Addicted to You (15 page)

“That one’s a faerie prince,” she said,
jumping in on the game. She nodded at a tall guy with white-blond
hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. His perfectly tailored suit
was black, but his shirt and tie were gray with a light sheen to
them. They matched his gray eyes. All in all, an attractive guy
with an ethereal quality. “Here to tempt human children to go back
with him to his world.”

His gray eyes shifted and met hers. She
wasn’t embarrassed to be caught looking, but then the corners of
his mouth quirked up into a flirtatious smile. If her mind and body
hadn’t been fighting the pull of a gorgeous Scotsman for the last
month, she might have smiled back. Hell, she might even have
allowed him to take her to a hotel.

But she was acutely aware of the guy sitting
to her right, of his body heat, of the way his hand rested inches
away from her own. Of how she wanted very much to reach over and
run her fingers along his knuckles, his wrist, trace the muscles
along his forearm …

She looked at Will to find him watching her,
those blue eyes piercing.

If you blush again, I will
shank you
, she told herself.

“Do you like faerie princes?” he asked.

She smirked. Was he jealous? “Depends.”

“On?” He inched closer. Their breaths warmed
the narrowing space between them.

“How well he can enchant me.”

His eyes lowered to her mouth. “Is that a
challenge?”

“Uh,” Elijah said.

Leah immediately looked away at the same
time Will leaned back.

“Okay, well,” she said, feeling irritably
flustered. “Good game, guys.”

Elijah was giving them that ‘I know what’s
going on, I’m not stupid’ look. He pretended to gag, and then
curled over and laughed when she began poking his ribs.

“Stop, stop!” he cried between laughter.

Leah ruffled his hair and drew back to let
him breathe. He slumped into his seat in relief, grinning.

“How long do we have to stay here?” he
asked, rubbing his side. His suit pants were wrinkled from all his
squirming.

“Not much longer. I think Mom and Dad should
have forgotten about us by now.”

“I have to use the bathroom.”

She gave the huge room and the two
entrances, one at either side, a searching glance. “Then let’s go
hunting.”

“I know where it is,” Will said, standing.
“I can show him.”

“I should come too,” she said, reluctant to
let Elijah out of her sight, even if it was with Will. She wanted
and liked him more than anyone she’d ever met, but that didn’t mean
she trusted him with her brother.

Elijah made a face. “Ew.”

She gave his shoulder a
playful shake. “Not
into
the bathroom. Trust me, it’d be worse for me than
you.”

The three of them filed across the room
toward the broad entryway where the dark-haired boy with the green
necktie was still standing with his friends. As they approached,
the boy turned his head, pointedly ignoring them. Most of his
friends did the same, but one of them openly glared as she
passed.

Those sorts of guys were so predictable.
Damage their egos, and they devolved into six-year-olds. Or even
further back into outright Neanderthals. Twice, a guy she’d turned
down at a party had taken the rejection personally and followed her
to her car. She had introduced each of them to the sharp end of her
heel.

What was it with guys believing they had the
right to a girl’s attention just because of the parts dangling
between their legs?

A rough hand grabbed her butt. She spun on
her patent leather pumps, already swinging the black clutch in her
hand. Before the metal edges of her clutch could meet with her
offender’s face, Will had the guy by his lapels and body slammed
him against the wall.

Leah drew back in surprise. Her hand came
down to pull Elijah behind her as the guys surrounding Will sprang
back, jostling nearby guests.

“That was extremely rude. Touch her again,
and I’ll break your hand,” Will said in a perfectly reasonable
voice that made the guy look panicky. It did something entirely
different, and likely inappropriate, to Leah’s stomach though.

“I was just messing around, man. Get off
me!” The guy struggled, looking to his friends for help, but they
only stared, wide-eyed and embarrassed. One of them was even
laughing.

Will hauled the guy around and gave him a
none-too-gentle shove at Leah. “Apologize to her.”

Enjoying the show, she crossed her arms and
hitched an expectant eyebrow.

