Chapter Four Hundred and Eighty Eight

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Explain.” he said.

She was only too happy to do so. “I spent three hours as the butt of every joke in the room. Poor hopeless Tess, throwing herself at the gorgeous Dash Black,” she mimicked with savage pain. “Did you see how he had to practically tear her arms off of him? We always knew she was hopeless, but to be that desperate.”

The cruel voices echoed in her head as if it had just happened and the painful mortification sliced her heart.

“This cannot be true. I kissed you. Surely the other guests saw that. Seriously! I rejected that tall blonde’s advances to be with you.”

“Oh, yes, the model.” Tess's body went taut with remembered emotion. “You know that old saying about a woman scorned? Well, she epitomized it. She told anyone who would listen that I pushed her out of the way to get to you.”

Without the model’s interference, Dash's rejection would have remained a personal source of pain, not become a public humiliation.