What a weird thing to make her heart race. Jules put a hand over her chest. She was probably just nervous about tonight.

As she dithered at the foot of the stairs thinking ridiculous thoughts, there was a noise in the hallway above. Vivian.

Jules’s heart started going even faster for some dumb reason, and sweat broke out on her palms as she waited to see her. She really must be nervous.

She heard the rustle of a skirt. A tread on the steps. Then Vivian finally descended into view.

Jules lost her breath completely and abandoned all hope of getting it back.

At formal events, Jules was used to seeing Vivian in darker colors. She looked great in them. While her dresses were never severe looking, the cut and make was always up-to-the-moment modern, not a single line or stitch wasted in unnecessary frippery or romance.

So Jules was not used to seeing Vivian in floor-length champagne silk with a full skirt that flowed down from an empire bodice. The color, which should have washed her out, instead matched her skin tone so perfectly that she almost appeared to be naked beneath a thin film of gold lace over the silk. The dress was low-cut, although not as much as Jules’s outfit. It was not the dress of a pregnant woman in her forties. It was…

Jules didn’t know what it was. Her heartbeat was painful now. Blood roared in her ears, and her whole body burned.

But she barely paid attention to that. Mostly she realized she desperately wanted to have sex with Vivian Carlisle, and it felt like every day they’d known each other had just been building up to this moment.

Jules had a horrible feeling of inevitability, of something falling into place just at the moment when she’d stopped paying attention and had let her guard down.

She heard herself say stupidly, “Oh.”

Vivian glanced at her, raising her eyebrows as she gave Jules the once-over herself.

“I mean,” Jules added, “uh—”

“Hmm,” Vivian said, still looking Jules up and down, tapping her lips with her fingertip.

Jules wondered what it would be like to kiss her, and immediately wished she could turn off her own brain.

Then, without a word, Vivian turned and left the kitchen, heading back toward the stairs. Jules helplessly watched her go, and only when the champagne silk had vanished from sight could she breathe freely again.

Holy God. Did Jules have a concussion? That could explain why her ears were ringing and nothing around her seemed real.

This was no good. Jules had to pull herself together. She needed more time, but she didn’t have it. So she took another deep breath, and when Vivian returned, Jules was able to look at her with her most helpful smile. Her lips managed not to tremble.