Page 5 of Wicked Desire (Sapphic Billionaire Club #2)

Nicole

T wenty years ago…

“I can’t believe those girls all came to prom without dates,” my friend Mariah sneered as Grace walked by with her two best friends. “I think they’re all lesbians or something.”

The way she said lesbian clearly conveyed that she thought it was a huge insult. I didn’t share that I’d been having some very confusing feelings about girls lately myself. That would be social suicide.

“I’m going to go get a drink,” I said, following the trio of friends towards the refreshment table.

Grace looked lovely tonight in a jade green dress that hugged her lithe body and sky-high heels. Meanwhile I felt frumpy in a boring navy blue dress that my mother had picked out.

“You need something to hide your love handles,” she’d told me.

My prom date had been set up by my parents, the son of one of their business partners, and the guy couldn’t be less interested in me. He’s scarcely said a word to me all night. That was the price I paid for not having a boyfriend like all my friends. If only I was thinner. And blonde.

It wasn’t fair. Grace’s life was so perfect and she was so beautiful, and no matter how much lettuce my mother forced me to eat, I couldn’t get rid of my curves.

“Cute dress,” Grace said as I grabbed a drink. The look on her face made it clear that she was being sarcastic.

“Oh thanks, you too,” I said as I pretended to stumble, splashing an entire glass of red punch down the front of her dress.

Grace screeched in surprise, and I gave her a faux innocent look.

“Oops.”

***

I stared at Grace in shock, but as her words reverberated through my brain I came to a stunning conclusion: she was right. I’d definitely had a crush on her back in school. Not that I wanted to give her the satisfaction of agreeing with her. Old habits died hard.

“Are you crazy?”

“Are you telling me that what happened Friday was random?” she challenged.

“Sure.”

She raised one eyebrow. I guess I wasn’t the only one who noticed that I sounded unconvinced.

“Okay, fine,” I admitted, “it’s possible that I had a little crush on you – briefly – when we were younger. But as for Friday, well, it’s been a while for me since I’ve, uh, been with someone and you’re not completely hideous looking so… let’s just say we got carried away in the moment.”

Grace stared at me for so long I had to try hard not to squirm.

“We should fuck.”

Unfortunately, I was taking a sip of my coffee when Grace let those choice words out. I sputtered, trying not to spit out my drink, which caused me to choke on it and start coughing. Grace watched me impassively as I tried to keep from aspirating my coffee.

“You okay there?” she finally asked. Her expression was totally neutral but her eyes danced with amusement.

“Did you just…,” I looked around to make sure no one I knew was nearby, “suggest that we have sex?”

She nodded. “Sure, why not. You said it’s been a while for you, and it’s been a while for me too.

We both know we’re going to give in and work on this damned project, but it’ll be hard to concentrate if we are lusting after each other.

So we should fuck it out. Clear the air. It’ll be like rebooting the computer.”

Even though I knew I’d never get that scene in the conference room out of my mind, I’d read enough romance books to know that what Grace was suggesting was a terrible idea.

“I’m not going to have sex with you!”

Grace shrugged like it didn’t matter to here either way. For some reason, that stung.

“Okay fine, let’s talk about the project then.”

I stared at her for a few seconds, struggling to keep up. She was giving me whiplash.

“Okay fine?” I repeated, expecting her to argue more.

“It was just a suggestion. If you’re not into it, I’ll find someone else to scratch my itch. Now let’s focus on work. I have tons of shit to do today.”

I felt a pinch in my gut that felt a little bit like jealousy. Obviously, I needed more coffee. Who Grace slept with was none of my concern. I took a long sip of my cold brew before responding.

“I’m probably going to regret this, but I think we should go for it,” I said. “The project I mean. Getting the Grant Park College job would be a game changer for both of our companies.”

Grace nodded, but I could tell by her expression she wasn’t happy about it. This was going to be a monster project, and working together would just make it more complicated for both of us.

“You’re right about that. If we don’t at least try, we’ll probably regret it. And our parents will be pissed. I don’t want drama with my parents, and I’m sure you don’t either.”

I nodded. That was one thing we could agree on.

