"Who is that, darling?" Gwyneth suddenly asked me, using the old familiar pet name from when we were kids.
"Who?" I was startled from my thoughts and stammering over my own tongue.
"That girl you can't keep your eyes off of. Is she my replacement?" she teased, but her taunt had hit too close to the mark.
It broke the spell I'd been cast under and I was once again able to move and speak. I saw Kayla start to turn away, and I knew that in a moment, she'd slip back out the door and I would lose her. I had to act quickly, so I threw up my arm and called out to her jovially. "Kayla, there you are. Come here, I want to introduce you to everybody."
She strolled across the floor with gently swaying hips, the perfect blend of graceful and sultry. When she got to me, I pulled her into my arms.
"I've been waiting for you, but the way you look is well worth it," I said and she blushed under the compliment. "These are my friends from college: Victor Bruckheimer and Gwyneth Manzranni. This is..."
I was about to introduce Kayla by name when she abruptly cut me off. Holding out her palm to shake hands with Gwyneth, she said clearly, "I'm his girlfriend, Kayla Brandt."
Gwyneth’s eyes grew wide as she shook hands with Kayla, and then she turned to me with a mischievous wink and said, "So, she is my replacement."
I was caught completely off guard. It was obvious Kayla had seen me dancing with Gwyneth and wanted to establish that we were a couple to drive away the competition. I didn't know what to do or say.
In reality, this was my first date with Kayla. The afternoon under the oak tree had been part of work and the night together after the cover shoot couldn't quite be counted as a date, either. This party was the first time I had asked her out and we'd gone on a planned act
ivity together. Did that make her my girlfriend? If not, and I called her on it in front of Gwyneth, Kayla would be humiliated. Not to mention, Gwyneth had made the situation so much worse by making it clear to Kayla that she was a former girlfriend of mine.
I was faced with two deadly choices: agree with Kayla and be trapped in the role of boyfriend for the first time in 25 years, or denounce her and lose the chance to ever get to spend time with her again. As much as I hated being bound in a romantic relationship, the alternative was too horrible to fathom. So, with a huge grin on my face, I put my arm around Kayla's petite waist, stared into her crystal blue eyes, and said, "Yes, she is."
Chapter Seventeen
Kayla
I'd envisioned that walking into the ballroom at the hotel would be like a scene in a fairytale movie. The room would fall silent as the princess entered and all the guests stopped to stare at her in awestruck wonder. Then, the crowd would part as the prince stepped forward, took her hand, and bowed. She would accept his invitation with a smile and they would spend the evening dancing as they gazed into each other's eyes.
That had been the fantasy, but the reality was quite different. When I walked into the party, not only did no one notice, but I was shocked to find Ethan dancing in the arms of another woman.
"Who is she?" I asked a nearby guest as I tried to hide my annoyance.
"That's Gwyneth Manzranni," the thin woman with snow white hair leaned in close and put her hand up to her mouth for a conspiratorial whisper. "Rumors are she and Ethan Colson used to be a couple, but it's been over between them for years. Looks like that's changed. Good for him. I always thought it was sad that he was such a dedicated bachelor. It's always so much nicer to see a man like that fall in love with the right woman and finally settle down."
"When did they date?"
"I think they met in college. I hear they dated for years, and then she broke it off just a year or two after her started the company. I bet she was kicking herself for not marrying him when he was young and broke so half this empire would be hers, too. But who knows? Maybe she wanted to get married and he just wouldn't commit. That happens a lot in this town with many wealthy, handsome, young men. Then they mature a little bit and figure out how lonely life is. They go back to the one who got away and finally get married."
"You think she's the one who got away?" My stomach was flipping upside down, and I was grateful for the tight fit of my dress to hold it in place.
"I don't know. The rumors were it devastated him when they broke up. He never speaks about it in interviews."
"He doesn't talk about his past much in interviews, at all. I think he's just shy about personal matters," I said, still trying to defend him for some reason.
"Not just personal matters. He's secretive about a lot of things. He won't even talk about how Speed Motorcycles was founded or how he even came up with the name. Interviewers always ask, and he always refuses to answer. In fact, I saw him do it earlier today when he first came in."
"Why won't he talk about the company?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "No one knows, but it has to be something bad to keep it so secret."
I found myself beginning to feel swayed by her suspicious musings, but quickly shook it off. L.A. was full of gossips like her with nothing better than to do than speculate on every aspect of a person's life. I had more important things to worry about than his past, like his present where he was dancing with an ex-lover.
The paranoid old gossip wandered off as I stood there by the entrance and continued to watch my date dancing with Gwyneth.
The song came to an end, and I watched as the two of them made their way across the room to the bar where they joined a man with sandy brown hair, a muscular build, and a playful grin. He was wearing a well-cut suit by Giorgio Armani with a bowtie that gave him a sexy flair for fun.
He handed Ethan and the woman each a glass of champagne, and they drank a toast. Was it to celebrate their getting back together as a couple? Rage coursed through my veins, but I refused to cry or make a scene in the middle of such a public event. Then, Ethan suddenly caught sight of me and froze. It took several heartbeats before he blinked and waved me over, shouting out, “Kayla, there you are. Come here, I want to introduce you to everybody."