Chapter 39
Once we make it back, Helina begins serving the growing crowd and Jasper asks me to linger in view tonight, since Red’s absence is becoming noticed.
So, I do. I’m dressed in one of Red’s slick black suits with a few gems sewn at the cuffs and, since this is a high-end establishment, everyone including myself wears masks for the sake of secrecy. How else can married noble men and women get out for a night?
I sit at the table Jasper tells me to, where people expect to see Red, with a view of the entire room and all the red-suited dancers and patrons. Some are grabbier than others, and it takes all my self-control to remain the statue in the corner.
A woman delivers a glass of honey rum to my table and taps it down in front of me. She leans forward, showing cleavage. “Helina said you might want this.” I can see in her memories that she is one of Red’s money-supplying girlfriends.
My eyes find Helina who’s now dancing with elegant, but fierce grace. I see why Red kept her around. The entire room is throwing money at her.
I nod my thanks and the woman lingers, her eyes trailing my chest and jaw before she says, “You seem different tonight, Red.”
I tip the glass and roll it back and forth on its round bottom. “Good,” I say.
She bites her lip in a purposefully sexy way, and it instantly makes me think of Nizzara, except she only bites her lip when her mind is lost in thought, like when she”s reading her book about gems. It”s not purposeful at all, but damn.
The woman leans against my table. “You haven’t called on me for a while, Red. I have a donation for you. It’s waiting in your bedroom.”
I tip back the liquid, even if it won’t give me a buzz. Its warmth barely scrapes the frost inside, but it tastes good. I set the glass down with a clink and allow my eyes to roam over her. She’s very pretty, but her hair is the wrong shade of blonde and her eyes do not slice through me like a certain someone’s.
Damn Nizzara for making everything that isn’t her so utterly dull.
I smile and am shocked when it feels real. “I have somewhere else to be tonight.”