This was exactly one of those traps she was close to throwing herself into. Sean holding her hand meant nothing. She had to keep reminding herself of that.
In self-preservation, Darcy gently pulled away from him to dig in her clutch for her room key.
“You didn’t have to get off the elevator. Now you’ll have to wait for another car to take you up to your floor,” Darcy said, still looking down into her purse. She finally found her key stuck in between her credit card and a pack of gum.
“It’s okay. I’ll walk you to your room.”
Sean’s voice was low and calm, but his blue eyes were on Darcy as if he was daring her to argue with him.
She chuckled nervously. “I’m a big girl, you know. I think I can make it down the hall to my door.”
Sean shrugged as he put his hands in his pockets. “I insist.”
Darcy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Fine. Suit yourself.”
She turned toward the left, where her room was several doors down. They were the only ones in the hall but it felt crowded. She had heels on yet Sean still stood a few inches taller. His lean, powerful legs kept pace beside her, and his wide shoulders seemed to take up more than half the width of the hallway.
His presence occupied all of her senses. She found herself walking more quickly the closer they got to her door. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen once they got there, but she felt unsettled by his sudden show of chivalry, and she wasn’t quite sure how to react. Everything since that fateful night was in the unchartered territory column when it came to Sean.
She tucked her clutch under one arm, grasped the door handle with her left hand while trying to get the damn key into the key slot, which now seemed to be a ton smaller than she remembered. When she finally got the door unlocked, she glanced up at Sean.
“Hope you have a good night,” she said softly. She was just about to step over the threshold when his hand suddenly pressed up against the door to block her entry.
“Have dinner with me tomorrow night.”
His words were rushed like he was trying to get them out in one breath. She didn’t have any dinner plans, but to be completely honest, she wasn’t thrilled about sitting across the table from Sean while he tried to convince her that he wanted to be BFFs again. But there was something off with him tonight. There was something different in the way he looked at her, almost as if he was anxious about something.
And she didn’t like it.
Maybe he wanted to discuss the hotel project with her because Hyde had said something earlier to make him panic. He was getting together with the Wellington team tomorrow for his own set of meetings and could want to debrief over dinner. What was the harm in grabbing a quick bite to eat with him?
She suddenly came to the conclusion that it wasn’t that she wanted him out of her life altogether. She cared about him, and she always would.
She just wanted to erase their one mistake. It would be impossible for her to forget it, but if she could get him to forget it, then their friendship might still have a chance. Maybe she needed to take this first step to making that happen.
“Okay. Do you want to meet in the lobby pub at eight?”
Sean smiled, and it wasn’t just any smile. It was a crooked grin set beneath his twinkling eyes that would slay any woman between the ages of eight and ninety-two. It was the Sean she had fallen in love with when she was just ten years old.
“No, I mean a proper dinner. A date.”
###
Darcy stood at the end of her bed wrapped tightly in her plush white bathrobe and slippers. She stared anxiously at the items laid out in front of her and nibbled on her lower lip.
A stunning red dress. A black bra-and-panty set that the saleswoman had called their Lace Temptation set. A gorgeous pair of pointy black high heels that were still sitting in their tissue-paper-lined box.
Darcy loved the heels. Everything else made her sweat buckets.
She had an hour.
An hour to finish dressing, do something with her dripping-wet hair, paint her face, and figure out how the fuck she was going to make it through her date with Sean without hyperventilating.
She should have cancelled. She’d even picked up the phone once and brought up his name on her contacts list. She would have called him but realized she didn’t know what she was going to say to get out of the evening.
Hi, Sean, it’s Darcy. I’m sorry I can’t have dinner with you tonight because I got food poisoning from my lunch meeting with Rosalind Wellington.
No. He might offer to stop by to check on her, and she couldn’t have that.
Hi, Sean, it’s Darcy. Sorry I have to cancel. I just had an epiphany and realized I was a lesbian.
No. He’d just laugh at her and hang up.
What she really should have done was tell him no when he’d asked her out to dinner the night before. That would have been the best option. That was, if her brain hadn’t short-circuited and she could’ve managed to put some vowels and consonants together to respond. Instead she’d stared blankly at him, her tongue tied into knots, trying to blink away the complete and utter astonishment of him asking her out on a date.
When the neurons in her brains had started firing correctly again, her first real thought was that he was joking. Yet he had stared at her intently, as if he was waiting on her to answer.
Her quick nod had been an involuntary reaction, or at least that was how she remembered it. In fact, she vividly remembered being appalled at herself for nodding until she saw the warmth fill his eyes, and then all she could think about was how blue and beautiful they were.
Jesus.
If only she really did have the flu right now. Maybe she should take the towel off her head and go stand in front of an open window and allow the rainy, misty weather to seep into her body like a plague. With her luck, she’d be fine until the plane ride back to Boston, and then she’d be stuck with pneumonia while sitting next to Sean.
Why had he done it?
She’d been asking herself this question since he’d left her standing in the hallway the night before.
