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Alexis squeezed her eyes shut before opening them slowly. “Don’t play the baby-sister card, Ava. It’s only because you are my sister that I haven’t bounced you out of here on your fanny. You have a lot going for yourself, kid. You’re good-looking, you’re smart and talented. Why you can’t seem to pull yourself together and do something with all the gifts God gave you, I just don’t know. But you need to stop playing the victim and start living up to your potential. Start with something small, like getting to work on time,” she said pointedly, “then work your way up.”
As usual, Ava didn’t seem to absorb anything that Alexis was saying. Her next words were proof of that. “Can I move in with you? Mama is driving me crazy.”
“You know, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity,” Alexis said as she picked up her purse and set the alarm. “You keep asking me that question and the answer is always the same. No, you can’t move in with me. And from what I hear, you’re giving as good as you’re getting in the crazy department. Mama isn’t thrilled with you, either. I’ll give you a ride home, but I’m not putting a roof over your head. Let’s go.”
“Can I have that purse?” Ava, having ignored all the advice her sister doled out, was on to the next thing, in this case, a fabulous Louis Vuitton bag she’d coveted for some time.
“Don’t beg, it’ll make people hate you,” Alexis advised as she turned into the driveway of her mother’s pretty brick home.
“I’m not begging, I just want to borrow it,” Ava whined.
“You don’t have to borrow it. You can have one just like it when you finish school and get a good job. Until then, Payless is having a BOGO. Tell Mama I’ll call her after my book club.”
“Book club, swim class, work, aerobics classes, my God, do you ever just sit your butt down and do nothing?” Ava got out of the car and slammed the door a little too hard for Alexis’s taste.
“I’ll have plenty of time for that when I’m dead. Slam my door again and you’ll be walking home from now on, heifer.”
* * *
The rain was pouring by the time Alexis left her book club meeting. She didn’t mind, she was used to driving in the rain, even a downpour like this one. The meeting had been stimulating and enjoyable as always, even though the book wasn’t her favorite genre. The books were funny and well written, but nothing Alexis could fantasize about. There was no way she could hook up with a vampire. It made her shudder to think about it. The idea of cold skin next to hers was daunting and the thought of somebody sucking blood out of her body was… A sudden thud made her snap back to reality. She stopped the car and checked all the dashboard lights to see if there was something internal going on with her vehicle. Finally she bowed to the inevitable and got out of the car with her little pink flashlight.
Damn, damn, damn. A flat friggin’ tire! She hopped back in and reached for her cell phone. She hit the speed dial for AAA and waited to get through to a human. An eerily bright blaze of lightning preceded an unnaturally loud crash and her head almost hit her roof when a huge branch fell down in a shower of sparks, barely missing her hood. Crap. If it was like this all over Columbia, it could be quite a while before she got help. Alexis patted her chest in the vicinity where she imagined her heart was. She was normally quite calm, but the past few minutes had her really unnerved. That’s why she screamed when she heard the tap at her window. Of course, when she saw a pale face with deep-set pale eyes and stringy wet hair she yelped again. “A vampire!”
The man looked puzzled and touched his ear to indicate that he couldn’t hear her, thank God. She didn’t need him thinking she was crazy; he looked nutty enough for both of them. She let the window down a bit so that she could talk to him, but she prudently locked the doors as she did so.
“Umm, yes, did you need something?”
He smiled a crooked, surprisingly sexy smile that did funny things to her while she tried to compose herself.
“I think you need something,” he said. “I can see that you have a really flat tire and I can change it for you if you will open your hatch.”
Okay, that wasn’t what she was expecting. “Thanks, but AAA is on their way. I’m fine.”
“Well, they’re likely to be a while with the weather and all. I can get you up and running in about fifteen minutes,” he offered.
Nice. The stranger outside her door was certainly a rock and the flat tire was definitely a hard place. This was how people ended up on those true-crime shows, accepting help from a stranger. He said he wanted to help her but he could probably gut her like a fish and string her entrails on the fallen branch in the road.
“No, really, I’m fine,” she insisted. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m sure they’ll be along in a few.”
“Listen, I understand you not wanting to trust a man you’ve never met before. I have two sisters and you’re doing exactly what I’ve told them to do. Tell you what. I’ll just wait in my car until they get here so that no one bothers you, okay? I’m behind you and I’ll stay there until your help arrives.”
