style="font-size:15px;"> Bulbs were still flashing as she unconsciously posed, awaiting his approach with that beautiful, reverent look on her face. He wondered what his looked like. Irritated and possessive, he imagined, since he wanted to steal her away from this madhouse. Now.
Mindful of her flawless appearance, he held back on crushing her even though he ached to feel her against him. Instead, he took her hand and detoured past her lips to press a light kiss to her cheekbone.
Her lashes fluttered closed and she breathed, “I’m so glad you’re here.”
He almost didn’t hear her, but the blush that stained her cheeks told him she’d said it and was adorably self-conscious for having revealed herself like that.
“Are you?” He straightened to bask in her look of adoration. “Because I think we’ve been found out.”
Behind her, the paparazzi had moved to completely block the passage. They had become a wall of strobing light and a din of clicks and whirs and shouts of her name.
“Is there anyone else here?” Angelique blinked her green, green eyes, mouth quirking with irony. “I only see you.”
“You’re stealing my lines.” Stealing something else if he wasn’t very careful. “Let’s get this evening over with so I can have you to myself.”
* * *
They created a huge stir and for once she didn’t care. She was proud, so delighted and proud, to stand beside this man. He was here. It wasn’t the most important occasion of her life, but it was important to her that he had made an effort.
He wanted to be with her.
Although, that could change if the attention didn’t lighten up. Kasim might not be as infamous as she was, but with those features, the camera had to love him. His air of detachment meant eyes followed him with a yearning for scraps of his notice.
“You weren’t exaggerating about the attention,” he said when she returned to her seat after her presentation and he rose to help her with her chair.
“No,” she agreed, then had to tease, “Scared?”
“Pah!” he dismissed.
They were an “it” couple before the final speeches had wrapped. “Kasimelique,” one of her colleagues teased her in a whisper as the trays of champagne began circulating and the networking portion of the evening began.
“I’m so glad to have that over with,” Angelique said to Kasim once they had the first rush of introductions over with and were able to move into a quieter corner for a moment alone. “Did I sound all right when I was onstage?”
“Perfect. You weren’t nervous, were you? You didn’t look it.”
“I told you, my trick is to pretend I’m Trella. Do you know that man?” She tried not to sound so keyed up as she flicked her glance to the right, but this crush of people was wearing on her. “The blond one with the sash,” she clarified.
The stranger was tall and quite handsome with a regal bearing. He wore the red satin as a bold streak across his chest beneath his jacket.
“He keeps looking this way. Maybe he’s related to a client, but I can’t place him. I’m going to be so embarrassed if he comes over and I don’t know his name.” The Champagne probably wasn’t a good idea, but she took a sip anyway. This was still her first glass.
“I don’t know who he is, but I recognize the look.” Kasim seemed to stand taller and more alert. He took a half step closer to her.
“What do you mean? Like, Nordic heritage? Or do you mean you know the sash?” She lowered her glass, smile fading as she read the suspicion in the way he looked down his nose at her.
“I mean possessive. He’s resentful of my place beside you. Jealous.”
“Are you serious?” She tried a laugh, but realized very quickly that Kasim was more than serious. He was trying to see inside her head.
“Kasim.” She was deeply offended. “I swear to you, I don’t know him.” But she could see the reel of her online exploits playing behind his eyes.
“Believe what you want,” she said frostily. Don’t you dare, she silently railed, heart clutched in a vise. He didn’t trust her? After all they’d shared?
Well, honestly, what had they shared? A weekend of sex and not even some long-distance afterplay via text.
She looked at him with new eyes, thinking of how much she had anticipated his meeting her here, but now she had to wonder if she wasn’t simply a convenient booty call. It was so lowering, she had to remind herself to breathe.
“Excuse me.” He walked away into the throng, leaving her staring at his disappearing back, confounded and trying not to panic. That was it? He had just broken off their affair because a stranger looked at her in a way he didn’t like?
Before she could fully absorb that and succumb to fury or despondency or both, the stark white of a truly beautiful tuxedo parked itself before her. It was cut by the slash of red and there was a star-shaped pin at his shoulder with a shield inside it.
The man could have come out of a fairy tale, he was so patrician and perfectly hewn.
She hated him on sight and wanted to throw her champagne in his face, but he spoke with an exotic accent and impeccable manners.
“Your lost item, Cinderella.” He offered her a cupped hand.
Inside it was a gold hoop earring with a line of diamonds down the front. It looked exactly like a pair she owned. They’d been a gift from her father for her fifteenth birthday—not something run-of-the-mill that showed up in every low-budget jewelry shop. Trella’s were similar, but that one was definitely the match to her own.
She took it to examine it more closely, trying to recall when she’d worn them last.
“Where—?”
“Caught under the pill—” he started to say in a tone that was very throaty with latent passion, but he cut himself off. Something in his expression grew sharp and arrested as he studied her face. Whatever lightness might have been in his mood became something accusatory as his gaze moved restlessly over her like he was searching for something he couldn’t find.
She knew that look, but refused to believe she was interpreting it correctly. It was far too outrageous to imagine—
“I knew if I walked away, he would approach you,” Kasim said, reappearing beside her.
Angelique startled, not exactly guilty, but defensive. No. She needed time to figure out what was going on with this stranger. She searched his blue eyes, now distinctly frosted with hostility toward Kasim. And her.
Kasim’s gaze cut to the earring in her hand, making her close her fist around it.
“Introduce us.” Kasim’s tone was lethal.
Angelique was distantly aware of people sidling by them, glancing their way.
Kasim’s
