her toward his town car. An error that became even more prominent when he’d climbed into the car beside her, and his leg had pressed against hers.
Now his hand and his leg burned just from simple contact with the woman, through their clothes. God knew what would happen if he ever got his hands on her for real.
He’d probably combust.
As for the effect those grazing touches had had on her . . .
Seth glanced out of the corner of his eye at Brooke’s profile. Noted the way her cheeks were a touch pinker than before, her breath a bit shallow.
Brooke cleared her throat and glanced down at the minimal space between them. “You’re on my coat.”
Seth glanced down, and sure enough he was sitting on her coat, which in turn was holding her captive against his side. “Right,” he said gruffly. “Sorry.”
Even as he said it, they both stayed perfectly still. Seth had to order his body to cooperate, shifting slightly so she could pull away, and the second she did, he felt the urge to yank her back again. To pull her to him, to kiss that full bottom lip, maybe pull her up and over him so she was straddling him, and just—
The privacy screen separating them from Dex, his longtime driver, came down slightly. “Pardon the interruption, Mr. Tyler. I didn’t get the address of where we were heading.”
“Oh!” Brooke said, fumbling with her book. “Let me get that for you.”
“The Miller Museum,” Seth interrupted.
Dex nodded. “Very good, sir. Traffic’s especially bad today. A concert at Times Square, some rally in the park, plus construction on Third. Might take us a while.”
“Wonderful,” Brooke muttered as she typed something on her phone.
Dex slid the privacy screen back into place, and Seth almost wished he’d asked the chauffeur to leave it as is so he wouldn’t be tempted by the blonde beside him.
His grand plan of getting close to her with the hope of talking her into doing some digging on Neil and Maya may not have been one of his best. He could barely think around the woman, much less speak coherently.
Hardly like him.
Seth tapped his fingers slowly on the leather seat beside him, forcing himself to look out the window instead of at her.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her slide her phone into her bag, and was surprised when she shifted her body around to face him. She didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was studying him. He half expected her to start jotting notes about him in her little book.
Uptight.
Control freak.
Unlikable.
He clenched his jaw, staring out at the slowly passing city before he gave in and looked over at her. “You’re staring.”
She shrugged, unapologetic. “You’ve been to the Miller Museum before?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Once or twice.”
“Your sister said she’d never been.”
He gave her a look. “Do you do everything with your siblings?”
“I don’t have any siblings.”
“Ah.”
She rolled her eyes at that. “Ah, what?”
“Ah, the only-child thing. Explains the pampered-princess bit you have going on.”
“Just like you being a big brother explains the overbearing thing you’ve got going on?”
He shrugged, unperturbed by the accusation. “I’m not going to apologize for wanting what’s best for Maya.”
“Uh-huh. So the only reason you’re tagging along with wedding-planning tasks that you clearly despise is because she asked you to?”
Seth narrowed his eyes at the sweetness in her tone. “It’s like I told you before: Maya doesn’t have a mom or sister or father to do this with her.”
“But she has Neil.”
Seth couldn’t stop his grimace, and now it was Brooke’s turn to narrow her eyes. “That’s why you’re really getting all up in this business, isn’t it? You don’t trust Neil.”
Seth drummed his fingers more rapidly against the seat in irritation, suddenly far more annoyed with the traffic than he had been a few moments earlier.
This was his chance to convince Brooke to help him, to explain that he just had a feeling Neil was bad news and wanted her help in confirming that before his sister committed herself to a totally untrustworthy jerk—or worse.
He chose his words carefully. “What do you think of him?”
Brooke scrunched her nose. “Of Neil?”
He nodded.
“He seems to make Maya very happy.”
The words rolled right off her tongue, sweet and cheerful, and Seth recognized it immediately for what it was.
A line.
“Tell me something,” he said, turning more fully toward her. “Do you care even a little bit about whether the people you’re marrying off are right for each