There was only the briefest hesitation. “At home with the kids. You know how that goes.”
We stood making chitchat with Vanni and Meghan for another twenty minutes, though damned if I can remember anything that was said. They began talking shop, which filtered through my fevered brain like Latin. Sounded smart but I didn’t understand a word of it. I nodded when either of them tried to include me in the conversation, but all I could really think about was the weight of Auggie’s arm around my waist.
Finally, we bid Vanni adieu, as he had a flight to catch back to Los Angeles to his family. “I don’t want to be away from them a minute longer than I have to,” he confessed, which made me feel slightly better about his being so friendly with his beautiful assistant.
It was such a change from the man I had seen a decade ago, who was a wild rocker front man with a dubious reputation to boot. Now he was a respectable family man. He was still beautiful and sexy, maybe even more so.
He proved wild stallions could be tamed.
I looked up at Auggie, my Duke of Mayhem. “Want to dance?” I asked.
His eyes widened a tad in surprise. “Since the day we met,” he said, before guiding me to the dance floor. I fit myself neatly into his arms as we swayed to the music.
“Great show tonight,” I said, sincere in my praise.
He held me a little tighter. “I guess I lucked out booking one of your teen idols.”
I laughed. “That was a nice surprise,” I acknowledged.
“Tell me about twenty-year-old Peaches,” he commanded softly as he spun me around.
I shrugged. “She wasn’t too unlike twenty-nine-year-old Peaches. She loved her family. She loved music. She loved life.”
“Safe answer,” he said.
“Tell me about twenty-year-old Auggie,” I shot back.
He laughed. “He was a wild child. Had the world at his fingertips and nobody to tell him no. For the most part,” he amended with a shrug.
“Was he lonely?” I asked.
“Who can be lonely when you can fill a stadium with 50,000 people?”
I knew he was sidestepping. I never dropped my gaze.
“He was lonely as hell,” Auggie finally admitted.
“How about thirty-two-year-old Auggie?” I asked softly.
Those green eyes deepened. “Same. Till about a month ago.”
A chill ran through me. He held me so close I knew that he felt it.
“How about twenty-year-old Peaches? Did she have a boyfriend?”
I laughed. “She was in between boyfriends.”
He held me closer. “And now?”
My eyes met his. “Until about a month ago.” My tummy dropped as his gaze drifted to my mouth. “At least, according to the socials.”
“Let’s give them something to talk about,” he said, before his mouth drifted easily to my own.
I was stunned that he would kiss me like that in the middle of that very public party. But I got over it quickly as his lips parted mine to deepen the kiss. When we broke apart, I could feel the stares of the people around us, who were taken aback by this puzzling new development.
Even more puzzling, Auggie skipped the part where he went around the room, checking in with his crew. Instead he pulled me by the hand and led me outside to the cool air, where the car waited to take me back to the hotel.
My heart beat double time the nearer we got to the car. But instead of getting inside with me, he merely pulled me back into his arms for another blazing kiss. I responded to that kiss with as much abandon as possible, praying Peanut would behave himself and not send me puking in the nearest trashcan.
I was breathless when we finally broke apart.
“You test my restraint, Peaches,” he murmured, staring at my swollen mouth.
“I didn’t know the Duke of Mayhem had any restraint,” I countered, pressing myself against him. I was rewarded with a shudder of his own.
“I didn’t. Until a month ago,” he admitted. “When I met the first woman to tell me no.”
I opened the car door and climbed inside. I held out a hand. “A lot of things can change in a month,” I said.
He hesitated only a moment. He turned to Sean, who waited patiently in the driver’s side. “Take us to her hotel. Drive slow,” he said before his eyes turned to me. “And put up the window.”
I shivered all over as he climbed into the back of the car with me. I pulled him into my waiting arms. His kiss was commanding as