She’d never wanted a man so much.

Maybe because he seemed unattainable, but when Malik walked into the hall for the Podcast Movers & Shakers event, Lindsay almost drooled all over her black dress. She’d paired the ribbed, off-the-shoulders outfit with a black choker, all in preparation for seeing Malik at tonight’s event.

She sashayed over. “You clean up nice.” She wasn’t surprised by the black jacket, shirt, and tie. She noticed he wore a lot of black.

He bit his lip as he gave her a once-over. “And you look fine, as usual. About to have every man in here in trouble with his woman because they can’t keep their eyes off you.”

Lindsay laughed softly and looped her arm around his, leaning into his solid form. Oh, the things she would do to this man if he were open to it.

“Let me get you up to speed.” Her eyes swept the room filled with round tables and attendees. “Everybody who’s anybody in podcasting is here tonight to network. You’ll recognize a few celebrities. For instance, over there is the actress Anna Faris. She’s been doing a relationship podcast for years, often with celebrity guests. Over there is Jen Taylor. You definitely want to meet her tonight and give her a card and tell her all about your wonderful work. She’s one of the advertisers who’s in attendance, but her husband collects art and is always looking for unique pieces. That guy over there is Gabe Randolph. He’s a sweetie. His partner’s cousin owns a construction company and you never know…they might be able to use your work. Maybe a good candidate for a commissioned piece.”

“How do you remember all of these details?”

“I listen, and I have a great memory. But don’t worry, I’ll be right here with you keeping track of the conversations. Just remember to smile and try flirting a little.”

“Did you say flirting?”

“Yes, absolutely. Tonight is an opportunity to network, but you’re a big, good-looking man. You already stand out for that reason, so seal the deal with your charming personality and sexy smile.”

“Oh, so you think I have a sexy smile?” Malik asked, his voice dropping low.

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

He laughed softly. “I promise I won’t.”

“Of course not. You’re just the guy who has panties thrown at him on a regular basis.” She pouted and squeezed his arm tighter. “Poor me and all these other women running around.”

“Keep playing,” he said. The warning in his voice sent a ripple of excitement down her spine.

Lindsay laughed and tugged him over to be introduced to some acquaintances.

The rest of the evening was spent in pretty much the same way. Lindsay introduced Malik to people that she knew as her fiancé, and at some point, he launched into descriptions of his work, how he worked, and the inspiration for the pieces. Despite not being a normally outgoing person, he was a natural and great conversationalist who kept anyone listening enthralled. Observing him, she fell a little bit under his spell herself.

At one point, a colleague approached and whispered, “Where in the world did you find that young man?” Lindsay coyly laughed and said they found each other.

As the evening wore on, she and Malik separated—Lindsay chatted up a fellow podcaster and exchanged contact information, while Malik sat at a table talking with a couple. Relaxed and in her element, she wasn’t prepared for what happened next.

“Hi, Lindsay.”

She stiffened at the sound of that soft, familiar voice that made her blood run cold. Swinging around, she saw Melanie Reed, her ex-boyfriend’s wife. For a split second, she felt like bursting into tears. She wasn’t prepared to see her right then, and her appearance meant Shawn was there, too. She wasn’t surprised Reed Advertising had sent a representative as they’d done in the past, but this would be the first time Shawn was the rep for the company.

Melanie had blonde hair and gray eyes. Added to that, she was petite, a tiny little thing who, when she’d been pregnant, had simply looked like she was hiding a basketball under her shirt. There really was no justice in the world.

“Melanie.” Her voice sounded as fake-friendly as her smile probably looked. “Here alone?” Lindsay asked, bracing for Shawn’s appearance.

“Shawn’s around here somewhere.” She smiled uncertainly.

Like Lindsay, Melanie had worked at Reed Advertising before her marriage to Shawn. After they married, she quit her job and now had a full-time nanny, though she considered herself a full-time mother. How cute.

“Are you here alone?” Melanie asked.

She hated the way Melanie asked the question, as if she couldn’t possibly be there with someone else. As if she wouldn’t have a friend, or even a man, there with her.

