The Duke held the door open for me as I slid in the back. Before he shut it behind me, he leaned down to speak. “Take care of yourself, Peaches,” he commanded softly, and I got to savor my name on his lips for the first time.
I nodded, gulping back any reply. The best I could come up with was, “You, too!”
“Call me Auggie,” he smirked before he shut the door.
I waved at him through the glass as the car started away. I glanced at my watch. It was just after six o’clock in the morning and I had secured the gig of a lifetime and was on a first-name basis with a Duke.
I knew then and there life would never be the same again.
I had no idea.
Chapter Four
I think I dozed off before we left the driveway, because it felt like I blinked and then we were pulling into the parking structure of my office. I was dog-tired and weak from not having much of anything to eat. Not that I wanted to eat, because my crazy night had upset my tummy again. Auggie was right. I needed to take the day off and recover if I was going to join him on the road.
I had no idea what time on the road meant with The Duke of Mayhem, but I was about to find out.
Every time I thought about it, I mentally squealed. This was going to be an adventure of a lifetime! Maybe if I begged extra hard, he’d even let me invite Fern. Fern! Oh, my God. I couldn’t wait to tell Fern! All my thoughts were whirling around in my head, so much I got kind of dizzy when the door opened to the bright California sunshine of a new day.
The trip into L.A. had apparently taken a lot longer than the trip to Fifty Oaks, because everyone was already at the office by the time I arrived. With a mischievous smile I didn’t even bother to hide, I took the large manila envelope from the chauffeur and headed up to see Lydia first thing.
Of course, the first thing I saw when I got to the office was Christopher.
“Hey, McPhee. How’ya feeling?”
It dawned on me that he had never said my first name, even when we were regrettably intimate. It felt like a dick move. Like almost everything else he did.
“Better,” I assured as I kept walking, reveling in the news he didn’t know yet that I had bested him for the job. If I felt a little better, I might even have strutted.
He fell into step easily beside me. “Scuttlebutt has it that they’re announcing The Duke’s choice this morning. If you have to leave once they call my name, I’ll understand.”
God, he was full of himself. “They’re not going to call your name,” I promised. “They’re going to call mine.”
He guffawed. “Please. After your fiasco? You really think he’s going to take your germ factory on tour?”
“You might just want to put your bets on it.” I saluted him with the folder before I made a beeline for Lydia’s office. He stayed hot on my tail as I marched in triumphantly.
“There’s my girl!” Lydia exclaimed as she rushed me, taking me into a massive hug.
“Uh, she’s just getting off of the flu,” he pointed out.
“I don’t care, I don’t care,” she repeated, swinging me side to side. “I got all the details in my email but let me see that contract.”
“What contract?” Christopher asked, but he was drowned out in the commotion as Lydia tore the document from the folder to hold it up in the air like a prize-winning ribbon. That royal seal was hard to miss “Wait. SHE got it?”
“The Duke called me last night, said he wanted to interview her right away. I don’t know what you said or did, girl, but bravo.”
Christopher sent me a suspicious glance. “You were with the Duke last night?”
“And she’s going to be with him for the next six months at least. And this check,” Lydia literally kissed it before she held it up to savor. “He tacked on extra to make sure you were properly compensated. Way over our asking price, just to make sure got you.”
Christopher didn’t even bother to hide his disgust, or his confusion. “Why?”
Both Lydia and I glared at him until he backpedaled.
“I mean, isn’t the whole point of having a team of journalists is that we’re all equally talented? What makes her