a superhero and the face of an angel, and how the hell he’s single, I’ll never know. There are stunningly beautiful women out there, too, and there’s no way they aren’t all over this man every time he leaves his house.

And there he is, staring at me.

I suddenly feel ridiculously sex-forward in the black velvet leggings, glittery, sleeveless T-shirt, and heels that Nicole talked me into. I grip my purse tight to my ribs and try to remember how to breathe as his eyes move over me.

“Megan?” Nicole calls to me from the open back door of the Uber.

I barely hear her.

I’m in that tunnel again, where the world turns blurry and unreal around me, like a watercolor painting, leaving nothing but the man in front of me.

“Um… just a minute,” I say hoarsely.

Nicole must see what I’m seeing, because she doesn’t say another word as I wander to the curb and dangle there, uncertain.

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