“But I’ve been terrified all day.”
“Did you let it stop you?”
“No.”
He said no more.
Ohmigod?
Was he right?
Ohmigod!
He was right!
“She sees the light,” he muttered through a grin, watching me.
“Sam –”
He cut me off. “That’s your first block, baby, use it, step up on it and keep climbing. You’ll get to the other side. You with me?”
“I’m not sure,” I whispered.
“You not with me?”
“Um… well…”
“You might not be sure but you are definitely with me,” he stated and made his point by giving me another squeeze. “So how about you go with that for now? Yeah?”
I stared up at him.
Then I predicted, “You’re going to get bored of this.”
“Yeah?” he asked on another grin.
“Definitely.”
“We’ll see,” he muttered.
“I’ll bet you a thousand dollars you get bored of me,” I told him, his head tilted to the side and then he burst out laughing. “Seriously,” I said through his laughter.
He sobered but, still smiling, he replied, “I’ll take that bet, Kia. It’ll serve me right to pay up; I’m stupid enough to get bored of you. And an example of why I know I’d be stupid to get bored of you is that you’d make me a f**kin’ bet for one large that I’d get bored of you.”
My heart fluttered and my fingers spasmodically pressed into his chest.
His smile got bigger.
“I’m back to thinking I need champagne,” I informed him.
To which he murmured, “I bet you are.”
“I’m serious,” I pressed.
“I bet you’re that too.”
“Sam,” I snapped and he grinned again.
Then he moved back but curled an arm around me and moved me down the terrace toward the doors we went through to come out.
“Champagne then I’ll show you Luci’s other cars,” he declared and I had to admit, after the Lamborghini, which also didn’t fit her, I was intrigued.
“With a euro-trash rating of first to last, where does the Lamborghini fit?” I asked.
“Number five,” he answered instantly and my head jerked around and back to look at him.
“You mean the others are worse?”
“She’s got great taste in clothes, shit taste in cars. She let me pick which one I wanted and the one I have is the only one of her rides I’d even consider putting my ass in.”
“What did Gordo think of this?”
He guided me in and immediately jerked up his chin to someone, I followed his eyes and saw a white-coated waiter nod and move away and Sam looked back down to me.
“To forget she goes to bed alone and until she sorts her shit out, she’ll keep doin’ it, first, she’s up in my business and next, she buys cars Gordo would lose his mind if he ever knew she’d even test-driven much less bought them and brought them home.”
My eyes slid through the room trying to find her and not succeeding as I muttered, “Interesting.”
“Yeah,” Sam said distractedly. “I can read a lotta shit, baby, but that I do not get.”
I had no reply and luckily didn’t have to make one because the waiter came bearing a flute of champagne. I took it and I sipped.
Then Sam took my hand and moved me through the people, muttering, “Cars.”
Then we went and inspected Luciana’s cars.
He was right. The Lamborghini was the least flashy. Even Vin Diesel and Paul Walker would turn their noses up at that lot.
And, not able to stop myself from giggling at beautiful, sultry, sophisticated, sweet Luciana’s very bad taste in automobiles, Sam did it again.
When I thought I could never relax, when I thought there was no way I could get over my latest life drama, I underestimated Sam’s determination to make me do both so, without even noticing it, I relaxed and got over it.
Chapter Five
Smart Enough to Hold On
I woke feeling warm, content, comfy and something else, something that felt strange, something I knew didn’t feel strange once upon a time in my life.
It was a feeling I registered and understood when I was six years old.
It was the feeling I used to have all the time, every second of every minute of my life but I understood it when my Dad took my brother Kyle and me to that haunted house.
I’d been terrified, completely, even though, looking back, it was meant for little kids like me so it was seriously tame. But I’d never experienced anything like it until then.
And as I wandered through that haunted house with Dad and Kyle, monsters popping out, the bloody bride and groom gruesomely murdered on their blessed day, I got more and more scared when, suddenly, my father took my hand and that feeling of fear evaporated completely.
Dad was with me. Dad was close.
I was safe.
Dad wouldn’t allow anything to harm me. Not monsters. Not zombie brides.
Nothing.
And I felt that upon waking, I felt it again for the first time in ages.
I opened my eyes and saw the corded, dark-skinned column of a man’s throat and I felt my legs tangled with long, heavy ones, my arm resting around a man’s waist, my other hand pressed to a hard chest and two strong arms around me, holding me close to a solid, steady heat.
I tipped my head back and saw Sam’s head tipped slightly forward, his eyes closed, his handsome face relaxed, his power at rest and I stared, immobile, such was his beauty. His eyelashes were black, short and spiky but they were thick, so many of them, their fan seemed a unit, not individual lashes and, instantly, I was transfixed.
Then, as they had a tendency to do, memories washed through my head taking my mind away from feeling warm, comfy, safe and fascinated by Sam’s eyelashes and forcing it to last night.
I tipped my head down and, I didn’t know why but automatically my body sought more contact with his by pressing forward.
When it did, Sam’s arms convulsed, going tight and staying that way a moment before they partially released. My head tipped back again, thinking I woke him but he was still asleep.
He was still asleep.
This meant Sampson Cooper hugged in his sleep.
Oh man.
I sighed.
Then I closed my eyes tight and sifted through my memories of last night.
* * * * *
After I giggled myself silly at Luci’s cars while Sam watched and smiled, he took me back to the party. Thus commenced me meeting a variety of Luci’s friends and acquaintances, very few who Sam knew, almost all of whom knew Sam. I did this while drinking and, several times, Sam led us to the dining room where Luciana had indeed put out a spread.