“Sorry.”
“All right.” He took a deep breath in, a deep breath out, and rolled his shoulders back. He was himself again, all thoughts of the mysterious Iris and his Animos past forgotten… Or, at least, shoved into a tiny locked box in the back of his mind. “I’ve got tables and music. The car service to park for the guests since you’re taking our usual help. What’s left?”
“I’m waiting to hear back from the caterer.”
“What about a suit? Does your man have a suit?”
“He’s twenty-three years old, Thomas. I’m pretty sure he has a suit. He’s working-class, not an animal.”
“Does he have a tux? This party will be black-tie only.”
Sam had half a mind to say,No, this party will be whatever the hell I say it is because this entire party is nothing more than a sham to get this guy hooked on me, but given he’d taken care of virtually every detail of this last-minute shindig, she let it go.
In any case, she was distracted by a flash of red out in the distance.
“Did you see that?” She narrowed her eyes, trying to telekinetically pull back the curtains of rain separating her from the distant object.
“See what?”
“Out there. Through the rain. Near the tree line.” Rising from her seat, Sam crossed the room until her nose pressed painfully against the glass. “My car!”
The red hatchback was unmistakable, even in a torrential downpour. It crawled between the trees of the estate’s back forests, heading for the long drive connecting the front road to the far end of the property. Thomas joined her at the window.
“Is someone stealing it? I told you not to park it back there. Such an easy target.”
“I don’t know,” she said, halfway to the solarium’s exterior door by the time he finished the question, “but I’m going to find out.”
Haste was an important consideration when trying to stop a theft, but the second Sam stepped out into the rain, she regretted it. This wasn’t New York City rain, the thin and annoying spit that sometimes caught her on her walk home from school. This was biblical rain, shaking the heavens and washing away small villages. She’d never before wished so desperately for an umbrella or a pair of rain boots.
Unseeing with rain pelting her face, she planted herself in the middle of the road. Only to hear the frantic, immediate locking of brakes. She blinked and squinted and shielded her face long enough to see her car no farther than a foot away from her…and Daniel getting out of the driver’s seat.
“Hey!” he exclaimed, clearly rattled from nearly smashing her with two tons of steel and machinery.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Sam shot back.
“You always park your car on mud track in back! I didn’t want it to get stuck in the mud!”
Chills covered Sam’s body. They had nothing to do with the rain or the cold. He approached her, holding an umbrella over their heads.
“I didn’t expect you to throw yourself in front of a moving car,” Daniel said.
“I thought you were stealing it!”
When had he gotten so close? All of the sudden, Daniel was everywhere, looming over her. Her throat dried. She tried to think of the last time she’d been kissed. She couldn’t remember. Shit, why was she thinking about being kissed now? Why was she thinking about standing on slight tiptoe, sliding her hands on either side of his neck, and pressing her lips to him, the rain be damned?
Oblivious to her internal conflict, the bastard smiled. He actuallysmiled, as though it was all very amusing. Her lips ached to kiss him now.
“It’s not such a nice car, Sam,” he teased.
She had to kill the feeling, had to rip it out of her bones. She’d never make it to the Animos Ball if she entertained such stupid fantasies. Samantha Dubarry wouldneverkiss Daniel Best, and that was a fact.
“Come on,” she commanded, heading for the car.
He followed at a close clip, still holding the umbrella overhead. It muffled the sound of the rain, creating a private world for the two of them.
“Where?”
“Back up to the house, of course.”
