“I’ll go get us a cab,” Emmitt said as he nodded goodbye. “Thank you so much for the tickets.”
“So that’s the guy?” Sophie asked with a knowing smile and a wink.
“Yes,” Evie admitted bashfully.
“He sees you,” Sophie replied through a laugh. “While you were patting those tears away you didn’t see him crossing the lobby looking like his heart was being torn out. You didn’t see that look in his eyes when he thought something was wrong. Men always seem to show their truest emotions when they think no one can see them. But I was watching.”
“Really?” Evie asked, trying to tamp down the flutter of hope that pumped in her heart.
“Enjoy the symphony.” Sophie grinned as she spun and strolled away with a hint of victory in her step.
Maybe Sophie was right. Maybe Emmitt did care for her and the symphony would be the perfect place to find out. Just like one of those romantic movies she never had a chance to star in. The only problem was, she still had to break it to him that the zip drive fell in the toilet and was ruined. But if Sophie was right, if he cared about her, he’d be able to look past it.
Chapter 11
“What the fuck was that?” Emmitt barked before Evie could even close the door to the cab. “I specifically told you to avoid her and instead you’re there sharing a goddamn moment with her. Where are your shoes?” he asked, staring down at the sandals.
“One went in the toilet,” she explained quietly as though her calmness could compensate for his anxiety. “So I threw them out and Sophie had these sandals in her bag in case she breaks a heel. It happens more often than you think.”
“People’s shoes fall in the toilet more often than I think?” Emmitt asked, staring at her like she was a lunatic.
“No,” Evie began with a smile, but Emmitt’s face didn’t soften. “Heels break. That’s why Sophie had the sandals. You’d think you could just walk around without the heel but it’s not the same as having sudden flats. High heels are shaped differently. Take the heel off and it’s just a nightmare. You know what I mean?”
Emmitt opened his mouth to speak but froze, staring at her as though she were speaking a foreign language he couldn’t understand. “What?” he stuttered. “Why was your shoe in the toilet?”
“I used it to get the zip drive out. I know I totally messed this up. I know we’ll have to do that all over again, but I can. Just give me another chance.”
“No,” he said flatly, taking the zip drive wrapped in toilet paper from her.
“But now I know where everything is. I can totally do it again, no problem.” Evie shrugged as though she were an old pro now.
“Now that you’re on a first-name basis with Sophia Barrington, you are no good to me. I’m not sending you back in there or anywhere else when I need something. If you had a cover, consider it blown. And, I’ve seen you deliver coffee. I like to be prepared and know who I’m dealing with. The zip drive is waterproof. I wasn’t taking any chances.” She hoped for the hint of a smile, tempering the insult but there was none.
“Then it worked out,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. She was holding tight to the idea that Sophie saw something in his face that spoke louder than his angry words right now. “I did it. Now you have what you need. What does it matter how it happened?”
“I have the start of what I need. There is more to what I do than just this,” he said, gesturing at the zip drive. “But there’s no point in you sticking around for that anymore. Whether it’s Texas or back home or whatever, I’ll make arrangements for your travel this afternoon.” He was livid. Emmitt had taken a gamble on her, and she’d blown it. Maybe the zip drive was intact but she had to admit stumbling out of a bathroom missing your shoes and leaning on the one woman you were supposed to avoid couldn’t really be considered anything short of an epic disaster.
“What about the symphony?” Evie asked, hoping maybe Emmitt could separate his anger from their plans. “Sophie gave us these tickets, and we said we would go.”
“I’m not going to the symphony,” Emmitt called back brashly. “I don’t know what the hell you were doing in there but I was sitting outside on a bench wondering if you were all right. I don’t need that shit. You are just something I don’t need.”
