She laughs. “Absolutely not.” She shakes her head, and her full red lips curve into a smile. “Woman to woman…” She leans in closer. “Stay away from them,” she warns before she stands. But before she leaves, she pulls out a card and drops it on the table. “Call me if you need any more information. Don’t hesitate.”
I remain silent because what the hell? My first thought is she’s a jealous ex. My second is perhaps Arlo is hiding something. The problem is, I don’t know him well enough.
“Do you know what the hunt is?” I ask her as she turns to leave. Her back stiffens at my question, and when she turns back to me, her baby-blue eyes lock on mine.
“Word of warning. Don’t mention that word around any of those men,” she whispers, then, in a normal voice, she adds, “There’s a gala tonight. You should attend.” She picks up her card and then proceeds to write an address on the back. Smiling, she puts her pen away and then walks off.
With my mind whirling, I look down at the card.
What is going on?
And why does there appear to be so many damn secrets?
You could say it’s the wine, or you could say that I’m just plain fucking stupid right now. I’m going to go with a combination of the two. Because I can’t seem to work out in my head what the fuck I’m doing.
The sign in front of me tells me this is a private function. I look to my left, and Cressida smiles at me. She’s in a striking red dress that cascades to the floor. She told me it was a formal event, but I decided to go with a simple black slip dress.
I’d thought about her questions all day and then decided fuck it! I’m going to find out more about this man I have let into my life and into my body. Granted, neither of us has made commitments to each other, but he knows more about me than I know about him, and right now that seems to be unfair.
“Are we allowed to enter?” I ask as she steps up to the door.
“No, but all they can do is kick us out.” She winks and pushes it open.
The first thing I notice is the smell of cigar smoke. The second thing is that the room is full of people. Cressida saunters in like she belongs here and knows exactly where she’s going.
Me? I scan the room, searching for Arlo, but I don’t see him. I do catch sight of Soren though. He is the one commanding the room. You can tell by the way people appear to orbit around him, how their gazes repeatedly flick to him, even though he’s not paying them any attention.
“So, what are we doing?” I question.
“Do you see him anywhere?” she asks in return.
“No.” And after another scan of the room, I notice everyone here seems to be coupled up except Soren, who stands on his own with no one on his arm.
“Okay, he should be here somewhere. We’re technically late.”
We get a few curious looks as I follow her through the crowd. As we get closer to the bar, I note a familiar woman.
“Cora, isn’t it?” she says, and the man behind her flicks his gaze to me. He stands with his hand on her hip in a claiming way. “I haven’t seen Arlo tonight. Did you come with him?”
“Hi, I’m Cressida. So nice to meet you.” Cressida jumps in at the perfect time and holds out her hand to Lilith, who looks at it, confused, before raising her gaze to mine.
“Arlo doesn’t know you’re here, does he?” Lilith asks me.
“No,” I say.
She smiles at that, but the man behind her is eyeing us skeptically.
“How much fun that’s going to be. And it will piss Soren off, which is one of my favorite things to do. Apart from fucking my husband, that is.”
Cressida coughs, but she doesn’t seem insulted that Lilith didn’t shake her hand.
“Arlo’s here,” Lilith’s husband announces.
I turn to face the door, where I see Arlo walking in with a woman next to him, and he has his hand on her lower back. My stomach drops. His gaze sweeps the room until it lands on me. His hand immediately drops from the woman’s back, and he leaves her standing there as he stalks in my direction. His dark eyes are trained on me.
“Cora, what are you doing here?”
“Who is that?” I ask him, peering behind him, where the woman stands. That’s when I realize I’ve seen her before.
