“That is old and tired, Neal. I don't care what you think or what anybody else thinks. Theo is a grown man. He can make his own decisions." She tried to stand, but Neal leaned in, making her back away farther into the couch. This close she could see the little broken red blood vessels around his nose and cheeks.
“Sure, he can,” Neal said, his lips twisting. “But when you’re sucking his dick in his office, it makes it a hell of a lot easier to say yes.” Amber felt the blood rush from her head. Had he...seen them? Her horror must have played out on her face because he laughed nastily.
“Yes, I saw you on your knees for him last night when I went back to the office. But you’ve always been a little slut, haven’t you?”
“What?” Amber froze. Until that moment, Neal’s words were merely disgusting, but at his last sentence, she went still. “What did you say?”
Neal’s lips stretched into a parody of a smile. “Theo told me about that night with Grant when they got the call to pick you up. How your boyfriend left you for being a dirty slut with all his friends.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her lips felt numb. Theo had told him? Uncertainty and a dull, throbbing hurt filled her.
Neal’s moist hand slithered over her breast. She caught it, but his other hand was there to take its place immediately. He squeezed her breast, leaning over her until he was nearly on top of her. “Always with your tits out like a little whore,” hemuttered, squeezing hard. “How about you show me these big fucking tits of yours?”
“Get off me,” she hissed, shoving him back. He wasn’t nearly as solid as Theo, but he was larger than her and he didn’t move. How dare he? Howdarehe touch her, question her, throw that night in her face. Anger surged, nearly choking her with its bitterness. “Get your hands off me.”
His hand tightened, painfully twisting her breast in one hand while the other went for her hair, pushing her farther back into the couch. She drew her knee up to kick him, but he was on top of her now, panting and grappling with her dress. He was heavy and panting in her face, and all she could do was push, push, push, and it wasn’t enough.
Rage, white hot and immediate, filled her when she felt his lips at her neck. She shoved him hard, anywhere she could land between his ear and his neck. He was relentless, pressing wet kisses to her throat and the tops of her breasts.
Suddenly, his weight was gone, leaving her startled as she looked up. Theo had Neal pinned to the wall by his lapels; a crimson river of blood flowed from Neal’s nose. “What the fuck, Neal.” He shoved him harder. Neal’s head knocked into the wall behind him with a sickening thud. “What thefuck?”
“Look what she’s done to you,” Neal sneered, blood staining his teeth. He pointed a shaking hand at Amber. “You’re going to throw everything away for this slut?”
“How could you do this?” Theo’s breathing was ragged. Raw with pain.
And, oh, did that cut deeply. Not Neal, not his hands on her body, twisting her flesh painfully, but Theo’s voice. The hurt and anger, the betrayal—it twisted her heart even as her own hurt threatened to spill over.
She sat up. The music from the ballroom filled the room along with the harsh breaths of the two men in frontof her. The door to the lounge was still open. Anyone could walk by and see them.
She got to her feet and put a hand on Theo’s back. “Let him go, Theo.” His body was taut with surpassed anger. She pulled his arm away from Neal’s tux. “He's not worth it.”
“Did he hurt you?” Theo glanced at her, and she nearly took a step back at the rage in his eyes.
“No, he didn’t,” she said. He couldn’t. He’d barely chinked the surface of her. “He's not worth it. Let him go."
Theo dropped his hands and stepped back from Neal, his movements sharp with barely contained fury. “I never want to see you again," Theo said, cold fury in the bite of his voice. “And if I ever see you around Amber again, I will forget you ever meant anything to me.”
Neal laughed bitterly. "You're really going to throw everything away for her, aren't you?"
“What I do with my life is no longer your concern. You're fired, effective immediately.”
A sudden flash startled them as a camera went off in the room. Pippa stood in the doorway with her photographer by her side.
“Are we interrupting something?” she asked, looking around the room with sharp eyes: Neal’s bloody face, Theo’s scraped knuckles.
Amber froze, horrific images of that photo being published and the stories that could swirl. Panic rose in her throat, but Theo stepped toward Pippa.
“Nothing at all.” Theo's voice was dangerously soft. “Neal’s had too much to drink. He was just leaving.” He fixed Pippa with a look.
Pippa looked like she had more to say, but she nodded and left, with Neal behind her, and then it was just Theo and Amber.
The hardness on his face disappeared. He crossed the room and held her hands gently. “Are you all right?"
She nodded numbly. “I told you not to tell anyone.”
“Tell anyone what?” Theo was chafing her hands between his. She realized they were frozen with cold.
She cleared her throat. “That night when you and Grant picked me up in his squad car. You told me you would never tell anyone, but Neal knew.”
