Page 81 of Sweet Surrender
After a few seconds, she frowned. “You know, a couple of weeks agothat would have hurt.” She paused, sucking in a deep breath. “But now, I wonder if I ever really knew Liam. I look back on our relationship and wonder whether what we had was real or just in my head.”
“Sweetheart,” I said, leaning to whisper into her ear. “It doesn’t matterif what you had with him was real or not. He’s out of your life. But I’m here. I’m here with nothing but love in my heart for you.”
She pulled back, her eyes wide in surprise. “Wh…what did you say?”she said, disbelief in her voice.
I grinned down at her. “I’ll tell you later. Right now, I’ve got somethingI need to do,” I said, resisting telling her that I fell in love with her the very first time I saw her. “Go find Sherry, she’ll show you to your seat.”
She opened her mouth to reply, but I raised a brow, silentlyquestioning if she was going to defy me. She quickly closed her mouth again, a small smile pulling at her lips.
“Okay,” she replied.
Reaching up, she gave me a lingering kiss, and if it wasn’t for the factI was due on stage in a few minutes, I would have dragged her to my office to show her just how much I loved her.
I watched her until she found Sherry, making sure she didn’t stop totalk to anyone along the way. When Sherry started escorting her to the table I’d allocated for her, I scanned the room, looking for my partner in crime.
Fox was at the bar talking to Lily. Why he’d brought her along, I hadno clue. The more he took her to events like this, the more he was getting her hopes up that something more would develop between them.
“Fox, I need a favor,” I said, interrupting their conversation whichsounded very much like Lily had asked him to go away for a weekend together.
“Sure.” He walked away without responding to Lily, leaving her staringafter him like a wounded animal.
“Your timing is impeccable, Junior,” he said when we’d found a quietarea to one side of the bar. “Lily invited me to her family holiday home in Rome.”
“Very romantic,” I replied, stifling my amusement. “Are you going topop the question while you’re there?”
“Fuck off. Obviously I’m not going,” he said, glaring at me.
“You need to cut ties with her, she’s going to turn into a bunny boilerbefore long.”
“I’m aware,” he muttered, rolling his eyes. “What did you need?”
“I need you to go and sit with Savannah while I do my speech,” I said,looking over his shoulder to see Savannah in the distance engrossed in a conversation with Sherry. “She thought she saw Liam.”
Fox’s brows almost disappeared into his hairline. “Liam? As in the exwho screwed her over?”
“The very same,” I replied, scanning the crowd once again. I wasprobably being paranoid, but until I knew he was still out of the country like he was supposed to be, I wasn’t taking any chances.
Fox chuckled. “Worried he’s come to take your woman from you?”
It was my turn to glare at him. “No. Savannah isn’t going anywhere.Butifhe is here, I don’t want him going anywhere near her. Fuck knows what kind of bullshit he’ll spout to her.”
“Ah, Junior. Didn’t I tell you the truth would come back and bite youon the ass one day?”
I didn’t reply to him, opting to glare daggers at him until hesighed in resignation. I didn’t need a lecture from him, I needed him to look after Savannah while I was busy.
“Fine, fine. I’ll go sit with your wife. But maybe you should be moreworried about what truthsImight tell her. I’ve still got that story up my sleeve about that night in Bali when you took those hallucinogenics.”
He winked at me when I snarled at him before he turned anddisappeared into the crowd. I loved Fox, but if he ever told her about that night, I’d kill him.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce to you the manwho made tonight possible,” the executive director of DSoA announced to the audience.
She’d just finished her speech about how the profits raised tonightwould go to supporting families across the country looking after their loved ones suffering from dementia, along with funding crucial research. “Please put your hands together for Mr. Nash Carson.”
The audience clapped wildly as I stepped onto the stage and shookthe director’s hand. Around us, several flashes from cameras went off.
Unlike Fox, I never got nervous when giving speeches. I plannedthem meticulously, and could usually recite what I was going to say without the need for myscript.
But tonight was different. Tonight the nerves did hit me because I wasdoing something I’dneverdone before.
