Effie and I walked out of the penthouse after him and he gave Effie a kiss on the cheek. “Night, Effie.”
“Night, sweetheart.” She patted him affectionately on the cheek. “Enjoy yourself, handsome. If you don’t when you’ve got the most gorgeous woman in the room on your arm, then there’s something wrong with you.”
He gave her a small, almost tired smile and nodded in her direction.
I hugged her and we walked her down the hall to her penthouse. As we stepped into the elevator, she gave me a knowing wink from her doorway. I grinned but immediately sobered at the imperious, questioning look Caine shot me. The elevator doors closed.
“What was the wink about?” he said.
“Oh, Effie thought I would improve your mood by assuring you that there was something to look forward to when we got back from the party.”
He groaned. “Sex advice from Effie. That’s just wrong.”
“That’s what I said.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “But I’m also one step ahead of her, so I didn’t need the advice.”
Caine raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
I gave him a slow, wicked smile. “I’m not wearing any underwear.”
The elevator doors opened before he could wipe the surprise off his face and I chuckled in triumph as I walked past him and out into the garage where a driver was waiting for us.
“I could kill you.”
I smiled smugly. “You have two minutes to think of anything but me.”
Caine cut me a smoldering look. “Difficult to do when you’re sitting next to me not wearing any underwear.”
We were in the car and we were only minutes from the Delaneys’ house. Taking pity on him, I tried to help. “Hummus. Rom coms. That tsking sound that Linda makes all the time—”
“That’s not how it works. You’re supposed to make me think of things that don’t turn me on, not things that I generally don’t like.”
“Yeesh. You are moody tonight.” I sighed. “Fine. Henry and Effie making sweet, sweet love.”
Caine’s features were frozen as the car pulled to a stop. “That was just mean.”
“But it worked, right?”
“Hell yes, it worked. Now I’ll be disturbed for the rest of the evening.”
The Delaneys’ home was much like the Andersons’ mansion—over-the-top wealth that intimidated the heck out of you. However, at least I’d gotten the shock and awe over with at the Andersons’, and as Caine led me inside with a hand on my lower back, gently guiding me, I didn’t feel as uncomfortable as last time. Perhaps it was because Caine was with me now, and I never felt more safe than I did when I was with him.
“Alexa, looking more beautiful than ever,” Henry said as he approached us in the main ballroom. Elegant dinner tables had been set up all around one half of the room. At the other end of the room, there was a stage. What seemed to be a small orchestra was set up offside on the left, and there was a dance floor in front of the stage.
Henry drew my gaze from the general splendor of the ballroom to him and his voluptuous and somehow familiar redheaded date. “Henry,” I murmured as he kissed both my cheeks. His hand rested on my waist as he did so, but I knew there was nothing in the gesture.
However, when I pulled back I could see the storm clouds gathering in the eyes of an already wired Caine.
The past few weeks had proven my theory correct, and Caine had been noticeably more laid-back when I was around the opposite sex.
Henry was a completely different matter. The man was a natural flirt, and I understood he didn’t mean anything by it. But his flirting with me bothered Caine. His laughing with me bothered Caine. His touching me bothered Caine, and his being anywhere in my general vicinity bothered Caine.
This bothered me.
Henry was Caine’s closest friend. I did not want to cause problems between the two of them. I had the suspicion that the problem had existed between them before I arrived on the scene. There was a story behind Caine’s weirdness and I was more than curious to find out what that story was. I just hadn’t found the right time to mention it yet.
Catching the look on Caine’s face, Henry practically rolled his eyes and backed off. He put his arm around his date and nudged her forward. “Caine, Lexie, this is Nadia Ray. She’s a local weather girl.”
Recognition hit me. Nadia Ray had caused quite a stir a few months ago when she appeared on our televisions. The ratings at WCVB had gone through the roof since she joined the weather team. “It’s nice to meet you,” I said as Caine gave her a clipped nod in greeting.
She smiled a little nervously, and I wondered if she was feeling like a fish out of water. I knew that feeling well. “This place is insane, right?” I said, bugging my eyes out humorously.
Nadia gave a huff of relieved laughter. “It’s not what I’m used to.”
“I hear you.” I nodded, scanning the room. My eyes fell on a waiter who was serving appetizers. “But the mini crab rolls at these things are usually to die for.”
“Nowhere near as good as the crab rolls we used to get at this little deli on campus at Wharton.” Henry closed his eyes in exaggerated blissful reflection. “Oh, those were the days.”
I smirked. “Crab rolls. That’s what you remember most about business school?”
“I didn’t say that.” His eyes popped open as he grinned. “The women were also very memorable.”
“Oh, so it was the crabs you remember most?”
He snorted. “I wasn’t that bad. Okay … I was almost that bad.”
“How did you put up with him? Or were you even worse than him?” I said to Caine.
Caine didn’t join in on our teasing. If anything he looked more uncomfortable than ever.
And I knew why. I sighed in exasperation. “Caine never talks about Wharton. It’s like he’s wiped it from existence.”
Henry sobered as he and Caine shared a dark look I didn’t understand. Uneasiness moved through me, but before I could say anything Caine beat me to it.