He gazed back at her, a small smile tilting one corner of his lips.
* * *
“You could have warned us first,” Jonathan said to Steve when the quartet reconvened for a late dinner.
The blond cellist shrugged and beckoned the bar for another beer. “I had no idea it’d be that kind of reception. But it was fun, wasn’t it? Interesting, anyway. Made me kind of horny.”
“I’m sure you could score some wedding-guest tail.” Ruby nodded to a table across the hotel restaurant, where a pair of women ogled the tall, muscular musician.
“We made good money on this gig,” Steve said, still defending the booking. “We got a free trip to Miami in the middle of winter, and rooms in this awesome hotel.”
Ethan looked over at Ruby. “How are you doing, Rube?”
“I’m okay.” They tended to be protective of her, partly because of the only-girl thing, and partly because she was a couple years younger than the rest of them. “Still trying to process some of the things I saw.”
She said it like a joke, but meant it for real. Steve and Jonathan laughed, but Ethan… Damn Ethan, with his probing, thoughtful looks. She thought about the way he’d inched his leg closer to hers while they were performing.
“I’ve already looked online for some unicorn fetish props,” Steve said, drawing her attention from Ethan’s regard.
“Let me know when you get them,” Jonathan joked. “I’ll bring over my sparkly whip.”
They joked some more about fetish and kink, like they joked about everything, but Ruby kept picturing the last scene between the newly married couple, with their close, beautiful connection. She felt Ethan’s gaze on her at various times throughout dinner, and had to stop herself from looking up at him constantly. Every once in a while, the Tchaikovsky melody would pop into her head.
“I think that’s it for me tonight,” she said when the waiter came by to clear away their plates.
“What do you mean?” Steve gestured to her mostly full martini. “You’ve hardly drunk at all. After a gig like that, we deserve to get wasted.”
“We don’t get wasted on the road,” she reminded him.
“And we have a flight tomorrow morning at eleven o’clock,” Jonathan said in his dick voice, mainly because Steve was sending increasingly flirty looks toward the pair of women across the room.
“I think I’m going to head up with Ruby,” said Ethan. “We’ll catch you guys later.”
Ruby and Ethan fell into step together as they left the restaurant, because they were old friends, but tonight, she felt a pull to him that was one hundred percent new. “After you,” he said, when the elevator opened.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, not wanting him to know she was thinking about his damn leg again, the way he’d moved it toward her just when she’d needed it. Such great instincts. And great thighs. He had an awesome body and beautiful eyes, and looked really freaking sexy in a tux. She wondered if he’d ever trailed his teeth over a woman’s neck.
“Everything okay?” he asked as the door closed, trapping them in the elevator together.
“Sure.”
But she wasn’t okay, not really. She was feeling a lot of crazy things.
2.
When they reached their floor, Ethan walked with her down the hall and stopped at her door. “I’m right next to you,” he said, nodding at the adjacent room. “Nice hotel, huh?”
“It’s beautiful,” she agreed, fumbling in her jeans pocket for her key card. “Miami’s great at this time of year.”
“Better weather than Chicago, that’s for sure.”
She found the card, but before she could open the door, Ethan put his hand on the knob. “Ruby? Are you really okay?”
She nodded again, a little too enthusiastically. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You keep saying you’re okay, but you’ve had this look on your face all night.”
“Have I?”
“Did the reception upset you more than you’re letting on?”
“No. Well. It didn’t upset me.” She stared at the door since she couldn’t meet his eyes. “I wouldn’t use that word.”
“Our clients hire us to mind our own business and play the pretty background music, but today was a little more…” He let go of the knob and leaned against the door. “More explicit than the average wedding reception, wasn’t it?”
She snorted. “Yeah. Pretty much.”
“I could tell it was freaking you out a little. Maybe a lot. We should have stopped playing if you felt uncomfortable, or unsafe.”
“I didn’t feel unsafe. I would have stopped if it was too much.” Even she could hear the defensiveness in her tone. “It’s just that it surprised me. I’d never experienced anything like that before.”
He nodded, his blue eyes studying her features. “Okay. Well, if you want to talk…”
She wanted to talk, but she was afraid of what might come out of her mouth.
“How did you feel about it?” she asked, forcing herself to hold his gaze.
“I thought it was interesting. It was good.” He scratched his chin and gave one of his cryptic half-smiles. “I’m all for people expressing their sexuality in positive ways.”