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We danced out the rest of the song in a strange, mute communication. I was wondering what the hell was going on in his head as he continued to smile down at me, gray eyes revealing nothing of his intentions. If I were even the slightest bit less sure of myself, I’d think I’d made it all up. He was a consummate flirt. He probably didn’t even realize he was doing it.
But Iwassure. There was just a shadow of amusement that told me he was playing a game. Maybe he always had been. Maybe this was who he really was, and the vain, cocksure character from before was just that… a character.
As the music ended, Blake stepped back immediately. I breathed my first full breath. I had been sure he’d let his hands linger and press me into another dance. Maybe he hadn’t been so indifferent to my news about having a serious boyfriend after all. I turned automatically to look for Aiden, but to my surprise, I didn’t see him.
“It looks like they started without us,” Blake said.
I looked back at him, bewildered. Startedwhatwithout us? The ball was in full swing, and the auction portion of it hadn’t yet begun. What else was there that we could have missed?
“The introduction to Holly,” he explained. “Come on, I think I know where they went.”
Before I could respond, he was striding off the dance floor, through the glittering prisms of refracted light coming off the cut glass crystals hanging above. Unsure of what else to do, I followed him. I wished I had my phone, but I left it in the room to avoid having to carry a purse. I didn’t think I’d need it. Now I had no way to call Aiden and ask where he’d gone.
Blake took us out of one of the tall double doors that led into an equally luxuriously appointed hallway. He looked up one way and then down the other.
“Why would they have left the ballroom?” I asked, standing on the threshold.
“Holly isn’t going to want people reporting back to her current brand management guy that she’s talking to some jerkoff in Boston, is she?” Blake sounded so logical, so impatient, that I took a step forward before I thought better of it. “I know where they’ll be.”
Now that I was out of the ballroom, it was like a protection spell had been broken. He reached out and laced his fingers through mine. Again, I thought of a bear trap. His grip on my hand was hard, his fingertips digging into the delicate bones like spokes. Again, that irrational fear spiked in me.
I’d told Aiden I’d handled guys just like Blake, guys worse than Blake.
But had I underestimated him?
Blake began walking, pulling me along with him. The nerves that had danced in my stomach all day suddenly began doing a different dance. A familiar one. The tension was thickening into nausea. I felt the saliva building in the back of my throat. I worried, irrationally, that it would keep me from screaming if I needed to.
“Come on, don’t you want to meet her?” Blake asked, looking over his shoulder at me. Our hands were connected by the full length of our arms, that’s how far ahead he was. How far I was lagging behind. Anyone else would have slowed down for me, but he seemed ruthlessly committed to his pace. I stumbled.
“Blake, slow down.” I tried to shake his hand off, but it was futile. The metaphor of the bear trap clamping closed was becoming reality. I tried to dig my heels into the carpet, but the smooth soles wouldn’t let me. These were shoes for dancing with Aiden in, not thwarting Blake. I looked for anything to grab onto with my free hand, but there were no doorknobs, no columns, no extraordinarily heavy looking statues to anchor myself too. And with every unwilling step I took, the nausea climbed higher.
“Blake, I’m going to be sick.” The words came out muddled and slurred. The nausea was thick as a milkshake in my throat.
He took a sudden turn, and we were in a much smaller room. It must have been just beyond the ballroom because I could still hear the music and noise of the bigger room through the wall. It was strange to be so close to it, and yet so far away. The room we were in was eerily quiet, save for the ghostly sounds of the party coming through the wall. It was dark, too. I didn’t realize how dark until Blake shut the door.
“Blake, what the hell are you doing? Where are Holly and Aiden?” Up until now, I’d hoped that we were really going to them. That Blake’s strange behavior wasn’t what I thought. Now I knew better. He was exactly the man we thought he was. Maybe worse. My polite restraint fell away like unlocked cuffs. I straightened to my full height, furious and sick. Both seemed to feed off each other.
When Blake came toward me, his crisp white shirt and white teeth gleaming in the dark, I put out both hands and shoved him back, hard.
“Hey, hey,” he said soothingly. It made my skin crawl to hear him comfort me like he comforted one of his skittish cats. “It’s okay. No one is going to find us in here.” He reached for me again, so sure that that was what I wanted. I was astounded. How could he misread my signals when they were so clear?
“Blake, I am in a relationship,” I snapped. “I told you that. And he’shere.”
“Aiden Cross.” He sounded almost bored. “I know. That’s why I brought us in here. I had my brother distract him so we could get away.”
I pictured the dark-haired man who had stood so close to Aiden. Blake’s brother? They were as different as night and day, but now that I thought about it, I could see the similarities. Blake took another step forward. His hands were on my waist before I could take a step back.
“You did want to get away with me, right?” Again, his voice was coaxing, like he was talking to one of his animals.
“No.” I forced my arms between us as he tried to pull me to his chest. “That’s the last thing I want.”
He chuckled patronizingly. “Then why did you come?”
“Because I wanted to find more opportunities for you! I wanted to learn!” Furious at the position he’d put me in, I shoved outward. Blake didn’t move an inch. He was too close and too strong.
He was whispering something in my ear now, but I couldn’t hear him over the pounding of my own heart. The roar in my ears. “Blake, I’m going to throw up,” I said suddenly.
“You don’t have to be nervous.”
