Page 7 of Hired Husband

“No.” I couldn’t hear it, but it sure looked like she let out a soft scoff. “One of them is. Nicole Royal. Do you know her?”

“I know of her.” Every guy who lived in this city knew who she was. There had been a time when I might’ve tried to get an introduction, and I was probably crazy for not pushing my luck, but I kept my attention focused entirely on my sister-in-law’s sister. “Come sit with us for a while. It looks like you’re bored out of your mind with these people.”

Her eyebrows hiked up. “How on God’s green earth did you know that?”

I shrugged. “You got here less than thirteen minutes ago and you were already looking around, silently begging me to save you.”

She snorted. “I was not.”

“You were too.” I jerked my head toward the VIP section. “It’s a little quieter up there and we’ve got beer.”

She glanced at the bright pink cocktail in her hand, still filled to the brim. I hadn’t seen her take a sip yet, but that was probably a good thing. They hadn’t even been to the bar yet before it had been pushed into her hand by one of the shiny, pretty people.

“It looks like an engineer convention up there,” she said after taking a quick look around my table. “Why are they all wearing collared shirts and slacks to a club?”

“Because it’s frowned upon to go out naked,” I replied without skipping a beat. “Now come on. My beer is getting warm.”

She held my gaze for another beat before she finally sighed. “Fine, but only because you have beer I can trust.”

“Obviously.”

I led her up to our table, ignoring the way my friends gawked at me when I arrived with her in tow. After a quick round of introductions, and most of my friends almost swallowing their own tongues when they shook her hand, they shuffled around to make room and she slid into the seat beside mine.

“Jasmine Saad,” Andrew, who worked with Brady, said once we were settled. He sucked his lower lip into his mouth, his eyes narrowing with thought. “Why does that name sound so familiar?”

“Probably because Isaac’s brother is married to Deja Saad,” Brady said, the puzzle pieces obviously clicking into place for him about how I knew this exotic beauty. “You’re her sister. Am I right?”

She nodded, but then Andrew shook his head. “No, it’s not that. What do you do for a living? I know you from something else.”

“I do whatever I want,” she said, the table going quiet for a moment in the wake of her statement. It’d been a bold strategy though, telling a group of strangers something like that. Finally, she sighed. “I also do some modeling, but it’s mostly overseas for now. I’m the face of my family’s company, so once we’re established here, you’ll probably be seeing me on billboards.”

My eyes slammed shut for a beat. Shit, that’s not going to go over well.

While Jasmine lived her life as an heiress unapologetically, I doubted any of these guys had ever met anyone quite like her. Andrew proved me right when he frowned, his head tilting slightly and confusion clouding his eyes.

“So you’re basically on a full-time vacation?” he said. “I don’t mean any offense, but it doesn’t sound like posing for some pictures is stressful work.”

Her expression cooled several degrees, a sharp smile spreading on her lips. Unfortunately, I’d seen that look before and it never ended well. Chances were she’d never met guys like these either, and even though I knew Andrew truly hadn’t meant any offense, she’d definitely taken it.

“So, what? Just because I don’t wear boring, ugly clothes and worship my laptop, that means⁠—”

“Easy,” I cut in before either of them started an international incident. “That family company she’s the face of is GlobalStar. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. They only own half the real luxury brands in the world and they have a stake in most of the others.”

Understanding started to dawn on Andrew’s face and I knew he was probably putting it together where he knew her from now, but I kept going. “Jasmine here is also underselling her role in both building those brands and selling them. She’s involved in almost all of their campaigns across the board, so she models for their silk collections, their perfumery, their skincare and cosmetics ranges, and probably a few others I’ve forgotten about.”

I looked around the table, seeing stunned expressions all around, but not from Jasmine. Instead, she was smiling at me like I’d impressed her. Then she glanced back at Andrew. “We’re all over Europe and Asia, and America is next.”

He held up both his hands. “Fair enough. I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to offend you. I was mostly just teasing, but on that note, I’m going to get another drink and maybe dance a little bit.”

Seconds later, he was gone and most of the others went after him, only Brady hanging back to smirk at me before turning to Jasmine. “I’m trusting you to make sure he has fun. Don’t let him leave until at least midnight and if he tries to, knock him out and come find me.”

She giggled, but before she could respond, he was gone too, disappearing after the rest of our group toward the bar. Once we were alone, I sighed and poured her a glass of beer from the pitcher on our table.

“Well, would you look at that? You managed to scare away all my friends.”

She snorted. “I don’t think that was me.”

“Oh, it definitely was. I’m not pretty enough to make them so awkward that they run.”