wasn’t going to be all nice about a man who was with her but wanted Brooke instead.
“Only if you want to, Ellie. Only if you want to.”
She gritted her teeth. The nickname only served to remind her of the contrast between her and her sister.
Forever she’d be Jelly Ellie when put next to beauty-queen Brooke.
“Oh, yes, I want to. Let’s go.” Might as well get it over with. Probably, if the truth be told, an introduction to Brooke had been on his agenda all along. Didn’t he realize all he’d have had to do was mention to the senator that he preferred slender blondes and Cole would have had him taking Brooke to Texas instead?
Brooke held court in the midst of about twenty people, mostly besotted men. She barely paid any heed to Eleanor joining her. Until her gaze landed on Ty.
“You brought Dr. Yummy to meet me.” Brooke’s gaze ran suggestively over Ty. “Goody.”
Goody, indeed. Eleanor wanted to gag. Why was she doing this? She liked Ty. Really liked him. Why was she serving him on a silver platter to her silly, immature sister?
Better to get it over with now than to get her emotions more entangled and then discover she had just been a means to get to her sister.
She already knew how that felt.
“Actually, it’s Dr. Donaldson,” Ty smoothly corrected with an easy smile. He slid his arm around Eleanor’s waist, his hand resting possessively at her lower back. “But as I’m your sister’s date for the evening, you can call me Ty.”
“As in tie me up and tie me down?” Brooke flirted, still eyeing Ty and making no pretense that she was interested.
Gag. Gag. Gag. Did men really find that attractive?
Looking at her sister in her figure-hugging blue dress and flawless appearance, Eleanor decided that if you looked like Brooke men would overlook almost everything. And did.
But rather than respond to Brooke’s obvious interest, Ty lifted Eleanor’s hand to his lips, pressed a kiss to her fingertips and winked at her. “Only if Ellie is the one doing the tying.”
It was a toss-up as to which sister’s jaw hit the floor first.
“Pardon?” Brooke blinked, sure she’d misunderstood, glancing back and forth between him and Eleanor.
Eleanor couldn’t speak. Had Ty really just dissed her sister in favor of her? In public? Had he gone mad?
“Sure thing.” Ty smoothly misunderstood Brooke’s comment, whether feigned or real Eleanor wasn’t sure. “We were headed to the dance floor anyway. Nice to meet any family member of Ellie’s.”
His hand stayed low on Eleanor’s back, guiding her toward the dance floor. She was too blown away to put up any kind of argument, instead instinctively wrapping her arms around his neck.
Ty’s arms settled around her and they swayed in time to the music. “She always like that?”
Wondering at how their bodies had so naturally fallen into rhythm together, at how he had just done something no man ever had—chosen to spend time with her rather than Brooke—Eleanor shook her head.
Maybe she really had drunk more champagne than she’d realized. Maybe she was so drunk that she’d imagined everything that had just happened. Maybe she was really passed out on the ladies’ room floor.
“No?”
Automatically, she opened her mouth to defend her sister. It was what she’d done her whole life. But when her gaze met Ty’s she found the truth spilling from her mouth. “Usually she’s worse.” Oh, yeah, she’d drunk one glass of champagne too many. “Although really it’s not her fault.” Old habits died hard. “Everyone spoils her so it’s only natural that she expects everyone to bow at her feet.” Eleanor shrugged. “They usually do.”
Holding her close, Ty shuddered. “Tell me you took after your mother.”
All too aware of the strong arms around her, of the muscular body against hers, of the wonderfully male scent filling her nostrils, Eleanor laughed. “Because my mother is the only immediate family member you’ve not met and maybe there’s hope yet?”
His husky laugh warmed her insides. “Always knew you were one sharp cookie, Ellie.”
“I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you because she’s here and no doubt you’ll meet her before the night is through. I saw the senator and her looking our way earlier. And do not call me that name.”
“Don’t glare at me, Ellie.” His lips twitched. “I’m just keeping to our deal.”
“You’ve called me Ellie four times in the past five minutes,” she pointed out, frustrated at his insistence on the name. Sure, the way it rolled off his tongue always made her breath catch, but she didn’t like the name.
“Exactly.”
His one word sliced right through the past. She couldn’t look away from the sincerity in his eyes. Ty found her attractive, had chosen her over Brooke—
something that she’d never dreamed would happen—and he was holding her close to his body.
His wonderful, warm, hard, fantastic-smelling body that was obviously affected by holding her close.
“You are a very beautiful woman, Ellie Aston, and you have taken my breath away from the moment I arrived to pick you up this evening.”
Eleanor’s insides melted to ooey-gooey feminine happiness and for once she didn’t even glare at him for using the nickname she despised.
After all, a deal was a deal.
“When you look at me like that you make me feel beautiful,” she admitted, wondering if she was a fool for revealing so much, wondering if perhaps she should have cut off the champagne long ago because he couldn’t really be looking at her that way. Could he?
His fingers lifted her chin. He studied her face, her eyes, until she wanted to squirm away. He leaned forward and pressed the gentlest of kisses to her forehead. So soft she could almost think he was hesitant, but he wasn’t. He was strong and confident. His kiss had revered her as if she were something fragile, precious.
How would it feel to kiss Ty for real? On the mouth? To have him enthralled in passion, touching her, kissing her as if he craved her lips more than the air he breathed?
His hand pressed against her back, holding her close to him. Her cheek rested against his chest. She breathed in his musky fragrance, the smell of him intoxicating her much more than any alcohol she’d consumed.
He bent, spoke close to her ear. “I want to kiss you, Ellie, but not here. Not with all the photographers. I want our first kiss to be just between us, not fodder for some gossip page.”
She wanted to be kissed. Desperately. By Ty. She wanted that first kiss. Thousands more.
“We can leave anytime,” she offered.
He
