He offers me a toast to that, grabbing two new champagne flutes off a passing tray.
“To being extremely unsettling! Please, Blanche. Make sure they put that on my tombstone.”
We clink our glasses and sip our fresh drinks, but I can tell Charlie isn’t going to let this go.
“Whatever it is, Charles, you may as well go ahead and say it.”
“Ugh, don’t call me Charles, bitch. I don’t even have anything to say! I just wanted to ask about him. What’s he like? Is it serious?”
“Oh God, definitely not serious. No. We have fun, but we’re both quite busy, and you know I have big plans that do not involve long-term men.”
“Amen!” We toast again, and I remind myself to ask Charlie whathe’sbeen up to with his men. For now, he’s still eyeing me expectantly, ready for a description of Henry Sinclair.
“He’s…”
He’s a narcissist. An ego the size of the moon and, unfortunately, the intelligence to back it up. He pretends to be detached from reality, but ensures bonuses for every employee, even when his father cuts them. He’s an asshole of the highest order, with an absolutely massive cock.
“Well, I’d classify him as…”
A giant, one of the tallest men I’ve met, with big enough hands to encircle a throat…and smoky gray eyes to die for. An admitted misogynist, although he listened to every opinion I had on how the McDaniel merger should be handled, and put most of my ideas into action. A stalwart friend, based on the receipts I saw of him paying for Davis’s most recent stint in rehab, and James’s grandmother’s hip replacement…
“You see, really he’s…”
A genius, able to argue either side of a boardroom argument until the room descends into chaos, the perfect time for him to insert his preferred solution. A psychopath, who drugged me and held me captive in his basement with no prior consent and only the flimsiest of safe words in place from an encounter that was a completely different situation…
A commotion in the ballroom draws our attention, saving me from having to continue to try to describe Henry Sinclair succinctly. Mom and Dad reappear and join us at our table as we watch the crowd part for what appears to be an imminent grand entrance. As the curtains draw back, I notice the lady of the evening first, wearing a stunning cream dress that fits her like a glove. She’s flawless, looking more like a model than a socialite, and it’s clear she’s loving the attention of the evening.
“Oh, aren’t they such a lovely couple…”
My mother continues, but she’s drowned out by white noise flooding my brain as the glass in my hand clatters to the ground, exploding into countless glass shards upon impact. Charlie is the only one who notices, following my gaze to where it’s lockedon the enigma of a man I’ve been trying to describe to him for the past five minutes. Everyone else is too busy listening to the emcee announce the couple.
“Both families would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to everyone who made it here tonight to celebrate this gorgeous couple!”
His dick was inside me two days ago.
“Tonight will kick off the wedding event of the year, of Miss Natalya Taranova—”
His cum was inside me two days ago.
“To the gem of a man who we all know and love—”
My boss. My lover.
“Mr. Henry Sinclair Jr.!”
I don’t hear or feel anything for the next thirty minutes, robotically taking cues from my mother to ensure I’m clapping and smiling at the appropriate moments. It’s as if I’m watching the evening on TV, if the screen were underwater and upside down. The shock of seeing Henry in the last place I expected, dressed to the nines and looking like the definition of men your mother warned you about, isn’t even what’s thrown me.
The thing I can’t quite get over is that as soon as I saw him, my nose burned and tears pooled in my eyes as if I was holding in a sneeze. An ache still smolders deep in my chest, like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I think, for the first time in my life, I’m jealous about a man.Shit.
“You have to do a better job of faking it, Blanche,” Charlie says solemnly. “It’s only going to get more raucous in here as the evening continues. Fake it, just until we can get home and to your bedroom. Then we’ll figure it all out, okay?”
He’s right. I have to get it together.I just thought…I don’t know what I thought. I had zero expectation of exclusivity with my asshole enigma of a boss. We’ve been having excellent, plentiful sex thanks to our proximity at work, and that’s it.
Fuck, my chest hurts.There’s no way this is related to Henry. This has to be indigestion from the salmon. Taking one deep breath, I release it and all these confusing feelings out into the world. By the time I’ve regained my composure, a slightly older couple has approached Charlie, clearly good friends of his by their warm greeting.
“Charlie, darling. Have you been hiding away a woman this gorgeous from us? We didn’t even know you were dating anyone.” The man claps Charlie on the shoulder before shaking his hand, but the woman only has eyes for me.
“Eric, Christine, this is my favoritecousin, Blanche Bedford. If you think she’s gorgeous now, you should’ve seen her before she grew into her ears.”
