“I think she’d be flattered, at the very least.”
“She makes my chest feel funny, Mr Fairfax.”
“So do something about it.”
She shook her head. “She’s a professor, she knows so much about everything. I dress up and play pretend for a living.”
“She’s amazing, yes.” Josh took both her hands, making her look at him. “So are you.”
“Maybe,” she bit her lip, “you could give me a line? Something that would impress her?”
He kissed her cheek. “You don’t need that, Ashling.”
She bit her lip and smoothed her gown. Head up, she crossed to Professor Paisley and curtsied.
Words tickled his nape. “Sorry I’m late.”
He swung around and only just managed not to jump into his arms. He bowed. “Mr West.”
Gosh, he was beautiful. Midnight blue velvet and shades of cream. Perfect. “No padding, I see.”
“I’d be the joke of the room if I added padding to this.”
“I meant for your calves.”
“Ah. Yes, well. Between retreats I’m a big fan of basketball.”
“Huh.”
“What?” West threw an imaginary ball into a hoop. “Can’t imagine me sinking a three pointer?”
“No. Yes.” He stared at West. “There’s so much I don’t know about you.”
West stepped forward, like he needed to impart something serious—
“She said yes!” Ashling yelped. “The next dance!” She looked between them and stepped back with a sheepish smile. “Uh, will you be dancing?”
West looked at him, one eyebrow quirking.
“Will you promise to chant the steps?”
The sensual press of West’s hands warmed through his gloves as they moved out onto the floor. West steered Josh through the dance with precise movements and amused smiles, the room a dizzying array of sparkles and colour, violin and piano around them. Turn. Five, six, seven, eight. Right hand turn.
He was warm in his evening clothes—too warm—but nothing could compromise the romance of the moment. He met West’s eyes and their gazes held, like a secret language, a promise.
Soon numbers vanished between them, replaced by quiet words. “I would like to speak with you, later.”
“Can you not speak with me now?”
“I’m afraid there are too many interruptions here.”
“Then you’ll have to steal me away.”
“I may have already prepared something.”
“You have?”
Soft laughter. “Outside. I bet you can guess where.”
The dance ended with a bow and West was immediately snagged into another. Of course, he would be. He was elegant, graceful. He knew the steps. Josh found a quiet spot against the wall and took the opportunity to just . . . look at him.
West moved precisely, gloved hands held gloved hands, and he smiled at his older partner. Polite. Good-humoured, even. But not with the same affection he’d shown Josh . . .
Between turns, West gazed apologetically through the sea of bodies between them.
Ashling curtsied to Professor Paisley and calmly walked toward a group of her gowned co-workers. The professor watched her go with a long, admiring smile.
She turned to Cassius, who had approached with Wally, and Josh knew it was time.
He wouldn’t let anyone hurt West.
With a pounding heart and sweaty neck, he made his way over. “Lady Paisley.” He bowed. “I hope your family is okay.”
“Yes, thank you. My niece was born a healthy ten pounds in the wee hours.”
Josh passed along his congratulations and, rubbing his moist palms against his breeches, pivoted to Cassius who held himself straight, nose up, like he didn’t much care for Josh. But now Josh wondered how much of that had been an act.
There were so many lies, he didn’t know what was true anymore.
He cleared his throat. “I’m afraid I’ve deceived you all this weekend.”
The professor looked sharply at him.
“I announced on arrival that I was involved with Mr West. That was a lie.”
Cassius let out a breath.
“I’d never met him before this weekend. I’ve been faking our engagement.”
“Why would you do that?” The professor asked, curiously.
“I guess I wanted to seem more balanced? But the truth is, research and academics are my life at the moment.”
Josh opened his mouth to say something snide about feeling forced into revealing the lie, and shut it again. That wouldn’t be entirely true. Not anymore. “I’m okay with that. I love being a nerd. Love working late into the night studying, learning. It would be amazing to have a man at my side who appreciated that about me, but if I don’t, I’m okay with that too.”
He looked at Cassius. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I hope you forgive me?”
Josh stared at his ex as the professor murmured something wise and then excused herself when Ashling walked past.
The music came to a stop, another dance at an end. Wally sidled up close, reaching into his coat for his phone, and the room felt quieter despite the whispering of the crowd.
“I want to see you delete any pictures.”
“Pictures?” Cassius frowned, swiping the phone.
“You said you had—”
Cassius lowered his arm. “No—”
“Let me see.” Josh made a grab for it but when he touched the screen, his own voice burst out of the phone. “What? It’s true. . . West doesn’t read. Doesn’t study. . . We’d never be compatible.”
His phone call with Noah. Out of context, it sounded mean. Callous. Nothing like the way he’d meant it, or felt at the time.
It started playing again, on loop.
A pained sound came from behind him and he turned around. West. Their gazes did not meet. He turned on his heel and strode for the doors.
“Wait—”
Horror stained Cassius’s cheeks pink.
“We were about to delete it.” He shifted uncomfortably. “I thought it was all fake. But you actually . . . like one another.”
Wally shrugged. “Takes all sorts.”
Josh palmed the phone back into Cassius’s open hand. “He’s a good-hearted person, and so am I. We can be ourselves with each other.”
Josh breathed in the outside air, still warm but blessedly cooler than inside. The contrast made his face feel like it was burning.
His feet took him down garden paths toward the creek. He knew precisely where he’d find West.
Lavender swayed around him, and there, on a blanket right where they’d picnicked only the day before, West sat. His arms curled loosely around his knees, and his head was thrown back toward the night. The twitch down his side said he sensed Josh’s approach.
Slowly, West lowered his head. Glanced at Josh and away again.
“I’m deeply sorry, West. There was another side to that conversation.” Josh crumpled onto the blanket beside a bottle of wine and two glasses. Beside that West’s boots slouched discarded, and lube and condoms provided a clue how this was supposed to have gone.
Josh cleared his throat. “What you heard wasn’t what you think you heard.”