Page 58 of Hard to Resist

I’m missing something. I must be. I just don’t know what.

Celine grumbles expletives under her breath the entire time, and I’m grateful once I get us out onto the balcony and into the cool night air.

“Celine, I have—”

I whip around and cut Jenna off by giving her a warning look and subtle motion of my hand.

“What’s going on?” She stumbles a step, confusion lowering her brows.

She finally sees the rage on Celine’s face and pales a shade. Leaning back to Anne, she whispers for her to switch with Davina immediately. Davina is one of two people at the company who knows how to handle Celine because they’ve been with her since the beginning.

“That fucking asshole,” Celine hisses, snatching a glass of champagne from an unsuspecting server. She downs the contents of the flute in one go and squeezes the stem so hard I’m worried it just might snap.

Celine never drinks at events or anything remotely work related. She claims it’s unprofessional and the same as sitting at your cubicle during your lunch break and pouring yourself a glass of wine to go with your prepacked sandwich.

“What happened?” Davina slips into our circle, her eyes narrowing a fraction when she spots the flute in Celine’s grip.

“He’s here.”

“Who?”

“Who do you think, Davina?” She uses her empty glass to point inside the building. “Cullen.”

Davina inhales sharply and pure panic slashes over her features. Davina never panics.

Four seconds later, Jenna lets out anooooohas though she has just pieced the puzzle together. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here not even aware of the picture she was trying to make. All I know is that the man I made out with last night is currently being cussed out by my boss.

I keep my mouth shut, not daring to even breathe too loudly, and just linger on the outskirts of a conversation I’m not entirely sure I’m supposed to be privy to.

“Look, Celine—”

“I want you to make sure that man has left the premises.”

“Celine. He must be Jace’s guest. We can’t kick him out. This is not our event.”

“Davina. If I walk back into that room and see his face, I will smash this flute into it.” Her voice is low and carries the promise of a threat, but within her hateful eyes is a waver of water.

Davina reaches out and tries to pry the glass from Celine’s fist.

“You’re not thinking clearly. Are you going to ruin your reputation and the company you’ve built because of him? Because that is what will happen if you go in there and start a fight with him. There are a lot of influential people at this launch, Celine. You know that. It’s the entire reason why we’re here and why we took on this type of project. It’s the perfect press opportunity for the company, but it will be a tabloid nightmare if you let Cullen sway your emotions again. You don’t want a repeat of ten years ago.”

Branding a company is something we do all the time as a design firm. But branding an event and designing every aspect of it had been a first. We’d never worked with an interior design team before, and no one really knew why we were going all out for this project.

The optics part makes sense. A small company propelling a large brand brings more clients to the small company. Of course Celine would want to use the Kelton name and access to the event to secure a more elite clientele for her books.

I just wish I knew what her issue with Cullen is. At this rate, I am going to have to keep my new boyfriend away from work as much as humanly possible. The last thing I need is Celine spitting her venom at me by proxy.

“Fine.” Celine huffs as she relinquishes the champagne flute to Davina.

“Thank you. Now, would you like to meet one of those influential people to take your mind off him?”

“How influential?” Celine’s voice has returned to normal, the tension she’d been holding in her jaw softening.

Davina smiles, relief pouring out of her. She wraps her hand around Celine’s bicep and guides her to where Anne is talking a little too closely with Frankie Jones.

My mind, however, is like a record player spinning round and round with one song on loop.

“Oh God, Verity. I’m so sorry you had to see that. I—” Jenna glances back at Celine and winces before taking me by the elbow and shifting us to the edge of the balcony. “I haven’t seen Celine get that way in a very long time.”

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