“Isn’t this what you wanted?” she asked herself, fingering the soft, feathery skirt. It didn’t feel like what she thought real feathers should feel like. But she had no doubt they were real, more luxurious and fine than she could ever have imagined. Is this how everything was? The things she’d wanted for so long—in reality, were they even better than she imagined? If so, then wasn’t it time to finally, finally take them for herself?
“Yes,” she sighed, exactly the same sound she’d made when Andrew had offered her the dress this morning and she’d accepted it. Except now she was offering it to herself.
“Yes, I’ll take it,” she whispered, and reached for dreams and magic.
Chapter Seven
Where was she? Andrew checked his watch again. Seven thirty-six. The limo service dispatcher had called just after seven o’clock to let him know that Meredith had been picked up and was on her way. She should have arrived by now. He was standing just inside the lobby, watching guests arrive and greeting a few on their way in, but mostly he was waiting for her.
The event planner was standing a few feet away, checking in with him every couple of minutes now, eager to get him backstage and miked up for the keynote. Meredith was supposed to have arrived over ten minutes ago. He didn’t want to abandon her to find her own way to their table with people she didn’t know, to have to explain who she was and why she was there. The planner raised her eyebrows again in question, and Andrew was about to shake his head when a car pulled up in front of the building and he knew. It was her.
The driver opened the door and started walking around the car to help Meredith out, but Andrew was there before him, popping the latch and thrusting his hand forward and—everything stood still for a moment.
It came to him in bits and pieces first. The flash of diamonds in her ears. The loose, curling tendrils of hair that framed her face, falling from a simple upsweep that showed off her pale, slender neck. Lips painted pink, outlining just how luscious and full they were. Big green eyes behind glasses.
He was used to women who wouldn’t be caught dead wearing glasses to a formal event. But Meredith was wearing hers.
He thought it was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.
Those eyes were shining as they stared up at him, as though he were some kind of prince coming to sweep her off her feet. Her look made him feel like a prince, anyway, and when she set her palm in his, he really couldn’t resist pulling her hard against him. Sweeping her up.
She was wearing her heavy coat over her dress, but he didn’t hesitate for a moment. Everything he needed to know, he could see in her face.
“You look beautiful.”
Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open into a little O. “Thank you,” she whispered, sounding breathless. Her eyes roamed his face and then his body, taking in his black-tie tuxedo. “So do you.” She blushed. “Handsome, I mean.”
He grinned. “Come on, let’s check your coat and I’ll take you to our table. I apologize, but I’ll have to leave you right away. The event planner is already about to kill me for delaying for so long.”
She smiled her consent, and he led her immediately to the coat check, impatient to see her in the gown she’d fought herself so hard for. And when he took the coat from her and she turned around to face him, it was obvious that she had emerged the winner.
Those shoulders. Those slender, strong, sexy shoulders. A small diamond pendant hung from a delicate strand of stones around her neck, setting her face aglow with the reflection of the warm lighting in the lobby. The black silk hugged her breasts, tightened around her waist, then flared again over her hips before disappearing into a tumbling mass of sparkling feathers.
But what made her truly irresistible was the way she was standing. He hadn’t even realized that she often hunched and cowered in meetings, and that she scurried instead of walked. Not tonight, though. Tonight, she was standing straight and tall, shoulders thrown back and chin up.
“Breathtaking,” he murmured, and she blushed.
God, had he really said that out loud?
He needed a moment to regroup. It wouldn’t be okay to ravish his CFO in the lobby before he gave a speech about the importance of social consciousness, and giving back to the community that fostered businesses like the ones these attendees represented.
Of course, he shouldn’t ravish his CFO, ever. But so help him, he really wanted to.
He passed her coat across the counter and took the chip that the clerk gave him. “May I escort you to the table?” Just as he had the night before, he offered his arm to her, but instead of helping her after she’d injured herself, he was the one who’d been knocked off his feet.
She slipped her hand through his arm and he nearly groaned. Damn it. How was he going to get through the keynote with an erection?
Thankfully, she brought up a topic that was decidedly unsexy, and his arousal abated somewhat. “How was your meeting with the senator?” She pitched her voice low so that the crowd couldn’t hear them as they walked toward the ballroom.