“It’s been a while, my friend,” Rafe said, shaking Byron’s hand.
“Yes, we both work far too much,” Byron replied. “Rafe, this is my date, McKenzie Beaumont.”
“What’s a beautiful young woman doing with a man like this?” Rafe asked her, and he held out his hand.
Before McKenzie could answer, the woman next to him sent him a glare.
“Never mind my husband. He likes to shock people. I’m Ari.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” McKenzie said. The Palazzo family had come from Italy and then settled in San Francisco, where she had known of them. Everyone knew of them because they were beyond powerful. There was no way she could have grown up down there without knowing exactly who they were.
“Are you enjoying the party?” Rafe asked. “I have to say that Joseph sure knows how to throw one, and make sure the pockets of his guests are empty at the end of the night.”
“Yes, that’s for sure,” Byron told him. “But he and his wife, Katherine, always pick the best charities, ones that deserve every dollar in donations, though, so I give without a second thought.”
“That’s very true,” Rafe replied. “But the deductions don’t hurt.”
McKenzie stood there and listened, wondering whether she was too far out of her league. She wanted to hang out with people of this caliber, but at the same time she didn’t even come close to their level. Was she trying too hard to carve out a name for herself? Were they all secretly laughing at her? She’d run an escort service, and now she was trying to run a respectable business. Was that just too much?
After she and Byron left Rafe and Ari, McKenzie was introduced to a number of other people, but the night became a blur of names and faces. How could she remember any of them when her mind was too focused on what Byron was doing with her and why he was telling everyone she was his date? And then there was the real question, the one she was afraid to ask.
What was going to happen when the two of them left the party?
Chapter Twenty-Five
Trust wasn’t an easy thing for Byron to give. He gripped his glass and tried to pay attention to what the woman, whose name he’d already forgotten, was saying to him. But all he could do was watch as McKenzie leaned back and let out a peal of laughter.
It was a beautiful sound.
And the man making her laugh didn’t realize his life was in jeopardy. Byron didn’t do jealousy, but at the moment, the green-eyed monster had him in its grip, and his testosterone was spiking to dangerous levels.
No, he didn’t think McKenzie was interested in leaving the fundraiser with another guy, but, again, trust didn’t come easy for Byron.
His mother —more accurately, the woman who had given birth to him — had laughed like that, had flirted with men right in front of her husband. But there was a difference. His “mother” had gone to those men’s beds, and she’d flaunted it in front of her husband, Byron’s father.
She had been a stone-cold bitch — a whore to end all whores — but all women were basically the same. Byron knew that. Sure, McKenzie was there with him tonight, but only because he had promised her she could meet all sorts of people who would come running in through her doors to buy her services.
Which services did she want to provide?
He downed the champagne in his glass, then took a step toward her. But he stopped himself. For the past few hours he’d been by her side. He could easily spend fifteen minutes without her.
And yet if that were so, why did everything inside of him want to walk up to her and stake his claim? She was bad for him, so very bad, and he couldn’t seem to care that she was messing with his head.
He’d had an easy out. She was no longer working with him at Knight Construction. All he’d had to do was not call her, not ask her to this function, just go on with his life and forget he’d ever even heard about McKenzie Beaumont. But no. That’s not what he’d done at all.
And now here they were. And he was furious with her and with himself. She hadn’t done anything wrong this evening — in fact, she’d been the perfect companion, and his colleagues adored her. So he had no reason to feel this anger.
Maybe it was because he couldn’t forget her taste or her scent. He couldn’t get the sound of her voice from his head. Everything that she was lingered with him, refused to let go. He needed her, and he was a fool to think he didn’t. He just wasn’t sure how long he would need her for.
When she looked up and their eyes collided, her laughter stopped and the smile on her lips fell away. Ah, there it was. There was the passion he wanted to see. He refused to let her gaze go. He took another step forward, but someone passed in front of him, breaking the connection.
In that instant, McKenzie was no longer looking at him, but he saw the tension in her shoulders. She knew he was walking toward her, and he enjoyed that she was so aware of everything he did. He enjoyed everything about this woman. Even if he hated that he did.
When he finally reached her side, he slid his arm around her and he looked at the man she was chatting with. “I’m sorry I took so long,” Byron said, his lips an inch from her ear, causing a shiver to run down her.
“I was just visiting with Lance Storm. He’s one of Joseph’s nephews. He’s been entertaining me with some interesting work adventures,” she said, her smile returning.
“That’s nice,” Byron said, not meaning it in the least. “I didn’t know Joseph had any nephews with the last name Storm.” Was this good-looking guy some sort of pathological liar?
“That’s a very long story,” Lance said. “We didn’t actually know we were related to Joseph and George until a couple of years ago.”
Byron snorted, and he asked, “How is that possible?”
“Our father was stolen at birth.” Lance didn’t even blink as he said it.
“Wait! I think I did hear something about this last year, but your family has done remarkably well at keeping the story from the papers,” Byron said, the pieces coming together as he remembered how Joseph and his twin brother, George, had discovered they were actually from a set of triplets.
“My uncle Joseph is a great man, and people love and respect him.” Lance said. “Yes, whenever the Anderson family does something, it’s newsworthy, but there’s been very little said about my father coming into their lives. I don’t expect that to last forever, unfortunately.”