Wedding Party Collection: Once A Bridesmaid...: Here Comes the Bridesmaid / Falling for the Bridesmaid

He could hear the excitement in her voice. How did she do that? Could she really, truly, be that enthusiastic about everything?

‘Yep.’

‘Fourth floor,’ she said, and clicked open the door to the lobby.

She was waiting for him, apartment door wide open, when he got out of the lift.

Her hair was piled on top of her head—kind of messy, but very sexy. She was wearing an ankle-length red kaftan in some silky material that managed to both cling and flow. It had a deep V neckline and was gathered at the base of her sternum behind a fist-sized disc of matching beads. Voluminous sleeves were caught tightly at the wrists. She looked like a cross between a demented crystal healer and a Cossack dancer—but somehow bloody amazing.

His eyes, inevitably, dropped to her feet. She was barefoot. Good God! Stop the presses.

‘I am so looking forward to this,’ Sunshine confided, and puckered her lips.

Leo steeled himself, and after the tiniest hesitation she went right ahead and laid the kiss on him.

‘That pucker was enough warning, right?’ she asked with a cheeky smile. And then she rolled right on before he could answer. ‘And I was right—trout do not have especially thick lips. So! This way,’ she threw over her shoulder, and walked to the kitchen.

She gestured to three boxes on the counter. ‘Your stuff arrived about ten minutes ago.’

‘Good. I’ll unpack everything,’ he said, but he was more interested in the uninterrupted view into her apartment afforded by the open-plan kitchen.

And it was...disappointing.

White walls. No paintings. A serviceable four-seater dining suite in one section of a combined living/dining room in a nondescript, pale wood—pine, maybe. The couch was basic, taupe-coloured. A low coffee table in front of the couch matched the dining suite. There was a television atop a cabinet that matched the other furniture. Carpet a similar shade to the couch. Absolutely nothing wrong with any of it, but...no. Just no!

He nodded towards the living room. ‘What’s with the porridge-meets-oatmeal thing out there?’ he asked, shrugging out of his leather jacket, and tossing it onto one of the stools on the other side of the kitchen counter.

‘Oh, I thought you’d like it.’

Leo was speechless for a moment. Seriously? That was how she saw him?

When she came to his apartment she would see just how wrong she was!

Not that she would be coming to his apartment. But if she did...

Nope, he had to address this now or he wouldn’t be able to cook. ‘You’ve seen my restaurants—do they look like they’ve been furnished from a Design for Dummies catalogue?’

‘I guess I didn’t imagine you did that part personally. But there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with a neutral colour palette, you know! And... Well...’ She waved a hand at the living area. ‘This part wasn’t me, or it would be very different.’

‘So who was it?’

‘Moonbeam—and she just went for quick, basic, affordable. Out here and in her own room.’

‘But aren’t twins supposed to...you know...have the same taste?’

‘Negativo.’

‘So that’s a no, is it?’ Leo asked dryly.

‘A big no way, José.’

Eye-roll. ‘So, no?’

‘Okay! No.’ Matching eye-roll. And then she smiled softly. ‘Unlike me, Moon didn’t care about stuff.’

‘What did she care about?’

‘Life, the earth, the universe...et cetera.’

‘So it stands to reason she wouldn’t expect you to make a shrine out of a few pieces of pine, right? Why don’t you change it?’

‘I can’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘I just...can’t.’ She looked at the boring furniture as though it were some Elysian landscape. ‘Don’t you ever want to freeze a moment? Just...freeze it? Hang on to it?’

‘No, Sunshine, never,’ he said. ‘I want to move on. And on and on.’

She turned to him. ‘You’re lucky to be able to see things that way.’

‘Actually, it’s the absence of luck that made me see things that way. The desire to change my luck. To have more—a better life. To get...everything.’

Their eyes caught...held.

And then Sunshine gave that tiny shake of the head. ‘Anyway,’ she said, ‘there’s quite enough me in this apartment. I just keep it behind closed doors because it’s scary for the uninitiated.’

Was she talking about her bedroom? ‘Closed doors?’

She pointed at a closed door at one end of the living area. ‘My office.’ Pointed at another closed door behind her. ‘Bedroom.’

Leo’s mouth had gone dry. Over a freaking room? No—over just the thought of a room! But he couldn’t help it. ‘Show me,’ he said.

She twinkled at him. ‘You’re not ready for that, Leo. But think a cross between Regency England and the Mad Hatter’s tea party in the office, and Scheherazade meets Marie Antoinette in the bedroom...’

He looked at the bedroom door hard enough to disgust himself. What did he think was going to happen? An ‘Open Sesame’ reveal? Why did he care anyway?

‘So! Leo! How do we start this gastronomic enterprise?’

Leo dragged his Superman-worthy gaze away from the bedroom door and refocused on Sunshine—the vivid, unique, laughing eyes; the luxuriant hair; her free-spirited yet glamorous dress; her naked feet.

‘You’re not wearing any shoes,’ he said. Duh! Of course she knows she isn’t wearing shoes! They’re her feet, aren’t they?

‘I’m generally barefoot when I’m at home. But I do have a lovely pair of black beaded high heels that I wear with this dress if I’m going out.’

He could picture her, tap-tapping her way into South with sparkles on her feet, the red silk billowing. He knew he was staring at her feet, but they were very sexy feet.

And then his eyes travelled up. Up, up, up... To find her watching him, her eyes dazed and wide, lips slightly parted.