“Solène Marchand.” Oliver grinned. That he knew my last name threw me.
“Oliver Hoyt-Knight. This is my girlfriend Amara Winthrop. Amara, Oliver.”
He greeted her before turning his attention back to me. “Hi.”
“Hi.” I leaned in to kiss his cheek. And it wasn’t until he reached out for my waist that I realized I’d made a mistake.
“You look stunning,” he said in my ear, low.
I pulled back, and made a point of announcing loudly, “You clean up quite nicely yourself.”
He laughed.
“That’s a joke, Amara. Oliver always looks like this. When you first learn to tell them apart, you learn that Oliver is the dandy one.”
He was wearing a charcoal-gray three-piece suit, a dark tie, a coordinating pocket square. Posh sex on a stick.
“Who told you that? Beverly?”
“Is she your wardrobe person? Yes, then, Beverly.”
His hand was still on my hip.
“Also, we look nothing alike,” he said, hazel eyes piercing.
“Where’s your girlfriend?”
“She couldn’t make it. Exams.”
“I’m sorry.”
He let loose my waist then, sipped from his glass. “It is what it is.”
Amara spoke suddenly, and the fact that I’d nearly forgotten she was there was telling. “Dominic and Sylvia D’Amato are over at the bar. I’m going to say hello.”
It took a second to register: the owners of the Hamptons house.Mrs. D’Amato.
“You know them?”
“Please. They practically pay my mortgage.” She winked. And then I remembered: the Hirst, the Lichtenstein, the Twombly, the Murakami. Gagosian repped them all.
“Oliver, pleasure…” Amara said. “Solène.” She gave me a funny look. “You okay if I leave you for a minute?”
“I’m okay,” I laughed, downing my champagne.
“So,” he said once she was gone, “are you having fun?”
“Yes.”
“Are you being taken care of?”
“I am, thank you.”
“Yes, I heard.” He smiled, swilling again from his drink. “Thinner walls than you would think at the Mandarin Oriental.”
I froze, allowing it to sink in. The ease with which he’d transgressed. As if he’d reached out once again and touched me. “If I’dknown you were listening, I would have made an effort to call your name.”
He laughed. It was not the response he was expecting. “Well, maybe next time I can watch.”
