Page 98 of Ink & Desire
“Thanks.”
I manage to eat a few bites to appease my mother’s worried looks before the servers take our plates and refill our glasses. I’ve mostly avoided drinking the wine tonight, trying to keep my wits for the speech. Now that it’s done, I decide to give in. Maybe it’ll help me forget the crushing heartache I’ve been feeling since I left Corbin last night.
I do my best to listen to the conversation around me, chiming in occasionally so I don’t draw attention to myself. It’s something I’ve done all my life, so it’s not that difficult. Cass sticks by my side the whole time and pulls the attention off me when she can tell it’s getting to be too much. I’m beyond grateful for her presence tonight. If I’m going to be nursing a broken heart in public, there’s no one else I’d rather have helping me through it.
I’m sipping my second glass of white wine and trying to decide how early is too early to leave my own party when my gaze catches on a familiar pair of broadshoulders. My heart stutters in my chest and I suck in a startled breath. Cass turns to look at me, but I can’t look away from the man standing before me. Corbin.
How is he here?
Why is he here?
Why does he look so damnedgood?
Before I can come up with answers for any of those questions, I feel Cass go stiff beside me.
“Oh, hell no,” she mutters. “I’ll take care of this.”
She moves to intercept him, but I reach for her, grabbing her arm to stop her.
“Wait.”
“A, you don’t have to talk to him,” she says.
She’s right, I know. I don’t have to talk to him. I probably shouldn’t talk to him. Not here, at least. But I’m stuck on the fact that he’s here. He came all this way. To see me. There’s no other reason he would have come here. He came here for me. So, no matter how much my head is telling me to walk away, my heart won’t let me.
“I want to,” I whisper. “Just stay with me?”
She locks her arm through mine. “I’m not going anywhere.”
I watch as Corbin closes the distance between us, my heart pounding so loudly I wonder if everyone else can hear it. When he finally stops in front of me, I’m speechless. His dark eyes rake over my body and finally settle on my face.
“Can we help you?” Cass says, her icy tone breaking the silence.
Corbin turns to look at her as if just noticing her presence. “Hey, Cass,” he says. “Good to see you again.”
She huffs out a humorless laugh. “Can’t say the same about you.”
He dips his head once as if acknowledging her point. “That’s fair,” he says. Turning his gaze back on me, he says, “Can we talk?”
“No one’s stopping you,” I say. I’m proud that my words come out steady and clear.
His shoulders drop slightly, but he doesn’t look surprised by my lack of welcome. “I deserve that,” he says.
“What are you doing here?"
"I came here to tell you that I’m sorry,” he says, catching me off-guard with his vulnerable honesty.
If I thought I was shocked at the sight of Corbin here, among all the glitz and glamour of my family’s trappings, it’s nothing compared to the shock of hearing him apologize. I don’t know what to say, but it doesn’t matter anyway, because he’s talking again.
“I shouldn’t have blown up at you the way I did,” he says. “I should have listened to you. I should have tried to understand. You deserve better than that.”
Realizing that I forgot to breathe, I force myself to pull in a deep breath and release it. I don’t know what to say. This Corbin feels like a different man than the one I left last night. What happened between then and now to bring about this change?
“I get why you had to come here tonight,” he says. “I know you have obligations. I didn’t understand it before,but I do now. I wish I had given you the chance to explain it. It’s my fault everything got messed up. I’m sorry.”
"We know," Cass mutters.
I give her hand a little squeeze to silence her, but Corbin doesn't seem bothered by her words. He keeps his gaze on me, an expression I don’t recognize on his face. It’s not the sympathetic look I’ve seen so many times before when someone hears my story for the first time. It’s something else. Something like awe.