"Debutante? You?" He grinned. "Say it wasn't so."
"What?" I waved at my T-shirt and jeans, grimy with storeroom dust. "I don't look like one? I'll have you know I can quickstep with the best of them, sir."
He laughed, earning a mock glare. "Sorry. I just can't picture you..."
The sentence trailed off as he watched the party below, then turned to me.
"No, actually, I can. You have that...I don't know. Aura, I guess." A small smile. "Even with dirt on your cheeks." His head tilted. "I bet you were something. Nothing like the rest of them."
"If you mean because I wasn't fair-haired and blue-eyed--yes, I did stand out a wee bit."
"Nah, not that." He shifted, sliding closer. "You'd still have stood out among all those--" he waved at the party below, "--empty girls. They might have been dripping in jewels, but I bet you shone the most."
My cheeks heated. I'm accustomed to flattery--the smooth, meaningless compliments that pass for greeting in the circles I'd grown up in and, later, the too-practiced, too-polished sweet talk of rich boys. But Jaz's words--so sincere in their inelegance--made me feel like I was sixteen again.
"I'd love to have been there," he said. "Of course, I'd have been serving champagne instead of drinking it."
"That's okay. There were a couple of times during my season when I ended up in the garden with one of the servers."
He grinned. "I can see that. Society guys really wouldn't be your type."
"Some of them are very nice but, in general, no."
"Well, if Guy had gone with his first plan, you'd have seen me in a snazzy little white jacket and bow-tie, with a tray in my hand." He winked. "Maybe bring back some memories."
"Guy wanted you on the waitstaff?"
"That was the original plan, before he decided it was too ballsy even for him." He slid over to sit beside me, leaning against my side, voice dropping another notch as his arm rubbed against mine. "To tell the truth, I was kind of hoping I would get to play waiter. Not just for the added buzz...though I wouldn't have minded that."
His head dropped forward, eyes a few inches from mine and, in that impulsive shared grin, I knew he'd guessed I enjoyed a "buzz" as much as he did. I didn't care. It felt good not to care.
"What I was really hoping for, though," he continued, leaning against me as he whispered, "was the chance to make a little extra on the side. Lift a pair of gold cuff links here, a diamond tennis bracelet there, maybe a--" He lifted a silver-banded watch and peered at the face. "Cartier. Damn, that's nice."
I glanced down at my bare wrist. "How'd you--?" I remembered him moving closer, rubbing against me, and I let out a laugh. "You're good."
"Thank you." He turned the watch over in his hands. "An older model, but in excellent condition. No scratches on the face. No engraving on the back. I bet I could flip this for two, three hundred."
"Try twenty bucks. It's a Cartier, but a cheap one. I got it for graduating high school."
"Must be nice. Know what I got for graduating high school? Well, I didn't actually graduate, but if I had, I'm sure there would have been a lovely Timex in it for me. I still say this is worth at least a hundred, for the name value alone, but I could be persuaded to let it go for less...to the right girl. Perhaps in exchange for a token of appreciation for my amazing talents?"
"Like a smack upside the head for stealing from me?"
His eyes glinted and he bared his teeth in a grin that sent a delicious shiver through me. "Perhaps next time. Tonight--" He waved at the party below. "Tonight is for genteel, civilized solutions. Tonight, you are the sixteen-year-old debutante and I'm the cad who swiped your watch and is holding it for ransom." He slid around to face me and dangled the watch between us. "So what would I get?"
"A smack upside the head."
He chuckled.
"But, if it's genteel solutions we're looking for..."
I leaned forward and kissed him. His lips parted against mine in a kiss as sweet as any I'd hoped for when I had been sixteen, fending off insistent hands and wet lips, dreaming of something a little more...genteel.
We kissed until a noise from the hall made me pull back. I opened the door and peeked out. It was just Max making his rounds of the second floor. An exchange of thumbs-up and he went on his way.
Jaz still sat where I'd left him. "I don't suppose you have any more jewelry I can steal."
I took back my watch. "I do, but you're not going to get it--or find it--that easily."