“It’s okay.” She smiles gently, sipping her red wine. “Everyone is nice.”
I nod, but scan her face. Her social battery is definitely running on empty. “We can leave whenever you needto, alright?”
She shoots me a look of disbelief. “I’m not making you leave this party, Carter. You’ve been waiting for this moment longer than Penny has.”
I crack a smile, which her eyes immediately avert to, and she softens. I love it when she softens. Just for me. Like she’s comfortable around me now. Like she trusts me.
“Just tell me when you’re ready to go, okay?” I reach forward and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. My heart almost stops when she leans into my touch. Maybe both of us are feeling the impacts of this atmosphere tonight.
For a moment, we just look at each other, and my head kind of goes quiet. There is no party beyond the patio doors. Wyatt and Saltzy aren’t in the corner of this balcony. It’s just me and her and the way she’s looking at me. It’s me and her and the way I count down the days until it’s me and her again.
Fuck.
Maybe I want this a bit. Want her. Not just because she doesn’t want me, but because I have come to the realization I don’t want to pick an end date for this arrangement. I want rule number four-point-five. I want four hundred faux kisses if that means I'll get a real one at some point.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she whispers, a soft laugh leaving her mouth. But still, she doesn’t look away.
“Like what?”
“You know what,” she says, those brown eyes hard but daring.
“Not sure I do, Red,” I say, brushing my knuckles against her cheek. Her eyes warm as my fingers sweep her skin. “You’re earth-shattering, you know that? So beautiful that you shake up every room you walk into.”
She groans, throwing her head back. “You can’ttalkto me like that!”
I chuckle, leaning back against the seat. I just watch her. Iwatch her sit in her discomfort at my compliments. I mean them, too. I never give her compliments as a part of this game. Arden Doll is the kind of pretty that punches you in the gut. She takes your breath in a violent way. No prisoners. You have to just accept that her presence impacts your world, and once everything settles, you’ll never be the same again.
“I’ve got to sell this. For the plot, as you say.” I only say that to make her relax. Using her motto with her friends as a reminder that I remember this is not a real thing. Pushing that line is dangerous with her. She needs this to remain what it is on paper.
“You can’t.” She sighs, cracking her eyes open to look at me. “You just…can’t, Carter.”
I study her face. Memorize her freckles. Wish I could trace them with my fingers. “Too bad.”
She smiles gently, brown eyes scanning mine, searching for something. “Well, if you want to play dirty, I’m allowed to as well.”
I cock a brow and a sip of my beer. I’m immediately intrigued. “Go on, then.”
“You’re ridiculously handsome,” she says, eyes burning into mine. “Handsome in a way that defies logic and genetics. So physically good looking that it’s impossible not to want you.”
I swallow, my throat suddenly thick. I have heard that I am handsome many times in my life, but hearing that she might want me hits a bit differently.
She reaches over and slides her index finger against mine. I turn my hand in hers, locking our fingers together.
Her eyes dart to our hands.
“But it’s the rest of it that really intrigues me,” she says quietly, and I watch that tongue dart out and wet her bottom lip, feeling her fingers play with mine. “The way your mindworks, so kind but so deadly. That big, loving heart that beats to its own drum. How much you care about your friends, and how fiercely you protect them. How you protect everyone.”
Dear god. Can I kiss her right now?
Is the situation one of the dire variety?
“You’re the kind of handsome that people dream about,” she says, and those brown eyes slide up to mine again. “But you’re the kind of soul that an artist spends their lifetime trying to depict on paper. There just aren’t enough colours, enough words, or enough melodies to capture who you are.”
Yeah, that’ll do it.
I place my beer on the table without breaking her stare. She watches me carefully as I reach between us, wind my fingers around her wine glass, and put her drink next to mine.
And fuck, like I’ll let a woman say shit like that to me and not kiss the hell out of her.
