Page 19 of The Temptation of Truth
She shuffles past, and my phone buzzes just as I shut the door behind me. I pull it from my skirt pocket to find a text from Kat.
Kat
I got the ambassadorship!
I smile immediately. She wanted this so badly, and it looks like her attendance at the event sealed the deal. Then my happiness mixes with guilt. I shouldn’t have gotten so upset about it. It’s her job, after all. She’s never expected me to skip a show. I shouldn’t have whined about her going to a brand event.
Me
I’m so happy for you! Was it fun?
Kat
So much fun. My dress was divine.
Me
Pictures?
When she doesn’t answer, I swipe out of the text thread, open a browser window, and search her name. Within a fraction of a second, photos of my girlfriend fill the screen in a sexy, low-back, yellow dress and sky-high, glittery stilettos. She’s right. The dress is divine, but the photos only sour my mood.
There’s not a single photo without Kaz. Red carpets and posed pictures are bad enough, but even the candid ones are tainted by him. His hands never leave her body. Her waist, herarm, the small of her back, dipping into the fabric so his fingers are just above the curve of her ass.
How much lower did they slip when the cameras weren’t flashing?
“This is perfect.”
My ears tune in to Aurora’s voice, but my eyes stay on the phone, doomscrolling through photos of my girlfriend being felt up by a man half the world probably wants to fuck. I’m not usually a jealous person, but I’m so full of jealousy right now that I can practically taste the acidity on my tongue.
“Right here. I can put it right here. It can see the sun, but?—”
“The sun can’t see it.”
“That’s right. How did you know that?”
I look up from my phone to find her gazing at me with wide eyes. The soft sunlight is filtering through the windows, making her look almost angelic, and again, I’m hit with how pretty she is. Aurora is an attractive woman.
“My guardian liked plants, remember? She used to say that a lot.You need to put it in a place where it can see the sun, but the sun can’t see it.”
“That’s right,” she says again. “Did your guardian have a name?”
I smirk. “She did.”
Aurora folds her lips between her teeth, but humor dances in her expression as she fights a smirk of her own. “Too early to ask that, too?”
“I gave you an answer,” I say coyly. “If you’re looking for a different answer, ask a different question.”
“Fair enough.”
The words are carried on a tinkling laugh, and the smile she’d been fighting breaks through. A full-faced smile with straight white teeth and sparkling eyes that crinkle at the corners. Evenher nose scrunches, and my stomach does a little flip that startles me.
Aurora is averyattractive woman.
I wipe the smile from my face, slide my phone back into my pocket, then nod.
“It’s settled then. We’ll swap.”
Her amusement flickers. “Are you sure? The other room really is quite dim. It’s in the shadow of the other hotel tower. I could ask Uncle Wade to find me something else so you don’t have to give this one up. We’re here for ten days. You should be in a room you enjoy.”
