Best of Three (Counting on Love) (24 page)

Emma was curled on Olivia’s bed, a pillow hugged against her stomach, her head propped on her hand. “That one’s great,” Emma told her.

“You sure?” Olivia smoothed her hands down the front of the royal blue cocktail dress. It had spaghetti straps and was fitted through the bodice with a flared skirt. With Olivia’s creamy skin, pale blond hair and big green eyes, she looked amazing.

But Olivia was the perfect choice to go as Nate’s date to the hospital fundraiser for other reasons as well. She was sweet and friendly and great at small talk and had never played naked Twister with any of the male physical therapists or flashed her boobs at any of the male nurses on a dare. Yes, Olivia would be the perfect person for Nate to have on his arm at the fundraiser. Emma not so much.

Emma was tempted to suggest the white strapless dress that was fitted from breast to mid-thigh but Olivia didn’t quite have the breasts or hips to really make it work. She was stunning in the blue.

With anyone else, Emma would have loaned her some gaudy earrings or thickened her eye makeup so she was slightly less than perfect. But, of course, she’d never do that to her little sister.

“You’re stunning,” Emma admitted.

“What about the shoes?” Olivia asked, lifting her right foot.

“Wonderful.”

Olivia faced her fully. “What about my eye makeup?”

“Impeccable.”

Olivia put a hand on her hip. “Earrings?”

“Love them.”

One of Olivia’s eyebrows arched. “My hair?”

“It’s exactly right.”

“Emma Elizabeth Dixon,” Olivia said, firmly. “What is wrong with you?”

Emma sat up slowly. “Nothing.”

“Bullshit.”

Emma’s eyes went wide. “What’s wrong with
you
?”

“You’ve had a dozen chances to ruin this, but you’re not doing it.”

“Why would I ruin it?”

“Because you don’t want this to work out for Nate and another woman.”

“You’re not another woman. You’re my sister and you’re a
friend
of Nate’s.” Emma narrowed her eyes. “Right?”

“There,” Olivia said. “Now at least you’re acting jealous.”

“I’m not jealous. Besides,” Emma lowered herself back onto her side on the bed. “He asked me first and I said no.”

“Yes, you’ve mentioned that. Four times.”

“Well, I really don’t want to go.”

“That’s bullshit too.”

Emma thought maybe she was being a bad influence on Olivia. They’d only been living together for a couple of months, but Olivia was getting spunkier.

“You’re scared of Nate Sullivan.”

Emma sat up so fast she almost slid off the bed. “What?”

“You’re scared of him. You’re not going to this party because you’re afraid of ending up in bed with him and then ending up in love with him.”

Emma swallowed hard. “That’s not it.”

Olivia didn’t say anything.

Emma bit her bottom lip and tried to keep quiet. Olivia was the sweet one of the Dixon girls. It couldn’t be that hard to stubbornly outwait her.

But only twenty seconds passed before Emma said, “Fine, I…”

Olivia tipped her head. “Yes?”

“He knows I want to end up in bed with him. I’ve offered it more than once. I’m absolutely not scared about ending up in bed with him. I’d
run
to his bed at this point.”

Olivia gave a triumphant smile and sat on the bed beside Emma. “Which means you’re scared of falling in love with him since you’re not scared of sleeping with him.”

Emma sighed. Olivia was also the romantic of the group.

“I’m not going to fall in love with him, Liv.” She was possibly going to end up with a serious unrequited crush, but it wouldn’t be love.

Olivia looked at her for another long moment. Then she nodded. “Fine.” She stood up. “I mean, if you’re not afraid of sleeping with him or falling in love with him, the only thing keeping you from that party is that you actually don’t want to go.” Olivia crossed to the closet and pulled the white dress from the hanger. “Which is a relief,” she said, turning back to Emma. “Because I wanted to wear this one instead.” She reached up and unclipped her hair, letting the long tresses fall sexily to her shoulders. Then she kicked off the two-inch heels she was wearing. “And I can borrow your silver heels, right?”

Emma stared at her sister. “Those are four-inch heels.”

Olivia nodded. “I know. They’ll look great, don’t you think?”

They would look…sexy.

“No. You should definitely not wear the silver heels.”

Olivia looked surprised. “You sure? I think they’ll go perfectly.”

“And you’re not wearing that dress.”

Olivia couldn’t show up in that white dress. It was hot. Even without the breasts and hips, Olivia would turn heads in that dress. And while Emma was a big enough person to make sure her sister looked
nice
when going out with Nate, there was no
way
she was going to let Olivia look
sexy
when going out with Nate.

Olivia put a hand on her hip. “Emma, if I’m going to that party, I’m wearing the white dress and the silver shoes.”

Unless
Emma
wore the white dress and silver shoes.

She eyed the heels. It would be tempting to use her cane with those things on. But she didn’t really need the cane anymore. Nate could take credit for a lot of that—with him she felt confident and daring and…safe. Which sounded strange. Nate couldn’t have kept her bones from breaking in the car accident. But he had been the one to put her back together. There was something about that—about him—that made her feel like no matter what bad thing might happen, Nate would make it better.

And if she wobbled on those heels at the party, Nate would be there to hold her up.

It was a silly analogy maybe, but it made her get to her feet.

“Well, you’re
not
going to that party.”

Olivia gave her a smile. “That’s more like it.”

“Dr. Sullivan?”

Nate turned to face one of the security guards, Frank. “Yes?”

“There’s a woman outside. She doesn’t have an invitation but she insists she’s your date.”

Nate pulled in a deep breath.

