After two quick showers—I used the guest room because there was no way I’d be able to see a wet, soapy Darla and not want to fuck her against the tile wall, and considering we were already late, that was a particular activity that would have to wait for later—we stopped quickly at her house so she could change and do her hair.
I was used to high-maintenance celebrity women who needed an entire team to achieve less than what Darla accomplished in less than ten minutes. When she appeared on her doorstep wearing a fitted cream-colored dress that hugged all of her curves in a way that not even her spandex yoga outfit had accomplished, with her sandy blonde hair piled elegantly on top of her head, and just the slightest touch of makeup on her face, she took my breath away completely.
“You are absolutely stunning.” I kissed her chastely on the cheek because what I really wanted to do was scoop her up, take her back inside, and devour her body with mine.
Again.
It would have to wait.
Ten minutes later, we were walking arm in arm into the Aspen Valley Country Club. To my surprise, there were no cameras or paparazzi waiting outside the club. Trent had promised to keep things low-key, and I knew he wasn’t likely to alert any of the press. But after being spotted at the cafe the day before—had that already been twenty-four hours ago—I wouldn’t be surprised to see them within a day or two. I’d completely lost track of time with Darla. Not that I was complaining. I would have very happily stayed locked away in my house, exploring every single inch of her over and over.
With a shake of my head, I cleared those thoughts before they could take me down a dangerous path that would make me toss her over my shoulder and turn right around.
“Thank you for agreeing to this,” Blaze said. “I should warn you, I’m going to have to—”
“Blaze! There you are.” Trent appeared. “Darla. You look fantastic.” He kissed her on the cheek, shot me a quick look, and then turned his attention back to why we were there. “Sorry, Darla. I need to steal him away for a while. He’s late.”
“So I hear.” She grinned and slid her arm out of mine.
I missed the feel of her at once.
“Go do what you need to do. I’ll go find…”
“Britt is inside.”
“Perfect.” She smiled and was about to disappear when I reached for her hand and pulled her close for a quick kiss.
“I’ll come to find you for that dance as soon as I can get away.”
She let her lips graze my ear as she whispered, “I’ll be waiting.”
My body thrummed with the promise of later and what this woman did to me. I watched, completely mesmerized by her, as she walked away from me into the ballroom, only breaking my focus when Trent punched me in the arm.
“You’re going to have to fill me in on those details later.” He chuckled. “But for now, let’s go, man. I’ve held them off long enough. Your public is waiting.”
“Well, I was definitely not expecting to see you here tonight.”
Brittany didn’t even bother to hide the smile on her face as I walked up to join her.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “I was very happy when Trent told me that you were with Blaze and would be joining us tonight after all. Especially the part where you were with Blaze. I mean, obviously, I’m happy you’re here, too,” she added as an afterthought. “But you were with Blaze.” She wiggled her perfectly manicured eyebrows. “That is really good.”
It was really good. If she only knew just how good it was, she would lose her shit. And probably drag me to the bathroom to video call all of our friends. Brittany could be pretty composed most of the time, but I knew there were certain things that would wind her up. And this situation would be one of them.
Part of me wanted to tell my friend everything, including how Blaze made me feel inside when he looked at me as if I were the only woman in the entire world. And when he held me in his arms, and I could close my eyes and feel totally and completely safe and cared for. And how when we hadn’t been having incredible sex, we’d talked about every single thing that popped into our minds. Nothing was off-limits, especially the things that mattered. And that I’d never been able to talk to anyone else like that before, except maybe my best friends. But never a man.
I wanted to confess to Brittany all the ways that Blaze made my body feel when he touched me. How, despite the fact that I’d had many lovers, I’d never had one like Blaze. Like he’d always known me, or that my body was made for him and mine for his. That we could light each other up with only the slightest touch. That made every inch of my body respond as if it were on fire.
I looked at my best friend and for a moment, I considered telling her all of those things and more. But it wasn’t the right time. A charity event surrounded by Aspen Valley’s finest, or at least, wealthiest, was probably not the right place to confess such things to her. Besides, could I really tell her things I didn’t fully understand myself?
Instead, I ordered a drink from a passing waiter and casually turned around to face the room of people and said, “This is quite the shindig.” Despite my own business standing in the community, I didn’t usually go to these events. They were definitely more Abby and Brittany’s scene, whether they liked them or not. More and more, Jessie was also making appearances at formal events with Shane, but neither of them felt comfortable and often begged off, or made some excuse to get them out of it.
“It’s a pretty good turnout.” Brittany came to stand next to me. “It really is nice to see a friendly face,” she added. “Even if I am super surprised to see you.”
I grinned at her. “Something swayed my decision.”
“Something, or someone?” She laughed.
