The Billionaire’s Forbidden Desire(24)

Dane snorted. “And reduced the collective intelligence by twice that.”

“Don’t hate the player,” Ryder said, impervious. He waggled some fingers at Dane’s date. “Hey, beautiful. Wanna hang out with us rather than this humorless ogre?”

She giggled, and Dane gave Ryder a cool look. There was no point in indulging his cousin, who was hopelessly inappropriate. “You can have her after I’m finished.”

Elizabeth covered her ears. “Oh my god, I did not hear that.” She walked away.

“Prude.” Ryder chuckled. “Well, gotta go see and be seen. I was told to be good.”

“Faint hope.”

“Very.”

As Ryder disappeared into the crowd, Dane shook his head. No wonder Shirley had been worried about Geraldine. Her oldest child, Blake, was the only one with a decent head on his shoulders, but he was too busy to humor his mother.

Dane mingled, saying hello and making small talk as needed. He could play the part as well as anyone, even if he thought it was pointless. He even managed to be polite to a fat politician who bored him with empty talk about “bettering the community.” It was obvious the entire world would be a better place if he were abducted by aliens, but Dane refrained from saying as much.

Finally somebody else distracted the self-deluded man, and Dane turned around to locate his date. She’d left a few moments earlier to freshen up, but hadn’t come back yet. He was finished for the evening and wanted to leave before the bachelorette auction started. A hundred thousand bucks in donation was more than sufficient to make up for his refusal to bid on women who didn’t appeal to him.

As he scanned the crowd, the hair on the back of his neck stood up. The right side of his face suddenly felt over-sensitive, like somebody was dragging needle tips across his cheek. The sensation reminded him of Mexico—god, he really needed to stop thinking about that damned place—but it seemed like he couldn’t help himself. Very slowly he turned, then sucked in air.

There, barely five feet away, was Sophia. And she was looking right at him.

She had on a classy black dress that deepened her eyes to dark emerald, and high heels added several inches to her stature. Soft pink lipstick glistened on her plump mouth, which was slightly parted as she stared at him over her champagne glass.

He blinked. He had to be seeing things. He’d been thinking about her earlier and that had to be the reason…except she didn’t vanish.

A sensual zing went through him. His entire body responded, alert and vibrating with anticipation.

Everything around them seemed to fade away, leaving only her. Damn, she looked amazing. He could make out every detail, including a slight tremor in the way her delicate throat worked.

And she kept staring back at him, those green eyes dark and direct, like she could pierce through all the outer layers and reach the core of him.

His insides went hot and cold at the same time. Her ability to see through his armor was the reason why he’d left her the way he had.

How the hell had she gotten invited? Elizabeth would’ve never asked her to come, given the ugly history between their mothers. His cousin wasn’t a shit stirrer.

Sophia’s slim fingers shook, even as her eyes held his. The skin on his shoulders grew hot at the memory of her nails digging in as he drove into her. His blood roared and went south, straight to his dick.

Damn it.

The flute slipped from her grip. Before it could shatter on the floor, Dane lunged and grabbed it, the cold liquid sloshing over his hand.

She blinked as if a spell had been broken.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice low and husky.

He handed the glass to a waiter who’d appeared unobtrusively. Sophia’s gaze roamed all over his face, her gaze like a feather brushing his skin.

“How did you get invited?” he asked.

“I didn’t. I came here with somebody.” Her fingers toyed with her choker.

Dane glanced at the bauble…and then took a second, longer look. Triple-stranded with diamond accents, it was just like one that used to belong to his grandmother. He studied it, then hissed out a breath as he saw the initials S J P.

It was his grandmother’s. And she’d left it to Salazar, so…

How the hell had Sophia gotten it? Or should the question be, what had she done to earn it?

Something dark and ugly unfurled in Dane’s belly. It was all he could do to stand there like a civilized human being.

Vanessa’s call came back to him. So. This was the stepmother candidate his sister had been worried about.

Technically there was nothing that would stop Salazar and Sophia from marrying; they weren’t blood relations. And normally Dane wouldn’t have given a fuck who his dad screwed around with.