Page 78 of Before Eve

“What don’t I know?”

A bitter laugh scrapes my throat. “You’re blinded by him just like everyone else.”

“Blinded by who? Grayson?”

He picks that moment to approach us. “Always in the corner. Laura, I want you to meet someone.”

I break eye contact with Brynn, turning to see Grayson standing beside a light-haired man I’d place in his late twenties/early thirties. Dressed in a suit, the man’s dark and interested gaze moves over me.

Grayson performs the introductions. “This is Noah Riley. Noah, meet my daughter, Laura.”

“Nice to meet you, Laura,” Noah says in a soft tone that crawls down my neck.

Grayson says something else, but I don’t hear it, so focused on Noah as he visually devours me, his tongue coming out to caress the corner of his mouth.

Later, at home, Grayson comes to my room. “Noah Riley is a very powerful and wealthy man. You will be friends with him.” Grayson moves closer, one finger touching my chin. “Who would’ve thought you’d become such a commodity?”

West and I go back to our morning runs. Anne and I go back to traveling on the Mack Daddy bus. Everything seems so right, so perfect. I don’t want any of it to go away.

Brynn hasn’t contacted me, and with each day I don’t hear from her, I easily pretend I’m fading to a distant memory in Grayson’s mind. I fantasize about not hiding anymore. About actually going out in public with West.

He asks continually, wanting me to go to this or that, but I always turn him down. I just can’t risk cameras and being seen. As much as I want true freedom, I have to deny myself and deny West to grasp it someday.

He’s confused, but I always come up with a plausible reason. I have to work. I’m too tired. Let’s just hang out in your suite. How about a walk in the park? But he rolls with it. He lets me set the pace.

West comes up behind me, bringing me from my thoughts, and snakes his arms around my stomach as he pulls me back against him. He presses his warm lips to the side of my neck, and I hold back the urge to sigh, mainly because Anne’s standing right in front of us.

As if on cue, her eyebrows shoot straight up. “Well, hello. Do I get some of that yummy neck nuzzling, too?”

West pulls her in and gives her a big, sloppy kiss on the cheek. She makes a show of wiping it off.

He props himself up against a speaker tower, switching back to me and the Foghorn Leghorn centered between my breasts. “That’s a new one.”

“Anne gave it to me.”

West affectionately pinches Anne’s cheek. “Aw, what a good pal you are.”

“Shucks, Pa.”

We all laugh.

“Hey, I have a dinner tonight I have to go to.” West takes my hand. “Will you go with me?”

Dread settles through me. I hate disappointing him. “How about I meet you afterward?” I suggest, as I always do.

Frustration flashes, but just as quickly as it appears, it’s gone. “One of these days, we’re going to officially out ourselves. Even if it takes us a whole year to do so.”

“Okay,” I agree, thinking,a whole year?Wow. He’s thinkingfar in advance.

“The New Year is coming up. What are you doing?”

I shrug. “The usual, I guess. Hang out with you.” I nod to Anne. “Hang out with her.”

“Well, what do you say we ‘hang out’ at my cabin to ring in the New Year?”

“You have a cabin?”

“Yes, in North Carolina, and since we’re going to be in that area on tour, it won’t take long to get there. It’s on a hundred acres. There are all these cool valleys and mountains. Some creeks. It’s a small town with all these touristy shops. Oh, and I have tons of toys like a dune buggy, a four-wheeler, a motorcycle, and some bicycles.”