Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Derek steepled his fingers, his gaze steady on Asher’s. “I want you to go with her and stay so she’s not alone.”
Asher blinked in shock. “Seriously? Why don’t you take her? I’m sure she’d be more comfortable with her brother than someone she barely knows.”
Inclining his head, Derek groaned. “You’re right and I would, but I have a deal closing this week.”
“Shit. Does she want to go with a friend?” Asher wouldn’t mind letting two women use the guest rooms at his house. That way he could do his friend a favor and avoid babysitting a woman with a penchant for finding trouble. One who reminded him of his own bad choices.
Derek shook his head. “Our family name makes it hard for her to trust. People in the modeling industry think she got where she is because of connections. There have been a number of incidents over the years in both social media and the news that make her look bad.”
Asher kept his opinion to himself.
Derek leaned forward. “Listen, I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t really need the favor. I can’t send her alone, she’s too shaken up, and I trust you.”
Asher pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t have any pressing business coming up, but he wasn’t a good choice to be Derek’s sister’s companion. They had nothing in common, not to mention, Asher wasn’t sure she was as innocent as her brother believed. Not with the way she jet setted across the world and the fast crowd he’d seen photos of her running with.
“I didn’t want to do this,” Derek said in the wake of Asher’s silence. “But remember the stage-five clinger you couldn’t shake? You owe me.”
Asher groaned. After Christy, he’d tried to be selective and not get into long-term relationships. The woman Derek mentioned though? She’d been impossible to get rid of despite the fact that he’d been blunt up front. He hadn’t been looking for anything but fun in bed.
At first, he’d tried being pleasant, but she wouldn’t take a hint and brought him lunch every day at work for a week until he’d had to tell the guard to turn her away. She’d shown up outside his apartment each time he went to the gym, and he’d had to change his schedule. He had no idea how she’d known where he lived or what his plans were until he’d discovered she’d befriended his personal assistant, who had shared his information. Then he’d had two women to get rid of.
Asher had been at his favorite upscale bar with Derek, and she’d arrived uninvited. Apparently, she’d decided the best way to get Asher’s attention was to make him jealous, and she’d started hanging all over Derek.
“She sure as fuck transferred her affections easily enough and then she became my problem. I had to change my cell phone number and make out a police report,” Derek muttered.
The man had a point. Asher did owe him. Besides, he’d been about to agree anyway, because he valued the other man’s friendship. “Okay. I was just wrapping my head around the idea of taking Nicolette to the island.”
“She likes to be called Nikki. Only my parents call her Nicolette.”
“And the media,” Asher said, but once they reached the hangar where his plane was, they wouldn’t have to worry about the paps.
“Thank you.” Derek slapped him on the back. “There are only a handful of friends I trust with my baby sister, and you’re one of them. Plus, you have a house on an island,” he said with a chuckle. “Look at it this way. This time I owe you one.”
“It’s no problem,” Asher lied.
“I’ll bring Nikki to Teterboro,” Derek said of the private airport where Asher kept his jet.
Asher nodded, wondering how the hell he’d handle being alone with a twenty-one-year-old girl with a diva-like reputation, who’d no doubt been pampered throughout her life. Even if spoiling her seemed to be a way for her parents to keep her at a distance. Knowing what it was like to have a close family, he felt a tug of conscience for what Nikki had been through, but at least she’d had her brother.
Asher would give anything for Derek to have chosen someone else for this job, but as he’d pointed out, Asher had the home on the island. And a promise was a promise. Even if this trip was guaranteed to be the longest of his life.
Chapter Two
While Nikki packed for the beach and waited for Derek to return, her cell phone rang. Wary, she glanced at the device, seeing the one friend she had in the modeling world’s name flash on the screen.
She answered on the second ring. “Hi, Meg.”
“Girl, what is going on with you?” Meg yelled into the phone. “The whole world has seen your ass.”
Nikki winced. Though Meg could be crass and blunt, she was the only one nice to Nikki when they were surrounded by other models. The rest had labeled Nikki a diva, and her life on the runway was basically a version of Mean Girls. More and more, Nikki wanted out of the life she’d chosen out of necessity, but now wasn’t the time to think that far into the future.