* * *
Wear something dramatic, Gabriel had said when he informed her they would attend a black-tie gala benefiting a museum.
The gown Luli chose was made of stretch lace with subtle dragons embroidered into it. It clung to her arms and flared out at the hem to create the impression ink had been poured down her body and splashed out around her feet. It was lined with nude satin so she wore only a peach-colored thong beneath. The plunging neckline didn’t allow for a bra and she applied double-sided tape against her cleavage to avoid a slip.
Her shoes were a glamorous half dozen straps bedecked with rhinestones and a high ankle strap. She straightened her hair to a sleek curtain combed back from her face then drew attention to her eyes with mauve and gold, chartreuse and teal. Her lips received a coat of dark red called Salem.
“Are you trying to kill me?” Gabriel stopped with his drink halfway to his mouth when she appeared.
“Really?” She smiled with shy pleasure and gave him the one-hand-on-her-hip pose. A small weight shift and she changed hands, giving her hair a slow flip along the way, so the curtain gently spilled off the back of her hand. She held her pose, chin high, gaze on the distant future, not a care in the world.
“You’re going to put the entire city in the hospital.” He pretended to take a phone call. “Yeah, that was my wife. I can’t help it if she’s that freaking hot. Get a better power grid because she’s going to keep knocking it out.”
She burst out laughing, flattered, but more bowled over that he would be so silly about it. It helped her relax and pin a smile of lingering humor on her face when they arrived at the chaotic zoo that was the red carpet.
An audible “Whoa...” rose from the crowd. Photographers hurried into position to snap their photo, demanding to know who she was wearing and how was her honeymoon and when had they started dating.
Gabriel drew her inside before she had to answer.
“Are there specific people you need to see tonight?” Luli asked as he handed her a flute of champagne. She wanted to be prepared and help in any way she could, not run away with a case of stage fright this time.
“They’ll come to us,” he said with careless arrogance. His eyes narrowed as she released a small snort. “What?”
“I’m wondering if you ever go to anyone.” After seeing him in several environments now, she was realizing she wasn’t the only one in awe of him. From janitor to pilot to executive to governor, people fell over themselves trying to anticipate his needs.
“Not if I can help it,” he answered unabashedly. “I hate people. I only talk to them if they make me.”
“Hmmph.” She hollowed her cheeks and looked across the crowd.
“You don’t count,” he said.
“Because I’m not a person,” she surmised.
She studied the tiara of a matron who passed them. Luli wore a pair of teardrop diamond earrings Gabriel had given her before they left. She hadn’t wanted to accept them, but he had said they were a loan—unless she decided to keep them. Which she wouldn’t. But she loved them and wished she could.
“Luli.” His tone was apologetic. He touched her arm.
She let him see that she was laughing beneath her mask of affront.
He tsked and sipped, profile filling with self-disgust as he turned his face away.
Why that was funny, she didn’t know, but it was. She laughed with open enjoyment and he looked at her with so much admiration, he melted her bones and made every other part of her sing. He was so handsome, he hurt her eyes. His chiseled face and keen stare, his barely-there hint of a cynical smile, his mussed hair that she wanted to muss even more, lingering over the feel of those fine strands between her fingers...
Save yourself for a relationship that matters. Someone special.
Did he not realize he was special?
“Gabriel!” A woman appeared beside him and snaked her touch around his arm, smooshing her breasts against his elbow. “Introduce me to your wife.”
“Brittany Farris,” he said after a brief pause. “Lucrecia Dean.”
Brittany offered air kisses and had to know everything about how they had met.
Luli had met variations of this woman before. Some girls on the pageant circuit were genuinely nice—and scared to be on their own. They did everything they could to make friends, needing bolstering and the safety of numbers. Some, like Luli, were there to win. They weren’t mean, but they didn’t make friends because feelings got hurt and friendships folded when there could be only one winner.