“No, actually. I’m here with my fiancé.”

She looked directly into her enemy’s eyes and watched Melanie’s blonde brows fly up toward her hairline.

“I didn’t know you were engaged.”

“Why would you?”

“True,” Melanie said with a wry twist of the mouth. “Where is he?”

“He’s…” Lindsay looked at where she’d last seen Malik and saw him coming toward them. “There he is.”

She almost jumped into his arms as he strolled up holding two glasses of wine.

“Hi,” he said, nodding at Melanie. He handed one of the glasses to Lindsay. “Thought you might be thirsty.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.” She smiled up at him with an extra sugary smile.

One of Malik’s eyebrows shot up.

“Honey, this is Melanie Reed. She’s married to my ex-boyfriend, Shawn. Remember I told you about him?” She hadn’t told him anything of the sort but hoped he’d catch on fast.

“Nice to meet you.” He and Melanie shook hands.

“Keeping secrets, I see,” Melanie said.

Lindsay forced out a peal of laughter. “Secrets? No. We wanted to maintain our privacy, that’s all. And we wanted to take our time and do things right. No shotgun wedding for us. Oops.” Lindsay covered her mouth and fake laughed, enjoying the two bright spots of color that filled the other woman’s cheeks.

Tension filled Malik’s arm as Melanie fiddled with her purse.

“That’s nice. Well, um, I’ll see you all later. Gonna go find Shawn. Congratulations to you both.”

“Buh-bye,” Lindsay sang as she walked away.

She shifted away from Malik, but he tightened the hold on her arm and yanked her hard against his body.

“Ouch,” she whispered.

“We gotta talk.” He put down their glasses and hauled her toward the far end of the room, away from most of the people milling about. Standing with his back to the room and blocking her from view, he asked, “What was that catty crap back there? Why were you going at her like that? What’s your beef with her?”

“First of all, calm down. She’s awful. That bitch stole my man five years ago when he cheated on me with her. As if that wasn’t enough, she very conveniently got pregnant and he had to marry her. She got the ring. I didn’t. So don’t be fooled by the fake sweet act.”

“A woman can’t steal a man. He’s not a damn purse or car.”

“Well then, I guess I’m just a bitch.”

“Nah, you’re a softie.”

She laughed. “Who’s going to believe that?”

“I do. I see it.”

She hated him right then, because she felt like he saw the part of her she was trying to hide. “You don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

“I know you need to be careful. That stunt you pulled, calling her out like that, could backfire.”

“Backfire how? There’s nothing she could say or do to me that would make me care. I don’t have to be nice to her.”

“Maybe you should shift some of that anger at him, since he was the one who cheated.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of anger for both of them. And do me a favor. Don’t tell me how to feel or how to act.” Lindsay stalked away, leaving him behind.

Some time later, Lindsay stood on the concrete balcony outside the double doors of the venue. A nick of guilt pricked her chest at the way she’d talked to Malik. She shouldn’t have taken out her anger on him but resented the way he’d immediately come to Melanie’s defense. He didn’t know how hurt she’d been after her breakup with Shawn, the insecurities she’d experienced.

Shawn Reed was the reason Lindsay hadn’t had a boyfriend in five years. She’d had lovers, but no boyfriends. Baring your soul to the person you loved shouldn’t mean losing them, but that’s exactly what happened. Honesty was not always the best policy.

Before she found out he’d cheated and gotten Melanie pregnant, she’d told Shawn the truth about how Steele had been her last name in Kansas, up until her mother remarried when Lindsay turned five. She no longer carried that name because of the shame associated with it. When she was old enough to fully understand what happened, her mother explained that when she married Tyrus Winthrop, it was a new start for them and she’d wanted Lindsay to have a clean slate—without the baggage that came with the Steele name.

She thought Shawn would understand. After all, his family was in advertising and he understood about rebranding. Instead, he broke up with her only days later, and when she’d tried to reconcile, he’d told her about Melanie’s pregnancy. She couldn’t stay at Reed Advertising after that. It was too much. She’d lost the man she thought she’d marry and her job within weeks of each other.

