For Seven Nights Only - Sarah Ballance Page 0,31

didn’t appreciate that. He thought of the number he’d left at her apartment the night before, and his stomach turned. His buddy had asked about her, and as much as Sawyer wanted to claim her, he couldn’t. That wasn’t what she wanted, and he sure as fuck wasn’t going on that boat. He hadn’t asked if she called. He didn’t want to know.

He didn’t want to knock.

But he did, and he was richly rewarded. When Kelsie opened her door, she wasn’t wearing yards of drapery. Or her glasses. Instead, she stood before him wearing a smile and a clingy, sexy dress without a scarf in sight. Hot damn. “Where’s your muumuu?” he asked.

The smile disappeared. “What?”

“The scarf. The thing you always wear. Even to work out.” He had a flashback to the thing she’d tried to wear dancing and immediately wished he’d just told her she looked nice and left it at that.

She shrugged. “It doesn’t go with my dress.”

He didn’t tell her it didn’t go with anything or that the fact clearly hadn’t bothered her before. Because right now she was incredible. “You look amazing,” he said. “Edible.”

She scowled. Fiercely. “Oh, you could just eat me for lunch. That’s original. Were you a construction worker in a past life?”

He blinked. “What?”

“Catcalls. The language of womanizing pigs. I thought you might be fluent. Comments like that are exactly why I prefer to cover up.”

Well, now he did feel like shit. “Kelsie, that was a real compliment. And a bit of an insult on your part, because there’s no way in hell you’ve ever heard anything like that come out of my mouth. At least not in that way.”

She sighed. “You’re right. I’m self-conscious. Not your fault.”

“I see that.” But she was hurt. Inexplicably so. His voice soft, he asked, “What happened to you that made you want to hide?”

She looked down, her expression touching true unhappiness. “It was a long time ago.”

“And it clearly still matters.”

She sighed again, and it was one of quiet misery. Defeat. “My sister and I attended a private high school. It was a short walk from home, but we had to pass the entrance to this construction site. Right by the office, so there were always guys there first thing in the morning. It was a huge apartment complex, and I swear it took them two years to build that place. Anyway, naturally we had uniforms, and of course they were skirts. And I listened to that crap twice a day, every day. It was humiliating.”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry. There’s no excuse for that shit. Grown-ass men messing with schoolgirls.”

“It gets worse. One day one of them grabbed me, right in front of everyone. Nothing else happened, but after that I started covering up. Even on the hottest days, I wore everything I could to try to disappear.” She hesitated. “It became a habit I wasn’t comfortable undoing. Until you. You made me feel a little more…appreciated. In a good way.”

“And then I said you were edible and screwed it all up.”

“No, you’re right. It came from a different place, and I appreciate that. I’m just a little uptight, but I guess that’s why you’re here.”

God, she sounded small. In hopes of breaking the tension, or at least bringing her out of that place, he gave a long-suffering sigh, intentionally over the top. “Actually I’m here to go to the opera. Had to be a hell of a woman who talked me into that. One with gorgeous eyes, I might add. The glasses have grown on me, but I love being able to see past them to what’s underneath.”

She smiled. A little wavering, but he’d take it. “Contacts,” she said. “I don’t know how long I’ll be able to tolerate them, but thank you. You might not be a total pig.”

“Pig or not, I’m a lucky man,” he said.

“To go to the opera?”

“To go with you. But we’re going to be late, so let’s get this over with.”

Over with indeed. An hour later, he was stuck in an overstuffed seat at an overly extravagant theater with people who were beyond overdone. And no one smiled.

No one.

“He’s nice,” Kelsie murmured.

Sawyer didn’t ask who. He didn’t care, to be honest, but the look in Kelsie’s eyes had him following her gaze to some guy in a tuxedo. “He’s a douche.”

“How did you come to that conclusion?”

“He’s at the fucking opera, and he looks happy about it, that’s how.”

Kelsie laughed and patted Sawyer’s leg. The platonic