The guy scowled at her and then at the
audience they’d attracted. He muttered a barely intelligible
“Sorry.” Then he tugged down his rumpled suit jacket and shoved his
way out of view.

“Is there a problem here?”

The question came from one of the servers.
He had finally broken through the crowd of gawkers now that the
scene was over and everyone was wandering back into their own
conversations.

Leah shook her head. “Everything’s fine,
thanks.” She looked at Will, who nodded in agreement. “Back to our
quest for the bathroom?”

“Right,” he said, and they left the confused
server looking around and wondering what had just happened.

Elijah bounced past Leah to match Will’s
longer strides. “Wow! That was so cool. Can you show me how to do
that?”

Will glanced back at Leah. “If your sister’s
all right with it.”

She gave a noncommittal shrug. It wouldn’t
hurt for him to learn a little self-defense from another guy. The
most she could show him was where to aim with a sharp heel.

“Yes!” Elijah walked with a spring in his
step all the way down a long black and silver hallway. At the end,
laser-engraved silver signs announced the restrooms.

There was an upholstered bench against the
wall opposite the restroom doors so Will and Leah sat while Elijah
disappeared into the men’s room. The seats here were ridiculously
comfortable. She briefly entertained the idea of smuggling one out
along with the hors d'oeuvres. Resting the back of her head against
the cool marble, she cast Will a playful smile.

“So. Thanks for keeping an eye on my
butt.”

There he went, looking abashed again after
he’d just body slammed a guy into the wall. “I wasn’t … well, all
right, sort of. But I mean—”

“Relax,” she said and reached out to touch
his sleeve. “I mean it. Thanks.”

He observed her hand on him, expression
thoughtful, before looking at her askance. “It’s an extremely
compelling bum.”

She couldn’t help the way her mouth
stretched into a grin, or the way her body shifted forward, as if
drawn to him by an invisible thread. “I do like it myself. In fact,
I think I’ll keep it.”

“I certainly wouldn’t object,” he said,
leaning closer as well.

“I’m glad to hear that. Will.” Wow, that was
going to take some getting used to.

As was this urge to kiss him. She’d been
wanting to kiss him since the moment he walked up to her, looking
much too handsome in that suit. All she could think about when she
looked at his hands was how they felt against her skin, his fingers
gliding up her side, over her ribs. His palm against her
breast.

He must have been thinking the same thing
because his face was drawing closer. She bit her lip. He was so
close.

Oh, to hell with it.

She closed the distance between them. When
her mouth finally met his, her eyes shut and she gave a quiet moan
of relief.

The bathroom door swung open. They sprang
apart.

It wasn’t Elijah. But the guy gave them a
suspicious look before continuing up the hallway back into the main
party room.

Leah ran nervous fingers through her hair
and settled back against the wall to restore her composure. “I’m
sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. My brother … I can’t right
now.”

Will nodded. His hand touched her wrist.
“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have either.”

When she turned her head to look over at
him, she could see in his face that he did understand.

This wasn’t a rejection. This was a rain
check.

And the promise of it smoldered between
them.

The next hour passed quickly, and Leah knew
it had to do with the company. To her surprise, she enjoyed hanging
out with Will and talking about things other than their sexual
problems. After the kiss outside the bathroom, Will had been on his
best behavior. That didn’t mean she wasn’t still intensely aware of
him, but she was grateful they could get along without their
so-called addictions getting in the way.

After wandering around the building—the
rooms that were open to the public anyway—and marveling at the
luxury, the three of them had found their way back to the main
room. Now, Will and Elijah were discussing how best to conceal
stolen hors d'oeuvres, some of which were quite fragile. Leah sat
nearby, resting her feet, and smiled when Will actually tried to
stuff one in Elijah’s pocket.

“There you are.”

She looked up. Her mom was standing in front
of her with one hand on her hip and an irritated purse to her
lips.

“What?” Leah said, wary.

