Chapter 7
SEVEN
RUBY
I can’t breathe.
He’s so close to me. I can smell his bodywash and shampoo—it’s a cedarwood-and-bourbon combo. It’s out of this world, and I want to run my nose along his entire body to see if he smells like that everywhere.
I’m sure it does—every-single-where.
Inhaling through my nose, I let the air out through my mouth, slowly and deeply. Mainly so that I don’t pass out completely. And then he leans forward, his mouth almost touching mine before he shifts to the side, and I feel his lips on the shell of my ear.
“I’m happy you came.”
His whisper sends a thrill of desire up and then back down my spine. He’s happy I’m here. This cannot be real. This cannot be happening, but then I feel his teeth nip my earlobe, and I almost melt right here on the floor.
Liam shifts his head back slightly, but he stays close to me. The hand that’s not pressed against the wall next to my face curls around my waist. My knees tremble the moment he touches me. Then I feel him flex his arm, tugging me forward, my body pressing against his chest.
His hard. Rock hard. Chest.
“What is happening here?” I ask in a whisper. I am so confused, and I want this to be real, but it feels like it might be some sort of cruel joke.
He chuckles, and I feel really stupid for asking. “We’re getting to know one another, Ruby.”
My lips twitch into a smirk as my gaze searches his. “I don’t remember getting to know anyone by standing so close to them before.”
He doesn’t even flinch, and he doesn’t shift backward at all. He stays close to me, so damn close, and whatever resolve I thought I had—it’s completely gone.
Vanished.
Trembling against him, I can’t help but wonder when my knees are going to completely give out and send me down to the floor.
“Get used to it, Cupcake Girl, because we’re going to be even closer before the night is through.”
I open my mouth, but nothing comes out, and that’s because someone walks up beside us. Both of us turn our heads, and I’m met face-to-face—or rather, face-to-chest—with a man I’ve never seen before.
Tipping my head back, I look up to meet his eyes. I don’t know who he is, but he’s tall, and considering I’m standing pressed up against Liam, who is also very tall, that’s saying something.
“You’re the girl who made the great fuckin’ cupcakes?” he asks.
I swallow the saliva that I haven’t been able to since he appeared at my side. “Yes,” I whisper.
His lips twitch. “You got a shop or something? My mom would really love some of these. I’d like to send some to her back home.”
“I do,” I murmur.
Then, because I’d decided an hour ago that this was going to be a networking thing, I slip my hand into my pocket and produce a card. He reaches out, wrapping his fingers around mine as he slips the card from my grasp.
That’s when he smiles, and he’s got dimples. Panty-melting dimples. This guy is trouble. Downright rotten trouble. Then again, the one with his arm wrapped around me like a hard band isn’t a choirboy himself.
In fact, as my gaze wildly searches around this room. I see them. One by one, my gaze shifts from one man to another. One gorgeous, tall, athletic man to another. I blink. I knew they were all going to be hot, but this might be too much hotness for one confined space.
Trouble.
All of them.