cursing and making threats against humanity the entire way. This means everything to Gracie and all she wants is the support of the people she cares about and thinks care about her. Whatever your issue with Gracie is I suggest you do your best to ensure she knows nothing about it. It will hurt her if you refuse to come and I wonât allow Gracie to ever be hurt by anyone again. Are we understood?â
Eliza looked at him in shock. âI donât have anything against Gracie! I love her dearly. Where on earth would you get the idea that I have a problem with her? Just because I canât make it to her opening doesnât mean I donât like her. Iâm not going because I canât. I have something important to do tonight. Something I canât postpone.â
Sterling shrugged. âI suggest you find a way to do just that. You canât hide from me, Eliza. And if you think I was making an idle threat, one I have no intention of following through on, you should know me better than that by now. I will find you and I will bring you to the exhibit no matter how youâre dressed. My advice? Dress appropriately and be there promptly when it begins and paste a smile on that pretty face of yours and at least act like youâre enjoying yourself and that youâre supporting the woman who calls you her friend.â
âWhat gives you the right to rearrange my life to suit your wants?â she snapped. âIâm not one of your little bimbos who flutters her eyelashes and gives in to your every whim and allows you all the control.â
He barked out a laugh. âAs if. A man would be a fool to ever think youâd be a simpering, timid, submissive woman without a mind and will of her own. But, Eliza, do not test me on this,â he said, his voice growing somber and gravely serious. His eyes bore intently into hers and the unsettled feeling in her stomach grew until all her insides were knotted with panic.
âGood God, you mean it,â she whispered, horrified.
âBet your pretty little ass I do,â he said, his eyes narrowing. âHave I ever bluffed, Eliza? Have I ever stood down from any promise Iâve made? Veered from the course Iâve sworn to follow? Not followed through on any action Iâve decided on?â
âNo,â she said faintly, a sinking feeling of doom clenching her stomach.
She just wanted to run and hide in her apartment, and she was not someone who ever hid from anything. She confronted her problems, her fears, and she never backed down. But Wade Sterling was a problem unlike any sheâd ever encountered and if she knew one thing at all about this infuriating, pain-in-the-ass man, was that he wouldnât simply go away. No wasnât an answer he was accustomed to nor was it a word in his vocabulary unless he was the one using it.
Which meant that if she didnât want a very ugly, very embarrassing, humiliating scene tonight, she was going to have to find a dress and appropriate shoes, neither of which she owned. Fast.
Further proof that the man was a mind reader in his own right, either that or extremely intuitive, he suddenly did that half smirk, half grin thing she was far more accustomed to than the full on, teeth-baring smile sheâd witnessed earlier.
âI took the liberty of having an appropriate dress, shoes and all of the accessories delivered to your apartment. Expect them within the hour. And may I say, Eliza, you are going to look stunning in what I picked out.â
FOUR
ONLY because she didnât want more speculation among her coworkers that something was definitely up with her, something she wasnât sharingâand planned to keep it that wayâdid Eliza grudgingly put on the dress, shoes and accessories Sterling had delivered to her apartment as she got ready for what she already considered a night in hell. Or so she told herself, knowing that her feminine ego had been just a little stroked
Johnny Shaw, Matthew Funk, Gary Phillips, Christopher Blair, Cameron Ashley