Alexis mumbled her thanks and put up the window while she tried to call her big sister. Alana was the owner and operator of Custom Classics, the best auto repair and remodeling shop in Columbia and if AAA couldn’t make it, Alana could come get her in ten minutes. She hated bothering her sister, but sitting on a dark street with a wet weirdo behind her was just not a plan. Unfortunately, Alana didn’t answer her phone. She tried her house, her cell and her office to no avail. Crap. She’d just have to wait it out. Her heart rate had completely slowed back to its normal rate and she was now calm enough to rummage around the car to find something sharp and potentially lethal just in case she had to defend herself.
The rain showed no signs of letting up and the thunder and lightning continued, accompanied by winds strong enough to blow down more branches around her. A particularly strong burst dropped another huge branch, along with a power line—complete with scary sparks that flew in all directions. Lovely. After that display, the stranger returned with a determined expression.
She cracked open the window again and before she could speak, he delivered a speech he’d apparently practiced.
“I know you don’t know me well, but I promise you I only want to help you.” He held out his cell phone to her as he continued to talk. “My name is Jared VanBuren and I have the police on the line so that they can hear everything that’s going on. I explained the situation to them and they’re willing to listen in so that, if anything goes wrong, they’ll be here in like five minutes to arrest me and save you. Go ahead, talk to the dispatcher, he’s waiting.”
Alexis stared at the phone, and then directed her wide eyes to the tall, soaking-wet man who looked less like a vamp now. He looked more like a Samaritan. She took a deep breath and put the cell phone to her ear. This was turning into the strangest day she could ever remember and she knew without being told that she wouldn’t forget it any time soon.
Chapter 3
Alexis was feeling slightly silly for her distrust, but only a little. She talked to the dispatcher and was fairly sure of two things when she finished. One was that the police knew where she was in case things got weird, and the other was that this Jared VanBuren wasn’t going to do anything to her that would end up on the late news. She was actually feeling grateful to her Samaritan for his insistence on doing a good deed. It had been over ninety minutes since she’d called AAA and a tow truck had yet to materialize, but Jared, bless his heart, had attended to her tire with speed and skill. The rain hadn’t let up and she’d tried to keep him from drowning by holding her snazzy leopard-print Christian Dior umbrella over him as he worked, but he’d refused.
“Look, I can’t get any wetter than I already am, so you just sit in the car until I’m done. Better yet, get in my car so we don’t have to worry about the jack falling or anything.” He guided her to his Range Rover and helped her in, a nice touch considering the circumstances. Alexis had a real thing for a man with nice manners. She appreciated the dry interior of the luxury vehicle as she inspected the SUV. It was very clean and tidy, except for some papers in a folder on the dashboard. Nosy as she was, she was dying to look through them, but she restrained herself. She did wonder what Seven-Seventeen meant, though; she saw the words on the folder and tried to figure out what they signified.
Suddenly all her attention was focused on her car and the man fixing it. Jared let out a yell that scared her half to death and she scrambled from the Range Rover to see what had happened. She was greeted by Jared holding his arm, his very bloody arm.
“Heavenly Father, what happened?”
“The jack slipped when I was taking it off. It’s nothing,” Jared assured her.
Alexis took one look and disagreed vigorously. “That doesn’t look like nothing to me, far from it. I’m taking you to the emergency room.”
Ignoring his protests, she reached into the hatch and came up with a brand-new package of chocolate-brown towels intended for Sanctuary Two. Luckily she’d just gotten a shipment that afternoon. Quick as a cat she wrapped his forearm tightly a few inches above the cut and told him to keep his arm up. It was obvious they couldn’t drive her car because it was blocked by the fallen tree limbs. She wasn’t too sure about driving his gigantic Rover, but a police cruiser showed up just then and the problem was solved. Alexis didn’t have to explain much after the officer saw Jared’s condition and before he could insist it wasn’t necessary, they were all on their way to the nearest emergency room.
Alexis didn’t even blink at going into the E.R. with Jared. She hated hospitals, but he’d gotten injured on her behalf, so she felt as if she owed him. It wasn’t crowded, thank goodness, and the blood that was flowing freely from Jared’s arm had him in an examining room in no time. The nurse who got him situated informed Alexis that she could wait in the lobby but Jared protested.
“Family only, sir. She’ll be right out there in the waiting room.” The nurse was an attractive black woman in her forties and she was polite but professional and firm.
“She’s my fiancée,” Jared said calmly. “She’s the closest thing I’ve got to family and I’d feel much better if she could stay.”
The older woman, whose name tag read Honor Jackson, didn’t blink an eye. “In that case, she’s welcome to stay. Why don’t you take that chair while I get Mr. VanBuren ready for the doctor?”
