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Lilly frowned. “I don’t like the idea of you being by yourself.”
“Con’s here for a couple of days after you check out.”
Glancing at the clock, Lilly stood to retrieve her purse. She needed to transfer the necessaries into her smaller evening clutch. “So…um…you think there might be something to the hotel’s legend?”
“Of course not.” Audra snorted. “I’m just not ready to go back to my condo. My nosy neighbor Alice will be all agog about why I’m taking the place off the market.”
Lilly made a face. “I—”
A knock on the door sounded, and she jumped, her gaze shifting there. “Alec’s here,” she said,
“And you’re ready,” Audra said, hurrying forward to hand Lilly the soft wrap she was borrowing. “Go out. For me. Go out and have the time of your life.”
Lilly tilted her head. “Green Day reference? Or the song from Dirty Dancing?”
“An order,” Audra said, pushing her forward.
Lilly’s palm was damp with sudden anxiety as she turned the knob. Alec stood there, in a snowy shirt and dark suit and tie, looking nothing like the naked man who had turned her this way and that the night before. Turned her inside out, until every vulnerable part of her had been exposed.
That man was gone, except his eyes, which were hot and feverishly bright as his gaze moved over her body in slow degrees. She fidgeted under his silent regard, wondering if the midnight-blue satin dress was too short or too clingy or just too…something. “I almost didn’t buy it,” she said, babbling nervously. “But Jojo insisted. I thought maybe it looked too much like a negligee, you know, like something you’d wear not to a party but to bed…”
“My sister is a genius,” Alec said then, reaching for her wrist in order to haul her across the threshold. He fitted her under his arm. “We’ll go tell her so.”
The designated ballroom for the anniversary dinner-dance was decorated in white linen, white flowers, and beautiful crystal candelabras that burned tall, white candles. The space teemed with guests when they arrived and Alec steered her toward the family table, though people stood about, not yet taking chairs. A server passed them champagne, and Lilly greeted Miranda and Vic, offering them congratulations once again.
Jojo held her at arm’s length. “Did I say killer dress, or what?”
“I thought it would give me a heart attack,” Alec said, his hand at the small of Lilly’s back.
The bare small of Lilly’s back, because the dress draped low at her hips from the rear. The bodice draped too, and the dress was kept up by shoulder straps skinnier that shoe strings. Her sandals were peep-toed black pumps, the heel height modest compared to some of the pairs in the room, but she felt teetery enough with Alec never going long without touching her arm, her hand, brushing her hair behind her ear.
If only she didn’t enjoy it so much, she’d complain to him about the blatant PDA. But affection had been yet another thing missing from her life, like stability, like safety. Murmuring something about greeting an acquaintance, he pressed a kiss to her throat, and she flushed as he left, noting Miranda Thatcher’s avid gaze had taken in the show.
But her embarrassment receded as Jojo clutched her arm. “Why is he here?”
Following the direction of the other woman’s stare, she saw Con Montgomery, standing with another couple of men. “I have no idea,” she said. “That’s Audra’s brother.”
“I know,” Jojo muttered. “We met yesterday.”
“Oh.” Baffled by the other woman’s odd reaction, she frowned. “Did he say something to you?”
“He didn’t need to,” Alec’s sister muttered again. Then the man in question looked over, his sights seeming to focus on Jojo. As he began making his way toward the head table, she disappeared.
Interesting. But before Lilly could puzzle it out, Alec was back and he held up a skewered shrimp to her mouth. “You’ll like this,” he said. “It’s marinated in lime and hot off the grill.”
It was nothing, she told herself, a small courtesy only, but opening her mouth so he could feed her felt almost unbearably intimate. She recalled him giving her chocolate on the first night in his bed, the taste of it inextricably linked to her memory of him also serving up pleasure. She wondered if this was a practiced move of his, something he was well aware would make a woman think of other intimacies.