“But this is really going to impact my ability to run my own business,” she continued.

“And to be honest, my work at AGM gives me way more joy than what my parents do. But… full disclosure, my ego is involved now and there’s a huge part of me that wants to stick it to all those male developers that were assholes to me all these years by winning this bid from them. ”

“I get that. And I’m in full agreement. But maybe we can figure out some way to make this a joint project between all three companies,” I suggested. “That would only strengthen our proposal.”

Grace looked thoughtful. “Yes, I like that. How about we work on some ideas, then we can present it to my partners?”

“Sounds good. Let’s figure out a plan.”

The next few weeks flew by in a blur of meetings. Architects. Environmental engineers. City planners. Property managers. Financial gurus. Investors.

It was all hands on deck. We needed to get all the information that we could about the site to create a proposed plan for it that would wow the selection committee. For such an important project, it had a ridiculously short timeline, something that favored the larger firms who had more resources.

But we were making the most of what we had.

I’d assigned several people from my firm to help with the proposal, and Grace had done the same with her family’s company.

And once we had a glimmer of an idea, we brought in Ariel and Maeve, who’d agreed to join the proposal and dedicate some of their staff to help with the retail side of the proposal.

Grace and I met every single morning, usually on Zoom, to do status updates and work through issues. Even though we had a fair number of disagreements, I was surprised how well we worked together.

Ariel’s assistant Theo was providing some administrative support.

He had created a complex project planning chart for us, and we were all using it to track the many moving parts of getting the proposal ready.

Although I knew Ariel and Maeve from school, I met Theo for the first time when we all got together for our first planning session.

Theo was an extremely handsome and smartly dress Black man with a snarky charm that made me like him immediately. When we took a break he told me all about how Ariel had fallen in love with her house cleaner, and he’d helped get them back together.

“I fancy myself a bit of a matchmaker,” he told me in a confiding voice. “So you just let me know if you want some help in that area.”

His eyes slid over to Grace, and I felt myself grow annoyed.

“I can’t believe she told you,” I whisper shouted.

His smile was pure ‘cat ate the canary’.

“She didn’t tell me a thing. I was picking up on the vibes between you, but I’m glad to see I was right.”

I wanted to punch myself in the face for being so gullible.

“There’s nothing going on with us,” I insisted. “We’re just work partners. We hated each other in high school and don’t particularly like each other now.”

“Ah yeah, enemies to lovers is my favorite trope.” He looked delighted. “This will be so much fun.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Grace approaching us. Instinctively I straightened in my chair and subtly sucked in my stomach.

“What’s going on?” she asked suspiciously. “Are you hassling Nicole, Theo?”

Theo let out another one of his booming laughs.

“I’m merely getting to know our new partner, Gracie. You don’t need to worry.”

He got up and patted her on the shoulder as he walked by.

“She’s all yours.”

Somehow that sounded dirty, or maybe that was a figment of my overactive imagination.

“How do you like the team?” she asked, dropping into the chair next to mine.

“They’re awesome,” I said truthfully. “You and Maeve and Ariel have really built something great here, something you can be proud of.”

She gave me something I’d never gotten from her before: a sincere smile.

“Thanks, I appreciate that. I need to work on some things for my job here at AGM, but maybe we can touch base later?”

“Sure, that works.”

I got up, gesturing to my team members who were lingering by the table filled with coffee and pastries. I’d say one thing for AGM, they were great hosts.

“I’ll see you later.”

For some ridiculous reason I put out my hand to shake, even though we had never done that before. Grace didn’t hesitate, her soft fingers wrapping around mine. It was a mistake, something I realized as soon as little jolts of electricity started shooting up my fingers on a direct path to my core.

We stood completely still, our hands joined, staring at each other. It was like I was in some kind of a trance, and so was Grace, because she wasn’t exactly pulling away.

“Are you ready to head back Nicole?”

My coworker’s voice broke through the haze, and I stepped back, resisting the urge to rub my hand.

“I, uh, I’ll talk to you later.”

Grace just nodded. For the first time since I’d met her, she seemed at a loss for words.