MARRYING THE ROCKSTAR (#3 ROCKSTAR SERIES)

♪ eight ♪ 🔥

The rest of the party continued without a hitch, as if nothing had ever happened. Everyone had had enough to drink to not pay any further attention to the commotion, and no one mentioned Leo's mood or my dejected face. No one pointed out Leo's storming out, my storming in, and Cameron stuck somewhere in the middle.

Leo stayed away from me, though, and almost too noticeably. I tried to follow him, tried to get close, but any time I made my way towards him, he prowled across the room to do shots with someone else. He saw me, I knew; and he was purposely postponing our discussion to better lash out at me later.

Daphne was in deep conversation with a magazine editor she admired, and I didn't want to interrupt. Sapphire was cruising about the room clinking her glass to anyone she encountered, happily buzzed.

So I stood alone by the bar, watching as my fiancé grew more and more distant with me.

I was in for a treat when we got home.

Cameron had disappeared. After I barreled out, he snuck out of the room when no one was looking and flurried down the hall to the elevator. I presumed he was waiting downstairs by Sapphire's car and wouldn't dare show his face again tonight. He'd had enough, caused enough, and I doubted Leo's security team would let him back in.

I wondered if Leo had noticed he was gone. If he cared. I wondered if he gave a shit that we weren't showing ourselves as the happy couple we portrayed in the press, and that his outburst with Cameron had a chance of making the papers if we didn't try to save face tonight.

If he didn't make an effort while we were in public, all our efforts might have been for nothing.

I played it all off as best as I could, but the rest of the evening was a stomach-ache for me. The food was sour in my belly and the liquor didn't numb me the way I'd expected it to.

I knew what was coming. And I stared at my ring lovingly, unsure how much longer I'd be allowed to wear it.

As the event died down, Sapphire came to find me, to kiss my cheeks goodbye.

"I don't think anyone else noticed too much, but I'm perceptive. I'll talk to him," she said, and I assumed she implied Cameron. She'd averted her gaze, but of course she was aware of everything that had happened. "What he did tonight was inexcusable."

In a random jolt of sympathy, I grabbed her hand. "Don't fire him." After all, he wasn't the sole responsible party for tonight's embarrassment.

Sadly, the other party wouldn't own up to that.

She squinted at me. "I wasn't going to. But why wouldn't you want him fired, after all that?"

I bit my lip. "Look, despite everything, he was once Leo's best friend. And if there's ever a chance of reconciling them..."

She studied me for a minute, then squeezed my hand. "It'll all work out, in the end. Have faith in your heart." She left another peck on my cheek and dashed off to the elevator.

Only when a majority of the guests were gone did Leo bother to check on me. "You ready?" he asked, his voice so painfully neutral, I winced. "I'd say it's time we head home."

Home—at least he didn't call it "his place", as if he'd already kicked me out without me knowing.

But his silence in the car, his refusal to sit next to me—he took up the seat across from me, instead—left an acidic taste in my mouth, a bubbling sensation in my gut.

"Leo," I said tentatively, a few minutes after the car pulled out of the venue's underground parking lot. "Talk to me."

He shook his head. "Not here. Not yet."