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We left the property and I fought to keep the questions flying from my mouth. He drove us to my townhome and I packed another bag and grabbed a couple more suits still on their hangers. Anxiety tore through me as we wound our way up Oak Creek Canyon.
It was a gloomy afternoon with a light drizzle. Not our typical autumn weather. I started to feel as though the universe conspired against Dane and 10,000 Lux.
I spared a glance at him and noted his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. I wondered if he pondered the same thing I did. Or if there was something a bit darker on his mind.
A chill ran down my spine. Here was the problem with being so wrapped up in this man and his world. I really didn’t know him. Not as well as I should when I’d just been locked in a stairwell with a deadly snake.
I shuddered.
Best not to think of that right now, Ari.
I needed to calm down. I tried to force my shoulders to loosen. They remained bunched much too close to my ears. My hands still shook.
Dane reached over and covered them as I wrung them in my lap. “Calm down. You’re making me even more inclined to throttle someone.”
I shot him a look. “But you’re not sure which someone, are you?”
“Let’s just say, it’s time to get this under control.”
“How do you plan to do that?”
“Trust me to handle it, Ari.”
I inhaled deeply, hoping it would steady me a bit. No such luck. I asked, “Don’t you have other partners who are concerned?”
“Yes. Three others from the initial investment group. I’ll probably spend the majority of tomorrow with them at the house.”
I nodded. “I’ll stay out of your way. I have a lot to do.”
“You don’t have to work twenty-four-seven, baby. We still have almost three months till the grand opening.”
“That’s really not as much time as you think in the land of event planning. And I don’t mind being so busy.”
It’d always been the way I’d managed my life and my emotions. Part of the avoidance theory I’d adopted at a young age. In this case, it’d help to have something to focus on other than what had happened today. And how I’d literally spiraled out of control with Dane.
I was alarmed by the inescapable acknowledgment of how deep I was in with this man and that there was no longer the retreat I was accustomed to making when the flame burned a bit too close to the skin. With Dane, I couldn’t seem to keep the walls up. More than that, I didn’t want to keep them up.
That meant I had to coax more out of him. Really find out what he was involved with and how it truly impacted the Lux. And me.
We arrived at his creekside, nestled-in-the-woods house and he unlocked the door for me, then grabbed our things from the SUV. He left our work bags in the foyer and I followed him down the wide hallway to a room opposite his. The dressing room.
I pulled up short and gasped at the size of it. “Good Lord, Dane.”
He set my totes on the rectangular marble-topped bureau with drawers and cabinets that was situated in the center of the room. He hung my clothes on the only empty rack against the far wall, with a ledge above and below for accessories or shoes. The wood was a rich mahogany and there was a three-way mirror in the corner, along with several chai
rs and end tables scattered about. The room was filled with his neatly arranged suits, shirts, ties, shoes, sweaters, pants. I took it all in, awestruck again.
“I thought rooms like this only existed in movies,” I said, unable to process how much the setup alone cost, not to mention every article of clothing filling it.
He opened two top drawers and relocated the T-shirts inside. Then he asked, “Will this do?”
I stared at him, now befuddled. “You’re giving me drawers?”
“You don’t want your clothes to wrinkle, right?”
“Right,” I numbly agreed.
Drawers. Wasn’t that a really big deal?
