“I can’t guarantee it’ll be this pretty, and we’ll be well and truly overdressed, but it’ll be fun.” He winked.
“I like fun,” I reassured him.
He smiled at me and I could tell he was truly happy, sitting here across from me.
I took a moment to appreciate again, just how fine he looked in his tux. It was a sight to behold, that was for damn sure.
“You should wear one of those every day,” I told him with a sigh when he noticed my roaming eyes.
He raised his brows. “This monkey suit does it for you, huh?”
I fanned my face dramatically. “Oh, you have no idea.”
He smirked, his eyes devious and filled with promise. “Oh I think I have a pretty good idea, Lex, if that blush on your cheeks and the way you keep shimmying in your seat are anything to go by.”
I heard myself gasp.
“You can’t even see what’s in my seat.”
He shrugged. “So you didn’t just rub those sexy thighs together?”
Caught red-handed.
I scowled at him, trying to refrain from smiling and giving myself away. “Maybe I did.”
He leaned across the table towards me and I instinctively leaned forward to meet him halfway.
“Don’t forget, sweet little Lexie, that I know exactly how you look when you come, I know how you look when you’re close and I definitely know how you look when you’re in the mood.”
His breath was warm at my ear and his close proximity gave me a fresh wave of goosebumps.
My heart thumped in my chest, and I knew that it wouldn’t take much more than a whispered word and promise of a private spot from this man and I’d be there, ready and willing.
I was hit with a visual of the two of us inside a dark janitor’s closet, my dress pushed up around my hips and Colt pounding into me, his black slacks still around his ankles.
Colt chuckled and leaned back in his chair, disrupting my little fantasy.
“I think I’d really enjoy whatever it was that was going through your head just now.” He grinned.
I scowled at him, but I couldn’t keep it up for long before a smile broke through. “Behave yourself, and I might show you some time.”
***
“Well I officially feel sick,” Colt announced, sitting his hands on his still flat belly as though he was all of a sudden the size of a house.
“I think that second piece of mud cake might have done it,” I offered helpfully.
“I regret nothing.”
I giggled and just looked at him. He was so handsome. I felt like the luckiest girl in this restaurant... this town... hell, this whole country.
He’s here with me.
It was obvious he felt the same way about me, even if I did feel so full I was worried about splitting my dress, he still looked at me like I hung the moon.
Colt wasn’t one of those guys who felt the need to hide his feelings, or put on some type of macho show. He wasn’t the ‘tough guy’ type. He was sweet and genuine and if he felt something, he made sure you knew he thought you were special.
It was a rare quality to find in a man these days; the world was filled with so much bullshit and deception.
But not Colt.
He was here, he was happy, and so was I.
“Can I ask you something?” I questioned shyly.
I wasn’t sure why I was asking this, but I just had the desire to know.
His lip twitched with amusement. “You want to know what I told my date, don’t you?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “That was a lucky guess.”
He chuckled and I stared at him, waiting politely for him to answer me.
“What are you hoping I told her?” He asked coyly.
“Oh no.” I shook my finger at him. “That’s not how this works... no tricking me into giving you the answers. I want to know what really happened.”
He looked at me for a few beats and I could tell he was weighing up whether or not to give me the smartass answer, or the real one.
“I called her,” he finally said. “And I told her that I was sorry, but I wouldn’t be going out with her or anyone else.”
I let out a relieved breath.
“Then I told her that I’d met the most incredible woman, and that I couldn’t see myself ever getting over her, so she should delete my number,” he added simply, like he hadn’t just said one of the most incredible things a man had ever said to me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “You said that?”
“I did. She wasn’t even mad. She said she thought I was very sweet and wished us luck.”
“Really?” I asked in surprise. I’m not sure I would have been that mature about getting the flick on the day of a date.
He laughed and shook his head. “Nah, not really. She called me an asshole and hung up on me.”
That sounds more like it.
I giggled and winked at him. “You’re my asshole though.”
20. Colt
Sitting across the table from this woman, and not being able to put my hands on her was a tough gig.
If she giggled like that, or flipped her hair one more time, I swear to God I was going to lose my mind.
I’d instantly regretted not taking her someplace with a cozy, private booth in the back corner, but Lexie deserved to be spoiled. The Water House had the best food in the whole city, and if it weren’t for the fact that a good friend of mine was the head chef, we wouldn’t have had a shot in hell at getting a table without at least two months’ notice.
She took a sip from her glass of wine and damn it all to hell, even watching her swallow was getting me hard.
I’d nearly lost my mind earlier when I’d watched her get lost in her own head. I knew what direction her thoughts had taken. Her eyes were smoldering and she was biting down on her bottom lip – a clear tell that she was thinking dirty thoughts.
Maybe we should go straight home after all...
“Did I tell you how beautiful you look tonight?” I asked her as my eyes trailed over her tanned shoulder and down her bare arm.
“You did.” She smirked.
I’d told her at least fifteen times in the past two hours.