Emma. It had to be. Olivia wouldn’t forget her invitation. She knew how this worked.

He shook his head. Emma had specifically turned him down for this and now she showed up?

She was so sure that he’d let her in? It was an invitation-only party. Two hundred dollars a plate. She wasn’t getting past those doormen without him going down to claim her.

He should leave her there. Better yet, he should go down there and then say he didn’t know her.

But there was no way he was going to do that. He liked her. Even though it meant she was running the show, if she’d decided she wanted to be here with him tonight, there was no way he would say no to that.

Plus, he couldn’t wait to see her.

“Fine. I’m on my way.”

He took his time though. He wasn’t going to jump every time she decided to grace him with her presence.

At least, he wasn’t going to let her know he was jumping.

Ten minutes later, he finally made it to the front doors.

Where he found Emma talking to the doormen as if they’d been best friends since grade school.

“Miss Dixon?” he asked.

She looked over her shoulder and her face lit up when she saw him. Nate groaned. It was so hard to be annoyed with her when she did that.

“Hi, Nate.” She grinned. “Sorry I forgot my invitation. But I was busy with other things and didn’t think of it. I hope you think it’s worth it.” She rose from the chair that someone had no doubt retrieved just for her. She executed a nice slow turn that showed off…everything.

The white strapless dress molded to her curves and showed off her gorgeous legs, the color emphasizing her golden skin.

And then there were the silver shoes. They made her legs look longer, her ankles dainty and they put her at the perfect height to push her up against the wall and kiss her.

Dammit.

Both doormen looked at him as if to say,
Totally worth it.

She knew exactly what she was doing. And he was wrapped around her little finger.

The question remained as to whether he was going to let her in on that little secret or not.

“Come here.” He stalked to one side, not waiting for her.

She followed.

When they were several feet from the hotel entrance he turned to face her. He had to work not to stare. The dress supported and cupped her breasts lovingly, exactly like he’d like to do with his hands. He lowered his voice. “You don’t have an invitation and you turned my invitation down.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Why?”

“Because you said that I prevent you from being an absolute asshole. And here you are in public. I thought I could potentially be helpful.”

It had nothing to do with her wanting to be here with him, huh? “Maybe I don’t want help with that.”

She grinned. “You’re happy being an asshole at a charity fundraising event?”

“I should make you go home. I should embarrass you and not let you in.” He knew if he ran his hands over her hips he’d feel firm muscles and warm skin. He wondered if he’d feel panties or the string of a thong.

“You could do those things,” she agreed. “But I don’t think you will.”

He crossed his arms, itching to touch her. “Why not?”

“Because I don’t think you’d hurt me like that. And because you do want to spend time with me tonight.”

She was right.

She was also full of herself. More so than any other woman he’d ever been with.

And it was hot.

Fuck.

“Fine. But you’re on your best behavior, and whatever I say goes.”

“Aye aye, Captain.”

“Stop it.” He helped her step over the velvet ropes. “I’m glad you decided to leave the cane at home, by the way,” he commented.

“I was afraid it might detract from my cleavage.”

Nothing could detract from her cleavage. But Nate kept the thought to himself.

“Best behavior,” he reminded her.

“Oh, I’ll be the best you’ve ever had, Nate,” she replied as people stepped forward to greet him, preventing him from a retort.

He did, however, manage to pinch her ass before shaking hands with the head of neurosurgery for St. Anthony’s.

For the next two hours he kept Emma by his side. Not that it was difficult. She didn’t seem inclined to leave him. Which he loved. Trisha had always been schmoozing. As the head of a charitable foundation, her entire career was about making nice with people who could make donations. Rebecca, too, often spent most of the evening carrying on her own networking conversations. Emma, on the other hand, seemed focused on him.

She had excused herself briefly to go chat with Michael and Shannon at one point, but she’d been back next to Nate after only ten minutes. Nate hadn’t felt the need to stick close to his son and his date. There were other young adults their age at the party—children of the hospital administrators, community bigwigs and physicians—and Nate knew he needed to show Michael that he wouldn’t hover, but would trust that his son would conduct himself with decorum.

Emma was also demonstrating a surprising level of propriety. He’d expected her to flirt with the males in the room and talk shoes with the women. Instead, she sipped champagne, she laughed and chatted with his colleagues, she gave the head of plastic surgery the recipe for a cleansing tea she swore by, and she gave the wife of the number one cardiothoracic surgeon the name of her favorite acupuncturist.

Emma seemed happy to stay with Nate and was mostly acting properly. Recommending acupuncture to a renowned surgeon’s wife was borderline, but the woman had seemed thrilled. At one point, Emma had told a joke and Nate had held his breath for the punch line. Emma and Shane often had competitions for who could tell the raunchiest jokes and Emma often won. But the joke had been tasteful, funny and had drawn laughs from the group.

She hadn’t even tried to touch him inappropriately. She hadn’t looked up and licked her lips. She hadn’t sucked the chocolate off any of the chocolate-dipped strawberries while he watched. She hadn’t brushed up against him more often than necessary. Nothing.

He wasn’t as pleased with all of that.

During dinner, they sat next to one another at a round table with two other couples. Both Nate and Emma knew Dr. Ben Torres and his wife, Jessica. Jessica was the older sister of Sam Bradford—one of the paramedics at St. A’s that Conner and Ryan worked with regularly—and Sara Bradford, the woman Conner Dixon thought hung the moon. Even though she was happily married to a very protective, very
big
guy who also worked on Sam’s paramedic crew.

The other couple was Dr. Matt Dawson, one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the city, and his date, Samantha.