shoulder against the wall beside her, stepping close enough to smell the fresh scent she’s been tantalizing me with all night. “I thought these were public bathrooms.”
She holds my gaze in the dim light for a few seconds, not even blinking. Then her lips twitch and spread over the smile people pay to see. From a billboard, that smile hits you like a gut punch. This close, the impact is practically atomic.
“Boudoir?” A husky chuckle suffuses the space separating us. “Did you seriously just break out ‘boudoir’?”
She props her butt against the wall and bends at the waist, slipping on one shoe and then the other. Even the high arch of this woman’s foot is sexy. Every detail I uncover makes me want to go deeper until I’ve discovered them all.
“I like a woman who can laugh at herself.”
My eyes follow the impossibly long line of her legs over the subtle curve of her hips and the surprising lushness of her breasts until I finally reach her waiting gaze, which asks if I’ve looked my fill.
“I wasn’t laughing at myself.” She grins again and inclines her head toward me. “I was laughing at you.”
“I’ll settle for that. Long as you’re laughing.”
She’s not anymore, the humor falling away as quickly as it came. She looks back down the passageway, sleek brows knitting together.
“Did Walsh tell Rip to come?”
“Rip saw a college buddy and stepped away. I’m sure he’ll be down as soon as he gets back to the table and they tell him you’re ready to leave.”
She moves over to a padded leather bench against the opposite wall, seating herself and crossing one leg over the other. She shifts her eyes from me to the men’s room and back again.
“I thought you needed that public restroom.” She gives a regal nod of her head toward the bathroom. “It’s right there.”
“I don’t actually have to use the bathroom.”
I leave it there, waiting for her to ask the obvious question, but I get the feeling Sofie Baston never does the obvious. She leans her back into the wall and narrows her eyes, waiting for me to go on.
“I came to find you.”
She tilts her head and raises both brows, conducting a wordless conversation using only her patrician features.
“Can I ask you a question?”
She nods, confirming that I still haven’t earned words yet.
“Why are you with Rip?”
She sinks deeper into the wall, sliding a few inches down and stretching her legs in front of her to cross them at the ankles
“Why wouldn’t I be?” she finally asks. “Haven’t you read the papers? We’re the perfect couple.”
“He bores you out of your mind.”
“No, he fucks me out of my mind.”
If she was going for shock value, that did it. Only our eyes lock and I realize she’s not trying to shock me. She’s just telling the truth. Her gaze is frank and honest.
“That’s all you want in a relationship?” I hazard a step closer before dropping to the other end of her bench and leaning my back against her wall.
That husky laugh permeates the air in the passageway again.
“Look, Dr. Phil, I’m not one of those sweet girls looking for some man to sweep me off my feet and put a ring on it.” She crosses both arms over her flat stomach, a cynical twist corrupting the beautiful curve of her mouth. “At least not anymore.”
“Kissed too many frogs?”
“Make no mistake about it. Those frogs and I did more than kiss.” Her smile exudes a sexual confidence I’m unused to from the women in my circles, but that I find by the second I more than like. “It’s not so much that I can’t find my prince, as that I’m no princess.”
I take in the symmetry of her face, the elegant arch of her brows, the vibrant green eyes, the high slant of her cheekbones, and that lush curve of lips like a splash of passion on an otherwise pristine plane. The graceful bearing, even relaxed against the wall, commands attention and respect. She looks like nothing if not a young queen.
I’m just