Page 53 of You Wish
“My pleasure. And if you’re free later to celebrate your hard work, I’ll be by the hors d’oeuvres.”
“Uh huh,” she mumbled.
She gave a confident nod and, like her limbs weren’t malfunctioning, walked toward a 007-inspired Paul Bunyon. Halfway up the red carpeted ramp and dangerously close to a teenager in a wheelchair and racing gloves that screamed “Fastest Mo-Fo on the track,” Georgia nearly tripped on the hemline of her dress.
Barely managing to save herself from embarrassment, she clutched a towering gingerbread man and nearly took out the entire table of silent auction items. Her grace and regalness was on par with a Disney princess who suffered from mild vertigo.
She smoothed her dress and her eyes flicked inconspicuously across the ballroom. Then—like a movie frame snagged on pause—everything in her simply stopped. Everything else—laughter, music, the clinking of mugs—blurred into nothing but background noise. His brows lifted in amusement, then ever so slowly, a smile played back and forth in his eyes.
And just like that, her brain hit the pause button—and forgot how to play.
Because that look? That searing look was the same one he gave her a decade ago, twisted in a weave of tangled sheets, with her lipstick smeared on the pillowcase, and right before they’d made love for the first—and only—time.
He lifted his finger in a casual, too-hot-for polite-companycome hitherand her nipples popped their corks.
Bad idea, remember?
But then there was the other day. And that kiss, which stretched time and rewrote gravity. Which was why she’d been avoiding him today. It was why she’d called a ride share instead of arriving with him.
Refusing to let him see his effect on her, Georgia did the only thing a grown woman could do. She spun around and walked straight into one of the garages acting as a coat closet.
“What are you doing?” she asked herself, leaning against the wall and clutching her chest—which was pounding like she’d run a four-minute mile in stilettos. “He’s just a man.”
“And here I thought I was God,” a sexy-as-sin voice came back.
Georgia climbed behind a rack of coats and made herself as small as possible.
“Your shoes are sticking out,” he said. “Peek-a-boo toes. My favorite.”
“Foot perve.”
“I wear the title proudly.”
As he should. The man could guide a woman across the checkered flag line without even reaching her ankle.
“Of course you do. Pervs always do. And what was that look you gave me?”
“The one that said I want to peel your dress off with my teeth?”
“That one. It’s not an appropriate time.”
“Then you give an appropriate time and date, and me and my teeth will be there with bells on.”
Her belly pinched and a warm glow began to radiate from her chest. “Remember, tonight is about the kids. And only the kids.”
“Then why don’t you come out like a good girl and let me introduce you to someone I think can help.”
She peeked her head out from between a wool coat and feathered shawl. “So, thatcome hitherlook was you wanting to introduce me to someone?”
His smile went full tilt. “What did you think it was for?”
“Never mind.”
“Now, shall we go before he decides to leave?”
“Yes.”
He crooked his arm. “Madam?”
