“Farm boy.” She stopped near him. “What are you doing here?”
He stared at her. His mouth opened, then closed.
Her eyebrows rose and she tilted her head.
“Jesus fuck,” he muttered. “That was you up there?”
One corner of her mouth kicked up. “Yeah.”
“I didn’t even recognize you.”
She shrugged. “Fancy clothes and lots of makeup.”
“You’re a model?”
“Sometimes.” She made a face. “It also pays the bills.”
“Right, right, you said you’re going to school.” His forehead creased. “So this is your other job.”
“Yep. You never answered my question.”
“What question?”
“Why are you here?”
“Oh. Uh. Fundraising. I do some work with CCP. With one of the inner-city school programs.”
“Oh.” She blinked. “That’s nice. So do I. And I interned with them last semester. I don’t usually do runway modeling—I’m not skinny enough—but since this was a fundraiser for CCP I agreed. They’re doing great things with neighborhood improvements.”
“Yeah. They are. I guess you didn’t bring my keys with you?”
She huffed a laugh. “No. Sorry. I had no idea you’d be here.”
“I had no idea you’d be here either.”
Heat built between them as they eyed each other. His gaze dropped to her mouth and she felt a hot little jolt of desire. Damn. She was still attracted to him. Why did he have to be a pro athlete?
Amber became aware of the attention they were getting from the others at the small table, one of whom was her boss. She turned to him. “Hi, Jared.” He too blinked at her. Yeah, yeah, she looked different all made up. “Enjoying the evening?”
“Yeah. Oh hey, this is Clementine. And I don’t know if you’ve met our teammate Marc Dupuis. Marc, Amber Johnson.”
“No, I haven’t.” She shook Clementine’s hand, then Marc’s. All three guys were astonishingly hot. “You weren’t at the Sin Bin last night.”
“Nope.” Marc grinned. “I gather you were.”
“I work there. I just started waitressing there a couple of weeks ago.”
“Ah.” Marc cast a curious look at Duncan, then gave a warm glance at the woman beside him, a pretty redhead. “This is my girlfriend, Lovey Armstrong.”
Amber smiled at Lovey, then caught the name.
“Yeah, Duncan’s my brother.” Lovey shook Amber’s hand.
“You’re the one with Army’s keys,” Marc said.
“Army? Oh.” Armstrong. “Army” must be his nickname. “Yeah. I am.” She grinned. “Had to keep him safe last night.”
“He was a tad under the weather this morning,” Jared said. “He had me driving all over the city for cheeseburgers and root beer, and then to get his truck.”
Duncan sighed and she gave him an amused look. “Sorry about that.”
“Not your fault,” Duncan said. “I may have killed a few brain cells last night. Wasn’t thinking straight. Went to pick up my truck and didn’t realize till I got there I had no keys.”
“Oh. Damn.” That was what you got for being a self-indulgent, overimbibing, rich pro athlete. And didn’t he have minions he could send to do his lowly errands? “Well, nice to see you again. I guess I’ll still see you tomorrow. Excuse me, I really need to get some food.”
She walked away, conscious of Duncan’s gaze on her back. Her skin tingled with awareness.
As she paused beside the buffet table to pick up a plate, her skin tingled even more and she turned her head to see Duncan right there. “Didn’t get enough.” He held up an empty plate. “These little appetizer things are way too small.”
She watched him fill his plate with some small buns with meatballs inside them, reluctantly agreeing with him. Her stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten since a salad a lunchtime.
“Too bad there’s no cheese on these,” he said.
She couldn’t help but smile. She picked up some bruschetta, then a couple of shrimp appetizers and some little mini quiches. She moved along the table, scoping out other choices, loading her plate with food.
“Wow.” Duncan followed behind her. “You’re going to eat all that?”
She gave him a look. “Yes. Problem with that?”
“Didn’t think models ate much real food.”
“What do you know about models? Oh my God.” She stared at him. “Melissa Cayne. That’s who you were dating?” She’d met Melissa once on a shoot.
“Yeah.”
“You dumped Melissa Cayne.”
“Why does everyone seem so amazed by that?” He frowned.
“She’s gorgeous.”
He lifted his chin. “I’m not that shallow. There has to be more to a relationship than just looks.” Then he smiled slowly, and geez mama, it was such a sexy smile her bones softened. “You’re gorgeous.”
Heat curled low inside her. She made a dismissive noise. “Sure, dressed like this with my hair and makeup all done. You weren’t telling me that last night.”
Geez, why had she said that? She sounded like she’d wanted him to tell her that last night, and she didn’t. Did. Not.