Page 50 of Always Knew It Was You

I brought her to this party to be seen, but not exactly remembered. She’s supposed to be the enigma that disappears at the end of the night. Micah Landing’s mysterious new woman. That’s what the gossip should say.

And to that end, we only need to spend maybe half an hour here before we go.

As I leave Ally and Jamie and head to the side of the hallway, voices immediately begin to drift to me. The male one reaches me first, angry and tremulous.

“Who the hell do you think you are to interfere? You don’t even have a clue what’s going on here, do you?”

“I don’t care what’s going on here. You don’t hit people or harass them for what was clearly a mistake.”

The second voice is Carly’s, and I frown as I get closer and the man’s voice rises threateningly.

“Listen, woman. Do you have any idea who I am? You’re lucky I’m being nice now, but you better get out of here before I ruin yourfuckinglife.”

“No problem. I’ll get out of your hair. But she’s coming with me.”

When I turn the corner, I finally see the woman that Carly’s talking about, a server that seems to be throwing Carly alarmed looks from her cowering position against the wall. Below her is broken glass and I put two and two together to figure out what happened here. The man looming over the server has a stain on his Tom Ford suit, and wrath stamped on his face.

He’s much larger than the server, and larger than Carly too, although most of his weight is distributed in his belly. He doesn’t seem to see me arrive, too focused on glaring at Carly, so I lean against the wall to observe.

“She made a mistake,” Carly says slowly as though she’s explaining something to a child. “It happens. But you trying to hit her because of it is completely unacceptable.”

The man gives a bitter laugh. “Oh really? And who the fuck are you to tell me what I can or cannot do? That woman got wine on my ten-thousand-dollar jacket.”

Carly runs her eyes over his clothes disinterestedly. “It’ll come out. Probably.”

Ha.I almost snort at that.

The man’s face turns red with apoplectic rage.

“I’ll give you an address. You can send the bill there,” Carly continues and I’m further impressed. She’s doing a very good impression of a casual, unaffected socialite who has money to burn. She’s a better actress than I thought.

“The stain won’t come out, moron,” he says. “This is prime silk. A Zegna.”

“Oh, is that it? Then get a new jacket and send that bill to me.”

Oooh. She’s having fun playing with my money.

I don’t mind at all. It’s actually kind of hot to watch her like this. I find her audaciousness sexy, and I want to watch her throw more money at the problem.

But then the asshole takes a step toward her, snapping me out of my revery as an alarm shoots through me. Fury too as I realize he’s trying to get close enough to hit her.

“Touch her and die.” The words growl out of my mouth, and all three people turn around to stare at me.

“I’m serious,” I say and even though I try to talk casually, my voice has dropped into a deadly register and my fists are clenched at my side. “You lay one finger on her and I will kill you.”

The man hesitates, fear flashing across his face, mixing in with the anger. He swallows, breathing hard through his nostrils, sizing me up.

And then, his sense probably returns as he mutters, “I don’t fucking need this,” before stalking off, trembling with anger.

I make a note to myself to find out who that man is and make a point to ruinhislife. For trying to hit a woman, and then trying to hitmywoman. And for calling her a moron on top of it.

“You okay?” I ask Carly, who’s staring at me now, her boldness turning bashful.

“Yeah,” she answers. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to cause a scene.”

“No biggie. I’m the only one who saw it. Plus, it was fun to watch until the end.”

She nods and looks back at the server, who is now kneeling hastily picking up the broken glass from the floor.

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