Sadie must have sensed my confusion. “Didn’t Mia tell you? She’s asked me to be your date…I mean…no not date, this isnotadate,” she flustered before taking a deep breath. “I’m going to be your escort tonight.” As soon as the word escort left her mouth her cheeks flared brighter red than her dress and lips. “No! Notescort. I’m not an escort. Not that you need an escort. I mean, you’re the most eligible bachelor in the entire city. You don’t need an escort and I’m not one.”
I couldn’t help but smile at her adorableness. She was the most authentic, real, and genuine person I’d ever met and I was truly in awe of her.
“I’m just…Mia asked me to go to the event with you tonight as her understudy. She came to my door with dresses and glam.” Sadie bit her bottom lip as she cast her eyes down and ran her hands down the sides of her waist. “I told her this wasn’t a good idea. You should just go alone.”
She turned to walk back toward her room, but in two wide steps I reached out and grasped her wrist. As soon as my fingers brushed against the silky-smooth skin on the underside of her wrist, I felt her pulse beating wildly beneath my fingertips.
A zap of electricity shot up my arm at the contact.
“I’m sorry.” I apologized for my reaction. “When I saw you I just...”
Her honey-tinted gaze lifted and met mine. Her amber eyes were surrounded by thick lashes and black liner making her already large eyes appear even larger. I could see her vulnerability, uncertainty, and I hated that I’d been the one to make her feel those things.
I wanted to tell her how beautiful she was. How she’d caused my heart to slam into my chest. How she’d stolen my breath and caused my thoughts to evaporate. But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t tell her those things.
“I was expecting Mia and when I saw you, I was just…surprised.”
She licked her lips and the sight caused me to release her wrist before I did something stupid like pull her toward me and crush my mouth to hers.
“Mia said that she wasn’t feeling well and needed me to step in to be your buffer because sending you alone would be like chumming the water and women would circle you like sharks.”
Fuck.How was it possible for someone to be so cute and sexy at the same time?
I felt myself grin again and held out my arm. “Thank you for agreeing to come with me tonight. I would be honored if you would be my buffer.”
Her breathing was still shallow as her eyes darted to my arm and back down the hall. She was in fight or flight mode and every cell in my body hoped she wouldn’t choose flight.
“Please,” I heard the raw desperation in my voice. “Please, come with me tonight.”
I wasn’t asking because I needed to have a plus one. I wasn’t asking because I didn’t want her to feel bad. I was asking because suddenly I couldn’t imagine going to the gala without her by my side.
“Are you sure? I really don’t have to.” She shook her head back and forth and the sweet scent of citrus and summer filled my nostrils.
“I want you to. Please.”
“Okay.”
With that one word, my soul exhaled. The tension in my chest at the thought of her walking back into her room dissipated and was replaced with another sort of tension of the sexual variety. My awareness of her was acute as we walked through the family room to the elevator. Her breathing, her footsteps, her scent was all amplified. It was like my senses were finely attuned to her.
When we stepped into the elevator and the mirrored doors shut, our eyes met in the reflection. “You look beautiful.”
She smiled, but it didn’t meet her eyes. “You don’t have to say that. This isn’t a real date.”
It hit me then that the angelic creature beside me honestly had no clue just how beautiful she was. How was that possible? Every time I learned something new about Sadie, she surprised me.
“I don’t say things because I have to. I only say things I mean.”
Her lips curled at the edges and her eyes dipped down to the floor. “Thank you. You look beautiful too.” Her eyes popped up and I could see that she thought she’d said the wrong thing again, just like when she’d told me that she was an escort. “I mean, hot, no! I mean handsome,” she sighed as the doors opened to the lobby. “You look handsome.”
“Thank you.” Seeing her so out of sorts was adorable.
Martin, the doorman, held the door open for us as we walked to my Escalade where Frank was opening the back passenger seat door.
I clocked the look on his face when he saw Sadie walking beside me. If his eyes had bulged any more, they would have popped right out of his head.
“Frank Lawson, this is Sadie Burke. She owns Sweet Temptations.”
“You’re the cupcake girl?”
