Hawk & the Lady - Elizabeth Stevens Page 0,6

with a date.

And, between the five of us, we were certainly currently showcasing everything Grace Grayson Security had to offer.

Chaos and Bert were twirling up a storm on the dancefloor. The great git was putting every one of our dance lessons to shame and would even have been showing up Rollie had he ventured that far yet. The two of them had been schmoozing with the best of them. All Mr Nelson’s friends had been thoroughly entranced by the young woman who’d managed to make the legendary Chaos Grayson settle down.

Vomitisation.

Nico was standing in a corner, alone for the first time that night, nursing a half-full, probably warm glass of bubbles as he scanned the room suspiciously. As usual, he neither had a date of the paying or free variety and looked ready to bolt at the next sign of social interaction. The fact he was in a tux – and it was the reason for an even deeper scowl on his face behind his glasses – had not been a deterrent to any of the guests, male or female alike.

Snigger.

I looked around for Rollie again, but still didn’t see him. He’d captured the attention of a young woman in a clinging silver dress relatively early on in the night and disappeared soon after that. If I was a betting man – which I was – I’d have said he’d reappear shortly with a smudge of lipstick on his collar (or a little more South) and wearing a new aftershave of the floral or citrus-y variety.

Lucky bastard.

Taking a sales position for the night, Tank was obviously explaining to his crowd of onlookers something about our self-defence classes. Even from that distance, I was worried about getting clobbered as he waved his arms around. The man was aptly named and, despite being surprisingly delicate for his size, was still known to be overly excitable when the moment called for it.

Adorable giant.

And that left little old me. I was dutifully following Mrs Fortescue around the room. Currently she was talking to her best frenemy, Mrs Barry, and clinging to my arm like she expected I’d turn tail and swoop Mrs Barry off her feet. Which, even if I wasn’t being paid, wouldn’t have been a concern. Mrs Fortescue was a witty, shrewd older woman who knew just how to keep me entertained…strictly out of the bedroom.

Which made it strange that I found my attention divided and my eyes on that woman in the red dress.

There was something utterly entrancing about her. There was every time I saw her, which seemed to be becoming a pleasant regularity. She had dark brown hair and curves for days that she wasn’t shy about showing off. She had this habit of piercing me with her gaze from across a room and sending my temperature spiking. The one time I’d been close to her, I’d been so bold as to stare at her long enough to see she had hazel eyes. Those eyes that held a world of mischief and tempted me to break character every single time she turned them my way.

She was one of the posh lot. Mrs Fortescue had been kind enough to tell me her name was Leah Carmichael and that had been enough to make me pull my hungry eyes off her. For about five seconds.

The guy she was dancing with that night looked just like the sort of dweeb a lady like her would have escorting her to such a shindig. He had the polished look of a guy with more money than he knew what to do with and enough social standing that he cared what people thought about him while being utterly convinced that everyone worshipped the ground he walked on. The cut of his tux was perfectly fitting and his shoes shone like the surface of the sun. To top it all off, he wore the ‘someone just farted’ look – masquerading as smug annoyance naturally – of a man who just knows there are people below his station in the room. He could probably even tell one of them had eyes for his dance partner.

“I see you found her,” Mrs Fortescue chuckled in my ear.

If I was a blushing man, I’d have blushed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I looked at Mrs Fortescue and finally noticed that Mrs Barry had left.

“Why don’t you cut in?” she coaxed, always one to tease and take the piss. It was one reason we got along so well.

“I’ve a better