Page 47 of Worth the Scandal
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere, there’s some press that want to get a shot of you and Ted” he tilts his head and motions around me.
“Kingston. Surely, you’re lost.” He presses his lips together, he knows exactly what he just interrupted. There’s thick venom coating his words.
“Not at all we were just discussing our coffee date, movie night and planning the next one.” Asher shoots back at Caleb without missing a beat, adding in a wink “All professional Maroon meetings of course,” he adds with a grin that says I’m one step ahead of you mate.
I clock Caleb’s hand which is now curled into a tight fist, and with Asher’s body rigid behind me, he is waiting for Caleb to make the first move—the tension is so thick between the two that it’s almost hard to breathe. I should really just let them at it, get this whole “she’s mine bullshit” over and done with but I don’t, not here. I know better than to let this stupid schoolboy alpha male crap land in a press meltdown. I run my palms down the sides of my dress,
“Alright boys let’s remember where we are. Ash, let’s go back in.” I clutch his hand to reassure him he is the one I want.
We return to the main room, and Caleb’s already making his way toward us, two fresh drinks in hand.Yep, like I said he is being completely insufferable.It reminds me of when we were in year three at primary school and I picked Alexander to be my partner for a class project on rainforest animals and not Caleb, so he followed me around for 2 whole days begging me to change partners and when I didn’t he got his mum to call the school and ask the teacher to swap him over. The boy’s been jealous since hecould walk, but you’d think now after years have passed and he’s all grown up it would be different. Nope, it just might be worse.
“Didn’t mean to lose you,” he says smoothly, offering me a glass like nothing happened.
I furrow my brows in confusion and I’m just about to remind him of Alex in year three when—
He reaches to guide me back toward the centre of the lounge, his fingers brushing low on my back again.
But this time—Asher’s hand snaps forward and catches Caleb’s wrist mid-graze.
“You keep doing that,” Asher growls, voice just loud enough for the three of us to hear, “and I’ll chop it off.”
Tension. Static. I realise I’m holding my breath.
Caleb yanks his arm back, jaw twitching. “Touchy,” he mutters. “You always were good at that. Touching things, you shouldn’t.”
His face is scrunched up like his drink is sour, but it’s just his imaginary entitlement to me mixed with a dash of his male ego being bruised.
He looks me over, gaze now sharp, realising his act is slipping up.
“I’d watch myself if I were you,” he adds. “People like Asher—people with secrets—they bury them for a reason.”
He says it so casually, like it’s a joke. Like a stab from a rusty pointed knife that’s been designed just for me.
But it lands like a warning. Opening a tiny little hole and planting a seed of equal size that has me questioning once again what I even know about Asher. I know Caleb, I know how he acts and why, well IknewCaleb. I can’t say the same for Asher, so why shouldn’t I take Caleb’s warnings on board.
He looks at me for a long minute and then without a care in the world he walks off, like he didn’t just drop a live grenade between us. But he knows the wheels in my mind are nowturning and I’m doing the math on the situation. Caleb knows me well.
I turn to Asher, but he’s already watching Caleb’s retreating form like a hawk.
His voice is low.
“He doesn’t know the truth.”
I raise a brow. “What truth?”
Asher looks at me.
And for the first time since I’ve known him, he doesn’t have a comeback.
Just silence.
And guilt.
Dripping in guilt.
And something very close to fear.
Chapter Nineteen - Scarlett
