“Meh.” She looked briefly at her gleaming white manicure. “You know me. I always have fun. I just got back from Lake Bled.”
Right. Of course. Slovenia.
She raised her eyes to mine, looking at me through heavy lashes. “It’s a shame we stopped hanging out. You were in such a bleak place, Liam. It was hard for me, you know.”
Just like that, I remembered why dating her had felt like trying to talk to someone who was already mid-selfie.
“I’m sure it was. Sorry about that, Sveta.”
I glanced over my shoulder, but Andrea was nowhere to be seen.
A waiter floated past with a tray of cocktails, but Sveta waved him away. Just outside the hall, live music started playing, and people started to drift toward it.
“You’re not drinking?” I asked. Highly unusual.
She laughed like I was in on the joke. “Strictly class As for me tonight, darling. It’s better, you know?” She shrugged and gestured to her slender physique encased in a white sequined dress that plunged almost to the navel. “I’ve got a show coming up, so…”
Yes, I knew. Too many calories.
“Of course.”
Fashion shows. Private jets. Celebrities. Parties.She treated it like a perfectly reasonable way to live.
I’d been good for a season. Access. Invitations. A seat where she wanted one.
It was so obvious, with hindsight.
Was it even her fault that things had been so fucking shallow? Maybe it was mine, maybe with all the women I’d dated before.It was hard to be yourself when you never knew why someone was really withyou.
“I’m going through a politician phase now,” she said,looking bored. “It’s a shame, Liam. We had some fun, remember?” She leaned in, mouth brushing my ear. “Do you recall that hotel in Kotor? The pool with the fountain?”
I closed my eyes for half a second.
I did recall it. Unfortunately.
“Lucky they didn’t have cameras,” she whispered.
Something drew tight behind my jaw, like a cable being winched.
“Mm.”
It had not ended well.Wehad not ended well. Although she’d certainly come out of it with a few assets she didn’t have before, including a Versace Home armchair and a Baccarat crystal bowl, courtesy of my credit card.
Sveta took my hesitancy as an invitation and raised a delicate hand to my upper arm, her lips now at my neck. I could smell her perfume. Expensive and heavy, a little overpowering.
“We’re not like these people, Liam. They’re so small. We want more.”
She placed a finger against my chest. Instinctively, I stepped back, but she didn’t seem to notice. Or if she did, she didn’t care.
“If you wanted,” she said, “we’d still work. We always did.”
She ran her lips down the edge of my jaw, her breath hot against my skin.
I pulled my head back sharply. “Working” with Sveta just meant molding yourself around her. There was no other way.
Not something I had any appetite for revisiting.
I searched the hall for Andrea again.Where wasshe?