“Why are you hiding in the corner? Took me
forever to find you,” she said. “Come to the restroom with me.”

“What do you need? Elijah—”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” she snapped.
“It’ll only be a minute.”

Scowling, Leah checked with Will and Elijah
first. She answered her brother’s questioning look with a shrug and
grudgingly followed her mom.

As her mom led the way back toward the
restrooms, her perfectly curled hair bounced around her shoulders
and down her back. For as long as Leah could remember, everything
about her mom, from the way she talked to the fall of her hair to
her choice of nail color, was controlled. Deliberate. Calculated,
even.

But maybe Leah only believed that because
she had never been able to see past her mom’s veneer. She supposed
now would be the perfect time to say something, but the words stuck
in her throat.

“I caught my dress on something,” her mom
said, voice clipped. “I need you to check it for any holes.”

“That’s it?” Leah muttered.

This time, they made it to the bathroom
without incident. It was amazing how fancy a public restroom could
be. Even the toilets gleamed.

Standing in front of the gold-framed
mirrors, her mom pulled her pale coils of hair over her shoulder
and presented Leah with her back. “Anything?” she asked.

Leah leaned close to inspect the back of her
dress. It was a high-necked, shimmery yellow gown with simple,
clean lines and a dramatic cut out in the lower back. Nothing
seemed out of place.

“Looks fine,” she said, stepping away.

“Double check. I thought I felt something
tear.”

“Mom, it’s fine,” she said but moved in
again anyway. She ran her fingers along the slippery fabric to feel
for puckered threads.

As they stood there, it
occurred to Leah how weirdly
normal
it all felt
.
Mother and daughter taking a joint trip to the
bathroom so the daughter could check her mother’s dress for a tear.
To an outsider, it wouldn’t have been anything
remarkable.

To Leah, it felt like a first, tiny
step.

“So I was thinking,” she began, her eyes
trained on the back of her mom’s dress instead of meeting her gaze
in the mirror. “Maybe we could … I don’t know, hang out
sometime.”

Her mom grew still. The muscles in her lower
back, revealed through the dress’s design, visibly tensed. Leah’s
stomach knotted, but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to
continue.

“Maybe all three of us could have dinner
next week. Dad could even join us if he wanted.” She rested her
fingers against the shoulder seam of her mom’s dress and asked,
voice small, “So what do you think?”

For long seconds, her mom said nothing. Then
she swept her hair back to fall between her shoulder blades and
turned, forcing Leah to step back. The moment their eyes met, Leah
knew it was hopeless.

“Your father and I don’t have time for any
of that. And you’re a grown woman. Don’t you have things to do?”
She didn’t sound annoyed. Or angry. Or curious. Or anything at
all.

Leah swallowed back the hurt until it
settled, once again, in that familiar spot in her chest where she
felt certain it had worn a hole straight through her. She had known
this was how her mom would respond. She shouldn’t have bothered.
She shouldn’t have hoped.

Her stomach churned with heat—anger at her
mom for not caring, humiliation at herself for thinking that she
might.

“It’s getting late,” her mom said. “Maybe
you should leave.” She smoothed down the front of her gown and
stepped past Leah.

Leah waited until she heard the restroom
door swing shut before allowing herself a single, shaky breath.
Then she closed her eyes against the rising burn and pushed the
emotion away. She shoved it back where she should have left it and
made her way back to the main room.

When she rejoined Elijah and Will, she
pasted on a smile for her brother’s sake and said, “All right,
ready to go?”

Elijah, who was always too observant, gave
her one look and immediately came to her side. His small hands
closed around her palm. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, looking him in the eye
and giving him the most convincing smile she could muster. “But I’m
pretty tired, and it’s way past your bed time.”

“Okay.” He didn’t sound convinced, but he
released her hand and gave Will a one-shouldered shrug. “Bye, Will.
It was nice to meet you. Remember you promised to show me that
move.”

Will shook his hand and said, “I always keep
my promises.”