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Without thinking, she reached out with her napkin and wiped a bit of the chili sauce from the corner of his mouth. It was a weirdly familiar gesture for people in their position and his eyes met hers for a moment, as they both seemed to realize it at once.
Sebastian’s hand shot up and caught hers. As his warm fingers enveloped her own, the napkin fell from her hand. Neither of them really noticed. All Lauren was aware of was the feel of his skin pressed against hers. Familiar. Addictive. Her heart started racing in her chest as though her body suddenly remembered his touch. Flashes of their night together, of these same big, masculine hands on her body, rushed to her mind all at o
nce.
And just like that, their chemistry was back in full force. Like a lightning bolt had struck them through the conduit of the aluminum umbrella, it hit Lauren all at once. She wasn’t sure what had changed, but things were definitely different today.
Sebastian noticed it, too. His green eyes narrowed at her, suddenly more wary, yet more interested than they had been since she’d shown up on his doorstep. With his gaze fixed on her, he unconsciously licked his lips. Then he brought his hand down to where he could look at her fingertips and took a deep breath. “Your manicure has held up nicely.”
That wasn’t what she expected him to say. Especially since Sebastian hadn’t mentioned her nails before. He might have commented about them at the club, but not since then. It seemed odd that he would mention them now. Of course, maybe he was just searching for something to say to break up the tension crackling between them.
“I’m surprised they’ve done so well,” she said. “Cooking is hard work on hands. They usually don’t look so polished. That’s a remnant of my makeover.”
“Makeover?”
Lauren frowned. If she wasn’t looking Sebastian dead in the face, she would think she was talking to someone else today. “Yeah, you know. I told you about how I won the party tickets and makeover as part of that contest on the radio.”
A moment of realization flickered in his eyes for a moment and then vanished as he smiled again. “Oh, yes. I’d forgotten about that. Well, they did a great job. You look just as lovely today. Just put on that red gown and we could be back at the club playing billiards.”
Lauren froze for a moment, gently extracting her hand from his. That was the first time he’d made any real reference to their night together. At first, she’d thought he was just being gentlemanly about it. If they were trying to start over in their relationship, not talking about their hot one-night stand on a pool table was advisable.
But at the same time, there’d been no mention of their evening together at all. He didn’t seem to remember that she liked dirty martinis despite buying her several that night. None of their conversations in the alcove of the club or out on the dance floor seemed familiar to him. She’d chalked it up to drinking too much.
And now, suddenly a pool table reference of all things. A complete one-eighty. When she looked up at him in surprise, there was a knowing heat in his gaze. It was enough to make her cheeks flame with embarrassment, and this time she had no mask to hide behind.
“You’re not very good at camouflaging what you’re thinking. Your face is very expressive. I know I may have said this before, but I like being able to see your whole face. I feel like with your mask on I was missing out on so many facets of your emotions and expressions.”
He hadn’t mentioned it before. Like everything else that night, he’d done a complete reset until this very moment. Lauren was both extremely confused and intrigued. Whatever initial disappointment she’d felt about meeting her masked man in real life had suddenly gone out the window.
“Like right now,” he continued, “if you had that mask on I wouldn’t see those cute little lines between your eyebrows that pop up when you’re thinking. I only ever got your eyes. Brown and gold, looking right through me somehow, even behind my own mask. I like having the whole picture.”
Lauren was stunned by his words. What could she say to something like that? He suddenly seemed to notice and remember every detail about her. Most people didn’t pay any attention to the golden starbursts in her eyes, much less speak about them as though he’d memorized every honeyed fleck. Her heart stuttered in her chest as warmth flooded her cheeks.
“I need to get back to the truck,” she said instead. “But we’re still on for Saturday, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“Do you have plans for what we’re going to do in Dallas yet?”
“Not exactly. But there’s a pop-up restaurant that I’ve read about that’s going to be operating that day. I thought that might appeal to the chef in you. Maybe give you some ideas for your own business. Would you like me to call and get reservations?”
Lauren had thought a lot about trying out a pop-up shop. It would let her dip her toe into the waters of having a permanent restaurant and see how it went. She even had her eye on an empty location on the square that would be perfect. “That sounds great. And don’t you have an aunt in the area?”
“My aunt Piper, yes.”
“I’d love to see her gallery if we have time while we’re up there. I’ve wanted to go but never have found the time to do it.”
A stiffness returned to Sebastian’s expression that reminded her more of her tense dinner date than her billiards partner. Apparently he could switch between those sides of himself like flipping a coin. “Sure,” he said without much enthusiasm. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Six
Being with Lauren was easy. Lying to her and pretending to be his brother was not.
Sutton hated doing this. It felt all wrong. He was constantly walking on eggshells hoping he wouldn’t say something that would give him away. So far Lauren didn’t seem to notice. Or at least, she didn’t seem to mind the change. She’d noted that he seemed more relaxed. That made sense. Even Sutton at his most tense wasn’t anywhere near as uptight as Sebastian was on a random Tuesday.
Since he hadn’t managed to screw things up, he’d picked her up in his brother’s BMW and they drove up to Dallas together. While the ride itself was outwardly pleasant, he had a hard time keeping his hands on the wheel. Being trapped in the same small space with her, her scent lingering in the air... He desperately wanted to pull the car over and kiss her until he was gasping for air. But he kept his hands on the wheel and his mouth to himself.
He wasn’t sure why his brother didn’t see much in Lauren, but Sutton certainly did. She wasn’t stunningly beautiful like so many of the debutantes that had circled around the twins since their teen years. He was pretty certain that was only because she didn’t put in the hours of effort on her appearance like they had. That said, he was able to appreciate a natural beauty in Lauren that he hadn’t really been exposed to before.
