Trey just smiled and winked at her and she knew she lost. She hadn’t just lost the argument. She’d lost the battle, lost the war, lost herself.
I’ll buy you one. See you there, Ambi.”
CHAPTER 16
Trey
The Christmas party was everything Ambi promised and more. Not that she’d given him a said list of promises, but he knew her, and he knew her work ethic and he knew that any party she planned would be nothing short of amazing.
It went off without a hitch. The venue was gorgeous, the dinner amazing, the entertainment top-notch.
The only thing missing was Ambi herself. Which was par for the course, given that she’d managed to evade him since that day in the janitor’s closet.
She’d promised him that she’d come. Trey spent most of the night looking for her, trying to catch a glimpse of her sparkling eyes or her raven black hair. As he said he would, he’d bought her a golden-hued dress that was probably too fancy for an office Christmas party and had it delivered to her place. She’d signed for it, so he knew she’d received it.
Finally, as the band was starting up and people began to mingle, get even drunker, and do stupid things like attempt to bust a move on the large dance floor, Trey caught a flash of gold. Intrigued, he wandered up the set of stairs to the second floor of the ballroom that overlooked everything going on below. Most people didn’t actually know they were allowed up there, so the place was pretty quiet.
There were only two people up there that he could see.
Ambi, dressed in the dazzling gold gown. She was a vision in the tight-fitting dress. It was cut daringly low in the front and the back and hugged her curves like it was made for her. Her raven hair was piled into a thick mass of curls at the base of her neck. Her makeup was sparse, but as usual, it only illuminated her natural beauty.
The second person, he realized, hovering near Ambi like a shadow, was his father.
A jolt of panic curdled his stomach and Trey burst off the stairs and stalked towards Ambi. His father reached out and shook her hand, all business as usual, but dropped it a few seconds later, like she had a contagious disease.
He glanced up when he saw Trey coming, but Dale spoke to Ambi, not him. “Amberina, what a surprise. It’s a pleasure to see you again.” His tone indicated that by pleasure, he meant the exact opposite.
Trey hurried to interject. He sensed the imminent disaster looming in the air. This was not how he imagined the party going. He imagined finding Ambi the minute he walked in, romancing her with a few drinks, sitting down to dinner with her, then slow dancing her right into his bed by the end of the evening.
Not only had she managed to evade him for the entire evening, now his father showed up to ruin everything.
“I should have known that Trey would hire you, given your current profession. You’ve done an excellent job, I must say.” Dale glanced his way. “If you have any designs on a future though, I would leave it at the party, my dear.”
Ambi’s face turned a brilliant shade of scarlet. Trey gulped hard. How could his father stand there and say something like that? Outright threaten her. What did that even mean, anyway? How far was he willing to take it to keep them apart?
“Uh- Dale- you should probably head down. You have to give a speech in ten minutes.” Trey’s eyes flicked to his father. He never called him dad when anyone else was within hearing distance. He barely called him dad at all. It felt like a long time since Dale had actually acted like a father.
Of course, his father wanted to save face. He was too diplomatic to admit that there was no speech planned. Instead, he turned to Trey and decided to completely reduce him to ash on the spot.
“If you’re going to throw away everything, we’ve worked so hard for, do it for the right reasons. Do it because you’re thinking straight and not because you’re being duped by a pretty face. Beauty doesn’t last. A name and a legacy, that lasts forever. Don’t taint yours by being stupid.”
“Um… I’m kind of right here,” Ambi mumbled. If it was possible, the red tinting her cheeks deepened to an even darker shade of scarlet. She was wearing an expression somewhere between hurt and disbelief that Dale would again, so casually and blatantly assume that she was only there for the money.
He realized his own face was probably also a brilliant shade of red. “I am thinking clearly.”
“She won’t take you without the money. She’s only here because of what you can give her,” Dale spluttered.