Without saying a word, she gradually eyed me up and down with a fascinated expression until she locked eyes with me again. Grinning like a damn fool, I waited. Trying to play it off like she wasn’t having an effect on me when, in fact, she was consuming every last fiber of my being.

“The line at the bar is at least twenty people deep. How about you be a gentleman and share your drink?”

I didn’t give it a second thought. I nodded for her to come over to me, and she didn’t waver. In four strides she was standing in front of my face, and I knew right then and there…

This girl.

Was fucking trouble.

The way she looked at me consumed me in ways I never thought possible, but that wasn’t what captured my attention the most. It was the sincerity in her gaze. She wasn’t looking at me, she was staring through me.

She bit her lip as if she could read my mind and what I was thinking. Handing her my drink, she took a couple sips before giving it back to me. She left a lipstick rim around the glass where her mouth had been, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to drink from the same spot she just had to taste her mouth.

“So, Jax Colton, do you normally stand outside on the balcony at parties and stare at women dancing?”

It didn’t surprise me that she knew who I was, most people did. “Only when they look like you. Besides, I wasn’t the only man who was enamored by you.”

She smiled, arching an eyebrow. “Like what you see then?”

“I’d be dead if I didn’t.”

She giggled in that girly yet adorable way.

“What’s your name?” I was caught off guard by my own question. I never cared much for women’s names. Even when they were screaming mine. Cocking an eyebrow at her, I awaited her response.

“Sophie.”

I shook away all the new and unfamiliar thoughts and feelings from simply hearing her name and turned around to face the view of the city instead. She stood close to me, spinning to observe the sight in front of us like I was.

However, I couldn’t keep my eyes from gazing at the side of her face, wanting to look at her for as long as I could. I cleared my throat and swallowed hard, knowing that her heart was beating just as fast as mine. I was having an effect on her too.

“Are you from around here?”

I could see her trying to hide back a smile. “No.”

“Where are you from?”

“Dallas.”

The pull she had on me was something I couldn’t overlook. I needed to know everything about her.

“How old are you, Sophie?”