“Enjoying New York, Lola?”
She beamed.“Sure am.I’m hoping to attend college here, fashion school, next year.So ...I’m going to need a tour guide.”She looked up at him from underneath her false eyelashes.They looked like two caterpillars laying lazily across her eyes.
He got her meaning.To let her down gently ...or just pretend he didn’t get her hints.Yeah, the latter would do.
“Yeah, that’s why it’s great having a brother who has settled in so well, he’ll make a great tour guide,” he said with a smile.
She wasn’t having any of it.With a light shake of her head, she said, “Or you could show me around?”
He liked directness, he appreciated it, but he would have to give a direct answer of his own.“Sure, of course I can show you around.My girlfriend can come, she knows all of the best spots.”
The wordgirlfriendhad her lips twitching and her eyes casting around the room, landing, to his surprise, on Alana.
“So, how long have you two been going out, then?”she asked.
A little voice in his mind told him that this was a terrible idea, and another voice said,hey, not your idea, hers, you’re just rolling with it...
“Not long,” he lied, smooth as silk.“It’s very new, but things are going well.”
“Right,” she said, not bothering to hide the disappointment from her voice.
“But I do know,” he said in a low voice, conspiratorially, nodding his head over to a group of young men, “that they all happen to be very single.”
She perked up a bit.“Then maybe I’ll ask one of them to dance.”
He chuckled.“Go for it.”
He headed back to his drink before all the couples were invited onto the dance floor.Then he stalked over to Alana before his mind could allow him a second thought and gently pulled her, wide-eyed, back onto the dance floor.
When she could find her voice again, she said, “Sorry, I don’t remember agreeing to be your girlfriend.”
“Oh, it was so romantic, full of twinkling candlelight and doves flying.”
She narrowed her eyes.“Seriously, Drew, I don’t need my clients getting the wrong idea...”
Fuck, he hadn’t thought of that.The last thing he’d want to do was mess with her business.He guided them so that they swayed in the corner, out of sight of everyone.It suddenly felt more intimate than he’d intended.
“This better?”he asked softly.
She nodded her head, her hazel gaze fixed on him.He’d never seen the appeal of hazel eyes until he’d looked into hers.
“Besides, most of them are busy trying to run away from Lola’s advances to be paying any attention to us.”
She laughed, throwing her head back, baring her neck to him.Her lily-white skin shone with a sheer gleam of sweat from all the dancing.He wanted to lean into it, lick it up.He leaned his head down toward her, and she froze, so he moved no further, allowing her to take the lead, to wherever that may be.She closed the inches between them and rested her head on his.They’d come close to a kiss before, and promptly never spoke of it again, a year ago, before Josh had come storming into her office, steam practically spilling from him in his anger at Ruby’s secret.Her breathing quickened, and before he could stop himself, he dipped his head and closed the gap, their lips brushing.Her lips were soft, sweet from the wedding cake, his bitter from the cider.She rose to her toes, her arms moving tight around him as their tongues met, the sweet and bitter notes combining together in a furious kiss.Before he knew it, too quickly it had stopped, like the final note of a song.
She placed her hand on his chest.
“No.No, that can’t happen again.”
“No matter how much you want it to?”
She met his gaze.“No matter how much I want it to.”With that, she walked away to join Ruby.
He exhaled through his nose.His body was covered in her scent, his mouth tasted of her.
She should walk away from him.It was for the best.He should never have put her in this position.His past was a ticking time bomb waiting to catch up with him.There were monsters in the shadows, and they were waiting to pounce.
