Everything is so beautiful, but all I can think about is the man in the hall.
“Hunter,” I say, looking over at him anxiously.
He looks down at me, smiling faintly until he sees the look on my face. Sobering quickly, he says, “What’s wrong?”
My lips suddenly feel bone-dry, so I lick them. “I think I might have messed up.”
Hunter frowns. “What are you talking about?”
“You know how people aren’t supposed to… how your exact parentage isn’t necessarily public knowledge?” I ask carefully.
Still frowning, he nods.
My stomach sinks. Anxiously glancing back toward the hall to make sure no one is behind me now, I lean in closer and tell him, “I wasn’t thinking back there, I was so excited to meet your dad… I called him your dad.”
“Oh.” Hunter’s expression clears. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
“No, but, Hunter.” I stop walking to look up at him. “There was a guy behind us. I think he heard me.”
He scowls and glances back. “What guy?”
Enough moments have passed that I’m sure the blue-eyed stranger is no longer greeting Hunter’s dad and his cousin, but when I turn around and look toward the entrance, I don’t see him lingering behind us anywhere, either. “I don’t know where he is. I don’t see him now.”
Hunter frowns, pulling me close and doing a cursory sweep of the room. “Well, if you see him, point him out to me, okay?”
I nod, swallowing. Looking up at him with remorseful eyes, I tell him, “I’m so sorry. I should have kept my big mouth shut.”
Hunter shakes his head. “Don’t worry about it.”
He tells me not to worry, but I know he’s just being nice.
Hunter’s father is a powerful man. The knowledge that he has an illegitimate son that the public doesn’t know about… That’s information that could be very dangerous in the wrong hands.
Chapter Sixty Four
Riley
I try to enjoy the amazing dinner that is served, try to pay attention to the remarks being made at the podium by Hunter’s dad and other important people. I realize that, while I’m more of a bookworm than a history buff, just being in the same room as all these people is an insanely cool opportunity. There are so many people parading around with medals, sashes, and regalia denoting them some sort of foreign dignitaries, it’s a bit dizzying.
This ball isn’t just a who’s who of New York—it’s an international affair, and nothing I could have ever dreamed of attending in my whole life.
Here I am living it, but I’m so anxious about what that man overheard, it’s hard to fully enjoy myself.
Every table seats 10. Obviously, I don’t know any of the people at ours, but Hunter seems to know one of the couples. I don’t think he knows anyone else, but he’s good with people, so he ends up chatting up everyone at the table while I sit there all quiet and reserved, making myself sick with worry.
Once dinner and the speeches have wrapped up, the dance floor opens up. Our table empties as everyone hits the floor in pairs, leaving me and Hunter with a moment more or less alone.
“Riley, you’ve gotta stop worrying about it,” he says, looking over at me. “You should be having fun. We’re at a ball, for Christ’s sake.”
I smile faintly. “Your dad doesn’t have a dungeon he’ll throw me in for spilling state secrets, does he?”
Hunter rolls his eyes. “No one’s throwing you in a dungeon, and you didn’t spill any secrets. It’s loud in here, that guy probably didn’t even hear you. And it’s not like this is a well-kept secret. Among this set, yes. No one in my dad’s world knows. But there are people at home who do—people I’ve given reason not to like me, in fact. There are other ways it could get out.”
“I know, but there’s a difference between local gossip that could be denied and written off as a rumor, and me saying something like that to you in a place like this,” I say, gesturing around.
As if to illustrate my point, some royal-dignitary-looking dude in a fancy green sash goes strolling past our table.
I look at Hunter and raise my eyebrows as if to say, “See?”
Hunter shakes his head, pushes his chair back, and stands. “Come on.”
I look up at him, but don’t move. “Where are we going?”
“To dance,” he states, offering me his hand.
I take it, reluctantly rising from my seat. “I do like dancing with you.”
“Mm-hmm,” he murmurs, drawing me closer and escorting me to the dance floor.
Once we’re on the dance floor together, some of my cares fall away. There’s something about dancing with Hunter that I really love, and dancing with him in a place as lovely as this… I shouldn’t squander the evening worrying about some strange man I may never see again.