…well, like he wants to eat her for dinner. Or dessert. Or … whatever.
Interesting.
“Thank you,” Noelle says sweetly. “Come in. Ellie’ll be right out.”
I step into the house at the same time Ellie appears in the living room.
I swear my heart stops beating.
She’s wearing the dress she had on in the picture, but this time she’s all made up. Her long hair is pulled up, a few loose strands fluttering around her face. There’s a delicate silver chain around her neck and big silver hoops in her ears. She’s not one to generally wear a lot of makeup—she doesn’t need it—but tonight she’s sporting dark eyes and crimson lips, and holy fuck, my dick is doing a happy dance.
“Excuse us for a minute,” I say to Spencer and Noelle.
Taking Ellie’s hand, I pull her out of the living room and down the hall that leads to her bedroom so that we have a little privacy.
“Is something wrong?” she whispers, her eyes wide as she stares up at me when I spin her around and pin her against the wall.
“Yeah,” I whisper. “I need to kiss you, and I can’t do it with your brother in the room.”
Her smile is slow and sexy and it makes my dick jump.
Gently cupping her cheek, I lean down and press my mouth to hers. I don’t want to mess up her makeup, but I can’t help myself. I haven’t kissed her since the day we went to breakfast, and it’s been killing me ever since. In an effort to take things slow, I haven’t pressed for anything more. It doesn’t help that our schedules don’t mesh.
Her hands grip the lapels of my suit as she pulls me closer. In her heels, she’s got to be almost six feet, which makes the kissing thing a whole hell of a lot easier.
“You look stunning,” I mumble when our mouths separate. “And fuck, you smell good.”
“Thank you. I was gonna say the same about you.” Her thumb swipes across my lips, and I assume she’s wiping lipstick from them. It doesn’t look like hers is smudged, though.
I take a deep breath, willing my dick to chill the fuck out. I think about Spencer waiting for us on the other side of the wall, and that pretty much takes care of my problem. Taking her hand, I lead Ellie back toward the living room but pull up short when I hear Noelle talking.
“You don’t need to apologize,” she snaps. “It never happened, okay? I’m good with that.”
“Noelle, I just don’t want you to—”
“Enough.” This time she’s speaking at regular volume, and it’s obvious she’s pissed. “I said it never happened. You have to pretend it didn’t, too.”
When Spencer doesn’t say anything, I turn to look at Ellie. Her eyes are wide and she’s clearly processing what she heard. I’m curious to know what didn’t happen, but I damn sure won’t be asking about it. At least not tonight.
Pretending we didn’t just eavesdrop on what was likely a pretty important conversation, I turn to Ellie and smile. “You ready?”
Ellie nods.
I lead her into the living room, ready to face off with Noelle and Spencer, but…
They’re gone. The room is empty.
I lift an eyebrow at Ellie. She shakes her head slightly as she grabs a small purse.
I peer up at the stairs. “Is Bianca here?”
“Nope. She’s staying with Gabby tonight.” I notice something spark in Ellie’s eyes, and I’m not sure if that was an invitation or merely fact.
I’m not quite sure what to do with that information, so I tuck it away for later.
Right now, I have to focus on getting to the dinner without thinking about getting Ellie out of that dress. That will come soon enough.
If I’m lucky.
Ellie
I’m nervous.
Like, seriously nervous.
Although Kingston eased some of my tension with that unexpected kiss back at my house, I’ve all but forgotten that now that we’re in this huge ballroom with all these people.
And there are people everywhere.
Old, young, tall, short, rich, uber-rich … they are all present and accounted for. I’ve seen Phoenix, as well as his husband, Tarik, and their wife, Mia. They greeted us when we arrived. It appears that Spencer and Kingston are the only players here tonight, though, which means we pretty much know no one. I’m simply glad that Noelle is here. I’m not sure how I got lucky enough that my brother needed a last-minute date, but I’m not going to question it.
We mingle for a few minutes while we sip ridiculously expensive