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“You explain to him exactly how you prefer to be kissed.”
“What if he has an itty-bitty penis?”
“It’s the motion of the ocean that counts, all that matters is that he rocks your boat.”
Jayne giggled. “You two are so funny.”
“Okay,” Eden said, growing serious as she risked expressing the real fears pyramiding inside her. “What if he thinks I’m a lousy lay?”
“Ooh,” Jayne said. “I can help you with that one. If there’s ever anything you want to know about driving a man wild in bed, I’m your go-to gal. Call me anytime.”
Ashley spread her palms. “There you are. Problems solved.”
Eden gulped. “All right, smarty-pants. Here’s the biggie. Worst-case scenario. What if he’s repulsed by my burn scars, can’t get it up when he sees me naked and then he rejects me?”
Undaunted, Ashley jutted out her chin and challenged, “Best-case scenario. He thinks you’re beautiful no matter your scars and your crazy worst-case-scenario voice. He’s a great kisser with minty breath and he’s got a gigantic penis. You have splendid sex and get your creativity back. Business booms, you fall madly in love, get married, buy a house in Connecticut, have three kids, two cats and a Pomeranian named Kibble and thirty years from now you’re still playing Tarzan and Jane with each other just like Mr. and Mrs. Lockerbee.”
Eden sucked in her breath. Did she dare to dream that dream? Was she brave enough to take a step toward claiming her sexuality?
Do it. Take a chance. What have you got to lose?
What indeed?
She’d been holding herself in reserve for too long. By not taking risks, she’d closed herself off to her creative wellspring. She needed more intimacy, not only with her work, but with her body as well.
She glanced at the basket in the window, the one completely lacking in pizzazz. That unexciting basket made her decision for her. If she wanted to get her inspiration back she had to take charge and move forcefully toward her goals.
She was going to lunch with Alec Ramsey. How else would she ever discover if those sparks between them would come to nothing or might lead to something wickedly wonderful?
3
THE NEXT MORNING excitement over his upcoming date with Eden had Alec prowling the hallways of the Single Guy offices located on the fourteenth floor of Trump Towers. His exuberant edginess, as it so often did, spilled over onto his employees.
He was walking fast and talking faster, okaying cover art for the upcoming edition, sending a writer back to the drawing board on a feature article that hadn’t turned out as expected, double-checking appointments with his executive assistant, Holden.
Everyone took his or her cue from his go-go-go attitude. They were keyed up and working at a frantic pace. Everyone, that is, except taciturn Holden, who always remained calm no matter what was happening around him. The young man’s unruffled aplomb was the very reason Alec had hired him. He needed an assistant who balanced his own impulsive nature. Holden kept him grounded when Alec might have otherwise gotten off track following his quicksilver mind wherever it chose to flow.
“Reschedule my one-o’clock workout with Randy,” Alec told Holden. “Something’s come up.”
Holden, who at twenty-two was more efficient than many executive assistants twice his age, swiftly made a notation in his Palm Pilot. “Oh, and by the way, your uncle is in your office.”
“Mac?” Alec broke into a smile. “He’s back from Fiji?”
Holden nodded. “Helping himself to your Scotch, I might add.”
“He can help himself to anything he wants,” Alec’s grin widened. “I am what I am today because of Uncle Mac.”
“I’ll restock.”
Alec pushed into his office to find his tanned, lean-muscled uncle sitting cocked back in the plush leather chair that had once belonged to him. Mac looked a little tired, however, that is until he flashed Alec a row of straight white teeth and raised his tumbler of Scotch in a salute.
“You old dog!” Alec exclaimed, slipping around the desk to embrace Mac in a bear hug as he rose to his feet. “You’re back early.”
“There’s only so much of those warm tropical breezes and sultry island girls a man can take.”
“Yeah, right.”
Mac set his glass down and feigned a boxing move. Alec feigned in return. They embraced again, slapping each other on the back. His father’s younger brother had never been married and never aspired to be. He was the consummate playboy and Alec’s mentor, teaching him everything he knew both about the publishing industry and how to seduce women. For forty-nine years Mac had lived the very life he extolled in the pages of Single Guy before turning over the helm to Alec and Randy the previous year.
“So,” Mac prompted. “Any interesting conquests while I was gone?”
“Nope, no one.” Alec shook his head. Without understanding why, he really didn’t want to tell Mac about Eden. Besides, there wasn’t much to tell.
Yet.
Mac wagged his head. “Boy, you’ll never live up to my reputation if you keep spending so much time on the sidelines.”
“You’re a legend, Uncle Mac, there’s no living up to you.”
