Page 25 of The Dating Contract

“Okay. I get it. Genuinely on my best behavior with this person.”

“Good,” she said. “Thank you.”

He nodded, and reached out, presumably to take her hand. And because this was a contracted event, because they weren’t actually doing this, but also because she was nervous, she took it. His fingers were warm as they wrapped around hers, the peaks and valleys of his skin were familiar.

“We’re doing this,” he said as he squeezed her hand.

The gesture pulled her back to reality. She nodded, leading him onto the street and toward the subway line they needed. “Yep,” she said. “We’re doing this.”

And as the doors to the subway closed behind them, she held her breath.

Chapter Eight

Event One: Cocktail party, home of Gabe Brucker

Purpose: Public networking for Leah

Samuel noticed that Leah held his hand throughout the subway ride uptown, and didn’t let it go as they got off the subway, though she would probably argue that it was just because she didn’t want him to get lost.

He didn’t ask her if she was nervous; he knew, as sure as first the sunset of a June evening that she was. And not just because he could feel the sweat in her palms.

The fact she’d reached for his hand said more than any word she’d ever allow herself to say.

“It’s just up here,” she said quietly, as if she knew she was breaking the silence. She wasn’t looking at him, but he didn’t expect her to. She was navigating after all.

And then she stopped almost suddenly, dropping his hand to smooth her dress.

“Any last-minute words of advice?” he asked, hoping to break what felt like the rising, thick tension by pulling her back to where she seemed most comfortable.

“Don’t screw it up.”

Which he could have scripted, but all the same he nodded and took her hand back as they headed up the stairs.

The silence was impossible as they walked the stone steps of the townhouse, and instead of letting himself get lost in scenarios that he didn’t know would happen, he wondered if she’d planned to match him.

Regardless, the color of her dress was mesmerizing and calming, which was the best kind of distraction.

At least until they arrived at the top of the stairs and the sound of the door opening altered his focus. An older man with salt and pepper hair and brown eyes stood there smiling. “Welcome,” he said. “Come on in, Leah. And…”

“This is Samuel,” she said.

“Samuel Levine,” he said, offering his hand. The older man took it. “Nice to meet you, sir.”

“Glad you could make it,” the older man said. “I’m Gabriel Brucker, call me Bruck, and this is my home. Come on in, the both of you.”

He followed Leah and Bruck into the house; it wasn’t a big crowd, probably about as big as the art show he’d gone to with Liam. But yet each of them were professional contacts of Leah and their partners.

And she was stunning.

Absolutely stunning.

He could see the looks in the eyes of a few of the people as she walked in with him, the way she moved in and out of the group, smiling and just…

“She’s a diamond,” an older woman said, smiling. “You should hold on to her.”

He nodded. “She is.”

“Josephine Brucker,” the woman said. “Gabriel’s wife.”

---