Explanation number one was he felt guilty for hurting her feelings. He’d made a terrible mistake by sleeping with her, realized his mistake, and slumped in defeat and utter embarrassment on top of her in bed while she heaved breath into her lungs like a donkey.
Before he had the chance to tell her he’d made a mistake, he learned that she was a virgin and panic ensued. He hadn’t been exactly poetic in his post-coitus sweet nothings. In fact, he’d been horribly rude, and the number of times she’d died of embarrassment in the three minutes it’d taken for him to pull his clothes on and leave would have killed more than one cat with nine lives.
So he found himself in London, fighting a brave battle to win her over as a friend again. He felt sorry for her still-apparent discomfort and thought the obvious explanation was to ask her out on a pity date.
Explanation number two was he was just messing with her. In the past, a large part of their friendship involved teasing one another. She wouldn’t put it past Sean to ask her out, tell her to wear something nice (which he had), and then take her to some bawdy burlesque show and buy her a third-rate striptease.
A final explanation, one that was too incomprehensible to believe, was he actually wanted to take her out on a date. He’d told her before he had said good night last evening that asking her out was long overdue, and he needed to make up for lost time.
Could it be that he was starting to see her differently now that they’d had sex? Did he want to sleep with her again after the terrible go-around the first time?
Even if Sean had a change of heart and was interested in her as more than a friend, that was still a long way from how she felt about him. She had to keep reminding herself about that.
It was probably more likely that he hadn’t been laid in a while and figured she was a sure bet. He’d slept with her once; he could probably sleep with her again.
A
t the thought, Darcy vigorously shook the idea from her head, causing the terry cloth towel wrapped in her hair to fall around her shoulders. Why was she even thinking about sex with Sean? Did him asking her out on a date mean they were going to end up naked in bed? Was that what she really wanted?
As she looked over the lacy bra and panties she’d purchased earlier, she guessed she had her answer. Of course she still wanted him. The thought of touching the smooth planes of his broad chest and running her fingertips along the bunched muscles of his back made her pant.
But why would he want that?
None of this made sense. Once again, she thought she should call him and cancel. Maybe she could have the front desk ring his room with a message that she’d changed her mind and checked out. She was sure she could bribe someone down there to do that.
Sean wouldn’t have any trouble finding a replacement for her. Ten minutes alone in the pub downstairs, and he’d have women crawling all over him. Hell, that blond piranha from the elevator was probably camped outside his room waiting for him to come out.
Yet he wanted to spend his evening with Darcy. And regardless of the fact she didn’t completely understand why, the thought still made her smile.
Walking into her bathroom, she towel dried her hair before running a brush through it. She decided that she’d wear her hair down tonight.
After a quick inspection of her suitcase that morning, she’d realized that a shopping trip was in order. The dress she’d ultimately purchased was a gorgeous, bright red number that channeled Jackie O. Well, it channeled Jackie O in every way except for the deep V-cut neckline and the fact that it fell a few inches above the knee.
Darcy would never have picked the dress after seeing it on the hanger. But the sales woman had insisted she had the body for it, so Darcy had included it in the many dresses she’d dragged back to the dressing room. It had been the last thing she’d tried on, and the woman had been right. It was as if the dress was made for her.
She hadn’t planned on getting sexed up for the dinner. Initially, she’d thought simple and conservative would be best so she could at least feel comfortable in what she wore.
But there was no way she could turn this dress down. The neckline fell down to just slightly above her bra. The lightweight, stretchy fabric showed off her curves like a flattering spotlight. It had three-quarter-length sleeves and a skirt that flared at the bottom. The big surprise was the oval cutout in the back that went from a gold clasp at her neck down to the middle of her back.
In the past, she’d pictured herself on dates with Sean. She’d imagined going to the movies with him, maybe getting a bite to eat at a restaurant.
Not once did she picture herself hitting the town with Sean McKenna in London in a sexy red dress. It was enough to make her giddy.
She wanted this to be real. She didn’t want this night to be a joke.
After drying her hair and using her flat iron, she lotioned up and pulled out every bit of makeup in her toiletries bag. Knowing that the color of the dress would contrast vividly with her pale skin, Darcy decided less was better on the eye makeup. She swept taupe eye shadow across her lids along with mascara, and finished everything off with a matte red lipstick that was the same shade as her dress.
She caught the reflection of the wall clock in the bathroom mirror and almost swallowed her tongue.
Twenty minutes until eight.
Shit.
She had the sudden urge to fly to the mini-fridge and start sucking back the tiny whiskies and vodkas inside. But with her tolerance, she would need a lot more than mini-bottles to make her jitters go away.
Closing her eyes, she tried to take deep breaths. Yes, she was about to go on a date with Sean McKenna. Yes, it was the date she had waited for all her adolescent and adult life. Yes, it very well could be a disaster in the making. And yes, she really needed to get a handle on herself and stop being so goddamn pessimistic.
She’d been through a lot of fucked-up shit in her life. If she could make it through that, she could handle a few hours with Sean.
