Love on Lexington Avenue - Lauren Layne Page 0,44
himself, pointing both fingers at his tux jacket. “You want this?”
She laughed. “I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to pawn that thing off under the guise of being a gentleman, because it’s eighty-something degrees.”
He sighed. “Damn. See, this is why I like winter events better. We men get to be the heroes when we hand off our jackets that were damn uncomfortable in the first place, and don’t have to sweat our asses off.” Clarke gestured with his chin at the bench. “Can I sit?”
“Depends,” she said, even as she scooted over to make room. “Are you already sweating your ass off? Actually, don’t answer that.”
“I thought it’d be cooler out here,” he grumbled, tugging off his tuxedo jacket. “I think it’s actually worse.”
“You can flee back to the AC. I’m fine, I promise. Just getting some fresh, if slightly swampy, air.”
Instead of going back inside, Clarke sat beside her, draping his jacket over his knee and tilting his head back to look at the sky. She turned to look at him more fully, taking in the long eyelashes, thick hair, Superman-perfect jaw . . .
“You’re insanely beautiful,” she accused him.
“I know, right?” He gave a faint grin, but she sensed he was on autopilot, well accustomed to his good looks, to people commenting on them. And maybe even a little bored with the whole thing.
He looked down at her, and though he still smiled, his gold eyes were more serious than usual. “What’s your story, Hayes? Why are we out here getting sweaty?”
She sighed and plucked at the skirt of her dress, wishing for the hundredth time that night that she’d gone not only with something prettier, but lighter.
“I don’t even know where to start.”
“Rumor has it, you decided to decorate your house like strawberry lemonade?”
“Heard about that, did you?” she asked with a laugh.
“I caught the gist.”
“I’ll have you know that I just ordered mauve chairs for my new sitting room, and I have zero regrets.”
“What’s Scott have to say about that?”
“Scott will be long gone before the last coat of paint is dry, so he doesn’t get a say.”
“Yeah. That is his MO. I think he’s out of the city more often than he’s in it,” Clarke agreed. He studied her. “That bother you?”
“No!” The word was too emphatic, and she realized she doth protested too much. She lowered her voice to a bored tone. “He’s just my contractor.”
“You always sexy slow dance with your contractors?”
“Careful,” she said lightly. “If we start attaching meaning to a slow dance, I’ll have to ask about you and Audrey.”
He barked out a surprised laugh. “Touché. Sometimes a dance is just a dance.”
Too true. Especially when the guy you’re dancing with has a supermodel waiting in the wings.
“Okay, so you’re not mooning over Turner,” Clarke mused. “Someone else?”
“More like the lack of someone else,” she admitted. “I’m brooding. And don’t tell me women can’t brood. We can. We do. Or at least I do.”
“Noted.”
Her hands gripped the side of the bench, and she looked down at her feet. She knew Clarke, but she didn’t know him.
She definitely wasn’t at all sure they were at the point of discussing her sex life.
He nudged her arm. “I get it, you know?”
She looked up. “You do?”
Clarke nodded. “Don’t forget, I knew Brayden. I saw what he did to you women, just like I know you all responded differently. Audrey . . .” He shook his head. “Somehow the whole thing made her more determined to put her head in the sand and believe that Prince Charming was coming for her. You, though, you know better.”
“A fellow cynic?” she guessed.
“Let’s just say my reputation as a love-’em-and-leave-’em guy isn’t entirely unearned.”
“Okay, so how do you do that?” she asked. “How is it you guys do that so easily, and with normal women?”
“They’re not always normal,” he muttered. “But I see your point. In all my years, I’ve never come across a face-licker.”
She groaned and put her face in her hands, hunching forward. “I’m too old for this crap.”
“What crap? One-night stands?”
“Finding a guy to have one with. You know it’s bad when your girlfriends lure you to a black-tie gala to try and set you up for a sex date.”
“You know. If it’s a one-night stand you’re after, you’re talking to the right guy.”
Claire’s head snapped up. “What?”
He laughed, holding up his hands innocently. “I don’t mean me. Audrey would kill me since she’s declared all her friends are off-limits. Tricky, since