After Mrs. Jackson situated Jared on the examining table and set up a tray with the instruments needed to suture the wound, she slipped out to fetch the doctor. Alexis had a chance to really look at her “fiancé” and she had to admit that he was a fine specimen of man. He was about six-five with blond hair, high cheekbones, a deep cleft in his chin and deep-set eyes that were a striking shade of blue. No, gray. Or were they green? Whatever color they were, they were mesmerizing. And he had a body that wouldn’t quit, she could see that quite plainly since Mrs. Jackson had helped him remove his shirt so it wouldn’t get cut off when the doctor started working on him. She was rather glad the shirt had come off because he had a spectacular torso; long and lean with smooth perfect muscles. Her eyes were so busy assessing his biceps and his abs that when he spoke it startled her.
“Hope you didn’t mind that fiancée thing. I just wanted company,” he admitted.
His voice was mellow and soothing like cognac on a cold night. To her surprise she wasn’t upset about his ruse. On the contrary, it seemed kind of sweet. Besides, to her mind it was her fault he was injured.
“No, I don’t mind. Of course, I’m going to hold you to it,” she said with a mischievous smile. “I’m expecting a ring before Christmas.”
His eyes widened with mirth and they laughed together. “As you wish. Big or huge?”
“The ring? Gigantic, in case I have to pawn it.”
He had a good sense of humor because he laughed again. They were still laughing when the doctor came in to inspect the wound. His name was Dr. Patil and he was the real down-to-earth type as he proved with his first words.
“That’s nasty. Looks like you nicked an artery in there,” he said as though it was the most normal thing in the world. “Hope you don’t do a lot of manual labor because you’ll need to take it easy for a few days. You’re going to have a lot of stitches.”
Alexis felt her stomach turn over. She really hated hospitals, doctors’ offices, blood, gore and anything close to it. And she’d feel really awful if he had to take sick leave from his job.
Jared just shrugged. “It’s okay. I’m opening a couple restaurants and it’ll be a few weeks before I have to actually do anything in the kitchen. I’ll be fine.”
Dr. Patil was busy cleaning the wound. “So you’re a restaurateur. Is this your first one?”
Jared winced as the doctor gave him a shot to numb the area in preparation for the sutures. “I have six. When these are finished, I’ll have eight, maybe nine because I’m thinking about putting one on Hilton Head.”
He winced again as Dr. Patil put another shot in the same area. “This is the worst part,” the doctor assured him. “In about ten minutes I’m going to stitch you up and you won’t feel a thing. Your fiancée can hold your hand and it’ll be over before you know it.”
As if she didn’t have any control over her movements, Alexis went to his bedside and took his free hand, holding it tightly as though she’d been doing it forever. Jared gave her a wicked wink and kissed the hand that clasped his.
“That’s it, baby. I feel better already.” His hand tightened on hers slightly and he looked at her intently. “God, you’re pretty. You’re absolutely beautiful, I hope you know that.”
Normally Alexis would have jerked away her hand and left the room, but she went along with it and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. “I’m going to get you back,” she warned him in a whisper.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” he murmured with an even sexier smile.
* * *
In a few hours, Alexis found herself on the receiving end of an inquisition. She was finally at home, facing both her sister and Sherri. Her car was safely home, too, thanks to Alana. She’d listened to her voice mails and had come to the rescue. The fallen tree limbs had been moved so that the car could be driven away, so she arrived at the hospital in time to see Alexis emerging from the emergency room entrance with a tall, gorgeous blond man in a wheelchair. Alana’s calm demeanor didn’t slip a bit, even when the man was referred to as Alexis’s fiancé. She merely raised an eyebrow when Alexis informed her that the man, Jared, was going to need a ride home because he’d been given a painkiller that made it impossible for him to drive.
Sherri had also showed up at that point and after a short discussion, it was decided that Sherri and Alexis would take Jared to his rented loft and that Alana would meet them afterward at Alexis’s house. Alexis was all too keenly aware that Alana was killing herself not to laugh at the situation, especially after Jared grandly informed her that he was looking forward to having her as a sister-in-law. Sherri drove to Jared’s building and it took both her and Alexis to help him to the elevator and into the big, barely furnished loft. It would have been a clean escape for the two women had it not been for Jared’s kamikaze-like move that resulted in Alexis getting a good-night kiss from him.
“You saved my life,” he informed her with a goofy grin. “That means I belong to you now.”
