Page 72 of The Bronze Garza

His attention comes straight to me. Roves over me, slow and dawdling.

The dress he bought me fits like a glove. No idea how he got down to even my bust-line right, but he did.

“Hi,” he says quietly.

I rest the glass of water onto the kitchen counter. “Hi.”

“You look...beautiful.”

With a pout, I idly snap and unsnap the latch on my clutch. “I guess you’ll have to give me a few minutes to run upstairs and change then.”

He frowns. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want to look ‘beautiful’. I want to look smoking hot.”

At that, an almost imperceptible smile settles on his lips, and he shakes his head. “You’re something else.”

I dramatically stick my chest out, suck my cheeks in, and droop my eyelids. “Would that ‘something else’ be irresistiblyhot?”

A giggle from Tillie snags his attention. And he blinks, as if he’d forgotten there are other people in the house. “Mon. Sis.”

“Are you, like, going on adate?” Tillie asks, as if the entire concept of him dating is preposterous.

“Enjoy the rest of your evening,” he tells her dully, then holds his hand out to me.

I accept it and let him lead me out.

As we round to the front, I tell him, “They think I’m trying to use my feminine wiles to steal you away.”

“Hm.” He guides me to his jeep and opens the door for me. “Are you?”

I pause from climbing in. “I’m sorry, who invited who out again?”

He prods me. “Get in.”

I fix a hand on my hip. “Ask me nicely. Just so we’re both clear who wants who with them tonight.”

“Why you always gotta be like this?”

“Be like what?”

He sighs. “Can you please get in the car?”

I cup my hand around my ear. “Why?”

“Because I want you with me tonight.”

“Well, since you sound so pathetically desperate...” I smile and climb into the jeep. “It’s the least I can do.”

He shakes his head, as if questioning why he thought it was a good idea to invite me out, then closes the door.

“How far is this ‘thing’?” I ask once he’s rounded to his side and is behind the wheel.

“Not far.”

His scent levitates on the air like smoke. It’s divine. It’s seduction. It’s push and pull. Hot and cold. Sexy and forceful, blistering arousal.

I inhale it like cocaine. Like it’s elixir.