Free Crazy Nights (The Barrington Billionaires Book 3) by Danielle Stewart

make the call and tell her to come back. Whatever reason you give, I don’t care. Just get her out of Boston. She won’t listen to me, but she’s on your payroll. I can’t think when she’s around. I can’t focus.”
    “Fine,” Mathew agreed. “Tomorrow. I’ll call her and tell her I need her back here. I won’t give her a choice. But tonight you go to the symphony.”
    “You’re going to owe me,” Emmitt growled.
    “I guess that would be true if I hadn’t bailed you out of a million things before this. Pull all of this shit off and we’ll call it even.” Those numbers were pretty accurate though he hated to admit it.
    Emmitt hung up the phone and checked his watch. The symphony would start in an hour. It would be tight since he still had to get himself a tux and have a car service lined up, but it could be done. He called down to Evie’s room but there was no answer. The poor thing was probably crying in her pillow, eating the other half of the room service menu. A few dozen calls to tux rental places and he finally had everything lined up.
    His tux, though a bit snug, was pressed and his shoes were shining as he made the walk toward her hotel room. A few knocks on the door and finally he heard her answer.
    “Oh you’re early; hang on just a minute.” Her tiny voice was more bubbly than usual.
    “Early?” Emmitt asked, wondering if Mathew had called ahead to tell Evie the symphony was back on.
    “Emmitt?” she asked, swinging the door open and sticking out her foot to hold it as she slid one shining earring into place. “What are you doing here?” She was wearing a champagne colored dress that looked as natural as skin, hugging her figure snuggly. The elegant bones of her shoulder and collar held up the thin silky straps.
    “I’m taking you to the symphony,” he announced as though it should have been obvious.
    “You said you weren’t,” she stammered. “You told me to leave.” Her eyes were roaming over his tuxedo as though he might vanish any second. And she was right. He was on the verge of running.
    “So you decided to take Sophie up on her offer of some stranger going with you? You’d go out with some guy you know nothing about in a city you know nothing about just because some other stranger told you it was fine?” The idea of another man’s arm looping around hers as he escorted her up the marble stairs of the symphony hall made him sick. Some pompous, well dressed, rich bastard would be whispering compliments in her ear tonight. He was the only well-dressed rich bastard who should be allowed to do that. Because the other guy would only have the intention of getting her exactly where Emmitt already had. The difference was that guy wouldn’t walk away. He wouldn’t leave her . . . how did she say it? Bare and ready.
    “Are you going to take me to the symphony?” she asked in a hushed voice, like one used to keep a spooked animal calm. Her head was cast down but her eyes peered up, batting under her long mascara-covered lashes.
    “Yes,” he said as though it were the most obvious answer. “Yes. I am taking you to the symphony.”
    “All right then.” She smiled brightly and then dulled it suddenly, looking afraid to come on too strong. “I’ll meet you in the lobby in five minutes. I need to make a phone call.”
    “Good,” he asserted, shaking his head. “Yes. Good. The symphony with me. That’s what we’re doing.” Backing into the hallway he heard the hotel room door close. “Good,” he said again, now trying to convince himself this was the right move.
    The image of her flowing blond hair in luscious curls and the tiny drop necklace that sank down to her cleavage was a powerful memory but instantly dulled by the reality when she stepped off the elevator, and he had a chance to see it all again. The subdued pink gloss on her lips and the bright white and pale purple shadow over her eyes made the blue in them sparkle.
    “You look . . .” he murmured,