I stopped, staring dazedly around the room.

… and he would choose them over me.

Like always I’d be second best.

Needing Caine, I scoured the room for him, but I couldn’t see him.

“He left the room with Regina Mason.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Phoebe, who was standing with one arm wrapped around her waist while she casually sipped her champagne. I would have expected there to be spite in her eyes, but to my surprise there was only begrudged sympathy.

I stiffened at the sympathy. “Left?”

She nodded her pretty head toward where I’d just come in.

I decided not to mention that it was slightly stalkerish of her to be watching Caine, and instead nodded my thanks and headed back out into the hall. They were nowhere to be seen, which meant searching. I decided to start by checking the rooms on the right off the large entrance hall.

My heart was beating faster now for a different reason.

Stop. You’re being silly. Caine would never … There will be a rational explanation.

Hearing the rumbling murmurs of a male voice down the corridor, I walked quietly along it, trying to calm my trembling. As I neared a door I recognized the baritones as Caine’s. But I didn’t recognize the female voice.

“After all these years that’s really quite disappointing,” she said as I approached.

I stopped in the doorway and peered through the narrow opening into what looked like a cozy sitting room.

All the air seemed to go out of my lungs.

Caine was standing by the window and an attractive woman was pressed against him. He held her by her upper arms as she stroked his chest with her fingertips. “Regina,” he murmured.

Uncertainty froze me as I waited to see how this situation would unfold.

“You’re really saying no to me.” She pouted her surgically enhanced lips at him. My eyes narrowed on her unnaturally smooth face. This woman was much older than I’d first thought. Who the hell was she?

Get your hands off him!

I prepared to barge in.

Caine gently pressed her away, but his features were hard. For the first time I noticed how hostile he was. Extremely so. “I really am.”

She raised an eyebrow at him as she smoothed her hair back off her face. “You know that’s pretty risky.”

He scowled dangerously. “Don’t play games with me, Regina. I will ruin you.”

As if she suddenly realized who she was dealing with, Regina gave him a tight smile. “No need to get vicious, Caine.”

Watching the muscle flex in Caine’s jaw, I decided enough was enough. I didn’t know who this woman was or what was going on, but I wasn’t leaving them to this cozy little argument. I pushed the door open and they both looked around with sharp jerks of their heads.

Caine’s eyes narrowed on me.

Regina smiled smugly.

I met her smugness with a steely stare of my own. “If you’ll excuse us,” I said with all the imperiousness I could muster.

Taking the hint, she moved to pass me, her beautiful sapphire gown swishing around her legs as she did so. She flashed me a catty smile, one that was tight more out of physical limitations than from emotion.

The door closed behind her and I looked at Caine in question. “What was that all about?”

Instead of answering me he glowered in outrage. “Were you fucking spying on me?”

I flinched at the nastiness in his tone. “No, I was not. I had an altercation with my grandfather and I needed you. Phoebe told me you’d gone this way.”

I thought my explanation would cool his temper, but to my surprise his fury seemed only to be increasing. Far beyond what the situation warranted. I watched him pace the floor like a tormented bull, surprised that smoke wasn’t billowing out of his nostrils.

That uneasiness I’d been feeling transformed into dread, a heavy, sinking dread in the pit of my stomach. “Caine, what’s going on?” I said quietly. “Who was she?”

“It was nothing.” He stopped suddenly and I saw it happen. I saw him closing down, shutting me out. “Let’s go back to the party.”

“No.” I stumbled in front of the door, blocking the exit. “You’re going to tell me what’s going on here.”

“None of your business, Alexa.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong. I’m pretty sure you’d want to know if I was locked away in a room with some guy while he held me in his arms.”

His dark eyes flashed. “You’re misconstruing the situation, and I don’t have the time or the patience to deal with your unwarranted jealousy this evening.”

Outrage burned in my blood. “Don’t you dare speak to me like that. What the hell is wrong with you? You’ve been acting like a caustic bastard all night.”

“Caustic bastard.” He sneered. “Not very ladylike, Alexa.”

“Don’t.” I gritted my teeth. “Don’t act like this. Please.”

Something in my face made his soften infinitesimally. “Not here,” he finally said. “This isn’t the time or the place. Let’s just go back out there.”

“Later, then?”

“Lexie.” He moved toward me and wrapped a hand around my arm. Not sure what he was doing, I allowed him to gently tug me forward.

To my annoyance he released me only to walk out the door.

That horrible sense of foreboding was back.

CHAPTER 23

My fingernails bit into my palms as the driver pulled the car down my street.