Read Online Passionate Persuasion (Entangled Indulgence) by Rosemary Clement-Moore - Free Book Online Page B

catering staff, as well as the musicians waiting their call to the stage. Kiara didn’t manage to get there, though, before Lydia Benwick caught her. Literally caught her, linking their arms and changing Kiara’s direction toward a table near the side of the tent.
    “Katya, darling! That was beautiful! Come over here with Sylvie and me. There’s someone I want you to meet.”
    Kiara resigned herself, because she liked Mrs. Benwick, and she was important on the symphony board. She just hoped this introduction of hers went better than the last one.
    “Sylvie” was actually Sophie, who was well into her latest martini, and standing next to a Lady Arts Patron of the Stately Elder variety. The kind who wouldn’t shut up once she started talking.
    Kiara tried to make a break for it, but Lydia Benwick was a force to be reckoned with. “Let me introduce you to Mrs. Kellynch,” said Mrs. Benwick. “She is one of our music lovers here tonight.”
    “So nice to meet you,” Kiara told the lady and her chins. Beside her, Sophie lifted her glass in a “We who are about to die salute you” way that did not bode well.
    It turned out “Nice to meet you” was all Mrs. Kellynch needed to start talking. And talking. And talking more, without stop. Kiara couldn’t figure out why Mrs. Benwick had called her over when a potted plant would have done just as well as the woman’s audience.
    On the plus side, all Kiara had to do was stand there and nod. That’s what she was doing when she heard a familiar voice from the other side of the marquee’s fabric wall.
    “Hand me that flat of highball glasses,” said Alex, “and stop talking about feelings . You’re freaking me out.”
    “Look,” said another man, and she was pretty sure it was Greg. “I’m not saying we should go all girly and braid each other’s hair. I’m saying that you should go talk to her.”
    She could hear them so well, they must be directly on the other side of the tent wall. A suspicious glance at Sophie and Mrs. Benwick revealed nothing but blank faces as they nodded in cadence with Mrs. Kellynch’s monologue.
    “I’m giving her space,” said Alex. His friend must have given him a look, because he amended, “Okay. I’m giving myself space. I was so caught up in… well, in her that I didn’t think about the consequences.”
    “Hang on. Like ‘didn’t use a condom’ consequences?”
    There was a rattle of glassware like Alex might have given his friend the answer that deserved, which Kiara would have appreciated more if she weren’t about to incinerate from embarrassment. Was Sophie hearing this?
    No, she didn’t look like she was. Kiara realized that only she had edged closer to the wall.
    “I mean emotional consequences,” Alex said, like it had been dragged out of him.
    Greg said, “Buddy, it’s been obvious to everyone but you that you’ve been emotional over this woman since she walked into the pub.”
    “I’ve been attracted to her since she walked into the pub,” Alex corrected.
    “Tomayto, tomahto,” said Greg.
    There was a pause, and Kiara had to stop herself from leaning in. Then Alex said, with a soft laugh, “Maybe. She said sort of the same thing. Love and sex have always stayed separate for me, except with her.”
    Why aren’t you telling me this?
    “Why aren’t you telling her this?” Greg asked.
    “Because she didn’t corner me and start hounding me about my feelings like a damn girl , that’s why.”
    “Dude, did you not just hear her play? She laid her feelings out there for everyone to see. She might as well have hung a big sign that said, ‘I am in love with Alex Drake.’ Everyone in there would corner you to find out what you think of that, if they could. But I’m your best friend, so it’s my job.”
    Now she did lean in. She gave up all pretense of listening to Mrs. Chins, to anything else but the conversation on the other side of the wall. It was totally classless and tacky, but she was just a