Page 18 of Cupid Calling
“No, no, it’s not your fault, I was lost in my own world,” Ejiro said quickly, grinning, though her proximity made his heart pound for reasons other than her surprise appearance. Two cameramen hovered behind them, but he managed to ignore them.
She was here. She was talking to him. She’d ended her alone time and come straight to him, if the looks the other bachelors were giving him were anything to go by.
Please God—pardon my language—but let me not fuck this up.
“Are you okay?” he asked, frowning with concern. “What happened earlier was all kinds of messed up.”
Her eyes darkened a little, but it thankfully wasn’t aimed at him. “I’m okay. And you’re right. That was fucking shitty. But at least we all have one less bachelor to worry about,” she said with a conspiratory wink.
Ejiro blushed. He didn’t think it was sportsmanlike to say anything bad about a competitor, even though it was a relief to hear.
“All this excitement has left me parched, though,” Sophia said, one hand delicately touching the long arch of her throat.
God, she was gorgeous. He wanted to draw her again. She deserved to be a goddess in a fantasy comic. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, and Ejiro winced, wondering if her feet hurt. She had been standing almost all night. He hoped the night would end soon, so she’d get some rest.
Then he registered her statement.
“Piña colada?”
“How did you know?” She looked surprised but extremely pleased.
Ejiro ducked his head. “Lucky guess.” She might’ve been socialising with all the bachelors so far except him, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been aware of her. “I’ll, um, be right back.”
“Thank you, Ejiro.” Her eyes were dark, sultry.
Ejiro tried not to stumble, his stomach flip-flopping at the flirtation. “It’s no problem at all.”
He turned and headed quickly for the drinks table. He could see some of the staff running to and fro in the periphery, and discerned that they were probably going to place a fresh glass of the drink on the table before he arrived.
And he was right. A cue in the background told him to slow down. By the time he made it to the table, a camera following close behind him, a staff had edged the fresh drink onto the table, managing to smoothly avoid the focus of the cameras.
What did I tell you? Ejiro could hear Ajiri’s smug voice in his head. Just be yourself and everything will fall into place.
He’d spoken to the bachelorette for the second time, and he hadn’t messed up.
So maybe he wasn’t as handsome as the other bachelors, and he wasn’t as … exuberant. Sophia still liked him. That was all that mattered.
He turned around, and felt the small smile on his lips freeze so quickly his face could have cracked with it.
He’d been expecting Sophia to be alone in front of the greenhouse where he’d left her—perhaps glancing in his direction, looking shy but expectant.
Instead, there was Obiora, down on one knee. The slit of her dress had been pushed aside to expose one of her long legs all the way up her thigh. Obiora was cupping her bare calf in one of his hands, the other gently, tenderly—sensuously—easing her shoe off her foot.
Her free hand held tightly onto his wide shoulder for balance. Throughout the entire feat, they didn’t once look away from each other, the tension between them unmistakable.
Ejiro’s vision went red, his grip tightening warningly around the glass he held.
Go to her, his mind screamed. She asked you for a drink. Don’t let him steal the spotlight!
But Ejiro couldn’t move.
He watched as Obiora took off the second shoe, saying something that made Sophia laugh shyly and duck her head.
When he stood, Obiora let his hand run up her leg and thigh in a movement that looked accidental, even distracted, but Ejiro knew it was intentional.
Sophia shivered visibly at the touch. Even a baby would have seen that it wasn’t a shiver of revulsion.
Ejiro dropped the drink back onto the table with shaking hands, then he turned and walked straight into the mansion, leaving Sophia, the cameras, and the other bachelors behind.
