He managed to capture her around her waist and slid his hand to the small of her back. “C’mon, I have some people I want you to meet.”

“I’m here for work,” she said as he directed her across the room.

“So am I.”

Walking away would have made a scene, so Eliza kept to his side and ignored the comfortable position of Carter’s fingers pressing against the small of her back. When they arrived at a gathering of men drinking and laughing, Carter’s hand didn’t move. In fact, he moved even farther into Eliza’s personal space.

“Gentlemen,” Carter interrupted the conversation. “I’d like you to meet a friend of mine. Eliza Havens, this is…” Carter rolled of several names, all of which she should have remembered but promptly forgot.

Carter proudly stated that Eliza was part of a firm titled under acquisitions and mergers. He didn’t elaborate on any details and derailed any personal questions about the two of them. The men were polite and appeared enamored by anything Carter had to say. Very little politics were discussed and most of it only scratched the surface of the current events plaguing the state. Carter told the others that they were attempting to enjoy a night off without deep debate. Of course, if the men wanted to join him at a campaign function there was one planned at the end of the month to help raise funds. He’d talk politics in depth at that time.

As the conversation dried up, Carter moved Eliza to another set of people and repeated his introductions.

Within half an hour, her drink was gone and another one was in her hand.

Carter’s palm sat firmly on her back with his fingers often squeezing her side when one of the men in the group let his eyes linger on her cle**age for more than a second.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Gwen working the room. Something she really should be doing.

Instead of letting Carter’s nearness distract her, Eliza attempted to remember the names and marital status of the people Carter was introducing her.

Stenberg, a lawyer, probably in his sixties. He lifted his drink to his lips and Eliza saw the gold band.

Next.

McKinney, an investor of some sort. No ring. Had to be in his seventies. “Mr. McKinney was it?”

“That’s right.” He had a slight Irish lit to his voice.

“Is your wife here, or does she stay away from these affairs?”

Carter nudged her side, and she nudged him back.

“No wife I’m afraid.”

Carter kept the conversation light. “McKinney and I are the bachelors on the block.”

Stenberg sighed. “McKinney might not have a stunning woman on his arm like you, Billings, but that doesn’t make him a bachelor.”

McKinney tossed his head back and laughed. “My last divorce wasn’t my doing. No matter how the media painted it.”

“The media does have a way of mucking things up, don’t they?” Eliza asked while making a mental note to keep McKinney on her Alliance radar.

From that encounter on, Carter attempted to stop Eliza from probing the personal life of the guests by asking about a man’s wife or a woman’s husband. The ones where he didn’t mention a significant other gave Eliza the information she needed.

Eliza placed her empty glass on a tray and shook her head.

Carter excused them and led her toward a lighted doorway to the outside patio.

“Where are we going?”

“You look like you need some air.”

She did. The fact that he noticed made her heart skip an extra beat.

The air outside was still warm with a slight breeze coming in from the east. “Feels like a Santa Ana setting in.”

“As long as it doesn’t produce any fires.”

Summer, wind, and fires were a constant in Southern California. More than earthquakes.

“I think we’ll be okay.”

Carter stopped by the edge of a pole and reluctantly let his arm drop to his side. “You’re a natural in there. Do you and Samantha come to these things a lot?”

“Samantha used to do this all the time. Before Blake. I’ve been solo for most of the last two years. With Gwen coming on, it should ease up the number of these that I’ll have to attend.”

“Does it work? I mean, do you just ask if the men are single and ask if they’re interested in a dating service?”

“I’m much more subtle. Most of our clients are referrals. But it doesn’t hurt to mingle and find new ones.”

“I guess it’s not very different from getting set up in college.”

“Only our clients all have something to offer and something to gain.”

Carter thought about how Samantha and Blake’s marriage started out as an arrangement and ended up with a happily ever after.

He glanced and caught Eliza watching him.

“What?”

“Why are you really here, Carter? And don’t tell me it’s to work. You haven’t talked politics all evening.”

He stepped away from the pillar he was leaning against and took a step closer to her. “You’re right. I’m not here for my quest for office.”

Instinct told her to move back, but she kept her feet planted in place.

“Why then?”

“For you. I knew if I’d asked to join you tonight you probably would have said no.”

“I don’t need a bodyguard.”

“See. I knew you’d say that. I didn’t want to come as a bodyguard. I wanted to come as your date.”

Her mouth dried up, and her jaw slacked like a guppy out of water.

“My date?”

“Right.”

“Why?”

Carter wove one of his hands around her waist and moved closer. “I think about you all the time. Have for a while.”

“Really?” All of her one-word answers were starting to annoy even her.

Carter just smiled and moved in with calculated ease.

“Really. So what do you say, Eliza…can I ask you out on a date? Dinner? Maybe a movie?”

Dinner and a movie? Oh man, when was the last time she’d done that?

But this was Carter standing way inside her personal space, heating her body with his.

“Do you have time for dinner and a movie?”

“I’ll make time if you say yes.”

Eliza forced her eyes away from his, but they rested on his chest. His very big, very firm, yummy chest. “I don’t know, Carter. We don’t have a long history of getting along.”

“We seem to be doing okay tonight.”

“We’re in a crowded room.”