“Yes, sir. Whatever you say, Mr. Crawford, sir.”
Noah pulled back and looked at me, obviously not amused by my tone. “What’s your problem all of a sudden?”
“Problem? No problem.” I shrugged. “Just being myself. The only one here with a problem is you.”
He sighed. “Whatever. I should’ve known better than to bring you here. My fault.”
“Why?” I asked, trying unsuccessfully to pull out of his hold. “Because I’m just something you purchased? One who doesn’t quite fit into your social class?”
Noah pulled back and looked into my eyes. “You’re kidding me, right?” When my expression didn’t waver, he leaned down and whispered into my ear. “You’re the most beautiful woman at the ball, Delaine.”
It wasn’t true in the least, but it would have been easier to believe if it hadn’t been for that display I’d seen when I came out of the ladies’ room. And so, true to form, I let him know about it.
“Yet you couldn’t keep your eyes off that other woman,” I mumbled. “Julie Frost, right? Your ex?”
I felt his body go rigid against mine, every muscle coiling like a viper ready to strike. “Who told you?”
“Does it matter? The point is that you didn’t. Maybe it’s because you still want her.”
He pulled back again to look at me. At the same time, his hand moved further down my back until it was resting over my ass. “You couldn’t be more wrong.”
“Is that so?” I asked, meeting his gaze. My eyes immediately latched on to the sight of his tongue darting out to lick his luscious lips, and I struggled to keep my train of thought. “Because you went from not being able to get enough of me to not touching me at all. You’ve been sleeping in your clothes; you don’t talk or even yell at me. It’s beyond obvious that you don’t want me anymore. And I know I have no right to question any of this, but damn it, Noah, I don’t like feeling like … like I don’t matter.”
He stopped moving and stared at me, his eyes shifting back and forth like he was looking for something. Then, without a word, he took my hand and started for one of the exit doors.
“Where are we going?” I asked, quick-stepping to keep up.
“Someplace more private,” he answered as he opened the door.
I looked back at the crowded hall and noticed Julie and David huddled together under the chandelier, which was now shaking. Just as the wires broke loose and the ornate fixture began to fall, Noah jerked my arm, and me, out of my make-believe world again. Damn it all to hell.
He looked from left to right until he finally chose to go right. We turned the corner into another hallway, and then another, until all I could hear of the music from the party was a dull bass thud. There was a darkened stairwell to the left of where we had ended up, and Noah punched open the door and pulled me inside.
My back was pressed against the wall and Noah’s body was flush against mine within a heartbeat. Before I could say anything at all, his hands were on my hips and his soft lips were moving over mine in a sensual kiss that I absolutely answered with every bit as much tenderness. And then, as quickly as it had begun, he broke the kiss, his hands cupping my face.
“What there is or isn’t between Julie Frost and me doesn’t matter. But you? You fucking matter, and don’t you ever forget it.” His voice was low and husky, seductively erotic. And he had a hard-on the size of … well, Texas.
I pushed my hips forward to rub against him. “Is that for her?”
He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Delaine …”
“Because if it is, it’s okay. Just let me be the one to take care of it for you. It’s what you paid me to do,” I rambled. “I mean, I know I’m not her, but—”
“You could never be her,” he said angrily. He backed away from me until the opposite wall made it impossible for him to go any farther.
No, I couldn’t be her, could I? He used to love her. Apparently he still did. I would never measure up. She was from money, practically a member of his family. And I was the whore he had bought to get over her.
I slowly crossed the space between us. “No, I know that. And I would never try to fill her place,” I assured him as I knelt before him.
“Delaine, don’t.” His voice was raspy, but he didn’t move to stop me as I undid his pants and pulled out his cock.
“And I may not be the one you love, but I’m the one you’re with. So let me fulfill my purpose,” I said, nuzzling the head of his dick and then giving it a kiss.
“No!” He pushed me away, quickly tucking his cock back in his pants.
Never had I been so humiliated. I stood, my hands balled into fists at my sides. “Why?”
“Because this isn’t what I want,” he said, motioning back and forth between the floor and himself. “This isn’t right.”
“Well, fuck you, Noah! Maybe you forgot that you’re the one who purchased me!” I was furious, and hurt, and … furious. Yes, in signing that contract I had done a desperate thing at a very desperate time, but that didn’t make me any less of a person than Julie. What she had done was far worse than what I did. At least I wasn’t a cheater. “I may not be Julie, but I sure as hell would never let your best friend fuck me in the ass!”
His head snapped up, and his stare was almost lethal. I guessed that was the proverbial slap across the face. I immediately regretted saying the words the second they left my mouth, but the bitch in me was rejoicing, simply because she needed to hurt and humiliate him the same way he had done to me.
I loved him, even though I knew he could never love me, that he was already in love with someone else. And there I was, on my knees before him in an elegant dress, willing and able to help take his mind off what he didn’t have so that maybe he could focus on what was right in front of his stupid, beautiful face, and he’d pushed me away like I wasn’t good enough for him.
Noah took his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. After a moment he said, “Meet us on the south side, Samuel. We’re leaving.”
He snapped his phone shut and took my hand. “Let’s go,” he said and then paused. “Shit!” He opened his phone back up and pressed another number. “Polly, Delaine and I are leaving. Grab her purse and tell anyone who asks that she wasn’t feeling well, so I took her home.”