Chapter 13

They didn’t notice me approaching at first until Casper looked up and saw me walking hotly in their direction. He had been smiling widely at the woman a second before that, but when he saw me, that expression dropped from his face. His eyes instantly narrowed and hardened as he calculated the look on my face and the way I was striding toward them. He sensed trouble. The woman saw Casper’s expression change and then followed his gaze, turning around to look at me. Unlike Casper, she still had a smile on her face.

“Casper!” I said it too loudly, much louder than I had intended to.

“Lily, you’re back,” he said to me, slightly flustered. I had never seen Casper this uncomfortable before, but he kept his eyes trained on me.

“What’s going on? Who is this?” The woman turned from me to Casper, and then back to me again. In a sudden rage, I felt my palms itching to simply slap her across her face. My anger was stemming from a very deep and real place. Not only had she insulted my dress, but she was also flirting with Casper, and he was flirting back!

“Sam, this is my friend, Lily Fitz. Lily, this is another old friend of mine, Samantha Meyers,” Casper corrected himself. He was back to being his old charming self, self-assured and confident.

“Pleasure,” Samantha said, extending a delicate, pale hand in my direction.

I pasted a smile on my face. I forced myself to do it, but I didn’t shake her hand.

“Casper, I want to talk to you,” I said, not quite sure yet what I wanted to say, but I knew I wanted to be alone with him.

“How do you know this young lady, Casper?” Samantha ignored what I just said and turned to the man we were both lusting after. My heart instantly ached when Casper looked at her and smiled.

“She’s a friend, Sam,” he said, and placed a hand on her shoulder. My eyes darted to that movement, widening as I felt like I was losing my mind.

“Casper, can we please talk privately?” I repeated myself, beginning to lose patience. I wasn’t one to make public scenes about private affairs, but I had no choice. I’d had a bit to drink and my temper was flaring.

“I assure you, you can say whatever you want in front of me. Casper and I have been friends for too long to keep secrets from each other,” Samantha said with a smile and then looked at Casper knowingly, and rolled her eyes. Like I wasn’t even there!

I could feel my teeth grinding against each other, I couldn’t remember the last time I was this mad. And surprisingly, Casper was completely calm, as if he couldn’t even fathom what I was going through.

I took in a deep breath and licked my lips as my nostrils flared. “I want to leave. Is there any way I can do that?” I said, trying to make my voice as even as possible.

Casper cleared his throat, and even though Samantha jerked her head to look at him again, this time he ignored her.

“The only way you can leave is on my jet, and I’m not ready to go yet, Lily.” He stressed my name like he was explaining something to a naughty child. As if my temper wasn’t wild enough.

“I want to leave, now, Casper. I think I might just arrange for something else,” I said, clenching my fists. I didn’t know what was making me react in such an absurdly violent way. Why was I picking a fight with him in the middle of a party! What did I think he owed me? It could have been the alcohol, or my feelings for him, or seeing Samantha touch him… I don’t know what it was, but I wanted desperately to get out of there.

“You can’t do that, Lily. And you definitely can’t fly commercial tonight, not at this hour,” Casper said, finally letting go of Samantha’s shoulder.

“Why would you want to pay for a flight when you can go back with Casper?” Samantha chipped in.

I looked at her crossly with my nostrils flared and then turned back to Casper again with a jerk. “Can we leave now, then?” I asked him, crossing my arms over my breasts to further display my disapproval of him and her.

“Lily, I can’t leave now. It’s my company party. I can’t just up and go right now in the middle of everything. Everyone expects me to stay till the end. I have business to attend to.” Casper was speaking harshly now, like he had lost his patience.

Samantha started cracking up with laughter in the background, and I’d never felt more embarrassed.

“I feel like a prisoner here, like I can’t leave when I want to. This is seriously ridiculous,” I said, and turned my face away from them both. Samantha was still laughing and Casper tried to reach for me, but I stepped back.

“Don’t touch me!” I hissed at him. “Can we go now or not?”

“Lily, I just told you that I can’t!” This time, he yelled.

I took a few steps away from him and turned my face toward Samantha. She seemed to be enjoying herself, like she was at some kind of show. She was also delighted that the girl Casper Argent had come to the party with had just managed to piss him off. I hadn’t yet turned to see who else had witnessed this little demonstration of my temper, but I didn’t want to know.

I turned on my heels and went running as fast as my feet could carry me.