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I glance in the mirror and don’t recognize the girl staring back at me. How can an article of clothing make such a huge difference?
I glance at the time and realize it’s probably time for me to go outside and wait for the driver Dane’s supposed to be sending. I’m thankful my mom still isn’t home yet so I don’t have to explain this dress or where I’m going.
I walk carefully down the stairs, silently saying a prayer of thanks that at least he didn’t send me a sky-high pair of stilettos. No doubt I’d have fallen and broken my neck in those.
I suddenly wonder how I’m going to know the car he sent for me, but when I step out into the warm night air, I see that there’s no need.
There’s a freaking limo waiting outside the doors. I see some of the other tenants gaping out their windows at the vehicle, no doubt wondering what it’s doing there, and I hurriedly walk over to the very conspicuous vehicle before anyone can question me.
The driver gets out and opens up the door to the backseat for me. I murmur him a quick thanks before I slide in and then expel a shaky breath.
“You look stunning,” a deep voice says, and I jump, startled.
He chuckles, and I look across from where I’m sitting to see Dane’s huge figure taking up the seat across from me. How did I not notice him before? Granted, it’s dark in the limo, but still.
“The dress suits you perfectly. I knew it would,” he comments while his eyes rove over me.
My cheeks flush. “You didn’t have to send this stuff,” I tell him. “There was no need.”
His lips quirk up in a devastatingly handsome smile. “I know there was no need, but I wanted to.”
My heart does a pitter-patter at his smile, and that makes me angry with myself. This is the man who wants to destroy our apartment building without a thought to any of us who live there. So what if he’s the hottest guy I’ve ever seen before.
“Well, I didn’t want you to,” I snap before I can think better of it.
His raises an eyebrow at me, though his smile never fades. If anything, it gets even wider. “Then why are you wearing it?”
My face flushes even further and I look away from his glittering green eyes.
Thankfully, he doesn’t press the issue. It would be humiliating to admit to him that I didn’t have anything else to wear, though I’m sure he already knows that.
“There’s one thing wrong, though,” he says thoughtfully.
I frown, wondering if I’ve put something on wrong. He leans forward, his hands reaching out to cup my head.
My breath hitches in my chest as I stare up at him. His eyes are on my hair, though, and I feel his fingers push up into it, successfully dislodging the pins I painstakingly pushed into it to try to arrange it up on top of my head.
He runs his fingers through my waves and shakes them loose until they fall down around my shoulders.
I’m so shocked all I can do is gape at him.
His eyes finally flick down to meet mine, and then I see them go to my open mouth. His gaze heats, and I snap my mouth shut, pressing my lips tightly together.
“Much better,” he murmurs as he lets his hands fall from my hair, the backs of the fingers of one of his hands skimming over my cheek as he continues to regard me in that intense way of his.
I open my mouth to protest what he just did, but the limo comes to a stop, and the door is being opened for us. It was a short drive to wherever he’s brought us.
Dane steps out first and then offers me his hand.
I consider getting out without taking his hand, but one look up into his eyes that are filled with amusement, and I know that somehow he knows that’s what I’m thinking.
So I take his hand. I can be the bigger person, and I’ll be damned if I let him think I’m predictable.
Damn if his huge hand wrapped around my tiny one doesn’t feel so good, though. This man is dangerously handsome in that devilish sort of way.
His lips twitch, but then he smiles down at me as he places a hand on the small of my back and leads me into an elevator.
Dane is so tall and imposing that he seems to take up the entire space in the elevator. Of course, instead of standing on the other side, he stands close to me, his hand still pressed warmly on the small of my back. I can feel his gaze on me, but I stare studiously ahead, afraid to look up at him. His presence has my knees trembling, and every breath I take seems to be labored.
