Unconventional Fling (A Working Girl’s Guide, Book 1) (2 page)

“How was your flight?” Michelle’s voice tickled his ear.

That was a bad sign. Too perky meant his agent was pissed.
What did I do now?
“It was good…”

“So glad to hear it. You’re set for your panel at eleven and then autographs for most of the afternoon?”

“Yes.” Things he already knew. Things she usually trusted him to remember.

“Perfect.” The single word sounded like sunshine being forced through a pinhole at high velocity. “And you’re keeping your hands to yourself?”

Raw irritation rose in his throat. That’s what this was about. He’d kept his hands to himself last time, and that had been the problem. The woman had thrown herself at him during a con in the Midwest, and then told her local anime club what an ass he was when he’d turned her down. She complained in forums and to anyone who would listen that he’d pursued her relentlessly just so he could walk away. Why would he do something that cruel?

“I’m behaving.”

“Have you checked the con hash tag?”

“I was at breakfast. Can’t say I have.” The buzz from his conversation with Jade evaporated, leaving annoyance in its vacated spot.

“I’ll wait.”

He made sure his sigh echoed off the mouthpiece of the receiver and trudged the few feet to his laptop.

“Oh, good.” Her irritation crept into the fake joy she’d greeted him with. “You don’t even have to scan the feed. They tagged you.”

He dropped into the chair, wood creaking under his exhausted flop. He couldn’t afford to let this conversation take so much out of him; it was too early, and he had too much to do. After a few seconds, he found what she was talking about. Someone had already posted pictures of him having breakfast with Jade.
Good shot
. They’d caught her profile, bottom lip between her teeth. Would it be stalker-creepy to save the image?
Probably.
“It was just breakfast. It was the only open table.”

“Then have breakfast in your room the rest of the weekend.” All the phony cheer disappeared. “Your career can’t afford the negative publicity.”

“Yeah, I get it.” One of the companies he’d worked for–Funami–had stopped letting him do casting calls already, saying they couldn’t support someone who couldn’t keep it in their pants; something about it not mixing with their “family values” image. Or some other crap that didn’t make sense when he considered the line of violent, innuendo-laden anime they released.

“Enjoy your weekend. Call me if something comes up.” Her glee re-emerged, echoing in his head even after the line went dead.

He tossed his phone onto the bed. It bounced on the white comforter a few times before tumbling to a stop.
So much for mingling with the crowds between obligations
. What were the odds he could blend in and no one would recognize him?

He glanced at the photo on his laptop again. Probably not something he could get away with.

* * * *

Brandon took his seat with his colleagues behind the autograph table. It felt good to have an excuse to not be confined to his room. The chatter and squeals around him were rejuvenating. The panel had been fun, he liked working with this group of people, and now he got to mingle.

His mood lightened as he talked to people, took pictures, and exchanged jabs with fans. This was what he loved about conventions.

He lost track of how much time had passed, but it didn’t look like the line was getting any shorter. One of the volunteer staff slid into an empty spot next to him behind the table.

“Excuse me.” Her voice was timid.

“Hey.” He tried to make sure his smile was friendly and open. “What’s up?”

“Um…” She twisted her fingers together, not quite making eye contact. “I know you’re only scheduled to be here until four, but we were wondering if you could stick around a few hours longer? We’re bringing in pizza.”

“Of course, no problem.” Perfect, another excuse to not be chained to his room. Why was this even an issue? Oh, right, he couldn’t afford to piss off another animation studio.

His gaze wandered around the hotel lobby as the next person in line dug through her bag for something for him to sign. Brandon’s smile grew when Jade stepped through the front doors. She hadn’t left for the weekend after all.
Nice
.

She looked up, and he thought he saw her exhaustion fade when their eyes met. Her mouth twitched in a not-quite smile before she turned toward the elevators.

How likely was it he could run into her again without it earning him an angry phone call? Or maybe it was worth the risk.

“Here.” The guy in line slapped down a joker from a deck of cards with Brandon’s character on it.

