“Shit!” I hiss, wrapping my arms around her to catch her before she falls to the glistening marble floor. One of my arms is wrapped around her waist while I have her head cradled in the palm of my other hand.
My eyes search her beautiful face and then it hits me. It smacks me directly in the face. I’ve never been this close toSelene. I quickly take inventory of the tiny golden flecks in her otherwise intense green eyes, counting every lash surrounding them. I note the way her bright red-painted lips part as she breathes in a shaky breath. She’s a bright fucking ray of sunshine in my arms.
“Holt.” My name falling from her mouth on a whisper sounds like fucking heaven.
“Are you okay?” I ask, not even attempting to straighten either of us up. We’re caught in suspension in the middle of this hallway, bent over as if I’ve dipped Selene in the middle of a dance. The bubble we’re in is a nice delay from what I know is coming when I step out into that ballroom.
“Yeah.” Her chest heaves before she swallows. “Thank you for catching me.”
I smirk before chuckling. “I didn’t think I had a choice.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her eyebrows pinch, and her mouth dips into a ghost of a frown.
“I didn’t think you lying on the floor with a split skull and a pool of blood would have complimented this dress.” My smile widens, and my gaze flicks to her chest.
Her mouth falls open, but her eyebrows lose their tension. “Oh, right. No… it wouldn’t. My day has already been quite shitty, so that would have been the icing on the cake.”
Shitty? Why has her day been shitty?
I want to ask her, but I don’t. I’m at a loss for words while staring at her beauty. She’s always been stunning, but being this close to her feels as if I’ve been launched into another galaxy. Selene has stolen the breath from my lungs—a feeling I’ve never felt before. Not this intensely, anyway.
Her eyes search my face. The tip of her tongue pushes out, and she sweeps it across her bottom lip. Then she looks up and over my shoulder.
After following what’s caught her attention, I see Vanessa standing behind me, watching us.
“Can you let go of me now?” Selene asks, still draped in my arms.
I whip my head back to her, and my face falls. “Yeah, of course.”
I lift Selene, and her grip slips away from my arms, the absence of her touch almost immediate. Smoothing her hands across the front of her silky, yellow dress, she straightens herself out before fixing her hair and sweeping it away from her face.
Her dress clings effortlessly to her body, gliding against the full curves of her hips. The front dips between her breasts, revealing the soft, supple flesh and the pale blue stone resting there.
She tilts her head to the side. “Thanks again for catching me.”
“Well, I owed it to you.” I run my hand through my hair, trying not to notice the eyes of passersby clinging to me longer than necessary. “It was me who bumped into you.”
“Right.” She smiles. “You did.”
Raking my eyes over her once more, as if I haven’t already gotten my fill, I gesture toward her. “You look beautiful tonight, by the way.”
Her cheeks flush red.Always so modest, Wallflower.
“Thank you. You two look great as well.” She gestures between Vanessa and me.
My eyebrows pinch, and I open my mouth to tell her Vanessa and I aren’t an item, that we didn’t come here together, and I sure as fuck don’t think of her like that. I’m done with using other women as a distraction, hoping that this feeling I have for Selene will go away. My hardened dick beneath my Armani slacks can attest to that.
She hitches her thumb over her shoulder and half turnsaway. “I was searching for the girls, so….” Her words are clipped, and her eyes widen. She does a double take when she eyes the man stepping out of the men’s bathroom at the end of the hall, near the entrance to the ballroom.
The man emerges, tucking in the front of his button-down white shirt before closing the single button of his bland, generic gray suit. He stops, glances up and down the hall, then looks down at his phone.
I recognize him. He’s the man Selene had her arm wrapped around the night of The Veiled Door’s re-opening just weeks ago.
A lump lodges itself in my throat, but I force myself to keep my cool and not let my inner feelings show.
“How are you, by the way?” I ask Selene, not wanting her to leave just yet. If she does, I’ll be forced to face my reality unfolding in real time.
Selene turns and looks up at me. Her expression softens. “I’m sorry, I really should get going.” She gestures over her shoulder again toward the man she’s been dating.
