Chapter 27
NATE
Seeing Kate like this did weird, not-good things to my ability to function like a rational adult. She looked glorious. Drop-dead gorgeous didn’t even begin to cover it.
The dress clung in all the right places, soft blue silk catching the light every time she moved, and her hair? Fuck me.
Instead of the sleek, shiny blowout styled to perfection, she’d left her hair to curl in loose, unruly spirals and I was in serious trouble because of it. I’d always known Kate was hot. Obviously. I wasn’t blind.
But this? This was different. It was dangerous, the kind of stunning that was rewiring things in my brain that would’ve been better left alone.
I’d had her underneath me twenty-four hours ago. My brain helpfully replayed the memory of feeling her body writhe against mine in vivid detail while I stood in the middle of the hotel suite, pretending to be a civilized human being.
God, the way she’d looked all flushed and breathless. Those needy, almost pleading little moans that—
Nope. Absolutely not.
I scraped my palms along my jaw and forced myself to focus on fixing my bowtie instead. Tonight was too important to be distracted by the constant threat of an erection. I needed to get it together.
This was Hinds’ retirement party and everyone who was anyone in this town would be here. Hell, half the world had probably flown in. There would be investors, clients, and media present, all of whom would be watching us, after the way the news had been carrying on about our engagement this week.
A lot of people would be looking at us and evaluating our performance, but God help me, if anyone looked at her the way I was looking at her, there was going to be a problem—and men were definitely going to be looking at her. Some women too.
My teeth ground as I thought about how many people I was going to have to beat away from my fiancée with a stick. Shit, maybe I could even use my own stick. Unless I could find a way to get my body under control, it was absolutely going to be hard enough to beat people with.
Between her in that dress and the memory of her small, warm hand wrapped around my dick, it was a pretty lost cause, though. At this point, the best I could hope for was that my jacket would provide something of a shield.
Kate was waiting for me at the door when I came out of my bedroom. Her rich red hair was accentuated by the color of the dress, and having her eyes on me did absolutely nothing to help my unfortunate situation.
Damn it. I should’ve left time for a shower to take care of this before we had to leave. As it was, however, we were already running behind.
“You clean up nice,” she murmured when I opened the door and gestured for her to precede me. I wish I’d missed the slight flush of her cheeks, but I didn’t and I almost groaned at the sight.
Instead, I cleared my throat. Again. “Thanks. You don’t look half-bad yourself.”
Half-bad? Fuck. I really am an idiot.
Kate’s lips twitched like she knew I was full of it, but she must’ve decided not to call me out on it because she just walked out into the hallway, that scent of vanilla and citrus trailing behind her.
By the time we arrived at the venue, a sprawling, ridiculous event space smack bang in the center of Manhattan, I was mostly under control.
At least enough to pretend I had an actual brain in my head, but it only lasted all of about thirty seconds.
As soon as we walked into the place, I realized tonight was going to be all about an entirely different form of control.
This is not what I expected.
It wasn’t even seven o’clock yet and the entire party was already drunk. Not tipsy or pleasantly buzzed, but drunk. Booming, unruly laughter filled the massive room. People clutched specialty cocktails in manicured hands as bodies swayed and feet stumbled.
Colored lights pulsed faintly across the ceiling. A live band blasted music loud enough to make conversation nearly impossible. I stared for a moment, thrown completely off balance. Kate stilled by my side, her fingers tightening on the crook of my elbow.
I’d expected a quiet, subdued retirement party. Billionaires and their wives or mistresses sipping expensive whiskey and making polite conversation. That was the usual formula, but apparently, Hinds was going out with a bang.
“Damn, what the hell,” I muttered under my breath.
Kate stepped closer to me, tucking herself neatly against my side, and instinct kicked in immediately. I wrapped my arm around her hips and fitted her to me, everything in me needing to keep her close and safe as people pressed in from all sides.
The motion was protective. Possessive. I knew it even as I flexed my fingers on her, tightening my grip, but I didn’t let go.
She glanced up at me. “This is crazy!”
Nodding, I navigated us through the crowd toward Hinds. I didn’t even try to respond. There wasn’t much point. She definitely wouldn’t be able to hear me.
Abram stood near the center of the room, holding court like this was his personal kingdom. He spotted us when the group around him parted to let us through, his face breaking into a wide, flushed grin.
“There they are!” he boomed.
Kate stiffened against me again, but when I looked down, she was smiling politely. He clapped me on the shoulder hard enough to jolt me forward when we reached him.
“Congratulations to you both,” he said, beaming like this was a big, happy surprise and not the result of his very specific demands. “A wonderful match. Wonderful!”
My jaw tightened, but I forced a smile. Kate handled it better than me, nodding and grinning as he went on for another minute, rambling cheerfully about all the beautiful things the future apparently had in store for us.
I could barely hear a thing he was saying, but it didn’t matter much.
All I wanted now that he’d seen us was to get away.
Thankfully, it wasn’t long before someone else claimed his attention and dragged him to a different group. The band launched into another song, even louder than the last, and my ears started ringing.
Kate leaned closer. “I didn’t expect this!”
“I know!” I shouted back.
“What?”
“I KNOW!”
“WHAT?” she yelled, squinting at me. “I can’t hear you!”
I huffed out a breath that might have been a laugh and steered us toward the bar. If nothing else, I desperately needed a drink. Preferably one strong enough to dull the overwhelming awareness of the woman pressed against my side.