*

Jade drummed her finger against her leg, her gaze flitting from spot to spot without stopping. What was he doing behind a table? With a line leading to it? And why did he have to look even better than she remembered, laughing and joking with each person he talked to? Had she misinterpreted simple friendliness as flirting this morning? No. There was no way she misread the barely veiled innuendo about watching versus being watched.

A couple of people—if she had to guess, they were probably in their late twenties—stopped to wait for the elevator. Maybe they knew.

She nodded toward the crowd in the hotel lobby. “What’s the line for?”

They both looked up from their heads bowed together, their eyes wide. “Are you talking to us?”

She looked around. Who else would she be talking to? “Yes.”

“Autographs.” The girl—the plastic strands of her blue wig were starting to suffer from the Nashville humidity—made it sound like it was the most obvious thing ever.

“Right.” Jade felt funny asking for more information after a brush off like that.

“They’re voice actors.” The male half of the duo offered. His hair looked like it was his own, and his white bodysuit with a blue miniskirt showed off pretty much everything else of his as well. “For that show everyone loves on Adult Swim.”

Cable cartoons, right. One of the developers at the home office was really into that stuff. He’d freak if he knew she’d met—flirted with, right?—a member of the cast. “The dark-haired guy. Who’s he?”

Blue-hair giggled. “Hottest thing ever to hide his face behind a microphone.”

Bodysuit guy nudged his friend playfully. “Right? I’d turn gay for that.”

Jade looked between the two, her confusion growing. “How does a voice actor have a famous face?”

Blue-hair seemed to be gaining confidence as the conversation continued. “He’s at almost every con. Or like, the important ones. No clue why he’s here.”

They both giggled again.

Jade tried not to cringe at the shrill pitch and stepped onto the waiting elevator with them.

“And he’s got a reputation,” Bodysuit offered.

“I wouldn’t mind being his weekend distraction.” Blue-hair’s gaze was glued to the back of the elevator and the view below.

“I don’t think I’d like the…you know…” Bodysuit trailed off.

Blue-hair shrugged and turned back to him. “If you know he doesn’t actually like you and that he’s going to dump you at the end of the weekend anyway, you just have to ignore him when he insists the two of you are meant to be together forever. Right?”

“I guess.” Bodysuit held the door for Blue-hair as they stepped onto their floor. He turned back to Jade. “You need to get out more. Really.”

Jade blinked as the doors closed between them. She’d almost been some cult-following celebrity’s one-night stand.
Absolutely disturbing.
It was a good thing she’d left for work when she had.

Right?

Jade wandered toward her room, keeping to one side as more costumed and non-costumed people rushed here and there. Yup, a real good thing she hadn’t been sucked into the flirting. She pushed into her hotel room and latched the door behind her. It would’ve been horrible to have a fling with an attractive, intelligent man who was just looking for a way to get off for a night or two.
To be pressed under that solid body
…

The images danced in her thoughts again, and a tingle grew in her belly and moved lower. She shook her head and stripped off her work clothes. The cool air brushed her hardening nipples. Her thoughts were far more alluring than they probably should be. And she didn’t mind at all.

The red numbers on the clock glared back with the early evening hour. She hadn’t been the only traveler in the office that week—she rarely was—and everyone else had needed to leave by three to catch flights back home. On the other hand, she decided to spend the weekend, see some of Nashville, and maybe hit up a few bars for the local music before heading toward the next leg of her trip.

She still had two weeks left of her business trip. If she went back home for the weekend, she’d have a day or two alone in her empty apartment before she had to head out again. Instead, she’d decided to enjoy that time in a city with a rich culture.

Except it wasn’t even four, and the bars wouldn’t be worth visiting until at least eight. What was she going to do for the next four hours?

She pulled on a fitted T-shirt and a pair of jeans. The thin spots in the seat and along the legs were familiar and comfortable. Clothes she’d never dare wear in the office, even on casual Friday.

She grabbed the remote and sank onto the edge of the bed. She could watch TV. Maybe catch one of the new movies on pay-per-view…maybe find a way to run into Brandon, see if he was still looking for a weekend distraction.

