I squeezed Vaughn’s hand as we walked into the party and smiled up at him. “Thanks for the ride over.”
“Anytime you need a ride, I’m your man,” he offered as he glided his thumb over the center of my palm, sending shivers down my spine.
I let out a little giggle snort at his choice of wording. “You’ll give me all the rides I want, huh?”
“Damn.” He ran the fingers of his free hand through his hair and chuckled. “I don’t usually have so many verbal snafus in one night, but you have the craziest effect on me.”
My smile grew wider. “Since you’ve got quite the reputation for being unflappable, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should.” He paused to look down at me, his dark eyes serious as he added, “Because you’re the only person on this planet who’s ever made me stumble through an interview on the red carpet, and you didn’t even have to say a word to accomplish the previously unheard of feat.”
“Wow.” His gaze dropped down to the perfect circle my lips made, and his eyes darkened to the color of molten chocolate. We stared at each other for a long moment, and I almost forgot we were in the middle of a crowd until I heard someone nearby whisper my best friend’s name.
My head jerked up, and it didn’t take me long to spot Morgan and Gage since they were the focus of most of the people in the room. They were standing close together, with Gage’s hand on her back and his head bent low. I loved seeing my best friend so happy she practically glowed, but that didn’t stop me from teasing her when she blushed at whatever Gage was whispering in her ear when I walked up. “Alrighty then,” I laughed as I wrapped my hand around her wrist and tugged her away from Gage. “No way am I going to ask what you just said to my bestie that has her blushing like a virgin at prom, but I am going to steal her away so we can grab an In-N-Out burger.”
“I could eat a burger,” Vaughn chimed in, his fingers skimming down my back and coming to rest just above the curve of my ass.
With him touching me, there was no way I was going to be able to focus on my best friend during one of the most important nights of her life. I reluctantly pulled away from him to drag Morgan deeper into the party. “C’mon! I totally need to snap a pic of you munching on a burger while you’re holding your Oscar.” Asking for selfies with other celebs was frowned upon during the Vanity Fair party, but no way was I going to miss out on taking a picture of my bestie taking part in one of the iconic moments we’d giggled over as little girls. Knowing all the celebrities chowed down on stuff we liked to eat at a super-fancy party had only made me more interested in attending someday.
When we finally made it to the burger spread, another idea popped in my head, and I turned to Gage, “Aha! And I guarantee it’ll go viral if you’re in the picture, too.”
For a big-time celebrity, Gage was a good sport about it and went along with the plan. My favorite shot by far was when he took a bite out of Morgan’s burger at one point, and she burst into delighted laughter. I caught them just at the moment when he was biting down, and you could see the humor in her eyes over the bun since she’d been lifting the burger toward her lips when he did it.
“I’m going to need a copy of that one,” Gage asked.
I nodded and agreed, “Yeah, you really are.”
“This really is the best night ever,” Morgan sighed as she finished the last of the burger and drained her glass of champagne.
My nod was more emphatic as Gage tugged her toward the back room where they had the dance floor set up, leaving me alone with Vaughn. He snagged two burgers from the table, handing me one, and I realized he hadn’t eaten one yet even though he’d mentioned being hungry after the tiny portions they served at the Governors Ball. “I thought you were starving?”
“Yeah, but I wanted to wait until you could eat with me,” he admitted before taking a big bite.
“You did?” I grinned up at him, struck by how sweet of a gesture that was. Most guys would’ve been on their second or third burger by now. “How gentlemanly of you.”
Vaughn winked at me as he swallowed. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
For some reason, his response struck me as funny enough that I almost spit out the bite I’d just taken. His dark eyes lit with humor as he polished off his burger before grabbing another. In the time it took me to finish the one he gave me, he’d downed a total of three.