I pushed through, even as she sounded surprised by my interest. Even as she suddenly backtracked, saying maybe it was too soon after Caspar. But since I insisted I was completely over Caspar, she obliged my interest, answering my questions as I sat next to Adam, who was talking to Iain about baseball, clients.
But tuned in entirely to me.
I knew him well enough to know when he was shooting the shit or actually talking, and right now, it wasn’t the latter.
It made me feel malicious. Like I was doing the opposite of my usual instinct, which was to look out for Adam. To protect him and make his life as seamless as possible.
But he wasn’t doing the same for me.
He knew I’d always had his back. Been honest with him. He knew how much I cared about him—before we got together, but especially after.
He knew I was hurt.
But he was still choosing to stay silent. To protect whatever truth he had with Lyla Townsend.
So, fuck it, I thought.
If he didn’t care enough about me to give me an answer, I was going to do my best to care less about him.
30
ADAM
It was like the last night in Palm Beach all over again, but worse.
By miles.
For starters, we weren’t at some buttoned-up Engelman fundraiser. We were at a party being thrown by one of the biggest lingerie brands in the world. The vibe of the room was distinctly different than that of the room in Palm Beach. There, we had chandeliers, a grand piano, servers gliding around in vests.
Here, we had a dim-lit club, a quasi-burlesque theme and women wearing dresses that could’ve doubled as lingerie. There was more sexual energy floating in the air than I’d ever felt in one room, and I would’ve been more than enjoying it if things tonight had gone as planned.
If I could’ve been not only with AJ, but letting my hands roam freely on her body. Slipping that blazer off her shoulders so I could see what she was wearing underneath, and knowing that it was mine for the taking.
Because when I’d left her at the office this evening, that was what I had felt in my bones.
That she was mine.
But as I watched her from across the room, it was obvious that she thought otherwise.
“Something you need to tell me?”
I heard Iain’s question a second before he leaned against the spot at the bar in front of me, effectively blocking my view. Instead of craning my neck to adjust, I took a drink of my whiskey, because despite my instinct to look at Iain before, I didn’t actually know what he knew. I hadn’t told him shit.
But when he smirked and leaned his back against the bar, not only clearing my view but turning his head to look at AJ and Gavin, I realized I hadn’t actually done the stellar job of keeping my business a secret the past couple weeks.
“It’s pretty obvious what’s going on between you two,” he said. “Kind of got the sense when you magically stopped talking about AJ after a weekend of desperately wanting to fuck her brains out.”
“I told you it was a fluke I’d get over.”
“And I believed you till you stopped talking about AJ altogether whenever we were on the phone. I usually hear one or two stories about her, something she did, something funny she said. But suddenly, I was getting nothing despite the fact that you guys weren’t arguing, and considering it hadn’t been like that once in the past five years, it wasn’t really hard to figure out what was happening,” Iain said, wearing the exact kind of easy smugness of his face that AJ frequently wanted to kill me for. Now I understood that rage. Especially as Iain laughed. “I mean it was obvious enough that Holland figured it out mid-sentence at dinner.”
“Alright, take it easy. I’m in a shitty spot right now and you’re having the goddamned time of your life over here.”
“Sorry. I’ve just never seen you like this and I do feel for you. But it’s also hilarious.”
I shot Iain daggers. “Why.”
To my deep irritation, he turned and ordered a drink before answering. “Because something’s always been there between you two. For years. Holland’s known it. I’ve known it. She makes jokes all the time about bringing a butter knife when she goes to hang out with you two.”