I took another sip of my drink, the warmth of the alcohol settling below my breastbone. It barely touched the edges.
Fuck this. Fuck the whole thing. Fuck the fake dating and the wedding and France. And fuck Liam, too. I’d made a total fool of myself.
I’d finish the drink and leave.
Someone pulled out a chair next to me.
“Careful,” he said, nodding at my glass. “Those go down easier than they should.”
I turned. It was Toby, the horrible man from yesterday. What did he want? To mock me, like he had Liam?
I took another sip.
He was already sitting by the time I looked away.
Chapter 35
Liam
Hugo was waitingjust beyond the lights, away from the music. His gray hair was slightly out of place, like he’d been having more fun than he was used to.
“Where’s Andrea?” he asked. “Dancing the night away already?”
“Something like that.” She still hadn’t come back from the bathrooms. Maybe shewasoff dancing? She’d made friends with everyone she’d spoken to tonight. Nick and Juliette. The others at our table. My brother and Dex already had schoolboy crushes on her. Even Bonnie seemed to be warming up. Unheard of.
I glanced across the grounds. No sign of her, but the wedding was huge. Pop-up bars and marquees were dotted around the gardens between the trees, and it would be easy to disappear.
Perhaps she was talking art with Sebastian Wetherall again.
Still couldn’t get over that. Good for her.
“Miranda thinks she’s great,” Hugo said. “I do too. Keeps you on your toes, Liam.”
I laughed. It was true, but not in the way Hugo meant it.
“You want to be careful with Sveta,” he added lightly, like an afterthought. I knew that tone. “I’d have assumed Andrea wouldn’t be too keen to have seen that… incident back there.”
My neck stiffened. “Hugo—”
“Are you serious about this woman, Liam?”
Given the chance, more serious than he could imagine. There wasn’t a single thing about her I didn’t like.But what did she think ofme?
“Because if you are, something like that must never happen again.”
“I … understand.”
Fuck, had it looked that bad? But of course it had. Sveta had been draped all over me as usual. And if Hugo had seen it, who else had?
“Well?” Hugo looked at me calmly. “Are you?”
How could I explain that my feelings were deeper than I could ever have imagined possible when we’d written the script about it?
“If she’d let me, I’d build my whole life around her,” I said quietly.
Hugo stilled, never taking his eyes off mine. After a few seconds, he said, “Yes, Liam, I believe you would.”
He pulled his chair closer and adjusted his cuffs. “I spoke to Roger last week, and someone at MHRA who still answers my calls.”
