“You cannot seriously be interested in him?” Piers drawled from beside her.
Crap! She’d forgotten about him. Not wanting to be rude to a family friend, she said, “Not now, Piers. I’m a little busy.”
He shrugged and ambled along with her as if she’d invited him. Biting back a sigh, Saia made her way back to the party. Dressed in a designer tux, his black hair brushed meticulously in place, Piers smelled of some expensive aftershave that tickled her nose and made her want to sneeze.
“He’s using you, you know. His type can’t commit.”
Dammit! She didn’t want to get into the same argument with Piers as she had with her mother. Did they compare notes?
“Don’t you miss Europe?” she asked him sweetly.
“There’s that sharp tongue. It’s what I always liked—like about you.”
She cut him a look of disbelief. “Really?”
Two years older than the twins, Piers had barely noticed her when she’d been younger and badly crushing on him. Until recently.
He nodded and took her elbow, evading a group of people who’d decided the busy hallway was a far better place to hold their conversation, and stopped near a huge floral arrangement on a marble pedestal.
“How about lunch tomorrow? I’m picking up my new car. We can catch up on what’s been happening while I was gone.”
“Why? No one filled you in?” She peered around him, but too many people stood in her path for a quick getaway. “We have a black president if you’re really interested.”
He laughed, his light blue eyes gleaming. “I meant what you have been doing with yourself. Are you done with university? We didn’t have much chance to talk earlier.”
“Oh, let’s see,” she began. “I’m in my last year at Tulane, almost done with my business degree.” She flipped a finger. “I’ve applied for a teaching program in South Africa next year, but Mother knocked that idea right out of the playing field—it’s a daaaangerous country.” She swallowed some of her champagne as more fingers went up. “And it is sooo beneath a Sen–Grayson to rough it out like some commoner. Then Liz got hurt, and now I stay with her and help out at the store, but working? Really?” She gave him one of her mother’s superior looks and imitated her haughty tone. “That’s not something a Sen-Grayson woman does. She runs charity organizations, hosts dinners. I don’t have any more fingers, but you get the picture.”
She raised her glass to her lips, only to find it empty. Darn, she needed another drink.
“Your mother’s right, you know…” He shifted on his feet, moved closer. “I’ve spoken to your parents, Saia, and as my wife, you’d never have to work.”
Saia lowered her glass in exasperation. Sheesh, she’d probably have better luck talking to the pedestal. “Piers, look—”
“I know I didn’t talk to you much in our youth, but you were so young, and now you’re all grown up…”
And not so chubby any longer, the cynical thought pushed through her mind.
“Piers—”
Shaking his head, he yanked her close and kissed her.
Shocked to her bones, Saia froze. It took her moment to react. She shoved him away and leaped back, breathing hard. “What the hell, Piers? What is wrong with you? Did you forget I’m with Riley?”
Piers merely smiled and slipped his hands into his pants pockets. “You can’t be serious about the bartender. Sure, he knows how to play pool, but a man like him would, considering what he does. I understand the attraction his kind would have for women, that ‘badass’ type.” He air-quoted the word. “But I doubt he has two cents to rub together, let alone enough to keep you in the lifestyle you’re accustomed to. You probably had to sponsor his suit for tonight.”
At the derogatory comments, Saia had to unclench her jaw to speak. “Piers, even if he were dirt poor, it would make little difference to me—”
“Ah, there you are,” Niki said, gliding to a halt beside her. She gave Piers a dazzling smile. “Do excuse us, Perry, I’ve been dying to talk to Saia.”
He scowled. “It’s Piers.”
“That’s what I said.” She winked at him, tucked her arm through Saia’s, and walked them off to the bar in the rec room where guests slow danced to some ballad.
“You looked like you needed saving. Oy, but that kiss—Riley had better not have seen it.”
