Page 3 of Seduction

Raven walks up, sliding her arm around Gage’s waist. “We’re talking about dicks?”

“Yeah. This one that I got for you. Ready to go?” Gage asks.

“I’m kinda tired. Netflix and chill?”

“Net what and who?” he exclaims.

Raven giggles and I can’t contain my laughter.

“Yeah, we can watchLaBamba,” she adds.

Even I can see she’s teasing him, but now he realizes it, too.

“As long as you make monkey bread,” he says, indicating this is an inside joke.

“Oh, I have some monkey bread for you, all right.”

“Okay, that’s my cue to leave,” I say, not needing to hear the rest of this conversation. “I’ll see you two… whenever.”

“Bye, Dr. E.” Raven waves as I walk away.

My best friend—always impatient—rushes out the door with his bride. Fucker couldn’t even wait for his own wedding reception to end.

“Hey, Einstein.”

I turn to find Ellen, Gage’s sister, smiling up at me. “Hey, beautiful. Great party you put together here.”

She blushes. It can’t be because I called her beautiful since I do that all the time.Maybe I’m misreading her expression. She must be flattered at the compliment about the reception.She’s just starting out, but from what I’ve seen, her event planning business will be a huge success.

“Thanks. Um… wanna dance?”

“Sure.”

I take her hand, twirling her as I lead her to the dance floor. She giggles, but it’s cut short when I tug her into my arms. Hers curl around my neck as she leans in close.

“You know, you fill out that suit pretty nicely, Dr. Emerson.”

“Well, it can’t always be leather and jeans, now can it?”

“I guess not.”

She goes quiet, resting her cheek on my chest as we sway to the music. The scent of her perfume floats into my nostrils when I take a deep breath. It’s things like this that I look forward to when I have an old lady—holding her close, slow dancing to our favorite love song, falling asleep in each other’s arms.

“Einstein?” Ellen says as she tips her face up to meet my gaze.

“Hmm?”

“How come we’ve never hooked up?”

The question throws me off balance.Where is this coming from?

“What do you mean?”

“Come on. We’re a walking romance novel—the little sister and the brother’s best friend. Why hasn’t it happened?”

“Well….” I pause, considering the notion. “I guess I never looked at you that way.” Her eyes fall to my chest, and I quickly catch myself. “You’re a beautiful woman, Ellen. It’s just… you’ve always been Gage’s little sister. I’ve never thought about it.”

“Will you?” she asks, hope shining in her eyes.