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“Just be yourself,” he said, “and if you’re unsure of anything, defer to me.”
“What have you told them about me?” Her hair swung against her jaw, sleek and sophisticated, and he noticed how long and elegant her neck was.
“Nothing. They didn’t even know your name until a couple of days ago. Oh, we went to the Caribbean in March. You got sunburned.”
“Foolish of me.”
“I might have told them you love skiing.”
“Foolish of you.”
“Yeah. I think we went to Vail in February.”
She turned to stare at him. “From Paris?”
“I didn’t know you were in Paris when we got engaged.” He threw his hands up in the air. “You know what I mean. We’ll wing it.”
“I’ll do my best,” she said.
Even with her in those ridiculous heels they made good time and before he was remotely prepared, they were standing outside the restaurant. He drew in a quick breath. “Ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Okay.” He reached for her hand. “Hope you don’t mind. We should act like, you know …”
“Lovers,” she replied, wrapping her fingers around his. The clasp was perfect. Her hand felt surprisingly reassuring in his. Even if the word lovers, and the way she’d said it, had him conjuring up a vision of the two of them in bed, hot and sweaty and orgasmic. Which was not what he wanted to be thinking about when he saw his bosses.
They walked into the restaurant, an upscale French place, and were directed to the upper floor, where a private space had been reserved.
There weren’t many people there yet. Only the key ones. Piers and his wife, Helen. Piers’s brother, Lars, and his wife, Amelia, and several board members and their wives. Damien Macabee nodded to him affably, and David was already so rattled he barely thought about any awkwardness that might be attached to him coming to dinner with the man he planned to replace. Macabee’s wife also nodded and under her scrutiny he felt even more uncomfortable. But then, the woman was a judge, and he was always convinced she could see right through him.
Not only were he and Chelsea the youngest by a few decades, but bringing Chelsea into this room was like bringing a gorgeous parrot into a flock of drab pigeons.
For a second total silence fell over the assembled company. Piers recovered first. He walked forward with a welcoming smile on his face. “Well, David, good to see you. And please introduce me to your lovely lady.”
“Glad to, Piers. Piers Van Horne, this is my fiancée, Chelsea Hammond.” His tie was choking him again. He’d been engaged once and never, ever planned to put himself in the same position again, where a woman had the power to gut him. Not that this one did—obviously, he didn’t love her. Barely knew her, but still, introducing her as his fiancée left him feeling like he needed to down a bottle of Maalox.
She held out her hand and shook her host’s. “Thank you for inviting me,” she said.
“We’re so glad to finally meet you. We’ve heard a lot about you.”
“David’s told me a little about you, too.” But not nearly damned enough to prevent disaster, he was certain.
“Come and meet some of the other people we work with.”
He ushered her forward. “My wife, Helen. Helen, this is Chelsea.”
Helen was not what you’d call well-preserved. She’d let her hair go gray long before it was fashionable to do so, and always wore the same hairstyle, a simple bun at the back of her head. She was on the heavy side and wore clothes and shoes that were comfortable rather than stylish.
Helen and Chelsea shook hands and he couldn’t imagine two women in the world who could have less in common.
“Let’s get the women drinks, shall we?” Piers said. He hated to leave them, but what choice did he have. “Sure. Honey? What do you want to drink?”
“I’ll have my usual Pernod, if they have it,” she said. “White wine, if they don’t.”
Pernod. Why the hell couldn’t she drink something normal. Scotch or a martini or something.
“Pernod,” he heard Helen say and inwardly cringed. “I remember my brother used to drink that. He picked up the habit when he was living in France.”
“That’s how I started, too. I was living in Paris until recently.”
“Really? We took the children to visit Bob one Christmas. He was with IBM and it was a great treat for us all to go over there. Were you on holiday?”
“No. I studied at Le Cordon Bleu. I’m a chef.”
“Really? How interesting. Oh, how I envy you. I married so young I never …” And then they were out of earshot and he didn’t know what Helen had never done. At least the first five minutes of his ordeal were going better than he’d hoped.
He and Piers picked up the drinks and returned to the ladies, by which time the women were talking about pastry. Pastry!
David downed his scotch-and-soda. He wasn’t much of a drinker, but he definitely felt the need for some false courage if he was going to get through this night.
