Page 59 of Saving Stella

They arrived at the ballroom of the Panorama Hotel and Casino with a few minutes to spare, and there were still people milling about outside the entrance.

“We need to find our table assignment.” Stella looped her arm through his. “I think that’s the registration table over there. Let’s go see.”

“Stella, you made it!” Tyler greeted. He stood at the front of the registration table with his date and waved them over. “You look great.”

Cliff curled his hands into fists. There had to be hundreds of people at this thing, but they had to run into this prick and his date first.

Stella ignored him as she checked the list on the table. “Looks like we’re at table twenty-three.”

“I like your dress,” Tyler’s date said to Stella.

“Thanks, yours is nice, too, Jane.”

“Thank you. I—” Her mouth dropped open as she looked over to Cliff. “Oh. Hi. I don’t think we were introduced yesterday.” She held her hand out.

Cliff did not miss the woman’s appreciative leer nor the way Stella stiffened at his side. “No, we weren’t.” Placing a hand on the small of her back, he steered her away from the couple so they could go inside the ballroom.

“That wasn’t very nice,” she said.

“I don’t have to be nice to anyone I don’t want to,” he replied. “And neither should you feel obligated, especially to people who disrespect you. You deserve better than that.”

She flashed him a small smile. “Thank you.”

Stella led him to their assigned table and sat down for the dinner and awards. Thankfully, Tyler and his date were seated at the table behind them, and Stella’s back was to them. Once in a while, though, he glanced at them and saw the prick looking at Stella with a frown on his face. His date, on the other hand, pouted as she tried to get his attention.

Good.

He placed an arm around Stella’s chair as she watched the awards ceremony, and once in a while, he would brush his hands against the sleeves of her dress or lean over close so his nose was millimeters away from her hair. While it was all innocent, from Tyler’s angle, it likely looked very intimate, which Cliff hoped the asshole watched all night.

“Everything okay?” she whispered to him.

“Yeah.” Even under the dimmed lighting of the ballroom, she looked luminous, glowing with an unearthly beauty he’d never seen before. On impulse, he pushed back a lock of stray hair from her face, his thumbs “accidentally” brushing her cheek, making a blush bloom there. “Everything is perfect.”

Still red-cheeked, she turned back to the ceremony. Maybe he did what he did because he knew Tyler was looking at them, but he actually didn’t give a fuck about that asshole anymore.

Once the awarding was over, the host announced that everyone was invited to the VIP section of the nightclub attached to the casino.

“I’m not much a clubbing person,” Stella confessed as they got up from the table.

“Me neither.” Not anymore, at least. Sure, he liked going out for a boys’ night with his cousins back in New York once in a while, but that wasn’t something they did every weekend.

“Should we head out?” She bit at her lip. “We can if you want to. Honestly, I was worried about you.”

“You were worried about me?”

“Yeah. That being here might bring back bad memories for you. Or maybe someone might recognize you.”

He hadn’t really thought of that. In fact, nothing about being here bothered him, at least not as much as he thought it would. However, he wasn’t quite ready for the night to end. “I wouldn’t mind going back, but since there’s free booze and all, why don’t we just have one drink?”

She chuckled. “All right.”

They followed the other guests toward the nightclub, located in the top level of the casino. When they reached the club, the hostesses ushered them up to the VIP balcony, which had a view of the main dance floor below, but also scenic views of the glittering Las Vegas skyline through the humungous windows around them. Servers were already handing out drinks, so he got a whiskey for himself and a vodka soda for Stella, then joined some of her coworkers at one of the reserved tables. Cliff found himself content by her side, watching her as she chatted and joked with the people around them. There had been no sign of Tyler so far, and Cliff hoped he had walked off a very short bridge somewhere, never to be heard from again.

“This club is bangin’, right?” Jim, a coworker of Stella’s said.

“Sure.” Actually, Cliff was beginning to hate this place. The throbbing lights, the thumping noise, and the stuffy air were starting to get on his nerves.

“Say … Cliff, right?” Jim narrowed his gaze at him. “I can’t help but feel I know you. Have we met before?”