Page 50 of By The Book
Claire blinked at her beautiful friend’s tantalizing suggestions and realized Marsali had a point.
Even Scott had been right to some extent, because if last night had shown her anything, it’s that one just never knew what could happen, and she needed to live in the moment more than she did. Appreciate it more.
She and Denz shared…something. Like Marsali said, there was definitely a level of comfort and ease with him that Claire wasn’t sure how to explain. Maybe she should do what Marsali suggested, teach herself to be in the moment with a nice man? “How do I talk to him about this? Bring it up? I don’t want him to feel used, especially when there won’t be side benefits,” she said, making a face.
Marsali laughed softly and wrapped an arm around Claire’s shoulders, turning her so that they faced Denz and Oliver and Lincoln, all three men rocking their wedding attire and looking like something from a photo shoot.
“Just let it happen naturally,” Marsali said, urging Claire toward them. “Ask him to dance.”
Denz’s gaze locked on hers, and Claire managed to paste on a smile as they joined the men. She wet her lips and glanced up at Marsali before shifting her attention back to Denz and holding out her hand. “Dance with me?”
Chapter 20
Denz wasn’t sure what had changed with Claire but something had. As one song blended into two, he tugged her closer and let his lips brush her temple. “How many glasses of champagne have you had?”
A laugh bubbled out of her, drawing a smile from him because of the sound.
“Not enough. Not to ask what I want to ask, anyway.”
He drew back so that he could look into her eyes. “What’s going on?”
She closed her eyes and glanced away. “Nothing. It’s nothing. Forget it.”
“Claire.”
“It’s…just something Marsali said.”
“Which was?” Claire had worn the dress she’d been given by the production company after the shoot with Oliver, only this time she also wore the killer heels that left her almost eye to eye with him. Undoubtedly hurt her feet, but he’d spent the entire afternoon trying to keep his mind on whatever conversation he was in because a shift of her feet would cause the slits on the sides of the dress to expose her beautiful legs and the ridiculous shoes he found so sexy.
“She…might have pointed out that I might have been looking at your temporary status in town the wrong way, and you’d actually be a good…”
He waited for her to finish her sentence. “A good?”
“Experiment. No! That’s not the right word. Oh, I’m botching this,” she said, ducking her head and stepping away.
He tightened his grip and pulled her back, keeping them moving. “What kind of experiment?” Marsali’s announcement last night that Claire had agreed to be matched sounded in his head, but whatever it was she hinted at, he wanted it spelled out in no uncertain terms. “Something to do with dating?”
He knew he’d guessed correctly when her nose wrinkled.
“Yeah? Like a-a practice project because we…seem to be comfortable with each other. It’s probably because of the kiss scene on set a-and because you’re in the garage apartment and helping with Tommy, but I-I might have told Marsali that you held me last night and it made me feel safe, andshe said… Oh, forget it.”
“Not gonna happen, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Keep talking. I’m listening.”
“But it’s stupid. Crazy,” she added. “And it’s totally unfair to you because it wouldn’t go anywhere. I mean, it wouldn’t gothereand most guysexpectthings to happen, but with you leaving it definitelywouldn’t, because I’m not that… I mean, I have to have an emotional connection and… Stop smiling like that,” she ordered, her eyebrows pinched over her nose.
He couldn’t stop the chuckle that emerged due to her rambling or her expression. “You do realize I wouldn’t expect anything from you that you weren’t willing to give.”
“You say that but…it’s a bad idea,” she said with a shake of her blond head. “It’s a bad idea, right? I wouldn’t want to use you that way.”
Oh, he could think of a lot of ways he wouldn’t mind her using him for practice. “I think it could be fun,” he said, trying and failing to hide the way they collided a bit when she stopped so abruptly.
“You do?”
“Well,” he said, steering her off the dance floor to a shadowy area along the walkway. Eliza had placed oversized lanterns filled with crystals, seashells, and flickering fake candles near a stone bench, and he led Claire that way. “You can’t deny we share some chemistry, and I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of my time here in town in a beautiful woman’s company.”
“You could go into any bar and ask any woman and she would say yes.”
“So say yes,” he said. “And let’s have some fun.”
