When she was a few steps below, Ryan dragged a thoughtful gaze over my dress, lingering on the flare of my hips.
“Here’s what we’re doing.” He gestured to the backs of my knees and under my arms. It looked like he was calling a play. “I’m going to carry you?—”
“You’re gonna fucking what?”
Fully unbothered by my screeching, he continued, “But there are some narrow turns. I need you to keep your head here”—he patted his chest—“and your legs tucked in tight.”
“And what about the part where this is the fifth floor and I am not a small woman?”
“If I wasn’t worried about nailing your head on the banister or messing up your hair, I’d throw you over my shoulder and run.” He slipped an arm around my waist and the other behind my knees, and scooped me off the stair. “Be a good girl for me and keep your head down.”
I curled in on myself as much as this dress would allow and tucked my head under his chin. He shifted his hold on me a bit and I waited for some kind of grunt or groan, athis is quite a hefty packageoryou’re a sturdy one, but none came.
“Ines,” he said, not even an ounce of distress in that commanding tone, “let’s roll.”
And true to his word, he damn near jogged down every flight of these steep, narrow stairs and out onto the sidewalk. He wasn’t even breathing heavily when he set me down. No sheen of sweat on his brow, no flush of pink coloring his cheeks.
He stared at me while he slipped on his jacket and straightened his cuffs. When he was finished, he took a step closer, and then another. In the corner of my eye, I saw Ines hand him the cape. He swept a hand under my hair and I felt the soft fabric settle over my shoulders, against the backs of my arms.
“You look like the first day of spring after the coldest, most brutal winter,” he said. “No one is going to be able to take their eyes off you.”
“Oh,” I sighed.
With his fingers at my throat, he snapped the clasp into place as he stared down at me. “There,” he whispered. “Verygood.”
I didn’t knowthis until Ryan asked Bowen to take the long way to the hotel, but we were arriving late to this party. On purpose.
“I see the oppositional defiance still runs strong in you,” I said.
He glanced over at me with something like a smile. “I hate red carpets,” he said.
“And yet you appear on so many of them.”
“Contracts,” he muttered.
“What? What does that mean?”
He cleared his throat and tugged at his collar. “Most of the time, those appearances are required by an endorsement contract.”
“Like, the watch brand?” I pointed to the thick metal face poking out from his sleeve.
“No, I actually like this watch,” he said, adjusting it on his wrist. “It’s the less obvious ones. The car company, the mattress brand.” He blinked like he had to flip through his mental account book. “The private jets.”
“They like it when you show up at fancy things and look pretty for them,” I said.
He nodded and left it at that. These appearances had to get exhausting for him. Idle chatter killed him slowly, and while I was certain all these years of being the face of Boston football had trained the worst of it out of him, that didn’t make it any easier.
By the time we arrived, the red carpet and backdrop branded with the charity’s logo were still in place, but the entrance was empty save for hotel staff.
“Ninety minutes,” Ryan said to Bowen as we pulled up at the luxury Back Bay hotel.
“That’s it?” I asked as Ryan opened my door. He curled an arm around my waist and scooped me out of the car, which wascool because my only other option was flinging myself off the seat and hoping for the best.
“That’s more than enough,” he said, dragging his lips over my cheek.
I swallowed hard. We’d joked around the other day about getting close in public, but I guess I wasn’t prepared for the reality of it. Not that I wasunprepared. We’d always been affectionate and I’d thought nothing of it. Hugging, sharing food, sitting close together.
Maybe it was the short supply of oxygen to my brain, but this felt different.Completelydifferent.