His uncle laughed, but the jocularity seemed forced and Alec wondered if something was wrong. “Well, you might not be the hound dog I was, but you’ve got the soft soap down pat.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“By the way.” Mac tapped the October issue of Single Guy lying open on the desk. “While I was waiting on you I checked out your last editorial. All Women Are Goddesses, Let’s Treat Them That Way.” He hooted. “You really believe that?”
“Yes. Don’t you?” Alec did believe women were goddesses. Nothing fascinated him more than the fairer sex. He loved the smell of them, their softness, the way their minds worked. Chalk it up to having four sisters. Fact was, he adored the women. Tall ones, short ones, plump ones, thin ones. He made no discrimination. That’s why he couldn’t commit to just one. There were simply too many wonderful ladies walking the face of the earth.
“All women are goddesses?” Mac arched an eyebrow.
“All women,” Alec said firmly.
“Even the…”
“Don’t go there.” Alec shook his head.
“Your Eagle Scout ethics are showing, but I’m betting that article got you laid ten times over.”
“Actually no. That’s part of the new sexual etiquette. No taking advantage of provocative situations.”
“Hell, then what’s the point? You might as well get married along with your buddy Randy.”
Alec studied his uncle. Something was going on. “You know I’m not interested in getting married.”
“Just remember that. The last thing you want is to end up straitjacketed in suburbia, working two jobs to support five kids, only to die of a heart attack way before your time.”
“That wouldn’t happen to me.”
“Because I made it my mission in life to save you from my brother’s fate. Thank God, I succeeded. Can you imagine yourself living in Connecticut and trotting home on the train to your sweet little wife who’ll only give you nooky twice a month with the lights off if you’re lucky, three rug-rats with attention deficit disorder, two neurotic cats and a dog who won’t quit peeing on the carpet?”
“No, I can’t imagine it.” Alec shifted his weight uncomfortably.
They’d had this conversation many times before and, while he was glad to see Mac, he really didn’t want to get his uncle started on his favorite soapbox issue.
What he wanted was to get on the phone and make reservations for his lunch with Eden. He could have gotten Holden to make the arrangements, but for some odd reason Alec wanted to handle it himself. He glanced at his wristwatch.
“I won’t keep you,” Mac said, picking up on his signal. “I just dropped by to invite you to dinner with Sophie and me.”
“Which one is she again?”
“You remember Sophie. I’ve dated her on and off for fifteen years. Leggy redhead, Southern accent, killer rack.”
“Now, now,” Alec chided. He’d never realized before how immature his uncle sometimes sounded. “No objectifying women.”
Mac shook his head. “Good thing I retired when I did. I can’t keep up with all these new rules. Oh, by the way, Sophie’s got a date all lined up for you.”
Alec winced. “Listen, Mac, I don’t know about this blind date.”
“Shh. You’re the publisher of Single Guy. You’ve got a reputation to uphold and, seeing as how your partner has decided to up and get married, the mantle of sustained bachelorhood rests firmly on your shoulders. Gotta show the world you’re all about the fun. Besides, Sophie says her friend used to be a circus acrobat.” Mac winked. “Bet you never dated one of those.”
“You got me there.”
“I’ll send a car around at six. We’re going to see The Producers after dinner at Kim Sum’s. I’ll spring for the check.”
Alec didn’t want to go on a blind date, but he hadn’t seen Mac for over a month. It was the least he could do for his uncle. “Sure. Okay. See you tonight.”
The minute the door closed behind Mac, Alec plopped into his chair and reached for the telephone. Circus acrobat be damned. He had a sexy, erotic gift-basket designer on the hook and he wasn’t about to let her get away.
Alec made reservations at an intimate restaurant on Forty-fourth Street that was way overpriced for lunch, but what the hell? What was the point of having money if you couldn’t use it to spoil a special lady? He was definitely looking to impress her.
Eden represented the kind of naughty, no-strings-attached relationship he’d been searching for since Randy had announced his engagement. Showing her a great time would remind him exactly how good it was to be single, footloose and fancy-free.
He rubbed his palms together, requested the restaurant’s most expensive bottle of champagne, asked them to ice it and then called his florist to order a small bouquet of flowers. He planned on laying his cards on the table, giving Eden the full court press. He wanted her to know exactly what was on his mind—that he was very attracted to her, but he wasn’t the marrying kind.
Alec didn’t want to waste either of their time with silly mind games, nor did he want her to get hurt. If his initial impression of her had been wrong and she wasn’t all about fun and adventure, then he needed to know that now.
Because ever since their electric meeting yesterday afternoon, Alec had only one goal on his mind.
Seducing Eden Montgomery.
