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“Hold onto that while you can. Things change quickly, and we can’t always control the direction it takes.” She kissed me on the cheek, sloppy and wet, before throwing her arm forward and stumbling in that direction like a general going into battle. To be fair, her entourage followed willingly. Her sober security was close but not enough to hinder taking up the rear of the group.
“Have you seen Noah Jennings?” I asked one of them, and his only response was to point up.
I nodded my thanks, then finished my water and grabbed another before heading back to the foyer and up the stairs. The noise grew louder as though the tall room was funneling the sound upward, but it died away to a dull roar as I headed down a long carpeted hall lined with platinum records and art from Macie’s albums. There were even a few from other artists that she’d featured on over the years. Her accomplishments lined her home proudly, all in expensive frames and in a perfect line.
There weren’t many people on this level of the house. As I walked past rooms, I could hear some quiet conversations while others were silent. There were only two rooms warding people off, and I assumed they were Macie’s bedroom, and perhaps her office, but I heeded the threat on the printed paper and headed to another until I heard the distinct sound of Noah’s voice. I tapped on the door, not wanting to interrupt a business conversation by busting in. Still, it was evident the moment he opened the door that the scenario I’d innocently put together was far from the truth.
Noah was shirtless, pants hung low around his waist, while a woman I quickly identified as Eliza Rothman sat on the bed in nothing but a lace bra and underwear set, her expression more annoyed than embarrassed at being caught.
I felt like an idiot. All those nights that Noah had been out late working on the film with Marcus Rothman. It hadn’t been the case at all. He’d been playing me for a fool. I felt the color drain from my face and the anger coil in my gut like a cobra ready to strike, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Not here. Not tonight.
“Shit,” Noah hissed.
I didn’t say a word. I just turned around and walked away. My only plan was to get to Noah’s car, find my phone, and call Kenzie. I didn’t want to see Noah Jennings again for the rest of my life.
ChapterFourteen
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Noah was on my ass before I’d hit the bottom of the stairs. He hadn’t bothered to put his shirt on. A fact made abundantly clear when appreciative wolf whistles aimed in his direction came the moment that we were in the first of the bodies at the bottom of the stairs. He made a grab for me several times, but the moment his fingers touched my body, I shook him off and veered in another direction. The touch I’d once longed for now made my skin crawl. The indiscretions both of us had experienced over the past five years had been mutual. We’d both agreed what we had wasn’t exclusive, but that had changed the moment he’d asked me to move in with him. I’d given him that chance, but it was a mutual understanding that he had one opportunity not to fuck it up, to prove to me we could make our relationship work, and he’d just flushed that down the proverbial toilet. All I’d asked of him was that he didn’t lie about it, and that’s what he’d been doing all week.
“Amber, stop!” Noah shouted over the music, finally finding purchase around my arm and spinning me to face him.
“Fuck you!”
Noah searched my face. I knew what he’d see there. It radiated through my body and strangled my soul. The pain of betrayal so physically agonizing my stomach twisted.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why?” I shouted, ignoring the eyes that were slowly focusing on us as we stood in the foyer.
“Because I hurt you.”
“Not why are you sorry, you son-of-a-bitch. Why did you fuck her?”
“I never expected it. There was just this chemistry I couldn’t deny, and we found ourselves alone one night, and—”
“How long?”
“Two days.”
I pushed my teeth into my bottom lip to stop myself from reacting the way I desperately wanted to. My hands fisted at my sides, and I wanted nothing more than to take a swing at the man I’d thought I loved. I was better than that, though, so I used words as weapons, stepping close but making sure my words were clear.
“You’re a pathetic excuse for a human being. I hope fucking her was worth it, Noah. Then again, it paid off for you in the past, didn’t it?”
Noah’s eyes went cold, just as I’d expected them to, but there was hurt there as well. I’d aimed, fired, and hit my mark with a bullseye. He wouldn’t follow me. Pulling free from his grip, I pushed through the crowd that had gathered around us and out the front door, where I fought to find my breath through the panic and pain slowly closing in around me. I was suffocating in it, entirely out of my league at a party that felt like an alien world. My first incentive was to get the fuck out of there as fast as humanly possible.
“Amber?”
It wasn’t Noah’s voice, but it didn’t stop me from picking up the stupid dress train and heading toward the area where the valets were parking the cars and looking for Noah’s BMW. A job that would have been much easier if half the cars there hadn’t been some variant of the exact vehicle.
“Amber?”
“Leave me alone, please,” I said, not caring who was following me anymore. I had one goal in mind, and it was getting as far as possible from that place before I shattered.
“Hey, hey, slow down,” Frankie said, his hand catching mine. I didn’t bother turning around. My eyes were searching the cars for a sign of something familiar.
“I have to get out of here.”
