MacKenzie pointed directly at him. “After the auction, the host had all of the bachelors line up outside so every woman leaving could see them up close and in person. This chick from Dover kept touching his chest and was in no rush to leave.”
After her number had flashed up on the screen as the winning bid, Johanna had left the building. He knew because he went looking for her.
Johanna blinked once. Then turned toward Blaze.
“Wow,” she whispered.
Blaze rubbed one hand across his jaw. “She was doing a lot.”
“A lot?” Ryan repeated loudly. “Blaze looked one second away from calling security.”
The group exploded again.
Heat crept unexpectedly through Blaze’s chest when Johanna looked at him after that. Not because she seemed upset. Because she looked affected. Jealous maybe. Or at least close enough for him to notice. And he noticed everything when it came to her.
He lowered his gaze to hers completely steady and unapologetic.
“I didn’t want her touching me.”
Johanna’s brows lifted slightly. “Why?”
Blaze held her eyes for one long second. Then answered honestly. “Because she wasn’t you.”
The silence that followed felt heavier somehow.
Johanna looked back toward the fire, but Blaze still caught the warmth spreading across her cheeks.
Lord.
That woman had no idea what she did to him.
MacKenzie slapped Ryan dramatically on the shoulder. “See? This is why I can’t hang around these two sober.”
Ryan nodded solemnly. “They got years of unresolved eye contact happening.”
Blaze laughed quietly beside Johanna, and the sound vibrated against her shoulder where she rested tucked beneath his arm.
Truth was, Blaze liked her there entirely too much.
But instead, Johanna leaned into him a little more comfortably beneath the blanket, and Blaze felt the shift all the way down to his bones.
His hand slid along her upper arm once beneath the blanket. Not sexual. Protective in that quiet masculine way he usually kept locked down.
“You good?” he murmured low enough for only her to hear.
Johanna tilted her face toward him. Firelight danced across her skin while dark curls framed eyes focused entirely on him despite the noise surrounding them.
And there it was again. That feeling. Like no matter how crowded the room became, he could always find her.
Always had.
“Yeah,” she admitted softly.
Blaze studied her another second before nodding once like her answer genuinely mattered.
Because it did.
More than she realized.
