He shuddered.
Nothing was going to get done today if he didn’t get a handle on his libido. Hell, she had just asked him something from three feet away and he couldn’t figure out what she’d said.
“I—excuse me. I didn’t hear you. What did you ask?” He pulled out a hanger and slid her coat onto it, releasing a faint floral scent. Her scent.
“You—you have a dress in your wardrobe.”
The confusion in her voice made him chuckle. He’d forgotten about Lily’s dress. He pulled it out and draped it over the front of him, trying to twist the way he’d seen his sisters do when they modeled new clothes. “Do you think it suits me?”
Meredith’s eyes went wide for a moment, but then she realized he was joking and clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter.
He paused, grinning back at her. With her eyes bright, her face lit up with a smile, she was so alluring. How had he never seen her this way?
Because it’s not your job to see her that way.
Right.
He lowered the dress and dropped his grin. “Actually, it belongs to my sister. She met me at the office for dinner after she’d been shopping and I let her leave this dress in my closet since it was too bulky to carry around.” He flashed a sheepish look. “But we had a lot of wine with our meal, so by the time we were finished, both of us had forgotten about it. When I called the next day to remind her, she said she’d changed her mind and was planning to return it.”
He held the dress out at arm’s length, actually looking at it for the first time. The black dress didn’t have any straps, and the satiny material on top looked pretty tight-fitting, at least until it got to somewhere around the thigh area, where a bunch of feathery things with sparkly stuff sprinkled on them spilled downward to the floor. It was one of the more frivolous things he’d ever seen.
He turned back to Meredith to say as much, only to realize that she was no longer laughing. Instead, she was staring at the gown with unabashed longing. The look on her face was so raw, so heartfelt, that he knew he’d be unable to resist her if she ever looked that way at him.
But then she caught him watching her, and her face shuttered immediately. “It’s a nice dress” was all she said, falsely nonchalant before turning to face her laptop screen and starting to type.
He frowned. It was almost as though she were punishing herself for liking the dress. Hardly a normal reaction.
The way she had looked at it had gone beyond simple appreciation for a pretty dress. What had she been thinking of when she looked at it so hungrily? Had she seen herself sliding it over her body, sweeping up that incredible hair so that everyone could see the delicate beauty of her bare shoulders? Had she imagined him running his hand over her neck, down the slippery fabric—
Hold up. No, she probably hadn’t been imagining those things.
But he certainly had.
Still, she must have envisioned something special for her face to go all starry-eyed like that. And this was the only opportunity to test the waters…
He gave a little cough, and she looked up. “Were you able to find something to wear for tonight? I know I didn’t give you much time to shop. My sisters start looking weeks in advance for things like this.” His kept his tone casual, almost indifferent, but he didn’t miss the way her eyes flickered back to the dress, her body swaying ever so slightly toward it for a moment.
She started to shake her head, caught herself, and changed it into a nod. “I do have a few things in my closet. I’m certain one of them will suffice.”
Not exactly reassuring. And the way she looked at the damned thing… For the first time in his adult life, Andrew did something he’d never had a reason to do before.
He lied.
“Too bad that this dress has been sitting here for over a month. When Lily said she was going to return it, I told I’d have it sent back for her, but I kept forgetting. Now it’s too late. I already paid her back and was planning to just donate it, but I’m wondering…”
He purposely trailed off, watching her face. Her lips jumped as though she wanted to speak, to lay claim to it. In truth, the dress had only arrived here the other day, but he’d pay Lily back for it, no matter what it had cost, if it satisfied the hunger he saw in Meredith.
Was it the glasses? The hair? His attraction was strong, sure, but also unexpected and inappropriate. He should just drop it and—
“Wondering what?” Her voice cut into his thoughts. She’d stood up. “You were going to donate it, but you were wondering something?”
I was wondering what your bare shoulders look like.