Taming the VIP Playboy (3 page)

She was starting over—why not start over with her attitude toward men? Why not have some fun?

“How do you keep from caring too much?” Jen asked.

Alison shrugged. “He's not the one so it's just fun. I don't think about anything except having a good time with him. If he's too busy to make it to something I'm doing, I call someone else.”

Jen didn't know if she could do that. She wanted to.

“Why?”

“I…I wish I could be like that.”

“You don't even date,” Alison said. “We've known each other for eighteen months now and you haven't met a guy for coffee.”

“I know. I'm just not into the casual scene but maybe I should be. I mean, I don't want to spend the rest of my life alone.”

Alison smiled. “Want to come and hang with Richard and me tonight?”

Jen shook her head, then realized that she needed to do something different. “Okay. I'll do it.”

“Good. Richard always has his posse with him and there are at least two guys I know who will be interested in you.”

She swallowed. “What if I can't do it?”

“Then it's no biggie. They aren't exactly looking for a commitment.”

She reentered the rehearsal room. Nate was standing off to one side, talking on his cell phone and she stared at him. And it hit her.

She didn't want to just learn how to lighten up and have fun with any friend of Richard's. She wanted to do it with Nate. He was the only reason why she was even considering changing her ways.

She wanted to spend more time with him but it didn't take a rocket scientist to know that Nate wasn't a long-term dating kind of guy. He always had a new woman on his arm and he was always in the papers. He was an arm-candy kind of guy and she'd never been an arm-candy kind of girl.

Wanting to be with him was understandable. He was hot and flirty. He made dancing feel the way she wanted it to. And he had the kind of dark eyes that she could lose herself in. But that didn't mean that she should pursue this any further than on the dance floor.

Hell, for all she knew he didn't want her for anything other than publicity for the club. Shaking her head, she put on “Mambo No. 5” and got the class ready to conga out into the crowd as she heard Manuel, the deejay for the open-air room, start warming them up.

“Everyone get ready.”

“I know I am,” Nate said. She felt his hands on her hips and she stumbled over her first step. She stumbled! That never happened.

But Nate caught her, and his hands on her hips as she led the way into the main room were all she thought of. She knew whether it was wise or not she wasn't going to deny herself the chance to get to know Nate better.

Because he was exactly her kind of man.

N
ate glanced around the crowded balcony club area and spotted just enough A-listers to make the party interesting. Leaning forward, he whispered in Jen's ear.

“That's Hutch Damien over there. Let's get him in this conga line.”

“I don't know him.”

“I do. Head over that way,” Nate said.

He directed Jen as the line snaked through the tables. She had no microphone on, the deejay did all the talking in this club getting patrons on their feet. She left the conga line and approached the velvet ropes.

“Wanna dance?” she asked in that flirty way of hers.

“I never turn a pretty lady down,” Hutch said with a grin. He hopped up and Nate moved back in the conga line to make room for him. The music swelled and Jen
snaked through the room gathering up many of the people who all wanted to say they danced with Hutch Damien.

Hutch was a bona fide Hollywood superstar who'd started his career as a teenage rapper, but not with that hard-edged gangster rap—more of a sophisticated and fun sound that had him climbing the pop charts. He had movie-star good looks that he capitalized on to make films that people loved. And he was a genial guy.

Nate and he went way back to before his playing days when they'd both been rich boys at prep school. Since that image didn't jibe with Hutch's public persona of a rapper who made good, they seldom mentioned that fact to anyone.

Jen led them into the middle of the dance floor and then moved off to the side as the music ended and the deejay played “Hips Don't Lie” by Shakira.

Nate left T.J. and Hutch on the dance floor as a group of women came up to dance with them and probably grab a picture or two on their cell phones.

Jen was nowhere to be seen forty-five minutes later. He sent a message to Cam checking in to see if there was anything he needed from him. Then he tweeted about the club, talking up Hutch and T.J. on the dance floor.

He pocketed his phone and sought out his friends in the VIP section. He quickly found Hutch and T.J. and sat down with them. But Nate couldn't stay up here all night; he needed to make sure that there were celebrities throughout the club.

Nighttime was his busiest time but he loved it.

“Where you going?” Hutch asked him when he got up.

“We have a band performing downstairs.”

“Not until ten,” Hutch said, glancing pointedly at his watch.

Nate grinned sheepishly at his friend.

“There's a girl…” T.J. said.

“There's always a girl for our Nate.”

“Yes, there is always a girl. I think you'll like her.”

“So she's for me?”

“No,” Nate said. “She's mine.”

“Fair enough, who is she?” Hutch asked.

