Incite (Sphere of Irony 1)

I turn to see who’s speaking and see Ellie standing next to me. My Ellie. Backstage, at the Grammy’s. I blink hard and look again. It’s not Ellie, and she’s not mine, but damn, she could be her twin.

“Thanks,” I finally manage to say stupidly. Smooth, Reynolds. Real smooth. Grammy-nominated tosser.

“I hope you win tonight,” she says sweetly, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief.

“And you are?” I hold out my hand to find out who this gorgeous girl might be.

“Oh, sorry, I’m Kiera. Kiera Radcliffe. I’m just hanging out, watching. My dad is the director of this whole thing.” She casually waves her hand to indicate the entire theater.

“Lovely to meet you, Kiera. I have to get back to my seat for the nominations. Will you be at any of the after parties?” She’s beautiful, well connected, and obviously wealthy so she’s not after my money, what’s not to like? Oh, and it’s like having Ellie even though I can’t actually have her.

Dangerous road to travel, Reynolds.

“I’ll be sure to make my way to yours,” she purrs boldly, pursing her lips sensually before smiling.

I smile back, genuinely. She’s adorable. I like her confidence, and it seems as if she goes after what she wants without apologies. I’ll definitely find her later. I was going to skip the parties, since I have to limit my drinking to one or usually zero beverages and being around a bunch of drunks is irritating if you’re not one of them. Kiera makes the idea of the after party sound much more interesting.

“Be sure you find me,” I tell her as the rest of the band closes in behind me.

“Come on, Adam,” Gavin says, shoving me from behind.

As we walk away I turn to look at the beautiful Kiera one more time. Shit, if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear she was Ellie. This could be a very bad id

ea, getting with someone who will dredge up all of the demons that I laid to rest in rehab. The temptation to be with someone so similar-looking to Ellie? It seems worth the risk.

I’m sure I’m mental for even thinking about it. The guys would kill me if they knew what I was doing. I know I’ve already made my decision. I’m going after her, tonight, and it’s for all the wrong reasons and I don’t care. It’ll hurt so good that like the sick fuck I am, I want the pain.

chapter 32

Ellie

“I’ll be there after work, Mum. I can’t talk now, I’m still at the hospital and I have too many patients to deal with,” I say with an exasperated smile even though my mum can’t see it.

“Alright Ellie. I’ll see you at seven.”

“Bye Mum, love you.”

“You too honey.”

I hang up and slide the phone into the pocket of my scrubs. My coworker, an older woman named Agnes, speaks to me from her spot at the break room table.

“Plans with your mum tonight?” she asks as she takes a sip of her tea. Agnes is old school British. She takes her tea every afternoon regardless of the patient load or the lack of nurses. It’s admirable yet supremely annoying at the same time.

“Yes, just dinner.”

“Hmmmm.” Agnes flips a page of her red top magazine.

“What?”

“Oh nothing, dear.” She resumes sipping, humming a random tune.

Okaaaay, what’s the deal with her? “Agnes, clearly you have something to say, so just say it.” I roll my eyes at her before she can look up.

She carefully places down her, yes real china teacup, and dabs her mouth with a napkin before fixing her steely eyes on me. “You finally going to tell her that you’re never going to marry that James bloke?”

I gasp and my mouth falls open. “W-w-what? Why would you say that?”

Agnes doesn’t break her eye contact with me as she answers. “Because you’ve been with the poor boy for what… let’s see…” I can see her doing the math in her head.