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“I see the delectable woman I’ll be feasting on tonight.” His words are soft, but they may as well have been shouted for the way they jolt me.
My breath catches in my throat as my panties grow damp. I lick my dry lips, noting the way it makes his gaze darken. “Don’t tease me.”
“I’ve never been the teasing type,” he says. “I prefer to get straight to the good part.”
I fight a whimper and wonder if this is all some cosmic joke. Just like the almost family on Stonewell Drive. I’ll be allowed to get just close enough to Ryan before he realizes how damaged I am.
“I can see the doubts on that pretty face of yours.” He cups my cheek as the music swells to a crescendo. “But I am sincere, kitten.”
“Why are you acting weird tonight?” I force the question out from lungs that are suddenly too tight.
“You don’t have to pretend you don’t want this.” He strokes a thumb across my jawline. “I see it in your eyes, feel it in the way you pressed up against me this morning, hell the way you were putting your pretty tits in front of my face at the office today.”
I step back from him as the song ends and shake my head. “I need to freshen my makeup.”
Then I turn and flee to the safety of the women’s restroom like the coward I am.
4
LACEY
Inside the bathroom, I take deep breaths and try to calm my racing heart. I had to have imagined that conversation with Ryan.
He can’t just want me. Not like that.
I wish I could find Katie. She’s written all of these cool romance stories. She’d know if he was serious or not. She’d help me figure out what to do next.
I think about his words. I see the delectable woman I’ll be feasting on tonight.
He was teasing me. He had to have been. Men like him don’t look at women like me with chunky hips and plushy middles and think about dirty things.
Fixing my hair in the mirror, I decide to write the whole thing off as some good-natured teasing from my older brother’s friend. I’ve never been wanted my whole life and that’s not about to change now.
When I leave the bathroom, I move to the silent auction across the hall. Ryan wouldn’t expect to find me here.
Growing up the way I did, I learned how to hide from a lot of people. Angry foster fathers. Mean older kids. Even social workers who would do nothing but chide me for all the ways I didn’t fit in.
Now I’ve become an expert at being unseen.
My heels echo against the hardwood floor as I step into the auction to examine one of the tables draped in a white sheet. I inspect the pictures of items for bid including a diamond bracelet and a Rolex watch.
Those don’t appeal to me, so I keep looking. Not that I can afford to bid on any of this stuff anyway. I’m barely making ten dollars an hour while living with my brother. My idea of luxury is name-brand shampoo, not a week on a yacht.
As it is, I put the cost of my boyfriend by the hour on three separate credit cards. Money that I now desperately hope I can get back.
I hear a noise behind me, dress shoes squeaking against the hardwood. Instantly, my nipples pebble and my core aches. My body knows who it is without even having to turn.
He steps beside me, and I catch a whiff of his cologne. It’s lightly spicy and masculine but not overpowering. “A trip for two to the Red Shirt Museum in New York. Are you going to bid on that?”
“The museum is a complete replica of the original set,” I tell him. I read the little place card for it twice. I never had anybody that shared a hobby with me and it’s cool getting into his.
“If you learn Vulcan, I’ll take you there,” he teases.
I laugh, wondering how you seduce someone in Vulcan. I really like this about Ryan. He’s not just hot and strong and caring. He’s also a…friend. That’s something I haven’t had a lot of in my life.
“You were trying to hide from me,” he says. Even though we’re alone in the room, he whispers. It feels intimate, like we’re more than friends.
I don’t answer him. I keep staring at the sign for the trip for two. There will never be a two with me and Ryan. But I’d kind of like it if there were. If I had someone who would go on adventures with me.
