Recklessly Royal(53)

Turning, I looked at my outfit and frowned. I didn’t have a lot of options at the hotel and no time to shop. I’d picked out a pair of jeans, a dressy tank top, and a blazer. The shoes and some jewelry pulled it all together. It wasn’t exactly my best outfit, but it was comfortable and I liked it. It also wasn’t too dressy for the movies, but not so comfortable that it looked like I hadn’t cared what I was wearing tonight.

Voices coming from the living area made me hurry, and I grabbed some lip gloss quickly and threw it in my bag. I rushed out, to save David from Max. I wasn’t sure if my brother would give my date the third degree or not. He usually didn’t seem to care if I dated someone, but he’d been much more interested in David for some reason.

“Where are you going?”

“The movies and dinner.” David’s voice was calm and polite.

“Which theater?” Max asked.

I rounded the corner in time to see that Max hadn’t let David very far into the suite.

“I’m not sure exactly. I believe the bodyguards chose the one they felt was most secure.” David tucked his hands in his pockets. He had dressed up, still in jeans, but in a button-up shirt under a light sweater. He had shaved too, which was the first time I had seen him that way. I liked it just as much as I did when he had a five-o’clock shadow. No matter how you cut it, the man was mouthwatering.

“Max,” I warned. He held his hands up in the air in mock surrender.

“You look great.” David smiled at me.

“Thanks.” Smiling I walked past Max to stand in front of David. “So do you.”

“Have her home by midnight,” Max grouched from behind me.

I rolled my eyes and held my hand out to David. His warm fingers wrapped around mine, and the familiar feeling of heat from his touch traveled up my arm and over my body.

The car was waiting downstairs, but at an employee entrance instead of out front. I wondered if the press would have caught on to our sneaky attempt, but there was no one with a camera in sight. Of course, that didn’t mean someone with a telephoto lens wasn’t hanging out in a tree.

“How did we manage to escape the press?” I wondered aloud.

“Jameson’s idea. He has the car I came in idling at the front entrance.” David sat next to me and turned so that his long legs were tucked into the backseat comfortably. “You know, the last time someone drove me on a date was back in middle school. Feels like I should be asking my parents to extend my nine o’clock curfew.”

I laughed. “Well, despite Max’s demands, I don’t have a set curfew.”

“Good to know.” His hungry eyes ran over my face and down my body. “I want to keep you to myself for as long as possible.”

A slow smile pulled at my lips. “That sounds like a good plan.”

Reaching over he wrapped his fingers around mine. “Do you care what movie we see?”

“Hm. I like funny movies, action movies, or romantic comedies.” I paused. “Nothing that is going to make me want to cry or want to hurt the actors.”

“Right. No Nicholas Sparks movies.” He nodded his head.

“Most definitely not.” The last thing I wanted was to be snotty and miserable while on our first “official” date. Tear-inducing movies were out of the equation.

The ride to the theater was comfortable, and except for the driver and bodyguard it almost felt like the normal dates I had read about in books. We joked about movies, talked about our favorite actors, and even argued about music. And yet, the whole time his thumb traced circles on my palm, sending electric tingles up my arm. I’d never thought that someone who could affect my body in the simplest way would actually match me in other ways. And even the things we disagreed about seemed to make us fit. He hated pizza, I couldn’t imagine life without it. I loathed country music and it was all he listened to. He thought Donatello was a turtle, and I had no idea who Bob White was, but it didn’t matter.

We decided on a movie, purely because of what was about to play when we arrived. A romantic comedy that I had secretly been hoping to see but hadn’t wanted to ask. I hated to pick movies, unless it was with Sam. She and I always seemed to agree, and if it was something the other hadn’t seen, we trusted each other’s opinion. However, I hadn’t wanted to force David to sit through a sappy movie. Especially since we were finally on the date he had originally asked to do.

“You look relieved.” David handed me my ticket.

“I saw commercials for this and it looked good.” I tried to play it nonchalant, but he raised an eyebrow and smiled that damn smile I couldn’t resist. “Okay, I was hoping we’d get to see it! Jared Sutton is in it and I’m a sucker for him. I can’t help it.”