“This evening is turning out all wrong.” Saia struggled to contain her temper. She set her empty glass on the counter and rolled her taut shoulders, trying to ease the knots there. “I can’t find Riley, and Piers kisses me in front of two hundred guests. What the heck was he thinking?”
“Simple, hun, he wanted to cause trouble between you and Riley.”
God, that was all she needed.
Niki ordered more champagne. “Here, drink this,”—she handed her a glass—“and try to look like you’re having fun, or your mother’s going to be suspicious. Now, what’s up with golden boy?”
“Piers asked my parents’ permission to marry me.”
Niki’s spewed out the champagne she’d just sipped. She grabbed a paper napkin and dabbed her mouth. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I wish. Mother would like it to be a done deal. My father says only if it’s what I want.”
“Thank God, at least one of them is sane. If it were me, I’d walk out. Leave. I’m just glad my parents are divorced and can’t be bothered with a kid,” she said with an edge of bitterness.
Being unwanted was just as bad as suffocating love, Saia realized. She understood why Niki had spent so much time here when they were younger.
“I’m sorry, Niki.”
“Nah, don’t worry about me. I’m rock-hard in here.” She thumped her chest. “So, Mommy Dearest is applying the thumbtacks, huh?”
Saia swallowed half her drink. “She’s all for Piers. It’s why he’s on my back.”
“He was never one to let an opportunity pass,” Niki muttered.
“It’s not about opportunities,” Saia said, searching the room again. Riley was taller than most of the men here, it should be easy to spot him. “Piers doesn’t see Riley as a threat. He thinks this whole thing with us will fizzle out soon.”
“Because of what Riley does?”
“No. According to him, Riley is the type that ‘can’t commit.’” Where is he?
“Such a jerk.” Then Niki smiled, nodded to the sliding doors. “Try outside. I think he went there to escape the piranhas in here.”
The only other person who’d be out in this weather would be her father. Saia squeezed her friend’s hand in gratitude. “Thanks, Niki.” She turned for the bar then pivoted. “Hey, you’re leaving for France tomorrow, right?”
“Yep, Mama’s all set to take the leap with husband number five. I’d invite you, but why put us both through that misery? You have fun with Riley. I’m leaving in a few minutes.”
Saia set her half-drunk champagne on the counter and hugged her friend tight. “Take care, I’ll see you when you get back.”
“You most certainly will. Now, let’s see which one of your brothers I can torture before I leave. Rohan. He hates dancing.”
Smiling, Saia left her friend and headed for the wall of sliding doors. The patio lights illuminated the area with a soft glow. Riley leaned a shoulder against a marble column, hands in his pants pockets, while her father enjoyed his cigar.
As if sensing her, Riley turned, a single eyebrow lifted in question. She shook her head and smoothed her features into a composed one, pushing away the incident with Piers.
She opened the door and shivered at the blast of cold air. Hastily, she wrapped her arms around her torso. “N-normal people don’t stay out in this awful weather.”
Her father laughed, his deep blue eyes twinkling. “I’m not normal, pet, I married your mother. Crazy woman insists I smoke out here.”
As her father headed indoors, Riley shrugged off his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders.
“Are you insane? You’re weari
ng a thin shirt. I can go get my coat.”
“I’m fine. I like the cold.” He gazed out into the dark garden illuminated by pathway lampposts. “It stopped raining… Want to take a walk?”
“Party too noisy for you?” she teased, snuggling into his jacket that held his warmth and that wonderful scent that was all him.
He didn’t respond, waited, hands back in his pockets. Scrunching her nose at him, Saia led the way down the garden path toward the pavilion, their footsteps echoing dully on the wet pavestones.
Her headache had eased, along with the tension in her shoulders. Something must be seriously wrong with her that she could breathe easier now, just being with him.
“You and twenty-nine seem to have a lot to talk about,” he said, breaking the silence. “I thought you wanted to avoid him.”
She sent Riley a quick look. Please don’t let him have seen Piers kiss me.
“Nothing important.” She brushed it off. “He wants me to have lunch with him tomorrow.”
