Ensnared (The Accidental Billionaires #1)(50)

I stood, feeling nervous as hell in a skin I wasn’t quite used to.

“Oh, my God,” I said breathlessly as he appeared in the small powder room.

I’d been so busy being self-conscious that I hadn’t even thought about the fact that Eli would be nicely dressed, too.

I already knew he was breathtaking in a suit.

But I wasn’t prepared to see him in a tuxedo.

“You look . . . perfect,” I murmured.

Eli reminded me of a certain sweet that a person craves. You know it isn’t exactly good for you, but you want it just the same. He was pure temptation, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to not take more than just one bite.

He wore a tuxedo just like he wore a custom suit. He looked comfortable in formal wear, and he wore it with an elegance and sophistication that most guys could never quite pull off.

“Jesus, Jade,” he said in a raspy, low voice when he came to a stop in front of me. “Are you trying to kill me?”

“No,” I answered honestly. “I was trying to make sure I looked good on the arm of the hottest man at the party.”

“You look beautiful,” he said, his tone not completely happy. “What did you do to your hair?”

I turned, showing him the upswept style that Skye had taught me to do. “Cocktail-party hair.”

It was a fairly easy pattern that was held in place by a giant silver clip, and left some tendrils curling along the side of my face.

“It makes me want to pull it out so I can feel it,” he said hoarsely.

I turned back to him. “I think that’s the idea,” I responded lightly.

“And that dress is going to fuck with my mind all damn night.”

“I’m covered,” I said, secretly adoring the look of lust in his gorgeous, stormy eyes as they moved covetously down my body before they traveled up again to my face.

“Let’s go,” he rumbled as he took my hand.

His statement was abrupt, but I didn’t take offense as I grabbed my little black bag. I smiled as I followed him as fast as my stiletto heels would allow me to move, knowing my objective of looking good on his arm had been achieved.





CHAPTER 21

JADE



We’d been at the party for over an hour, and everyone was still staring in our direction. Eli hadn’t left my side, and we’d attacked the buffet full of food together.

I’d had more than one drink to try to relax. But it hadn’t helped all that much.

“I feel like I’m in a fishbowl,” I said to Eli as we mingled. “Everyone is watching you.”

Just like he’d promised, he’d introduced me to so many people that I’d already forgotten most of their names.

He leaned in closer. “They aren’t looking at me,” he answered. “They’re all looking at you.”

“Thanks,” I answered. “That makes me feel so much better.”

“You’ll get used to it. The interest in a new billionaire among their ranks wears off, and they move on to the next unfamiliar person who shows up. It hasn’t been all that bad, right?”

Had it been all that bad? I guess it hadn’t been as big of a nightmare as I’d assumed. “Not bad,” I agreed. “So many of these people have the same concerns as everyone else I know. And I’m amazed at how many of them already donate to conservation causes.”

He grinned. “I won’t say that I told you so.”

“But you want to,” I said with an answering smile. “And I have no problem telling you that you were right.”

Curious stares aside, the majority of the people I’d met talked about their spouses, their kids, and their causes first. It wasn’t that they weren’t discussing billion-dollar deals, but it was all part of the general conversation, just like any person would discuss their jobs. It just so happened that these folks dealt in much bigger dollars than most when it came to their businesses.

“If I steered you away from somebody, it was for a good reason. Just like any other group of people, not everybody is nice,” he warned.

“That’s true at almost any get-together,” I observed.

He nodded. “But there’s definitely more than a few guests here tonight that have pretty sharp claws.”

“If you’re trying to warn me about your previous girlfriends, I’ve already seen them,” I said with a frown.

There were megarich businessmen everywhere, but I’d recognized some faces of celebrities as we’d worked our way around the large venue. Of course, I couldn’t help but notice that more than a few of the gorgeous women here had once been on Eli’s arm—in just the same position I was at the moment.

“None of them were girlfriends,” he denied.

“Then what were they?”

“Arrangements,” he answered in a clipped voice. “They wanted the same thing I did.”

I shook my head slowly. “I don’t think they did. Most of them are among the people staring. And those women are looking at both of us. Did you break it off when you got bored?”

For so many reasons, I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear his response.

“Yes.”

That one simple word made my heart stutter. Maybe Eli and I had become friends of a sort, but I wasn’t any safer than any of the other women he’d gotten bored with in the past.