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Chapter 7
Eli heard her but didn’t look at her directly. His eyes were focused on the stairs leading to the hotel’s entrance. Isa took them in, trying to see through his eyes. They must look like they climbed the side of Machu Picchu.
“Can we use the side entrance?” She pointed to a set of double doors she’d used on more than one occasion to slip out of Sawyer Financial parties unnoticed. “These shoes and stairs don’t go well together.”
She delivered the suggestion with a smooth, nonchalant tone, but Eli didn’t seem to buy it. His chest expanded and his entire body hummed with frustration.
His eyes flicked to her heels, then to her face, his expression stony. This strong, brave man didn’t want anyone to think he was less than capable. She’d be damned if she put him through his paces. He didn’t have to prove himself to her.
“Please?” she asked, her smile cautious.
She sensed he wanted to argue, to call her on her fib, but he didn’t. He accepted her offer with a tight nod of acquiescence and Isa let him lead her to the side door, pride flooding her chest that he’d granted her his trust.
The side entrance opened to a long hallway leading to the front desk, beyond which was the grand ballroom named the Toronto, where a fancy sign with ornate letters announced the Sawyer Financial Group had the room for the evening.
“Invitation only,” Eli read.
“Trust me. I’m on the list.”
He halted just shy of the entrance to the ballroom. She turned to face him, noticing the rigid set of his shoulders and the flat line of his mouth beneath his neatly trimmed scruff.
“Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet,” she joked. “I need you in there.”
He thumbed her chin, eyes moving to her mouth a fraction of a second before he placed a kiss on the center of her lips. He didn’t explain, didn’t say it was his way of thanking her, but somehow she felt it was. Inside this luxury hotel, Eli in his tux, he looked as if he belonged. She’d seen him in jeans and T-shirts and wearing only a pair of shorts. What she couldn’t square was that no matter what he wore, he belonged.
Or maybe what she couldn’t square was how he belonged with her.
Eli tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and walked her to the door.
Before they crossed the threshold, Isa spotted her mother sweeping across the room in a sage green dress with delicate lace sleeves. Helena wore her skirts nearly as short as Isa did, and who could blame her? It’d be a shame to hide those legs. All the women on her mother’s side of the family were blessed with great legs.
“I’m guessing that’s your mother,” Eli said. “Green dress, right?”
“Good eye. Helena Sawyer in the ageless flesh.”
“You look like her.” He dipped his chin, then cast her an approving glance.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should.”
“My height is from my father’s side, though,” she said to fill the gap that hovered when Eli complimented her. She knew how to handle surly Eli, but the charming version was throwing her way off.
Isa looked at her seating ticket again, hoping the number on it was a mistake. But nope, there was a number eleven and table eleven was up front, directly in front of the stage. So much for slipping out early and avoiding the Sawyer Financial Man of the Hour.
A few corporate brass were sitting at the table already. Her parents were likely placed next to her at the table near the entrance of the stage, since one or both of them were speaking tonight. And Josh, of course.
It was no accident that Isa would be within babysitting distance. She let out a vibrating exhale that would make any yoga teacher proud.
“Were you assigned to sit next to someone you don’t like?” Eli murmured as they approached the table.
“Well, that’s a long list.” She smiled over at him and he put a comforting hand on the small of her back. “I was hoping for a table in the back so I could slip out.”
“That’s why you brought me, Sable. You don’t have to run or hide.” Eli slid his palm up her back and to her neck and she thought of the brief, yet flooring kiss outside this room. Her hair was up, so his fingers brushing the bared skin of her neck sent shivers through her.
She could count on him. As a steady, constant force.
She watched his lips as they came the scantest bit closer…Then her mother’s voice interrupted.
