She gave me a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You go. I just need another minute or two.”
I shook my head. “He really is sorry, Harper. Shane cares about you and would never willingly hurt you.”
Her jaw clenched and she didn’t answer, but I wasn’t going to get in the middle. Not this time. I had learned my lesson with Drake and Lana…
When I returned to Shane and Nik it was to find that Lady Tremaine and the ugly stepsister look alike were long gone. One look at Shane told me that he wasn’t doing too great. His face was pale, his eyes glazed with a mixture of tears and alcohol. I sat down beside him and grasped his hands.
“Talk to me.”
“I’ve fucked up. I played a game with my relationship with Harper and lost.” He tossed back the last of what looked like bourbon in his glass.
I couldn’t disagree with him. I’d seen for myself how upset Harper was, but that didn’t mean he lost her. Just as I’d seen how upset she was, I’d seen a little deeper than the other girl had liked. Miss Harper Jones was in love with one of my guys.
I waited until the door was closed behind Emmie and then started counting. Slowly I reached one hundred and grabbed my purse.
Tonight had been a disaster!
All I wanted was to go home and hide under my covers. I felt like I was eleven years old all over again, wanting to hide from my mother and stepsister and the disdain I knew they felt for me. I had no idea why my mother hated me so much that she felt she had to constantly beat me down with her mean, vile words. Ariana was different. I knew all her reasons for hating me, and I hated her right back. Even if at one point in our lives I had hoped that we could be friends.
I was thankful that the bathrooms were close to an exit that most of the servers used as their entrance to work. I rushed outside and down the little alley to the street, my arm already raised to flag down a cab. A small part of me felt like I was being devious, sneaking out on Shane the way I was without so much as a goodbye, but I didn’t think I could handle seeing him right then.
All day I had been on cloud nine. Half in love with a guy that treated me like I was the only thing that mattered to him. A job that I had only ever dreamed about waiting for me to step up and grasp with both hands. Now… Now I felt like a kicked puppy, that same feeling that I was always left with after seeing my mother. Only this time it was intensified by a thousand because Shane had set me up for that pain.
From the moment I had seen Monica and Ariana sitting at our table I had shut down and completely tuned Shane out. I was aware when he spoke, when he so much as moved beside me. But what he said had been lost in my numb mind. He had broken something inside me that I hadn’t even known was so fragile, something I hadn’t even been aware I had given him.
Trust. I had trusted him wholeheartedly.
And he had tricked me into meeting with my mother and stepsister tonight. For what gain? I was clueless to the answer. I knew that it wasn’t because he wanted to meet the semi-famous model, Ariana Calloway. Shane had met his fair share of models much more beautiful and more popular than my stepsister.
The taxi stopped at a red light. Swallowing hard around the dry lump in my throat, I pulled my cellphone from my bag and called Dallas. It rang five times before going to voicemail. Figuring she was already at the club waiting to celebrate my new job, I just left a message telling her I wasn’t going to meet her and Linc. I had a headache and was heading home to sleep it off.
It wasn’t exactly a lie. My head was pounding. Turning off my phone, I threw it into my purse.
Traffic was hell. It took twice as long to get home as it had to get to the restaurant in the town car earlier that evening. When the cab finally stopped in front of my building, I tossed the driver all the cash I had in my purse. It must have been enough, plus a decent tip, because he didn’t argue when I stepped out and headed toward the front door.
Curtis, the night doorman greeted me, but all I could manage was a weak smile as I stepped into the thankfully waiting elevator. It only took a few moments to get to the twelfth floor, but my head was really starting to ache so it felt longer. When the elevator stopped, I stepped out, my attention on getting my keys from my purse.
“I’m sorry!”
My head snapped up at Shane’s voice and I stopped. It hurt to look at him, but I did. His dinner jacket was gone, his once white shirt soaked in his sweat. He was panting and I knew that he must have run all the way from the restaurant. A glance at his once perfect Italian shoes told me that he had scuffed them up to the point of ruin after running that distance in them.
I couldn’t find the words or even the will to yell at him. I was equal parts hurt and in awe. What had been the point of tonight? To see if I was breakable? If that was the case, then the answer was a definite
Strong, sweat dampened arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me into his hot body. He tucked my head under his chin, and I pressed against him. His heart was racing as fast as a champion race horse in my ear. Those strong arms actually trembled as he tightened them around me.
“I’m so sorry.”
Still, I didn’t speak. My vocal cords felt paralyzed, so I just let him hold me for a while longer.
I wasn’t sure how long we stood there like that, but Shane finally stepped back and took my keys from me. I felt cold, lost, and alone those few seconds he was gone from me. He opened the door to the apartment and turned back to me. I saw the glassiness in those blue-gray eyes as he lifted me like I was a fragile glass doll and carried me inside.
My eyes had been dry all evening, but now as he gently carried me into my apartment and then to my bedroom, I felt my eyes fill with scalding tears. A broken sob escaped me and I felt him tense.
Tenderly, Shane placed me on my bed. I watched through my tears as he tore his shirt off and then came back to me. His eyes were bright and it shocked me when I saw a tear escape. It rolled down his cheek and fell, landing on my own cheek.
“I’m sorry, beautiful,” he whispered.
“Wh-why?” I finally got out in a hoarse voice.
“Why what, baby?”
“Why did you do that?” The question exploded from me. “What did you have to prove?”
He closed his eyes, shaking his dark head. “I don’t even know any more. It all kind of clicked into place when I talked to your stepsister this morning. No matter how many times I tell you that you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, you never believe me. I realized that Ariana and your mom must be behind all of that.” He sucked in a shaky breath and another tear escaped his eyes. “I thought I could make you face your demons and prove to you that no matter what you will always be breathtaking to me.”
Shane swallowed hard and broke my heart a little more as the tears began to fall faster. “But all I proved to you was that I’m a dick.”
With trembling fingers I wiped his tears away. I couldn’t disagree with him. Tonight had not been good for us. But for just a moment, a really small moment, I had done something I never had before. I had stood up to my mother. Crazy enough, she and Ariana were the only two people in the world I cowered to. They had this insane power to make me feel weak.
And tonight, I had stood my ground—for about five seconds—but still I knew it was Shane standing beside me that gave me even that little bit of courage. It had also shown me something that scared the living hell out of me.
Monica and Ariana no longer had the power to destroy me.
Because Shane now held all of that precious power in his big, calloused hands.
Chapter 16
