She put a hand on his back. “Breathe,” she whispered. “Theo, I—”
He swallowed the rest of her words with a kiss.
The force of it took her aback, and she would have toppled over if he hadn’t grabbed her first. But she couldn’t deny the way he made her feel. That heat pooling in her stomach only simmered hotter when Theo growled and nipped at her lips, the sound and feel of it hungry and desperate. The sensation of his enormous, calloused hands cupping her jaw and wrapping around the back of her neck made her feel the same, and she pulled him close, all thoughts of makeup and hair and galas escaping straight through the rapidly forming cracks in her brain.
Did they have to go anywhere?
Surely it was unnecessary.
It was just a party.
What if they just went straight to his—
It was Theo who ripped himself away first with a sudden gasp. It seemed like it took everything he had, every last scrap of sanity he could dredge up from the depths of his hindbrain to put any sort of distance between them, and the sudden tightness and visible bulge in his trousers wasn’t lost on her. He cleared his throat and tugged absently at his pant leg, obviously trying to calm down before they completely ruined the artistry that had been so carefully performed to make both of them look like this tonight.
“Sorry,” he rasped. He might have pulled away, but he hadn’t been able to take his hands off of her, and his fingers trailed longingly down the bare skin revealed by the low back of her dress. “Couldn’t help it.”
“Me neither,” she whispered back with a grin.
“Your dress might be a problem for me tonight.”
“Is it inappropriate?”
“No, it’s perfect,” he murmured. “It’s just…not the sort of thing I was expecting. I love it. Ireallylove it.”
The warmth in her stomach spread all across her body, and Audrey slid her hand into his. She needed to touch him again. “Shall we?”
Theo eyed her shoes and shut the door behind her. “How about you put on your coat and I’ll carry you down? I don’t want you doing stairs when you don’t have to.”
She wrinkled her nose at him while he helped her slide her arms into her coat. “I can get down some stairs, Theo. I’m worried about your leg, and I’m not that clum—oh!”
She squeaked when he didn’t wait for her to answer and instead scooped her into his arms, gently but firmly cradling her against his chest, almost as though she were his bride.
Her cheeks burned so hot the second she had that thought, they had to have matched her dress.
Instead of protesting further, she only wrapped her arms around his neck and studied him quietly while he carefully carried her down the few flights of stairs to the door, meditating on the curves of his face and the dark moles speckled across them and how strong his arms were for him to lift her so easily like this.
When looking at him felt too intense, she let a hand fall to inspect the bow perfectly tied at his neck, trailing her fingers along its edges and tracing its shape. Was this what he would look like if they got married? Would he wear this same tux, or one like it? And then another thought crept into her mind:
What would it be like having Theo not as her boyfriend, but as her husband?
She shook her head to clear it.
That thought was too big for tonight.
Before she could let herself be completely overwhelmed by it, they stepped outside into the cold and the snow and their driver ran to open the door to a sleek black Lexus. Theo set her gently down inside, making sure all parts of her dress and coat were safely tucked in before circling around to the street side of the car.
That odd feeling Audrey had was still vibrating in her bones, burrowing down and settling deep into her marrow when the doors shut and they sped off to the gala.
They were quietnearly the whole ride to the Plaza Hotel.
Audrey applied her lipstick as Violet had instructed, and when she snapped her compact shut, Theo’s fingers slid across the supple leather of the seats and laced together with hers. He kept looking at her, his eyes roving up and down, but always landing back on her face—and though he didn’t say anything, especially not with his mother’s longtime driver, Wesley, in the front seat humming contentedly along to the radio, he didn’t have to. It was written all overhim, in the way he leaned toward her, how rosy his cheeks were in the flashes of gold from the streetlights outside, how his smile softened the curves of his plush lips and the sharp planes of his face.
God, did she love him.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Theo finally said, startling a little. He’d been so intently focused on her, but now he finally broke his gaze and leaned forward, reaching around to the front to grab something Wesley passed him before sitting back with a thin, black velvet box clutched in his hands. “I picked this up for you on the way over.”
Audrey shook her head in disbelief when he placed it in her lap. “Theo,no. Did you—?”
