And he was staring at her with an unrivaled intensity. She had the odd feeling that Brady Maxwell was seducing her. He had said that he wanted her at the club, but this…this was entirely different. This was him at his finest, and she wasn’t just happily falling victim to his charming words, gentle touches, piercing eyes, and knowing smiles; she wanted this.
“Liz?” he asked discreetly, brushing his hand up her arm, sending shivers up her spine.
“Yes?” Her eyes fluttered closed at the electricity flowing through her body at his touch. They opened back up to stare into his eyes, and she felt her walls crumbling.
“We should go,” he said, lust evident in his voice.
Even knowing it could be a bad idea, she nodded. “Couldn’t agree more.”
“I have a limo out front. Give the valet this,” Brady told her, pulling a small slip of paper out of his pocket. “I’ll meet you there.”
Liz took the paper out of his hand and without another thought veered toward the door. This was not like her. It was not like her at all. One-night stands weren’t in her repertoire. Yet here she was leaving the Jefferson-Jackson gala that she was supposed to be working for networking contacts to get in Senator Brady Maxwell III’s limo.
How had her world flipped upside down so easily?
Chapter 8
NO ONE ELSE KNOWS
Liz was leaving the gala. She was actually leaving.
She took a deep breath and kept her feet moving toward the valet station. She had to force herself not to look over her shoulder at the party she was leaving behind. The evening was just beginning and she was walking out on the festivities.
It was deserted outside, and Liz briefly wondered if anyone would notice her absence. No one had known she would be in attendance, and she wasn’t a name in journalism. Hayden was the only one who knew she was going to be here, and she didn’t want to think about him right now. Liz tucked her gold clutch under her arm higher and strode to the valet.
“Can I help you, miss?” he asked with a smile.
Liz handed him the slip of paper Brady had given her and waited as he called for the limo. She tried not to think about her decision. If she thought about it too much, she wouldn’t go through with it; she wouldn’t get into that limo. And she knew that if she didn’t, she would regret it forever.
She wasn’t prone to rash actions, but something about Brady made her insides flop. Her body heated despite the weather being balmy, comfortable, and beautifully breezy. She felt more as if she were sitting in the heat of her Tampa home than the cool North Carolina weather.
A long black stretch limo pulled up to the valet and he motioned her over.
“Here you are, miss,” the valet said, pulling the door open for her.
“Thank you,” Liz said, sliding onto the black leather seat. The door closed behind her and cast her into dim lighting.
She looked around, taken with the beautiful sleek interior. An uncorked bottle of champagne chilled in a bucket filled with ice. A flat-screen TV hung against the back wall, and a fully stocked minibar with an assortment of glasses took up a seat on the left.
Liz had never been in a limo before. Her high school boyfriend had wanted to get one for prom, but she had thought it was a waste of money. They had taken his dad’s BMW instead. And Brady had a limo just for a gala event. What a different world. Liz found it ironic that this would be her first experience. Victoria would die to know the details, but there was no way she could tell her.
She knew that this was a bad idea…a really bad idea. If anyone found out that she had slept with Brady, then she could lose all credibility as a journalist. It would be career suicide for her. The paper had been the only thing she had wanted and worked this hard for. Maybe she shouldn’t even be here. Maybe she should get out the other side and walk back to her car.
But she couldn’t. She wanted to be with Brady. He had this pull on her, and their connection was like nothing she had ever experienced before. It might be wrong, but she wanted this to happen.
After a few minutes, the limo door opened and her heart rate accelerated.
For a brief second, a part of her thought that it was all going to be some ill-conceived practical joke. Hayden was going to be on the other side of the door with Calleigh Hollingsworth and the other reporters. They would be laughing at her for committing so thoroughly to their prank on the new girl. Because why else would Brady Maxwell ask her to get into his limo?
But then Brady’s handsome face came into view. He looked at her, smiled that gorgeous, charming, incomparable smile, and she was lost once more.
“You stayed,” he said, sitting down next to her.
“Are you surprised?” Liz asked, déjà vu washing over her. How often did this man get turned down that he would seem so surprised that she was near him? Didn’t seem likely that it would be very often.
“This time, no,” Brady told her confidently. The door slammed shut, casting them back into darkness.
“Do you often take limos out?” She broke his intense gaze and focused on her surroundings.
“Sometimes. I was an honored guest tonight, so the gala provided one.”
“My lucky night, I guess,” she said with a smile in his direction.
He chuckled. “I actually think it’s mine. How else could I have impressed you?”
Liz tried not to gawk as she considered the question. She was pretty sure everything about him was impressive.
Watching his mouth quirk up at the side, she realized he was teasing her. That look of pure confidence did inappropriate things to her. She had the sudden urge to jump him right there in the limo. Normally that much cocky self-importance would have been a turnoff, but Brady was breaking every rule in her book.
The limo started moving then, taking them to their unknown destination. Liz didn’t even want to know or else she might chicken out. She would rather step out of the limo with him at some unfamiliar place and simply follow his lead.
“You didn’t have any champagne,” Brady said, pulling the bottle from the ice and pouring them each a flute. The dim light fell across the label. Dom Pérignon. She shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was.
“I wasn’t sure I could,” she admitted. Also, she was nervous as hell.
“Well, here you go.” He handed her a drink. They clinked their glasses together, and she drank the champagne faster than she anticipated. It tasted like pure, bubbly bliss, way smoother than anything she had ever tasted before. He took a sip from his own glass and placed it by the ice bucket while she finished hers off.