He considers me for a few moments. “Let it go,” he says finally.
I frown. “I’m just trying to help.”
“I don’t need your help,” he says quietly, “and just to be clear, it’s really none of your business.”
My body stiffens at the words that firmly and resolutely put me in my place. It’s not my business because, regardless of all the time we’ve spent together, I’m still just a girl he’s sleeping with.
I swallow, unwilling to acknowledge the tightness in my stomach, the shard of pain suddenly lodged in my chest. I force a smile to my lips. “You’re right, it isn’t.”
After that, we dance in silence, until Nelson cuts in, leaving Landon free to give Jules McDaniel a few twirls on the floor.
I dance with Cameron, and then another man, and yet another, determined to enjoy myself. The singer leaves the stage and a DJ takes over. The tempo of the music picks up and I dance with a white-haired man who twirls me round and round with much too much energy for someone his age.
I can feel Landon’s eyes on me most of the time, but I ignore him. Even when I see the swans converge on him, the beautiful socialites who had chaired the gala, I force myself to look away. I can’t pretend, even to myself that his words hadn’t hurt me. Why did I care so much? So what if he didn’t want to open up to me? It shouldn’t matter, and it wouldn’t, if I had just kept my feelings out of our arrangement.
When I get tired, I leave the ballroom to find the ladies room. Facing the large mirror over the sinks, I do the best I can to touch up my makeup before returning to the hall. Almost immediately, I see Landon at one end of the room with Davina Bledsoe, who is obviously flirting with him.
I don’t care. After tonight, he’s free to pursue her to the ends of the earth if that’s what he wants. In fact, I decide, he can start right now if he likes. There’s nothing preventing me from leaving this place. I turn towards the entrance and walk only two steps before someone blocks my way.
It’s the sneering man from earlier. “We didn’t get introduced before,” he says, leaning towards me. “I’m Evans Sinclair.”
I recoil from the heavy smell of alcohol on his breath. “I know.”
“Well then, you have me at a disadvantage. What’s your name?”
I hesitate. “Rachel Foster.”
“So Rachel Foster. Why don’t we have a little dance, you and I?”
“I’m sorry,” I manage a polite smile. “I’m tired.”
“Come on,” he cajoles. “If you can put it out for Landon then you can do the same for me.”
I look him up and down, annoyance at his rudeness making me want to say something nasty to him, but I control myself. “Go find someone else to insult,” I say dismissively, “You’re only making me bored.”
For a moment, he looks surprised. Then he looks across the room to where Landon is still talking with Davina.
He smirks. “He’s abandoned you already, hasn’t he? And you’re fucking him. Bastard. A few months ago, that was my sister. He’s been fucking her for years, told her he loved her. Then the moment he got her to convince the board of my hotel to make me sell it to him, he dropped her like the hot smelly potato she is. The bitch.”
He has a hateful expression on his face as he speaks, his anger coming off him in waves. I’m suddenly afraid that he would hurt me, just to spite Landon. I want to tell him that it wouldn’t be worth it, because Landon obviously does not give a damn about me.
“I don’t know why you’re telling me this,” I tell him in a measured tone. “It’s none of my business.”
“You’re a coward as well as a whore aren’t you? You can’t even face the truth about the man you’re fucking.”
“I don’t know who you think you are, but don’t ever insult me again.” I push past him, dodging the hand he holds out to restrain me. What a douchebag!
I stalk to the entrance. The photographers are gone, and without the crush of people and cars of earlier, it feels cold and windy. I’m about to retrieve my phone from my purse and try to find a way to get a cab, when Landon appears beside me.
“Where’re you going?”
“What do you care?” I snap without looking at him.
There’s a short pause. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You should go back in there. I’m sure Davina is waiting, and you seemed to enjoy flirting with her. I don’t mind. I just don’t want to sit there and endure being harassed by someone who hates your guts.”
His jaw tightens. “What did Sinclair say to you?”