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Just Friends?
Allison Leigh
He was the most infuriating man.But on television it was a different story. There, Evan Taggart came off as handsome. Confident. Single. A state the reality show played up a little more than producer Leandra Clay planned. All too soon women with the same thought in mind–marriage!–started invading their small town in droves. So now it was payback time. Evan's ultimatum to Leandra–masquerade as his fiancee or he was walking (and her career in television was toast).The choice seemed easy at the time. But this Evan didn't act like the childhood friend Leandra remembered. Who knew he could kiss like that? Or that his slightest touch could set her skin on fire? Just friends? Stay tuned….
Just Friends?
Allison Leigh
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
For my family.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Coming Next Month
Prologue
It didn’t turn out at all the way Evan had intended.
When it started out, it was just supposed to be a quick trip home during a break between classes. He’d known she’d be home, too, because he’d made a point of finding out. Subtly, of course. It had never paid to show one’s cards too easily where Leandra Clay was concerned. She was too quick. Too smart.
Too…everything.
Fool that he was, though, in his determination to appear anything but obvious, he’d invited his dorm-mate.
Jake sure in hell hadn’t worried about being subtle.
One look at Leandra and he’d been a goner.
Evan’s fault. If he’d told Jake he’d already staked out that territory, his buddy wouldn’t have trespassed.
Problem was, Leandra hadn’t been Evan’s territory. Never had been.
So what had Evan done?
Nothing.
And now what was Evan doing?
Nothing.
Nothing except stand there in his suit and a tie that felt like it was strangling him, and lift his champagne glass the way all the other wedding guests were lifting theirs.
“To the bride and groom,” he managed to say. “We wish them a lifetime of happiness.”
Jake wore a tux, too, and Leandra looked like some princess out of a storybook in filmy white stuff from head to toe. Their arms were slung around each other, giddy grins on their faces.
They’d hardly let go of each other in the year since Evan had introduced them.
The couple drank to the toast, and to the others that followed, kissed softly, sweetly, and Evan turned away, downing the rest of his champagne. But no amount of alcohol was going to deaden the pain inside him.
He hadn’t spoken his piece when he should have.
“Hey, you.” Leandra had untangled herself from Jake and touched Evan’s arm. “Don’t go running off now. You’ve got to promise me a dance after Jake and I do our thing.”
He had to steel himself against flinching. “I was just going to find more of your dad’s fine bubbly.”
Her gaze, as rich as the fudge pudding Evan’s mom had made since his childhood, was sparkling and that sparkle was all for her brand-spanking-new husband. “I’m not sure I ever said thank you. You know. For introducing Jake and me. If it hadn’t been for you, we’d have never met.”
“What are friends for?”
She missed the dark note in his voice. Nothing in her world right now was dark.
She was Leandra Clay and she’d just married the man of her dreams.
She suddenly reached out and hugged him. A quick dip into sweet perfume and soft, rustling white gown. “Thanks.” Then she was moving away again, heading back to Jake, never knowing that she was taking Evan’s heart along with her.
No, things definitely hadn’t turned out at all the way he’d planned.
Chapter One
He woke to the sight of a strange man standing in his bedroom.
“Son of a—” Evan Taggart sat bolt upright, grabbing the bedding around his waist even as realization hit that the young guy with the lumberjack’s build wasn’t entirely a stranger. Nor was the red eye of the television camera the guy held entirely a surprise, either.
He stifled the ripe curse on his lips just in time to keep it from being captured for all eternity—or at least the viewing life of a certain cable television reality show. “I’ve never been videotaped in bed, with a woman or without, Ted,” he said grimly, “and I’ll be damned if we’re going to start here and now.”
Ted Richard’s grin was visible thanks to the annoying light he’d erected on a metal stand next to the bed, but he still didn’t lower the camera. “The producer would be a lot happier if you did have a woman under those sheets. Marian would figure it’d be good for ratings.”
Evan wasn’t amused. “How did you get in here?”
“Leandra always says Weaver is so safe that nobody ever locks anything. Guess she was right.”
Leandra.
