This was the second time in as many days that he’d been invited to that particular gathering. Only this time, he was distinctly more interested in attending because the woman next to him had announced her intention to be there. He ran his hand over his face. What the heck was he thinking? His bed was barely cold from Rosani’s departure. And he was already mentally filling the void with the girl he had crushed on in high school. The very one he was meant to be working with! Attending a party while he was meant to be on the clock wasn’t a good idea, but how often did he get to fool about in his old haunt? “I’ll see what I can do,” he said as noncommittally as possible.
“Great! See you there,” Alluin took his uncertain answer as gospel.
Breht shook his head. It was evident in the way that the other man moved that he hadn’t changed from the energetic youngster they had known from school. He’d never been able to keep still and was rushing from one thing to the next. Clearly, he still had that problem, and the orc watched him go sauntering off down the street.
He turned and took his car keys from his pocket, depressing the button so that the car bleeped out, making it easier to findin the rank and file of the car park. The lights flashed, and he headed towards his Mercedes C-Class Coupe, opening the passenger door for Brierley. Looking suitably impressed with his choice of metallic blue car, she settled herself in. He protectively closed the door for her as she pulled on her seatbelt, which made her seem all the more impressed. Making his way round to the driver's seat with a confident gait to his stride, he opened his own door and settled himself in. As the engine roared to life with a turn of the key, the dashboard lit green lines, and he looked over his shoulder to reverse out of the parking lot. He caught sight of his passenger and offered, “No need to look so terrified.”
He shifted the gearstick and turned the wheel. The roar of the engine hummed as deep as his resonating voice as he revved forward with a deep, comforting purr. Reassuring them both that all would be well and they were in a safe pair of hands.
Chapter 6
Brierleylookedinthemirror of the large, elaborate dressing table. It had been so long since she’d applied proper makeup that it was a small wonder that she still remembered how. She pressed the head of her mascara brush against her eyelash and swiped it, coating her lashes in the dark shade.
“I’m just not sure I quite understand it all,” she said, not for the first time. Tori, her long-suffering friend, made a non-committal noise. “If customers aren’t paying a small amount for the jewellery, why are they going to pay more, surely?”
“That’s why he’s a business manager, not you,” Tori replied, putting one dress in front of her and then another. “Which one do you think?” She asked.
Brierley looked at Tori through the dressing table mirror and pointed, “Is that one new?”
“I got it yesterday,” Tori beamed as she held the plum-coloured, kimono-style dress across her slim body.
“That one then!” Brierley replied with a smile, “I’ve seen the other one before. It just seems counter-productive,” she added without taking a breath between sentences.
“I think what it all boils down to is, do you trust him?”
Silence momentarily fell over them as Brierley concentrated on plumping up her eyelashes, fluttering them at herself to make sure they looked good. Satisfied, she put the lid back on the bottle. “I do,” she announced. The orc already had the keys to her store and was doing goodness-knows what to it! What he’d told her about taking her wares to a more expensive market felt wrong. She could feel the internal resistance of fear holding her back. The warmth that coloured her cheeks as she recalled their open-air meeting didn’t go unnoticed.
“Let Mr Merloft do his thing,” Tori said with a sly grin, “We’ll go out, have a good time and maybe he’ll join us later, and you’ll get your eye candy!”
“What if he’s not even single?” Brierley asked, trying to plunk up another excuse to stop her from making a fool of herself. Aside from a few fleeting touches and lingering eye contact, there hadn’t been much for her to read into. There hadn’t been enough time! Besides, she couldn’t get over the photograph that Tori had dragged up on her phone of him with his arm around the elf’s waist.
“You’re not worried about that elf, are you? The one with the fake tits?” Tori asked, clearly following the train of her friend’s thoughts.
Brierley shot her a dirty look through her reflection in the mirror.
“All right, surgically enhanced tits,” Tori sighed, “Besides, I didn’t see an engagement ring on those tusks of his,” she quashed any argument, drawing on the orcish tradition of unmistakably displaying to any prospective partners if they were available for breeding or not.
Brierley snapped around from the mirror, and she shot, “He totally saw you making blow-job impressions behind his back, by the way.”
Tori howled a laugh, unashamed by her promiscuous gestures. “He's a man, he’d love it!” She mockingly protested.
Looking back, Brierley recalled the unreadable expression on his face when he’d mentioned Tori’s joke. It had confused her at the time; maybe Tori had a point. Maybe he’d been thinking about the indication. Brierley pressed her lips together and hummed.
“You would too!” Tori teased. “You’re not seriously thinking of wearing that tonight, are you?” She asked her friend when her hooting had subsided.
Brierley stood up and looked at her chosen outfit. “Why? What’s wrong with it?” She pulled at the leg of her jeans.
“Oh no, those jeans are fine, but that top! My dear Brierley, if you want to catch the attention of that orc, you’re going to need to flash a bit of flesh,” Tori said, slipping her dress over her shoulders.
“Who said I was trying to get his attention?” She asked.
“You’ve not stopped talking about him since you got here.”
“Talking about work!” Brierley said, aghast.
“Uh-huh,” Tori said. “There’s nothing wrong with fancying a bit of green every now and again.”
“It’s just, when he showed me those designs,” Brierley explained, resting her cheek on the back of her hand as she leaned on the dressing table as she spoke, “There was something about the way he spoke, something raw and… I don’t know, vulnerable, I guess?” She looked at her reflection in the mirror and sat up straight, trying not to look so far away in dreamland.