T.J. took a sip of his rum and Coke and leaned over the edge of the table, his eyes skimming the dance floor. Jen was in the middle doing a flamenco dance. “There she is. The dark-haired one dressed in red.”

“Nice,” Hutch said. “She works here?”

“Yes,” Nate said, leaning back against the padding of the banquette. “Dance teacher.”

“What's her name?” Hutch asked.

“Jen,” Nate said.

The fact that he was going to bring her up here said more than he wanted it to. His friends understood that he rarely invited someone who wasn't a part of their group to join them. They were the same way. But Jen was different.

“I like her,” T.J. said. “She's funny and knows how to move her body. And this one got jealous when she touched me.”

“I am not jealous of you,” Nate said.

That was one thing he'd never been. Even when he had been injured and had to quit playing ball he'd never envied those who still played. He didn't waste time dreaming about what might have been. He lived his life to the fullest and if that sometimes meant he had to course correct then he did it.

“I know, man, just joshing with you. Go get your girl before she disappears,” T.J. said.

Nate glanced back at the dance floor. Sure enough, Jen and her assistant Alison were taking bows and leaving the club. For the night, he knew.

Nate stood up and walked through throngs of people in the club. He stopped to sign autographs for Yankees fans and posed for pictures with scantily clad women. He kept his smile in place even though he was impatient and wanted to get to Jen.

Cam texted him that there was some kind of problem with the guest list and Nate knew he needed to get down and take care of it, but he was afraid to miss Jen.

Afraid?

He shook his head and began making his way to the front desk instead of waiting for her. He walked down the grand staircase and looked at all the people crowding the dance floor and tried to take some satisfaction from it. This was his life. Luna Azul—the blue moon. Which had been the name of their father's boat when they'd been growing up.

They spent long lazy summer days on that yacht, just his dad and his brothers. Away from their shrew mother's demanding voice. Away from the shore where everyone wanted a piece of Jackson Stern, the PGA golf phenom. Away from the real world on the ocean where they could just be themselves.

And Nate had thought naming the club after that childhood oasis had been a stroke of genius, but then Cam was good about doing those kinds of things. Finding a connection between the past and the present.

He got to the VIP desk just as he caught a whiff of a familiar flowery scent. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Jen standing there.

“Sorry about this. I was told my sister and her friend would be able to get in tonight if I left their names here.”

“Of course they can,” he said, realizing that this was fate. Jen and he were destined to spend this night together.

 

Jen had been trying to avoid Nate. Having his hands on her hips during the conga had made her too aware of him. And she knew that she was on the verge of doing something stupid once again so, of course, there'd be a problem with Marcia and her friend getting into the club tonight. And it seemed fitting that Nate would be the one man they'd call to fix it.

“I'm so sorry,” she said again.

“It's not a problem,” Nate said. He turned to Marcia and smiled at her. “I'm Nate Stern.”

“Marcia Miller, and this is my friend Courtney.”

“Pleasure, ladies. Give me a few minutes and I will get this straightened out,” he said.

He walked back over to the VIP desk and Jen wanted to disappear now while she still could. This was embarrassing. She didn't want to bother him.

“Is this okay?” Marcia asked.

“Yes, it's fine. Nate will take care of it.”

“I don't want you to get in trouble,” Courtney said.

“I won't,” Jen said. She hoped she was right. The club policy was that two comp tickets a month were issued to the employees and she hadn't ever used hers. So she knew that she was technically in the right.

“It's fine,” she said again.

Marcia reached over and rubbed her arm. “Nate Stern? Is he your boss?”

“Sort of. You know who Nate is, Marcia, don't pretend you don't.”

“I do. It's odd that he seems to be handling operational things. I thought he was a playboy.”

Jen shrugged. “That's his image and it works for the club but he's doesn't strike me as someone who's just loafing around waiting for a free ride.”

“That's reassuring,” Marcia said.

“I know it is.”

“How do you know him?” Courtney asked.

“He was in my dance class tonight…one of his friends had signed up and I guess he tagged along to make sure it went smoothly.”

“Has he done that before?” Marcia asked.

“No and I've had bigger celebs than T. J. Martinez in the class.”

“You had T.J.—”

“Yes, stop drooling, Courtney.”

“Ha. I'm not drooling, but he's hot. You have the best job.”

“You're just saying that because all you do is Excel spreadsheets all day.”

“Very true,” Courtney said. “He's coming back.”

Jen glanced over her shoulder to see Nate walking toward them. He held up two tickets, which he handed to Courtney and Marcia. “Have fun, ladies.”

“We will. Thank you, Mr. Stern,” Marcia said.