No. She flipped through channels, not really registering anything. If he was what Blue-hair and Bodysuit implied, he’d already found a replacement. Which was fine. She wasn’t that girl. The only reason she wasn’t attached was because men tended to be put off by how much time she spent on the road.

But that didn’t mean she slept around. She had seen enough by watching her colleagues make asses of themselves in bars to be interested in being on the receiving end of their tacky pickup lines.

Then again, none of them are Brandon.
Who had probably forgotten about her since that morning.

She snarled at herself and stood, trying to chase away the circular thoughts. It wouldn’t hurt anyone if she wandered with the crowds for a little while, and the ambient noise might override her teasing thoughts.

She slipped on her walking shoes, grabbed her key, and left her rambling thoughts behind. As she stepped into the hallway, the crowd gathered in front of the elevator made her wince. Squeezing into a tiny box with that many people looked like a one-way ticket to claustrophobia. She headed for the stairs instead.

She stepped into the lobby, still not sure what she was doing. The line to see Brandon, and she assumed his co-cast, wasn’t as long as it had been. Before she could talk herself out of it, she took a spot at the back.

“Excuse me.” A man a few inches shorter than her wearing a black polo shirt stretched over broad shoulders and a round belly stepped in front of her. “Your badge needs to be visible.”

“My…badge?” Jade stared back, trying to keep her expression neutral. Sure enough, he wore a lanyard with a brightly colored card at the end proclaiming his name was “Death Demon”. Or maybe that was his title? She should have guessed it would be like any other convention in that regard. Even though nothing else was, of course they’d need people to prove they’d registered to get in. “Right. Sorry. I left it in my room.”

“You’ll have to get it. I can’t let you stand in line without it.”

“Sure. Totally understand.” She wandered away. It had been a stupid idea anyway. What had she been planning to do? Wait for an hour so she could stop in front of him and say “funny meeting you here”?

The compulsion wasn’t ready to give up on her as quickly as she wanted to push it aside. She stopped a few feet back from a group of people scattered on couches, chatting and laughing. She only needed a badge for an hour or two…

“See something you like?” One of the girls looked at her, eyes narrow and lips pursed.

“Does one of you want to loan me your badge for two hours?” Jade spit the question out before she could have second—or was it third at this point?—thoughts. “I’ll pay you twenty bucks.”

“It only cost forty to get in,” someone said.

“I’m not giving you my badge. Total scam.” The way they were grouped, it was difficult to track who was talking without giving herself whiplash.

“I will.” The first girl crossed the distance between them, holding out her badge.

“Andie.” Someone’s warning cut through the noise.

She glared at the guy. “It’s not like we’ve decided what we’re doing next. Besides, now I can afford that plushie in the dealer’s room.”

Jade had no idea what that meant, but it seemed to be working in her favor. She handed Andie the money and hung the lanyard around her neck. “I’ll be right over there.” She nodded at the autograph line. “Feel free to stalk me the entire time, and I’ll give it back as soon as I’m done.”

Andie pocketed the money with a snort. “He’s not worth it.”

“Excuse me?” An edge slipped into Jade’s question. She should dial that back.

“Nothing.” Andie dropped back into her seat. “I’ll be right here.”

Jade took her place in line again, giving the security guy a big grin and flashing the borrowed badge when he approached. And then slowly crept forward with the rest of the group. Andie stood at the edge of her sight, her expression growing more impatient as the time ticked away, and every once in a while Jade tried to send her a reassuring wave.
Wow, this is taking forever.

Her heart dropped into her shoes when she realized she’d reached the front of the line. What was she supposed to say? She shifted her weight from one foot to the other while the actors took pictures with the person who’d been in front of her. And then it was her turn.

Brandon’s eyes grew wide when she stepped forward, smile quickly spreading. “I didn’t know you were a fan.”

She couldn’t help returning the pleased look but made sure to tuck away most of her giddiness. “I didn’t realize you were famous.”

He grabbed a small poster off a nearby stack that sported the cartoon characters she figured were him and his cohorts. “No more than you are.”