“You were worried?” Evie asked, giving him the chance to bridge the space between them. He could pocket his temper and just be real with her for a moment. “You were worried that something happened to me, and you don’t like that feeling do you? You can act like you don’t care if I stay or go, but I can tell you do.” She was near yelling now, and she didn’t care if the cab driver’s eyes kept darting to the rearview mirror. She didn’t care if she sounded crazy. “I’ve known men like you before. But you are the first to push me up against the wall and touch me like you own my body, like you’re about to give me everything. You’re also the first to leave me there, to walk away like I was nothing.”
“Stop,” he said, his cheeks red with what she pegged as anger. But his voice wasn’t demanding now, it was pleading.
“I was there, Emmitt, standing there bare and ready, and you just walked away from me. Why? You were worried about me today. Why?”
“Stop,” he demanded again, but he was talking to the driver now. “For Christ sake, pull the car over.” The cab stopped abruptly and Emmitt swung the door open. “Go home or go wherever. But just go.”
“I’m going to the symphony,” she asserted. “I’m done climbing the ladder. I’m going to experience the painting instead.”
“What?” he asked, completely perplexed as he kept the cab door open. “What are you talking about? Never mind. I don’t give a shit.” Slamming the cab door, he backed away and tossed his arms up furiously.
“Where to, miss?” the cab driver asked timidly.
“Back to the hotel,” she said with a sigh, feeling like maybe her bold reaction was misplaced.
Before the cab driver could put it in drive again Emmitt swung the front door open. “Here,” he said, shoving some money in. “Take her wherever she wants to go.” The door slammed again as he stormed away.
There was a chance Emmitt truly was just fed up with her, and she was not his type. She’d made a stand, and judging by the manic way he was taking off, she’d played a losing hand.
Chapter 12
“This girl has problems,” Emmitt exclaimed, banging a hand down on the railing of his hotel room balcony. “Did you know she was fucking crazy when you sent her up here with me? Was it a game? If you want me to do what I’m supposed to, get her back to Texas because she’s not helping.”
“What happened?” Mathew asked through thinly veiled amusement.
“I sent her in to do one simple job, to go unnoticed, and who does she run into? Sophie Barrington. I specifically told her to avoid her.” He stared over the sinking sun and knew the afternoon was slipping into the evening. The symphony was approaching, and Evie would be sitting around staring at the two tickets.
She’d been right; he’d grabbed her, kissed her, and then walked away. What she didn’t know was the encounter was blazed into him. Like touching a hot pan, he’d had to let her go quickly, but the mark she’d left on his skin was still tingling.
“I’m the one who told you to send her back here. I agreed with you.” Mathew huffed loudly, clearly exasperated by his brother’s antics.
“You know damn well telling me to send her back would make me do the opposite. But was that the plan? Were you trying to use reverse psychology to keep her up here?”
“No comment.” Mathew laughed. “So you’re saying it was disastrous with Sophie?” he asked in a leading way that made Emmitt wish they were closer so he could punch him.
“No,” he replied angrily. “It went fine. She gave us tickets to the symphony for tonight. I’d say Evie made a good impression and—”
“And how about you?”
“I was fine too,” Emmitt explained with annoyance. “But that’s not the point. There are par
ts of what I’m doing here you don’t understand. I needed to be under the radar. She’s blowing that for me.”
“What time is the symphony?” Mathew asked offhandedly. “It must be starting soon?”
“How the fuck should I know? I’m not going.”
“Why not? Did you tell Sophia you’d be there?”
“Yes,” Emmitt grunted, “but I was just trying to be polite.”
“I’ll have to give Evie a raise.” Mathew snickered. “She got you to act polite.”
“Fuck you,” he roared. “This game is getting old.”
“If you took the tickets from Sophie, and you told her you’d be there, then you should go. You never know who you’d be sitting next to, and if Sophie told them you’d be there you should be. It could get back to her that you blew off the tickets, and I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate it.”
“I’m sick of this,” Emmitt said flatly. “Evie needs to leave. You need to make the call and tell her to come back. Whatever reason you give, I don’t care. Just get her out of Boston. She won’t listen to me, but she’s on your payroll. I can’t think when she’s around. I can’t focus.”
