He turned her towards him with his fingers on her chin. ‘Kelsi, please look at me.’ Colour flashed.
He drew in a sharp breath, the surge of need rising so fast, blasting all thought from his head. ‘Oh, my God.’
He dropped the flannel, framing her face with his hands as he gazed into her beautiful, bare eyes. So hungry to see them.
Leonine—gold—the most unusual pale gold. ‘Why do you hide them?’ He was so incredulous his words whispered out instead of roaring as he’d meant. He just couldn’t understand why she would. They were so unique. So beautiful. Just like the rest of her.
‘Why are you here?’ she said angrily, twisting free from his grip. ‘You’re supposed to be at that dinner.’ She sniffed and grabbed the flannel from her lap, hiding her eyes from him again.
He tried to gather his scattered wits. ‘Is it because of the baby? Is that why you’re so upset?’ He desperately wanted to know. He desperately wanted to help. He desperately wanted to gather her close and cradle her and tell her it was all going to be all right.
She shook her head. ‘I’m just tired, that’s all.’
He didn’t believe that was all it was. But he didn’t know how to fix it. She was inching away from him. Not even that subtly, moving farther and farther away.
Oh, hell. Did she feel that helplessly trapped?
God, they needed to get out of here. He could really do with some air.
He frowned. Come to think of it, she hadn’t been out once all week—aside from work. Sure, he hadn’t either but he’d been texting his friends and caught up with a couple during the day. But Kelsi’s phone hadn’t rung once. He knew she was quiet—that was OK—but lonely wasn’t so good.
And she shouldn’t be lonely. She should have a ton of friends. She was fun company—bright, with a sharp sense of humour that appeared when you least expected it. Yeah, he got that she was a little shy—the kind of work she did told him that. She hid behind a computer screen and emailed rather than talked face-to-face. But she could get over that…
‘You should go to the function,’ she said gruffly. ‘You can’t just not show up.’
‘Why not?’ He shrugged. ‘I wasn’t going to be there originally.’
‘But they’re expecting you now. Those people have paid money or won competitions to be there.’
Yeah, he knew that, didn’t need to be made to feel worse about it. Actually it was her wanting rid of him that made him feel worse. ‘I’m not leaving you alone when you’re like this.’
She looked cross. ‘I’m not helpless, Jack. I’m fine.’
‘Prove it, then,’ he said coolly. ‘Come out with me.’
‘No.’
‘You haven’t been out all week,’ he said firmly. ‘You can’t spend your life at home.’
She was sitting very still a clear foot from him.
He leaned across and brushed her crazy hair back from her cheek. ‘I’m not going unless you go with me.’
She leapt up from the sofa as if his hand had burned like the sun. ‘I can’t. I haven’t anything appropriate to wear.’
Oh, that was a pathetic excuse. ‘What do you mean, not appropriate? All your clothes are appropriate.’
‘Not for a black tie event.’ She whirled to face him, her golden eyes glittering—killing him. ‘I don’t have a fairy godmother. There’s no one to give me a makeover to go to the ball.’
‘You don’t need a makeover,’ he said automatically, still stunned by her eyes. ‘You’re perfect as you are.’
But now those eyes filled again. ‘Don’t say that.’
‘It’s true.’ He stood, needing to get it through to her somehow—like with a battering ram or something. ‘I’m not making it up, Kelsi. I’d be proud to have you walk in with me.’
She stared at him as if he was a lunatic. The ants danced down his spine some more. And his instinct told him he needed to get her out of there, that he needed to take her with him. ‘Just go and get dressed. Wear any of your dresses—all of them at once if you want,’ he joked lightly. ‘Just come out and have some fun.’
He breathed in, waiting. But she seemed to be waiting, too.
‘Please.’ Did the sound come out on that or had he just thought he’d said it? He really wasn’t sure because his mouth had all dried up.
But she’d turned. She’d walked.
And he was waiting.
Kelsi went back to the bathroom and breathed in deep. Jack wasn’t going without her. That was clear. But she didn’t have a ball gown and there’d be all those amazing sports-women there with their strong, fit bodies and their tanned skin and their glamorous hair and make-up. And she just couldn’t believe his ‘you’re perfect’ line. Too smooth.
Too tempting.
And worse still, she couldn’t put in any contacts now. Her eyes were sore and red from crying and they’d only water more if she tried to put them in. She was going to have to go out with naked eyes. She hadn’t done that in such a long time.
She should feign illness. Plead exhaustion.
Except there was that yearning—reaching up from her most secret self. She really did want to go. To go out with him just the once. To be the one on his arm even for only one night. To be the one he wanted to be with.
And she was too tired to fight the fantasy.
She turned the shower on and jumped in, quickly washing away the stains of the day. She twisted her hair up, hiding the worst of it and skimming some make-up over her face. Then she went in search of a frock.
He was standing at the lounge window when she emerged from her bedroom. And, yeah, it was the fantasist in her that saw his whole face light up.
He held the door open for her. ‘What do you call this?’ He brushed the feather she’d pinned in to half hide the mess of hair exploding from her high ponytail as she walked past him.
‘A fascinator.’
‘Very appropriate.’
See—his charm would see him win every time.
He’d called a cab and it was already outside. Nervously, she tucked her dress in close so its skirt wouldn’t get caught in the door. It was one of her long ones, of course. But she’d skipped a few layers—including her bra—because it had a peephole in the centre of her back. For once she let it peep all the way to skin, not another layer. And her arms were bare. She basically felt naked.
‘You’re going to meet some of the guys. I have to warn you they can be a bit extreme,’ he said as he joined her in the back seat.
‘In what way?’ She tried to keep her breathing regular.
‘Oh, you know, a bit crazy.’
‘You have to be crazy to do what you do.’
‘Yeah, the snowboarding table is always at the
back of the room.’
‘So if you make too much noise it’s not so far to throw you out?’
‘Not me.’ He laughed. ‘Them.’
She bit her lip—she wasn’t a party queen. And she couldn’t even have a drink to help her relax. This was just madness.
The place was full already, of course. Pre-dinner drinks were almost over, which was perfect timing because they could just slip into the crowd rather than make any kind of grand entrance.
‘That’s them over there.’ Jack waved to a guy across the room and took her hand to draw her with him. There were a bunch of them, all in suits but some with personalising features—big hair and beanies seemed to be the order of the day.
Jack got waylaid three quarters of the way across the room by some other big, tall, fit person but she glanced over and saw the snowboarders were watching them, and now walking nearer to meet up with them. She half turned to Jack to listen to him greeting the guy who she now recognised as a rugby star. But the low conversation easily came to her ears as the beanie brigade neared.
‘Check out the woman Jack’s with.’
‘Sick.’
‘Yeah.’
Kelsi stiffened. They thought she was sick? OK, so she had pale skin, so what? That didn’t mean she was at death’s door or anything. She shouldn’t have left her arms bare. She shouldn’t even be here.
‘You OK?’ Jack asked quietly, turning to her after a big laugh with the rugby dude.
‘Sure.’ She made herself smile.
‘Come and meet the guys.’
Reluctantly, she stepped up as he introduced her. Tahu, Drew and Max—who all stood smiling and silent and staring at Jack as if he was better than Father Christmas.
‘Max is the current boardercross champ,’ Jack said with his wicked grin.
‘Boardercross?’ Kelsi asked
‘You get four guys going straight down an obstacle course as fast as possible. First to the bottom wins. Take no prisoners,’ Jack explained. ‘Tahu and Drew specialise in superpipe.’ He looked over at Drew. ‘How was Silverton?’