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Chapter Five

The door closed with a click behind Jade’s back. She exhaled deeply as the knots in her gut uncoiled, appreciating the quiet of her office after a far too-revealing lunch.

There was something about Niko that made her both abrasive and eager.

Returning to the routine would help her regain control. Sitting at her desk, she reviewed the afternoon’s schedule. Breakout meetings, as she’d expected, but when she scanned the list of sessions, she paled.

Executive Discovery. With Niko.

Elation and despair dueled comically inside her. She could almost convince herself that she would’ve preferred to be run over by a slow-moving train. Escaping from him, if only for an hour or two, might have eased the realization that she enjoyed their time together.

His endearing personality, coupled with charisma and genuine interest in her, made it difficult to loathe him. She simply had to do a better job of not being affected by it and remember he was the villain.

She straightened a small pile of paper and gently shuffled it into a folder. Grabbing her laptop, she resigned herself to an afternoon of fielding Niko’s outrageously flirtatious ways.

She didn’t register until halfway to the kitchen that she was smiling. When she got there, the scent of fresh coffee wafted through the air, and Niko was pouring his own drink.

“What’s your poison, Jade?” came his question. “I’ve gotta know; it’s driving me crazy.”

She deliberately took a long drink of the sweet liquid in her tall mug. “Perhaps its water laced with iocaine powder and I’m building up my tolerance.”

His resulting grin was swift. “ The Princess Bride ? And here I thought you weren’t a romantic.”

Not one to leave the question in the air, Jade gave him a sidelong glance as they exited together.

“ The Princess Bride isn’t a romance.” When his eyebrows shot up in clear disagreement, she continued. “It’s adventure and comedy and a fairytale all wrapped up in one.”

“And fairytales are definitely not romantic.”

“Not all fairytales have a happy ending like Hollywood claims.” Her history buff was showing, but she didn’t care.

“In the real version, Little Red Riding Hood is eaten by the wolf. The queen in Snow White wanted to eat her heart. The Little Mermaid becomes heartbroken when the prince marries another, throws herself into the sea, and dissolves into sea foam.”

Chuckling, Niko shook his head. “Morbid.”

“My point exactly.”

And then, right as they entered the conference room, Niko’s telepathy echoed in her mind. But The Princess Bride , at its core, is a romance, and that makes you, my darling Jade Lascaux, a romantic.

Choosing not to respond, she took her seat by Trina, taking another slow sip of her the delicious beverage. Her right-hand woman whispered, “Do I need to grab my machete from the car, or are you handling him?”

“Oh, I’m definitely handling him.”

Trina sat up straighter in her seat, apparently hearing the undercurrent behind her words. The protégée’s expression said this conversation was definitely not done—and Jade looked forward to the fallout. With a shrug, she returned her attention to the acquisition.

While she’d been so wrapped up in Niko’s presence yesterday, Jade had barely paid attention to the host of their party or other members of the DNB staff.

As with any high-stakes ‘acquisition,’ a law firm had been hired to facilitate the discussion.

Kurt, a balding man with a well-fitted suit, was the lead on site from Patron and Associates, and one of the few points Jade and Niko fully agreed on.

Kurt led boardroom discussions with the ease of a man who’d seen too many of them, but he gently steered the conversation back on track when it left the rails. As soon as they were back in the room, Niko struck up a quiet conversation with Kurt before taking his seat.

“Icebreaker, ladies and gentlemen.” It seemed Kurt was taking a page out of Niko’s playbook. “Favorite fairytale, modern or classic.”

When it was her turn, Jade simply said, “I prefer Moana. She doesn’t need a prince to save her.”

As conversation spiked following her choice, it was Niko’s answer that caught Jade’s interest. He leaned back in his chair and said, “Shrek. Nothing speaks to me quite like talking donkeys and dragons. Besides, the ogre gets to marry the beautiful princess.”

Jade discreetly rolled her eyes. She telepathically spoke to Niko for the first time, her mental tone full of sarcasm that flowed beneath her poised exterior.

That’s not even a fairytale.

Administrative privilege, Niko replied. Besides, it’s multi-layered. Like an onion.

Ah, now I understand. You must feel a kinship with the ogres.

When his devilish gaze caught hers, she didn’t look away.

If he was going to play the fool card, she’d call him on it.

The intensity of his attention seemed to sear through her, but she wouldn’t back down.

Her snow leopard might be one of the submissive beasts, but that didn’t mean Jade would roll over.

Conversation progressed around them, but they remained locked in a battle of will. The full weight of Niko’s smolder was incandescent. A flush broke out along her skin, but the moment she realized how he was affecting her, she turned her attention to Trina.

She recited the litany of his crimes again to herself. Niko was the enemy. He had entered her legion’s territory unannounced and taken over her company with hostile intent. He was firing her.

She wouldn’t be caught dead flirting with the man.

Cinderella , Snow White , and Frozen each made an appearance, and no one stood out except a woman named Hayley. She batted her false eyelashes at Niko and swooned over her selected fairytale— Sleeping Beauty, ugh —and tossed her hair like a bygone era damsel in distress.

