All true—but I still wanted to know. “What have you seen?” I asked.
“More than I’ve seen before,” she said. “I’m speaking out of turn, I know. But I’ve known him forever and I love him to death, and I’ve seen him go through a lot of women.” She took a sip of wine. “They buzz around him, like moths to his light, you know?”
I nodded. I understood exactly.
“But I’ve never seen him actually pursue a woman. And I sure as hell have never seen him look at a woman the way Evan looks at me.”
Oh. I felt my stomach do a little flip. “I—” I stopped. I didn’t know what to say. But in that moment I felt strangely, absurdly grateful to this woman who was practically a stranger to me.
“I’m not sure why I’m telling you this. I mean, I know you have a job to go back to, and not even in this state. But I guess I wanted to let you know that you’re different. If that matters to you.”
Tears pricked my eyes, and I looked down to stare into my wineglass. “Yeah,” I said. “It matters.”
After Angie left to find Evan, I moved to a corner and watched Tyler finish his conversation with Danvers. It looked easy, jovial, and I could see that Tyler had charmed the man.
When Danvers departed, Tyler turned, his gaze scouring the room and landing on me. Immediately, he smiled, and the heaviness that had settled on me lifted somewhat. Apparently not completely, though, because as soon as Tyler reached me, he pressed a kiss to my temple and asked me what was wrong.
“Nothing,” I said. “Tired.” I tilted my head and grinned at him. “I haven’t been getting much sleep.”
“Who needs sleep when there are better things to do?”
I rolled my eyes and fell in step beside him as he extended his arm.
I knew I should stay silent—that I was being a fool. Hadn’t Tyler himself said that we weren’t dating, we were fucking? And didn’t I know damn well that whatever this was would end the day I returned to Indiana?
Dammit.
How had this man gotten so entwined with my heart so quickly? How had he snuck in around all my defenses?
I knew how, of course—he’d seen a part of me no one else had. A part I hadn’t even seen. He’d peeled back the hard shell, exposing what was inside. And while it felt nice to be free, that also made me vulnerable.
Now, though I hated myself for wishing it, I was craving some sort of acknowledgment that what I was feeling for Tyler—what I thought he was feeling for me—was real. That it wasn’t one big elaborate con for some endgame I hadn’t yet seen.
Beside me, Tyler was chatting with passersby and nodding at friends. But his eyes kept returning to me, his expression inquisitive. Finally, he pulled me aside. “Did Angie say something to upset you?”
“What? No. She was great. I like her.”
“She is great,” he said vaguely. “But you—”
“I’m fine,” I said, then rose up on my toes to kiss him. “Really.” I cleared my throat. “So you’re trying to get a security contract with Danvers? That company you own? BAS Security?”
He nodded. “So far we’ve kept the client list small and local. But Covington’s international. It would be a big coup.”
“I’ll bet. And having a cop on your arm probably gives the right impression. Projects confidence. Not to mention legality. Almost like an endorsement.”
“I see.” He slid his hands in his pockets.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t meant to suggest—”
“Suggest? You flat-out said. And you know what, Detective, you’re right.” His voice had taken on a hard note and I cursed myself, wishing I hadn’t brought it up because I had a feeling it was about to all come crashing down.
“Were you not listening when I laid out the reasons for this arrangement?” he continued, still in that hard, businesslike voice. “Because I thought I was clear. There are events where it would be beneficial to have a cop on my arm. Well, Sloane, this is one of them.”