I wiggled my eyebrows in response and let my eyes travel across the room to where Blaze was holding court with the circle of fans, who were very obviously pleased he’d finally arrived. He happily smiled and made conversation while posing for various selfies and photos, all the while looking every bit the humble celebrity, and not at all like a man who was entitled to his fame. Not that it surprised me. Now that I knew him better, I would expect nothing less. He was genuinely a kind, caring man.
“He’s so good,” I said to no one in particular. “It’s no wonder people love him.”
What I didn’t say was that, maybe, I might even be starting to develop feelings that resembled love myself.
Who was I kidding? There were definitely some feelings of love. At least, maybe the way I expected love might feel.
For the first time in my life, it occurred to me that I’d never once been in love. I was forty-one years old and I’d been with dozens of men. I’d always had a good time, enjoying their company on my own terms. I’d worked hard to design my life so that I would enjoy every single day of it. But I’ve never, not one time, been in love.
And not until that very moment, standing in a ballroom full of people, watching Blaze from across the crowd, did I ever think for one second I might be missing out on something special. But now…
The waiter arrived with my drink, pulling me from my thoughts. I took a tentative sip, letting the liquid warm my throat, and turned back to my friend.
“So,” Brittany said, “are you going to tell me what’s going on? Or should I just fill in the blanks on my own? Because I think I have a pretty good idea of what’s happening. Or at the very least, my version of things would be—”
“I’d love to tell you, Britt.” I stopped her. “But the truth is, I don’t really know what to say.”
“You can start by saying that maybe we were right.” Brittany’s red-painted lips curled into a huge smile.
She wasn’t wrong. In fact, as much as I hated to admit it, I knew my friends were right. Would I feel this about Blaze if I’d taken him to bed the first night I’d met him? There was no way to know for sure, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t. I could have acted on my physical attraction with Blaze the same way I always did with men. But I didn’t.
I didn’t.
In fact, it hadn’t been my friends who had encouraged me to put him off at first. I’d done that all on my own. And not because I didn’t think he was intriguing or sexy as hell or that I wouldn’t have a great time with him. Because I did. But, no…I’d put him off for some other reason, and I hadn’t even realized it. Those first few times I’d enjoyed flirting with him, but I’d always made it clear that I didn’t date celebrities. But that wasn’t true. Not at all.
It wasn’t until now that I’d even noticed something else had held me back from following my usual pattern.
“It looks like you’re thinking about something,” Brittany said. “Spill.”
I took a slow, thoughtful sip of my whiskey before putting it on the table in front of me and asking, “Do you think it’s possible that something inside me has known all along that Blaze is different? That maybe my subconscious, or a spiritual guide, or something bigger was at play, keeping me from ruining what could be something very special? Because I’m starting to think so.” I quickly tried to explain to Brittany what had just popped into my mind.
Maybe it wasn’t just the pact that had helped me see past my usual patterns when it came to Blaze, but something more. I knew she didn’t believe in the spiritual world the same way I did, and I didn’t care. Because whether it was true or not, it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that despite myself, I really did have actual feelings for Blaze. And I didn’t care what he said about taking it slow, for our relationship not having to be anything more than what it was. He’d said that for my benefit, but I knew in my heart that I wanted more.
Brittany and I spent the next few minutes talking. I brushed over some of the juicier details as I filled her in on the yoga class, subsequently going back to his house where time had slipped away, and finishing the story at pancakes, which brought us up to speed.
“I’d be lying if I said I was surprised,” Brittany said. “But also…I am surprised.” She laughed at herself. “But either way, I’m really fucking happy for you, Darla. You’re glowing, and I think the man we have to thank for that is on his way over here to see you now.” She lifted a manicured eyebrow.
I turned and put my back to the table to watch as Blaze began to make his way across the ballroom toward me. As he moved, people stopped him to shake his hand and say hello, take photos, and just generally bask in his celebrity. His progress across the room was painfully slow, but I wasn’t in a hurry. And the entire time, his eyes constantly returned to mine, holding them with a heat that made every cell in my body vibrate with anticipation of his touch.
Finally, he was in front of me, holding out his hand. “How about that dance?”
A wave of warmth flowed through me, and I couldn’t contain my smile as I took his hand. “I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do.”
Blaze pulled me close instead of taking me to the dance floor first and murmured in my ear, “I can think of a few things I’d rather do.” He pressed a cheeky kiss to the sensitive skin beneath my ear. “But this will have to do for now.”
Before I could respond, Blaze spun me around and onto the dance floor.
“You surprise me.” I laughed. “After seeing you do yoga, I wouldn’t have expected you to have such slick moves.”
“Oh yeah?” Blaze moved me easily so we were momentarily eye to eye. “I don’t know about that,” he said with a wicked little grin. “I think I showed you some pretty slick moves last night and then again the next day and then—”
“You’re not wrong.” Shivers rippled through me and straight between my legs.
