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Mission accomplished on that front, but oddly, it didn’t give me the satisfaction I’d anticipated.
I held my arms tight around me to stay warm while I waited.
The man had thoroughly messed with my brain. I was having trouble meshing my previous view of him as the devil in a suit with the man who’d danced tenderly with me. My cavewoman brain wanted to be naked with him as clearly as he wanted me. The dress was meant to have that effect, and now that it had—and the ex had gotten angry—I could call off the charade and go back to hating him.
But it wasn’t a charade, was it? Not once in the days I’d worked with him had I seen even an inkling of the deviousness, the cruelty, the inhumanity I knew he’d been responsible for. What did that mean? Why was he so different? Had he changed? Or had he been something other than I believed all along?
The push came from nowhere.
With a splash, I tumbled over the edge and into the frigid water of the fountain.
The shock of the cold stunned me. I pushed up from the rough bottom and swept the hair out of my eyes. “What the fuck?”
The angry, red face of Melissa Benson screamed at me. “I’ll ruin you both. I promise.”
Chapter 21
Dennis
I walkedbehind one of the guards with the champagne flutes. He opened the door for me just as I heard Melissa scream again.
“I’ll ruin you both. I promise.”
She saw us and ran the other way.
“Stop,” the guard yelled as he gave chase.
I couldn’t see Jennifer anywhere, but splashing in the water got my attention.
It was her.
“My God, what happened?”
“Your psycho ex happened, that’s what.”
I put the glasses down and slid over the edge, finding my footing in the cold water and splashing my way to my girl.
“Here.” I helped her up, and she hobbled with me to the edge.
I heard her dress rip as she struggled to get her leg over the edge.
“Fuck.” She held on to me and luckily didn’t fall again.
I followed her out and wrapped my coat around her. Pulling out my phone, I told Karl to meet us out front right away.
“Come with me,” I urged.
She shivered, and her teeth were starting to chatter.
As we approached the door she asked, “Is there another way?”
“No. This is the only way.”
She was clearly embarrassed to walk through the crowd like this, but it couldn’t be helped, and she needed to get warm.
I hurried her through as quickly as I could, grabbing her clutch as I passed the table. She’d lost a shoe in the water and was hobbling on one heel.
Karl was out front, and I got her into the backseat.