“Fine,” Mathew agreed. “Tomorrow. I’ll call her and tell her I need her back here. I won’t give her a choice. But tonight you go to the symphony.”
“You’re going to owe me,” Emmitt growled.
“I guess that would be true if I hadn’t bailed you out of a million things before this. Pull all of this shit off and we’ll call it even.” Those numbers were pretty accurate though he hated to admit it.
Emmitt hung up the phone and checked his watch. The symphony would start in an hour. It would be tight since he still had to get himself a tux and have a car service lined up, but it could be done. He called down to Evie’s room but there was no answer. The poor thing was probably crying in her pillow, eating the other half of the room service menu. A few dozen calls to tux rental places and he finally had everything lined up.
His tux, though a bit snug, was pressed and his shoes were shining as he made the walk toward her hotel room. A few knocks on the door and finally he heard her answer.
“Oh you’re early; hang on just a minute.” Her tiny voice was more bubbly than usual.
“Early?” Emmitt asked, wondering if Mathew had called ahead to tell Evie the symphony was back on.
“Emmitt?” she asked, swinging the door open and sticking out her foot to hold it as she slid one shining earring into place. “What are you doing here?” She was wearing a champagne colored dress that looked as natural as skin, hugging her figure snuggly. The elegant bones of her shoulder and collar held up the thin silky straps.
“I’m taking you to the symphony,” he announced as though it should have been obvious.
“You said you weren’t,” she stammered. “You told me to leave.” Her eyes were roaming over his tuxedo as though he might vanish any second. And she was right. He was on the verge of running.
“So you decided to take Sophie up on her offer of some stranger going with you? You’d go out with some guy you know nothing about in a city you know nothing about just because some other stranger told you it was fine?” The idea of another man’s arm looping around hers as he escorted her up the marble stairs of the symphony hall made him sick. Some pompous, well dressed, rich bastard would be whispering compliments in her ear tonight. He was the only well-dressed rich bastard who should be allowed to do that. Because the other guy would only have the intention of getting her exactly where Emmitt already had. The difference was that guy wouldn’t walk away. He wouldn’t leave her . . . how did she say it? Bare and ready.
“Are you going to take me to the symphony?” she asked in a hushed voice, like one used to keep a spooked animal calm. Her head was cast down but her eyes peered up, batting under her long mascara-covered lashes.
“Yes,” he said as though it were the most obvious answer. “Yes. I am taking you to the symphony.”
“All right then.” She smiled brightly and then dulled it suddenly, looking afraid to come on too strong. “I’ll meet you in the lobby in five minutes. I need to make a phone call.”
“Good,” he asserted, shaking his head. “Yes. Good. The symphony with me. That’s what we’re doing.” Backing into the hallway he heard the hotel room door close. “Good,” he said again, now trying to convince himself this was the right move.
The image of her flowing blond hair in luscious curls and the tiny drop necklace that sank down to her cleavage was a powerful memory but instantly dulled by the reality when she stepped off the elevator, and he had a chance to see it all again. The subdued pink gloss on her lips and the bright white and pale purple shadow over her eyes made the blue in them sparkle.
“You look . . .” he murmured, squirming uncomfortably.
“Thanks,” she interjected, letting him off the hook. “I’m glad you changed your mind about coming.”
He considered telling her how Mathew had framed it all up. This was just one more piece of a job being done. An obligation. But Emmitt was a smart man. If he had any intention at all of getting through this night with Evie still smiling, then the truth had no place between them. That was most people’s mistake, treating the truth like an absolute. Like you were obligated to provide it to someone. It was much more of a moving target in his opinion.
“You look very handsome,” she said coyly as she allowed him to lead her to the street.
