And despicable as Samantha Parker herself was, she did deserve to know that while he’d been married to her, Landon had been seriously dating another woman. To the point that he’d discussed marriage with her and had led her to believe they were on the brink of getting engaged.
“Yeah, I think you should tell her,” I said, splaying my fingers on her hips and bending over to plant a kiss on her lips. “I’ll be at the table. I think I just saw her heading into the ladies’ room, if you want to get it over with.”
I hadn’t been watching Samantha at all this evening, but the color of her dress made her impossible to miss in a sea of mostly black and white. Strangely enough, despite all the beautiful women around, I only had eyes for Luna.
I’d only seen Sam heading into the bathroom because there were a bunch of men in the required black and white that had parted for her to move through. And they happened to be standing right behind Luna.
She gave me a small nod, took a breath, and turned to move in the direction of the restrooms herself. I watched with rage simmering in my stomach as the leering group of men stepped aside to let Luna through as well, making a mental note of each of their faces and vowing right then and there never to do business with anyone who looked at her like that.
Unfortunately, that vow was the worst thing I could do to them in here. Physical violence wasn’t an option, despite how badly I wanted to punch someone.
With a resigned sigh, I ordered a single-malt whiskey, knocked it back, and then ordered another to take back to my table. Someone sidled up to me as I did, and when I looked back, I seriously reconsidered making physical violence an option.
“Luna the little florist, huh?” Landon smirked as he nudged my elbow on the counter with his. “Great fucking lay for a peasant, isn’t she?”
“Excuse me?” I cleared my throat, my grip on the empty crystal glass tightening to the point where I was afraid it would break. “What did you just say about my wife?”
Landon paled, but his eyes darted around like he was aware that people were starting to watch us and didn’t want to be seen backing down, even if neither of us could be heard by anyone else as of yet.
I supposed it was the principle of being seen backing away from me that made him stupid. With a sneer on his pathetic face, he shrugged. “You heard me. She’s a fucking great piece of ass, but she’s just not good enough to really make it permanent. I don’t know what you’re really doing with her, but I’d be willing to bet you’re only playing with her, too. Just like I was.”
“She’s my wife, asshole.” My voice rose along with my temper. “If you ever talk about Luna that way ever again, I will come after you personally and I will fucking destroy you. You hear me, Parker?”
The blood that had remained in his cheeks drained from it when I got in his face, literally vibrating with rage. A small hand on my shoulder pumped a sense of calm through me, and when I turned, I wasn’t at all surprised to see it was Luna who’d had that instant effect on me.
“I mean it, you fucking coward,” I growled at Landon before grabbing Luna’s hand and walking out with her.
Just before we hit the exit, I heard Samantha screeching in front of everyone. “You fucking cheated on me? You bastard!”
Chapter 33
Luna
Cyrus looked smug as all hell as we walked into the bar on the rooftop of our hotel. “I’m glad we decided to have drinks. I could use a couple to unwind after all that.”
“Yeah, it was quite something.” I was still trembling slightly, nerves and adrenaline over confronting Landon’s wife not quite draining out of me as fast as the fight had. “I can’t believe I did that, but I really felt like she needed to know.”
If Landon had been my husband, like he almost had been, I knew I’d have wanted to know. No matter who she was to Cyrus, she was still a woman and we had to stick together. If she decided to work through it with her husband, that was her business. I’d done my part and given her the information she needed to make her own informed decisions.
“Samantha might not be the best woman in the world, but I’m proud of you for standing up and doing something to the guy who made you feel like shit.”
“Yeah, I guess there’s that, too.” I licked my dry lips and a waiter came by as if summoned by magic, dropping off a complimentary bottle of wine and one of water. “Is that really free?”
Cyrus laughed and shrugged his shoulders. “Considering how much the room rate is here, nothing they serve is really free. As for whether it’s going to show up on our check this evening, no. It won’t. Let’s just say it’s included.”
“That’s…” I trailed off when I spotted a familiar, ravishing woman walking in. She marched up to the bar, her long, red-tipped fingers swiping underneath her eyes as her shoulders shook.
Slamming her silver clutch down on the counter of the bar, she held up four fingers as she spoke to the bartender.
“Wow. I guess she’s all for drowning her sorrows tonight.”
Cyrus frowned when his gaze followed mine and he saw his ex standing at the bar. “Yeah, it looks like she is.”
“I wonder where Landon is,” I said. “I’d have thought he’d at least come after her after the blowout they just had downstairs.”
“He’s probably still down there, trying to fix his reputation and telling more lies,” Cyrus said distractedly.
I shifted in my seat so I was more in his line of vision but without making it obvious what I was doing. “That sounds like him. Have you known him for a long time?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say that.” He dragged a hand through his hair, bringing his gaze to mine. The expression in his eyes was almost absent, though. “If I’d known he was your ex, I never would have asked you to do this.”
“That’s okay. It felt like we both kind of got our own back, you know?”
“Sure, yeah.” He laughed, but the sound was humorless, and his eyes tracked back to where Samantha was sitting at the bar.
In fact, regardless of how many times I tried to drag him back into conversation with me, he kept one eye on Samantha the whole time, and at a point, he even let out a small sigh.
When I’d first realized he’d booked us each our own room, I felt discarded. Like he was treating this as nothing more than a business transaction, and that had stung but not nearly as much as the realization I had as I watched him now.
He’d brought me here to make her jealous. I knew that, but what if there was more to it than that?
What if he’d known all the time that Samantha and Landon would get into some kind of fight if he brought me, even if he hadn’t known about my past with Landon, and he’d brought me specifically so they would fight?
What if he’d wanted them to fight so he’d be able to find her once she was alone after and that was also why he’d gotten us separate rooms? So he could take her to his and make love to her after their big fight?
It was pretty diabolical, sure, but I couldn’t put it past him. I’d seen how ruthless he could be firsthand and, over the last few months, had learned that there wasn’t much that could stop Cyrus from getting what he wanted.