Riley stopped, the low lights from the garden path highlighting his unreadable expression. “You said yes?”
“Jealous?” She gave him a playful smile, then took the few steps up to the pavilion platform and paused on the top stair. On a summer’s day, one could see clear across the colorful, blossoming garden. As a young girl, she’d dreamed of marrying here. She winced at her girlish choices of grooms back then, from rock stars to, yes, sadly, Piers.
Now the man who was starting to occupy too much of her thoughts stood a few feet away, glaring at her. With two strides, he closed the distance between them, stopping on the stair below. “Are you going?”
She liked this show of possessiveness. Finally giving in to the impulse, she ran her fingertip down the shallow cleft of his chin. “Kiss me first, and I’ll tell you.”
His eyes narrowed. Before he could remind her this wasn’t real, because for her, somewhere in the last few hours it had changed, she pressed her lips to his.
He went dead still.
Oh, crap. For all Riley’s seductive talk and his biting her that first time, he’d never made any attempt to kiss her, she realized far too late.
Embarrassment scorching her face, Saia backed away, but didn’t get far with the balustrade behind her. Riley leaped up the stairs and hauled her to him. His eyes glittered, his pupils taking on a red tinge. She should be scared, but all she felt was anticipation.
“You want to dance with danger?”
“Only with you,” she whispered. “Only with you—”
Then his mouth was on hers, cutting off her words. Her heart close to exploding, her mind—her entire being unraveled—like she’d been taken out of her body and was merging with his. Saia became lost in his intense, sensual onslaught. She drowned in his taste, in the fire of his kiss as his tongue explored her mouth.
He was everything she’d ever wanted.
He was perfect.
This must be what heaven felt like, this most delicious, sweet mouth clinging to his. When her mouth parted, he deepened the kiss, and sucked on her tongue. She whimpered. His hands slipped beneath the hem of her dress and cupped her bottom. Wanting to feel every bit of her sexy body against him, he picked her up and her legs wrapped around his waist. His coat slipped off her and dropped to the floor. Her arms wound around his neck. Her warmth and scent saturated his mind. He pressed her against a pillar and ground his rigid sex into her heated center. Gods, he wanted her, wanted to claim her—
At her breathy moan, reality crashed into him like an eighteen-wheeler.
He broke their kiss, breathing hard, and struggled for control.
Even though he craved her more than his next breath, how could he drag her into his twisted life? Take something so good and ruin it?
“Riley?”
He shook his head and set her down. “This is a mistake.”
“Why?”
Confusion, along with a light flush of arousal streaked her face, her lips swollen from his kisses. He glanced away from the temptation, because he wanted to go back and run his tongue from her lips down her body to between her thighs and claim that most intimate part of her with his mouth before he claimed her body and soul.
Instead, he stepped back, or tried to, but she grabbed his shirt, keeping him there.
Through gritted teeth, he forced out the words. “It won’t work. We’re too different.”
“I don’t care that we’re different. Give it a chance.”
“Saia, don’t complicate this,” he growled in anger born of pure frustration and peeled her fingers from his shirt. Picking up his coat, he draped it around her again.
“Complicate it how?”
“You knew from the get-go, I don’t date or do relationships. I prefer casual arrangements—one-night stands. Why do you think I work the bar when I don’t have to?” He hardened his gaze. “You forget, this is just a charade.”
Her mouth opened, then closed on a tremor. “You…you were only pretending to like me because I asked you to?”
“What did you think this was?” he asked in bored tones, slipping his hands into his pants pockets. “Some declaration of happily-ever-after?”
She reared back as if he’d slapped her. And he couldn’t seem to stop, wanted to hammer that final nail in their burgeoning bond. “You’re just too much work. I prefer simple. Those who know the score, have a good time, and want nothing from me. Not demand my soul in return for a quick fuck. Which do you think I’m going for?”
