CHAPTER 2

Cael didn't like attending the social events that members of his class kept springing up. They were monotonous, had the exact same faces and always ended with him parting with an outrageous sum of money for one outrageous cause after the other.

But when you belonged to the economic class that Cael belonged to, attendance was almost mandatory. Tonight it was a fundraiser for patients with cancer, at least it was a worthy cause.

Now, Cael didn't care much for social rules and cues and whatnot so he hardly ever attended no matter how many invitations he got. None of it appealed to him. It never had. Not the peacocking, not the mindless conversations and not even the attention he could never really avoid.

Even now, the birds were swarming. Cael kept his face straight and his eyes constantly moving so that an errant glance wouldn't be taken by the roosts as a signal to approach. His disinterest wouldn't keep them away for long though, he could tell.

Already the excitement was mountain. The sound of churlish giggling carried over the soft music in the room over to him, and there was a lot of strutting, hair twirling and not very subtle sly looks being thrown his way.

Cael's plan was to get there late, drop off his contribution and hightail it out of there as soon as possible. Already, he was two hours late. Whether or not the rest of his plan would work out that way remained to be seen.

"Cael!"

He heard his name and turned to meet his friend and the host of this event. "Armani," he said in a deep, low voice.

"I'm so glad you came," Armani said pleasantly. She opened her arms and he stepped forward to hug her, placing a gentle kiss on her lips.

There were several eyes on them and most of them weren't pleasant. Without turning around, he knew the source of the unhappy looks was 'the birds'. They needn't bother themselves because there had never been and there would never be anything between him and Armani.

They had an easy friendship and nothing else despite her exquisite, exotic beauty. They'd been friends for a long, long time and that was the only reason why he was here. He could refuse many invitations, but Armani's wasn't one he could refuse.

"Of course, I came. It's your party," he said.

"Fundraiser," she corrected calmly, slipping her hand around his and gently leading him into the room. "It's a fundraiser, not a party."

"It's a fundraiser party," he challenged. "More emphasis on the party too."

Armani laughed, her voice tinkering like a bell. He looked down at her by his side and took in her face. He felt a swelling of pride and protectiveness. Armani was a gorgeous woman and the sweetest person he knew. Many men would fall over for her beauty if not her money.

He'd always seen her as sort of his younger sister and had always been protective of her. Armani had lived a very sheltered life from birth, the apple of her billionaire father's life. She was naive to the ways of the world. Cael had resolved that one would take advantage of her when he was alive.

She was also the only woman who could make him do anything he didn't want to do. Just like now, she was taking him with her from one guest to the next, subjecting him to the sappy, mindless conversations he so desperately wanted to avoid.

But still, he waited patiently by her side, responding adequately whenever necessary.

"Is your father coming?" He asked once they were alone again.

"No," she answered, smiling and nodding to someone off at the side. "He's not in the country right now. He's off on one of his business trips again." She sighed.

"I'm sure he wanted to be here," he assured her.

"Well, you're here with me so everything is fine." She smiled up at him briefly before turning her attention to the next guest. He greeted the guest and mentally withdrew himself from the conversation. Thankfully, they were too caught up in their conversation about cancer to bother with him.

Devlin allowed his mind, and his eyes to wander around the room. His eyes fell on the birds who as always were circling not too far away from him. He let his eyes sweep over them. Perhaps he should give himself a treat.

If he was going to subject himself to more hours of this (which was looking likely now that Armani had picked him as her chaperone in the absence of her father), he might as well allow himself a reward.

Any one of the girls would do. They were all pretty enough. From the loaded looks they were giving him, if he took them home, they would know exactly what they were doing. Maybe two, instead of one?

There were two who caught his fancy more than the others. One of them was a blonde, the other a brunette. Call him predictable, but they were easy enough marks. And more importantly, they were willing. He didn't have to waste time cajoling, not that he ever had to anyway.

Having made his choice, he dismissed them from his mind and allowed his eyes to continue to scan the room casually. He saw a lot of very familiar faces, some he had been intimate with at one time or the other. If he happened to meet their eyes, he nodded briefly before continuing his scan.

At the far end of the room, his eyes fell on a beautiful girl with long black hair. She caught his attention because of how excitable she was but she held his attention because of her beauty. Oh, perhaps he would be changing his mind about the blonde and brunette after all. She would do nicely.

His eyes moved slightly to the side and that was the moment when he finally saw her. Oh, she caught his attention all right; the girl with the fiery Auburn hair. He'd almost missed her standing there...almost. She was trying to hide but how could you hide when you looked like that?

Now that he'd seen her, he couldn't 'not' see her. He could only see her side profile from this angle. He willed her to turn around, or at least for Armani to wrap up the mind-numbing conversation and move along so he could see her from the front.

Finally, the conversation ended and Armani moved towards another guest but Cael steered her unyielding in the other direction and stopped only when he had a good view of the lady from the front. Needless to say, he was not disappointed.

Armani gave him a look but he ignored it and she was soon distracted by another guest. Good. The lady was the epitome of beauty and desire. He couldn't take his eyes off her. She was gorgeous. Even from this distance, her hair stood out like a curtain around her face. And her eyes...she had big, grey eyes like a cat.

She was here with the other girl, the beautiful black-haired girl he spotted earlier. They were talking to each other now. As he watched, they were stopped by a woman he recognized, Mrs Smith. She was recently widowed. Good for her. She deserved the old bastard's money after putting up with him all those years.

She hugged and kissed Mrs Smith and sadly, turned so that her back was facing him how. He grunted impatiently. Still, he'd seen her and it was impossible not to remember every detail. She was seared into his memory.

She was breathtaking and...and she didn't want to be here, he realized. Maybe it was because of her choice of a sparkly knee-length dress with wrist-long sleeves or the severe way she twisted her gorgeous auburn hair up--or, maybe it was the slightly uncomfortable look that she was trying to hide, but he could tell.

Her choice of outfit, her hair, her understated makeup and the look on her face made it obvious to him that like him, she didn't care much for this event. She didn't belong here either. She was not one of them. She didn't belong to their social class.

So who was she? Why was she here? And why was she trying so hard not to draw attention to herself?

Suddenly, she turned around and scanned the room. Her eyes passed over him once but then rolled back to land squarely on him. She must have felt his gaze on her from across the room. Another man would look away when caught staring but not Cael.

He held her gaze squarely, letting her see that she'd caught his attention and he had no plans to walk away without doing something about it. She got his message all right. She murmured something to her friend and began to edge her way out of the room.

Cael smirked. She was running away like a scared little bunny. Oh no, you don't! He wasn't about to stand by and let her escape. "Come on, Armani." He dragged Armani away mid-sentence and began to angle his way across the room in a measured manner.

"You're not going to get away so easily," he thought.