Her jaw went slack for a second even as her stunned subconscious registered his tux and how devastatingly gorgeous he looked in the black and white. “Your parents?”
“Yeah.” A brief smile ghosted over his lips. “I guess we haven’t been formally introduced yet, have we?”
“No. You haven’t taken the time to bother with that.”
His head dipped with the slightest bit of acknowledgment of her pointed barb. “Asher Diamond.”
Swallowing hard, she tightened her grip on the material clutched in her fingers. Trying to salvage some of her dignity, she asked, “And do you always walk into your sister’s room without knocking, Asher Diamond?”
“Never,” he replied gravely. “My room, however, always.”
“Your room?” Her stomach dropped as she darted her gaze toward the bare dresser top. “But…you don’t live here.” Or did he?
“Not now, but I grew up here. It’ll always be my room.”
“Oh.” The darker masculine colors and lack of anything girly made perfect sense now. Her embarrassment jumped another notch as she finally noticed the overnight and camera bags in his hand when he reached to set both inside the door. “Right. Well...Celia said her room was the third door on the right, and this is the third door on the right.”
He leaned a shoulder against the door frame while sliding his hands into his pockets. She automatically followe
d the movements until she realized her attention was focused on the front of his pants, then she jerked her gaze back up. She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but her face burned even hotter.
“She’s the third bedroom,” he clarified. “The first room is a linen closet and staff bathroom.”
Oh, hell, that’s right. She did specify bedroom.
But how was she to know about the linen closet-slash-staff bathroom? “I just assumed they were all bedrooms. Not all of us grew up with staff bathrooms, so it never occurred to me I would need to verify each room as I went.”
“Understandable.”
When she noticed his gaze had once more dipped to where she still had the dress in a death grip, a hot wave of prickly awareness swept from head to toe. Not fair, considering all he’d given her so far was a cold shoulder.
Also, why had he settled in against the door there like they were going to have a neighborly little chat while she was only half-dressed?
She shifted with a twinge of impatience, the plush carpet squishy between her toes. “Okay, so…I’m sorry I mixed up the rooms, but can you give me a little privacy here? I only need a minute.”
“Yeah. Sure.” He straightened from the doorframe and pivoted to face the hall.
She grit her teeth when he didn’t pull the door shut behind him, but seeing as his back was turned, she quickly shoved her arms into the short sleeves, tugged the material over her bra, and adjusted the folded, off-the-shoulder neckline before reaching behind for the zipper.
A full minute of struggle only led to frustration. Unfortunately, when she’d tried the dress on earlier in the week, Mae had been there to zip it up.
“You never answered my question,” Asher said from the hall.
She cast his broad shoulders a swift glance. He’d canted his head slightly to the right, but kept his face trained away from the open door. She kept working on the stubborn zipper, sliding it down, then back up again, contorting her arms as she tried to make it go farther each time. “I was invited to the party.”
“Yeah?”
Was that so hard to believe? She threw a couple of mental daggers right between his shoulder blades. “I was hired to bake the anniversary cake, but your mother also invited me to attend as a guest.”
Now she couldn’t get the zipper up or down. Damn it.
“Did she offer you a plus one?” he asked.
Something in his tone made her frown. “What?”
“A plus one. For you to bring a date, or…maybe one of your fiancés?”
Her entire body stilled. She lifted her head, tilted slightly to the side as she processed the terse question. Okay, she needed help, and she needed to see his face for this one.