My heart hammers and my stomach flips being so close to him. I breathe in the same cologne he wore at the wedding—something he doesn’t wear every day, just for special occasions. It’s a little peek into who he is, and it makes me want more. It makes me crave more. I want to know everything about this man. What he likes, what he dislikes, what makes him tick, what makes him smile.
What makes him moan.
And maybe I’ll get that chance.
It certainly feels like I could when I’m this close to him.
I close my eyes and breathe him in.
He presses a soft kiss to my cheek, the dark scruff on his jaw scratching my face and forcing memories of our single night together back to the surface of my mind. I want him to kiss me. I want his mouth on mine. I want all of him wanting all of me again.
“Our ride is waiting out front,” Luke says, breaking up the intimate trance we find ourselves in.
I follow him to the front door, and he asks, “Is purple your favorite color?”
“Yeah,” I murmur.
“It looks nice on you,” he says softly, and then he locks the front door before he helps me into the backseat then gets in on the other side. His eyes meet mine once he shuts the door, and a little heat passes between us before he looks away first.
He’s not in the right place to get into a relationship, and especially not with someone who wants the fairy tale ending. I have to keep reminding myself of that...but when he looks at me the way he just did, I have to wonder why.
We’re quiet in the car on the way to the event—or rather he is quiet and I’m wrestling with what to say the whole way. I finally break the silence with a question. “Will any of your teammates be there?”
He shrugs. “Yeah, there will probably be at least a few guys there. Any big ticket event like this one always has local celebrities. I wasn’t planning on going so I didn’t ask around.”
“We should have snapped a few pics by your pool before we left,” I muse. More thirst traps with this guy in a tux. “Well, if you’re ready to unveil me as your fiancée.”
“I think we’re past the point of whether I’m ready,” he says dryly.
Twenty minutes later, we pull up to the venue and the driver lets us out. Other couples dressed like we are emerge from similar chauffeured cars and walk through the doors presumably for the same event we’re attending.
I feel out of place as soon as we walk into the room after we check in and receive our dinner table number. My arm is firmly planted through his, and that seems to be about the only thing keeping me steady at the moment.
I recognize faces I’ve seen before just about everywhere I look. An actor here. A television host there. A famous singer here. A model there. Some seem to know Luke, friendly greetings and head nods going back and forth, and I feel even further out of my element.
I grip onto Luke’s arm a little more tightly, and I almost feel like he’s holding a little more tightly onto me, too. It must be my imagination.
I’m just a normal girl, a public relations manager from Chicago, and suddenly I’m on the arm of a very handsome man as his fiancée at a fancy soiree where the dinner plates cost upward of a few hundred dollars. Maybe even a thousand. I haven’t gotten up the nerve to ask, and I won’t.
But this whole event is to raise money, so I’m sure it didn’t come cheap.
“So you paid for two dinners and you just...weren’t going to show up?” I ask under my breath as I look around the classy room and the elegant people moving about it.
He lifts a shoulder. “I wrote it off as a donation.”
I glance over at him, and he looks stiff. Uncomfortable.
Out of his element, too.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
He tugs at his collar and clears his throat. “These events aren’t my thing. Savannah forced me to go to the first one with her because she liked rubbing elbows with the rich and famous.”
“Have you come every year?”
He nods as we stop in a short line near a bar. “This was the first I was planning to miss, actually.” He glances down at me, and I try to figure out what’s in his gaze. I don’t know him well enough yet to interpret it.
“I’m glad we came,” I say softly.
One side of his mouth tips into a smile, and then it’s our turn to order. He opts for beer, and I order some wine. We keep it simple, and I start to feel an idea forming as I watch him tug at his collar again.
I need Luke to do more for the community, but I want him in a setting where he feels comfortable. The idea hasn’t quite formed yet. It’s just the start of the snowfall, but I feel like it might be starting to roll into something that resembles a snowman.
“Dalton!” a deep voice behind us says.
We both turn around, and I see someone who looks familiar. I think he might’ve been one of the groomsmen at my brother’s wedding, but let’s face it, I sort of had tunnel vision for Luke so I can’t really be positive on that one.
“Fletcher!” Luke says in the same tone of voice. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“And yet here I am.” He flashes Luke a smile and then his eyes edge over to me.
“This is Ellie,” Luke says. “Ellie, this is Brandon Fletcher.”
“Nice to meet you,” I say, sticking out my hand, and he gives me a look like we’ve met before.
“You’re Nolan’s sister,” he says, and I nod.
“And my future wife,” Luke adds.
Brandon’s brows both shoot up. “Your future wife?” He doesn’t hide his shock for my benefit. “I didn’t even know you were dating anybody since that train wreck with Michelle.”
Luke shrugs. “We’ve known each other a while and the timing was just never right.” He glances at me, and hot damn he’s a good actor because hell if I don’t see all the adoration in his eyes that I’d expect him to have when he’s looking at his fiancée. “And then it was, and now here we are.”
“Well congrats, man,” Brandon says, slapping him on the back.
Luke presses his lips together in one of those thanks sort of smiles.
“When’s the wedding?”
Luke and I exchange a glance, and I field this one. “We just got engaged, so we haven’t had time to plan anything yet.”
“Before camp, though, right? I’d love to get fucked up on your dime.” Brandon booms out a laugh, and I gather that he plays for the Aces, too.
Luke offers a casual shrug. “We haven’t made any decisions yet.” It’s both the closest to the truth and the easiest way to get out of committing to anything.
A beautiful woman with really huge boobs saunters up beside Brandon. She practically hangs herself on him, clearly proving that she’s here with him and he’s going home with her.
Okay, honey, we get it. He’s your guy.
“This is Lauren,” he says, nodding to the woman without really looking at her or acknowledging her. “My date,” he adds, and the way he says it tells me that she’s way more invested in whatever is going on between the two of them than he is.
We wait for them to order their drinks, and as they order, Luke quietly informs me that Brandon is the quarterback for the Aces.