Chapter 505 You Do Not Know Him
Delia’s POV
The waiter approached our table. Tessa ordered a salad she clearly had no intention of eating. I ordered the same, knowing I would barely taste it. The waiter refilled my glass because I had already finished the first one. Tessa noticed but said nothing. Somehow, that was worse than making a comment. She was watching me closely and taking note of everything.
Her question remained between us, more distracting than the food we had ordered.
Why did she want to know whether Elliot was married? Why was she wearing that red dress? Why did her lips look as though she had dressed them specifically for someone to kiss? I imagined Elliot touching her, and suddenly I wanted to snap the stem of my wineglass. He did not belong to her. Of course, he did not belong to me either, but that did nothing to ease the jealousy. I had been on my knees for him the previous night, and now this woman was sitting across from me, asking whether he had a wife, as though she was checking whether he was available.
I cleared my throat.
“He is not married,” I answered. “He has never been married.”
“Oh.” She looked pleased with my answer and took a small, careful sip of wine, completely unlike the way I had been drinking. “So he did not lie to me.”
My thoughts immediately began racing. What exactly had Elliot told her? Had they slept together? Had he taken her to bed and made her believe she was special? I knew what he was capable of, and I knew how easily a woman could mistake his attention for something meaningful. If he had told her he was single, that was true. But if he had made her believe she mattered to him, that was another story. I had no idea which version she was talking about.
“What are you talking about?”
I leaned back in my chair because I was afraid that if I leaned forward, I might slap her. And knowing Tessa, she would turn that slap into a headline before the day was over.
Tessa placed her fork on the table. She had barely touched her food, confirming that lunch had never been the real reason for inviting me.
“Actually, Delia, I am going to be your mother-in-law. Elliot asked me out.”
I burst out laughing so loudly that I nearly knocked over my wineglass. A woman at the next table glanced in our direction before quickly looking away, pretending she had not noticed the disturbance.
“You?” I laughed again. “With that stiff ass, you think you are going to be my mother-in-law? Is my father-in-law blind?”
Her shy expression disappeared immediately. Good. I preferred dealing with the real Tessa.
“Well,” she snapped, “with that ass of yours, you could not keep Julian Windsor. And nobody is even sure you can keep a man like Noah Vesper.”
For a moment, everything around me seemed to go quiet.
Is he fucking her?
I studied her red dress, her lipstick, and the confidence with which she spoke Elliot’s name. Elliot did not ask women out because he wanted relationships. He used them. If he had already touched her, it would explain why she was sitting there looking so pleased with herself, imagining she might become someone’s wife. I had been beneath him only last night, and now Tessa was talking about becoming my husband’s stepmother. I knew the jealousy was ridiculous, considering Elliot was not mine, but I could not stop feeling it.
“He asked you out?” I repeated. “Are you sure? Or did he stand too close to you, and you decided that meant he wanted to marry you?”
“He was very clear.”
“Elliot is never clear unless he wants something. So what did you give him?”
“Nothing you would understand.”
“Try me. I have sat at his table, and I have sat at Julian’s. I know exactly how men like that treat women who show up wearing red dresses and imagining they are on dates. They let you talk. They let you believe whatever you want. But they do not take you home to meet the family. They take what they want and send you straight back to your little livestream.”
Tessa’s smile returned, although this time it was much colder. She poured herself more wine without offering me any. I reached for the bottle and poured my own glass. My hand was steady, but my thoughts were anything but calm.
“Jealousy is not a good look on you,” she remarked. “You already lost one Windsor. Do not embarrass yourself in a restaurant just because a better racer might be sitting above you at Christmas.”
“You are not sitting above me, and you are certainly not sitting at our family table. If Elliot asked you out, he wanted publicity, not a wife.” I laughed bitterly. “Mother-in-law? You cannot even finish a salad, and you are already imagining Christmas with my family. You want Noah to acknowledge you. You want me to give up my place at the table. Perhaps you should buy yourself a mirror first.”
“We will see.”
“No, we will not. If Elliot wanted a wife, he would not start with a racer who lost to someone wearing a mask and is now desperately looking for a powerful man to make her relevant. He certainly would not start with you.”
Her eyes flashed with anger. I knew I had struck a nerve by mentioning the race, and I was pleased.
“You do not know him,” she snapped.
“I know men like him. I married into a family full of them. I have watched how they operate. Men like Elliot do not ask permission. They take what they want. If you honestly believe one date makes you part of this family, then you are far more naive than you pretend to be.”