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“Is it? How else am I supposed to react, Finny?” My teeth grind as I clench my jaw and I remind myself to breathe. The reminders are for naught, though, and I choke on my breath when she continues, “You’re withher,some worker from a restaurant that you closedfor me?When did you lower yourself to dating the help? You’re better than this.”
“The help?”Delilah snaps. I can feel my future crashing and burning around me as she yanks her wrist from my grip. She takes a step in Jacqueline’s direction, but the socialite stops her in her steps with her next ugly sentiment.
“I’m sorry, would you prefer I call it what it is? Slumming, by the way,” Jacqueline tears her hateful gaze from Delilah and turns it toward me instead. “That’s what you’re doing, Finn.Slumming.”
Whispers rise in the crowd around us as Delilah scoffs, shoulders loosening in the second before she throws her head back and laughs.What the fuck?My stomach tightens as she shakes her head and reaches up to wipe her eyes before shrugging. I take a step forward, reaching for her once more. Easily, she side-steps me, passing me a glance that’s impossible to decipher before shoving past Jacqueline with enough force to make the other woman stumble on her sky-high heels.
“Delilah,” I call after her, stepping around Jacqueline as Haley, Lance, and Taylor push through the circle of spectators. They take up spots at my back as my ex rights herself and sneers in the direction of my date's back.
“Not worth it,” Delilah calls out easily, not bothering to look at me over her shoulder as she walks away.
“She’s totally worth it,” Haley hisses at my back. “She almost floored Sacqueline—she’s a keeper in my books. Go get her, or I will!”
I huff a laugh at my sister’s unflattering nickname for my ex, but my amusement withers as I glance at Jacqueline and Mrs. Van Horn in turn. The challenge is clear in their eyes—follow Delilah and disgrace myself in our social circle. Stay and maintain the status quo.
The problem? I’ve never given much of a shit about status quo and the woman I’m falling in love with is currently walking out of the ballroom.
“Tell Mom I’m so sorry and I’ll make it up to her. But I’m not letting my future walk away from me,” I say to my siblings, heart pounding as they offer nods and smiles of encouragement. Haley offers me a thumbs up and Lance thumps my back before I turn on my heel.
Pushing through the crowd, I can’t help the desperation that slams through me like a ten-pound hammer. I already knew I was leaps and bounds ahead of Delilah in the feelings department and now I have no idea if I’ve lost her before I really had a chance to win her.
Determination sets my jaw as I push out onto the street, eyes scanning frantically for any sight of her. I will not accept her walking away from this, not when the potential between us is explosive, and beautiful, and everything I could never deserve from life.
Delilah Cooper has another thing coming if she thinks I’m giving up on her this easily.
Chapter6
Delilah
“What are you doing?”
I don’t bother glancing over my shoulder, knowing full-well what a disapproving frown looks like on Finn’s face without needing to see it in real life. “Trying to convince your security guard that I’m not going to steal your television.”
“Luis, Ms. Cooper was here with me earlier,” Finn says over my shoulder. I roll my eyes. I’d also reminded the security guard that he’d called me by my name on the way out the door earlier, but…
“Mr. Vittatoe, admittance to the penthouse is restricted and she was not on the approved list.”
My lips purse and I grind my teeth. And there’s the crux of it all.
I’m good enough to be openly flirted with in Pine Ridge. Good enough for him to get me off in my office. Good enough to flaunt on his arm at his family’s annual Christmas Eve fundraiser. Not good enough to remember. And certainly not good enough to be on the list to be let into his home, where a suitcase with my belongings is splayed on one side of his king-sized bed.
My heart wrenches in my chest and I swallow thickly around the emotion threatening to spill over. Luis offers me a sympathetic smile, and I try to remind myself that he’s just doing his job—that it’s not his fault the mega-douchebag behind me tricked me into thinking he’s capable of anything other than trying to make a fast return on his investment.
“Well, now that we’ve cleared that up, I’d love to go grab my things.”
“Delilah,”Finn groans as Luis offers me a card for the elevator, grimacing over my shoulder at the man behind me. The weight of Finn’s hand dropping on my shoulder turns my stomach as I grapple with the feelings of affection that want to flutter to life there. I take the card with a nod, turning toward the elevator and shaking Finn’s hand off me as I go. “Delilah!”
I jam the button on the small, discreet panel, steadfastly ignoring Finn as he shoves himself between me and the door. Crossing my arms over my chest, I watch the numbers ticking lower as I count down the seconds in my head, measuring my breaths with each floor the elevator passes.
“Are you seriously going to stand there and ignore me?”
Yup. Because I might do something stupid if I don’t. Like kiss you and tell you none of this matters.
“Please tell me that you aren’t putting merit to Jacqueline’s words.”
I heave a deep sigh, shoulders aching with the tension I’ve held in them since I climbed into the back of Finn’s car at The Beekman. It wasn’t Jacqueline’s implication that Finn had lowered himself to be with me—that he wasslumming.That ugliness was precisely what I expected from some of the partygoers tonight. No, the actual insult was the fact thatsherememberedme from Ambiance when Finn had to look me up in personnel files.
Good enough to mess around with. Not good enough to be more than just another conquest.
