28. Anastasia
Anastasia
T o my surprise, Rhett is a very compliant shopping assistant.
Even if he occupies himself on his phone with work, he follows me around many shops without complaint, and he’s even great at giving opinions.
I need a gown for the gala tonight and I’ve acquired every possible accessory except the main item.
“What color?” I think out loud, glancing over the racks.
“Red,” Rhett says without looking up from his phone.
“What’s got you so invested today?” I wonder.
He smiles up from his phone, finally tucking it away with the hand that isn’t carrying my shopping. “Plans for the gala tonight,” he says.
I frown. “Are you expecting trouble?”
Rhett comes forward, placing a hand on my lower back. “With you I’m always expecting trouble.”
Rolling my eyes at the twinkle of thrill in his eyes, I continue my search for a gown.
“There’s someone I’d like you to meet,” Rhett says. “Allie, from my phone call last night. She’s driving up to New York and asked if we could meet for dinner before the gala.”
I beam at that, erupting with joy at getting to meet someone he’s close with. It feels like a step closer to him and a token of his faith in me.
“She could come to the gala with us too,” I suggest.
Rhett shakes his head. “She can’t be seen with me. Allie is from a very wealthy and well-known family.”
That grabs my interest. “Would I know of her?”
“Perhaps, if she told you her real name. It’s not mine to give.”
I nod in understanding. Rhett is good. He doesn’t want to see it, but despite everything, no matter what he does to fight back, he guards a kind heart.
In the changing room I try on three gowns, but I hate all of them on me.
“I’ve been good all shopping trip for this moment and I’m not even getting a show,” Rhett complains from outside the curtain.
I poke my head out since I’m standing only in my flimsy nude underwear. “I think you were right about the color. None of these feel right. I think my hair is throwing it off,” I say sheepishly.
I looked at style over color and ended up plucking two navy dresses and a lighter blue.
“Can I bring you one I saw?” he asks.
“How did you see any of them when you hardly looked up?”
Rhett only smirks, standing from the sofa and heading out without a word. He returns, asking permission to enter, and though I look naked, it’s not like he hasn’t seen every inch of me already. We’re the only two people in the dressing room.
My stomach flutters when he draws the curtain half-back, standing there looking like a freaking masterpiece presenting a deep red gown on a hanger. It’s stunning. Rhett is so damn observant to have spotted it, and clearly a man who knows what he likes.
He doesn’t bother to close the curtain. Instead he leans sideways and crosses his arms in the frame of my dressing-room mirror, watching my every movement like he’s refraining from devouring me right here.
It’s utterly inappropriate to want him to pounce on me and do very bad things to me in this public space.
Rhett steps wordlessly in to zip up the back when I slip into the dress.
“You have the most perfect ass, little bird. It’s taking everything in me not to bend you over and sink my teeth into it.”
I shiver.
Not. Helping.
When he finishes, I admire the ruby gown like sheets of satin hugging my body, making my breasts look incredible with the strapless plunge neck. The high slit bundling at my hip gives my leg free movement.
“Incredible,” he murmurs, kissing my bare shoulder.
“So you have great fashion sense too. Is there anything you’re not good at?” I muse, needing a distraction from the flutters in my stomach.
I don’t know what’s happening between us. It’s sexy and warm and safe. But I also know he might never open his heart to give anything more, and maybe I can live with that.
“Music, actually,” he answers. “I’ve never been good at instruments, though they fascinate me.”
I haven’t played my violin for anyone in a long time. So it frightens me then, how much I want to promise I’ll play for him one day. It never leaves my lips.
After our shopping trip, Rhett drives us to the restaurant we’re to meet Allie at.
He leads us inside the low-lit venue with its giant crystal chandeliers and a pianist at the far end of the room playing beautifully soft music.
My gaze lingers on him enviously—how he seems oblivious to the room full of people, lost only to his music.
Rhett lets go of my hand only to circle my waist and draw me into him, fanning his breath across my ear.
“How exquisite you would look up there,” he says in admiration.
I don’t know why it awakens the desire to show him my playing when my parents have asked many times if I’ll perform at various parties and I’ve always declined out of the horrible stage fright I’m cursed with.
When a stunning dark-haired woman stands, beaming at us brightly, a knot of insecurity blooms in my stomach. This is Allie? Mastermind, hacker, and insanely attractive.
