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That got him a finger point. “That sponsorship was from your time at the helm.”
Reid grinned. “And I said we should’ve spent it on robotics then, but I didn’t push the point. I wasn’t an asshole twenty-four seven.”
“Just often enough you were a liability.”
“I know you think that. You’re wrong.”
“If I thought you could change I’d have done this differently. I met your date. Dev did the honors. She’s a lovely girl. Brains as well as beauty. I’m pleased for you. But she doesn’t know you weren’t invited.”
Did she know now?
“I didn’t enlighten her. You might do me the courtesy of enlightening me on what your game plan here is.”
“I spent my whole adult life on Plus. I’ve been out for less than three months. This is my night as much as it’s yours.”
Adnan smiled at someone over Reid’s shoulder then his eyes came back to Reid’s, no more light in them. “Perhaps. But it’s never that simple with you. Tread carefully. It will be more embarrassing to you than me if I have you removed tonight.”
And Kuch was gone, into the crowd of mostly staff, stockholders and strategic partners and Reid was free to go to Zarley. But he paused, a flashback of all the times he’d been forced to attend functions like this and sit beside bickering couples. The men never paid enough attention, the woman were bored and wanted to be entertained, the business was necessary but tedious. He’d never bothered to take a date other than Sarina who knew the score. Why hadn’t he remembered that?
Because he was so smitten with Zarley he didn’t want to spend the night without her. And he wanted to show her off like she was a trophy he’d won. There was something sick about that. It wasn’t a mature adult response, that’s for sure.
He slipped into the chair beside her as the appetizer was being brought to the table. “I’m sorry.” He put a hand to her forearm. “I should’ve realized this would be no fun for you and come by myself.”
She pulled a face, so at odds with her loveliness he laughed. “Are you kidding? I knew it would be something like this. You’re the prodigal son, you were going to cause eyebrows to wag. I didn’t think you’d be pasted to my side.”
He blinked at her. Not sure he’d heard her correctly over the hubbub of the room. He leaned in closer and she put her hand to his face. “Don’t look so worried. Dev looked out for me, it’s all good.”
He caught her hand in his. The tight strain in his chest eased a little. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Got that right, Back Booth,” she sassed. “But you’ve got me.”
Not for much longer if he kept thinking like an immature boy around her, if Owen was right, and he couldn’t keep his asshole in check where Zarley was concerned. Owen was often right. A tap to his shoulder. John Handy, a journalist he’d rather not talk to but couldn’t avoid.
“Reid, surprised to see you here. Excuse me,” John said to Zarley, ogling her.
Reid stood and put himself behind Zarley’s chair to block the guy’s sight, and they had an awkward discussion about why Reid was in the room and what he was doing post Plus.
On the table his appetizer waited while a group of programmers pounced on him. They were full of righteous indignation at how he’d been treated and he knew, he knew, to the twist in his gut, that was bad for him to hear, that he needed to remember there were people in the room who he’d treated poorly, shouted at and belittled, who had a legitimate reason to despise him above and beyond basic jealousy.
When he sat down again, the main course had been served and Zarley reached for his hand under the table. “Are you doing okay?”
She was some kind of witch. “Do I look like I’m not?” He couldn’t afford to look like he was off kilter if the rest of his plan was going to run true, and he was tense from all the smiling and nicely neutral conversation he’d had to make.
“You look exceptionally handsome. Maybe not as handsome as Adnan. Whoa, for an older guy, he’s hot, and you’re not as cute as Dev, but I still have a thing for you.”
“I have such a thing for you, it needs—”
“Reid, heard you were here. Sly dog, and who’s this?”
He was going to say their thing deserved an upgrade to something more serious. It wasn’t a one-night stand that spilled over, or fling, or an affair, he wanted it to be a relationship, but what did he know about that and he had to talk to this wanker banker before he could get that clear.
He introduced Zarley, who stood with him, to McKenzie Whitmore and then wanted to pound the man’s face for the way he looked her over. Whitmore was on his third wife, she was younger than his eldest daughter. He was sniffing around to see what Reid planned next. It was flattering. When Reid’d first tried to get finance, men like Whitmore with their own investment funds refused to take his calls.
But what was better was Zarley’s arm around his waist, the pressure of her body as she leaned into him, knowing her eyes were on him as he and Whitmore talked investment finance scuttlebutt and Silicon Valley rumors, and that she was doing it so Whitmore knew exactly where her loyalties lay.
Fuck, she was wonderful. In a room full of women on whom no expense to look good was spared, Zarley was the only one he wanted to be with. He’d do what he needed to do and get her out of here so he could make this lousy night up to her.
By the time they got to eat the chicken was rubbery and the steak was cold and before he got two bites chewed, Nerida bobbed down between him and Zarley.