“You look perfect.”
She shook her head in disagreement. “Nobody is perfect.”
I studied her blue eyes and I couldn’t think of anything that had ever looked that beautiful. Her sweet smile was so stunning; it warmed every inch of my insides when I was on the receiving end of one of her smiles.
She is perfect.
“You’re perfect in my eyes,” I offered.
And that’s all that matters.
I heard her sigh and look at me in that dreamy way she did that I still wasn’t used to.
I didn’t know why Lexie was so surprised by me thinking the world of her. Lawson treated Ellerslie like the entire universe revolved around her, he worshipped the ground that woman walked on. And Harrison, even though he seemed to have missed out on the romance gene, still showed in everything he did, just how much he loved Quinn.
Her friends were surrounded by love, and so was she... she just didn’t know it yet.
***
I gave Cam a salute as I walked Lex towards the front door, my hand resting on the small of her back.
Cam grinned his smartass grin and made a humping motion with his hips, gesturing to Lexie.
I held back a laugh.
He’s such a douche-bag sometimes.
He’d come over to our table earlier and done his best impression of the charming chef, flirted his ass off with my girl and tried to goad me any chance he got. I loved him to death, but that guy could be a total pain in my ass.
Lexie must have caught sight of Cam taking the piss, because she flipped him the bird, a playful smile on her face.
He pretended to catch it and slip it into his pocket.
I couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“Sorry about him.” I held Lexie’s coat out for her and
she slipped into it.
She giggled. “Oh, don’t be... he’s harmless.”
She turned to face me. “So, what now?” She asked excitedly as we strolled outside hand-in-hand and I flagged down a cab.
“It’s a surprise.” I tapped the end of her nose as she pouted.
Lexie apparently didn’t do well with surprises; she’d been on my case ever since I told her I had something fun planned. I loved learning things like that about her. It was something that was probably going to drive her mad if we made this thing work long term, because I planned to spoil and surprise her any chance I got.
Lexie grumbled and turned her big blues onto me.
Those puppy eyes weren’t going to work on me, not this time.
“Nope, that’s not gonna work tonight.” I chuckled and shook my head at her. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”
***
“Oh my god.” She giggled as we walked in the door of the karaoke bar and she realized what we were here for.
I winced and mentally kicked myself for not finding out her thoughts about this kind of thing. “You think it’s lame?” I asked, second guessing my idea.
“No way,” she exclaimed, turning to face me. Her eyes were dancing with excitement. “I freakin’ love karaoke!”
Phew...
I chuckled; she was almost bouncing with excitement. I loved seeing her so happy. I never imagined I could get this much joy out of making somebody else happy.
“One more surprise for you, babe.” I placed my hands on her shoulders and turned her in the direction of where El, Quinn, Harrison and Lawson were sitting.
“Eeekkk,” she cried, taking off towards them, towing me behind her. She stopped short, turned around and wrapped her arms around me, squeezing me tight. “Singing and my friends, I just might love you, Colton Hunt.”
I swear my heart stopped in my chest.
I think I just might love you too.
I gave her a gentle nudge in the direction of her friends while I tried desperately to still my now erratically beating heart.
***
I couldn’t help but laugh at the three of them up there; they were all glammed-up in beautiful dresses, perfect hair and makeup... and they were singing their own rendition of Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice, Ice, Baby’.
It was fucking hilarious – without a doubt the funniest thing I’d witnessed in quite some time.
Half the bar was laughing at them, the other half were stopping just short of covering their ears.
Quinn and El couldn’t rap to save their lives, Lex was slightly better, but even given that, the whole thing was still terrible to listen to.
Even Lexie can’t save this performance.
“This is going on YouTube.” Harrison sniggered. He was filming the whole thing on his phone.
Lawson had tears in his eyes from laughing so hard at his wife and younger sister.
Quinn was now doing her best impression of a gangster rapper, her hands flying all over the show in obscene gestures I’d never seen before.
I chuckled again as my eyes quickly found their way back to where they belonged.
My little song bird.
Lexie was having so much fun up there with her friends. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were bright. It was obvious that spending time with these girls was a happy place for her. I hadn’t asked her much about the friends she had back home. I had met some of the girls she hung out with, back when I’d been seeing Quinn.
Brooke, Jemma and Stacey...
They’d come out to visit Q and El here, and we’d had a pretty crazy night. They were sweet girls, but a few drinks, combined with Lawson’s mates and some type of stalker situation, and things had gotten out of hand fairly quickly.
I shook my head in amusement at that memory.
It was crazy to think that Lex was meant to have joined them on that trip.
I should have met her then.
And then there was El and Lawson’s wedding celebration. Lexie hadn’t been able to make it to that either... work had gotten in her way both times.
It was like fate hadn’t been ready for us to meet just yet. I sent up a silent thank you to the karma gods, that I’d finally got my chance to meet her.
I’m going to miss her so much.