Tears misted anguished brown eyes. Her slender fingers fisted the coat he’d wrapped around her. “Is that how you think of me?”
The pain behind her words hit him hard. He shoved it aside. “Babe, seriously? You’re loaded with baggage even Vuitton couldn’t deal with.”
Her lips trembled. “I see.”
Then she slipped past him, vanishing into the night. Worse, she didn’t even yell at him as most females would. Just whispered those two words in her husky voice. But she didn’t leave empty-handed. She yanked the light she’d kindled within him and hauled it with her, leaving him in the dark he’d endured for centuries.
Bitter pain corroding his gut at what he’d done, he punched the marble balustrade hard, agony exploding through his hand. He’d destroyed the only person he cared about with his callous words. Had broken her heart.
Better she hated him and live. He couldn’t bear for another incident like in the alley with Baric sending his minions after her.
“Finally. I’m glad she’s seen you for what you are. A no-good bartender,” Piers drawled from the shadows.
Slowly, Riley straightened and faced the smirking human, who wisely stood a few meters away from the pavilion. “Get the fuck away from me.”
“It’s good you know your place because you’re wasting your time.” Piers drew a thin, hand-rolled smoke from his pocket. He lit the thing and took a drag. The acrid odor of weed drifted in the wet air. “You should know Saia belongs to me. She’s always been mine.”
This pot-smoking shithead had another think coming if he thought he’d get anywhere near Saia. “Stay away from her.”
The fool laughed, unaware of the danger he was provoking—a demon in the throes of self-destruction at letting go of the one person that mattered.
“All Saia needs is a little time to get over you and she’ll know I’m far better. What women see in thugs like you is beyond me. But, I’ll be there when she’s ready to move on.”
“So you sneak around like a dog in heat, waiting for the chance?” Menace slithered into his tone as he slowly stepped down from the pavilion.
Piers’s smirk grew, his eyes taking on a glassy appearance. “That’s not the impression I got when I kissed her earlier, that told me differently.”
Kissed her? He’d fucking kissed her!
“She didn’t tell you, did she?”
Riley’s control cracked. He grabbed Piers by his shirt, evading his swinging fist. Reining in the urge to kill the bastard, he flung Piers int
o the wet shrubs and flashed to the park so he wouldn’t go back and beat the cannabis junkie into pulp for daring to kiss his mate.
Chapter Nine
Saia shut herself in her bedroom. The dim lights wavered in her watery vision, but she blinked away her tears, refusing to let them fall. She leaned her head against the door and wondered if she truly was unworthy as a person.
Her mother couldn’t accept her for who she was. And Riley, he’d rather sleep with those women from the bar than give her a chance.
I prefer casual arrangements—one-night stands. Why do you think I work the bar?
The cursed words wouldn’t leave her alone. Pain gripped her insides, made it hard to breathe.
Images of his casual lover, the sex-oozing Amazon, Pandora, kissing him, crowded her mind. Christ, how many other go-tos did he have besides his bar sluts?
With a furious hand, she swiped at her damp eyes, refusing to cry over him. Pulling off her clothes, she stalked past her bed and headed for the bathroom. Maybe a hot shower would wash away her anger and pain.
Heck, she’d be okay, she’d lived with disappointment all her life, she’d just have to chalk this up to another of life’s lessons.
After her shower, Saia pulled on flannel pajama bottoms and a tee and crawled beneath the embroidered bedcovers, a deep sigh escaping. She hoped sleep would take away the disaster this day had turned out to be. She brushed the moisture from her face and stared at her wet fingertips.
Dammit, she never cried, and here she was like a leaking faucet. Like something had been wrenched from her chest. Of course, it wasn’t her heart hurting, she’d learned the hard way never to put that on the line.
Drenched to the bone in the falling rain and hardwired from frustration, Riley returned to the mansion. The party had wound down. Few guests lingered as he made his way upstairs.
“Riley?”
He swallowed a curse when he saw Liz approaching from the family wing.
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