Page 202 of His Flash Mate
“It’s so good to see you, Nicky.How are your grandbabies?”Kaya asked, ignoring the attention their greeting had drawn.
“A handful.Hope that Drokonnen doesn’t have twins.”
“Pfft.I’d welcome the chaos.The house gets too quiet for me.”
“You have no idea what you’re wishing for,” the other woman said before glancing at me.“I’m Nicky Hess.”
“Sophia Elmantas,” I said, shaking her hand.
“I know.I saw you on the news.”Humor lit her gaze.“Quite the infamous piece they did on you.I knew right away it wasn’t true.Kaya would never offer someone money to leave Drake.She’d pay whoever actually managed to date him.”
It was so hard to keep a straight face since that was pretty much what she’d done.
“I didn’t know you two were so close, though,” she said, gesturing at our outfits.
Kaya laughed.“She didn’t know I bought us matching clothes.I took her and her mom shopping to replace what they’d lost in the fire, and when she wasn’t looking, I picked out a few extra things.She was a good enough sport to wear them when I gave them to her.”
I loved how artfully she wove the little hints in, especially when Nicky's expression turned compassionate.“I wasn’t going to bring up the fire.”
“It’s okay.What happened was scary, especially knowing someone intentionally set it, but it could have been worse.No one was hurt, and the fire was contained pretty quickly.Losing clothes is nothing compared to our safety.”
“You are so right.”She glanced at Kaya.“And you probably jumped at the reason to shop, didn’t you?”
“With both feet.It’s been so fun.”She shot me an apologetic look.“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know.And it has been fun shopping and getting to know you.You’re the silver lining in the storm.”
“Awe!”Nicky exclaimed, putting her hand over her heart.“That is so sweet.”
“Sophia has a way with winning people over quickly,” Lianna said.
I turned toward her.“Lianna, it’s good to see you outside of the office and that you’ve acclimated to life without Mr.Steele.After so many years, walking away couldn’t have been easy.”
Her pleasant facade cracked, and a glimmer of opalescent scales appeared on her neck.
“And I’m so proud of you for finally putting yourself first,” Kaya said, claiming everyone’s attention.“You’ve done enough for Steele Corp.It’s time to enjoy yourself now.Right, Christine?”
Lianna’s mom grabbed her daughter’s arm.“Speaking of enjoying ourselves, we should head down.It’s nearly our time to start.”
Others slowly trickled away behind them.
Nicky smirked at me.“I can see why you made it to the CEO’s secretariat.You know how to wield your words to cut without outright attacking and nicely put her in her place.”She glanced at Kaya.“Sorry, I know you like Lianna, but I don’t.She’s too arrogant.”
“People are like bras.There’s no one-size-fits-all,” Kaya said, making me snort with laughter.
“That’s a good one.Do you two have your own cart and caddie, or would you like to join me?”
“We’ll join you,” Kaya said.“Let me show Sophia where the restrooms are first.”
The bathrooms were on the first floor, connected with a locker room that was more like a bougie spa changing room.
After making sure we were alone, Kaya turned to me.
“First, I want you to know that I will always fully and unapologetically support you.Second, you may want to save provoking certain people for when Konni is nearby.Not that I think she would ever purposely hurt you…but dragons are temperamental creatures that can spontaneously shift when angry or threatened.We would squish quite messily if accidentally stepped on.”
“Got it,” I said, taking the warning to heart.However, I didn’t believe for a second that it would be an accident if Lianna stepped on me.
For the next several hours, I worked my way through eighteen holes and learned several things.Golf was not an activity I would grow to enjoy.Having a sex-a-thon later was absolutely out of the question.Lianna was a catty bitch—actually, I already knew that.And, Kaya wasnota novice drinker.
