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“You gonna be mad all night?” Noah asked gently, trying his best not to be confrontational. Maybe he understood how close I was to calling a car service and heading back to the hotel alone. In our intermittent silences, I’d even considered calling Kenzie to come and get me. As busy as she was, I was confident she’d come in a heartbeat. That’s just the person she was.
“I’m not mad,” I said, eyes on the ocean as he drove us toward our destination.
“Then, what are you, Amber? I can’t stand this hostile silence.”
“Hostile silence?” I asked. “Do you have a guilty conscience?”
“No.” But his answer came too quickly. “But you haven’t said more than a handful of words to me since we left the restaurant.”
“I’m thinking.”
“You’re upset.”
“Would you please stop telling me how I feel, Noah!”
Noah’s knuckles went white as he tightened his hands around the steering wheel in frustration. I didn’t care why he was frustrated by that point. I doubted it was anywhere near how I felt. I didn’t like fighting with him, and I wasn’t trying to piss him off. I was merely attempting to quiet the raging doubt screaming at me to turn around as we crawled along the coast.
I realized the moment I hit the point of no return when we took a corner, and the enormous white and concrete house on the cliff appeared. It was beautiful, there was no denying that, but it cut through the palm trees and into the view like a knife. I didn’t need Noah to point out that was our destination. The lighting patterns were harsh against the growing dark, and the sound of music raged even over the waves hitting the coast and the growl of the engine. Before I could hesitate, we were pulling into the long and winding driveway behind other expensive cars while valets ran back and forth, doing their best to keep up.
“Are we okay?” Noah asked while we waited.
“Of course, we’re okay. I wasn’t mad or upset. I’m confused and nervous.”
“Nervous?”
“You fling something like that at me before we head out here. Didn’t you think it would make me wonder what else was in store for me?”
“Shit. That was it, babe. You’re safe with me.”
I felt myself smile. That was one thing I’d never questioned. “I know that.”
Leaning over the center console, Noah kissed me deeply, his teeth grazing my bottom lip and sending a rush through me. “Let’s go forget all this and party.”
I picked up my purse, but he shook his head, opening the center console and slipping the small clutch inside it, including my phone. “You don’t need this, and no one will break into it outside Macie’s house.”
“Okay, what do I need?”
“Just you.”
“And if the offer happens?”
“We’ll deal with it when it comes. You never know. You might find Macie hot.”
“She is hot.”
Winking at me, Noah stepped out of the car when a valet opened the door for him.
Macie Rayne’shouse was something to behold. It looked gargantuan from the outside, but the true revelation of its size happened when you stepped inside. It was an open concept, sectioned off by subtle arches that I suspected would have blended in at any other time, but for the party, they’d defined each one by the lighting. The first room was sunken and red. The long lights hanging from the ceiling like stalactites bounced from the marble floors doubling down on the color as bodies writhed below it. The room on the opposite side of the entry was neon blue with dancers on podiums. These scantily clad ladies and gentlemen were entertaining guests who were either paying too much or too little attention to them.
Above us, there was a giant bottomless birdcage with a woman sitting in a ring performing bends and twists that hardly anyone appreciated. I watched her for as long as I could while Noah pulled me through the house toward the back.
There were people everywhere. Every room had a theme, and the noise was incredible. We were escorted downstairs to a basement area, which was darker than the rest of the house. Blacklights highlighted art on the walls that I doubted would be seen in the daylight, including impressions of naked bodies. By the time Noah came to a stop, I’d seen more shit than any movie had ever exposed me to, and yet, I was still surprised when he introduced me to Macie Rayne, who was sitting on a throne with a gorgeous tiara on her head, her leg thrown over the arm. Two women in metal bikinis sat in front of her chair like well-behaved Dobermans, staring dully out at the party as though it bored them.
We had Macie’s attention the moment we stopped, and her overly long nails shaped like talons tapped her teeth as she studied us both. Her eyes dressed us down—something I’d had done enough to recognize. Suddenly my hero-worship of the woman felt ridiculous.
“Noah, you came.”
“You invited me, didn’t you?” Noah replied in his most charming voice. He approached her when she waved him forward, and she kissed him on the lips. It wasn’t intimate in the slightest. It was just a power play by this woman who had too much money and prestige for her age.
