Her voice cut sharp, but the tension in her arm told a different story.
“You’re shaking again,” I murmured.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
Her jaw tightened. “Let go.”
Instead, I stepped closer, and the hallway seemed to shrink around us. The noise from the reception faded behind the closeddoors, leaving only her breath, my hand around her wrist, and the heat of everything neither of us wanted to name.
“You came here with him,” I said.
“So?”
“So what exactly is he to you?”
Her face hardened. “A colleague.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“Bullshit.”
Her eyes widened, and fuck, I liked that reaction too much.
“I’ve been watching the two of you all evening,” I continued, lowering my voice. “That didn’t look like colleagues.”
I looked down at my hand still holding her wrist. Then back at her. “I remember what it felt like when you used to look at me the way you look at him now.”
Her lips parted, and for a second the hallway seemed to hold its breath around us. Then footsteps sounded from the reception area behind her, faint enough to miss if we had not both been so aware of everything outside this charged little space.
Edwina heard them too, and her eyes cut toward the sound. “Hayden,” she whispered, anger tight in her voice, “someone could come out here.”
I glanced toward the corner of the hallway and made the decision before reason could interfere. My grip tightened around her hand, and I pulled her with me down the corridor.
“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded under her breath. “Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere quieter.”
“Let go of me.”
“Not yet.”
“Hayden, I swear to God,” she hissed, trying to pull her hand free. “You have no claim to drag me around as if I belong to you.”
I looked back at her, jaw tight, jealousy still burning too hot under my skin. “You do belong to me.”
Her breath caught. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” I said. “And stop letting Whitmore fucking touch you.”
Her eyes flashed. “That is your problem, not mine.”
“It became my problem the second his hand touched you.”
We turned another corner, leaving the reception farther behind until the music faded into the walls and the voices became nothing more than a low hum. I stopped near a narrow alcove and released her hand before she could curse me again.
