She hadn’t expected him to be so direct, and while she thought it was hot, there was no way she could go out with him. She just couldn’t.
“Um, I’m sorry,” she said and his face changed. The smile dropped as he nodded slowly. “I just don’t have time. I’m so busy and, yeah, no. I don’t want this to be weird, but no, I can’t go out with you.”
He held her gaze. “Can’t?”
“Yeah.”
Taking a step toward her, his eyes bored into hers, his body radiating some serious heat as she got lost in those gray depths. “I don’t take you for a ‘can’t’ kind of girl.”
“That’s ’cause you don’t know me,” she breathed and he nodded.
“Which, again, is why we should get to know each other.”
She shook her head, trying like hell not to lean into him. “I can’t.”
“But do you want to?”
She eyed him and, shit, she was gasping for breath. He smelled divine and those eyes, Jesus… But she knew she couldn’t even try to date him. That would be disastrous. So she did what she did best. She lied. “No, I don’t.”
He didn’t move, nor did his eyes change as he looked down at her. Silence passed between them, and as her eyes grazed down his face, the sharp planes of his nose, and the sweet color of his cheeks, never in the last seven years had she ever wanted to go up on her toes and kiss a man.
Well, there was Channing Tatum; she’d kiss him.
Or Justin Timberlake.
Or even, mmmm, Jared Padalecki…
But not some normal, dorky, puppy-dog looking dude!
What in the world had gotten into her, and why the hell did she feel he could see right through her?
Especially when he moved toe-to-toe, his breath on her lips as he said, “You’re not a very good liar, Ms. Sinclair.”
“Ms.?” she asked breathlessly. Thankfully, she still had her brain…sorta. “I could be married.”
“But you’re not,” he said simply, his voice so low, so deep, and…fuck, so sexy. “And that’s cool. I’ll get you to go out with me.”
Then he winked.
She was pretty sure she came.
And without another word, tall, dark, adorable, sexy, puppy-dog guy walked away.
Like a fucking boss.
Where in the hell had that come from?
And why did she believe him?
There was no reason to, because Lucy knew she wouldn’t be dating anyone. Probably never would. Or maybe when Angie was eighteen and she wouldn’t ever have to deal with Rick again. But now, now she couldn’t. It didn’t make sense. She just didn’t have time, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to bring some dude around Angie whom she didn’t trust.
But this was different.
Angie already loved Benji.
Which meant Lucy couldn’t fuck that up. She may not trust the guy, but Angie did and she needed that. Especially since her father was a turd.
So she’d keep her distance.
No matter how hard it looked like that was going to be.
Leaning on her desk, Lucy looked at the screen of her computer with no clue what she was doing.
She should be working. She had orders she needed to place for three different accounts. She had fourteen mock-ups to send to Elli Adler and seven to send to leopard-print couple. She also needed to call her mother back since she had been calling since eight that morning. She usually didn’t ignore her mother—she loved her and loved speaking with her—but lately, she was exhausted with the whole wedding thing. It still all seemed so unreal to her.
Plus, Lucy was distracted.
Benji asked her out last night.
And she said no.
Her answer was driving her insane because she was starting to think she should have said yes. There wasn’t a long line of men wanting to take her out. She hadn’t been out in a very long time, and man, she needed some sex. Nice, hot, wall-banging sex. Benji was tall, and while he was a bit awkward, she was pretty sure he could deliver the wall-banging sex. It had to be the eyes that made her think that…mmm…
But no.
No.
It couldn’t happen. She was busy, and he didn’t look like the kind of guy who wanted to just screw around. She didn’t have time for a relationship, and Angie—she couldn’t do that to her. Bringing guys in and out, that was just not responsible. She wasn’t that kind of a woman; she was smart and relationships led to heartache. The problem was, it wasn’t only Lucy’s heart that could be broken, and she couldn’t do that to Angie. Wouldn’t do that to her.