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ALICIA

While everyone else was being directed to their seats in the main atrium that’d been set up as a ballroom, I managed to slip away. Earlier, I’d been going over to grab Holden so we could walk into the room together—in the interest of presenting a united front, of course—when I’d witnessed whatever the hell that had been.

Walking up the grand old staircase at the back of the foyer to the second-floor mezzanine, I slipped into a shadowed alcove where I knew it would be quiet. Slinking back against the wall, I took a slow sip of my gin and tonic, gazing over the mahogany railing at the floor below.

Overlooking the gala from up here, the event appeared to be another massive success for Jane and her team. The crowd was a glittering, moving mosaic of silk and velvet clamoring around the silent auction tables.

While they ebbed and flowed to and from the atrium, I heard a booming, charismatic voice announce over the microphone that dinner would be served shortly and reminding people that bidding was still open. As I watched the swirling masks below, however, I felt a conflicted ache settle deep in my chest instead of relief over all the money that was inevitably being raised.

For the last three years, I’d been part of the invisible machinery of this annual spectacle. I’d always been here, doing what had to be done to make the night a success, but working from the shadows. Now, I was attending as an official guest, wearing a gown that’d cost more than a payment on my loans, and rubbing elbows with the people I’d previously only admired from a distance.

It was exciting, of course, to actually be part of it instead of being relegated to the back rooms, but at the same time, it felt like I was closing a chapter on a massive part of my life. No longer just Alicia, I was now Mrs. Alicia Thayer, the wife of one of the aristocrats who arrived once a year, dressed to the nines, and generously donated money to keep the institution I relied upon to make a living alive.

“There you are,” Holden’s voice said from somewhere way too close. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

I clammed up instantly, feeling my spine go rigid and my shoulders cave when he stepped into the alcove with me. Without even casting a glance at the crowd below, he didn’t stop moving until he was only about a foot or so away, those gray-blue eyes intently focused on mine. “Are you having a good time?”

Memories of the phone conversation I’d overheard flashed vividly through my mind, bringing with them a sharp sting of humiliation and a reminder that I’d resolved to address those comments tonight, now that we were here and I’d proven I could hold my own.

“I am, actually.” I took another sip of my drink and tilted my chin up, arching a steep eyebrow as I held his gaze. “I just hope I haven’t embarrassed you too much out there. I mean, I know I’m just someone who reads fairy tales to toddlers for a living, but I don’t think I’ve done anything that requires you to pick up the pieces of the total clusterfuck this evening was sure to become.”

Holden blinked hard. Then it was like I could see the realization hit him, those eyes widening before his brow furrowed in sudden frustration. Thankfully, he didn’t pretend not to know what I was talking about.

“You were listening when I spoke to Alex,” he said, and it wasn’t a question. “That’s unfortunate.”

“I was coming down to talk to you,” I shot back, my voice trembling slightly despite my best efforts to keep it even. “I’m sorry you think it’s so unfair, being married to someone who’s just a, what was it again, a shark dressed in a suit? That doesn’t even make sense, by the way. I’m not a shark and I⁠—”

“I wasn’t talking about you,” Holden snapped, then blew out a long, harsh breath and rubbed a hand over his face. When he dropped it, it was like he’d wiped off that defensive, arrogant veneer he always wore, and for the first time since I’d met him, he actually looked vulnerable.

I glanced down at the gin in my hand, wondering if it was making my eyes play tricks on me, but when he took another half step closer and I lifted my gaze back to his, he genuinely seemed torn up about this.

“I had the first twenty minutes of that conversation outside, Alicia,” he explained quietly but urgently. “Everything you heard was completely out of context.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Oh, so you talking about how you shouldn’t have to come here with me because I was going to embarrass you so completely no matter what I wore was out of context?”

“Yes,” he said firmly. “I wasn’t talking about being embarrassed by you. I was talking about being embarrassed in front of you. This godforsaken circus has a way of drawing in a crowd that absolutely despises my family, Alicia. All their smiles and bullshit are for show. They’re the sharks.”

I blinked rapidly, the grip I’d had on my gin loosening. “What do you mean?”

He looked out over the railing for a second, his eyes narrowing at the crowd below before sliding back to mine. He’d never been this open with me, but I could suddenly see it now, the turbulence churning behind that arrogant, aloof facade.

“I mean that I didn’t want you to see it, Alicia. The way they look at us when they think we aren’t paying attention. The whispers. That world down there might be pretty, but it’s also vicious and I knew they would try to pick at you just to get to me. I was the one who was going to be embarrassed and you don’t deserve to be caught in the crossfire.”

Warmth bloomed deep in my chest, melting the icy fortress of spite I’d been building inside all week. Tingles swept through my body as I realized he hadn’t been ashamed of me. He’d been trying to protect me. To shield me from whatever vicious tactics he’d thought those people down there would employ to hurt me.

“Oh,” I breathed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Clearly.” A faint, genuine smile touched one corner of his lips. “You’re the only real thing in this building tonight, Alicia. So now that you have the context, think back to what you overheard. I was trying to get us both out of this because I didn’t want those vipers down there scaring you off.”

“Because I read fairy tales to toddlers for a living?”

He shrugged, but his mouth curved into a little more of a smile. Almost like he couldn’t quite stop it. “That too, but mostly because you’re a good person and I know the library needs their money, but it doesn’t have to come with a side of condescension.”

The air between us seemed to charge as he looked down at me, his features and his gaze softer than I’d ever seen. All those sharp edges were gone, a lock of dark blond hair across his forehead, and his bowtie sitting just a bit askew.

“We don’t have to stay, you know,” I murmured as I stared into those blue eyes, noticing amused light in them for possibly the very first time. “People have seen us, they know we were here, and I doubt they’d look for us if we just disappeared. They’d just probably think we’re making small talk somewhere.”

“Say no more.” Holden grinned and pulled his phone out of his inside pocket, firing off a quick text before offering me his arm. “The driver will meet us at the back entrance.”