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If she had been able to reach the stage, she would have walked to him and slapped him hard on the face. But then again, she never wanted to speak to him ever again.
Raina turned to Kelly, her voice ice cold. She hissed “I’ve seen your surprise and now I’m out of here. Thanks so much for this. I think I would have preferred to spend the rest of my life not knowing. At least then I could have pretended Christopher had actually loved me.”
Her voice caught in a sob, and she ran out without giving Kelly a chance to respond.
Once outside, Raina kept walking. Walking and walking and walking. She didn’t know where, she only knew she wanted to get away from both Kelly and Christoph—Christian.
She felt sad and used and broken.
Why had he picked her? There were so many other women available to him, why her? Why leave her heartbroken and yearning for something she could never have? One thing was clear in Raina’s mind.
People like Christian—rich, successful, handsome billionaires did not go for girls like her. Maybe he had wanted a change—a little trip to the “wild side.” Raina sneered. She’d had too many bad first dates that had started with some bastard saying he’d always “wanted to know what being with a black girl was like.” Jerks. It stung to find out that she had just been a momentary distraction for Christoph—no, Christian.
Whatever his reasons, Raina now felt a searing dislike for him.
The memories of him kissing her and making love to her brought a bitter taste to her mouth. Twenty minutes later, she reached the small town. She asked for directions and made her way to the bus depot. Luck was on her side and she got a ticket for a bus leaving for Palm Beach in ten minutes.
She felt a stab of guilt at ditching Kelly, but her supposed best friend had a lot to answer for. How could her closest ally, who supposedly knew her, have the nerve to drive her across the state to meet a man who had lied to her from day one? A man who had used her and then discarded her. Raina settled in a seat next to the window and stared out forlornly.
Christopher Smith. She snorted, and shook her head at how stupid she herself had been. Just remembering how he had lied so easily and pretended to be a maintenance man got Raina’s blood racing again. She brought back the image of his real self. As Christopher he’d had grey eyes, but his real eyes were blue in color. She tried to recall the instances where they had spent the night together. Had he even removed the contact lenses?
Oh, Christian! Raina thought her heart aching, her eyes filled with unshed tears.
Had he seen her sitting in front at the lecture? Most likely not, and she preferred it that way. She thought of the last time she had seen him, his face a cold mask of disdain after catching Pervy Roger nibbling on her neck.
Christian probably would not have wanted to see her either.
Her chest rose up again when another unpleasant yet maddening thought crossed her mind. Christian thought she was a thief! He must have believed Roger’s allegations. How could he after the nights they shared?
It was just as well that they did not stay together. Clearly he had had zero trust in her. He didn’t know her at all, if he could have believed those allegations. The least he could have done was talk to her first, given her a chance to explain her side of the story. Raina tried to fall asleep, leaning her heard against the window, to escape the thoughts of Christian going around and around in her mind.
The image of his startling blue eyes seemed etched in her mind. His smile, the very same one that had lit her world months ago, the one that had brought her such joy—now, the memory of it only brought her pain.
19
Christian looked around at the animated faces. Hands were still raised for questions and he wanted to take as many as possible. He pointed to a young man at the front.
“Sir, my question regards motivation. How did you manage to remain motivated during those years when you were—?”
Christian screwed his eyes, shielding them from the light with his hand, seeing what he thought he couldn’t possibly be seeing. But sure enough, that was Kelly seated behind the young man who had asked the question.
What was she doing here? He asked the young man to repeat the inquiry, and he answered it automatically, his mind on Kelly. Was it something to do with Raina? The kids? Was Raina all right?
He rushed through the next questions and then excused himself.
He was too unnerved by Kelly’s presence to pay attention to anything else in the theater. After the applause, Christian came down from the podium. He was immediately surrounded by people and he signaled for one of the ushers to bring Kelly to wait for him.
As soon as he could he extracted himself, held Kelly by the arm and shepherded her to a secluded corner behind the stage.
“Kelly, how are you?” he said. He was distantly pleasant, but his voice was tight.
“I’m well, thank you.”
They stared at each other warily, neither knowing what to say next.
“How did you—,” Christian started.
“I found out it was you—” Kelly’s words tumbled over his.
