Then a tiny furrow appeared between his brows. “Sarah …” It was a small shock to realise that James seemed nervous. I kept my eyes on his and squeezed his hand in encouragement. “I know I invited you to this event, and we haven’t even seen the art yet, but … I just want to take you home and make love to you.”

Oh. My. God.

“May I do that?” With his gravelly voice and his eyes intently locked on mine, my nethers went to DEFCON 1. The only reply I could muster was a nod.

Chapter 5

We made a quick getaway, with a brief stop to say goodbye to Marcus and Valentina. I truly hoped I’d see them both again, especially Valentina. I was certain we were destined to become best friends.

As we rode in the back of the town car, James’s hand resting on mine, anxious Sarah made a highly unwelcomed appearance. My stomach was doing Olympic-level gymnastics at the thought of going home with the silver fox. I reminded myself I was sexy, smart, well-travelled, and a grown woman. The driver had even called me “madam”. I was also incredibly grateful for Cat’s insistence that I get a “just in case” bikini wax.

Cat! I should text her to say I’ll be late. “Uh, James?” He looked at me, the desire in his eyes nearly setting me on fire.

“Yes?” There was that bemused smile again.

“Do you mind if I send a quick text to my sister? To, uh, let her know I won’t be home ’til late?”

He broke into a full smile. “Of course not. But you may want to tell her you won’t be back until tomorrow.”

My surprise was genuine. “Really?”

He tilted his head to the side, “I’m fairly certain I won’t want you to go.”

“Oh,” I replied, and I couldn’t help smiling back. I hadn’t wanted to be presumptuous about sleeping over, but there was nothing ambiguous about James’s invitation.

I took out my phone and shot off a quick text to Cat.

Left gallery early. Going back to James’s place. Be home tomorrow. Eeek!

I put my phone away and reached for James’s hand. Keep calm, Sarah. You’re just going home with the silver fox to make love with him. No biggie.

My phone bleeped, interrupting my internal pep talk and James looked at the pink clutch on my lap.

“That was quick.”

“Oh, Cat is never without her phone. I think she’d have it surgically implanted if she could.” Well, that’s complete bullshit, Sarah. Cat was no more a slave to her phone than I was. We both thought of our phones as a convenience, not something we couldn’t live without.

“Did you want to check it?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” I took out my phone out and opened the text without checking who it was from.

Josh. It was from Josh. Oh, crap.

I read it quickly, trying to keep my expression neutral.

Hey Sarah. I hope you’re having a great time in London. I’m almost on Chicago time again and started back at work yesterday. Brutal. Missing our boat and the gang. Missing you. Catchya later. Jx