weak in the knees—including this woman, who stood here gawking at him like a crazy person.
I shook my head and cleared my throat, trying to remember how to speak.
“Damn, Emme. You look beautiful,” Landon said as he started to walk into my house. I moved out of his way, not even sure how I made my body function enough to take a step.
“You…you look…so handsome.”
He grinned and then winked, and a flurry of butterflies took off in my stomach.
“Thanks. You about ready to go?” he asked as he swept his gaze over me once more.
Wait, was that…was that lust in his eyes?
Okay, butterflies had been replaced by an insane pulse between my thighs.
A part of me was slightly bothered that he hadn’t seemed the least bit affected by me when I first opened the door. Here I could hardly form a solid sentence, and he acted like this was simply another night. Granted, he’d said I looked beautiful, and he’d looked at me differently, but he’d said it the same as someone like Noah would. A simple compliment that any woman would get, not one laced with something more.
“Um, yeah. Let me grab my clutch and overnight bag.”
I could feel his gaze on me, and I glanced back over my shoulder. Something was different in his eyes. They looked darker now.
Turning back around, I felt my heart drop to my stomach. My hands shook slightly as I picked up my clutch and then tossed my phone into it. I reached for the bag, but before I could pick it up, Landon’s hand brushed over mine and he took it. My breath hitched, and I prayed he hadn’t caught it. With a deep breath, I faced him and smiled.
“Where’s the pup?” he asked.
“Oh, um, Lady is staying with a friend of mine. She’s in love with her, so it wasn’t a hardship to ask her to watch her for me.”
Landon nodded and then asked, “Shall we?”
He gave me that half smile that made the dimple in his right cheek show up a little bit more than the one in his left.
All I could do was nod.
Landon extended his arm for me to take. “Let’s go get our party on.”
Landon
MY HEART HADN’T stopped pounding in my chest ever since Emmerson opened her front door. The second I laid my eyes on her, it felt like all the air from my lungs had been violently sucked out, and I had to force myself to breathe. It took every ounce of strength I had to stand there and act normally, when all I wanted to do was drool and take in every single inch of her perfect body.
When she’d gasped and let her gaze move over me with what I knew was lust in those iceberg eyes of hers, I almost wondered if she might want me as much as I wanted her. I quickly shook that idea away when she seemed distracted by something and wouldn’t meet my gaze. Maybe she was still worried about her client or something else.
I attempted to make small talk in the limo as we made the hour-and-a-half drive to Austin. “How were the plate sales for tonight?” I asked.
She turned from where she had been staring out the window and flashed me a smile so bright it could have lit up the inside of the limo. “The most sales they’ve ever had. Considering they had to add six tables to the outside terrace of the country club, I would say my little slip of the tongue worked in the hospital’s favor.”
I laughed. “It’s crazy we have the limo all to ourselves. I mean, usually we’d all be crammed in here.” Hailey and Mike were driving separately, and both our parents were already in Austin.
She laughed. “It’s weird that Noah isn’t coming. I’m starting to wonder if Amy really does have the flu.”
“Right? So, what do we do with all this alone time?”
Once the words were out of my mouth, Emmerson shot me a look, and I wished I could take them back. Her expression was sharp, but something about it made my skin suddenly blaze with heat.
“What did you have in mind?” she asked, a hint of seduction in her voice I’d never heard her use before. At least, not with me.
Swallowing hard, it was my turn to look away and stare out the window. “Remember all the games the four of us would play when we were in a limo?”
She let out a long sigh. “It