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I need you, Eves,it reads, mirroring the short, snappy phrasing in his texts.I’m sorry. I’m in too deep this time. I need your help, even if I don’t deserve it. Please meet me.
I crumble it up and toss it in the trash, but my chest feels heavy the entire trip back to the Royal. I’m so lost inside myself, that I don’t realize someone is speaking to me until they reach for my hand. By that point, I’m mere paces from the elevator.
“Evie?”
I blink, startled to find Dahlia beaming at me, dressed to the nines in a yellow sundress and killer heels.
“You left this at the club last night.” She offers a beautiful silver bracelet way too extravagant to have been owned by me.
“It’s not mine—”
“Well, you can keep it. Consider it your winnings.” She tucks it firmly against my palm with a knowing wink. “I take it last night turned out in your favor?”
Oh, that. My cheeks are on fire, and I can’t stop a wry smile from shaping my lips. “Perhaps.”
Dahlia raises an eyebrow. As experienced in innuendo as she seems to be, I’m sure she sees right through me. “Good.” To my surprise, she leans in with a conspiratorial tilt of her head. “Want another chance to turn the tables?”
I can’t stop myself from glancing around the few visitors in the lobby as if I expect to find Graeme Bellamy hiding behind a potted plant in the corner. When the coast seems clear enough, I meet Dahlia’s probing gaze. “What did you have in mind?”
She smirks. “Let me see your closet. We’ll find you the perfect suit of armor to wear.”
“To what?”
Laughing, she throws her arm over my shoulder and steers me toward the elevators. “A party at the Red Room, of course.”
CHAPTER32
graeme
Riley has run roughshod over my entire week, playing his little game, but I’m sure he’s not done yet.
The bastard’s planning something. I can sense his deceit, lingering in the air. I feel no closer to forging a merger with the man than I do to jumping headfirst into the river, and the moment I step inside the Royal after a day of meetings, I sense something is wrong.
I’m not sure what until I exit the elevator and find a woman leaving my suite. Her black hair catches the light, marking her as one of Adrian’s women. She smiles when she sees me and offers up a wave.
“Goodnight, Mr. Bellamy!”
In silence, I watch her enter the vacated elevator. Only when I’m sure she’s gone do I march forward, and wrench open the front door. Evelyn’s standing over by the windows, her eyes on her mobile. Whatever she sees has her biting her bottom lip, but the second she notes my approach, she lowers it, angling the screen away.
“I didn’t invite her,” she says before I can get a damn word out. “Not that I wouldn’t.” She angles her head, ready for any confrontation I might initiate. The motion merely highlights the line of her throat and draws attention to the fact that the dress she wears is one of mine—one she bought on my tab. Elegant. Tailored to flare out at her waist while clinging to her breasts. Like magnets, my eyes are drawn to a sliver of bared cleavage, and I barely hear her add, “She came on her own, to invite me…”
She shifts to contort her torso away from me. Like bloody magic, I can think clearly again.
“To what?” I snap as she trails off. Shaking my head, I force my gaze upward, settling over her wary expression. She’s doing her best to hide her nerves, but her teeth keep seizing her bottom lip.
When she lifts her shoulder in a casual shrug, I can sense the unease lurking beneath the gesture. “To a party at the club.”
“Riley.” He happened to mention the same “party” earlier, one stocked with executives from the London club. Coincidentally he hadn’t said a word about extending an invitation to anyone else. “And you turned her down, I hope.”
She runs her hands down the front of her dress, ruffling the loose skirt. “Why would I do that?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” I take a step closer, watching her throat work to swallow. “Perhaps because we agreed you would stay away from Adrian Riley.”
“Buthedidn’t invite me—”
“The hell he didn’t.”
“Maybe it hasn’t crossed your mind, Mr. Bellamy.” She takes her own step forward, bringing herself within my reach, her neck craned to meet my gaze directly. “But you just throwing money in my direction doesn’t mean you own me in the slightest.”