Two years later, still not completely recovered, she learned Melanie was pregnant with baby number two. She shouldn’t have thrown herself at Malik, but she’d needed to feel better about herself, which didn’t work when he rejected her. She knew the truth about that night now, but doubling down and concentrating on making her podcast a success had been the right move. She could now enjoy the fruits of her labor.

“What the hell did you say to my wife?”

Lindsay turned and faced an angry Shawn and the scowl on his brown face. She straightened her shoulders. “What’s the matter? Did your delicate little flower run crying to you because I made one little comment she couldn’t handle?”

“Does it make you feel good to keep coming at her like that?”

“Me? She’s the one who’s always made a point to come at me. Why don’t you tell her to leave me alone, and maybe she won’t get her wittle feelings hurt.” She said the last few words in a baby voice.

Pushing away from the railing, she intended to walk right by Shawn, but he grabbed her wrist and dragged her into a corner of the balcony.

Lindsay glared at him and tugged, but Shawn’s fingers only tightened around her wrist, and she realized with a start that no one knew they were out there. The pulse beat in her throat tripled in speed. Still, she added steel to her voice when she said, “Take your goddamn hands off me.”

Shawn got in her face. “Leave Melanie alone. Don’t forget I know about your sordid family history. You have a great career now. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to lose everything you’ve worked so hard for when your secret gets out.”

Her gut contracted at the menacing threat. “I couldn’t care less. Tell the whole universe for all I care. I didn’t do those things, my father did. No one with any sense would blame me for his actions.”

Shawn’s eyes narrowed. “You sure about that?”

“I said let go!” Lindsay tugged again, needing to escape him and the doubts he’d resurrected.

One minute Shawn was holding her wrist in a vise, the next a thick hand latched onto his shoulder. Shawn’s face contorted into a pained grimace, and he lowered slowly to his knees. Malik stood behind him, and whatever hold Malik had on him, he couldn’t move or say much except expel a soft whimper from his open mouth.

Finally, Malik let go and Shawn let out an audible gasp and clutched his shoulder. Malik walked around Shawn and stood between him and Lindsay. He was so big, she couldn’t see her ex anymore.

He bent to the other man’s face. “That hold I just put on you, that was me being nice. It’s nothing compared to what I’ll do if you put your fucking hands on her again. We clear?”

She didn’t see him, but Shawn must have nodded because Malik straightened. She eased to the other side of him but stayed a little behind the protection of his body.

“You owe my fiancée an apology,” Malik said.

Lindsay glanced at his profile. He spoke calmly and in a measured tone, but his jaw was set with the same rigid tension as the rest of his body.

“I’m sorry,” Shawn said, rubbing the area Malik had gripped.

“She can’t hear you, and you need to look at her when you say it.”

Shawn lifted his gaze and swallowed. Lindsay almost felt sorry for him.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come at you like that.”

“Is that good enough for you?” Malik asked her.

Lindsay nodded. “Yes.”

Shawn rose from the ground.

“Thanks for your cooperation,” Malik said. He stuck a hand in his pocket and stepped to Shawn, who immediately backed up two steps. “If I find out you’ve touched my fiancée again, I’ll come see you. Then you can get in my face and grab me, and we’ll see how that goes.”

Shawn scurried off and left them alone.

“You okay?” Malik took her hand and gently rubbed his thumb over the sunflower on the inside of her wrist. His finger was rough because of the work he did, but the gentle touch warmed her insides and settled her frayed nerves. It also made her yearn for more.

She pulled away. “Don’t do this.”

“Do what?”

“Try to save me. I’m not a damsel in distress. I can take care of myself. I got this.”

“And I got you.”

They stared at each other on the semi-lit balcony for a few moments before Lindsay glanced away. He saw too much and made her want to reach for more. The idea of something deeper gave her hope, but she couldn’t risk having those types of thoughts. Not when none of this was real. Not when their “relationship” would be over in a few months.

“Let’s go back inside,” he said.

Malik extended his hand, and she took it.