He raised his palms in peace, a smile quirking her lips. “Sorry, didn’t mean to spook you. But—” He glanced at the stage, and she could swear a blush crept up his neck. “Are you happy with it?” He shoved his hands inside his pockets, looking uncharacteristically timid. “Turned out pretty good, I think. Your dad designed a solid piece. It’ll be easy to take apart and move when we need to. I’ll talk to Chantal aboutstorage, but I cleared space in the equipment room that’ll work for now, I think.”
Was Jordan Thompson…rambling? And more importantly?—
“Youdid this?” Her voice rose an octave in shock.
He shrugged, like the hours of work he’d put in were nothing more than a quick trip to the corner store to grab her a snack. “Kids would take too long, and I didn’t want to lose another coat.”
She blinked. The coat he’d given her yesterday was hanging in her closet. She meant to bring it back today, but the truth was, when she’d opened her closet that morning, everything in it smelled of him, and she couldn’t bring herself to take it off the hanger.
“But this must have taken you all night.” She couldn’t get over it. Why would he do that?
The pink crept up to his ears, and if there was ever a time when a beast of a man like Jordan could ever look adorable, it was now. “Notallnight. Was done by two. Your dad made it easy enough to put together.”
“You stayed here until two in the morning?” Jordan had spenthalf the nightbuilding her a stage? That was...that was a big deal.
“Look, I can see you overthinking, and you can stop right now.” He ran his hand along his close-cropped hair, and her stomach tightened.
Why was everything he did suddenly sexy as hell?
“I was only gonna do a bit, but like I said, your dad made a good design, and it’s like doing a Lego project. Once I started, I couldn’t stop.”
“Because you play with Legos all the time, right?” She teased, because this man was a rollercoaster. Annoying ashell one moment, adorable the next, and then, to add whiplash, sexy as fuck.
He huffed out a laugh. “You know, most people just say thank you.”
Her gaze shifted from him to the stage and back, lingering an extra moment. He’d stayed until two in the morning building this. For her.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “I love it.”
He glanced down, but not before she noticed a small smile tug his lips. He was so guarded, always hiding that smile behind the walls he’d built, and damn it, she found herself wantingmore.
She wanted to be the reason he smiledandthe reason he couldn’t hide it. She wanted to be the one who made himfeel, who made himlaughuntil he couldn’t stop.
Good Lord, what was happening to her?Apparently, if you build a girl a runway, she’ll start falling for you.
“Seriously, Jordan,” she said, taking a step closer to him, nudging him with her shoulder.
His smile faltered when their gazes met. The air between them shifted in an instant, charged with an electricity that sizzled all the way to her core.
“I don’t know how I’ll repay you.” Her voice was embarrassingly breathless.
Time stretched as they stood there. The gym became smaller. Warmer. The thumping of her own heartbeat filled her ears.
“Walk for me.”
Her breath caught in her throat, and for a split-second, she worried she might have forgotten how to breathe at all. “Walk—” she croaked, a sound nowhere near as sexy as what had come out of his mouth. “Walk for you?”
“Yeah, princess.” His voice was rough and deep. Hejerked his head toward the runway. “Walk for me like you would in a show.”
She swallowed, but her throat was too dry. She’d walked in over a hundred fashion shows, in front of thousands of people, in various stages of dress and undress. She’d walked in front of men and women who inspected, critiqued, and commented on every inch of her body. She walked while cameras flashed all around her, never caring because she loved walking the runway. She was good at it.
So what was this wave of nerves?
“There’s a thousand videos of me doing that.” She raised her hand to her throat, but that did nothing to ease how parched it was.
He leaned closer, churning the warmth into heat. “I don’t want a fucking video that everyone’s seen a million times. I want the real thing. You walking just for me.” His tongue swept across his lower lip, and she drank in the sight of him as her heart somersaulted in her chest. He looked…ravenous.
“I—I don’t have an outfit,” she stammered, her vision still locked on his lips.
