Page 53 of His Little Secret in Discretion
“Sunshine.”
She blinked like she hadn’t expected anyone to be there. Like she wasn’t even fully in her body. Then she smiled, but not the one that melted me. Not the one that made me forget my own damn name. It was small, automatic, defensive, and painfully fake. I knew her real ones. The ones that reached her eyes and undid me at the same time.
“You okay?” I asked, lowering my voice.
“I’m fine,” she answered, gazing over my shoulder. “How's it going over there?” she deflected with a small giggle that smelled a lot like bullshit from a mile away.
I quirked an eyebrow, deciding to go along for the moment.
“Well, Walt is drunk, so getting him to sign the contract was a bit unethical, but easy. Drummond, the man I’m actually here for, is MIA, and one of the investors asked if I was planning to auction you off for a merger. So, you know. Business as usual.”
Her laugh came, but it was delayed, forced, hollow. The kind that didn't quite make it out of her chest. She was fidgeting as she reached up to adjust an earring that didn’t need fixing, almost like she didn’t know where to put her hands or herself.
I stepped closer, ducking my head just enough to catch her gaze. “You sure you’re fine?”
That smile twitched again.
“I’m just tired, Mr. Porter,” she said. “Too much champagne and way too much testosterone. Gotta learn to give a girl a break.”
She leaned in, kissed my cheek like it was an afterthought, and started walking ahead of me back toward the table.
I didn’t follow right away. I just stood there a second, frowning at her back. She didn’t sway in her flirty little seductive way. She didn’t throw me a look over her shoulder. Her arms were tight across her middle like she was holding herself together. Tight and rigid, almost like she was begging to get out of here.
And when we got back to the table, I sat close. Closer than usual. Wrapped my arm around her waist again. Not just for show, but because something was off.
Something hadhappened.
I just didn’t know what.
She didn’t say much after that. Or for the rest of the night. Didn’t lean into me like she usually did when she was buzzed and amused. She just kept her eyes fixed on the amber swirl in her glass like it was the most interesting thing in the room.
Even when Felix finally reappeared later, smug, cracking half-assed jokes like he hadn’t just wasted the majority of the night, she didn’t look at him to work her little charm.
Not once.
Which was weird.
Maia always played the room, even when she hated it.Especially when she hated it.An alluring smile here, a polite laugh there, she could charm a fucking dead guy out of his grave if she wanted to…
But with him?
Nothing.
It's like he’d sucked the life out of her by just existing.
She didn’t even argue when I said it was time to go. Just nodded quietly.Too quiet.
Didn’t ask if I closed the deal. Didn’t tease me about getting Mr. Drunk-and-Disorderly to sign his soul away. Didn’t do anything except press herself into the corner of the car and stare out the window like she couldn’t wait for the night to be over.
Back at the hotel, she began avoiding me, hopping into the shower the second she could, getting dressed in the closet with the door shut, looking anywhere but at me when she left the room to get a glass of water.
I sat at the edge of the bed, waiting for her to return, my hair dripping down my bare chest, the shower steam still rolling off of me in waves. It was supposed to be our victory shower, celebrating another million-dollar deal made with my baby pushed against the shower tile, all flushed and giggling.
Instead, it was just me and the fucking silence.
I ran a hand down my face, a sudden ache in my chest growing heavier by the second, but I masked it as she came back to the room, finally, my shirt comfortably swallowing her whole as her damp hair framed her face.
Beckoning her over with two fingers, I watched as she walked over, her teeth gnawing at her lip nervously. My hands found her waist as she stopped before me.
