Page 169 of Boyfriend of the Hour

“Who are they?” Nathan wondered.

“I don’t remember. Their name sounds like a cat. Tyger. Cheetah. Dammit, I know this.”

“Lyons?”

I turned to him with a grin. “That’s the one. Marie is obsessed with one of the brothers. His name is Daniel. You know them?”

He didn’t look thrilled to be nodding his head. “I’m familiar.”

“Of course you are. I bet all you glamor pusses know each other.”

Not even a twitch for my efforts. Just a long sigh as he turned back toward the crowd. “Lucas Lyons is on the board of Huntwell, actually. Yes, that’s him over there with his mother. They live next door to my parents’ house in New Rochelle,” Nathan confirmed. “Daniel isn’t here, but Lucas and I went to Episcopal together.”

I eyed Lucas Lyons, a tall, serious-looking man whom I recognized now fromPage Six. He looked a lot older than Nathan, if only because of his expression. Ice cold. I resisted the urge to shiver.

“Friend of yours?” I wondered. I hoped he didn’t say yes, even though I didn’t think Nathan had many friends.

He shook his head. “Acquaintance, mostly. But he seems like a decent person.” He turned. “Over there is the de Vries table. Eric is a major stockholder in Huntwell, but Dad is also looking at securing a shipping deal with his company. You might like his wife—she’s a designer.”

I shoved into his side. “I actually know that. Eric’s cousin married my brother. They’d probably be here too, if Nina wasn’t eight months preggo. But other than that, I promise I’m a nobody. They’re the special ones.”

I had just finished speaking when we were interrupted by one of thesomebodies, as it happened.

“Joni?”

I turned at the sound of a familiar voice—and a British one at that. My eyes widened when I found Xavier Parker, my sister’s husband, restaurant mogul, and an honest-to-God duke, breaking away from a conversation to round a table toward me.

I blinked, truly shocked. “Xavier? What are you doing here?”

Frankie, apparently, had the same taste I did in large, steely-eyed men who parted crowds like Moses at the Red Sea. Xavier towered over most people in the room, and if they didn’t move, he only had to fix his sharp blue eyes on them, and they flinched like he’d cut them with one of his kitchen knives.

To be honest, none of my family really liked him very much. It was a matter of loyalty. Even if, in the end, Xavier turned out to be kind of nice, seemed to be a good dad, and was stupid in love with my sister, I was supposed to hate him anyway for the years of suffering she’d been through before he came back into her life.

Even if right now, in the middle of this room of circling sharks, he was a life preserver.

“Hey…Xavier,” I said again, nervously trying to ignore the curious looks from the people he’d been speaking to.

“Joni, what the fuck are you doing here?” he asked in his typically coarse way, with that not-quite-upper-crust accent Frankie said was from South London. He might have been a duke, but Xavier’s origins were just as humble as ours.

“I’m here with my boyfriend.” I gestured weakly at Nathan, who stood beside me, taking in Xavier’s presence.

Unlike most people, he didn’t shrink under that dark blue gaze. Considering Xavier only had him by an inch or so, it was rather like watching two wolves challenge each other. One was bristly, British, and kind of rude. The other was quiet, contemplative, and wouldn’t make a move until absolutely pushed.

“The one you just moved in with? Yeah, Ces told me all about that.”

Something in my chest hurt at the casual nickname, pronounced “Chess,” that my new brother-in-law reserved just for Frankie. For all his brusqueness and intimidation, Xavier wasn’t afraid to display the closeness he had with my generally private sister. With him, she was obviously an open book. I got the feeling he was with her too.

I wondered if he understood how special that was.

“So, what’re you doing here, then?” Xavier wondered.

“I’m his date,” I told him. “Obviously.”

“Nathan Hunt.” Nathan extended a hand, and I watched as they exchanged a white-knuckle handshake.

Xavier’s blue eyes, however, popped open at the name. “Radford Hunt’s son?” He turned around as if to search for the evidence.

Nathan nodded. “That’s right. My parents should be arriving momentarily.”