More board members began to arrive and if Chelsea still stuck out as the most glamorous and sexy woman at the party, he began to realize that she wasn’t the embarrassment he’d feared. She was still the same intelligent, well-read, curious person she’d always been. She also seemed to have grown out of her shyness.
By the time dinner was served, she’d charmed most of the board members and their spouses. She had the rare ability to converse on a wide range of subjects and seem as interested in talking about cooking and fashion as about politics and current events. The only time she seemed lost was when talk turned to sports.
He was beginning to think that maybe this night wasn’t going to be the disaster he’d imagined when they sat down to dinner. Given the number of people, they were arranged at a long table. He and Chelsea were seated side by side, and Piers and a couple of the senior board members were closest to them.
She ordered the day’s fresh fish and he ordered the same. It wasn’t planned, but it definitely made them look more of a couple, he decided.
When the first courses arrived, Amelia leaned forward and said, “I asked Lars where you and David met.” She shook her head. “Men are so hopeless. They work together every day, and do you know, he couldn’t tell me?”
David swallowed. He and Chelsea exchanged a glance. “You didn’t tell him anything?” she asked.
He shrugged. “It’s a guy thing. You tell them, honey.”
She really had the most amazing eyes. Sparkly, brown like rich chocolate cake, and the most incredible combination of innocence and mischief. “Well, the truth is, David and I have known each other since I was fourteen.”
“Really, were you high school sweethearts?”
She laughed, easily. “No. He was several years older than I was. The brother of my best friend. He didn’t even know I existed.” She gave an exaggerated sigh. “And I had a hopeless crush on him.”
Everyone laughed. She continued. “We moved away after I finished high school and I didn’t see David again for many years.”
He picked up the story. “Then we bumped into each other one day on the street, and I couldn’t believe how beautiful she was.”
Even though they were only acting a part, they’d both managed to tell the truth. He caught her quick glance and saw that she was flattered by his words.
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” Helen said. “When is the wedding?”
He and Chelsea exchanged a glance, but she didn’t speak, letting him field this one.
“We haven’t set a date,” David said quickly. Then, realizing how that sounded, he said, “Probably next spring.”
“You should get on it ASAP if you are planning a spring wedding,” Amelia warned him. “The good places all get booked. When my daughter got married, we had a full year to plan, and still, she only got her second choice of venue.”
“That’s something to think about, honey,” he said. Then he dug around desperately for a topic that would move the conversation into a new direction. But before he’d been able to think of anything, Amelia was at it again.
“I see you don’t wear a ring, dear.”
He stared at Chelsea’s left hand, with its short, buffed nails and no jewelry whatsoever. Damn it, he’d totally forgotten. Of course he should have given her a ring. A fake diamond for his fake fiancée.
He opened his mouth with no idea what he was going to say, when Chelsea put her hand over his. “He wanted to, but I work with food all day. Honestly, a ring would only get in the way. I’d be terrified I’d take it off to wash my hands and wash the ring down the drain or something. Once we’re married, I’ll wear a wedding band, though, of course.”
A few of the board members at the other end of the table got a little rowdy as the night went on. And suddenly, to his horror, he heard a spoon begin to bang against a glass.
“We want the engaged couple to kiss,” somebody shouted.
Piers started to protest, but his wife said, “Oh, don’t spoil the fun. It’s nice to see young people in love.”
By now, other spoons had joined in the din. What could he do?
He leaned forward and caught the laughter in Chelsea’s eyes as he closed his lips on hers.
For a second he forgot that he was in a corporate setting with a group of people who held his future in their hands. All he knew was that she tasted like chocolate and sex and a hint of licorice from her earlier Pernod.
He pulled away slowly, seeing the shock in her eyes. He imagined her look must have mirrored his own. Slowly, her tongue slipped out and she licked her lips as though trying to catch the elusive flavor of that kiss.
He wanted to say something that would lighten the sudden tension, but he couldn’t think. Rockets were exploding in his brain. Or maybe they were Mayday flares warning him that he was in deep, deep trouble.
5
OH, NO. THE WORDS bounced around Chelsea’s brain like a pinging dot in one of those annoying computer games. Oh, no. Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no!
