Page 111 of Scattered Glitter

As the Lane Building finally comes into view, the calm shatters. The front is a circus, paparazzi flashing cameras like strobe lights. We’re not going in that way. Instead, we take the back, which will also shield her from anybody seeing her this out of sorts next to me.

“Wake up.”

She jerks awake with a sharp inhale, her eyes darting around, panic flickering across her face. “Did you—”

“Yes,” I admit. “Sorry.”

She shakes her head, the edges of a relieved smile pulling at her lips. “Don’t be. That was… good. Are we already here?”

“We are.”

As I ease the car around the final corner, my stomach knots. Nicholas Harrington, the perfect picture of old money and privilege, is standing next to a black town car, helping his mother out of the vehicle.

God, I hate the prick.

Not as much as I despise his mother.

Our eyes meet for a split second, but his gaze shifts, moving past me to focus on Glitter.

“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, glancing past me, her brows knitting together.

“It’s not ideal that he saw you with me.” I hesitate, then slow down even more, nodding toward the front, where Harrington’s focus is back on his mother, holding out his arm for her to take. “See the guy back there helping Veronica Harrington?”

She turns in her seat in time to catch a glimpse of him as we round the corner. “You mean tall, broad, and handsome?”

A prick of jealousy settles in my gut instantly, and my irritation sharpens.

She thinks he’s handsome?

I tighten my grip on the steering wheel, but then I remind myselfthis isn’t about me.This is for Oscar. Even better if she thinks that dickhead is attractive. Maybe that will make her more convincing. Still, I can’t deny the way it twists inside me.

I pull the car into the back lot, find a quiet space behind the building, and turn to her as I kill the engine. “Nicholas Harrington is your priority tonight,” I explain evenly. “I want you to make him fall for you. No,fuck that. I want you to make himyour bitch. You have the whole evening.”

She raises an eyebrow, intrigued but also…offended?

“Whatexactlydo you need me to do tonight?”

“We need you to steal a hotel card from one of our guests and pass it to another guest without him noticing. We need it to be found on mark number two later, so he’ll be just as surprised about having it. Of course, mark number one can’t realize it’s gone.”

She nods, processing. “Okay, sounds doable.”

It’s back, the bravado, but I know her well enough bynow to understand that her confidence doesn’t mean she isn’t afraid. It means she’s choosing to push through it.

“Get the card, get Nicholas’s attention, be my charming self, then place the card on someone else. I can do that. But if you want me to get him to go home with me, I don’t need an entire evening for that. Honestly, if you give me ten minutes, this would be over. And let’s be real. He’s such a hottie, I’d do that for free.”

Something inside me bristles at her words, the irritation I’d pushed down flaring back up. Not at her, but at the way she offered to fuck him for me. Even though I know she’s deflecting by using humor to mask her nerves, it’s a punch to the gut. And she might even be testing me, seeing what kind of reaction she’ll get.

“No,” I say firmly, shaking my head as I turn fully to face her. “No fast number. I don’t want him in your pants. I want him tofall for you. Totrustyou. To want you close…” I pause, letting the weight of my words sink in. “Got it?”

She frowns. “That’s going to take more than an evening, Koen.”

It absolutely will.

Fuck.

Should I tell her now?

---