For whatever reason, I found I didn’t mind when it came to the siren.
I smiled down at her. She wasn’t insanely short, but she still had to be nearly a foot shorter than me. “I guess you would know since you’re at my party. Which makes me wonder how exactly you got the invite because I’m damn certain I don’t know you. I would remember. Did you sneak in?” I squeezed her waist gently. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell.”
She looked like she wanted to roll her eyes again but settled for glancing to the side as she gestured over her shoulder. “I’m here with my friend and her boyfriend, both of whom seemed to have disappeared. When I saw the door open, I thought they’d snuck up here.”
Thought I closed that. I’m gonna catch hell from Cohen.
“So you weren’t following me?” I asked.
The barely smothered snort cut almost as deeply as her immediate and firm, “No.”
Ouch, my wounded pride.
And yet I still wasn’t turned off.
“A lucky coincidence then,” I muttered, willing my vision to focus.
“Yeah, sure. I’m betting there are a lot of people downstairs searching for the guest of honor, so why don’t we get you back in there?” She shifted again to move us toward the door.
Or maybe just dislodge herself from my grip.
I didn’t want either one.
“There’s not,” I said as that empty loneliness threatened to push in.
She froze, her head tilting as she looked up at me. “Not what?”
“Not anyone searching. As long as there’s free booze and food, I guarantee no one’s even noticed I’m gone.”
Her pretty face softened with pity, and that was worse than her trying to get away from me. “Well, itisgood food, but I’m sure that’s not true.”
I laughed, but even through my fog, I could hear how hollow it sounded. “Don’t give me that look, siren. I’m up here to get away from them. And now to get to know you. What’s your name?”
“Greer,” she said. “But we should both get back to the party. I don’t want my friend thinking I took off without saying goodbye.”
With her standing so close, I was able to get a better look at her. She was younger than I initially thought—probably a decade or so younger than me as a newly thirty-three-year-old. If I was a better man, that would’ve been enough to make me release her.
Unlike most of Hollywood, I wasn’t in a constant quest to date younger as I got older. I preferred my companions to understand my references, have experience with what I liked, and never,evertell me that they loved my movies in high school—or earlier.
But I wasn’t a better man, so I kept my large hands right where they were.
Based on her estimated age and the disappearing couple she’d mentioned, I wagered a guess. “Would that friend happen to be Maddie?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “I went to get a drink, and she was gone.”
“They probably snuck into—” I caught my drunken tongue just before I mentioned Gilded.
I had no clue if Maddie had told her friend about the kind of relationship she had with Easton.
About the way she submitted.
It made me wonder if Greer shared that submissive trait. I somehow doubted it. And while that was a shame, it wasn’t enough to dull my interest.
“Snuck into a storeroom,” I finished instead.
“I figured,” she said with a soft sigh that wasn’t loaded with the venom that being ditched deserved.
“They might be a while,” I said. I had no clue if that was true, but I was an opportunistic bastard who wanted to extend the time I had with her.
