“How does it feel to know he’s only with you out of pity?” a mechanical female voice taunted.
I pulled the phone from my ear and stared at it. “Who is this?” I demanded, only to roll my eyes at myself.
Whoever it was on the other end of the line went through measures to hide their identity. It’s not like they were going to answer my question with the truth.
“He doesn’t love you anymore. When he was in my bed, he told me he never did.” She let out a shrill laugh.
“Then why is he still with me?”
“Pity, bitch. We all know your career isn’t going anywhere. He feels sorry for you,” she responded.
“Fuck you.” I disconnected the call and let out a frustrated growl. That was the third call I’d received like it over the past few months. The first couple of times, I ignored it. In the entertainment industry, there were always groupies and people angling to get my or Nate’s attention.
This time, the tingling sensation of awareness creeping up my spine told me that I needed to confront Nate about the situation.
With my phone still gripped in my hand, I stormed toward the bathroom door and yanked it open before exiting and walking into a brick wall.
“Shit.” I would have fallen back against the door if it weren’t for the heavy hold that wrapped around my elbow, preventing my stumbling backward.
When my feet steadied, I peered up to find the same oddly colored eyes I imagined in the bathroom. It was as if I conjured them up.
“Gabriel.” His name whooshed out of my mouth on its own.
His pink lips spread into a smirk. The dark brown whiskers of the beard surrounding that smile were as enticing as his lips. A beard that perfectly outlined a square jaw.
Briefly, I thought,I must’ve heard the earlier conversation all wrong. There was no way this guy could be a professional fighter. He was much too pretty to mess up that face in a fight.
Yet, it was those eyes. They told a different story. While the rest of his face read magazine model perfect, those eyes screamedwatch out.I found the color of his irises interesting. It was as if they couldn’t figure out whether they wanted to be hazel, green, or blue. Yet, there was almost a darkness to them.
His eyes reminded me of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. If given enough time, I might’ve been able to figure it out, but that deep, shuddering voice of his broke my concentration.
“Heading somewhere important?”
With a blink, I tried to recall my last thought before I exited the bathroom. It was mere seconds earlier, and I knew wherever I was going, it was important. But with this man staring down at me, I had zero recollection of what on Earth had held my attention before this very moment.
Thankfully, years of performance training kicked in, and I stood a little taller, lifting my chin and clearing my throat.
“Y-Yes, actually.” Though a little wobblier than usual, I was pretty proud of how strong my voice sounded.
He lifted an ash-colored eyebrow. “Where to?”
Before answering, I honed in on the song that started playing in the lounge. Billie Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes” felt like the perfect description of the depths that resided in this man’s gaze. And like the ocean, the darkness of the unknown in his eyes called to me.
I had to pull it together.
“My fiancé,” I replied, holding up my cell phone. I gave myself a proverbial pat on the back when I managed to keep from flinching at the mentioning of Nate to Gabriel.
He didn’t respond, not verbally anyway. But his jaw constricted, and his eyes moved to glance at the cell phone in my hand.
“He must be missing you if he’s calling you in the bathroom.”
There was no need to tell this man that the reality was that I was going to confront Nate about another one of his mistresses calling my cell phone. So, I lied.
“We’re very close. Inseparable almost.”
The words were barely out of my mouth before a chuckle pushed through his lips. The sound reverberated through my chest, sending shooting tingles down to my toes.
“That’s bullshit.” He said it so cleanly and decisively as if he knew my statement couldn’t have been anything more than a pure lie.
