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Decided to take a cab home. Safer that way. Thank you for tonight.
I stare at the message, more hurt than I should be. She took a cab and left?
Frustration and disappointment course through me as I go to the valet, who calls for my car to come around. “Did you see a young lady in red come by here?”
“Yes sir,” the valet says. “She grabbed a taxi just a few minutes ago.”
Fuck.
Vince arrives, and I climb into my backseat, telling him, “Home, please.”
Thankfully, he doesn’t ask any questions even though I catch him watching in the rearview with the questions obviously there. As we pull away into late night traffic, I stare at her text, not understanding how this woman is making me feel like this. Like I just fucked up and lost her.
CHAPTER 9
RAVEN
Still thankful that the coat check room attendant doesn’t ask any questions nearly forty minutes later, I unlock my apartment door. Stepping inside, I let out a sigh of relief although I’m still unsettled from the shitstorm that happened.
I’ll admit I freaked out. I’ve never been one for casual sex, and as much as I wish I could just shut out all thoughts of him, Evan’s still on my mind. Judging me. Hating me. And belittling me for his own amusement. There are also thoughts of screaming at him all the vile shit he deserves… but still. I wish I didn’t care about him at all.
Realization that what he said was right—Dylan didn’t hire me, but was all too willing to fuck me—hit hard once my orgasm faded. And what had seemed like a sexy risk of being caught doing something naughty where we shouldn’t had suddenly been an ugly reality when I saw the shrewd judgment in Bronson’s eyes and the amusedsmirks on his cohorts’ faces. The charity and the funds they raised were definitely not the talk of their nightcap. I was. And not in a flattering light.
He's probably telling Evan what a bullet he dodged with me right now. As far as he’s concerned, I’ve been confirmed as the social climber, gold digger, and disposable arm candy they likely thought I was.
And word will surely spread. Evan will make certain of that. The finance world is smaller than a dime.
It feels like the entire night was not only a waste, but the active destruction of everything I’ve worked for.
“Hey, babe,” Maggie says as I slip off my heels and jacket, still not quite able to process everything right. As I bend over, my thighs clench and I feel him… again. I have to hide my expression before turning back around to face her.
She sits upright and cross-legged on the couch, looking quite comfy in her sleepy time shorts and cutoff T-shirt that make her look like a homebody single guy’s wet dream. Her tablet is on her lap, where I see she’s been doing some binge watching.
“How did it go?” She’s smiling, looking hopeful that all my problems were solved in the last few hours since I walked out the door.
Unfortunately, it’s quite the opposite.
"It was… a mess," I finally reply when I can sum it up in one word, letting out a shaky breath as my emotions threaten to fully bubble up. Her face falls, concern appearing in her eyes. I hold up a finger. “Let me get comfy first. Unzip me?” I undid it on my own when my only desperate thought was of sex with Dylan. Now, I don’t have the strength to pull the contortionist act it takes.
Maggie unzips me, and I head to my bedroom, changing into some flannel matching pants and button-down pajamas before going back out to find her brewing tea. “Figure if you’re going to spill it, I should offer it,” she explains as I settle onto the couch. “Sugar?”
“Please,” I reply as my mind wanders back to the events of the night.
I find myself staring at my hands as those unsettling feelings resurface. I can’t stop thinking about the way Dylan held my hand as he led me to the conference room. It felt like it was supposed to happen. Like it wasn’t at all a forbidden romp that could end my career. Like whatever was happening between me and Dylan wasn’t exactly what Evan had assumed.
But it was.
I can feel the regret slowly consume me as I sit there on the sofa.
It’s all my fault. I was the one who practically begged him to take me somewhere, anywhere. I was the one who shushed the voice in my head saying this was exactly what Ishouldn’tdo. I was the one who answered all too quickly when Dylan told me to 'say it.’
“So, did you get to meet people?” Maggie asks me, shaking me out of my reverie, but before I can answer, my phone buzzes. Nervously, I pick it up, half-expecting it to be Evan gloating or an automated message that says, ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you’ or some professional version of that from one of the people I did talk to tonight.
But it’s not. It's Dylan.
I would have taken you home.
Heat flows over my body as I stare at my phone, ignoring Maggie’s gaze that’s boring into me. I hitReply, but then my thumbs pause. I don’t know how to respond.
