Page 8 of Falling for Them

“Please, call me Libby.” Her cheeks pinkened as he let go of her hand.

I cleared my throat. “Elizabeth, a word?”

Carter gave me a disapproving glance before turning his attention back to Libby. “I need to get set up. Maybe after the ceremony we can go get lunch and talk about your vision for the social media pages.”

“I’d love that.” She gave him a warm smile and it felt like she was stabbing me in the chest. She never smiled atmelike that.

I needed to get my shit together. The whole purpose of me taking this job in the first place was to rebuild my image and reputation and to prove to my father that I could take things seriously for once in my life. Getting in a pissing contest with Carter over a woman probably wasn’t the best way to do that.

“I know a great new restaurant we can go to. It’s hard to get reservations, but I know the owner.” I couldn’t help myself, and both Libby and Carter gave me incredulous looks. If I could have given myself a look, it would have been the same.

Carter shook his head and walked toward where Ryker was talking to one of the few select reporters I’d invited onto the property.

Libby crossed her arms over her chest and stared at me. It reminded me of the stares teachers used to give me waiting for me to explain to them why I’d done something disruptive or stupid.

“You were supposed to be here thirty minutes ago.” I shoved my hands in my pockets to stop myself from reaching out and tucking her hair behind her ear. She’d taken her braid out and her blonde hair fell in soft waves around her shoulders.

“You didn’t wake me up.” She avoided looking at me, and her voice trembled slightly.

“You didn’t tell me you needed me to be your alarm. Did you not set one on your phone?” I tried to keep my voice gentle. All I wanted to do was pull her into my arms and make whatever was wrong better. Clearly, there was something else going on if she was blaming me for not waking her up on time.

“Hey, Lib.” Ryker came to stand beside her with a huge smile on his face and then frowned. “What’s wrong?”

She cleared her throat. “Nothing.”

“You didn’t tell her I was staying at your condo. She got there around midnight, soaking wet.” I didn’t need to tell him about how I found her practically naked by the door or how we shared a bed.

“I thought you were going to Ethan’s.” Ryker looked at me, his eyes narrowing the tiniest bit. “Did you go sleep somewhere else?”

Well, fuck. He definitely wasn’t an idiot.

Libby sighed. “My train was delayed, and Ethan has that whole roommate situation going on. I was a little surprised that the place was cleared out. I wanted that couch.”

“I thought you might want to get new stuff. You deserve it.” Ryker hadn’t taken his eyes off me, and I hoped my face wasn’t revealing anything. “Wait. Why were you soaking wet?” He finally stopped staring at me as if he was about to slaughter me right in front of everyone.

“Oh, look! We’re about to get started. We should go grab a shovel.” She started to walk off, but Ryker stepped in front of her.

“Did you walk from the train station in the middle of the night?” He sounded exactly like my older brother when he was about to give me a lecture.

“It was only two blocks away. I’m a grown woman.” She certainly was, but even I was feeling overprotective.

Her walking with her bag in the middle of the night was asking for someone to snatch it or worse. Hell, even outside of big cities it wasn’t safe for anyone to be walking alone.

“Libby.” He ran a hand down his face. “This is New York.”

“No, really? I hadn’t noticed.” She pushed past him, leaving us both staring after her.

“At least now I’m not the only one she’s pissed at. I put her in a bad mood.” I wasn’t entirely sure why or how to fix it; I’d only been about twenty-five percent asshole.

“You didn’t. It’s a bit of an emotional day for both of us.” He clapped me on the back. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Ryker hadn’t shared a ton about his upbringing, but the plot of land the community center was going to be built on was where they’d last lived before moving to Connecticut as children. My brother had been tight-lipped about Ryker’s past, but I respected him for protecting whatever story Ryker wasn’t ready to share with me.

This was why I couldn’t fuck this up. It was important to them both, and the last thing I wanted to do was hurt Libby, but as I followed Ryker to the front of the crowd, I worried that somehow, I already had.

Chapter 4

Fae Prince

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