If she’d had one rule for herself—if she’d thought any of this through enough to have created some rules for herself, which would have been a pretty damn good idea—rule number one would have been no kissing. Well, no physical contact of any kind, obviously. But it was too late for that, so maybe if she pulled herself together long enough to list a few rules for personal conduct, she had a tiny possibility of getting through this charade without making a fool of herself.
Maybe.
She got through the rest of the night somehow, but she was always conscious of David’s presence beside her, of the feel of his arm when it brushed hers. Even through the summer-weight jacket he wore she felt his body heat the same way she felt the insistent attraction that thrummed between them.
She wasn’t sure whether she was glad or sorry when they finally left. Sure, it had been stressful to play a part, but at least the mental effort had kept her from thinking about the fact that soon she’d be going to David’s home.
With David.
Alone.
“What are you thinking about?” David asked her. They were seated in a cab speeding to his place. She was sure he lived close enough to walk, but in deference to her heels, he’d insisted on a cab. And the two of them were headed for his place for all the wrong reasons.
No! She corrected herself hurriedly. For all the right reasons. Sex was a bad reason and they weren’t going to do that. Clearly no sex was the new rule number one.
Good reasons for heading to David’s place included a nice place to stay rent-free for a few months and use of a kitchen that Sarah insisted was top-of-the-line.
She had to keep reminding herself of that, especially since breaking rule number one of the former rules list, the one where no kissing held top spot. Because any fool could see that once a woman started kissing a man like David, she was never going to stop.
How many times had she dreamed about that first kiss? A thousand? A million? Ten billion? She’d been a quintessential shy-girl nerd. Not even a geek, which was starting to be cool when she hit high school. No. She didn’t mess with computers, she read classics and she cooked. She supposed, looking back, that she was trying to recreate the home she’d lost by becoming a great cook. With the three adults all working, she was usually the one to cook dinner, and she found that she loved to experiment with new recipes, to refine old family favorites.
Other kids played video games and watched Friends when they got home from school. She watched Jacques Pepin and Martha Stewart. She wore the wrong clothes. She was plain and shy and studious. And the perfect fodder for a hopeless crush on the guy most likely to do whatever the hell he pleased.
But even in the fantasy realm where David suddenly noticed her and drew her slowly to him and kissed her, she’d never imagined that it would be quite so earth-shattering—and like most shy, bookish girls, she had quite an imagination.
Who’d have believed that now, now that she was no longer that shy young closet romantic, when she had plenty of experience of life and love, a simple kiss could rock her world.
But it had.
And so she was obsessively thinking about not thinking about that kiss—and about rules.
“I’m thinking about rules,” she said at last in answer to his question.
“Rules?” In the dim light of the cab, she thought she caught the interest on his handsome face. “What kind of rules?”
He said the words in the low, sexy tone of a man who brought women home to his place more often than she cared to think about, and not so they could sleep in the guest room and cook in his kitchen. Oh, no. He thought she was about to invent some sex game with rules. Even as the thought hit her, heat flooded her body.
No. Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no!
“Rules of conduct,” she snapped, knowing she must sound like a kindergarten teacher on the first day of school.
“Maybe you’d better explain exactly what you mean.”
“If we’re going to be, um, sharing the same apartment, I think we need some guidelines.”
“If this is a toilet-seat-up-versus-down conversation, you can relax. There are two bathrooms. You’ll have your own.”
“I wasn’t thinking of those kinds of rules, though I suppose we’ll have to work around each other’s preferences. I was thinking more of …” She had no idea how to phrase this, and suddenly felt incredibly foolish. “Rules between you and me.”
Did he have to sit so close? There was plenty of room, but David had positioned himself so his leg was touching hers, thigh-to-thigh, and she felt the heat pulsing between them in a way that did not bode well for her peace of mind.
David, as she knew well, was a player, and she had no interest in being one of his playthings. At least, not in the sensible, self-protective part of her.
“Rules between you and me,” he echoed, sounding a little confused but also hopeful.
“Like no kissing,” she blurted.
He chuckled softly. And it was such a sexy sound she wanted to throw herself at him and break all the rules she’d thought of and a bunch she hadn’t. “Looks like we already broke the first rule.”
“I know. That’s what started me thinking. I can’t live in your house if we’re going to be, you know …”
“Kissing.”
“And so on.”
