When Claire came to the door, he couldn’t help staring. She wasn’t wearing a little black dress, after all. Her full-length gown was sleeveless, a paler shade of the bluish-purple color of her eyes. At one shoulder, a ruffle bunched up to resemble a flower. At the opposite hip, a drape of pleated fabric accentuated her slim waist. From beneath the hem peeked the toes of her silver shoes.
“You look beautiful,” he said.
“You said black tie.”
“Yeah, this is perfect. You’re perfect.” He’d been to enough of these events to recognize underdressed and overdressed. Claire had hit the balance that saidwell-dressed, and she did it effortlessly.
She grinned. “I bought this dress to celebrate hitting my first sales goal with Slake It Off, and I’ve never had a function to wear it to.”
“Then I’m honored to provide the venue.” He offered her his arm. “Shall we?”
He half-expected her to ignore his arm, but she took it. In her other hand, she had tucked a small silver clutch. “By the way, I’d like to say platonically that you do a tuxedo justice, Tai Kristiansen.”
He laughed. “Men have it easy. You’ll see dozens of this exact look tonight.”
“Sure, but just because it’s universal doesn’t mean it looks the same on every man. Believe me, it doesn’t.”
“So how then,” he said as he opened the passenger door for her to slide inside and tuck her dress in after her, “does one do justice to a tux?”
He shut the door and walked around to the driver’s side, easily able to hear her response from inside the car.
“Well, there’s confidence, which you’ve always had in spades,” she said.
He could have laughed. If she only knew.
“And then there’s…um…the fit. You know. Tailoring to one’s body type.”
“Well, I’m nothing special in that department,” he said as he got behind the wheel and shut his own door. “Just one more genetically lean vampire with a good tailor.”
“Hmm. There must be more to it then. Let me ponder platonically and get back to you.”
They made easy small talk on the brief drive to the event hall, and Tai tried not to read hope into everything she said. He’d spent the last three years resigned to their estrangement. Funny how resignation had evaporated with a single text.
As he parked his car, he said, “Can I ask you something?”
“You can always ask.”
He shot her a look. “But you might not answer?”
“Exactly.”
That was fair. He certainly hoarded plenty of answers he wouldn’t be ready to give her if she asked. “Why did you say yes to tonight? This isn’t going to be exciting.”
Claire laughed. “Now you tell me.”
He waited for a real answer as he got out and circled to open her door. This time she beat him to it, stepping out on her own. As she lifted the front hem of her gown, he got a full look at the silver shoes he’d glimpsed on her porch—classic stiletto pumps that gleamed.
“You could use those as weapons,” he said.
“That’s partly the idea.” She sounded serious, but then a smirk tugged her mouth. She accepted his arm again as they headed for the double doors. “When I decide to get to know somebody, I don’t want to stick to drinks and chatting after work. I like to see people in the places they’re most skilled, most comfortable. It’s why I keep showing up in Ember’s kitchen so she can ‘teach me to cook.’ I’m never going to excel there, but she never gets sick of trying to teach me, and she’s so good at reinventing recipes. It’s hard to care that I suck while watching her in her element, because she gets so much joy out of it.”
“And her joy matters because you love her.”
She shot him a surprised glance. “Exactly. That’s exactly it.” Then she rolled her eyes. “If you’re going to get sarcastic now and claim I must love you—”
“No, Claire, I’m not. Really. I knew almost as soon as I met you that your people mean everything to you, and I appreciate that quality. A lot.”
He’d never been so glad that vampires had difficulty lying to one another, thanks to their natural skill at people-reading. Claire could hear in the nuances of his voice, see in his expression, and even feel in the relaxed muscles of his arm that he was being honest.
