ross round tables draped (mismatched, technically, though no one but Elena would ever know) in ivory linen, a string quartet threading Vivaldi under two hundred

sat in a pool of its own dignity near the des

before it became a problem. She'd changed out of her work blacks into the single decent dress she kept in her go-bag for exactly these nights, deep g

h servers were falling behind on the champagne rotation - when Dam

ing," he said. It

wor

somewhat in awe of you, for what it's worth." He held one of the glasses towa

t unconscious way people do, what accepting it might mean. A truce. An acknowledgment that th

the gla

my name,

It seemed rude not to learn it." He tipped his glass slightly toward her, not quite a

e. After the truck i

s a truck

for a moment, feel the ache in her feet, the several hours of standing catching up all at once now that she'd stopped moving. "You

room differe

ani

t as a problem, but as a man standing in front of her holding a glass of wine he wasn't drinking either, watching her with an attention that felt oddly unpracticed for someone w

a line,"

do lines. I don't have the pat

at do

almost self-mocking in it, like he'd heard the sentence out loud enough times that it had

s arroganc

been

hether you're going to allow it. He watched her do it like it was the most interesting thing that had happened to hi

V," she said, quieter now.

you coul

en

out. Not because I thought you couldn't." He turned the glass slowly in his hand. "I'm not good at asking before I act. I'm aware it

him to admit to a stranger at a gala. Strange enough

se toward the stage, where the evening's first item - a week at a vineyard in Provence - was already drawing hands int

Elena said, though

lcony on this floor nobody uses during events. Bet

three years building walls precisely so she'd never again feel the ground go soft under her the way it had watching her mother trust the wr

ent a

e whole gilded chaos of the ballroom spread out two floors below like something seen through the wrong end of a telescope. Up here the music was muf

out of stubbornness and twelve exhausted employees and a truck driver's broken promise

aid, following her gaze.

hel

ice had dropped into something less performed, less like a man used to being listened to and more like a man

ton

neyard week sold for triple its estimate, the sound rolling up toward the two of t

w yet," Damian said.

f people who'd paid a fortune for the privilege of his attention and weren't getting any of it right now - and felt something shift low in her che

s back up, voice steadier than she felt

nce, low and far away, and neithe