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And maybe—just maybe—I let her talk me into it because a small part of me was curious whether Reggiewouldreact to me dressed this way.
“Wow,” she said, spinning me in a circle in front of her so she could give me one final appraising look. “Your ass looks great in this.”
“Thanks,” I said. “And if bygreatyou meantwo seconds away from bursting the seams on this dress, I agree.”
She snorted. “By the way, have you figured out the deal yet with his wholethere’s something about me you should knowthing?”
I’d of course told Sophie about Reggie’s late-night phone call first thing the following morning. “I’m still not totally sure what’s going on,” I admitted. “Though when we were emailing the other day, he admitted that he’s between jobs right now. There’s nothing wrong with being unemployed of course, but maybe he’s embarrassed by it.”
“Ah.” Sophie nodded. “Yeah, that could be it. Guys can get really weird about it when they’re dating someone more accomplished than they are.”
I stared at her. “Reggie and I are notactuallydating.”
“Details,” Sophie countered, waving a dismissive hand. “Regardless, even if he’s been unemployed for ten years, it doesn’t matter for your purposes.”
“Not at all,” I agreed. “And either way, if I find out definitively what his dark secret is, you’ll be the first to know.”
•••••••
Three hours later, I wasoutside my building waiting for Reggie to show up. I’d been clear from the beginning thatthis was a no-sex arrangement, but it was better not to confuse the issue by asking him to meet me in my apartment.
I wasn’t dressed warmly enough for being outside, though. It wasn’t as frigid as it had been the past few days, but it was still cold. I tugged at the cream-colored cardigan I wore over my dress, wishing I’d thought to wear a coat instead. Maybe a hat and scarf, too.
I was just about to go back upstairs and pull out some sturdier winter gear when an Uber pulled up in front of me. And then Reggie stepped out of the car and I forgot all about being cold.
In hindsight, we should have gone over what he should wear tonight. Then again, how could I have known he wouldn’t have intuited it? It was a family engagement party in the suburbs, not rocket science.
The man standing in front of me, however…
He clearly had not gotten the memo.
“Hi,” he said, grinning broadly.
“Hi,” I said, flabbergasted.
I knew from one unfortunate Internet search accident a few years ago that afursuitmeant something very specific, and thatfursuitwas not the correct term for what Reggie was wearing. But it was still the first word that leapt to mind as I stared at him. His coat looked like it had been pasted together from old newspaper clippings and my grandmother’s mink stole. Except where Gran’s coat had been light brown, Reginald’s coat was neon yellow and as fluffy as Mom’s little dog. It also looked at least two sizes too big for him, with the sleeves stopping at the midpoint of his fingers and the bottom hem falling below his hips. His pants were not fuzzy—he wore normal-fitting slacks, thank god—but they were a shade of muted mustard yellow that clashed so horribly with his coat it made the space between my eyebrows throb.
His face, though…
His face was perfect. Clear blue eyes, full lips that pulled up into a smirk that I was absolutelynottempted to kiss right off his face. Not a strand of his wavy blond hair was out of place. In fact, his hair looked better than I’d ever seen it. Much lessdirtbag Chris Pineand much moreguy who is sexy and absolutely the fuck knows it.
If you only saw him from the neck up, you’d think he’d just stepped out of a photo shoot. I couldn’t decide whether the rest of him made him the worst possible person I could be taking to tonight’s party, or the best.
If Reggie had any idea of the horny-tinged-with-WTFconfusion swirling through me, he showed no sign of it. He was staring as unabashedly at me as I was at him. Though I think his reasons for gaping at me were different. His eyes were all but glued to my dress’s low neckline, and to the just-this-side-of-indecent way it hugged my curves. His gaze moved up to my face and then slid down, down, down, before landing, and staying, on my ass.
How long had it been since a man had openlystaredat me like this? Like I was someone he found desirable. Like I was something he wanted. I needed to tell him to knock it off, but I couldn’t. It was wrong, he was a stranger, but it feltincredible, the way he was looking at me. My heartbeat ticked up, the tight confines of Sophie’s bodice encasing me like a vise.
No.
No.
We were not doing this.
“What onearthare you wearing?” I blurted, grasping for the first thing I could think of to snap us both out of it.
His eyes found mine again. Then the asshole had the audacity topout. It had to be against the law for men with lips like his to do such irresistible things with them.
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” he asked, frowning.
