I entered the living room to a glorious sight. A view of Ian from behind. I was right; you could totally eat a steak off that ass.
“Yeah, Ace, she just arrived home about half an hour ago. I think I gave her a bit of a fright,” he chuckled.
I cleared my throat before he could recount the rest of our encounter, which Gwen would no doubt find hilarious.
Ian turned slowly, phone to his ear, smirk on his face. Did this guy have a permanent sexy grin on his face? If so, the chances of me pouncing on him increased exponentially.
When he turned to me the grin disappeared. It was replaced with a dark gaze so full of lust I struggled not to run over and hump his leg. I guess my dress had its intended effect. I mentally high fived myself.
“Sorry, Ace, didn’t quite catch that.” Ian spoke huskily, eyes still on me.
Now that I had recovered from the power of his male gaze I smirked and cocked my hip.
“Yep, that’s fine—I get you got to work late. I’m sure I can find a way to entertain myself.”
Breaking our eye contact, I moved through the living room while he spoke to gather things into my purse, feeling eyes on my naked back.
“I don’t think Amy can act as my babysitter tonight, Gwen. She looks like she’s off to some fancy ‘do,” he exclaimed, his accent seriously hot and rugged. I didn’t even care that I had no idea what a ‘do’ was.
I shelved a borderline sick babysitter fantasy and had a brilliant idea. I whirled around and ignored the panty-dropping stare I was getting, snatching the phone from Ian.
“Hey Gwen, don’t worry. I’ve got Ian sorted for tonight—he can come to this charity gala with me,” I told her, watching as Ian raised his eyebrows.
“Really? Oh, thanks so much, Ames. I’m sure he’ll hate it as much as you do, but at least he won’t be sitting in an empty apartment on his first night back from a warzone. Fucking work. I can’t believe I have to stay and sort out this order. On the day my big brother arrives,” she whined, sounding pissed.
“Um, sorry to put a spanner in the works here, but I can’t go to any ‘galas’ on account of the fact I don’t have a monkey suit stuffed in my duffel and by the way you’re dressed, I don’t think my jeans and tee will cut it,” Ian interrupted, watching me.
“You’re perfect as you are,” I replied, phone still at my ear. He seriously was perfect. If I had the ability I would sculpt him out of marble. Maybe I would commission a miniature of him for my own personal use.
“You’re so using Ian to piss off your mum and all the stuffed shirts at this charity thing, aren’t you?” Gwen knew me too well.
“I can neither confirm nor deny that, Gwen. Got to go—we are so late already. Don’t work too hard.” I cut the call off, knowing Gwen wouldn’t actually mind I was using her brother as a pawn in my constant battle to beat the Botox in my mother’s face to get it to form a frown. She’d just be angry she couldn’t be there. I was kind of glad she wouldn’t, considering I’d probably be drooling over her brother the entire night.
The drool-worthy brother was watching me with a raised eyebrow. “You’re telling me that you’re going to a party dressed like that and I’ll be okay in this?” He gestured down to his attire with a skeptical gaze.
I didn’t look down, for if I did I might just pull up his shirt to inspect his abs. I needed to make sure I didn’t do things like that; he was my best friend’s brother. Off limits. Which only made him so much hotter. This was going to be a huge test on my willpower; even worse than that time I decided to do a raw food detox.
“You’ll be fine, trust me. My mother’s the one throwing the party.”
We pulled up to the party in the town car I’d had waiting outside our apartment. Luckily since I was so late there were only a few photographers loitering around. I usually didn’t mind getting snapped; I shared an easy relationship with the paps. I wasn’t famous enough to get followed around or anything, but at events like this they loved me. I didn’t mind getting on page five either; it helped get me some serious designer duds. But tonight for some reason I didn’t want Ian to see that side of my life. It all seemed so silly now, with him being the sexy man who fought terrorists and saved the world for a living. The life I had been so content with hours ago now seemed superficial and shallow. I was almost embarrassed. I turned to him.
“Wanna have some fun with these stuck-up stock brokers and trophy wives to spice up the evening?” I asked with a smirk.
“Bring it on.” Ian winked at me and got out of the car, rounding it to open my door for me. I clasped his outstretched hand and almost gasped at the spark I felt touching his skin. He pulled me up and the look on his face told me he felt it too. That moment everything seemed to fade away and it was just the two of us. There was a connection, something I couldn’t explain; an attraction tethering us together as if we hadn’t just met two hours ago.
“Amy!”
“Miss Abrams, who are you wearing tonight?”
“Over here, Amy! Give us a pose!”
The voices of photographers shook me out of the moment, which was good. I couldn’t be having some freaking insta-lust type shit with my best friend’s brother. I needed to focus on the mission at hand.
I stepped forward to give the photographers a quick snap, but I was stopped with a hand on my back. I tried to ignore the desire that spread through my body from that touch as Ian directed us towards the doors, shielding me from the camera flashes.