“Taylor?” Her date of the night, a record executive, asked from the doorway. “There’s something going on with the caterer. You need to come see this.”
“Be right there.” Taylor turned to him and gave a little wave. Then she looked to Kenzie. “Consider it. Seriously.”
Kenzie braced her arms on the railing when Taylor went back to her guests. She had a good heart, but she shouldn’t have shared Kenzie’s idea. It wasn’t her place.
“Everything okay?” Tucker’s voice slid over her.
She turned toward him.
He stood in the doorway, his tuxedo backlit from the glitz of the party. He’d even polished his cowboy boots for the night. Tucker looked more delicious than the champagne circling on silver trays in the room behind him.
Thousands of little bubbles sizzled through her bloodstream at the sight of him.
One look at her and his expression slipped to concern.
“Everything’s not okay,” he confirmed as he stepped to her, ran a hand over her arm. “What happened?”
He already knew that she wrote, from the first time they’d met. She’d opened up to him and it had come up. He also knew she didn’t talk about it much. So, his understanding that she wasn’t thrilled Taylor had chatted it up with an industry executive wasn’t a surprise.
“Your friend was just trying to help. I’m certain.” He stood close to her. His hands resting at her elbows, soothing her. “She didn’t give him the pages. What is it that’s truly bothering you?”
Kenzie glanced up at him, catching his gaze from under her eyelash extensions. “What if it’s not good? The writing.”
What if she embarrassed herself? A flop with a script she hadn’t written was one thing. One that was her baby was a whole different game.
The pad of his thumb traced her jawline. “Let me read it.”
“You?”
“An honest, unbiased outsider who knows a little about putting words together.” The edge of his mouth quivered with humor.
She couldn’t help it, he cupped her cheek and she let him. “You’re being serious about this.”
“One hundred percent.” His thumb traced the edges of her lips, the motion echoing intimately further below.
“Why do you want to help me?” she asked, gripping the sleeves of his tuxedo.
“Sometimes people do things for other people because they want to, not because there’s something in it for them.”
That wasn’t true in the world they lived in.
She opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say anything, Tucker brushed his lips against hers.
And she lost herself to another Tucker kiss. Firm, hot, and all Tucker.
“Are you ready to reconsider dinner?” he asked when their lips separated. “We’ve been seen. I’m all dressed up. You’re all dressed up.”
Normally, Kenzie wanted to be by herself after an event, but tonight some time with Tucker sounded…nice.
“How about we order in? Watch some TV?” she asked. “Change into something not black-tie?” She gestured between them.
His hand found hers. “I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the evening.”
* * *
In the lottery of life,Tucker had won. At least for the night. Merry Christmas and all that.
This was his thought asArrested Developmentplayed over Kenzie’s eighty-five-inch flat screen while they lounged on her sofa, her back to his front. His arm draped over her waist. He still wore his dress pants but had ditched the jacket and bow tie and had undone the top buttons on the shirt.
