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I was his best friend’s daughter. A virgin. A younger woman. Not some glamorous arm candy Nathaniel Dean would date, let alone sleep with. He would never look at me that way. And I shouldn’t be looking at him.
At all.
But I couldn’t help myself. He was a total smoke-show.
Wanting to avoid him, I joined my sisters at the buffet, and helped myself to the open bar again. The three of us danced for a little while near the DJ, giggling at the song choices. My sisters made another trip to the buffet, and I wound up talking to people I barely knew, and wasn’t really interested in.
Anything to get my mind off Nathaniel.
After a while, I wandered off on my own, away from the center of the party, and stood at the back of the room near the fireplace. I was tipsy from the alcohol and felt its warmth in my cheeks. My gaze drifted to the firelight, and my mind drifted to Nathaniel. He had looked so good in his slacks and dark blue button-down, with the physique of an Olympic swimmer and the face of a Hollywood actor. I shifted in my stilettos, rubbing my thighs together ever-so-discreetly at the thought of his big body, his strong hands, his plush lips…
There he was again, on the other side of the room.
His eyes met mine this time. He gave me a small smile and nodded. I nodded back, trying to shake the naughty thoughts from my mind, preparing to act like I was a normal person enjoying a party instead of a lust-addled girl with an incurable crush on her dad’s best friend.
Then he started walking toward me.
Be cool, be cool.
“Hey, Amelia.”
“Hey, Nathaniel.”
“That color,” his eyes darted down to my dress, “is lovely on you.”
“I–oh. Thank you,” I said, flustered.
“I owe you congratulations. Your dad mentioned a while back that you completed your program back in May, and already started your career as a radiation therapist. I would’ve come to your graduation, but I was abroad on a business trip.”
I didn’t have a response. My brain was stuck on the fact that he said he liked the color of my dress. Not just the color, but the way it looked on me.
Nathaniel had been living rent-free inside my head for years. The idea that he had even noticed me had me blushing furiously, my cheeks hot and my hands suddenly sweaty.
I would live off that one little compliment for weeks.
Dad appeared just then, back from his chat with Bill, and greeted Nathaniel with a hearty clap on the back.
“David,” Nathaniel smiled, swinging an arm around my dad’s shoulders.
“Has Amelia been behaving herself?”
Oh, God.
Nathaniel’s jaw twitched, almost imperceptibly. “I was just telling her how impressive it is that she graduated and found a position in her field so quickly.”
“I’m awfully proud of my baby girl,” Dad boasted.
I had to get out of there. It was too weird, too much. Nathaniel had a profound physical effect on me, that threatened my composure which was slipping from my control the longer I stood near him.
“If you’ll excuse me,” I said, and Dad answered with something likesure, kiddoas I walked away. Nathaniel’s eyes were still on me. I could feel his burning gaze as I turned down the hall, trying not to seem like I was in too big a hurry, yet desperate to get out from under the spotlight of Nathaniel’s attention.
I slipped inside the powder room, the tiniest bathroom in the house farthest away from the hubbub of the party. Twin sconces glowed dimly against gilt-on-black art deco wallpaper, but in the mirror, I could still make out the bright red flush on my neck and chest from my encounter with Nathaniel.
I started the sink and ran a washcloth under the cool water. Pressing the wet cloth to the back of my neck, I sat atop the bronze toilet lid and closed my eyes, trying to calm down.
Nathaniel is off-limits.
No touching.
