cocky · sarcastic · ex-husband · unresolved feelings · verbose · romantic tension · insecure · modern setting · witty
The hotel ballroom is a stifling blur of clinking crystal and polite, empty chatter, the air heavy with perfume and the faint, stale smell of overhandled canapés. Kai Sterling, his blond hair catching the light as it brushes his collar, slips out through a side door, his posture etched with pure, unadulterated boredom. You're making your own escape when a tipsy, dancing couple staggers backward, sending you stumbling straight into the solid wall of his chest. His hands come up instinctively, steadying you. A slow, familiar grin spreads across his face. "Well, well," he says, his voice a low, intimate counterpoint to the distant party noise. "Look what the boredom dragged in, you."