He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, she panicked and spun for the door. Showing Jackson she was moving on was one thing, losing all common sense in the process was another.
As she pushed through the crowd, a hand grabbed at her arm.
“Hey—wait!”
She jerked free and felt her sweater whisk across her skin while she moved faster through the swell of bodies threatening to cut off her escape. Once outside, she only spared a quick backward glance before sprinting for her car.
Chapter 2
Dean Daley fisted the soft material in his hand and shoved through the club door to the parking lot. His gaze scanned the area, focusing on anyone leaving, but the woman who’d just kissed him senseless was nowhere to be seen. Disappeared without a trace.
Damn. After a kiss like that, he wanted her name.
He looked down at the maroon sweater as details from the past minute flooded back. Violet-tinted eyes. Brown hair. Maybe red? It’d been hard to tell under the club lights, but either way, it’d been silky as all hell. She’d felt so small in his arms. Soft and fragile, yet strong as she’d drawn his mouth down on hers.
God, she’d smelled amazing. Felt even better. Kissed like an erotic dream.
Maybe she was. She’d dashed through the crowd so quick he wondered if he’d imagined the whole thing.
The sweater clutched in his fingers told him he hadn’t. He brought it up to his face and inhaled the fresh scent of flowers combined with a mysterious hint of spice. Definitely real.
When he realized he stood there smelling some stranger’s sweater like a lovesick puppy, he quickly lowered his hand to his side. Heat flooded his face while muted music registered on his conscious, and he turned to go back inside. When he opened the door, the noise level blasted his eardrums.
At the bar, his vice president me
t his gaze with a lift of his eyebrows. “Did you catch her?”
“Nope.” Dean dropped the sweater onto the bar and grabbed his beer.
“Who was that, anyway?”
“No clue.”
Disbelief sent Mike Hollister’s eyebrows higher. “You didn’t know her?”
“Never saw her before tonight.”
“Then what the hell was that?”
“Damned if I know.” He took a swig from his bottle. As he lowered his hand, he recalled she hadn’t been alone. He turned to see if her friends were still sitting at their table just as a guy reached to set drinks down while two new women claimed the empty chairs. He took a moment to scan the crowd. He thought she’d been sitting with a blond and a brunette, but seeing as he’d been focused on the mystery girl, he couldn’t be sure and certainly wouldn’t be able to pick them out of the crowd.
“That hers?” Mike’s question drew his attention back to see him eyeing the sweater.
“Yeah.”
His friend chuckled.
“What?”
“You got yourself your very own Cinderella.”
Dean scoffed. “What’s that make me, Prince Charming?”
He practically choked on his beer. “Oh, hell no. Enough of that crazy talk.”
“That’s what I thought.” They shared a grin before Dean sliced his gaze toward the reason they’d come to the club in the first place. Only that table had been vacated as well. He leaned against the bar in a casual pose, his elbow cushioned on the burgundy sweater as he surveyed the crowd. “Ty show up yet?”
“Not that I saw. And unfortunately, Brady didn’t miss that little show you put on. He made us and disappeared while you were chasing Cindy.”