“I’ve got a car service. No cabs tonight. That’s just when I’m on the job. Trying to blend in.” He gestured over to the sleek looking black limo with dark tinted windows and envisioned fucking her there. There wasn’t room in his mind right now for whether that was right or wrong.
“I’m sorry about the Sophie thing,” Evie offered genuinely as they climbed into the limo and settled in next to each other, ignoring all the unused room.
He knew the right thing to say here. Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry too. I
overreacted. But if unspoken words could fill a space, in his lifetime Emmitt could have packed the Grand Canyon to the top. The amount of women he walked away from while they were mid-sentence was staggering. Disengaging was his specialty.
He tilted his head and bit at the inside of his mouth. Some kind of throat clearing grunt was all he could muster. It was pathetic actually, the action of a child unwilling to admit wrongdoing. But he wasn’t wired the right way, and this is where it became most noticeable. Shockingly, the tiny noise, the nonsensical incomprehensible offering he gave her as a response still made Evie smile as though he’d just verbally smoothed the situation over with a goddamn soliloquy. That was enough for her.
“Have you been to the symphony before?” Evie asked, taking a stray curl and pushing it behind her ear. “I know you told Sophie you had, but I wasn’t sure if that was just for show.” One of her dangling earrings swung back and forth, taunting him to pounce.
“My mother dragged us there a lot when we were young. I hated it. Once I set off a cherry bomb in the bathroom. That was the last time she took me.”
“Were you a handful?”
“For a single mom, I guess. My dad took off and Mathew tried acting like the man of the house, but I was just pissed at the world. I put my mom through hell. It’s why I enlisted. I figured if I didn’t, and I kept going the way I was, it would kill her. She’s not well as it is.”
“She’s not?” Evie asked, the slight lean forward and the look of worry in her eyes too much for him. The body language of someone who cared, someone who wanted to know him in a way he preferred not to be known by anyone.
“I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to look at you in that dress. Where did you find something like that on such short notice? It’s like it was made for you.”
“It was. I stole it from the movie set,” Evie admitted, and her bashful fluttering eyes made him want to rip the straps from her dress and take her now. “It was meant for the big make-up scene, where the jerk in the movie finally sees the light and st
ops treating my character like dirt.” Whether she was trying to draw an intentional parallel to real life or not, it was there.
Emmitt didn’t defend his behavior or plead his case to anyone. Being an asshole was perfectly fine by him. Or it had been. He had great control over his mind. He’d always been able to right himself. He’d seen his share of carnage and bullshit while deployed. It took a certain level of mental fortitude to be able to deal with it. For some reason the dialogue in his mind, the tape running on a loop, was hard to quiet right now. It kept telling him to kiss Evie. Kiss her not solely to sleep with her but so no one else would kiss her. So that he’d maybe get a chance to do it again the next day and the day after that. He wanted her. He’d have her. He’d have to have her. Fuck the consequences and his shortcomings and the guilt. This was unbearable and it had to end.
“I think we should skip the concert,” Emmitt said. “I won’t be able to get through it.”
“Why? Can you not appreciate some beautiful music in an amazing upscale atmosphere?” She scrutinized his face but he could tell she already knew his answer.
“I can’t handle that dress,” he admitted, taking her delicate hand in his and sliding it up his thigh until she could feel his excitement. “Can you handle this?” he asked, his hand sliding across the silky material and finding her pointed nipples, begging to be touched. He gave one a firm pinch and timed it with a bite on her ear lobe.
“We should still go,” she gasped out, but her body continued to disagree with her words. She arched her back pushing herself closer to his touch.
“We’re closer to the hotel than the theater. We could be back there in less than five minutes. We could be in my room in less than eight minutes. I could be inside you in less than ten minutes.” He never moved his mouth from her ear as he spoke.
“And you could be telling me to leave in less than thirty minutes,” she sighed, as reality began to flow back in. “This doesn’t really mean anything to you. I know that.”
Crazy Nights (The Barrington Billionaires Book 3) Page 6