Hayley should get used to the kissing.

She would. As soon as butterflies stopped fluttering in her stomach every time Gabriel was close enough for her to smell the dark, spicy scent of his cologne. And her heart did not lurch in her chest as he closed the distance between their mouths. And her legs turn to jelly the moment his lips touched hers.

Soon.

Any moment now.

Why were his lips so warm? They pressed against her mouth so firmly yet gently. Her own lips felt so sensitive that each movement made her body vibrate with need. Oh God she needed ... wanted... something. As though reading her mind, his tongue seared a path of heat along the seam of her lips before dipping inside her mouth.

The moan that tore out of her jolted her out of her daze. She pulled away quickly and averted her eyes. Awareness of all the eyes around them forced her to look back at him.

His gaze was so dark, so full of heat that she felt her throat go dry.

"About time you two got here," said a familiar voice behind them.

The expression on Gabriel's face turned cool. He looked over her shoulder and grinned. "Missed us already?" he said.

She turned to see Emmanuelle saunter over to where they sat. The younger woman looked resplendent in a golden yellow cocktail dress. Hayley gave her a hesitant smile but Emmanuelle's gaze barely even skimmed over her. "Zenia's been looking for you. She keeps asking me if I was sure you were coming." She cocked her head. "Not very subtle, that one."

Hailey's heart thumped against her chest. Who was Zenia and why did she want to see Gabriel?

"You remember Hayley," he said, taking Hayley's hand in his.

Finally, Emmanuelle looked at Hayley. "Right. How was your drive over?" She threw a teasing glance at her brother before turning back to Hayley. "Did you know Gabriel hates helicopters?"

"It was fine," Hayley said. She didn't bother smiling at the girl anymore. If Emmanuelle wouldn't make the effort to be friendly, then neither would she. "Yeah, he hates headphones. So do I." She added that last part for purely petty reasons, never mind that she'd never flown in a helicopter her whole life.

"It does do terrible things to your hair." Emmanuelle turned to her brother and wrinkled her nose. "Rhino isn't here, is he?"

His eyebrow rose. "You actually want to see Reinheart," he said.

She rolled her eyes. "I don't. I was ..." She cleared her throat. "It's a business matter. Is he here or not?"

"You know he usually doesn't show up until midnight." He was still looking at his sister suspiciously. "But he said he was coming. What kind of business, exactly—"

"Oh look, is that Zoey Kardashian?" Before Gabriel or Hayley could reply, Emmanuelle stalked off toward the direction of the person she supposedly spotted.

After a long moment of silence, Hayley said, "Did she mean Khloe Kardashian?"

Gabriel was trying to see whom his sister had left them to meet. "I'm not sure. I can't actually tell them apart," he said.

"There is no Kardashian named Zoey. I mean, there could be one, somewhere. But no one related to Khloe."

"That girl has always been a terrible liar." Gabriel shook his head.

"Is it weird that she wants to talk to Reinheart?"

"Yes." He turned to Hayley. "Extremely weird."

"They don't get along?" Hayley looked up as servers in crisp black shirts and pants arrived at their table carrying trays. With uniformed movements, they laid out salads, soups, and more appetizers on the tables.

"They get along well enough." He smiled and nodded his thanks to the young woman who served them. "Just the usual bickering. Those two are fairly mature adults but when you put them together in a room, I swear it's like two schoolchildren in the playground."

She sampled some of the soup. It was divine, full of delicate flavors. "Oh my God, what is this?"

"Oyster and truffle soup." He smiled. "You like it?"

She nodded, her mouth full of the heavenly broth. She swallowed. "Maybe they like each other."

The expression of disgust on his face was so intense it was almost funny. "God no."

She shrugged. "Reinheart is a really good-looking guy. It wouldn't be weird that she's crushing on him." She didn't point out that Emmanuelle was a knockout too. She had a feeling that pointing out to Gabriel that his baby sister. was hot would just make Gabriel uncomfortable.

"No." He shook his head. "No way."

"You never know."

"Yes, I would. I would know." He gave her a look, his expression only betraying the slightest hit of annoyance.

She took another spoonful of soup to hide her grin. It was kind of cute the way he was such a big brother at that moment. "Well then. It's good they're fighting all the time."

"Not fighting. Bickering."

"Right." She looked at him sideways as she continued to eat her soup, the corner of her mouth quirking in restrained laughter.

His expression was impassive once again as he picked up a champagne flute and drained it. "Will you drink?" he said, nodding at her champagne. "I could get you a virgin cocktail if you prefer. Or water."

"This is fine." She smiled.

"Trantoru," Bernard said. He'd been talking to his boyfriend before they both turned their attention to Gabriel. "I hear you're on the board now."

"Not yet," Gabriel said. "The board is meeting next week. But the process should go smoothly."

"How much did it cost you, exactly?" Paul said, dabbing the corner of his mouth with a linen napkin.

"How did you find out anyway?" Gabriel's eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"Someone saw you having dinner with Kanki a couple of weeks ago. Wasn't hard to put two and two together."

"What was it they did, anyway? Robotics, right?"

"That would be one of them, yes," Gabriel said.

"They're making robots?" Hayley said. "Like BB8?"

He grinned. "More like a robot chef who can make okonomiyaki according to a customer's specifications."

Her jaw dropped. "That exists?"

"Yes but they're too big for household use. Sorry."

She wrinkled her nose. "Too bad. I love okonomiyaki."

"There are Japanese restaurants in L.A., you know."

"Bubble Tree," Paul said, nodding.

"Is that in Little Tokyo?" Hayley said.

