One Night with Prince Charming (Aristocratic Grooms #2)(8)
Author: Anna DePalo

He looked at her with a smile hovering at his lips. “Are you new to New York?”

“It depends on what you mean by new,” she replied. “I’ve been here a couple of years.”

“And you were transported here from a fairy tale called—?”

She laughed. “Cinderella, of course. I’m a blonde.”

His smile widened. “Of course.”

He rested an arm along the back of the booth seat and reached out to finger a tendril of her hair.

She drew in a breath—hard.

“And a beautiful shade of blond, it is,” he murmured. “It’s gold spun with wheat and sunshine.”

She looked into his eyes. She could, she thought, spend hours studying the fascinating mix of hues there.

James cocked his head, his eyes crinkling. “Okay, Pia,” he continued in his smooth, deep voice, “Broadway, Wall Street, fashion, advertising or The Devil Wears Prada?”

“None of the above?”

His eyebrows rose. “I’ve never struck out before.”

“Never?” she asked with feigned astonishment. “I’m sorry I ruined your track record.”

“Never mind. I trust your discretion will spare my reputation.”

They were flirting—or rather he was flirting with her—and she was, amazingly, holding her own.

It was all exhilarating. She’d never had a man flirt with her this way, and certainly no one of James’s caliber.

In fact, though, she wasn’t an actress, a banker, a model, or in advertising or publishing. “I’m an event planner,” she said. “I organize parties.”

“Ah.” His eyes gleamed. “A party girl. Splendid.”

There were party girls and then there were party girls, she wanted to say, but she didn’t correct him.

“What about you?” she asked instead. “What are you doing here in New York?”

He straightened, dropping his arm from the back of the seat. “I’m just an ordinary Joe with a boring finance job, I’m afraid.”

“There’s nothing ordinary about you,” she blurted, and then clamped her mouth shut.

He smiled again, his dimple appearing. “I’m flattered you think so.”

She lifted her drink for another sip because he and his smile—and, yes, that dimple—were doing funny things to her insides.

He was studying her, and she tried to remain casual, though he sat mere inches away.

She was very aware of his muscular thigh encased in beige pants on the seat beside her. He wore no tie, and the strong, corded lines of his neck stood in relief against the open collar of his light blue shirt.

He nodded, his eyes fixed at a spot near her collarbone. “That’s an interesting necklace you’re wearing.”

She glanced down, though she knew what he’d be seeing. She wore a sterling silver necklace with a flying fish pendant. In deference to the July heat, she’d worn a sleeveless turquoise blue sheath dress. The pendant was one of her usual accessories.

She’d come directly to the bar from work, and she figured he’d done the same from the way he was dressed. Though he wasn’t wearing a suit, his attire qualified as business casual. Work dress code was more relaxed in the summer in the city, especially on a dress-down Friday.

She flushed now, however, at the thought that between the color of her dress and the symbol on her pendant, she resembled nothing so much as a pond with a solitary fish swimming in it.

Drat. Why hadn’t she thought of that when she’d dressed this morning?

But James’s face held no hint of amusement at her expense—just simple curiosity.

She fingered her pendant. “The necklace was a gift from my friend Tamara, who is a wonderful jewelry designer here in the city. I like to fish.”

“A woman after my own heart then.”

Pia checked her surprise. Of course, he would be interested in fishing. He was her fantasy man—how could he not be?

“Do you fish?” she asked unnecessarily.

“Since I was three or four,” he said solemnly. “What kind of fishing do you do?”

She laughed with a tinge of self-consciousness. “Oh, anything. Bass, trout… There are plenty of lakes where I grew up in western Pennsylvania. My father and grandfather taught me how to bait and cast a line—as well as ride a horse and, uh, m-milk a cow.”

She couldn’t believe she’d admitted to milking cows. How would he ever think of her as an urban sophisticate now? She ought to have quit while she was ahead.

James looked nothing but fascinated, however. “Horseback riding—even better. I’ve been riding since I could walk.” His eyes glinted. “I can’t say the same about milking cows, on the other hand.”

She flushed.

“But I sheered a few sheep during a stay at an Australian sheep station.”

Pia felt her lips twitch. “Well, then, you’ve bested me. I concede.”

“Good of you,” he deadpanned. “I knew sheep would win out.”

“I’ve done some fly-fishing,” she asserted.

He smiled. “Point to you. There are not many women who are willing to stand around in muck all day, wearing waders and waiting to get a bite.” His smile broadened into a grin. “As petite as you are, I imagine you couldn’t wade in very far.”

She struck a look of mock offense. “I’ll have you know I stood as still as a chameleon on a branch.”

“Then I’d have been tempted to drop a frog down the back of your waders,” he teased.

“Oh, you would! Don’t tell me you have sisters whom you tormented.”

“No such luck,” he mourned. “I have one sister, but she’s several years younger than I am, and my mother wouldn’t have looked well on any pranks.”

“I wouldn’t have expected she would,” she said with mock indignation. “And if you’d attempted to foist a frog on me, I’d have—”

“Yes?”

He was enjoying this.

“I’d have thrown you for a loop!”

“Don’t fairy-tale heroines need to get to know a few frogs?” he asked innocently.

“I believe the expression is kiss a few frogs,” she replied. “And, no, the requirements have been updated for the twenty-first century. And anyway, I’d know when I kissed a frog.”

“Mmm…do you want to put it to the test?”

“I—I—”

What a time for her stammer to make another appearance.