Cade's eyes narrowed. "Hey—"
"Payback’s a bitch." Donovan wrapped his hand around my waist and pulled me in to his side, possessively.
I liked it. A lot.
"But that was supposed to be a secret,” Cade said with a note of menace.
I knew good and well that Donovan wasn’t afraid of Cade. But maybe he should have been. Cade seemed tough. The kind of tough that covered up that he had once been broken. Broken badly.
I knew that kind of broken.
But I'd never seen this kind of tough. It was a myth, as far as I'd been concerned. I'd never believed people could build walls that strong.
Apparently I was wrong.
People with walls that strong were to be feared. They didn't have anything to lose.
"Sabrina and I have no secrets," Donovan said, his thumb drawing circles on my hip.
Goosebumps shot down my skin from his touch and from the words he said. It felt good to hear them. To know that they were true.
"Well, isn't that precious?" Cade rolled his eyes. He seemed like the kind of guy who didn't believe in relationships that required no secrets. He probably didn't believe in weddings either. A hundred bucks said he'd made the first bet in the ‘Weston and Elizabeth get an annulment’ pool.
"Don't worry," I assured Cade, because I was more than a little afraid of the man, even if Donovan wasn’t. "Your secret is safe with me."
He grinned. "It's a good thing too. With you dating this guy, you're gonna need all the friends you can get." He turned his focus to my date. "How long do we have to stay at this thing anyway?"
But I wanted to address what he’d just said about me.
I put my hand on his bicep, which was larger than it had first seemed under his tuxedo. “Oh.” Shockingly larger.
Anyway. "Wait a minute—what do you mean ‘I need friends’? Are people talking? People are upset that I'm dating him, aren’t they?"
He took a swig of the beer he'd been holding and shrugged. "You're dating one of the bosses. And you’re fuckhot. And from what I hear, smart as shit. Of course people are talking. Have I heard anything? No. But look at them." He gestured at the crowd around us. "There's sure a lot of whispering and glances."
"It's because it's our coming-out party," Donovan said. "They’re surprised. That's all. Ignore them, Sabrina. Ignore him.” To Cade he said, “And you need to stay until the bride and groom arrive. They're getting their photos taken and then they'll be in."
"Fine." Cade took another swallow from his bottle, and when he did, I noticed the edge of a tattoo as his sleeve pushed up on his arm. "I'll stay until then. But then I'm out of here."
Yeah, this guy did not do weddings.
This guy did not do romance.
I made a mental note to ask Donovan where he found him later on. He seemed more like ex-military than a guy who ran an international advertising firm in Japan.
But I knew better than to judge by appearances. And I knew better than anyone that smart, creative people came from all walks of life.
"Maybe we should mingle while we're waiting," I suggested. I, at least, needed to say hello to the people from our office. I didn't want to appear stuck-up on top of everything else.
Cade let out a hearty laugh. "You’re still trying to win their hearts aren't you? She's cute, Donovan."
I pressed my lips together tightly so they didn't say anything that I'd regret to the man that I just met, who was technically one of my bosses.
Donovan surveyed me, likely noting the glare I was holding back, and let out a laugh of his own. "I was just saying that." He moved his hand to my neck, just below where my hair sat tightly in a knot. His fingers on my sensitive nape sent shooting stars of want down my spine. "It looks like a bunch of the staff is gathered by the bar. We can go say ‘hello.’" Then he bent in so that Cade couldn't hear him. "He's a dick, but he's a good guy. I'll make it up to you later."
I didn't know what exactly he was making up to me, or why he considered any of it his fault except that he'd been the one who'd wanted me to come with him to this thing. But the feel of his breath on the shell of my ear and the promise of something good to come was enough to make me relax. A bit.
"I'm holding you to that."
We’d just made it over to the bar when a buzz spread through the crowd, not just directly around us, but throughout the ballroom.
"Ladies and gentlemen," I recognized the voice that came across the speaker system as Brett Larrabee, Weston's best man and a fellow student from Harvard. "It's time to welcome, for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Weston and Elizabeth King."
Applause erupted as the couple entered the room holding hands. Both were smiling, but neither looked at the other, each directing their attention at their guests.
Was it all an act? Were the glances passed between them just for show?
It was one thing to be sleeping together. It was quite another to be married and be serious about it.
Maybe Donovan was right. I'd likely spent too much time recently with my sister. Just because Weston was having a good time with his business arrangement didn't mean he'd found a happily ever after.
"They do a lineup or something, don’t they?" Cade asked, finishing his beer with one long swallow.
"I think they plan to mingle," Roxie said, as our group joined hers.
"Fuck this. It will take forever for them to get through all these people. I'm taking off." Cade tossed his bottle into a nearby trashcan. "Can I borrow you for a moment, Donovan? It was nice meeting you, Sabrina. I'll probably see you around the office before I head back to Tokyo."
"Ditto." It seemed safe enough. Polite but noncommittal.
Donovan looked to me as if asking my permission. I scanned the faces of those gathered, noting who I’d be left with if he abandoned me. There weren’t many staff members. Not many had been invited, mainly just the top employees who worked under Weston. My team members, Roxie, and a few other key staff members. Basically all the people who’d be the most pissed at the advantages I’d gain at dating the boss. In other words, I'd be alone with the wolves.
No. Not the wolves. My staff. My people.
"Go ahead. I'll be fine." I didn't know if it made things better or worse that he kissed me on the cheek before walking out to the lobby with his partner.
"You came with Donovan?" Roxie didn't even wait until he was out of earshot. He glanced back at me at the sound of his name, and I tipped my head up in reassurance. I had this.
I didn't have this.
“Uh, yeah. I did. He's my date. He's my…" Say it. Just say it, Sabrina, I willed myself. "I guess we're seeing each other.” Chicken. “No guessing. We are seeing each other."
“Ah," Roxie said, a whole ton of subtext in the single syllable, and hell if I knew what any of it was.
Tom Burns, my lead team member, on the other hand, was pleasantly surprised. "Good for you." I hadn’t really talked to him about me and Donovan, but he had walked in on an intimate moment and had a pretty good idea there was something going on between us besides a working relationship. He’d encouraged me to pursue it. "Glad to see you two together."