“Wow.” Tiana’s eyebrows rose, wrinkling her forehead. “Awooga!”
Jenna had gone all in with the old Hollywood theme, since that was the era the dress had pulled inspiration from. Her hair was down and in soft retro waves, she’d done a smoky eye and abandoned her regular nude lip color for a red to match the dress.
“What?” Jenna ran her hands down her torso, suddenly feeling very exposed. “Is it too much?”
“No!” Tiana grabbed her arm. “You look incredible! I thought you weren’t going to come.”
Tiana had asked Jenna about the gala earlier in the week, the day after she’d received the invite from Deacon, and she’d given her one of the random, bogus excuses she gave everyone else who’d asked, work or being tired, she couldn’t remember now.
“Yeah, I, um.” If she could remember what she said then she could tell her why that wasn’t the case, but she couldn’t remember, so she just had to go generic. “I changed my mind.”
Tiana’s head tilted to the side, and she studied her friend, suddenly seeming a little too interested in her life.She feared if she asked one question, Jenna would spill everything because she’d had no one to talk to about any of it.
“What’s—”
“Have you talked to him?” Jenna asked, interrupting Tiana’s inquiry.
The best defense was offense. Get Tiana talking about herself. Her friend was in a fake relationship, and communication was her downfall, her Achilles heel. It was a safe bet she wasnotcommunicating, so asking if she had talked to him was not crazy.
“Are you…is there something going on with you and…” Tiana glanced around the room, not taking the bait.
“No!” Jenna quickly squashed her line of thinking and redirected. “Don’t change the subject, have you? Have you talked to him?”
Tiana sighed, her shoulders dropping half an inch.
Ding, ding, ding. We have achieved distraction defeat.
Yes. Mission accomplished.
“No, he’s been busy.”
Tiana wasn’t the only person Jenna had noticed when she walked in. Niko was directly in her line of vision and had barely taken his eyes off Tiana. She was pretty sure he could spare a minute or two to talk to her about…whatever she needed to talk to him about, which she was sure was important from the look on her friend’s face, and she would have remembered if she weren’t busy being dickmotized. Her friendship was suffering, and she hadn’t slept with the man in a year and a half. That was a problem.
“He’s not too busy to look at you every five seconds.” Jenna tilted her champagne glass towards Niko. “Three, two, one…”
Sure enough, he glanced over on cue. Jenna caught hisgaze flick in their direction, then away, as if he’d caught a sunbeam and needed a second to blink and see straight.
At almost the same moment, a trio of bells sounded on the stage at the far end of the massive hall. It was a gentle, musical chime, insistent, designed not to shatter conversation but to nudge it, redirecting the collective current toward something new. There was a subtle but immediate shift in the room, a ripple of anticipation. A soft glow spilled from the art deco chandeliers overhead, tinting the hundreds of faces below in gold and rose and a little bit of blue, depending on where you stood, brightened and then dimmed again.
The light flashed seconds before Mayor Henry Walker took center stage and welcomed everyone before instructing, “Tonight, as we lift our glasses for a worthy cause, please make your way to your assigned tables. Dinner will be served in just a few moments, and, there will be a short program featuring some very special guests. Don’t worry,” he winked, “we won’t keep you from the dance floor for too long.”
There was a polite stampede, a bustle of good-natured shuffling and direction-seeking as the crowd funneled toward the rows of round, immaculately set tables encircling the dance floor.
“This is where we part.” Jenna gave her friend a quick hug, her nerves went into overdrive as she headed to table forty-five.
She still hadn’t seen Deacon, and she hoped to sit down before she did. Because after seeing all these men in tuxes, she didn’t trust herself not to swoon when she saw him. And if that happened she didn’t trust herself in these Christian Louboutin’s—And Just Like Thatseason one episode five to remain upright, she was already feeling wobbly.
Unfortunately, she didn’t make it to the table. Within five steps of Tiana, she felt Deacon coming towards her. Goosebumps lifted on the bare skin of her arm and the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood up straight.
When she looked up, her suspicion was confirmed. He was stalking, she did meanstalking,towards her like a lion after his prey. The crowd was just parting for him. He wasn’t doing anything, not saying excuse me, or elbowing them, but they were just moving out of his way, clearing a path. They must have sensed his alpha energy. She could certainly feel it from where she stood.
Jenna’s heart was pounding a million miles per minute, and she immediately regretted coming. Mainly because the second she’d seen him across the room, she nearly came. Each step he took towards her felt like her vagina was a homing beacon sending a signal out, calling to him. It was throbbing, and the closer he got, the more intense thesignalbecame.
“Are you okay?” Deacon asked, stopping just a few inches in front of her but looking past her with a concerned expression, his head moving back and forth a little bit. “How did you manage that?
“What?” Jenna glanced over her shoulder, confused. She didn’t see anything except people going to their tables. She had no clue what he was talking about.
When she turned back and looked up at him, his head was tilted down and he was examining her knee, the one that was visible from the high slit.