“I didn’t think so.” Blaze easily spun me out and quickly back in, where he held me close. “I want to kiss you very badly right now.” His voice was deep, husky, and full of a need that matched my own.
I didn’t see any problem with that plan and moved in closer to press my body to his, but he held back. Full of questions, I looked into Blaze’s eyes.
“Muffin, there are a lot of people watching us right now.” His voice held a warning. “And a lot of camera phones.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
Something I couldn’t quite decipher crossed his face. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it again with a slight shake of his head. “Not to me,” he finally said. “But I meant what I said earlier. This doesn’t have to be—”
I silenced him by pressing my lips to his. Because the very last thing I wanted to hear from his mouth again was how we didn’t have to be anything serious or put any labels on what we were doing together, or any other version of bullshit that he would say only because he thought it was what I wanted to hear. The truth was, the only thing I wanted to hear was the sexy groan that slipped from his throat when I reached up to thread my fingers through his hair.
Darla had no idea what she’d just done. Or maybe she did. But either way, I didn’t give a fuck. I knew with one hundred percent certainty that pictures and videos of us on the dance floor would be all over the internet within a matter of minutes. The fact that the girl from the coffee shop hadn’t sold the photo of the two of us together, or leaked my whereabouts to the press, was a miracle in itself.
Or maybe she had, and the paparazzi just hadn’t arrived yet.
I’d only agreed to Trent’s thing because I knew the reprieve couldn’t last forever anyway, and like I’d told Darla earlier, I didn’t mind the attention, and I was genuinely happy to talk to fans. But that was before she and I…well, that was before we happened.
Now it was different. Very different.
I might not like it, but my fame came with a certain amount of interest in my personal life. And when I was dating, or even spotted with someone of the opposite sex, it became big news very quickly.
It came with the territory, as far as I was concerned, but that wasn’t necessarily true for the woman I was with, who also would very quickly find themselves the subject of strangers’ gossip and strong opinions. I had no way of knowing how my fans would react to my love interests.
Amelia had loved the attention, even when it took a negative turn, which it did after only a few weeks of us being together. At first, we’d been dubbed “Amaze,” what was supposed to be a cutesie couple name, and the original reports of our relationship had been positive, the headlines all glowing and supportive.
It had been less than two weeks after we’d gone public with our relationship that Amelia had said something nasty to a female fan who wanted a photo only with me, and not the two of us together. The young woman’s friend had been taking a video and the whole unfortunate incident quickly went viral, with the press dubbing my then-girlfriend as an attention seeker, and accusing her of using me for my fame.
As it turned out, they weren’t wrong. That particular incident had gone a long way to opening my eyes toward who Amelia really was, too. Still, it had taken a few more months for me to finally see her true colors.
The point was, the media could be ruthless when it came to such matters, and the last thing I wanted to do was expose Darla to any of it. Especially if she wasn’t sure about us, even if I was. I’d tried my best to act casual about how I felt about her because I knew her stance when it came to relationships. But now that I’d had a taste of her, and I knew exactly how strongly we connected on every single fucking level, it was becoming significantly harder to keep my feelings under wraps.
Judging by the way she was kissing me at that moment, in front of dozens of people, without a care in the world of what that might mean, I couldn’t help but let myself think Darla might be on the very same page as me. And that was the only thing that mattered.
That, and her sweet, sweet mouth on mine. I slipped a hand down her back to the curve of her ass and pressed her in closer to me as I deepened the kiss to a level that was probably slightly inappropriate for the occasion and the number of eyes that were no doubt drinking in the show we were giving them from the middle of the dance floor.
Finally, I managed to pull myself away from the sweet taste of her before things really escalated into inappropriate territory. Without missing a beat, I continued the dance, very slowly moving her toward the edge of the dance floor, where I was able to take her hand and retreat to the small table where Brittany and Trent stood, with matching smiles on their faces.
“Well,” Trent said. “I—”
“Don’t say a word.” I held up a finger in warning but my old friend only laughed.
“I was just going to thank you, man. Donations have far exceeded our expectations because of you.”
I knew my buddy well. There was more Trent wanted to say, but he wisely bit his lip and left it alone. “You know it’s my pleasure,” I said truthfully, even though I would much rather be alone with Darla than standing there at that moment.
“In that case,” Trent said. “I need you only for a few more minutes, and then I’ll let you sneak out of here. Deal?”
He was throwing me a bone, and I wasn’t stupid enough not to take it. “Deal.” I squeezed Darla’s hand. “I’ll be right back, and then we can get out of here.”
“Take your time,” she said. “Besides, I was kind of hoping we could have another dance or two. I’m not in a hurry.” She winked and blew a kiss in my direction.
And dammit if my heart didn’t skip a beat, like a teenager with his first crush.