“And that was some ride you were taking me on where Griffin Slater was concerned.”
“What?”
Carter raised his eyebrows. “Don’t ask me to believe there’s nothing between you and Mr. CEO. A guy doesn’t step up to the plate with evidence like this without a damned good reason. I saw the way he watched you at your parents’ party.”
Her eyes widened.
Unbelievable. Carter was turning the tables on her, making it seem as if she was the one who had to defend herself.
“Even if Griffin Slater was a hired gun,” Carter continued, “he could have just forked over the incriminating evidence to your father instead of going to console the devastated heiress himself.”
Carter’s tone was mocking, and her father’s words reverberated through her mind.
Heiress hunter.
She suddenly saw that Carter was like a penny dipped in acid. Fool’s gold.
And then she did the one thing guaranteed to dull the penny.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say devastated is the right word.” She grabbed the wineglass that had already been poured for her and tossed its contents in Carter’s face. “Mad as hell is more like it.”
Carter’s face turned red as he looked down at himself, his formerly pristine attire now splattered with wine. “What the hell did you do that for?”
“Getting even,” she replied with some satisfaction, though she knew it was a far cry from what he’d done to her.
She turned on her heel and marched out, ignoring the stares of the other diners and the waitstaff.
She could practically hear the eggs in her ovaries aging with every step.
She’d been wrong, she realized. Work wasn’t Carter’s mistress. But something—or more accurately, someone—else was, she thought bitterly.
How could she not have seen Carter for what he was? Had her desperation for a child made her blind, shutting off her intuition?
As a professional party planner, she prided herself on being able to read people.
She made her way across the pavement to her car, a glower marring her features.
Betrayed by Carter, deceived by her father and dealt the crowning blow by Griffin. She should just wash her hands of the other half of the species and enter a nunnery, she thought with disgust.
And how dare Carter try to turn the tables on her by suggesting something was going on between her and Griffin?
Unbidden, her mind returned to Griffin’s surprising kiss at her condo.
She’d been immobilized, stupefied by the passion lurking underneath Griffin’s impassive facade.
For the first time, she sensed there was something, well, untamed about him. As if, underneath the power ties, custom suits and debonair tuxes, there was a man waiting to devour her.
And when he’d driven off yesterday, she’d noted he was now driving a Porsche—not what she would have expected from someone she’d thought of as buttoned-down.
Since yesterday, when her thoughts hadn’t been filled with rage at Carter, she’d thought about why Griffin had kissed her.
She’d decided, because it was the only explanation that made any sense, that the kiss was just part of Griffin’s high-handedness. He’d put an end to her taunts and baiting in the quickest way possible.
It couldn’t be the case Griffin was attracted to her. They’d always rubbed each other the wrong way.
And even if, as was unlikely, Griffin was up for a roll between the sheets with her, it couldn’t have anything to do with emotions. It would be either just sex, or laden with ulterior motives.
And the last thing she needed in her life right now was another man with ulterior motives.
“The wedding is off,” she said flatly. “I wanted you to hear the news from me.”
It was one of the most painful admissions of her life. But she knew she owed it to her parents to give them the news herself rather than have it catch up with them through the grapevine.
“Oh, Eva!” her mother said, before hurrying over for a hug.
Her father looked relieved, but he asked gruffly, “Are you okay?”
She’d driven directly to Mill Valley from the The Last Supper Club. When she’d arrived, she’d found her parents ensconced in their living room, where they’d obviously retired after dinner. Her mother, it had pained her to note, had been flipping through a bridal magazine. Her father had been watching a news show on television.
Now, Eva pulled away from her mother’s embrace and faced her father. “You should be happy. Carter isn’t going to be your son-in-law.”
“Happy doesn’t describe what I’m feeling at the moment.”
“Elated?”
“What happened?”
“Griffin hasn’t told you?” she said, feigning surprise. “Isn’t the hired gun supposed to let his principal know the news first?”
Though Griffin had told her yesterday he’d come to her first with his evidence, she was surprised he hadn’t immediately followed up with a call to Marcus. He’d left before she could ask him to let her break the news to her father herself, assuming her pride would have let her make such a request.
Her father had the grace to look a little uncomfortable. “He hasn’t said a thing.”
“Surprising since you ordered him to have Carter investigated,” Eva responded coolly.
“In the first place, no one orders Griffin—”
“Marcus, is this true?” her mother interrupted, looking shocked.
Her father shifted his focus to her mother. “What else was I supposed to do, Audrey? He was about to marry into this family. And don’t second-guess me, because Eva just admitted I was right!”
“Right about what?” her mother asked.
Eva sighed inwardly. “About Carter wanting to marry me for my money, Mom.”
“Oh, Eva! I’m so sorry.”
Her father muttered a few choice words.
She didn’t want to bring up that, on top of it all, Carter had been cheating on her. Griffin’s silence had given her an out, and she wasn’t above using it now.
“What would you like us to tell everyone, Eva?” her mother asked quietly.
“Just
