Page 58 of Wants and Needs
He thinks we’re in love, and I bet it’s because of the hand holding, so I was right. It gives me the confidence I need to defend myself. Holding tightly to Carter’s hand I step forward until my chest almost bumps against his stupid finger.
“You’re irrelevant in my life, Dirk.” I speak softly but clearly, and don’t even bother to try to look him in the eyes. He really isn’t worth the effort. “Last week when you rudely interrupted our date was the first time I’d thought of you in years. So why don’t you go back to what you’re good at and become irrelevant again?”
His lip curls in a sneer. I’m ready for whatever he’s about to say, but Tristan’s voice sounding just beside me stops all of us.
“Michelle, this is Liam Trent,” he announces like I’m some big deal.
I look her in the eyes when I shake her hand.
“So nice to meet you, Liam. This is my son, Matthew.” She waves a hand in his direction and I shake his hand too. “He works with me and will join us when we talk, I really respect his input. And you brought a date. A handsome one too,” she says, sounding... happy? I think.
I follow her gaze to see it locked on my other hand.
The one that’s holding Carter’s.
I see it in slow motion, realization come into her eyes and abig smile stretching her cheeks. Then she offers him her hand, and panic grips my insides and squeezes hard enough to have all the breath inside me escaping.
I need to say something.
She can’t think we’re together. I’m going to be working with her for a long time hopefully. How am I going to fix this?
Carter speaks before I can think of any way out of this.
14CARTER
“No need to introduce yourself,”I say, trying to sound gallant and not like I’m freaking the fuck out. “You’re a legend, Madam Blackwell.” I bend down to kiss the back of her hand, then introduce myself when I’m standing straight again. “I’m Carter Din.”
I leave it at that. No reason to explain anything right now. Not until we figure out how we’re going to get out of this mess.
Fuck, why did the grave robber have to come over before Liam got a chance to talk to this woman?
He’s a fucking pest.
“You’re a charmer, aren’t you?” she asks, clearly delighted by my manners.
Milton will be proud. That’s something good about this at least.
Because nothing else is going according to plan. She winks atLiam, who obviously has no idea how to react to that, and then adds a, “Well done,” for him.
And just to make it all better, she turns to the man who’s been standing next to the grave robber this whole time. “I see you’ve met my new star, Roy Winter, and his own man, Robin.”
I notice she doesn’t say his full stage name, and that does make me feel a bit better. She clearly has no love for him, but this Roy person didn’t look even slightly alarmed by what Dirk was saying to us before they got here, so he’s clearly not a great judge of character or a great person.
“I’ve known Liam since we started at Juilliard together, and we were together for quite some years, actually,” the Dick pipes up, putting everyone in an awkward mood and annoying the bloody hell out of me. Why can’t someone just tape his mouth shut?
“Were you?” Michelle asks, looking only at Liam with a raised eyebrow. Her smile dims considerably, and I can’t know why, but it doesn’t bode well for the evening’s true purpose.
“Michelle.” Tristan thankfully inserts himself back into the conversation to avoid any more words from the arsehole. “How about we go get a drink with Liam and talk?”
I breathe easier when her smile returns, but then...
“Michelle, my dear.” A soft female voice comes from behind us. I turn to see Lyla Storm, with CJ, Derek, and her nephews flanking her as they walk over. The two older women hug and naturally drift only a few steps away. I keep holding Liam’s hand so he won’t move in their direction and look at CJ until his gaze locks with mine, then I open my eyes wide and nod first in Wolf’s direction and then at the grave robber.
I hope he understands what I’m trying to tell him, and when he leans over to whisper in his boyfriend’s ear, I see he more than likely did.
“It’s so good to see you,” I hear Lyla tell Michelle. “That lastPhantom of the Operaperformance was pure magic.” She fawns all over Michelle and hopefully makes her forget everything that just happened.
Hey, I can hope.
