Page 106 of Silver-Tongued Devil
“I’m sorry you heard that,” Ingrid was saying. “Melody can be so bitchy, I know.”
“Excuse me,” Blake said again. He was going to be civil, because this was a small town. Even though it was the last thing he wanted to be. “Hi,” he said to Ingrid. “How you doin’. I need to borrow this lady a minute.” He had Dakota’s hand and was pulling her to one side of the crowd, then turning his back on the room.
“Thanks,” Dakota said. Her eyes were flashing dark fire. She was made up tonight, eyes and lips and cheekbones and smooth skin. She’d dusted her shoulders and chest with some sort of sparkly powder, too, and she glowed and glistened like she’d been painted. “I shouldn’t care, but thegall.Like she can open her eyes wide, act so innocent, such a perfect girl, and say she didn’t mean it, and I’ll be grateful because the popular girl’s talking to me.” She took a deep breath and put a hand to her hair. “That’s enough of that. I’m not letting her wreck my night. Are your parents around? I should say hello.”
Blake had to laugh. “Now, honey, I’m a little insulted. What am I, the furniture? Here I shaved just for you, wore your favorite outfit, and you not only don’t notice my gorgeous looks, you want to go talk to my mom?”
She was laughing now herself, her mood shifting just that fast. “Right. There are probably three hundred people here, and you shaved for me.”
“Yep.” Now that the moment had come, his heart had picked up the pace. “Because as soon as I saw you, all those people faded out, and right now? They’re gone. You look real pretty, baby. Those are the shoes, and that’s the dress. We did good. You almost knock my socks off, in fact.”
“Almost? Excuse me?” The fire was back. “This is my best effort. This took hours. This is as good as it gets.”
“Uh-huh.” He pulled the box from his pocket. “See, now, I think we can do better.”
He’d planned on doing this in a back room. When he’d seen Ingrid and Steve, though, he’d known he had to do it here. He opened the velvet box. “Take off those earrings, and we’ll see.”
Her mouth had opened. “Blake. You’re kidding. Are thosereal?”
He put his hand to his heart and staggered. “How about just shooting me right now, baby?”
“Sorry. I just…”
“Still waiting. Take those out and put these in. I want to see.”
Finally, she did it. She unfastened the delicate triple hoops in her lobes first, then took care of the chain up above. He held out his hand, and she put them in his palm.
And then he got to watch her take two one-and-a-half-carat diamond studs out of the box and fasten them into her ears, one by one. “I can’t believe this,” she said. “You said… I never thought…”
“Less talk, more action,” he said. “Do the rest.”
“I need a mirror.” She laughed, and surely only Dakota would laugh at a moment like this. “Blake. You’recrazy.”
“Yep. I seem to remember telling you so. Wait. I think I said ‘crazy about you.’ That too.” He had her hand again and was taking her over to an ornate mirror set between potted trees, decorated with tiny white lights tonight. “Here you go. Show me.”
She fastened them into her ear, then. Twin diamond-studded hoops, and a chain that appeared to be made of tiny diamonds. “Where did yougetthis? It’s so beautiful, I can’t…”
“Had it made, of course. I did it when we were in Portland. I’ve been wanting to see you like this for so long, and now I get my wish.”
She turned to him, all sparkle and flash, and smiled, and his heart just about left his chest. “Well, thank you.” And then she laughed. White teeth, cheekbones, dark eyes. Full of fire. “Thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome, but you can’t really thank me for this. I had to do it. And, baby…nowyou knock my socks all the way off, because it seems you’re just too beautiful.”
“Thank you,” she said again. Her mouth was trembling a little, even though she was smiling. “I’m trying not to cry and wreck my makeup. Thank you.”
“See,” he said, “the problem is—if you’re going to look at me like that, I need to kiss you. And I can’t kiss you here. It’s what you’d call a dilemma. I’m going to have to settle for keeping you right beside me all night long. And by the way.” He grinned at her, because he had to do that, too. “Melody and Ingrid? They’re both watching.”
If Dakota had ever had a better night, she couldn’t think when. She even had the satisfaction of having Eric Halvorsen come up to her and say, scratching his chin, “So, uh… I guess I screwed up. Sorry.”
“You think?” Blake asked. “But then, I screwed up some myself. I should’ve made the situation much clearer. Dakota, this lump of meat is Eric Halvorsen, offensive tackle, who protects his quarterback except when he doesn’t. Eric, this is my girlfriend, Dakota Savage. Dakota’s an artist. Is that better, sweetheart?”
“Hello, Eric,” Dakota said demurely. “And, yes, that’s much better.”
Eric said, “So maybe we can forget about the, uh… position thing. Except if you know some other stained-glass person who could do it. I still think it’d be cool.”
“The question is, though,” Blake said, “whether any woman in the known universe would think it was cool.”
“Well, nother,”Eric said, pointing a thumb at Dakota. “But that’s thepoint.It’sfora woman. It’s amenu.”