Every step through the crowd brought with it little shocks of contact between us. Her hip brushing mine. Her shoulder bumping my arm. The soft scent of her perfume cutting through the haze of alcohol and expensive cologne.
It was driving me insane. I really should have taken that fucking shower.
When we finally reached the bar, I maneuvered us into a narrow gap between the bodies all loudly trying to get attention, planting myself slightly in front of her without really thinking about it.
I’m shielding her. The realization hit just as sharp as before, but she was mine. I had to protect her from these animals. Wait. Mine?
I swallowed hard and tried to ignore the way my mind immediately betrayed me by imagining her back on that couch. That red hair spilling everywhere. Her dress pushed up just enough to—
Goddammit. Stop. Just stop.
I dragged in a slow breath and forced myself to focus on the present. The noise. The lights. The press of bodies all around us. Kate leaned in close again, practically against my chest now so I could hear her, and it made things so much worse.
After yelling her order to me, I flagged down a bartender and placed our order. When her cocktail was ready, I handed it to her, keeping one hand braced against the bar so she wouldn’t get jostled.
“Careful,” I said, leaning in so she could hear me. “Hinds invited too many damn people.”
She nodded, turning slightly to take a sip, but then someone slammed into her from behind. The glass tipped and red liquid splashed everywhere. Kate gasped, jerking back as the drink cascaded down the front of her dress, darkening the pale blue silk in a spreading stain.
For one split second, everything in me went absolutely still.
Then the anger hit, hot and fast. I took a very deep breath and closed my eyes, because if I didn’t, I was going to grab the guy who’d bumped into my fiancée by the collar and drag him outside.
I could already see it playing out in my head, the shouting, the swinging, and the headlines tomorrow morning reading, CFO of Westwood Arrested for Assault and Battery.
It wouldn’t be a great look. When I opened my eyes again, the guy was already gone, swallowed by the crowd. Probably didn’t even realize what he’d done.
Kate looked down at herself, stunned. “My dress. Oh my God—”
“It’s fine,” I said automatically. “Don’t worry about the dress. Are you okay?”
She gestured at her ear, mouthing something that looked like, “I can’t hear you.” I took the glass out of her hand before it dripped more of the cocktail on her and took her by the elbow, turning us sideways through the growing crush of people.
“We need a bathroom,” I said, mostly to myself.
“What?” she asked.
“Bathroom!”
I saw her lips form the response. “Yes, please!”
Guiding her through the crowd, I kept my body angled slightly in front of hers, clearing a path.
By the time we reached the hallway leading toward the restrooms, my jaw was tight enough to ache.
She shouldn’t have been shoved like that.
Soaked like that. Hell, she shouldn’t have had to stand in a room full of drunken strangers who couldn’t watch where they were going.
The bathrooms had a line halfway down the hall, and when I realized it, I stopped dead, glaring daggers at every person whose bladder stood between my fiancée and what she needed right now.
“Unbelievable,” I muttered, grateful that it was a little quieter out here. Not much but anything was better than what was happening inside.
Kate let out a weak little laugh. “It’s fine. Really. It’s just a dress.”
It was not just a dress. It was the dress. The one I’d picked and the one she’d looked at like it made her feel like a princess.
Down the hall, a partially open door caught my eye. It had no sign outside, just a narrow gap with a dim light shining through it. I steered us toward it and nudged it open to find myself in a supply closet.
It wasn’t ideal, but there were paper towels. Kate stepped in after me, glancing around at the shelves and boxes. “This is ridiculous. I’m not sure why we’re bothering. I hate to say it, but the dress is ruined anyway and I’m fine. Just sticky.”
“It’s not ruined.”
“It’s soaked. And stained.”
“It’s wet,” I countered. “And dirty.”
She snorted softly. I grabbed a handful of paper towels and turned back to her. The space was small, barely enough room for both of us without touching. When I moved toward her, the door swung shut behind me, muffling the music into a dull, pounding thrum.
I started dabbing at the fabric, careful and deliberate. Very normal behavior for a man who absolutely was not thinking about how the damp silk clung to her underneath his hands.
“It’s really okay,” she said, her voice quieter now as she glanced up at me.
“I know.” I kept dabbing anyway, trying to remedy the situation.
Finally, the stain lightened a little but not much. She still looked like she’d been shot. After a few more seconds, I shrugged out of my tux jacket and slipped it over her shoulders. The motion brought us closer together and my hands lingered a beat too long adjusting the lapels.
“There,” I said.
Her eyes lifted back to mine. We were nearly chest to chest in the cramped space, but as my heart rate sped up, she unexpectedly laughed. A soft, breathy sound that bubbled up out of nowhere.
I frowned. “What?”
She gestured vaguely between us. “This is just so ridiculous.”
I felt a smile crack through my concern for her. A breath of laughter escaped me too when I realized she was right. “You’re telling me.”
As I looked back at her, I realized some of her curls were coming loose from the bun, spiraling around her face, and my laughter instantly faded. My jacket was hanging off her shoulders and there was a faint smear of red near her collarbone I’d missed, but I didn’t move to rub it away.
Her eyes were too bright on mine, wide and maybe even a little dazed. I stepped even closer to her without thinking, my hands finding her waist like they had every right to be there. Instead of smacking me away, she sucked in a breath and leaned in closer.
I would never understand what happened to my sense of logic or reason when I was with her, but before I even knew what I was doing, I slid my arms around her.
Kate Vanderhaul really was becoming like an addiction to me, and right now, I wasn’t the least bit inclined to fight the temptation to indulge.