“Let’s find a table. It will be more comfortable.” She slipped from the barstool, drink in hand, and twitched her head for Meredith to follow.
As they moved through the bar, she became aware of Ross motioning to one of his men. When his cousins dropped into seats around a table near the one Pippa chose, she wasn’t surprised. Neither wore the statement white cowboy hats, so at least nobody would connect them with Ross. But she still felt more than odd about all this protection.
It also made her edgier about being in the open. After all, she’d suffered an attack in the women’s restroom, in a parking lot outside a rest stop and on the highway to Seattle. She didn’t relish the thought of another threat to her life.
Ross and Meredith settled across the table from each other. Pippa caught a glower from Ross and directed a kick at his leg under the table. Stop it, she tried to convey with her eyes.
And Meredith had somehow finished her drink between the bar and table. She waved for the waitress to bring her another. Her behavior was so…odd.
Pippa was a scientist—making observations came as second nature to her only to breathing, and Ross and Meredith were both tense. While Pippa wasn’t a great reader of humans, she did see Meredith jiggling as though she bounced her foot beneath the table. And Ross folded his arms over his broad chest.
Her friend received her fresh drink and instead of sipping it, she gulped. Feeling more off-kilter now, Pippa attempted to make conversation. She wished Ross would go away for a few minutes and let her speak to her friend alone. It was obvious he made Meredith nervous.
“How was your trip here?” she asked Meredith.
“Fine. Uneventful. You?”
Ross narrowed his eyes on the woman.
Why did Pippa feel she was trapped between two dogs about to go a round over a prized bone? She kicked Ross again. He didn’t even move his foot, as though a fly struck his shin rather than the sharp toe of her high heel.
“My trip was good,” she said, only half lying.
Meredith turned to her, looking a little frazzled. “How is the wine? I think I’ll try some.” She waved to the waitress.
Concern burned through Pippa. After a decade of friendship, she’d seen Meredith three sheets to the wind, but it had been a long time. She never drank more than two and was good about cutting herself off. Perhaps she was letting loose because they were out of the lab for the weekend?
“Are you ready for your speech, Pippa?” she asked.
“I think so.” She sipped her wine more slowly.
“Everyone is waiting to hear what you have to say. They’ll be hanging on your every word.” Her words slurred a bit. Pippa threw Ross a glance, only to find he appeared more nervous. He plucked at his shirt buttons and swung his gaze around the room.
More and more out of her comfort zone as the minutes ticked by, Pippa watched her friend down the entire glass of wine. Then she leaned over the table, her cleavage on display. Ross’s gaze dropped to her breasts and shot away.
Pippa gaped at her friend—and her lover. Were they attracted to each other? Was that the issue?
When Meredith threw Ross a coy smile, Ross hooked a finger into his shirt collar as if finding it too tight.
Oh my God. They ARE attracted to each other.
“Have you been to Kalamazoo lately, Ross?” Meredith’s question made Pippa jerk in her seat and simultaneous choke on her wine. She exploded into a coughing fit while her heart nearly stopped at the realization taking over her brain.
They weren’t only attracted to each other—they knew each other. Taking in their body clues and the hints dropped by her tipsy friend and Ross evading Pippa’s gaze, she could only hypothesize that Meredith and Ross had slept together.
Ross patted her on the back to help ease her choking fit, but she jerked to her feet and took off walking fast across the bar. She had to escape. Why hadn’t Ross said anything to her? He’d hidden it from her, and stupid Pippa had fallen straight into his arms after her friend had.
A big male body stepped in front of her, barring her way. She tried to skirt around him, but Boone took her by the arm and led her out of the bar. They made it halfway to the elevator before Ross took Boone’s place, practically shoving his brother away from her.
“I don’t want you right now, Ross.” Her icy tone made his green eyes simmer.
“Too. Bad,” he said through a clenched jaw.
“Guys? You good?” Boone, caught in the middle, didn’t seem to know what to do with himself.
Ross nodded. Pippa shook her head. But then Ross dragged her into the elevator and the doors slammed shut. Enclosed in the small space with the man she’d just declared her love to—who’d also slept with her best friend at some point in Kalamazoo—made Pippa itch to claw the doors open and escape.
Wrapping her arms around her middle, she turned her back on Ross.
“Pippa.”
“Save it, Ross. You can’t sweet-talk your way out of this.”
“What are you talking about?”
She whirled on him as the elevator shot upward to her floor. All she wanted was to lock the hotel room door and crawl under the covers. Pain rocketed around her chest and left her on the verge of tears.
“You lied to me all this time. You slept with Meredith and you didn’t tell me.” She looked at his face, expecting denial. Hoping for it. But his jaw only tightened, and he said nothing.
Bowing her head, she ignored him all the way to her floor. When he tried to take her by the elbow and lead her to her room, she jerked from his touch. Noah stood at the door as guard. One glare from Ross sent him stepping aside to allow them to pass. Ross produced a room key card and opened the door.
When Pippa stepped through, she tried to shut him out, but he shouldered his way inside and kicked the door shut behind him.
She had to get away from him, and since the bathroom wasn’t an option with its door still smashed out, she had the choice of facing him down and learning the cold, hard facts about the man she loved withholding information from her, or head to the balcony.
She rushed across the room and unlocked the balcony door with a rough twist of her fingers. Then she stepped out into the cold Seattle air.
* * * * *
Jesus Christ on a biscuit. What were the odds that he had a one-night stand after meeting a woman in a tech convention in Kalamazoo, and that woman was Pippa’s friend?
He’d been off-duty for the night. He thought to have a nightcap after a long day of working security, where several bigwig billionaires required bodyguards. When he took the woman eyeing him up from the end of the bar to his room, he didn’t even know her name.
In fact, until the minute Pippa tapped her on the shoulder and he saw her face, he still hadn’t known her name. She was nothing to him, then or now. He hardly recalled more than a quick fuck, and then he’d sent her on her way.
“Pippa.”
She didn’t turn or speak.
“I told you not to come out here.”
She stood at the rail of the balcony, back to him. “You slept together.” Her voice, already quiet, was softer in the wind.
He stepped up behind her. Aching to pull her into his arms.
“You don’t deny it,” she said.
“No. But I didn’t know her name. It was one night at a convention I was working.”