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“Have fun.”
“Thanks.”
I leave her and make my way backstage. The instant I reach it, my mind goes straight back to Jericho.
Honestly, finding him in a place like this is no surprise. This club is a playground for rich, powerful men like him who can own people like me.
I won’t lie. Ihavethought about him, especially when I first came back to New York. That was eight months ago, but I never stopped. It wasn’t like I could escape the Grayson name either with the press all over them for one reason or another.
First, they covered his brother Knight’s wedding as if it were the royal wedding of the century, then they went for Jericho for hooking up with a Preacher Man’s wife.Andjust today, Bastian Grayson was in the papers for his scandal with Governor Teddy Jamieson’s daughter.
No matter who I hear about in his family, it makes me think of him. I never imagined seeing him here tonight, at a time when I've reached another low in my life.
I reach the dressing room, which is just as fancy and spacious as everywhere else in the club. It has a boudoir style, ornate mirrors, and period interior décor like something you’d find at the Moulin Rouge.
I make my way past a row of dressing tables and down to the section with my station. I was grateful that I have a small one at the end. Because it’s in the corner of the room, it’s like I have it to myself.
I can already see my dress hanging on the clothes rail.
I turn the corner, and my legs become stone when I see Jericho standing by the window. Shivers erupt across my skin in as if I’m standing outside in the cold, and I slow to a stop, then stare at him, wondering what he’s doing here.
His back is turned to me, but I can still see the hard outline of his jaw as he gazes at the bright city lights cascading across the scenic night-time view of the city.
If he’s standing in my area, it’s safe to assume he’s here to see me.
But why?
My next breath stills in my lungs, captured by the tension in my nerves and my racing thoughts. My heart is pounding so hard it feels like it might hammer its way out of my chest.
I blink several times and try to calm myself so I can say something—anything—but I can’t do either. I’m too stunned to even think of speaking to him because I don’t know what to say.
What do you say to a guy who broke up with you after having a secret relationship for three years?
What the hell do you say to him after he appeared to defy everything and everyone to be with you in said secret relationship, then he suddenly tells you out of the blue that he doesn’t think you two have a future?Becausehis feelings have changed.
My father hates the Graysons, so he was against us being together and went ape shit when he found out I was seeing Jericho.
Tobias Grayson—Jericho’s father—was mine’s arch nemesis right throughout our high school and college. Tobias even tried to screw with my father’s job when he just started out as a software engineer. He swears that’s why to this day, he’s still on the breadline and never had the chance to climb up even after winning a scholarship to Princeton.
Before my father’s accident, he’d blame the Graysons for everything. Every time I was with Jericho, I felt like I was betraying my father.
I feel like that again. Except now I also feel like I’m betraying myself.
“I don’t remember you being able to stay quiet for so long.” Jericho’s voice swallows the silence between us.
Hearing his voice that I haven’t heard in such a long time snaps my mind from the stupor of thought. I prepare myself to speak to him as he turns to face me.
He straightens and seems taller than I remember. I feel like a mouse in comparison to him.
In this light, I can also see more of his uncut hard-meets-soft raw beauty. As if earlier was the sneak peek and this is the main attraction.
His onyx-colored hair cut in a sharp faux-hawk accentuates his piercing stormy blue eyes and the deep angles of his face.
The muscles beneath his suit and the tattoo peeking through the opened top button of his shirt conjure the rebel I used to know. But the Rolex around his wrist and the black tailored Armani suit display the wealth of the Wall Street man he became.
Jericho’s gaze flicks over me, up and down, before he settles back on my eyes.
I keep my eyes trained on him and really look at him. At his face. At his attitude. At his entire presence.