Evan should have known. He squelched another oath, this time directed at Leandra Clay and her part in the farce his life seemed to have become over the past week. “Shut that thing off,” he warned. If he hadn’t been out nearly all night tending a sick bull, he would never have slept through an intrusion like Ted’s.
Not that this particular situation had ever arisen before.
Ted still didn’t lower the heavy camera from his shoulder. The distinctive red light on top of the thing stayed vividly bright. “Don’t shoot the messenger, dude,” he said easily. “I’m just doing my job.”
Ted’s job was to follow Evan Taggart around for six weeks for Walk in the Shoes, or WITS, the cable television show of which Leandra was an associate producer. “Nobody told me your job was to invade all of my privacy.”
Ted still didn’t seem fazed. Nor did the young guy seem inclined to turn off the camera. But he did turn his shaggy blond head when they heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs outside Evan’s bedroom.
A moment later, the woman responsible for Evan’s headaches of late practically skidded into the room. He got a glimpse of chocolate-brown eyes before Leandra turned her attention to her cameraman.
“Ted, turn off the camera. You shouldn’t even be here.” She hefted the enormous satchel that hung from her shoulder a little higher and raced a slender hand over her short, messy hair.
Evan grimaced when the cameraman obediently lowered the camera.
“I’ll just go back to the motel and catch a few more z’s,” Ted said cheerfully. “Any changes to today’s schedule?”
Evan caught Leandra’s gaze skittering over him before she shook her head and stepped out of Ted’s way. “Not yet. I’ll see you later.”
Ted nodded and took the heavy camera, his steps pounding far more loudly on the stairs than had Leandra’s. A moment later, they heard the sound of a door slamming.
Evan raked his hands through his hair, wishing he’d gotten more than the two measly hours of sleep he’d snagged. He needed all of his wits about him when it came to dealing with Leandra.
Leandra, who was still standing there in his bedroom, twisted her hands together at her waist. “Sorry about that,” she murmured.
For what? Bringing chaos to what was ordinarily a pretty peaceful life? Peaceful, just the way he liked it.
“I didn’t send him.” Apology turned down the corners of her soft lips. “And I came as soon as I knew he was here,” she added. As if that made up for everything.
Peaceful, he thought. Whatever had happened to it?
He’d grown up around Leandra. And her siblings. And her cousins, and there were plenty of ’em. But what on God’s green earth had he done wrong that every time he laid eyes on this particular Clay he felt a jolt?
Bad enough she’d once been married to one of his best friends.
Bad enough she’d chosen Jake over Evan in the first place.
“Well?” Her chin had come up. “Aren’t you going to say something?”
She wore loose flannel pants covered in cartoon chickens and a pink long-sleeved T-shirt with WITS printed over her breasts. The shirt did nothing to hide the fact that the woman was graced with all the appropriate curves. A woman who looked as if she’d bolted from her bed almost as precipitously as Evan. If she hadn’t, she’d have grabbed a jacket, at the very least.
He didn’t need the evidence staring him in the face to know it was pretty damn chilly outside.
It was September. It was Wyoming. It was four bloody o’clock in the morning, and he had Leandra Clay’s sexy body smiling at him through her shirt.
“I’ve never seen chickens wearing bunny slippers,” he finally drawled. “That the style out in California these days?”
Her lips pressed together. “That’s not what I meant.”
He was sure it hadn’t been.
And he was pleased with the tinge of red he could see in her cheeks as she turned off the blazing lamp that Ted had left behind.
Made him feel a little better at least.
Now he just needed to get her out of his bedroom.
Because it was 4:00 a.m. and she was Leandra Clay.
He grabbed the sheet and started to slide off the bed.
At the first sight of his bare legs, Leandra frowned and abruptly headed for the doorway. “I’ll, um, I’ll put on some coffee.”
He grunted. At least that would be something useful.
She glanced back at him and he dragged the sheet around himself, managing not to bare his butt to her eyes.
She fled, her footsteps racing down the staircase.
If he’d needed any hint that Leandra wasn’t the least bit interested in seeing his butt, he supposed he had it now.
He dropped the sheet back on the messy bed and went into the bathroom, slamming the door shut.
