Chapter 2
Brodie
Brodie cursed himself for making it that obvious.
With the masks it was hard to know who was who.
And, he was surprised he hadn’t already seen her.
He would have noticed. She was rendering him a bit speechless.
For one thing he could still feel the imprint of her lithe body against his and for another, he could see a lot of that lithe body in the dress she was wearing that was frankly.
..the sexiest thing he’d ever seen on a woman.
The pert globes of her breasts were performing a tantalising peek-a-boo with that deep vee. Thin straps lay over her narrow shoulders. The dress moved like liquid silk around her body.
She had dark blonde hair sunkissed in places, and it was pulled up and back into one of those undone-looking chignons that he suspected took hours to perfect. No jewellery, which was an anomaly in a room like this. Refreshing.
He could see her eyes – the mask was lace and hid the top half of her face. They were green. No, gold. Hazel. Intriguing. Long lashes.
She was tall enough to reach his shoulder. Long neck. Amazing bone structure.. A wide mouth with a plump lower lip. A determined chin.
He smiled. ‘Do we know each other?’
He saw her throat work as she swallowed. ‘I don’t think so.’
Then he remembered what she’d just said. ‘Were you leaving too?’
She nodded. ‘Trying to.’
So had he been and he remembered why now. He cast a glance back into the crowd and saw Cecily looking for him. ‘Shite.’
‘What’s wrong?’
He hadn’t realised he’d spoken out loud. He looked back at the stranger. The beautiful stranger. He said, ‘Tedious story. My boss’s wife has the hots for me, and she’s a little drunk and it’s becoming an issue.’
‘Has it been going on since before tonight?’
Brodie winced. ‘Since last year. A work event at their house in the Cotswolds, which inconveniently enough is happening again soon.’
The woman made a little whistling sound. ‘So you’ve been fending her off for a year. That’s a marathon.’
Brodie felt his neck prickle and looked away again – reluctantly – into the crowd, and cursed more colourfully this time. His boss’s wife had spotted him and was heading directly for them.
Knowing that he was taking full advantage of the current unexpected situation, he looked at the woman he’d just met and said, ‘This is really outrageous, but would you mind if I kissed you? She’s seen me and she’s coming over.’