Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66134 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66134 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
The festivities commenced. The cocktail hour was wrapped up, followed by a delicious three-course dinner by a Michelin chef, then the dance floor opened up as the DJ played upbeat tunes. I coaxed Valerie to join me as my dance partner, along with the women who couldn’t convince their husbands or better halves to let loose. After a while I could tell she was starting to get fatigued, probably hitting her limit of socializing for the evening.
Between songs, as we took a break to grab a glass of water, she gave me a tired smile. “I’ve really had a great time tonight, and I’m glad I came, but I think I’m going to head home.”
I understood. Considering how depressed she’d been lately, this was more stimulation than she was used to. “Okay. Just let me say my goodbyes and we’ll head out.”
She shook her head, her expression adamant. “No, you stay and enjoy yourself. I don’t want you leaving because of me, and before you argue,” she went on, just as I opened my mouth to do that. “I’m a big girl and I’ll be fine. And, I have that pepper spray in my purse,” she said, which I’d bought for her after Mark’s stalking and threats. “I’ll keep it in my hand at all times, and I promise I’ll text you when I get home and I’m locked in the apartment.”
Despite all her assurances, I still wanted to protest, but I knew that Valerie wasn’t going to back down. I also knew that I couldn’t smother her and needed to respect her wishes. “Fine.” I gave her a hug. “But I’ll be checking my phone obsessively until I know you’re safe and locked in the apartment.”
“Fair enough.” She summoned an Uber, and by the time I walked with her back down to the front of the hotel, her ride was there.
After another promise to let me know when she arrived home, she was gone. I headed back up to the terrace, stopping to use the bathroom and touch up my makeup and fluff my wavy blonde hair, while texting back and forth with Valerie during her ride. A half an hour later, when she assured me she was locked in for the night, only then did I allow myself to rejoin the girls out on the dance floor.
I hadn’t talked to Caleb since that initial conversation before Raven’s arrival to the party, but I was very aware of his presence as the night went on. Currently, he was sitting at a table with his sister Cara, but when the DJ played “Macarena” she couldn’t resist joining in on the fun. Us girls laughed as we attempted the specific choreography, and the few times I glanced Caleb’s way his eyes were on me as I swayed to the beat, gyrated my hips along with everyone else, and shook my ass when applicable.
I figured if I couldn’t have Caleb, I could at least show him what he was missing out on.
CHAPTER TWO
Caleb
I couldn’t keep my eyes off her, which was par for the course when it came to Stevie Palmer, a woman who tempted me more than any other had in a very long time. Probably because she was so different from the overtly sophisticated women I’d once dated.
Like now, I watched as she danced without inhibition, laughing and enjoying the moment with friends. She was like a breath of fresh air, with a bubbly, upbeat personality—even when I’d seen her exhausted at the end of her waitressing shift at The Back Door.
She was fun and lighthearted. There were no airs or pretenses when it came to Stevie. She didn’t go out of her way to try and impress me—something I hated when it came to the women in my social circle—which was why I found it so easy to just be myself around her. To flirt with her, even…because we’d been able to do so without either of us expecting anything more.
She was certainly the polar opposite of my ex-wife, Alyssa, who looked down on those she felt were inferior and not a part of the elite, privileged world she’d grown up in. And that snobby, judgmental attitude had only gotten worse over the years since I’d divorced her.
I’d been raised in that same world as Alyssa, with familial expectations I hadn’t adhered to. I’d bucked convention after my father died and my mother expected me to take a position in the family’s legal consulting firm working with my uncle. Instead, I’d chosen to make my own way and go into real estate as an investor and a broker. Cassandra Kane had been mortified, pissed even that I wasn’t upholding the family tradition, but now that I was a partner at Manhattan Prestige Realty and owned a multitude of properties and buildings, and was undoubtedly even richer than my uncle, my mother had finally, begrudgingly, accepted my choice of career.