“When I heard you were both coming to New York I couldn’t wait to meet you!” she gushes, pulling me into an embrace as the first greeting, and all I can do is accept it in my shock.
“Allie,” Rhett warns playfully.
“Oh! Right.” She pulls away sheepishly. “I’ve just heard so much about you it’s like we’re already friends. But I bet Rhetty neglects to talk about me.” She pouts at him, but he smiles—the kind with rare warmth that he hardly ever shows—before embracing her.
“You were my hardest-kept secret,” he says, which seems to appease her.
Our table is round with four place settings, and Rhett sits closest to me.
“I only recently learned of Rhett’s ... alter ego,” I say, slipping my gaze to him.
He reclines in his chair, looking so relaxed in our company and setting that it warms something inside me.
“That’s one way to put it,” Allie says, sipping her red wine.
I order the same while Rhett sticks with water as always.
“Your work is incredible,” I say with genuine admiration. “I don’t know much about it, but what you risk to save people, and the skill it must take ...”
I trail off, suddenly realizing my insecurity around Allie isn’t from how beautiful she is, even if it crosses my mind how perfect she seems for Rhett.
I’m more unsure of how I possibly thought I could be of help to him—part of his network, Xoid—when I know nothing and have nothing to offer like Allie’s intelligence.
She waves me off. “My actual job as a lawyer gets seriously dull. Rhett practically saved my sanity taking my help. Is it weird to say he tends to my daddy issues? In a completely platonic, nonsexual way, of course. I crave the praise when all my father gives is disappointment.” Allie sighs like it isn’t really a big deal.
We order food, and I find Allie such a contagious presence I don’t think I speak much, but listening to her makes me laugh, fills me with awe, and surprises me so much.
She’s a powerhouse, and admittedly, if she wasn’t so bubbly I’d be intimidated in her presence.
I find her serpent, the token of Xoid, around her neck as a delicate black diamond-encrusted pendant.
I cast my attention to Rhett, who hardly speaks at all. His face is so relaxed and bright and I’ve never seen this side to him. Close, but... there’s something completely burdenless about his whole demeanor. Like he’s home.
“You’ll have to move over—she’s my darling now,” I say.
Allie winks at me.
My hand meets Rhett’s thigh and a sparkle enters his eyes as he leans closer to me.
“Like I said, too much power in one room.”
If I leaned a little closer I could kiss him, but a flicker of familiarity catches my attention and makes me straighten up.
“Liam!” I say brightly.
His dark head of hair turns and spots me.
He’s by the door about to leave. He begins to make his way over and Allie swears.
It’s the first wavering of her composure I’ve seen.
She turns flustered as if hoping an escape route will present itself.
As Liam gets closer, his gaze slips from me to Allie and shock overcomes him.
Even falters his pace for a beat as if he’s an inch from walking into stone.
“Alyra?” he asks, stunned. His green eyes widen and fix on Allie.
Rhett stands then, and even if I hadn’t gleaned his threatening expression, it’s practically radiating off him.
“I, uh— Shit. I need to go,” Allie says. She doesn’t get a step away before Liam intercepts.
My hand instinctively wraps around Rhett’s bicep. He’s about to intervene and I can’t figure out what the fuck is going on.
“I thought you moved from New York years ago,” Liam says to Allie. The way his tone softens ... he’s hurting. Clearly he knows Allie as far more than just an acquaintance.
“Yes. I did. I’m just here for a visit,” she says coldly.
Liam’s eyes slip to Rhett and then me with new confusion. “How do you know each other?”
“Rhett is a client of mine,” she lies smoothly. “He was in the city. We met up. Now, if you’ll get out of my way?—”
“Can we talk?” Liam asks quietly, hoping we won’t hear.
“We could have. Years ago, if you’d ever bothered to return my calls. I’m long over it now and completely uninterested in your reasons.”
My body tenses with the awkwardness of being a bystander, but when misery falls on my friend’s face my heart aches for him despite not knowing a thing. His mouth opens and closes a few times as if he keeps reevaluating what he wants to say, and ultimately he chooses silence.
Despite her words, Allie’s eyes drop in disappointment like she expected him to try. To fight her. It’s the kind of pain that tears at an old wound.
Gregory Forbes appears in the foyer, spotting us as he looks for Liam.
“Shit.” Rhett swears under his breath.
Gregory makes his way over, and that’s when Liam turns regretful.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he says to Allie, just before his father claps a hand on his son’s shoulder.