Page 141 of Savage Suit
“Did we?” she demanded.
Snatching up my glass of champagne and taking a sip, I gave a curt nod.
“Oh my God.” Her eyes were huge and teary. “How long have you known?”
“A couple of days,” I admitted.
She sniffled, but her face hardened, and her mouth tightened. “You didn’t think I needed to know? Neither did my sister,” she spat, hurt and angry. Another realization dawned on her. “And Reid. He knew, too.”
Quinn was wrong for hiding the information, as much as Reid and me. Fear motivated her. Reid thought he was helping, while I had no excuse. Icouldsay I was worried about Ryan’s reaction. Obviously, I’d had reason to. My behavior was still fucked up.
I felt compelled to protect Quinn, for both their sakes. They were as close as sisters could be. Believing Quinn had betrayed her was crushing Ryan. I had to stop this disaster in the making. “Quinn doesn’t know.”
“That’s fucking rich, Noah. Of course she knows! She was the one who fetched me after she fucked Reid.”
“I was gone by the time she found you. I left right after you fell asleep. Reid did not know the room was occupied.” He did, although he thought it was Nate. “Do you understand me, Ryan?” I searched her face, checking if my words somehow penetrated her disbelief, anger, and panic. “As far as they knew, you’d been alone and asleep.”
“You knew the truth,” she snarled.
For a moment, I floundered. What could I say? All along, I’d suspected her identity.
“You’ve known for two entire days.”
Relief that her timeline was wrong hit me so hard, I almost sagged.
Outrage dropped into her face, and her eyes narrowed. “Blue! That’s why you told Celine to bring gowns in shades of blue. We thought it a dress code.” She laughed bitterly. “How fucking stupid am I?”
“You’re not stupid. You’re—”
Her glower shut me up.
“I want to go home.”
“Ryan.”
She pushed her chair back, but my words halted her and I rushed to explain.
“I had dinner with Reid at Nicholas and Tina’s this past Saturday. I don’t make a habit of visiting my brother, so this was the first opportunity I had to see the photo album from the masquerade. You, Quinn, and Reid were in one photo. It was Reid who showed me the picture. When I saw that blue gown and your dark hair bone-straight, I knew it was you.”
She grabbed her glass of champagne and gulped half the contents. “I’m so embarrassed.”
“You have no reason to be, Ryan.”
A little hysterical laugh escaped her. “I was so fucking wasted. I don’t remember half of what I said.”
“I remember our conversation. Trust me, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“If you can recall what we talked about, how could you not know my identity when I came for the first interview?”
“Because we didn’t remove our masks. The room was dimly lit. And I had a helluva lot to drink myself. You seemed familiar to me. Your voice. The coconut scent. My instant draw to you. I didn’t know if I was imagining my recognition, creating an image in my head to fill in the blanks left by the circumstances of that night.”
She thought for a moment, not meeting my gaze, not indicating if she believed me.
“I want to go home,” she repeated.
I nodded. “Let me take care of the tab and call my driver.”
“Okay.” She didn’t look at me or speak to me anymore for the rest of the night.