“Jared, tomorrow morning, when the medication wears off, you’re going to have a totally different perspective on this.” Alexis was trying to be pragmatic and logical, but he looked so sweet and charming that it was difficult.
“Nope. I know what I know and I know that you’re mine.” And before she could utter another word, he planted a big, delicious kiss on her surprised lips.
“Jared, you must lay down. Your prescriptions are right next to the bed and I put a big glass of water there for you. If you get dizzy or nauseous, call the E.R. or call me. I left my number there, too,” Sherri said in her most professional doctor voice.
“I just need Alexis’s number. We’re getting married, you know.”
“So I’ve heard,” Sherri said cheerfully.
Alexis had reached her limit. She made her small hand into a gun and pointed the forefinger at her temple, silently mouthing the word BOOM. She took one of Jared’s long arms and Sherri took the other and they walked him over to his bed.
“Go to sleep or the engagement is off. Call me in the morning and I’ll come take you to your car. Where are your pajamas?” She looked around in vain for anything that resembled sleepwear.
“I sleep au naturel. Wanna see?”
“Sherri, what the hell did they give him? Is he ever going to recover or is he just crazy?”
Jared was finally lying across the bed and looked as if he was about to nod off. Sherri was biting her lip to keep the laughter that was building up inside her to a minimum.
“He’ll be fine. Some people just react very strongly to those kinds of meds. We’ll leave the light on for him and you can check on him tomorrow. Now, let’s get out of here and get you home. You got some serious splainin’ to do, sister.”
And that’s how Alexis found herself seated across the table from her sister and her best friend, recreating the evening’s events. They were deriving a great deal of enjoyment from her explanation and Alexis had to admit that it was pretty funny when she told them how it came to be.
“I left the book club and I was thinking about the book we’d discussed when I got a flat. The lightning and thunder didn’t bother me, but that nasty slap-slap-slap noise a flat makes scared the crap out of me. I called AAA, then I tried to call Alana, but I couldn’t get you. So I was ready to wait it out and I was wondering how a sane woman could get hooked up with a vampire and then Jared tapped at my window and I screamed ‘Vampire!’ because that’s the first thing that popped in my head.”
Alana couldn’t hold it in anymore. She started laughing and it didn’t look as if she was going to ever stop. All of the Sharp women looked somewhat alike; slender with perfect cocoa-colored complexions and beautiful teeth. Alana’s hair was longer than Alexis’s. It was shoulder length and she often wore it in a ponytail to keep auto paint, grease and other kinds of soil out of it. She not only owned Custom Creative, she worked there everyday. No one looked less like a mechanic than Alana, but no one was better at her craft.
“You called him a vampire? Oh, that’s too much!”
“He looked like a vamp, thank you very much! He was all wet and his eyes were all funny looking and he’s so pale he glowed in the dark! Yeah, I called him a vampire! We had just been discussing Dead to the World and it hit home, that’s all.”
Sherri had to get her two cents in at that point. “He didn’t look wet and drippy when I met him. He looked a little rumpled, but that man is really handsome! He couldn’t keep his eyes or his hands off you, Alexis. So are you going to date him or what?”
Alana laughed again and the sound was beginning to grate on Alexis’s nerves. “They don’t have to date, they’re engaged, remember? He kept calling her his fiancée and told me he couldn’t wait to be my brother-in-law,” she said with an evil grin.
“I told you, he said that so I could stay in the examining room with him. He wasn’t serious. It was just a little joke between us that got a little out of hand when that pain medicine kicked in. In any case, I’m going to call him in the morning and get him to his car, if necessary, and that’s that.”
Alexis left her seat and began taking off her nasty, bloody clothes right there in the kitchen. “I should send him the bill for dry cleaning this outfit, but he did change my tire so I’m going to let it slide. But no, we won’t be going out. He’s not my type.”
Alana’s phone went off and she answered it as she walked to the living room, leaving Sherri and Alexis alone. “How do you know he’s not your type?”
“I just do, that’s all. He’s not attractive to me,” she said firmly.
“You need to pull out the list and see how many of your desired characteristics match his personality. You might be surprised.”
Alexis ignored her and went to her bathroom to get the robe that was hanging from the hook on the door. “Sherri, I love you and I love my sister but you are both dead wrong about this. Jared VanBuren seems to be a nice man, but he’s not the one. Nope. Now, while you pick up Sydney from wherever you stashed her to come rescue me, I’m going to take a shower. And tell my big sister to go home and read Car and Driver or whatever she does at night. Thanks to both of you but I’ve had a hell of a day.”
