Page 187 of Ricardo

“Because she has decided she photographs better from the left.”

For half a second, Patrice looks as if she might actually walk out of the ballroom and into traffic.

Then she exhales and looks down at her clip. “Okay, we can—"

“Handled.”

“Really? You are a goddess.” Her gaze moves over my dress, and her expression softens into something almost approving. “Literally. You look beautiful.”

Her compliment almost makes me blush.

“Thank you.”

“And now,” she says, taking the folder from my hand, “you are going to enjoy the rest of the evening as a guest.”

“I still need to check the sponsor signage.”

“Owen checked it.”

“That does not reassure me.”

“I knew it wouldn't,” she says. “So I checked it after he did.”

That pulls a small laugh from me.

She smiles. “Go. Guests will start arriving in fifteen minutes. If the room catches fire, I promise I will tell you.”

“I would prefer slightly sooner than that.”

“Noted.”

I let her take the folder because if I do not, I will spend the next four hours adjusting table cards that do not need adjusting. My hands feel strangely empty without it.

A guest.

Tonight, I am supposed to be a guest.

I am still trying to figure out what to do with my hands when I feel him behind me.

I know before he speaks.

My body knows first, which is a strange and terrifying and wonderful feeling.

“Cuore mio,” he says in that low accented voice. It is close enough that it brushes over the back of my neck.

I shiver and turn.

For one second, everything else disappears.

He is in a black tuxedo, tailored with the same old-world precision he brings to everything else. His hair is brushed back from his face, the silver at his temples catching the chandelier light. The split in his lip has healed, though I can still see the faintest trace of it if I look hard enough.

His gaze moves over me, not hurriedly, though not crudely. He takes me in as if there is no part of me beneath his attention.

My cheeks heat.

“You like the dress?” I ask, because saying anything else feels dangerous.

His mouth curves.