"Korea Town, oddly enough."

"I'll take you there sometime," Gabriel said. His hand was suddenly warm on hers. Her heart thudded in her chest. The scent of his skin and aftershave was like a drug, sending waves of heat through her.

She needed to calm down. She couldn't react like this each time he was close.

"I... didn't know you spoke Japanese," she said. It was the only thing he could think of to say.

He smiled. "I got my undergrad degree at the University of Tokyo," he said.

"Wow." She frowned. "There's no way you could have just learned Japanese in college."

"No."

His chuckle was low, warm, and unexpected. Was she making him laugh? It felt good.

"My dad made sure I learned the language by the time I was sixteen," he explained. "He does a lot of business in Tokyo. He thinks we make better decisions if we understand the culture of a country we do business in. And nothing allows you to do that better than knowing the language."

She nodded. A quick glance at Paul and Bernard showed her that the couple was now chatting with three guests who had come over. "That makes sense, I guess. So... how many languages do you speak?"

"Including Mandarin? Five." His lips twisted in a slight grimace. "And a little French. Still working on that."

"Is German one of them?" She remembered his best friend was Reinheart.

This time, his shoulders shook as he laughed. "I told Reinheart I'd learn German when he learns Mandarin."

"That's fair." She grinned. "He never tried?"

"Oh, he tried. But he's terrible at it. His pronunciation is off. If you pronounce a word the wrong way, it means something other than what you intended. So I told him it didn't count." He cocked his head. "What about you?"

"Me?" She felt her cheeks grow warm with embarrassment. "Just English. Sorry. I've never really... " She sighed. "Never thought about learning a new language." The truth was, she'd attempted to learn French. Paris was one of the fashion capitals of the world, after all. But she was always too afraid of being humiliated to try speaking French with another person. Like with Amandine. She couldn't even bring herself to muster a simple, "Bonjour!"

She wondered if he thought she was just being a typical American. The kind who didn't bother learning any other language, assuming she could just traipse through the world expecting everyone else to speak her language. But if he did, he didn't show it. He simply nodded.

It was at that moment that one of the servers arrived with the entrees. The aroma of grilled food made her mouth water. She watched in anticipation as plates of steak and salmon were set on the table. The marbling on the beef alone told her this wasn't anything she'd ever had before.

"Oh my," Hayley moaned. The steak was the most delicious bite of meat she ever had in her mouth. It melted like butter on her tongue.

Gabriel poured more wine into her glass. He didn't say a word, but a corner of his mouth turned up in amusement. He could probably ate Kobe steak every day if he wanted, she realized. That she had never had it before was obvious.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"For what?" He looked confused.

"I've never had this before."

"Nothing to be sorry about. Very few of these are imported into the U.S. and in restricted quantities. Edward had to get a special permit to fly them in." He cut into his steak. "You like it?"

She nodded.

As they ate, he asked her about the town she grew up in, her job, her friends. She was sure he wasn't interested in any of these topics, but she supposed he needed to know at least a few basic things about her if they were to pull off this fake relationship for an entire month. Occasionally, one or two party guests would drop by their table to say hello. While they smiled at Gabriel, she was largely ignored until he introduced her as his girlfriend. She couldn't help but interpret the way their eyebrows rose as a silent, "Her? Seriously?" Each time, she forced herself to smile and shake their hand. Or, if Gabriel's friend didn't make a move to shake her hand, give them a shy wave. Gabriel, on the other hand, was all smiles. If he noticed his friends' reaction to his new girlfriend, he didn't show it.

"Where's the bathroom?" Hayley whispered as they were having dessert. She was reluctant to leave their table as they were having the most amazing strawberries with Tahitian vanilla ice-cream drizzled with chocolate syrup that was like nothing she'd never tasted before. She was pretty sure it had champagne in it. Incidentally, it was the champagne and all the red wine at dinner that necessitated her trip to the ladies' room.

He raised a hand to call for one of the uniformed staff. "He'll escort you to the bathroom," Gabriel said.

"This way, Ms. Denton," the man said, gesturing toward the house.

The bathroom wasn't in the house. There was one built right on the grounds right beside the stairs that led up to the house. Inside, it looked as beautiful as any bathroom of a fancy hotel— marble floors and walls, sculpted glass faucets in pale amber, the scent of French perfume in the air.

Three women were inside fixing their make-up and hair in front of the mirrors. They were chatting not even pausing as they gave Hayley a passing glance. She gave them a hesitant smile and nod before standing in front of the mirror above the sink closest to the door. She needed to pee, but somehow the sight of these women in their perfect makeup and hair made her suddenly need to check her own appearance. What if her mascara was running?

It wasn't, but she carefully patted a tissue under her eyes just in case.

"Could you believe Gabriel brought his girlfriend tonight?"

Hayley froze.

"Poor man," said another woman. "That breakup with Tallah really did a number on him. He must have grabbed the first waitress he could find to bring as a date."

"Hey, I was a waitress!" the third woman protested.

"Yeah, right. Your mom owned the restaurant."

Turning slightly, Hayley saw two of the women looking at her. One of them seemed amused. The other one was tall and skinny and wore a blindingly golden lamé halter jumpsuit. She had a slightly East Asian look to her. This one had more contempt in her gaze even as she held up a brush over one perfectly shaped eyebrow.

They knew.

They knew that Hayley was Gabriel's date. They were talking about her on purpose.

"You could see her split ends from a mile away," said the one in the lamé jumpsuit. With a satisfied smirk, she turned back to the mirror and continued running a brush over her eyebrows. "It's like she's never heard of a salon."

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