After hanging up her robe, she padded across the plush carpet to her bed. She’d spent megabucks on expedited laundering earlier in the day for her dress and lingerie.
Darcy pulled on her black panties and smiled at the way the soft black lace felt as it skimmed along her thighs. The bra pushed her breasts up in a perfect valley of cleavage that wasn’t too dramatic but just enough to give the dress the extra lift it called for.
Unbuckling the gold clasp at the back of the neck, Darcy stepped into the dress and pulled it up over her hips. She pushed her arms into the sleeves and drew them up to her shoulders before clasping the neck closed. After slipping her feet into her amazing new shoes, she took a deep breath and turned around to face the mirror.
Her eyes immediately went to her bust line before skimming down over her hips and legs. When she scanned back up and met her own gaze in the mirror, she smiled.
If she could conjure up some of those daydreams of what it would be like to go out on a date with Sean and what she would possibly wear, she wished she could have come up with what she saw in the mirror.
She looked pretty damn good. And if Sean didn’t like what he saw tonight, then it certainly wasn’t from a lack of effort on her part.
It wasn’t every day that Darcy felt ready to take on the world. Especially the world of Sean McKenna. But at that moment, she felt as well equipped to handle him as she’d ever be.
The confidence she felt was invigorating. And it lasted about one minute… until she heard the heavy knock at her door.
Chapter 19
Sean flexed his hands as they hung stiffly at his sides. He rolled his shoulders a few times, tilted his neck from side to side, and took a deep breath.
He stared at the room number of the door in front of him and felt his heart pound a little faster in his chest.
He’d never been nervous for a date before. Never.
Sean viewed dating as a prelude to bigger and better things, although he never asked a girl out for the sole purpose of getting into her pants.
His date this evening was unlike all others.
Darcy was not some question mark he needed to figure out. She was intelligent and funny. He already knew they had many things in common, and he knew without a doubt that they had chemistry. Hot, simmering chemistry.
With all these known variables, he’d expected to be completely relaxed. Instead, he was ready to crawl out of his skin. And because fate had a twisted sense of humor, when Sean got nervous, he got hungry. And right now, he was ravenous.
Darcy wasn’t just some random girl he was taking out to see how things would go. They had a history. They had an important friendship. And they’d put the cart ahead of the horse by sleeping together already. As crazy as it sounded, this date held way more importance.
He already knew Darcy loved him. And a part of him knew he was probably insane for asking her out because of that. But what Sean was slowly starting to realize was that even before they’d slept together, things had changed between them. He didn’t know what it was or how to describe it. But they were tied—maybe because of their work, maybe through emotional dependency—more than they’d ever been before.
So he hadn’t asked her out in the hopes to get laid again, although he wouldn’t turn it down if it happened. He’d asked her out because there was something there between them, and he’d be a fool if he didn’t explore it.
Therefore, he felt there was more to lose with this date than any other he’d ever been on.
He was so anxious and fidgety that he was about to start doing jumping jacks when he heard the deadbolt click and the door swung open. Darcy stood across the threshold, putting one arm into her black trench coat. The rest of her was covered by an amazing red dress that made his mouth go dry. He knew it was red, but he was having trouble taking the whole thing in. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from the beautiful woman in front of him.
One other k
nown variable to add to the list: Darcy was striking. In fact, Sean was beginning to think she was one of the most attractive women he’d ever known.
When they were kids, he’d never viewed her as pretty or cute or anything, for that matter. She was just Darcy. As he’d gotten older and started to pay attention to girls for reasons other than their ability to help him pass algebra, he noticed that Darcy was kind of cute. But she was still Darcy.
When they’d gone off to their respective universities, and he would see her every once and a while, Sean could see her appeal to the opposite sex. She had all the physical attributes that a man wanted. Her skin was flawless. She always looked good in everything she wore. She was definitely dateable material. Yet to Sean, she was still Darcy.
What tempted a man to act on his attraction for a woman?
Whatever it was, it hadn’t even entered Sean’s mind until a few weeks earlier in her apartment. And whatever it was, it wasn’t a conscious thought or anything he could actually pinpoint. He’d been tempted and he’d acted immediately.
And as he looked at the beautiful woman in front of him, he realized the earlier friend boundary that had kept him from wanting her was no longer there.
“Hi,” she said, pulling his gaze to her face. A shy smile curved her red lips. “Aren’t you going to wear a coat? It’s cold outside.”
Cold? He was burning up.
Sean cleared his throat and smiled. “Nah, I have two layers on. I’ll be okay.”
He ran his hands down the front of his fitted charcoal-gray suit. Under it, he wore a white button-down shirt with a light gray tie. He hadn’t brought many clothes with him, but he was glad he’d stuffed this suit in the garment bag. It was one of the nicer ones he owned, and knowing that Darcy had impeccable style and would look great in whatever she chose to wear, he wanted to look good.
Darcy’s eyes followed his hands before looking back at him. “You look nice.”
“You look”—he paused, knowing whatever word he chose would be inadequate—“stunning.”
Not In My Wildest Dreams (McKenna Series Book 2) Page 21