“You going to keep seeing him?”
“No. It’s over.” Liam gave his smile more confidencethan he felt. “His choice. But being with him, and his whole circle of friends, helped me understand what I’m looking for. I want a relationship. Someone to really care about, to trust. So—I don’t know. I guess now I just need to get off my ass and try to make that happen.”
Eric nodded slowly. “That sounds like what I’m looking for too,” he said. His smile was gentle and easy. “Maybe we shouldspend some time together? Get to know each other a bit better and see where that goes?”
It was a good suggestion. And there was only one reasonable response to it. Liam just needed to pull his head out of his ass and forget about Ben, and he could walk through this new door, explore this new opportunity—start building his new life.
THERE WEREactual paparazzi outside the building, andreal reporters too. Ben’s original plan—well, “plan” was probably a little generous, but his original idea—had been to just show up, dart inside, catch Liam’s eye, and take it from there. He didn’t have Liam’s home address, after all, and a phone call seemed a bit too mundane, too noncommittal, for the conversation Ben wanted them to have.
Still, maybe a phone call would have to do. He couldcall Liam and ask to meet him. That would work, surely, and it was a scheme that was much less likely to get Ben roughed up by aggressive bouncers than anything he could arrange at the stupid ballroom.
Ben should just go. He could give Liam a call, leave a message—no. Not a message. If Ben couldn’t talk to Liam in person, then atleasthe needed the directness of a live phone call. But Ben couldgo somewhere and wait. He could get a hotel room, even, and call Liam the next morning. Everyone would be well rested and happy. Absolutely, that made sense. Leave, hotel, sleep, phone, happiness. Excellent plan.
But Ben couldn’t seem to make his feet move.
Liam was right inside that building. Not that Ben had seen him go in, but Liam had told Dinah he was going to this event, so it was a prettygood guess.
And beyond that, Ben justknew. As if he could sense Liam’s presence even through all the crowds and concrete.
He ignored the voice that reminded him about Liam’s many visits to the North Falls area, all of which had occurred without Ben’s mysterious senses picking up any hint of his presence. That was different. Somehow.
Because Liam was inside that building. Ben knew it. And healso knew he couldn’t trust his nerve to hold if he walked away. He’d almost turned around five times on the drive to the city, almost given in to the murky doubts that threatened to overpower the tiny flame of hope in his heart.
If he walked away now, if he had to face a night alone in a hotel room, torturing himself with all the reasons he was stupid to even think about taking a chance on someonelike Liam? He couldn’t get through that.
So he stood still, and he waited.
Cars began pulling up, collecting women in gowns and men in tuxedos, whisking them away to the next stop in their glamorous evenings. Ben edged closer to the front doors. He worked his way through the crowd of photographers until he was at the metal barrier that separated the glittering folk from the hoi polloi.
He shouldn’tbe there. He was making a mistake. He was going to get hurt, and he knew it. He couldn’t stand it. But he couldn’t leave.
He was frozen in agonizing indecision when Liam appeared in the building’s doorway, and just like that, the uncertainty left him. Liam. Beautiful and smiling, so polished in his tuxedo, so relaxed even in the crowd and under the flash of so many cameras. So, so many flashes.
And shouts. Voices calling “Eric! Eric! Over here, please! Eric!”
Only then did Ben notice the man walking beside Liam, close enough to make it clear they were leaving the party together. Together. Liam and Eric Wilton the fucking movie star, both poised and handsome, both smiling, Wilton waving to the crowd, to the cameras.
It made so much sense. It was so much more natural, more in keepingwith the expected order of the universe. Liam and a movie star. One golden creature with another, and Ben should slink back to his small-town world and his small-town life. It would hurt, of course. It already hurt, a weird aching tension in his chest, a swirling in his brain that no amount of deep breathing would dispel. But it was aprivatehurt, at least. Ben could spare himself the publichumiliation of—
“Liam!” Shit, that was him. Yelling. He was yelling Liam’s name. He was.
Still, with all the paparazzi, all the calls for Eric Wilton’s damn attention, Liam hadn’t heard him. It wasn’t too late. Except—
“Liam!” More of a bellow this time. And, damn it, Ben had come this far. He was going to go the rest of the way. Painful humiliation was better than giving up without a fight.“Liam! Hey, Liam!”
Liam still didn’t hear him.
The metal barrier was about waist-high and there were security guards on the other side of it, but not all that many. None directly between Ben and Liam.
And Ben the law-abiding, Ben the elementary school teacher, Ben the careful—Ben jumped the barrier.
It was shocking how quickly the security guards moved in. Also shocking to feel the crush ofother spectators following his lead and crashing over the barrier themselves. The chaos, the excitement, the press of bodies, the strong arms locked around his body—well, his neck—and squeezing against his throat—
And Liam was still moving away from him. Eric Wilton had grabbed him by the arm and was tugging him toward a waiting limo, saving him, rescuing him, so the two of them could go offand live in perfection together.
But perfection was a trap. Ben knew that now. Calm, peace, serenity—it was lovely, and necessary, but struggle and anticipation and excitement were necessary too. Did Liam know that? Ben thought maybe he did, or at least maybe he had.
But now? Liam was leaving with another man.
