Page 73 of Offside Devil

I wrinkle my nose at where my phone is propped up on the dresser. “I called to ask for your opinion, not to be objectified.”

“Right. Sorry. Objectifying you is Zane’s job. And let me tell you, you’re making his job eaaasy tonight.” She whistles long and low.

The last twenty-four hours have been a whirlwind. When Zane told me to clear my schedule, I assumed he needed me to watch Aiden while he went somewhere.

Instead, I came home to a rack of dresses to try on and a woman with a tape measure trying to get my bust size.

I’ve never been to a gala or a ball or whatever this party tonight is, but it’s apparently fancy enough that I couldn’t be trusted with my own hair or makeup.

Zane footed the bill for Taylor and me to get glammed up and, by the time I got back a couple of hours ago, a blue dress almost the exact same shade as the suit Hanna dropped off the other day was hanging in my room.

“It hardly covers my chest.” I mumble, spinning around to see where the back barely makes it to the middle of my spine. “How does it stay up?”

It’s not by the sleeves, that’s for sure. Those are dangling uselessly around my biceps.

“The fact it’s tailored perfectly to your chest helps,” Taylor points out. “In more ways than one. It won’t budge and your boobs look amazing.”

I jab a warning finger at her. “I’m serious. Stop that or I’m going to tell Daniel you’re in love with me.”

“Pssh, he already knows, babe.”

Despite myself, I smile. “Are you going to show me your dress?”

“No. I want to make a grand, Cinderella-like entrance. You can gawk like the rest of them when I arrive.”

I laugh, but Taylor’s not kidding. She expects jaws to hit the floor. And they probably will. She belongs in this world—the one with ball gowns and diamond necklaces.

I’m the outsider.

“Well, I’ll see you there, then.” I hear Zane walk down the hallway behind me, and my heart jolts. “Don’t get so distracted with Daniel that you forget about me. I don’t know anyone else there.”

“Okay, but please feel free to let Zane distract you with his body until you forget all about me.” She winks and the call ends.

I stare at my reflection for a few more minutes, bending and twisting and twerking. Basically doing everything I might be doing in the next few hours that could send my dress cascading to the floor and leave me in nothing but a pair of lace panties—again. But Taylor was right; the dress doesn’t budge.

When I’m finally confident my girls will stay covered tonight, there’s a knock at my door.

I open it, and… well, I might have spoken too soon for the girls.

Zane is standing in front of me in his suit, and I can see why Hanna was groping it like a psycho the other day. The material has to be magic. Some kind of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants type thing, except for men’s suits.

Because Zane looks unreal.

His hair is sculpted back out of his face, but a few little waves have escaped to fall over his forehead. I follow them down to his bright blue eyes and find that they are pinned on me.

“My God,” he breathes.

Heat flushes through me. I’m sure he can see me blushing, but there’s nothing I can do about that. “Ditto. You look nice.”

“You look—” He bites his lip and takes a step back the way someone would admire a fine piece of art in a gallery. “I didn’t need to bother getting dressed up. No one in that building tonight is going to be looking at me. Not when you’re standing next to me.”

“Because I look so ridiculous?” I tease, trying to steer us away from where we ended up the other night.

Then again, I don’t think I actually made it out of that hallway. Somewhere in the back of my head, Zane still has me pinned to that wall.

I’m at his mercy in a way I promised myself I’d never be again. But this feels… different.

“Because you are the single most gorgeous creature I’ve ever seen,” he rasps, a note of regret in his voice like he wishes he didn’t have to say it.

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