Twenty-one

T revalian had found the perfect view. From the balcony he’d watched Shaler’s grand entrance. Hearing someone bounding up the stairs, he’d turned and forced a collision, to win sympathy over suspicion.

Now, on his knees, he patted the floor searching for his cane, even though he could see it to his right.

“Sorry.” The man who’d knocked into him was profoundly good-looking, and polite in his supplication.

“No problem,” he said, moving tentatively toward the stairs and grasping for the handrail.

“You’re a long way from the party,” the man observed.

“Bird’s-eye view.” Trevalian openly smirked at his own joke. “I was taking the dime tour.” He was now halfway down the stairs, and with the man behind him he couldn’t risk observing Shaler as he’d intended. But given that he’d counted at least four security escorts around her, it was better not to test their abilities to spot people like him.

“If you give me a minute, I could show you back downstairs. I’ve got a fifty-cent tour that might beat your dime.”

“I can find my way, thank you.” He added to his voice the curt edge of a man who was used to and resented being patronized because of his disability. He followed the banister around the turn of the landing and continued down the stairs.

A gorgeous redhead arrived at the base of the stairs. “Hello,” she said.

“Hello,” Trevalian answered, looking in her general direction and raising his head like a dog sniffing the wind. The air smelled of ambrosia, and something earthy and pungent.

“You didn’t happen to see…that is, I’m sorry…Did anyone pass by you just now?” she asked.

Trevalian knew intuitively to stay out of this. The man who’d run into him had clearly been in a hurry: but to make a love nest or to avoid one?

And then, from above, “Up here, Ailia.”

Her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkled. “Excuse me,” she said, hurrying past him, leaving Trevalian awash in her complex scents, and, to his surprise, aroused.