"Am I?" Carey turned his gaze to me.
I frowned. "Why are you acting like this."
Jack took this as his opening to leave us and made his excuse."What's your problem?" I asked after Jack was gone.
Carey shrugged. "You tell me?"
"Me? I am not the one who made my wife's employee uncomfortable for no reason."
He tilted his chin up. "Did you go to fashion week with him?"
"Fashion week?" What the fuck was he talking about? He has never once shown any interest in what I did and now he wantedto know who I went to an industry event with? "Why are you asking?"
He swung me around so I was facing him. His grip on my waist tightening. I would be scared if heat wasn't pooling at my center. "Did you?"
I feigned nonchalance. I didn't want him to know how much this closeness was affecting me. "We all went fashion week, Carey. Me, Darcy, Jack and Deb."
He frowned. "Who's Deb?"
I rolled my eyes. "Our other employee. The woman you saw before you accosted me in a storeroom."
"Don't act like you didn't like it."
My pussy throbbed. He was right. I enjoyed every minute, embarrassing as it sounded. The surprise. The untamed fire he had. The impulsivity. But that still didn't explain why he was being weird about Jack.
"And what did you do there?"
I looked around us. No one was paying us attention but we were in the middle of a throng of people who had started dancing and I felt like we were in the way of their fun. "Is that something you should be asking here?"
His eyes darted around and he took my hand and marched to the corner of the terrace opposite the bar. The was a sitting area with a lit fire pit in the middle. Carey took me behind the sitting area, right to the corner of the terrace and pressed my back against the railing. He threw his hands on the bars, sandwiching me between him and the rail. The only thing that seperated us was the cocktail in my hand.
The sounds of the city were more pronounced here. The sun had set, and the skyline was all black rectangles with gold squares.
"If you want to kill me, I would suggest throwing me over when there isn't a party going on." I took a sip of my cocktail. His eyes flared. I smiled. So I was having an effect on him.
"You know, I wouldn't mind you having affairs as long as you were discreet about it. You can't rush to your boyfriend, the moment you see him at a party."
I scoffed. "You're one to talk."
Suddenly, he pressed me against the bars. His body flat against me as he bore into my eyes. "I'm being serious."
"So am I."
"Really? When have I kissed someone who's not you at a public event and had rumors spread around me?"
"K-kissed someone?" People were spreading rumors of me kissing some guy at fashion week? And I am assuming the guy is Jack. I raked my brain trying to think of what might have people thinking like that. There was that one time Jack and I were backstage at Bree's show and Jack helped me fix the zipper of my dress. I remember Bree coming in just as Jack zipped up my dress. To anyone walking in, it might have looked like we had just finished doing something illicit, but that wasn't kissing. But then the grapevine had a way of twisting things.
I opened my mouth, about to launch into an explanation when I caught myself. Why should I be the one to explain myself when he wasn't as discreet? I titled my chin,"There are rumors about you as well." I took another sip of my drink. It gave me a buzz I have never felt before. It made me bold.What was in this drink?
"What rumors?"
"You and your long time flame. You and Gemma." Even saying her name was like chewing nails.
His eyes narrowed. "I am not with Gemma."
I rolled my eyes. "Of course you would say that. But if you're going to make a song and dance about me and myemployee,Ihave every right to questionyou." I jabbed my finger at his chest, and somehow the act felt a little harder than it should. Lifting my finger felt heavy.
"Gemma is not…" Carey frowned. He looked concerned. "Thalia?" His hands went to my cheek, but I could hardly make him out. My vision was blurry. My head. The terrace felt unsteady. I slipped, but Carey caught me in time.
