Page 53 of Big Boss
Finally, she takes a deep breath and straightens her spine. “Mister Tate.”
It feels good to hear my name on her lips again, even if she is being overly formal. I can’t help how right this feels though, and I lean toward her with a smile.
“You look wonderful,” I say, in a voice a little too soft, so she has to lean forward to hear me.
We’re close together, and everyone around us might as well have disappeared for all I care.
“You’re as disreputable as ever, I see. The red fingernail polish is a nice touch.” She’s making fun of me, and that’s so much better than leaving, which seemed like her most likely move in this situation.
By the way she was positioned, I’d guess she was about halfway out the door when Jackson stopped her. Huh. I guess I’d better be mean to him more often if he’s going to come through for me like this.
“Why don’t we go for a walk?” I offer her my elbow and a rakish smile.
Erica blinks owlishly at me, but then shakes her head. “I’m sure you need to mingle with the attendees. Everyone is going to want to talk about the new song.”
A warm tendril of happiness threads through my cold, dead lump of a heart. “You heard it?”
She snorts. “I was at the very first table. There was no way I could have missed any of it.” She shakes her head. “I’m pretty sure you actually winked at me at one point.”
I move closer to her, to the point where I’m definitely in her personal space. “Please, Erica. Can we talk for a little bit before you leave?”
Her mouth flattens out. “What do you think we’re doing right now? This is actually us talking.”
I reach for her hand then, winding my fingers through hers. “How about we duck out and have a real conversation, then? Before I make a mess of the polite things and say something you don’t want me to.”
I watch her tongue slip out and wet her lips, and it kills me in the best possible way to see that my proximity is having at least some effect on her. “Okay, but only for a little bit. I have somewhere else that I need to be tonight.”
Sure she does. I squeeze her fingers in mine, though, because she’s here with me right now, and I’m going to make the best effort I can to fix the mess that happened.
She squeezes my fingers back and gives me a little shy smile, and all I can think about it how much I want to kiss her.
Everywhere. I want to kiss her everywhere.
I glance at the room as we’re leaving, and Jackson waves me off. Maybe he does feel bad about the way he’s been about Erica. First he stalled her long enough for me to catch up to her, and now he’s taking over the oversight of tonight’s gala so I can make things right with her.
I hope.
Well, given that she’s willing to hear me out, at least I have a chance.
“Erica—” I pause as the door clicks behind us and we enter one of the long, mazelike corridors in the behind-the-scenes part of the hotel.
“Donovan.” She squishes my hand again, and she sounds almost happy.
“Are you okay?” It’s possibly the most important question of this entire conversation. I can’t help but envision Erica in the same amount of misery that I’ve been in—slumped over on her lumpy couch, watching some anime with the subtitles on, weeping inconsolably.
She scowls at me. “Are you suggesting that there’s something wrong with the way I look? Because this dress is actually perfect, and I even did my eyeshadow using a trick that I saw in a video, and you—”
My mouth cuts off her words, and then a sweet noise of pleasure fills the hallway.
“You need to stop that. It isn’t fair. When you kiss me, it makes my brain shut down.” She reaches up for her kiss-swollen mouth and covers it with her hands.
“It isn’t fair. You’re right. But I’ll do whatever I have to in order to get you back on my side.” I slide my hand up to hers and peel her fingers away from her sweet mouth.
She sighs. “Tate, I never left your side. I didn’t want you to feel obligated to me because of the whole virginity thing, and you were being really weird about it.”
I shake my head, but she’s right. I was being weird about it. “It was my first time taking a woman’s virginity.” The confession makes me blush, which is ridiculous considering my reputation, both earned and rumored.
She wraps her arms around me then and squishes me against her. “Well, that explains a lot. You could have said something.”
