Page 94 of The VIP Doubles Down

“Trust me.” Miranda’s voice had a dry note in it. “He’ll love it.”

“I figured I’d find you here.” Luke Archer slid onto a bar stool beside Gavin.

“Which here?” Gavin casually turned over the pad of paper he’d been scribbling on. “Southampton, yacht club, or bar?”

Luke ordered a beer. “Bar.”

“You have a low opinion of my character.”

“Nope. I just couldn’t think of any place farther away from the dress craziness than here.” He held up the frosted glass the bartender set in front of him. “To swift decisions by our women.”

Gavin lifted his glass of water to tap it against Luke’s beer. “Off the training regimen already, I see.”

“I forgot how good it is to have a beer whenever you feel like it.” Luke licked his lips in appreciation.

“Is Nathan showing up here, too?”

“Later,” Luke said. “He had some business calls to make.”

“How’s the studying going?”

Luke unleashed the grin that had made a thousand camera flashes go off. “Miranda’s a good teacher.”

“I know damn well that you don’t need any tutoring. You just use it as an excuse to have your lovely new wife bend over your shoulder.”

“So it works on all levels.” Luke gestured to the pad of paper Gavin had hoped he wouldn’t mention. “You writing something?”

The casualness of Luke’s tone didn’t fool Gavin. The other man’s eyes were focused like lasers. Strangely, he found himself telling the truth. “Yes. Julian’s back in action.”

“That’s good news, man. I’ve been missing his adventures.”

“Not nearly as much as I have.” Gavin set down his water. “Don’t spread the word around, though. My muse has been a cranky bitch for the last several months, so I don’t trust her.”

Luke nodded before he looked past Gavin’s shoulder, and his face seemed to lose all its angles while his blue eyes went from glacial ice to tropical sea. “Looks like some decisions have been made,” he said.

Gavin swiveled on the stool to see Allie and Miranda walking across the bar with arms linked.

“We came to get the official seal of approval,” Miranda said, her gaze on her new husband.

“Or veto,” Allie said with a nervous smile in Gavin’s direction.

All he could see was how Allie’s upswept hair showed off the creamy skin of her shoulders above the deep plunge of the gown’s neckline. He wanted to bury his face in the shadow cast by the curve of her breasts. Until he realized that other men would want to do the same thing.

Then he noticed that the fabric of the dress was nearly transparent, her arms clearly visible through the short puffed sleeves, and her skin glowing pink through the sheer ivory silk. He was sure that if she stood in front of a bright light, everyone would see the sinuous outline of her waist and hips and the ripe arc of her bottom.

He frowned.

“That’s not a good sign,” Allie said, her smile wavering.

Miranda finished her modeling spin and looked at Gavin. “I’m sure he’s just trying to find the right words to express how beautiful you are.”

He caught the slight note of warning in Miranda’s perfectly modulated voice and realized he was being a jealous ass, but that didn’t stop him. “She lookstoobeautiful.”

Allie’s smile firmed up as she turned to Miranda. “I knew he wouldn’t like the cleavage.”

“Cleavage! The whole damned dress just needs a strong light to turn it into Saran wrap.”

“That shows what you know about haute couture,” Allie said, floating up to him in the swirling dress. She bent to pick up the hem of the long skirt and show him that the layer of translucent organza was underlain by a layer of opaque pale pink. “It’s an illusion. You can’t really see my skin at all, except through the sleeves.”