Sherri wasn’t that easy to dismiss; she had to have the last word. “After you get out of the shower, make sure you take a look at your list before you decide Jared isn’t the man for you. That’s all I ask, just take a look.”
“Yeah, right, whatever. I’ll get right on it.”
Chapter 4
The morning after his adventure with Alexis, Jared woke in a great mood. His forearm still ached after getting the stitches, but as injuries went, it wasn’t too bad. He’d gotten many worse injuries in the restaurant business, other cuts and burns that required trips to the E.R., but none had resulted in meeting a woman like Alexis. He stretched lazily under the sheet that covered him and smiled. He was enjoying the feeling of his morning arousal as much as the memory of kissing her. She probably thought he was crazy, but that was okay. He’d exaggerated the effects of the painkiller slightly, but it was so he could get her guard down and make her feel at ease with him.
Alexis Sharp was gorgeous, funny and sexy, and he was going to get to know her better while he was in Columbia. He was going to be living here on and off for months, until his two newest restaurants were up and running and he saw no reason to go without companionship for the duration. The restaurant business could be grueling, especially if you were the executive chef and owner. He was lucky that he had good business partners. His brothers Lucas and Damon and his best friend, Roland, were excellent partners which is why their empire was growing so rapidly. They were aiming for steady, sustained growth as opposed to flooding the market with a bunch of quasi-gourmet-of-the-month franchise eateries. His dream was unfolding as he desired, but a lot of personal sacrifice was involved, as well occasional inconveniences.
He’d planned on opening a restaurant here months ago, but he couldn’t find a property to his liking so he had to build from the ground up. He also couldn’t locate the right equipment for the kitchen, so construction was currently held up while he waited for the delivery of the custom ovens and cooktops from England. It was a pain in the behind, but it gave him time to search out Hilton Head Island for a potential spot and better yet, it would also allow him time to get to know Alexis better. That chocolate-colored skin, those flashing eyes, her luscious lips… He groaned and stretched again. She was a great kisser. Kissing her could be a part-time job as far as he was concerned.
He smiled again when he heard “Soulful Strut” by Young-Holt Unlimited playing; it was the ring tone he’d chosen for his phone. The smile got bigger when he looked at the caller ID and saw it was Alexis calling. “Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
A slight pause let him know that he’d caught her off guard. “Actually, I did sleep well. And you?”
“I was drugged into oblivion, thanks. I owe you another thanks for dragging my lanky self home. Most people would have left me in the emergency room to fend for myself.”
He could almost feel her smile over the phone. “I’m not most people, I’m special. Besides, I’m in your debt. You rescued me and got injured and I felt responsible. In fact, I should probably pay your hospital bill.”
His eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Don’t be silly. You owe me nothing. Besides, I have insurance. What I could use, however, is some assistance getting the Rover back home.”
He was so enthralled with the sound of her voice that he barely listened to her reply. Her voice was velvety and rich like chocolate ganache. It had a low, sexy pitch and he wondered if she sang. She had to; just hearing her talk was like listening to a song. He was so caught up in his enjoyment of her sultry tone that he had to yank himself back into the moment when she repeated a question.
“Sure, yes, I can be ready. You really don’t mind coming to pick me up?”
“Not at all. I’ll be there in about thirty minutes, is that okay?”
“Perfect. See you soon.”
Now he was totally energized. He got out of bed and went to the kitchen for plastic wrap to cover his bandaged arm so he could shower. His habit was to do as much as possible in the shower to save time and water, so he brushed his teeth, shaved and bathed, emerging from the huge stall clean and cheerful. He dressed quickly, in jeans, a chambray shirt that was so old it was more white than blue and a pair of Crocs. They weren’t the most attractive shoes in the world, but for someone who was on his feet most of the day, they were lifesavers. He combed his blond hair and thought about getting a haircut. It was down to his shoulders and it didn’t bother him, but it drove his mother nuts. Her current aim in life was to get him married and she was sure that his hair was sending out the wrong message. He could hear her words as clearly as if she was in the room with him. “Sweetheart, I think you need to cut that hair. You’d look much sexier and sophisticated with a really good cut. How are you going to meet the right woman looking like a scruffy line cook?”
His eyes crinkled in a smile. His mother never bit her tongue when it came to expressing her opinion on anything, especially when it came to marrying off her oldest son. He ran his hand through the long, drying strands and shrugged. Since he wasn’t trying to land a wife, he saw no reason to worry about the length or style of his hair.