She was still rapping and her laughter rang out loud, pulling me from the sad hole I was falling into.
“Kill it, new girl,” Harrison yelled.
That got a laugh out of me. Harrison, like the dickhead he was, had taken to calling Lexie ‘new girl’, presumably since he was under the impression I always had a new girl on the scene.
“She’ll kick your ass if you keep calling her that,” I warned him, half joking, half serious.
He laughed loudly. “She’s the size of a grasshopper, man, what’s she gonna do? Stomp on my foot?”
Valid point.
“And besides, she loves me really; she can’t stay mad with her future brother in law for long,” he taunted me, waggling his brows.
I wasn’t giving him the satisfaction of a reaction. That, and I had no words – the idea of making Lexie mine forever, temporarily rendered me speechless.
I glanced around the room, looking for something, anything to distract me.
The girls had giggled their way off stage to a round of applause from the more amused group of patrons.
The microphone caught my eye.
My turn.
I strolled over to the song selections, leaving Harrison laughing after me.
I was going to sing a song for my girl. I took my time choosing, I wanted it to be as perfect as it could be, given that I would actually have to sing it.
I decided on Shawn Mendes’ ‘Kid in Love’.
I’d felt Lexie’s eyes on me the entire time I’d been over here, but I couldn’t look at her yet, I didn’t want to risk losing my nerve.
It was time to show her exactly what was going on in my head, and in my heart. Lex had never heard me sing and I was nervous as hell. I wasn’t great, but I wasn’t terrible either.
I knew she wouldn’t care how I sang; it was about so much more than the sound of my voice.
“That’s your man, Lex!” I heard one of the girls cry out.
I approached the mic and waited for the cue on the screen to tell me to begin.
Here goes nothing...
I held back a grin as my eyes met Lexie’s. I’d never seen a woman melt before, but I was pretty certain it would look something like the way Lexie was looking at me right now.
She was in full-blown swoon mode.
She sat her glass down and slowly made her way over to the front of the small stage.
Tingles raced up and down my spine.
I sang the song to her, like there was no one else around, and she stood there, a beautiful smile on her face as she absorbed my words. She grinned and surprised me by stepping up onto the platform and picking up the second mic.
She blew me a kiss before joining in.
We stood, facing one another, singing the words to each other.
Lexie may not have been able to make Quinn and El sound good, but she was certainly improving this song for me.
The beautiful harmony of her voice had everybody taking notice. It was hard to miss a voice like Lexie’s. Suddenly the whole place was looking at us. I didn’t care though – I was too busy looking at her.
I could hear Harrison and Lawson whooping and hollering as the song came to an end, and the whole joint erupted into applause.
Lexie turned and gave a curtsey, and I bowed, giving the small crowd a wave.
Lexie giggled as she looked up at me, and I could tell she was totally overwhelmed by my gesture.
I grabbed her and tucked her against me, placing a soft kiss to the top of her head as I led her down towards where our friends were waiting.
“I feel like I’m in a movie where the guy does sweet things for the girl,” she gushed.
I chuckled, high-fiving Lawson as he made his w
ay up for his own turn. He was a much better singer than I was, and he was bound to have his wife teary-eyed in no time, just like he had at their wedding.
“You are just full of surprises tonight.” Lexie looked up at me, her eyes a little glassy. “Thank you for my song.” She pushed up on her tippy toes, looking for a kiss.
I happily obliged, meeting her soft, sweet lips with a fervor I couldn’t control.
She pulled back, and looked up at me with pure adoration in her eyes.
I love you.
I opened my mouth to tell her how I felt about her, but got interrupted by my pain-in-the-ass brother.
“Damn, new girl, I didn’t think anyone could make this fool sound good up there.”
Fucking Harrison.
Lexie did her best impression of shooting him daggers – a tough gig for such a sweet girl. “Call me that again and see what happens,” she warned him.
I held back a laugh.
Harrison laughed loudly, but had the good sense not to push her any further. Lexie may have been small, but I wouldn’t want to mess with her.
“Sorry he’s such an ass, he just likes to try and wind me up... he knows you’re my biggest weakness,” I apologized on my brother’s behalf as he disappeared to go and annoy someone else.
She laughed lightly and if I was reading her right, seemed a little chuffed at the idea of being my Achilles heel. “I don’t actually care about the name; I just figure I should put him in his place before he gets any more silly ideas.” She rolled her eyes.
“I knew you were a smart woman.” I chuckled and placed a kiss on her forehead.
I wanted so badly to say those three little words to her, but I decided that maybe it was fate stepping in again... that maybe now wasn’t the right time.
I did have a tendency to jump the gun and I didn’t want to make that same mistake with Lexie. I hadn’t even officially made her mine yet, and that was a situation that needed to be remedied.
Right now.
I tugged on her hand, drawing her attention back to me. “Can I talk to you about something?” I asked her, looking right into her beautiful bright blue eyes.
Love like Yours Series (Box Set #1-4) Page 77
