He buttoned the top button of his tuxedo shirt, then adjusted the bow tie. Tonight’s fund-raiser for the Haven would be his first step into public view since the business trades released the amount he’d been paid for Interlntell. The dollars were large enough to have those who wanted to be his friends circulate where before they hadn’t acknowledged him. Tonight he simply had to smile and endure. Shake a few hands. Feign interest and leave as soon as he could.
He’d never quite fit into the social scene, a fact he could trace to middle school when his interests diverged so completely from those of his mindless classmates.
Today would be different. He knew he could exceed expectations. A few extra zeros in his bank account helped with that.
He was no longer the skinny, nerdy kid who sat in the back row drafting code and forming ideas while the rest learned useless information like the dates of wars and theorems he’d mastered as an eight-year-old. He was the celebrated CEO of a company that revolutionized the way people lived. Where most people looked around the world and saw colors and shapes, he saw zeros and ones. He saw programs that could affect the world around him.
The fact that his dad was a high-tech exec had provided a shortcut to his own launch. He’d barely waited until high school graduation. College classes and his business kept him focused. He’d worked hundred-hour weeks, and two months ago it all paid off when he sold his business for a cool half a billion. Because of the way he’d structured the business, more than half of that landed in his own very fat bank account—a fact touted by the financial magazines and papers.
Society would see him through a very different lens now.
Money could do that. It could turn the awkward into something worthy of attention and time.
He left his bathroom and marched down the stairs and out the front door to where the Lincoln Town Car waited. He’d wear the aura of a wildly successful businessman, maybe even flaunt it a bit. All with good taste.
He slid into the backseat and ignored the driver’s small talk. He needed to think about what he would do if she was there. The woman he’d glimpsed during a tour of the Haven. A key member of the staff, she’d be at the event and was the reason he’d agreed to attend.
Forty minutes into the reception, each second ticking by with excruciating slowness, he was ready to leave. Those who knew his new situation fawned cloyingly. It annoyed him and demeaned them. He scanned the crowd of strangers, searching for her brilliant blonde hair, but didn’t see her.
His listened to a couple of men ten years older than he joking about their accomplishments, though it sounded like a string of conquests. So inappropriate in a setting like this.
“You still listening?” A man in a polka dot bow tie, whose name tag he hadn’t bothered to read, elbowed him.
“Can’t help myself.”
The man seemed to think his reply was humorous. Further proof he wasn’t worth the time.
“Hey, look who’s here.” The man on the other side of Mr. Bow Tie, clearly his equal in laziness and low expectations, pointed to the door. “Now there’s a sight for sore eyes.”
Mr. Bow Tie whistled through his teeth, a shrill and grating sound. “Mighty fine indeed. I wonder if she came alone.”
Obviously she had. There was no one beside her to remove her coat or take her arm and lead her through the space. If she had come with him, he would proudly lean into her every word, let her know how much he adored her. Women liked that kind of thing . . . he’d been told. Time hadn’t allowed him to find out for himself.
But as the blonde stopped to speak to a couple of women who dripped with diamonds but hadn’t aged as well as they thought, he knew he wanted to find out more than her name.
Bow Tie elbowed him again. The man really must stop that. “Wouldn’t you follow her around like a puppy dog just to get her to acknowledge you?”
Bow Tie’s friend, Alexander—name tags were useful for memorizing the names of people who were annoying—chortled. “Woof woof.” He frowned. “But she looks like an ice queen.”
“I always hated that moniker.”
“Moniker?” Bow Tie leered at him. “An odd word.”
“Guess money can’t change everything.” Then Alexander’s grin faded. “Although maybe that’s exactly what Miss Ice Queen wants. A man with resources.”
Anger rose in him, but he decided he’d had enough of these two buffoons. He walked away, cutting through a cluster of people without noticing or caring who they were. She was there, the woman who’d entranced him with a glance. He would woo her . . . step by step.
She was talking to another woman. Her blonde hair curled around her shoulders in loose waves, so light. He wanted to touch them. Her off-the-shoulder dress revealed perfect skin, and her smile was friendly and curious. Did she know how beautiful she was compared to the hot-house flowers next to her?
Her friend noticed him first.
Then she turned, curiosity in her expression. “Hi, I’m Emilie Wesley. You are . . . ?”