The scent of her rushed up and clouded his head as he slowly pulled back.
“I . . .” Words dried up in his throat. Sebastien was rarely at a loss for words, but as he stood there holding her eyes, he couldn’t think of a damn thing to say to her. “I called you a couple of times.”
“I know. I was going to give you a call tomorrow. I’ve just been busy.” The polite response, her voice, everything about her was perfectly . . . polite. The same way it would be if she was talking to a stranger.
She glanced past him to smile at Dash and that was a real smile. He had the insane urge to grab her and haul her close, force her to look at him, to see him.
I’ve lost my mind.
“We were going to head up to a place I know on the coast, get some dinner.” Dash’s lips quirked. “I’ve been wanting to ask Marin out for a while, finally worked up the nerve and she took pity on me. And here I am . . . going to show how much I value our friendship, Sebastien. You’re not really dressed for the place I had in mind, but we can try something else if you want to come along. Marin said yes once. I can always try again.”
It was pathetic, how close he came to saying yes.
“Nah, man. Playing third wheel isn’t my thing.”
Dash protested while Marin averted her eyes. “It’s not third wheel, Seb. It’s three friends going out for a meal.” Dash wagged his brows and added a lascivious smile. “You know I’m all about those threesomes.”
“Yeah, and you know how I’m . . . not.” Sebastien snorted, shoving Dash’s shoulder as the man leered at him playfully.
Tabloids had made Dash out to be something of a sexual pervert, a hedonistic mess, although Sebastien knew the truth of it. For several years, his friend had been involved in a steady relationship with two others, a man and a woman. It sounded like things had fallen apart if he was looking to get involved with Marin, but Dash had never made any attempt to hide the fact that he was bisexual.
He had teasingly made a few plays at Sebastien the first time they’d worked together and Sebastien had come to realize it was just how Dash was. More than once, Dash had done the same with other guys and reactions varied from confusion to interest and disinterest to over-the-top rage.
The flirtation was every bit as much as Dash’s way of gauging somebody’s inner asshole as it was anything else.
Jingling his keys, Sebastien met Marin’s gaze, fight for a way to fill the awkward silence as some strange tension choked the easy relationship they’d shared. “I’ll talk to you soon?”
“Of course.” She glanced past him, brushing her hair back. “I actually have something to discuss with you anyway. I’ll call you.”
***
Marin kept seeing the look in his eyes.
Even as Dash pulled out all the stops and showed just why plenty of women in Hollywood—and outside of it—considered him to be one hell of a catch despite his somewhat alternative leanings, Marin was thinking of Sebastien.
She kept dragging her attention back to Dash and to his credit, when they weren’t being interrupted by a server, or by another patron, he managed to keep up a steady flow of conversation that wasn’t boring.
But all it took was for him to let the ball drop for a few seconds and her mind would slip back to Sebastien’s intense gaze and how it had gone so curiously blank as he looked from her to Dash, then back. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought he seemed hurt.
She was pondering that alone at the table. Dash had excused himself to the restroom and while she tried not to think about Sebastien, he kept slipping inside her thoughts like a phantom.
“You look like you are a million miles away.”
She jolted at Dash’s unexpected voice and looked up. He was back in his seat and she hadn’t even noticed that he’d returned. “Ah . . . sorry. I was . . .” She gestured to the sun as it sank deeper and deeper into the ocean, the sky above it painted a panorama of colors. “Just admiring.”
“Then why do you look sad?”
“Do I?” It took no effort to smile. It took no effort to reach for the glass of wine she’d ordered to go with her dessert and she sipped from it, holding Dash’s eyes easily. “I can’t imagine why I’d look sad.”
“Well, hopefully it’s not my company.” The teasing grin on Dash’s mouth invited her to smile with him.
“The company is absolutely wonderful.” Tipping her glass to him, she took another sip before lowering it to the table. “The company, the food, the atmosphere. This place is a gem. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of it.”
Dash winked. “It’s a secret. If too many people know about it, it won’t stay all unique and wonderful and gem-like.”
“I can see that.”
Leaning back in his chair, Dash tapped his finger against his lips. “You know, I think I know why you look sad. You’re thinking about Sebastien.”