Champagne was flowing.

Appetizers were served.

People all around me glittered and shined as they talked and laughed. Everywhere you looked around the large ballroom, partygoers seemed to be having a great time. Especially those I was sitting with.

As an event planner, it couldn’t have made me happier. Professionally, this was what I strived for.

As a woman who found herself unexpectedly sitting next to tall, dark, and dreamy, I felt a little out of my element.

I couldn’t get my heart to slow down. It felt like an Olympic team of butterflies were supped up on espresso as they did the Indy 500 in my stomach. And if I was being one hundred percent honest, I felt a little out of my element. I was dressed up like everyone, but in the back of my head I wondered if my hair, which I’d thrown haphazardly down, looked like a frizzy mess and if my half-assed makeup could look better. I felt a little discombobulated.

Not to mention having been seated next to Gabe would make any red-blooded woman nervous enough to sweat. I understood why Karen had been wide-eyed with glee at having him on the bachelor list to auction tonight. He was very easy on the eyes, and his voice… Holy Mary mother.

The nervous team of butterflies in my stomach fluttered from here to there and would not stop. But how could it when I was sitting next to tall dark and dreamy?

Jesus.

Gabe Blanco.

I finally got it now. Everyone’s enthusiasm when it came to being able to auction his hot ass. What an ass it was too! I shouldn’t have thought that way. I had never been an ass girl.

I loved shoulders and great hands, or a great-looking smile. But I couldn’t deny Gabe Blanco’s ass was a thing of beauty. Then again, physically, there was little that seemed to be lacking about the man. Maybe he has a small—

“Daisy?” Ruby’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I caught myself staring into the dark— clearly very amused—depths of Gabe’s eyes.

Shit, how long had I been staring at him? He pressed his lips together, casting his eyes downward and back up. A shiver of awareness ran down my body. I shook my head and turned to my best friend, but I could tell she was holding on by a small thread, trying not to laugh.

I had totally been caught ogling the sexy fireman.

“I’m sorry.” I made a face before quickly closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. “What were you saying?” I asked, meeting her amused gaze.

“She wasn’t. I was,” his deep voice timbered, and I swear I could feel his breath against the bare skin of my shoulders.

“Oh.” I braced before turning.

No matter how much time I had, I would never be prepared for him. He was that damn good looking. He was also mere inches away from my face, and I found myself wanting to rest my forehead against his. Sharing his space and air. The man made me want so much all too quickly. Snap out of it, Daisy-Maze! I scolded myself.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “It has been a long couple of days. What were you saying?” I asked and noticed how his eyes softened.

“Long days?”

“Taking over this event last minute,” I answered, but the way he seemed to be following my every word made me want to go into more detail, maybe even joke a little. “I feel like I haven’t slept since Christmas.”

“So, you weren’t organizing this originally?”

“No.” I smiled.

“Why did you have to take over?”

“Oh.” I didn’t have to look around to know the other table mates were paying attention to our conversation, even if they were involved in their own. “My boss went home, umm, to the East Coast for the holidays, and they got hit with a really bad snow storm.”

“I heard about that.”

“So, her flight got delayed and she called, and I came on to help.”

“You did a great job,” he complimented, and I looked away, just in time to see Ruby grin at me before turning her attention to her dad and Karina.

“Thank you,” I mumbled, my eyes on my hands on the table.

“Dance with me,” he said, and my head popped up, our eyes meeting.

“What?” I mumbled, turning to look toward the dance floor. I couldn’t get away with saying it was empty. There were a few couples dancing. “I don’t think—”

“We’re going to dance.” Gabe stood announcing to the table. “Anyone else?” He smiled as he put his hand out for me.

All I had to do was take it.

Take his hand! I pleaded with myself.

One dance. I could do that.

What was the worst that could happen?

She looked at my hand like it had the ability to burn her and hand her every dream all at the same time. A gentleman would have put it down and moved the subject away from dancing.

But I never claimed to be one.

I couldn’t get myself to drop my hand. When her eyes met mine, it felt like a lightbulb turned on while having an arrow shoot me in the damn chest. A thundercloud of recognition hit in an instant.

When it came to her, I’d be a motherfucking warrior. One who would never back down. Not when it came to making her smile. There was a hope reflecting back from the dark depths of her eyes, and it was shining so damn clearly, I had to swallow hard. My Adam’s apple bobbed, and all I wanted to do was make every single wish her heart held come true.

Not for a night.

Not as a fling.

But for the long run.

As crazy fast as that sounded, it was also true. If someone had told me I would be feeling this way about a woman I hardly knew past her first name, I would have laughed in their face. Then, once I caught my breath, I’d have called the men in white coats to come get their asylum runaway. But here I was. My hand extended toward a woman I knew, to the center of my being, was it for me.

She was an end game, last first kiss, rest of my life, till death do us part kind of woman. The kind of woman you had to sack up for. If you didn’t, you would regret letting her go for the rest of your miserable life. Thankfully, I wasn’t the kind of man to sit with a thumb up my ass when I saw something I wanted.

Need, a voice perked up in the back of my head. I needed her in my life.

I opened my mouth to somehow find a way to urge her to take a chance on me when her silky palm touched mine as she gave me her hand. With a brightly-lit smile, she looked up at me. I silently wondered how the hell I didn’t just fall on my knees for her.

“Just beware, I have two left feet,” she warned.

“I’ll take my chances,” I noted because that’s what I would do. From here on out, I didn’t know how the hell I was as sure as I was, but I knew life would be nothing but an adventure.