Page 58 of Eye Candy

Mr. Moral blushed, but the look in his eyes said game on.

He motioned to another server for champagne. I relented and let him grab me one too. As we sipped, I looked around at the theatrical excess that was so my scene and not at all Chase’s.

“Do you like it?” he asked. “My stepbrother, Gerry, owns a cabaret club in New York and a sister club here in Toronto. Lots of the performers here are from his bars.”

I stilled, my heart pounding in my ears.

“I haven’t been to many of his shows,” Chase continued, “but I know he sometimes has burlesque performers. I thought you’d enjoy this.”

Dread crept over the back of my scalp and down my spine, its talons curling around my flesh and squeezing.

I had a very, very bad feeling about ‘Gerry’.

CHAPTER 23

CHASE

“You came.”I was smiling like a fool but I couldn’t stop. “Xan told me I was being too intense, and I admit, I was worried you’d think the travel and the dress and everything was too much, but you’re here. I’m glad.”

She’d showed up looking like a walking fantasy. The dress was nice in the picture, but on her, it became incredible. Just watching her standing there, one hip out and her hand on her waist, was enough to elicit stirrings of interest in my cock.

Caroline opened her mouth to say something, hopefully a declaration of romantic intent, but my stepbrother appeared behind her.

His slicked-back hair and shiny white tuxedo drew eyes to him, even in this crowd. Gerry was always peacocking for attention. He’d been like this ever since his mom Marion married my dad, his third and final marriage. The dramatic outfits, the parties, the harness-clad dates. It made sense: Dad’s attention was hard to come by unless you happened to be born a spitting image of him, then it was impossible to escape.

I was thirteen when Dad married Gerry’s mom, Marion, and fourteen when they divorced. Gerry was six years older than me and hadn’t initially been happy to get two kid stepbrothers, but he’d stayed in touch with Joe and I after the divorce, and always invited us to his outlandish parties.

“Of course she’s here!” Gerry clapped me on the shoulder. “Where you go, Kiwi goes.”

Caroline tensed.

She hadn’t said a word to Gerry in her lovely jumble of an accent. But he’d called her Kiwi, like the flightless bird that was only found in her homeland.

Liquid horror rushed over my body, like plunging face-first into the murky Seine.

“Gerard,” Caroline greeted.

And just like that, every hope I’d had for us evaporated.

She knew him.

What the fuck?

Caroline angled her body between Gerry and I, and began to speak quickly. Trying toexplain? Justify? It was hard to hear the words.Why’s she talking so quietly?Gerard already knew about her; possibly much more than I did. When I realized she was trying to avoid drawing the crowd’s attention, my heart twisted painfully.

I’d known this woman wasn’t Teddy—obviously. That had been apparent almost immediately. And I’d known she planned to extort Joe and I. Call me foolish, but I hadn’t begrudged her that. She’d seen an opportunity and taken it, but stopped when I had confronted her—or had she? I’d assumed so, because I felt like we had a serious connection and I thought she’d felt it too.

But she didn’t. She hadn’t. She’d been colluding with my stepbrother, and I’d been looking forward to introducing her to him, like the fool I was.

I stood completely still as Caroline babbled. She told me my stepbrother had noticed her at his club in New York because shelooked like Teddy, and he had paid her to embarrass Joe at a public event.

A potent mix of fury and embarrassment ran through my veins. Each pulse of blood at my temples was mocking.Fool. Sucker. Dupe.Gerry knew I’d be ripe pickings for someone like Caroline. Someone warm and sexy, a breath of fresh air. And so, apparently, had she. The pair of them had mercilessly exploited my optimism when it came to love and intimacy. Gerry knew I was looking for someone to make a life with, he knew I didn’t want to be like Dad, bouncing from woman to woman.

I was the perfect mark.

As Caroline confessed her sorry tale, speaking a million words a minute, I met my stepbrother’s eyes over her head. Incredibly, he had the balls to look unfazed. Neither guilty nor smug. Just matter-of-fact.

“Come on, Chase,” Gerry cajoled. “Don’t you see the funny side? Caroline needed an acting gig and you needed a wounded bird.”

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