Tell Me You Crave Me (Search and Seduce #3)(32)

He nodded. “Yeah, it’s exhausting.”

She scoffed. “I’m sure you get really tired, with all the women hanging on your every move.”

He faced her full on and laughed. “Now, darlin’, you’re gonna sound jealous if you aren’t careful. And anyway, I am in the presence of the finest woman in here.”

Natalie rolled her eyes and took a drink of her champagne. “Nice line.”

“Not a line, baby,” he whispered. “You look beautiful. I love your dress.”

That made her bite the inside of her cheek and glance down at herself for the millionth time. It wasn’t skin-tight and sexy. And on her short frame she probably looked more adorable than hot. But the way East was looking at her, the way he said what he did, made her feel his words…

“Thank you,” she said. His eyes stayed on hers. “For everything,” she finished.

He nodded once. “I saw you kept the vanilla cupcakes.”

She lifted an eyebrow and shrugged. “I can’t go tossing aside perfection.”

“My thoughts exactly,” he said.

When she looked back at him, there was a calm seriousness washing over his entire body. She didn’t think she’d ever seen East so…real.

The music switched to something with a strong beat but a bit slower rhythm. He took her glass and set it down on the nearby table with his.

“Dance with me, baby,” he said quietly.

And there it was. Not a question—it was a demand. And he’d called her baby. She knew where his mind was, and hers was right there with him. This was a bad idea. But she couldn’t say no. Couldn’t fight. She just wanted to be…twirled.

She nodded and he smiled.

When he led her to the center of the floor where several people were talking, swaying and dancing, he didn’t look at her twice until he spun her to face him and clutched her close.

She glanced over his shoulder, then over hers. She caught sight of her brother chatting with people, not noticing she was dancing with Easton. Not that he’d have cared if he had. No reason he should think anything was off. It was crazy to assume it was anything more than a dance between old friends.

Close friends.

Really close.

“What’s on your mind?” East asked her. He moved her body with his as he kept perfect time with the music. Of course he was amazing at dancing as well as everything else.

She shrugged, and he pulled her a little closer. “Tell me,” he insisted.

“Just how there are a ton of women looking at you right now. Wanting to be where I am.”

He shook his head. “They’re looking at you,” he whispered.

She scoffed. “I’m your buddy’s baby sister, remember?”

“Yeah, I do, which is why I can’t hold you the way I really want to right now. But it doesn’t change my response.”

“They’re looking at you, East, not me.”

“You’re the epitome of what every woman wants to be.”

“Have you lost your mind? I’m pretty sure my mom would disagree with you.”

He just smiled, and then he did pull her closer. But just for a moment, a silent stolen moment that was theirs, one that no one would be able to recognize. Then they were back to a platonic distance.

But when he twirled her out once, then tugged her back, her smile turned into a full on laugh.

“You make me lose my mind constantly, actually,” he said when she was once again at a close stance with him. “You’re interesting, Nat. Smart and tough and so damn stubborn and mouthy I want to smack your ass so hard sometimes…” He spun her out again, and again she twirled, feeling her dress float around her. Then he pulled her back, and that smile was still plastered on her face. “Your laugh is the best sound, and your smile takes up your whole face. That’s not awkward. That’s beautiful, and like it or not…” The music came to an end, and he dipped her down and whispered her in ear, “You’re all woman.”

When he let her up and everyone clapped for the band, he nodded once and stepped away from her.

“Thank you for the dance,” he said and turned to walk away.

Once again, East was never alone long. Natalie stood there, swallowed up by a crowd that deemed her invisible. His eyes had made her feel anything but.

Maybe it was just a magic power he had with women. Because just then, she didn’t feel like Lemon-Anne St. Clair’s awkward disappointment of a daughter. She felt…seen. In a way that only he could see her. And even though this was all pretend, and everyone in here knew they were just two friends that argued more than they got along, she had a feeling that she might never feel this seen again.

And that made her chest constrict.

For tonight, she wasn’t dating, wasn’t her mother’s daughter, she was just Natalie. Dancing with the town bachelor. Because he chose her. And because she’d worn the kind of dress that deserved to be twirled.

She’d soak it in for tonight. Tonight might be all she’d ever get of this level of passion, this desire—she knew it was unsustainable and it wasn’t real, but she wanted to cling to it while she could.

Just tonight…

She would let herself slip free from the weight of what she wasn’t…and just be.

Be herself.