Finally, he pulled away. She was glad he was breathing as hard as she was.
“We have to pace ourselves, Izzy,” he said. “We only made it just inside the door.”
She pulled him back down to her and kissed him softly on the lips before she took a step back. “I prefer to think of it as making up for lost time, don’t you?”
He gave her a slow, very sexy smile. “Mmm, that’s a very good way to put it.”
She smiled at him. “But also, I’m starving.”
He laughed and moved toward the kitchen. “Me too.”
She turned to go with him, but he shook his head and steered her toward the staircase. “I’ll get the food ready, you go up and change,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “You don’t like my dress?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Oh no, I’m not going to get caught in that trap. Number one: Your dress is great, but this is only the second time I’ve seen you wear it, and I don’t want to be the jerk who spills one of the assorted dipping sauces we’re going to have with dinner on it. If you’re thinking, ‘Does that mean Beau has been paying that close attention to what I’ve been wearing?’ the answer is yes. Which leads us to number two: You always change before we have dinner.”
This was only the second time she’d worn this dress, and she did always change before dinner.
Beau grinned at the look on her face. “See? Also, both of those things lead to number three: I was hoping you might wear one of those little tank tops tonight that have been driving me wild for weeks.”
Well, when he put it that way.
She lifted her chin and smiled at him. “Mmm, I’ll see what I can do. Meet you in the TV room in twenty minutes?”
His smile widened. “Absolutely.”
Izzy ran up the stairs, conscious the whole time that he stayed at the bottom of the staircase and watched her. When she got to her room, she just stopped for a moment and smiled. She had no idea where this was going, she knew she shouldn’t really be doing this, because given everything she knew about Beau, she had a feeling heartbreak was on the horizon. But for once, she would ignore that feeling.
She quickly changed into leggings and one of the tank tops that she most definitely had not realized had been driving Beau wild, washed her face, pulled Beau’s hoodie on, and ran back downstairs. She knew she should hang back, not be too eager, go down in thirty minutes instead of the twenty that she’d said. She didn’t care.
Beau was already in the TV room, setting something up on the coffee table. He looked up when she walked into the room.
A slow smile spread across his face when he saw her, and his eyes roamed down her body. She felt a shiver go through her.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi,” she said. She suddenly felt shy. “Do you need any help? With dinner.”
He shook his head as she walked toward him.
“Everything is heating up, I’m just waiting for the timer to go off. But I…” He looked down for a moment. Was he blushing now? “I didn’t ask you what you wanted to drink, but I thought, maybe…”
Izzy came closer and saw what was on the coffee table. A champagne bottle and two glasses.
He’d done this, just for her? Beau wanted to celebrate as much as she did?
Her smile got bigger. She didn’t even try to hide it.
“You thought maybe what?” she said. She wasn’t going to let him off the hook here, no matter how sweet the moment was. She wanted to know what the rest of that sentence was.
He took a breath. “I thought maybe tonight was a good occasion to bring out some of my grandfather’s champagne.”
“I think that was a great idea.” She sat down on the couch, in the same place she sat all the time. But it felt so different now.
He picked up the bottle, unwrapped the foil from around the top, and then slowly twisted off the cage around the cork. He poured the champagne into two glasses and handed one to her before he sat down next to her.
“Cheers,” he said. “To a day of making up for lost time.”
Izzy touched her glass to Beau’s and took a sip of the champagne. And then she stared at the glass for a moment.
“I think your grandfather’s wine is going to spoil me for wine for the rest of my life,” she said.
Beau laughed. “This champagne is incredible, right? Perfect for the occasion.”
They smiled at each other again. He took the glass out of her hand and put it on the table. Then he leaned forward and kissed her again.