He sure as hell hadn't been the man who'd used mergers and acquisitions as parlance for getting me into bed.
I couldn't wait to get him na**d.
A burst of flame in the darkness to my right startled me.
I jolted to a halt and watched Brett Kline lift a match to the clove cigarette hanging from his lips.
As he stood in the shadows to the side of the exit, the flickering light of the flame caressed his face and threw me back in time for a long minute.
He glanced up, caught me in his gaze, and froze.
We stared at each other.
My heart kicked into a mad beat, a combination of excitement and apprehension.
He cursed suddenly, shaking out the match as it burned his fingers.
I took off, struggling to maintain a casual pace as I made a beeline for Angus and the limo.
"Hey! Hold up," Brett shouted.
I heard his footsteps approaching at a jog, and adrenaline surged through me.
A roadie was pushing a flat hand truck loaded with heavy gear and I darted around him, using him as cover to duck between two buses.
I pressed my back flat against the side of one, standing between two open cargo compartments.
I cringed into the shadows, feeling like a coward, but knowing I had nothing to say to Brett.
I wasn't the girl he knew anymore.
I watched him rush by.
I decided to wait, give him time to look and give up.
I was hyperaware of the time passing, of the fact that Gideon would be looking for me soon.
"Eva."
I flinched at the sound of my name.
Turning my head, I found Brett approaching from the other side.
While I'd been looking to the right, he'd come up on the left.
"It is you," he said roughly.
He dropped his clove smoke on the ground and crushed it beneath his boot.
I heard myself saying something familiar.
"You should quit."
"So you keep telling me."
He approached cautiously.
"You saw the show?" I nodded and stepped away from the bus, backing up.