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I grin at his level of involvement in the story. “Depends. Most of the time it’s fine. Like most companies, we have preferred vendors, so sometimes we have to trade favors for last-minute crises. But most of the time the bride isn’t willing to risk her big day, so we don’t have a ton of mishaps on that front.”
“Okay, sorry. Continue.”
“So anyway, a few weeks ago, I get an email from the bride letting me know her photos were ready to view and told me I was free to use whatever I wanted for marketing purposes. She mentioned that she wished she had taken me up on the offer to find a local photog instead of hiring her grandfather. So I’m thinking, what could have possibly gone wrong?”
I pause to take a drink.
“So I should mention that the beach they got married on was utterly beautiful, but it was a topless beach.”
“Oh shit,” Theo mutters.
“Sure enough, I’m flipping through photos and nearly every photo has a naked woman in it. Her grandfather could not stay focused at all.” I can’t not giggle about it because remembering the photos just cracks me up.
Theo looks amused, like I’m so close to getting a smile, or heaven forbid a laugh. “I mean, you can’t blame the guy, right?”
“No, not at all.”
“How mad was the bride?” he asks.
“I didn’t get the sense that she was super mad, more disappointed that there were boobies in nearly every photo taken on the beach.” My laughter gets a little loud, which is my cue to switch to water.
“Did she get any good shots?”
“Absolutely, lots of breast shots. They were spectacular.”
Finally I’m rewarded with a deep, sexy laugh. And it nearly undoes me.
My answering grin grows wide. The sound of his laugh melts me to my core. My belly is molten hot lava and I would be across this table in his lap in a heartbeat if I didn’t have my dignity on a tight leash right now, because damn, I want this man.
As if he realizes that he has lost his grip on his grumpiness, his laugh fades away, his face going slack as he studies me.
“What’s with that face?” His brow arches.
“You.”
He lets out a small sigh but doesn’t look away. “Yeah?”
“You laughed. And smiled. And you’re absolutely gorgeous.” If I hadn’t already wanted to jump this man without seeing him happy for just a moment, there would have been no recovering from it.
His face looks all kinds of dismay at my admission. “I smile. And I laugh, and I’m not sure how I feel about being gorgeous.”
“Given the fact that I’ve only been in your presence a handful of times, I’ve never seen you smile. Sure, a few lip twitches, maybe a sexy smirk here and there, but few and far between. I didn’t know you were even capable of laughter.”
“You’re being a smart-ass,” he mutters.
“And honestly, it nearly caused me to fall out of my seat. Wasn’t expecting a laugh. It would have been worth falling on my ass, though.”
He shakes his head, laughter in his eyes, but I can tell he’s fighting it, not allowing himself to be caught in the act again.
“And men can totally be gorgeous,” I add. He studies me intently.
“You’re gorgeous,” he whispers. And the heat in his eyes has me squirming in my seat.
We stare at each other for a moment. Or two, honestly, I can’t be sure, but the heat between us is nearly palpable.
If only there wasn’t a table between us and we weren’t smack dab in the middle of a busy restaurant.
Theo blinks, and he seems to shake himself out of our bubble of lust. The air around him shifts and back in place is his eerily somber mood. I would have thought I imagined everything between us if it wasn’t for the trace of unbridled heat still clouding his eyes.
