He pulled her to stand next to him in the chilly night air and she shivered, dazzled and dazed by the flood of bright lights and the flash of cameras going off in forty different directions.
She flinched when people began shouting questions at Drake. Maddox caught Evangeline’s other hand in his and squeezed reassuringly as he pinned her securely between himself and Drake with Silas directly in front of her. They formed an impenetrable barrier to anyone seeking access, thank God.
“Smile,” Maddox said next to her ear. “You look terrified. Flash them a gorgeous smile and show them those beautiful baby-blue eyes.”
She felt like a robot programmed to carry out voice commands. She smiled so big, it felt as though her cheeks were cracking. She forced herself to relax and look as though she were having the time of her life and hadn’t a care in the world. She even made herself look directly into some of the cameras and flash a toothy smile.
After they’d run the gauntlet and Drake had waved off requests for interviews, he pulled her inside the building and she promptly sagged.
“That’s insane!” she whispered.
“Come, let’s go find our seats. The sooner we’re seated, the faster we’re out of the line of fire,” Drake said.
“You all right, doll?” Silas asked quietly when they took their seats in a private box above the stage. “You need to go freshen up before the show starts? Maddox and I can walk you to the ladies’ room.”
Grateful for a chance to compose herself and check her makeup to ensure it wasn’t smeared everywhere, she nodded and rose. Drake caught her hand and lifted it to his mouth, pressing a gentle kiss to her palm.
“Hurry back, Angel.”
She gifted him with a radiant smile and then took Silas’s proffered arm and let him guide her out of the box and down the hall to the powder room.
“We’ll wait out here,” Maddox said. “Don’t take too long. No one will come in after you, but there could be someone already inside. Do your thing, quick in and out, okay?”
“Got it,” she said, flashing him a grateful smile.
She pushed inside the bathroom and went to the mirror to check her makeup. She used a tissue to dab at the corners of her eyes and then reapplied her lip gloss. She heard a toilet flush and, heeding Maddox’s advice to be in and out quickly, she turned and started for the door, when a tall, elegantly dressed brunette stepped in front of her on her way to the mirror.
“Excuse me,” Evangeline murmured as she stepped around the other woman.
“Oh, you must be Drake’s latest fling,” the woman said, humor laced in her words.
Evangeline reared back at the woman’s rudeness. “Pardon me?”
The brunette smiled. “Do enjoy it while it lasts, sweetie. And believe me, it won’t last long. Drake never keeps the same woman more than a few weeks. But the perks are amazing. And between you and me. If he ever invites Manuel over? Be prepared for a very good time,” she purred.
Her words fell on Evangeline like well-aimed daggers. Nausea swirled in her stomach until she was afraid of losing its contents, but pride was too ingrained in Evangeline to go down like that. She gathered herself together and managed to calmly stare the other woman down. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who is Manuel?”
The other woman’s tinkly laughter was abrasive and annoying. “Oh, he’s a friend of Drake’s. They share the same kinks, if you will. And as luck would have it, they share their women on occasion as well.”
Evangeline fought against the cold sweat that was fast breaking out on her forehead. Oh hell no, she wasn’t letting this woman take her down like this. She fixed the woman with a contemptuous and pitying look.
“You don’t know Drake very well at all, do you?” Evangeline said scornfully.
“Well enough,” the woman defended with a laugh.
“No,” Evangeline snapped. “You don’t. Because if you did, then you’d know that Drake is an extremely possessive man and he never shares what he considers his. So if he shared you, then I guess that speaks to what he didn’t consider you. And if you do know Drake as well as you say, then you’d also know the significance of my being on his arm tonight when you should know perfectly well that he never takes a woman out with him anywhere. Now if you’ll excuse me, Drake’s men are outside waiting for me. But I doubt you ever met them either, did you?”
The woman’s pale, shocked face was the last thing Evangeline saw on her way out the door. She should be doing a fist pump for scoring a strike against the catty bitch trying to take her down a few notches. But all she wanted to do was weep.