“Do you want to finish your drink?”
“I’m good,” she said. Honestly, she just wanted to be with him. All day long she’d been working on a painting that summed up her life right now. It was abstract, but people had started to emerge as she’d worked. Her sister, of course, her daddy, to whom she’d always been close...and then Brian. The more she’d worked on the painting, the clearer it had become that she wasn’t going to be able to just label him as a distraction. He was already deeply rooted inside of her.
So, she’d decided to go with this for as long as it lasted.
“Let’s go,” he said, leading her out of the billiards room and outside. “I took an Uber, did you drive?”
“I did,” she said. “It’s damn expensive to get an Uber from Frisco.”
“Do you mind leaving your car here overnight?” he asked. “I’ve had too many drinks to drive.”
“I don’t mind at all,” she said. The parking area was monitored, and she didn’t want to take a chance on either of them driving after drinking.
He called an Uber and they were in his penthouse apartment before she knew it. The place was modern, yet had a homey feel to it. He led her into the living room and she admired the view of the glittering Dallas skyline as he made them margaritas in the other room. She took off her boots and wondered what she was doing there, but knew there was no other place she wanted to be.
That thought scared her. So much so, she was seconds away from getting her stuff and leaving.
He came back with two margaritas and handed one to her. “What would you like to do?”
Cuddle on the couch and watch TV, she thought. But she didn’t dare say that out loud. She had warned herself against this. He was becoming too important to her and she needed to pull back. Sex was okay. This other stuff...wasn’t.
“Um... I’m not sure. What did you have in mind?”
“There is a game on,” he said.
“God, you are such a guy!”
“Yeah, I am,” he acknowledged. “I thought you liked that.”
She laughed. “I do.”
“What do you usually do at night?”
“Listen to some music and sketch,” she said, following him around the apartment.
“Let me go get changed and we can figure something out that’s not art or sports... Do you want some sweats and T-shirt to wear?”
She nodded and followed him up to his bedroom. Brian had some art on the walls, and she saw a piece that she knew he’d bought from her gallery. “When did you get this?”
“A few months ago. You weren’t in the gallery, but I didn’t want to take a chance on someone else buying it.”
“It’s perfect in this space. I have another piece by this artist that I put in your large conference room. It has the same expansive feel as this landscape. But it’s Santa Fe instead of Austin,” she said.
“I can’t wait to see it,” he said. “You have a great eye for quality.”
“I do,” she acknowledged, realizing that she was looking at him. Brian was the kind of guy she wished she’d met in her twenties. But she hadn’t. And they were from families that had a plethora of tension between them. And she needed to remember that she was here for his hot body and sexy kisses.
That was all.
Eight
Piper hadn’t been sure what to expect as Brian’s date to the Habitat for Humanity Boots and Boas charity gala.
The event was held at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center. Overlooking beautiful Lake Grapevine, the resort seemed to pay tribute to everything Texas. And it was bigger than most other places. The resort featured a water park and nightclubs along with accommodations and five-star amenities.
They had already started decorating for Christmas and Piper took her time walking through the lobby, admiring the festive decor. She was looking forward to the holidays this year, hoping that somehow her family would be cleared of all charges and maybe life would go back to normal.
Though, what was normal? She honestly didn’t know anymore. After all, she was at this public event with a man—something she’d vowed to never do once her engagement had been broken—but Brian was changing her. This was the first event she’d attended in a long time where she wasn’t stag. Something she refused to dwell too deeply on.
It was the kind of thing that she had enjoyed before everything had happened with the Wingate family, and she’d been painted with the same suspicions as her sister and nieces and nephews. But being on Brian’s arm made her hardly even notice the stares and comments whispered behind hands.
Brian had bought them matching boots from Paul Bond, an American custom boot maker. She loved them. He’d gifted them to her the night before and she’d settled on a cocktail dress with a short skirt that ended above her knees to show off the boots. Brian hadn’t been able to keep his hand off her thigh under the dinner table before the auction started, and that was nice too.
She’d always dreaded this gala because when she’d been twenty-four her fiancé had dumped her the night before this very event. It had been her first time donating a piece of art to auction off, and it had made that year’s event sheer torture, but Ava had come with her and been her regal above-it-all self. She’d saved Piper that year and that was something Piper hadn’t forgotten.
There had been times when it was easy to focus on what a bitch her sister could be, but there was a very soft heart underneath the tough exterior. No one had even thought about saying anything to Piper, despite the rumors that were swirling that Ron had run off with another woman after dumping her.
They weren’t really rumors, since that had been exactly what happened. But Ava had saved her. Now Brian was doing the same thing. Only this time he was protecting her from Ava and the scandal that surrounded the Wingate family. Many of the attendees were gossiping about alleged seizure of their property and their company, as well as investigations by the DEA, were pretty damning things, but Brian was her white knight. Keeping the louder gossips at bay and giving her a really fun evening when she hadn’t expected one.
“Your sculpture is up next,” Brian told her. “I’ll let you know I’m going to go hard to get it for myself.”
“You don’t have to,” she protested. “You being here has been more than enough.”
“I’m not doing it to be nice. It will look perfect in the lobby of the building. I didn’t like the piece you sent over and we have been discussing a mural which I think will make a nice backdrop to this,” he said. “You said we needed something bold that speaks to our clients, and that sculpture definitely does. I mean, you captured the heart of what many of my younger clients are actually dealing with. I’m awed by your talent, Piper.”