It was no use.
I could feel him approaching.
Shivers trailed down my spine. I stiffened it, gnawing at my bottom lip when I felt the presence roll over me from behind.
Potent.
Powerful.
Persuasive.
That was what the man looked like. Persuasion and dominance and sex.
Like one of those models in a suit with a single hand tucked in the front pocket of his pants, an understated watch showing off his masculine wrist, his face hard and chiseled and angled.
If he didn’t scream all man, he’d almost be pretty.
Turbulence shook my spirit.
I knew his type.
The type that oozed arrogance and pretension and ego. I knew to stay as far away from his breed as possible.
What made it worse were the chills that skated across the surface of my skin when he was suddenly right there, his essence a breath across my shoulder. My senses were slammed with a woodsy, citrusy scent. Like an orange zested on a pile of maple leaves and whipped up in a vat of sugar, the concoction doused with the warmth of a sweet whiskey.
Goodness. The man even smelled smooth.
A new glass of the same wine I’d been sipping slid in front of me while the man slipped into the vacant stool next to mine. “Thought you could use a refill.”
I turned to face him, and I had to fight to keep my jaw from dropping right to the floor, because the glimpses I’d been stealing from across the room did absolutely nothing to prepare me for what he actually looked like up close.
So tall. So obscenely tall. Muscle packed on his long, lean frame. Blond hair short, the front a smidge longer, styled in a polished, immaculate way. Lips plush and soft and dangerous.
He looked like discord.
Chaos with an easy, arrogant smile.
A perfect, controlled disorder.
I shook my head to break myself from the stupor.
What he looked like was a damned broken heart. I lifted my chin. “Is that so?”
As if it were evidence of a crime, I glanced at my glass that was still half full.
“Mm-hmm. I’m a guy who’s all about being prepared. What kind of man would I be if I ran the risk of you running out?”
“How chivalrous of you.” I tried my best to force the words from my tongue like darts of sarcasm. But with the way his lip twitched in amusement, I was sure the man picked up on the way my response shook.
God, I had to be careful, or else I’d be wrapped right around his finger. My gut told me it’d be easy to do.
Round, round, round, and I’d be nothing but putty stomped beneath the sole of his expensive shoe.
I traced my fingertip around the rim of my own glass. “But completely unnecessary. I have a one-drink limit.”
His brow lifted, and something playful danced around his flirty, sensuous mouth. “Ah . . . I see . . . you got wrangled into being the designated driver for your friends? Drew the short end of the stick?”
I fought the unease that welled in my chest and turned away as I admitted, “Something like that.”
Truthfully, I would never consider my circumstances as a negative. The short end. A chore or a saddle. But that didn’t mean I had free space to flit my days away. Especially with a man like him.
Angling his head around, he captured my attention with that potent stare. As if he’d immediately caught on to the current that ran through the center of me. I shook when I got the sense that maybe he was searching for a way to see it, to find what it was made of.
His brow drew together. “Or this just isn’t your scene?” The flash of a moment passed before he seemed to settle on a conclusion, his eyes dimming in some kind of softness. “I’d put down bets on the latter.”
Something about his response made my tummy twist and dragged my attention to my best friend.
Her laughter floated through the air, her voice buoyant as she talked with a few of our other friends, her smile free.
Everyone there to celebrate her.
There was no question she was having a great time. Kind of the way she’d been hoping I would when she’d convinced me to come. “It’s my best friend’s birthday. Jenna,” I explained. I turned to look at him, unable to keep out the wobble of affection that fell into the words. “It was kind of mandatory that I show.”
The flirtation rimming his lips turned to straight seduction, and he edged forward, his words a murmur two beats from the shell of my ear. “And what would she say if I whisked you away from here?”
There was nothing I could do to stop it. The attraction that throbbed in the center of me.
Its own entity.
It lit in the air between us. Heat and a lusty kind of desire.