Page 72 of The Player + The Pact = I Do

TWENTY-FOUR

Leo

I’m pacing outside the apartment building, waiting for Jules to show. She sent me downstairs about thirty minutes ago toget some air. That was right after I asked her for the fiftieth time when she’d be ready. I glance at my watch. Obviously, I wore my most expensive one. It’s not my favorite, but it’s part of the image I need to project tonight. Paired with a handmade suit, it almost completes the picture. But there’s one more thing I need, and she’s twenty stories up.

“Hi,” Jules says from behind me.

I spin around to find her coming toward me in a black, floor-length, strapless gown. The fabric clings to every curve and it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen, even though the most it reveals is her shoulders.

“You look… incredible,” I say.

She grins at me, and I have to fight the urge to cup her face and kiss her into next week. “Thanks. You look pretty great yourself.” She tugs on my bow tie.

I half choke on my words like I’m a nerdy thirteen-year-old being introduced to Emily Ratajkowski. “Thanks. Are you ready to go?”

She lifts her chin slightly. “Sure am.”

We’re only a few blocks away from the Plaza, where the awards will be held. I slip my hand under hers for the drive and we sit in silence. For a second I wonder what will happen with Jules and me after tonight, but I push the thought away. I can’t think of stuff like that now. Someone opens the car door as soon as we pull up and I jump out the other side. I should be the one who helps Jules out.

I take her hand and she steps out of the car. She doesn’t look like a million bucks. She looks like a billion.

She stands and sweeps her hair over one shoulder. I take her hand. We should be moving into the hotel, but I can’t stop looking at her. She’s so beautiful.

“I like your hair down like this.” I press a kiss to the side of her head.

“I’m beginning to learn that about you,” she replies, and I swear it feels like she’s reading my mind, seeing every image running through my head: How she looks when she’s on all fours, her hair curtaining her either side. How it feels when she’s on top of me, leaning back, her hair sweeping over my legs as she comes. How she moans when I gather her hair in my hand and use it to lift her chin to give me more access to her.

All I can think about is Jules, naked, when I see her hair down.

“You should definitely not wear your hair down if you want me to concentrate.”

She lifts her eyebrows slightly, like she knew exactly what she was doing tonight when she had her hair styled like this. Like she wanted my mind to be completely full of her when I see Caroline.

I’m content to stand on the red carpet, at the entrance to the hotel ballroom, but apparently Jules isn’t.

She starts to walk and tugs on my hand, laughing. “Come on. I’d like a martini.”

“I think we should make it a margarita,” I reply. “We can make that back home. Do we even need to be here?”

“Not for long,” she says.

Already she’s got menotthinking about the worst parts of this evening more than I thought possible. She’s deliberately distracting me, because that’s who she is. Always thinking about me. Caring, concerned, committed.

We make our way to the cocktail area.

“What happened to the dinner with your would-be investor in Harlem?” she asks.

I take two full champagne flutes from a tray and hand one to Jules. “Andrew? The guy you met at New River?”

“Yeah, weren’t we going to have dinner with him and his wife?”

I nod. “Yeah, trying to find a time in his diary is insane. He’s being wined and dined by the whole of New York. I’ll ask my new assistant where we are with that.”

A breeze of awkwardness passes between us. Tonight was the night that Jules and I have been working toward for the last few weeks. It was all meant to end tonight. I’ve not thought past the next few hours. We haven’t discussed what’s next for us. Is she moving out? Do I want her to? What are we doing? Are we sleeping with each other because it’s convenient or because?—

I can’t think about any of this until after tonight. I just need to focus on the here and now.

I scan the room and see various people I know. I raise my glass to the head of one of my go-to brokers just as Jonathan comes up behind us.

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