Facade

in his own voice.
    “He’s okay, busy as usual,” she answered. “I believe he promised you a suit, and since a few customers rescheduled their appointments, he has time off tomorrow.” Jonas sighed and hoped Tanna hadn’t caught that. So it wasn’t that Nicky needed him, he simply wanted to live up to his promise and make him a suit. It didn’t take Jonas long to think about it, though. “I can be there tomorrow. Around what time?”
    “How does one sound?” Tanna suggested.
    “I’ll be there.”

    Façade
    111

    THE next morning, Jonas was at the airport bright and early. He was happy to be away from Madrid and Eduardo’s prowling and on his way to see the man who still made his heart skip a beat. He told himself numerous times that Nicky was a client, a man who paid him for his services and not a lover, but the recollection of the week they’d spent in London kept playing with his imagination.
    He’d tried to keep himself occupied until about noontime and then made his way over to Nicky’s Paris atelier at Maison Bryant.
    Just moments after introducing himself to the receptionist, Tanna appeared at one of the doors marked “Private.”
    “Hey, my beautiful man, come on in.”
    Jonas smiled at her forwardness but followed her immediately.
    Once inside the small anteroom, she hugged him tightly, one hand on the back of his head. “Mmm, you smell good and feel even better.”
    As they parted, Jonas smiled shyly. “You look beautiful as usual, Tanna.” Somehow he felt that didn’t do her justice. She looked perfect, like she’d walked straight off the pages of Vogue when their models weren’t skeletons yet. Jonas knew Nicky cut her dresses extra tight because they made her look amazing, but with her perfect stockings, high heels, hair and makeup, she seemed the consummate professional and a woman to be reckoned with.
    “Nicky’s still with a client, but he’ll be done soon. Care to share some lunch with me? Or did they feed you on the plane?” Jonas could barely swallow, let alone eat, so he told her a white lie. “They did. Flying business has its perks. So I’m sorry, I couldn’t eat another bite, but don’t let that stop you.” Tanna shook her head and then gave him a compassionate look as if she knew what was going on in his mind. And maybe she did.
    “I’ll go see how long he’s going to be,” Tanna suggested before leaving Jonas to his own devices.
    The waiting seemed to take forever until suddenly the door burst open and Nicky appeared. Somehow he looked a little more 112
    Zahra
    Owens
    subdued, less peacock, and for a moment Jonas wondered if that was because Nicky knew that he liked him au naturel . With a disarming smile on his face, Nicky grabbed Jonas by the hand and dragged him up out of his chair and into the atelier where about thirty pairs of stunned eyes gazed at them.
    “There’s someone I want you to meet,” Nicky explained. He guided Jonas toward the back, where Tanna was standing next to a rather smaller young woman with a flurry of red hair crowning her rosy and almost make-up free face. They were bent over a wide table covered with an assortment of print fabrics and clearly deep in discussion.
    “Jonas, this is Maia,” Nicky stated as they reached the table.
    He moved a little closer and added conspiratorially, “She’s Tanna’s girlfriend, remember I told you about her?” Jonas remembered how Nicky had described her as being small and mousy and not at all glamorous, and Jonas had to agree with him, but she had a certain spark. He smiled at her, thinking back at how Nicky had told him she must be at least as insatiable in bed as Tanna if she wanted to keep up with her. At the time, they’d both found that image too disturbing to contemplate, but now it subconsciously bubbled back to the surface of Jonas’s mind.
    Jonas shook his head, waking himself from the daydream to find Maia holding out her hand to greet him.
    “Monsieur Hunter, I’ve heard a lot about you. Your reputation precedes you.” She had a slight accent, not French, but rather more Australian, and Jonas took her hand and lifted it to his mouth, at the same time wondering what exactly Tanna had divulged to her about their three-way encounter. The greeting wasn’t awkward, though, despite Maia’s clear shyness.
    “I’ve heard a lot about you as well,” Jonas admitted. “I believe Nicky would be lost without you. He told me you create his fabrics for him.”
    Again she gave him