Page 62 of Meet Me in Montreal

“Tenzin’s a genius. Gotta give him that.” After a thick silence, he glanced at her again. “Did you enjoy the concert? You looked like you were having a good time.”

So, he had been watching them after all. Her heart pumped the tiniest bit faster. Vanessa huffed, turning to face him.

“What do you want, Scott? An apology? A confession?”

“I want you to admit you were seeing him this whole time. That’s all.”

She couldn’t tell in this low lighting if his gaze was hot or ice cold, but it was trained on her either way. And in this darkness, those eyes glowed feral green again, glowed like the whites of his teeth.

“I wasn’t. At this point, I don’t owe you an explanation, but I really wasn’t. If you hadn’t broken it off the way you did —”

“It’s my actions that got you back together? Or did being with me make you realize how much you still loved him? It’s fucked up either way.” Scott raised his hands, then lowered them. “But, hey. Happy to be of service to you.”

Vanessa stepped back, rubbing the raised flesh on her arms. Anger rolled off him in palpable waves. “I should go.”

“Yeah, you should,” Scott replied in a soft voice. “I’ll be seeing your brother and his wife later back at the hotel. Maybe I’ll see you and your man, too.”

Shit. She forgot. He’d booked a room at the same hotel in anticipation of this being a trip for the four of them. She didn’tlike the tone of his voice when he said that. Didn’t like the idea that they might see him again at all.

“This doesn’t have to get weird, Scott,” she said as he slowly backed away, still facing her.

“I think it’s probably too late for that.” The last thing she saw was his flash of a smile before he was swallowed up by the darkness at the end of the hallway.

O-kay, time to go.

Vanessa tried not to run back the way she’d come, but it was hard to will herself to stay calm. She smoothed her hand over her volume of curls and nearly tripped on the slight rise in the doorway to the pool area. Santino turned when she slid her arm around his waist and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Hey, where were you? I turned to look, and you disappeared,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulders. After taking a closer look at her, he murmured, “Are you okay?”

“I’m good. Just checking out more of your beautiful work.” She addressed Tenzin with a smile, despite her speedy pulse and the goosebumps still raised like bas relief on her arms.

Ling introduced her to Tenzin formally, and she fell silent as they resumed their conversation about the origins of graffiti in 1980s New York City. Right up Santino’s alley.

Bobby had disappeared from the pool, most likely drying off somewhere. Zoe, who had pulled down the top of her jumpsuit to expose her breasts, was kissing some random man. That would have been shocking if she wasn’t still numb from the encounter on the shadowy side of the wall.

The dance music suddenly got turned up. Virgil appeared out of nowhere, dressed in swim trunks and showing off quite the package. “Everybody in the motherfucking pool!” he shouted and jumped in.

“Yeah, I’m done,” Vanessa said with an abrupt laugh. “Can we go back to the hotel?”

Santino didn’t seem fazed by the soiree suddenly turning into a horny pool party, but he didn’t look reluctant to leave either, glancing at Zoe with an unmistakable look of distaste.

“It was great to meet you,” he told Tenzin, shaking his hand.

“Take my card. I’ll be in New York in a few weeks. I can introduce you to some people,” Tenzin offered. “Nice meeting you, Vanessa.”

They talked about the concert and the party on the way back to the hotel. It was late when they arrived. Vanessa still couldn’t shake the nerves from that unexpected meet up with Scott and the royal couples’ bizarre behavior. When had Montreal turned into the goddamned Twilight Zone?

21

WHEN 2 R IN LOVE

VANESSA

Despite the lateness, the second they got back in the hotel room, Santino was ready for loving. Vanessa was more than eager. The tension with Zoe, then later with Scott, had her keyed up in a way that hadn’t felt very good. She needed Santino’s mouth on hers, his hands pulling roughly at her clothes, to turn that tension into something else, something hotter, that would bring her back down to earth.

When she got his pants down when they’d barely closed the door, she was greedy for the thickness that bobbed close to her mouth.

Santino laughed. “You’re turned up. Is this why you wanted to leave that party so quick?”

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