Lovely Trigger(30)

I couldn’t quite stifle one tiny sob as I came down from that impossible high.

He was folded against my back, himself shaking and emptying inside of me, as I came back into my trembling skin. I’d missed the beginning of his release, as I’d been so involved in my own.

“My God,” he gasped. “Are you okay?”

I nodded weakly.

“Well, I’m not sure I am.”

He started to pull out, and I let out a little involuntary noise of protest. He hugged me tight from behind. “Sweetheart, you are going to be even angrier with me if we get caught like this, or I’d stay inside all night.”

His words jarred me into remembering where we were. I couldn’t quite believe it. I’d been transported, for a few addictive minutes, into another place, another world.

His pants were fastened, my skirt straightened, when he spoke again, “Can we agree that we need to talk? Not in a week, not in a month, but tonight.”

“I’m work—”

“When you’re done. I can wait. Obviously.”

I nodded, not looking at him, focused on the pile of fans we’d knocked over onto the floor.

I got to work picking them up and straightening them. None were damaged, thank God, but not for lack of trying. We’d knocked every single one of them off the table.

Tristan tried to help me, but I waved him off.

“Go away. Go look around, or mingle, or something. I can’t get anything done with you around.”

Instead of offending him, that made him smile. The man was still perverse.

I got back to work, but I was so distracted that I felt like a basket case for the rest of the night.

Every time I turned around, there he was, looking my way, smiling at my annoyed looks.

What was wrong with him, behaving like no time had passed since we’d been close? Acting as though we still were close.

It was disarming me, and I needed my arms.

After a time, as I did my usual hurry back and forth through the different exhibits, answering questions, handling sales, placating artists, I noticed that he’d stopped following me around.

Somehow, that was even more distracting.

The event was winding down before I saw him again.

I happened upon him in one of the smaller rooms, alone with some woman. They were laughing together, and as I very nonchalantly moved in for a closer look, pretending to straighten a picture on the wall, I realized that I recognized her.

She had deep red hair and a pale but luminous complexion. She was beautiful and very young.

She was a famous singer. I knew the name of at least three of her songs, so she was very famous. She was one of those young starlets that were always being linked romantically to other celebrities.

And at the moment, she seemed to be very interested in my ex-husband.

I couldn’t recall them ever being linked in the gossip rags. Though I liked to pretend I didn’t keep track, I was up to date enough that I thought I would have remembered this connection.

The girl was just so young. Nineteen, if I was recalling it right.

She wasn’t too young to make him laugh, or to appreciate whatever he was saying enough to laugh herself, and to touch his arm several times, and just in general seem ecstatic to have his attention on her.

I turned around and left. I didn’t need to see that, or hear it, or ever think about it again.

I couldn’t, however, manage to keep my mouth shut for even a second when he approached me again, several minutes later.

“God, it was bad before you were famous. You must have to beat them off with a stick now. Or not, I guess. There’s plenty of you to go around.”

His expression, which had been smiling, wiped clean, becoming very blank. “I don’t think we want to go there. Either of us.”

I rolled my eyes, because it was no competition. His revolving bedroom door and my locked one were not even in the same category.

“Am I allowed to ask if this is jealousy?”

I bristled. “No, you’re not. You do whatever you like. It’s no business of mine.”

I started to move past him, but he caught my arm, turning me slowly back to him.

“That’s quite an invitation. Anything I like, huh? Let’s go back to your hotel room. Right this second.”

I rolled my eyes, jerked my arm out of his hold, and stormed away.





CHAPTER ELEVEN





TRISTAN

It took her hours to finish up, but I waited patiently. Better to wait hours here, then days, weeks, months, somewhere else. And in spite of all that had happened, I had no doubts that it was a very real possibility she would just cut me out again, if I didn’t press the issue now, tonight.

“This can’t be convenient for you,” she told me sassily as I held the door open for her. Even her walk, limp and all, was sassy.

I felt myself getting hard.

“This isn’t really about convenience, now is it?” I asked her pointedly.

She didn’t answer, just folded her arms across her chest and stared at me.

The gallery shared a parking lot with a Cavendish resort, so I assumed she had a room there for the night, since it was clearly too late for her to make it back to Vegas.

“Let’s go talk in your room,” I said with a smile, watching her face for a reaction that I was way too excited about, considering that I knew it wouldn’t be a positive one.