“YOU WERE RIGHT,” Jayne Lockerbee told Sarah Ramsey Armstrong. “They are perfect for each other. Sparks flew the minute they laid eyes on each other.”
Sarah pushed a strand of sleek blond hair behind one multipierced ear and grinned over the top of her cubicle at her co-worker. They were both financial analysts for Dean-Sterns Investments, although Jayne worked only three days a week.
“When you gave Zach and me that erotic gift basket for a wedding present I knew whoever had made it was exactly the kind of woman Alec needed. Earthy, grounded, intelligent and yet incredibly sensual.”
“That’s Eden to a tee—even if she doesn’t yet have the self-confidence to realize her feminine power. But with our help, she will.” Jayne grinned.
“Yes! Enough with the airheaded bimbos already. Alec goes for them because they’re not a threat. My brother needs someone who’ll challenge him both inside the bedroom and out, whether he knows it or not.” Sarah clapped. “Making this match is going to be such fun.”
“Are you sure Alec is ready to settle down?” Jayne frowned. “I care about Eden and I don’t want to see her hurt. She’s vulnerable, especially since the fire. I think the last guy she was seeing really did a number on her ego.”
“Relax. My little brother’s got his faults, but he’s not a heartbreaker.”
“But he publishes a magazine worshiping the merits of bachelorhood over marriage and he has dated a lot of women,” Jayne mused.
Sarah waved a dismissive hand. “A lot of what you see is public relations. Alec doesn’t treat women frivolously and he hasn’t had nearly as many girlfriends as he likes everyone to believe.”
“Really?”
“Now, he wouldn’t admit it if you tortured him, but I’ve seen the wistful way he looks at Randy and Jill and me and Zach. No matter how much he protests to the contrary, he’s not built like Uncle Mac. Sooner or later he’s going to realize what he’s missing by clinging to his silly belief that love and marriage mean the death of fun and freedom. And I think your Eden is just the woman to teach him how to face his fears. He’s going to love the intimacy of monogamy once he gets a taste of it.”
“How do you know?”
Sarah held out her left hand and admired the big diamond sparkling there. “Until I met Zach, I was afraid of commitment, too. We Ramseys are a stubborn bunch, but when we do fall in love, we’re in it for the long haul.”
“I remember.” Jayne laughed. “I kept trying to tell you what a wonderful thing a good marriage was.”
“So I’m a slow learner. Let’s hope Alec realizes sooner than I did that there’s nothing more profound than finding your soul mate. Not to mention hot, hot, hot.”
“The sexual chemistry between those two was unmistakable,” Jayne said. “I thought Eden’s boutique was going to combust.”
“All they needed was a push in the right direction.” Sarah nodded. “They’ll thank us in the end.”
“I’ll call Eden after she comes back from their luncheon and see how things went.”
“I’ll keep you posted on what Alec says.”
The two women grinned at each other and Sarah started humming the matchmaker song from Fiddler on the Roof.
WOULD LIGHTNING STRIKE twice? Or had yesterday simply been a fluke?
Wetting her lips to dampen her nervousness, Eden changed from her Nikes in the ground-floor ladies’ room at Trump Towers and slipped into the pair of four-inch Jimmy Choo ebony sling-backs Jayne had loaned her.
Was Alec Ramsey really the man she wanted as her love mentor?
That was the question she was here to answer.
In the meantime, she had caved in to Ashley and Jayne’s demands that she vamp out, although she couldn’t shake the feeling she was leading Alec on, acting like an experienced, sexually confident woman when that’s the last thing she was.
“Act the part,” Ashley had encouraged when she’d insisted Eden borrow her skintight black leather skirt that was long enough to hide Eden’s burn scars but short enough to generate plenty of head-turning interest. On the subway ride over she’d gotten a half-dozen appreciative wolf whistles.
“Perceiving, behaving, becoming,” Jayne had imparted along with the Jimmy Choos, and a pair of dynamite black fishnet stockings with sparkly rhinestones sewn into the back seam.
But what had finally convinced her to give their plan a try was the editorial in the front pages of the October issue of Single Guy. She was impressed by the way Alec advocated responsible sex and described all woman as goddesses. As the publisher of a magazine aimed at bachelors, he might be commitment shy, but reading the article clued her in that Alec definitely knew how to indulge a lady.
And that was exactly what she needed. A temporary tryst with a tender and considerate man who wouldn’t head for the hills when he discovered her secret.
Eden peered at herself in the bathroom mirror and was startled to see how unruly she appeared. She ran a hand through her rowdy curls to tame them. The humid weather played havoc with her hair, giving her a just-tumbled-out-of-bed look. Her lipstick color too red, her mascara too thickly applied.
