But the whole Marilyn Monroe thing worked.
My gaze dropped to the floor because I couldn’t look at Val without wanting to kiss the hell out of her. Instead, my eyes caught on her high heels. Tall, with an ankle strap. Her legs looked fucking amazing.
Shit.
“Cupid.” I cleared my throat, swinging my gaze back up to her gorgeous face.
Her dimples creased, her dark eyes glittering. “Hey. You okay?”
“I’m fine. What about you?” I gestured to the girl she’d been comforting.
“Oh, her name is Heather. We’re just newly acquainted.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You just met, but she was sobbing on your shoulder?”
“Yeah. Come on.” She tucked herself into my side, her arm around my back. I automatically curled my arm around her. Her head just came to my chest. To me, she was the perfect fit.
She smelled good too. Always did.
As we walked toward the ballroom, Valentine continued, “Heather’s a sophomore. Invited by that jackass junior, Steve Johnson. He’s danced with every hot girl since he got here and then started making out with another girl fifteen minutes ago.”
“Asshole.”
“Yup.”
“Where are her friends?”
Val shrugged. “I don’t know.”
This was why I loved her. When Valentine saw anyone in pain, stranger or otherwise, she had to stop to help. Even if it interrupted her good time. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
She grinned up at me, those dimples I’d wanted to kiss a million times popping again. “You always make me feel that way.”
“It’s because it’s true.”
Something flickered in her eyes, and I felt her tense against me.
Could she see it? Sometimes I wondered how she could not see it?
How much I adored her.
“Dance with me.” It was out of my mouth before I could stop it. But I didn’t want to stop it. I couldn’t make Valentine Fairchild mine. The Fairchilds were already constantly fighting their daughter about her future. They’d told her no serious boyfriends until college. She’d told them she wasn’t going to college. It was causing major tension. They saw me as a brother figure to her, the buffer that kept their relationship from growing too hostile.
If I suddenly announced I was in love with her, our entire family dynamic would implode. And I couldn’t risk hurting the Fairchilds like that. Not when I owed them everything.
But I could have this one dance with her.
Valentine smiled and took hold of my hand, leading me to the dance floor even though I asked her. I tried not to notice the guys staring at her. The guys who wanted her. Or to think about the guy who would be lucky enough to have her.
To really have her.
All of her.
Instead, I pushed that agonizing thought aside and pulled her into my arms. Her sweet curves pressed into my body. Her fingers tickled the strands of hair at my nape. Her perfume drifted over me, dragging me deeper under her spell … until everything around us disappeared.
It was just me and Valentine. Swaying to music I couldn’t even hear.
I couldn’t hear anything but her voice as she murmured against my chest, “This is nice.”
It was more than nice.
It was right.
Perfect.
I tightened my arms around her waist and fantasized we were here together. That we’d just met at school like two normal kids would.
“Are you excited about college?” Val suddenly asked.
Part of me was. Instead of BU, I’d gotten into MIT. Going to a private academy had its advantages. MIT had one of the best architecture programs in the world. Sometimes I couldn’t believe it. It was a partial scholarship, and the Fairchilds were paying the rest. I’d promised I’d pay it back as soon as I could after graduating.
Another reason their daughter was off-limits.
“Well?”
While yeah, it blew me away to be attending MIT, I was going to miss Cupid like fucking crazy. Not being able to walk down the hall, knock on her door, and just sit and talk shit for hours about everything and nothing. To make her laugh whenever her parents were coming down hard on her. To make her whole face light up when I praised her newest creation.
To feel her with me when my mom screwed up and had to go back to rehab for the hundredth time. To have her lie beside me and not say a word because she knew all I needed was her next to me.
“Let’s not talk about it. I’m all talked out.”
Her fingers stroked down my nape, and I shivered as she whispered, “Okay.”
It was tempting to take hold of her hands and put them somewhere else, but that was useless. Wherever she touched me would go straight to my dick. I was eighteen, for fuck’s sake, and in love with her.
Thinking about how things could be between us if life had turned out differently, I asked, “What would your dream date be?”
Valentine met my gaze. She seemed surprised by the question. “My dream date?”
“Yeah. Not who or anything like that.” I didn’t want to know that shit. “Where would you go? What would you do?”
She bit her plump bottom lip. I glared at it. Wanting it.
Finally, she released it and melted into me with a laugh. “You’ll think it’s cheesy.”
“No, I won’t.”
Her dark eyes warmed. “No, you won’t, will you?”
“Cupid?”
Her eyes drifted past me as she smiled and confessed, “My dream date would be … okay, so I saw it in a movie and I thought it was so simple but really romantic. And perfect. This guy turned the rooftop of his city apartment into a wonderland. There were fairy lights strung everywhere, vases of flowers, flower petals, candles flickering in the dark. And in the middle of it all was a picnic. Music playing in the background.” She shrugged. “How romantic to be up there in a city of millions but feel as if you’re the only two people in the world. Hanging out under the stars with the one person you most want to be with.” Her eyes returned to meet mine when she said the last.
And I swear my heart stopped.
“Yeah,” she whispered, “the one person you want most to be with.”
Valentine was looking at me like she wanted me to kiss her.
Shock, thrill, anticipation all blasted through me at the thought of her reciprocating my feelings.
Mostly, I couldn’t stop staring at her mouth and thinking how I could almost taste her.
My need for her short-circuited my common sense.
I bowed my head toward her, and I felt her body press deeper into mine as she rose to meet me. Her mouth was almost on mine. Just one more breath—
“There you are!” Alison’s voice was like an explosion.
Valentine and I practically jumped out of our skins. Dazed, I dragged my gaze to find my date at our side with Graham, Val’s date.
“Can I cut in?” Graham glared at me before turning to Val with a smile. He pulled her across the dance floor before I could stop him.
Then Alison wrapped her arms around my neck like Valentine just had.
It didn’t feel the same. Her touch didn’t zing through my blood like bliss.
My attention returned to Cupid.
Our eyes met as she looked past Graham’s shoulder.
“So that’s why you don’t date anyone seriously,” Alison said.