“Call me Nate. And you should thank your sister. There was just a mix-up with the list you were on,” he said.

“Thanks, Jen,” Marcia said. “Are you coming with us?”

She nodded.

“Can I have a word before you go in?” Nate asked.

“I will meet you both inside in a few minutes,” she said to Marcia and Courtney.

As they left, she turned to Nate. “What's up?”

“Do you have plans for this evening?”

She wrinkled her brow. “I'm meeting my sister and her friend.”

“I guess that sounded stupid,” he said.

“Just a little bit. Why did you ask?”

“I want you to join me.”

“Why?” she asked.

“I think you would be fun to hang with.”

She tipped her head to the side to study him. She wanted to say yes and thought about what Alison had said earlier about just having fun. She couldn't ask for someone who knew how to party better than Nate. “Okay.”

“Wow, did you really have to think on it?”

“Yes,” she said. “I'm not…I don't make snap decisions.”

“I'll remember that. Do you need to check in with your sister?”

“Yes. Why don't you come and hang with us for a little while?”

“That wasn't what I had in mind.”

“What did you have in mind?” she asked. She had no idea why she'd agreed to this and she might be in over her head. She should have eased herself back into the dating scene with one of Courtney's financial analyst friends or someone that worked at her sister's law office instead of jumping straight from stay at home every night to Nate Stern.

“You and me burning up the dance floor.”

She looked up at him. “I'm not your kind of girl, you know that, right?”

“No, I don't. I think you and I are going to get along very well.”

“That's what I'm afraid of,” she said under her breath. But in for a penny in for a pound, she thought. She wanted this night and this man so she was going to go for it.

“Come on, Nate. See if you can keep up.”

He laughed a full robust laugh. It made her smile just to hear it. He was that kind of guy. The kind that knew how to enjoy life, and she realized she needed someone like that. She needed to learn how to go with the flow.

He took her hand in his big one and led the way into the club, over to where Marcia and Courtney waited. She tried to tell herself that she was in control of this but she had the feeling that Nate was and she wasn't sure what the outcome would be.

 

Marcia and Courtney left at midnight but Nate wasn't ready to let Jen go yet.

“Stay,” he said when they were in the lobby under the beautiful Chihuly glass sculpture depicting the night sky.

“I'm not sure that is wise,” she said. “I have to work tomorrow.”

“Not until the evening. Stay and play with me, Jen,” he said.

“I…okay, why not? What will we do now?”

“There's an after-party for the band. It's up in your court—the rooftop club.”

“Okay. But I can't stay past two,” she said.

“I won't hold it against you if you change your mind.”

“Are you really that confident of yourself?” she asked.

“Of course. I know that you are enjoying yourself and your sister told me that you don't have enough fun.”

“She said that?”

“Yes.”

“What else did she say?”

“That you were her little sister and she'd hurt me if I hurt you.”

Jen flushed. “She's just overprotective. Our mom worked a lot when we were growing up and Marcia was the one who always had to watch me.”

“Some habits never die,” Nate said. “It's the same with Cam and me.”

“I can see that about him. He's like everyone's older brother here.”

“He takes care of family. If you cross him…well, I wouldn't.”

“Me, either,” Jen said.

“Do you know him well?” Nate asked. It seemed odd to him that he'd just met Jen today and that his brother might have known her longer.

“Not really. But he asked me to serve on the tenth anniversary celebration committee.”

“Yes, I am to be on that committee, too, so we will be seeing a lot more of each other.”

She glanced down and he wondered at her expression. But then T.J. came over and slung an arm around his shoulder. “Buddy, how's it going?”

“Good,” he said, realizing T.J. was drunk. He was reluctant to stop talking to Jen, now that he was finally learning a little about her, but T.J. needed him.

“Let's find a table to sit down and chat.”

“Nah, I'm making the rounds. Did I tell you that I'm a single guy again?”

Nate shook his head. “I heard it through the grapevine.”

“Everyone has,” T.J. said.

“I think I see a table in the back that will be nice. Why don't you two go grab it and I'll get us some drinks,” Jen said.

“Not a problem, Jen. As soon as we sit down, Steve will send my usual drink order over,” Nate said.

“I don't think he'll know what I want, so I will tell him and then join you both,” she said.

“Thanks,” Nate said, leading T.J. through the crowds to the table that Jen had spotted. T.J. was rambling a little about being single again.

“I hate it, man. I'm not like you. I don't like the party life. I want to go home with the same woman every night. Have a nice little house in the suburbs, ya know?”

Nate patted him on the shoulder. “I do know. It will work out when you find the right girl.”

“The right girl? I doubt there is one out there. We don't meet nice girls, ya know?”