Despite her taste in fairytales, Jade was determined not to hold it against her. They’d met only briefly on the first day. Jade studied the other woman in earnest now.

Hayley’s dark hair was an ambiguous shade between brown and black, curled to perfection.

An upturned nose clearly created by a knife and not genetics sat below heavily made-up eyes.

The woman hadn’t participated much in the conversation so far, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t sharp as a tack—some of the smartest people were quiet.

While Jade had been studying her, Niko made an ostensibly funny comment. Hayley gently rested her manicured hand on his sleeve and leaned forward slightly. A possessive gesture, whether he realized it or not, and one that Jade’s snow leopard instantly disliked. The cat clearly had issues.

It was a good thing they were leaving Hayley’s presence.

Icebreaker complete, Kurt directed each group participating in the breakout sessions to their own conference rooms. Without a word to the other immortal, Jade followed Kurt to a smaller space only two doors away where Trina and Niko’s right-hand man, Caleb, joined them.

Niko’s second had an easy camaraderie with his boss but was also an adept businessman and a conscientious, natural born leader. Jade could see why he was in his position.

Kurt pulled out a thick folder jammed with resumes and profiles of each currently existing executive among the two companies. What began as a fairytale afternoon became a drudgery of hard decisions by the time five o’clock rolled around.

Despite his status as enemy number one, Niko had been civil the entire afternoon. He’d restrained from flirting, given as much as he’d taken, and been courteous to Trina when she cross-examined him on which of his people should give up their livelihoods.

Now, the harder decisions would come into play—and she needed to step up to the plate.

She already had her pink slip, but her people couldn’t be put on the chopping block without her having something to say about it.

She owed it to them to at least attempt to intervene on their behalf.

Going to dinner with the other immortal, illegal as it was in Sagani society, was necessary to protect her employees.

“What are you doing for dinner?”

Niko had the audacity to look surprised. “Why, Jade, are you asking me on a date?”

She gave him a look and continued gathering her things. When she said nothing, he continued. “What, with your comment about Moana not needing a prince, I thought I’d be completely useless to you.”

Not mentioning her alternative reason—intervening for her employees’ jobs—she squared off her papers and carefully folded them into a binder.

“Dinner, or no?”

A self-satisfied grin brightened Niko’s face. “You chose lunch, I choose dinner.”

***

When Jade agreed, she didn’t realize he’d be taking her to a burger place. Or that the burger place he had in mind served nearly plate-sized patties. Flashing neon lights proclaimed ‘World’s Best Burger,’ and the parking lot was packed with both pick-up trucks and electric cars.

“If you brought us here with the intention of seeing me flounder, I can assure you: I’m a burger connoisseur. No patty is safe.”

Snorting, he said, “Well, excuse me , Jade Lascaux. I just didn’t want to go somewhere the waiter lit your dinner on fire before you enjoyed all of two bites. I had no idea your tastes varied so broadly.”

“You’re forgiven. We’ll see how you stack up against a true carnivore, Nikolas Church.”

A shout of greeting welcomed them into the chilly interior of the fast-food joint, and Niko echoed it with his typical charm. She inhaled the smell appreciatively as they neared the counter, her attention directed to the chalkboard menu above the registers.

It was a tough decision. Her leopard would have her order two or even three burgers, positively stuff herself and make sure she spent all post-dinner conversation time in a sleepy stupor.

Niko must’ve read her intention on her face and leaned in toward her. “They won’t limit you to just one, Burger Connoisseur. But if you go over five, we might have to get a bigger table.”

This close, the delicious mint scent of him seemed to ensnare her senses. Her mouth watered, and it wasn’t because of the burgers.

“Go big or go home, Niko.”

“Challenge accepted. I’ll take whatever you’re having.”

Even though she knew she’d regret it, Jade knew it was imperative to rise to the occasion. When she rattled off her order and told the cashier the gentleman would be having the exact same thing, the teenager’s eyes glinted excitedly.

“Two monsters,” he said into the stubby microphone on the register.

At Niko’s frown, Jade bumped his shoulder. “It’s the ogre’s burger of choice.”

For once, there was a hint of pink in his cheeks. She savored the win. He hadn’t known about the secret menu item. He’d soon find out. Neither of them moved from the spot until two large bags were handed over the counter.

“Let’s find out if you’re up to the challenge.”

His fingers wove unexpectedly through hers. A jolt of electricity snaked up her arm while he tugged her toward a bench in the back.

His skin melded against hers, their interlinked fingers tightening as they made their way through the raucous crowd. An odd sense of melancholy stole through her at the sight.

Jade both dreaded the day they parted and simultaneously wished for it with all her might. If Julian were to discover she’d taken a fancy to Niko, a member of another legion, there would be no telling his response. Relationships with foreign Sagani were forbidden.

The problem was that Jade was quickly sinking into the charm of the man before her, and she couldn’t resist taking the next step.