Page 6 of Dream Girl Drama

Perhaps because, unlike the men of her acquaintance, he’d earned it himself?

Without removing his attention from her, Sig took the bottle from her hands, unwound the wire from the neck, and popped the cork. Barely a sound escaped because he muffled it with his, wow, gigantic hands. Then, tossing a casual look toward the bar, he tipped the bottle to her lips, his golden brown gaze fastened to her mouth while she took the first sip. Two sips, three. She kept going because she enjoyed him quenching her thirst, the way he swallowed hard while looking at her throat.

Seriously, what in the Connecticut heck was happening here?

Her toes were curled in her sneakers, her thighs flexing involuntarily.

A pulse tick-tick-ticked at the base of her neck, in her wrists, in her chest—and it accelerated the longer they stared at each other.

Finally, he took the bottle from her lips and brought it to his own, gulping deeply and wincing at the taste.

“Not a fan?” Chloe asked, laughing.

“There’s no flavor,” he grunted. “It’s just a bunch of carbonation.”

“The bubbles are what make it a celebration.”

He reached forward, setting the bottle down on the low pink-quartz table in front of them, before leaning back into his manspread. “You let me know when you want more.”

Chloe dug the fingers of her right hand into the leather couch cushion, hoping to distract the rest of her body from the sudden onslaught of giddy heat.You let me know when you want more.She had no right liking that so much—the assumption that he would oversee her consumption of the drink. She didn’t need him to do that. But she... wanted him to?

Simply put, his honest brand of arrogance turned her on.

This was not the typical brand of trouble she looked for at the country club.

No, she specialized in... stolen liquor.

Playing harmless pranks.

Going topless in the spa.

Sig screamed Big Problem... and yet she continued to sit there, growing more and more fascinated as champagne bubbles zipped around her head and his heat surrounded her. “Do you like living in Boston? Is that where you grew up?”

“No, I’m from Minnesota. Just outside Minneapolis. Went to college in Michigan. But Boston has been home for six years. It’s... yeah, I guess I consider it my home now.”

“What is it like?”

“Depends on the neighborhood, but it’s loud and busy. Congested. Kind of messy at times. But it’s got a lot of heart. Themostheart, actually.” He thought for a second. “On a Sunday afternoon, when there’s a game on, the whole place kind of hums. Everyone’s got a little bit of a buzz on, and you can walk down the street and hear whistles and cheers going off on everyone’s televisions. Laughter. It’s a good town. I love it.”

Chloe’s heart raced, as it often did when she thought aboutleaving home, fleeing the sheltered bubble of Darien, and experiencing an entirely new world. How scary it would be, but how rewarding at the same time. In fact, she’d been thinking of it to the point of distraction lately. “You make it sound magical.”

Sig studied her face. “It is. You’d fit right in.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he said, like she was crazy to ask. Or doubt.

And his—perhaps premature—faith in the fact that she could make it in Boston, in a whole ass new city, made her want to confide in him. To reveal something about herself. Something she’d told her mother—on several occasions, only to be casually shut down. “There is a conservatory in Boston that I’ve dreamed of attending for so long. Berklee. They invited me once to play for the faculty and afterward, even after the tiniest glimpse, I couldn’t stop thinking about the people, the place. The students who came and went as they pleased. And... I applied. Secretly. Almost a year ago now.” She whispered the last part, as if her mother might overhear. “But... the dean said I have a standing invitation. At no cost.”

“That’s... incredible. Damn.” Sig faced her a little more fully. “So youhavebeen to Boston?”

Chloe shook her head. “I’ve been inside of a town car, a hotel room, and an auditorium in Boston. I didn’t go walking or exploring.”

“Did you want to?”

She nodded. And suddenly, she needed another draw of champagne.

A groove formed between his dark brows.

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