With Every Breath (Slow Burn 4)

She nearly groaned out loud and had to physically restrain herself from banging her head on the nearest possible place, which happened to be his shoulder. He was right. She never called him Wade. And what was worse was that it hadn’t been intentional. It hadn’t been part of her trying to worm her way out of a disastrous situation, though so far it seemed to be working. It had just slipped out. If he didn’t have her so rattled and off her game, she would have never called him by his first name. She’d called him plenty of things but never that because, damn it, it was too personal. Friends, family, people she liked, those were the people she was on a first name basis with. Sterling was none of those things.

He stared at her a long moment, something shifting in his gaze. Something dangerous that made a light shiver work up her spine. It was as if something huge had changed in that moment and she did not want to know what that was because she had the distinct feeling it had everything to do with her. Then he shook his head as if dispelling cobwebs and just as quickly that intense scowl was back and the moment was gone. Thank God.

“So this surprise,” he drawled. “Do tell. You avoid a woman who considers you her friend thus making her believe you’re angry with her, which causes her untold grief, and if I had to guess makes her husband and your coworker not very happy with you, and now you’re telling me you’ve been hurting her feelings and making her feel like shit because you have a surprise for her?”

He ended with a snort of pure disbelief. Eliza winced at hearing the words “hurt feelings” and “feel like shit.” Then, mentally, she thought back, trying to remember if Zack had treated her any differently. Truth be told, she hadn’t even considered the consequences. She’d been too focused on her mission. Then she winced again, because yeah, she could remember Zack shooting her searching looks, laced with anger in his eyes and a tight jaw, though he’d never approached her and that surprised her because he and Eliza were tight after all the shit that went down when he and Gracie had their thing.

Eliza didn’t have to pretend agitation or fake regret when she glanced back up at Sterling. She stared at him with stricken eyes, allowing all her regret and sorrow to show, evidenced by his look of surprise. At least she was keeping him as off balance as he was her.

“I was planning it, have been planning it for over a week,” she said quietly. That wasn’t a lie. She had been planning. Sterling would just assume she’d been planning Gracie’s surprise. “I couldn’t be around her when it was all I was thinking about and preparing for,” she continued. “She would have known instantly and then it would no longer be a surprise. But I never meant to make her think I was angry with her. I didn’t think.” She closed her eyes against the sudden sting of tears. No way in hell she’d cry in front of Sterling. Even if it would go a long way in convincing him of her lie.

He studied her a long moment, and she got the distinct impression he didn’t miss the shine of tears, gone almost before they’d even appeared. His scrutiny was unbearable and it made her squirm. Her palms itched and she had to control the urge to curl her fingers into tight fists because that would betray her supreme agitation and Sterling was someone who picked up on subtle clues. He never missed a goddamn thing.

“And just what is this surprise,” Sterling asked, eyes narrowed, suspicion still heavy in his voice.

“I can’t tell you! Are you crazy? You’re around Gracie all the time. If you knew, then she’d know too.”

“Then give me a goddamn clue,” he bit out impatiently.

It was clear he still wasn’t buying it. Damn it!

“All I can say is that it has to do with her school,” Eliza said softly, referring to Gracie’s plan to open her own place to teach free art classes to promising students who couldn’t afford lessons otherwise.

Until recently Gracie had used a small building—owned by Sterling of course—but now there were too many students and it broke Gracie’s tender heart to have to turn anyone away because there wasn’t enough space.

Her dream was to find a bigger place, which Sterling of course would provide, but Gracie needed donations to pay for supplies and at least one full-time assistant. Volunteers couldn’t always be counted on to be available and that many children needed more supervision and attention than Gracie could give them alone. Not to mention Zack was heavily opposed to anything that took too much of his new wife’s time. They’d been separated for twelve years by horrific circumstances and Zack was making the most of every single day now that they’d found one another again.

“And so help me, Sterling, if you even think about Gracie’s school and or me at the same time when you’re around Gracie, swear to God, I’ll have your nuts.”

His expression became sly and a look entered his eyes she did not like. It made her want to tuck tail and run like the coward he accused her of being.

“I don’t even want to know,” she muttered. “Can I leave now?”

Noticing that Sterling had loosened his grip on her arm, she took swift advantage and turned to stalk away but he was faster, reasserting his hold on her.

“I’ll gladly give you my balls, Eliza. Just say the word. But you’ll get a whole hell of a lot more than my nuts. That I can guarantee.”

Horrified by the heat that instantly flared to life, curling in her groin and licking up her spine, she tried to jerk away from him again.

“Make you a deal,” Sterling said in a silky, bone-shivering, sexy voice. “Give me one dance and I’ll make your excuses to Gracie and you can leave with your secret intact. She’ll just be happy you came. I doubt she’s noticed much more than her new husband anyway,” he added wryly.

“No one is dancing!” she protested. “You don’t think Gracie”—not to mention every single one of her coworkers—“and the others wouldn’t see us and know I was here, never said hi or made my presence known and then, oh gee, I had to leave. You’re out of your damn mind.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself. Come on. I’ll take you to Gracie then, so you can offer your hellos to your team and congratulations to Gracie.”

She went rigid. “You little blackmailing bastard.”

He shrugged again, making her want to scream. Did nothing ever ruffle him? What did it take to really piss off a man who rarely looked anything beyond mildly annoyed or more commonly like he didn’t give a fuck?