“So, I knew you’d be here, and I wanted to talk to you. It was easy enough to find the event details with a quick search on social media.”
“Creepy, but okay.”
“Then I happened to walk in when you were telling some interesting truths to your old friends.”
Her eyes slid away from me. “That was…just ignore anything you heard.”
“Look me in my amazing eyes and say that again.”
Her glare was a thing of beauty. “I hate you so much.”
“I thought you fell for me the moment you saw me.” I smiled. “Which one is the lie, Deena?”
Her eyes skittered around the room as her pulse thrummed in her neck. A few people were watching us curiously, but I didn’t care. My gaze dropped down to her lips, and I wondered if I could get away with kissing her again.
Before I could test that hypothesis, Deena clamped her hand around my wrist, pulled my hand away from her waist, and tugged me toward the exit.
“We need to talk,” she muttered, “and then you need to leave.”
ELEVEN
DEENA
I pulledCallum into the billiard room just across from the main event space, shoving him inside before closing the door. He watched me with that same amused, mocking look in his eyes, a small smile playing around the corners of his mouth.
A mouth he’d used to kiss me. A kiss that had been so much better than I’d imagined.
My body still flushed hot, I marched to the edge of the room to stare at the billiard cues on the wall. “You have three minutes to tell me what you’re doing here, Callum.”
“And then what?”
“And then I call security.”
“That’ll be hard to explain, considering what you told everyone about me a few minutes ago. ‘Swept you off your feet,’ was it?”
My jaw ached from clenching it so hard. I hated that he was right. I either had to let him play the doting boyfriend or make a gigantic fool of myself at my parents’ party.
Even worse—now it felt like I owed him.
Glaring over my shoulder, I hissed at him through clenched teeth: “Talk. Now.”
“I told you already. I missed you.”
My stomach bottomed out, because he didn’treally, did he? Unless—but the look on his face made me pause. He leaned against the billiards table, grabbing one of the red balls to toss it up and down with his hand. His lips were set in a faint grimace that belied his relaxed pose.
A man of contradictions.
Finally, his eyes flicked up to meet mine, and he admitted, “I need your help with some travel plans. But you blocked me before I could ask.”
Disappointment crashed into me, and I turned back to stare at the cues to hide it. He wasn’t here for me. Why would I think he was here for me? Why would I think that kiss had anything to do with…with…
“And I wanted to see you,” he added.
The world tilted sharply to the side. He could tell what his words did to me, and he was toying with me. I was sure of it. With my arms crossed tight against my chest, the bedazzled bodice scraped against my skin. Annoyance shot through me. At the dress. At my family. At him.
I’d capitulated with my mother and worn the dress and the heels. I’d folded so quickly with my family, setting aside my desires and my values just for the sake of keeping the peace. I’d made myself smaller, contorted myself to fit into their box, at least temporarily.
I would not contort with Callum.
