She cleared her throat. “I thought you’d left.”
“I did for a while. Ran home to shower and change,” he said, motioning toward his polo shirt and khakis. He’d left the bandage off this time, and while she could still see the reddened, burned areas on his forearm, they already looked much better than they had the last time she’d seen them.
She moved toward the cabinet where she stored coffee mugs, pulling two of them out to give herself something to do while she reminded herself of all the sensible things she’d intended to say to him. She only hoped she didn’t forget them again, she thought as he advanced on her with a gleam in his eyes.
“Do you realize that you haven’t even given me a smile yet--much less a good-morning kiss?” he asked.
She smoothed her hands down her jeans. “I, uh...”
He leaned over to plant a firm kiss on her mouth.
“Now how about the smile?” he asked when he drew away.
She gave him a quick, stiff smile in response. “That bag smells delicious,” she said, seizing on the first innocuous topic that came to her mind. “What did you bring us?”
He dropped his hands on her shoulders to hold her in place when she would have moved toward the table. “Gen, I know you’re a little nervous--that awkward morning-after thing, and all.”
“You’re right. It is a bit awkward. Maybe we should just have breakfast.”
“Fine. We can talk while we eat.”
“Talk?” She drew in a deep breath. “Maybe we should wait a few days before we get into a serious discussion. You know, just to regain some perspective after the wedding and...and everything.”
He shook his head. “Has anyone ever told you that it’s very difficult to pin you down for a serious talk? One way or another, you’ve been putting me off for days.”
“I really don’t see what we have to talk about. We’ve accomplished everything we set out to do. Your plan worked great. The wedding went off beautifully and with very little media attention since there was no juicy best-friend-betrayed angle to keep the tabloids interested. You and I had a nice little celebration of our success, and now it’s time to wind it down.”
She turned to pour herself a cup of coffee, speaking with her back to him. “Seems to me like the only thing left to talk about his how many more public appearances we need to make before we can quietly drift apart. Maybe if you start dating another cute little starlet in a few weeks, everyone will naturally assume you’ve lost interest in me and moved on to more interesting pursuits.”
Brian had remained silent while she made that extremely painful speech. “Are you finished?” he asked when she paused to take a bracing sip of caffeine. He spoke very quietly, no expression at all in his voice.
She set her cup down and braced herself on the counter with both hands. “I’m finished.”
“Good. Because that was the biggest load of garbage I’ve heard in longer than I can remember.”
Stung, she swung around to glare at him. “What?”
“You’re right. The ‘plan’ worked great. I’m glad we were able to take some of the pressure off of Raylene and Jonathan. The wedding was beautiful, they’re married now, and I’m sure they’ll live happily ever after. But to be quite honest, I’m not really interested in discussing their future right now. I’m much more concerned with ours.”
She shrugged. “We already know our future. I just described it.”
“I’ve already told you what I thought of your description. Garbage.”
She opened her mouth to respond, but he surged on before she had a chance to speak. “Last night was not a casual celebration of the successful conclusion of a brilliant plan. It was a hell of a lot more than that, and it’s been building for a long time.”
“I--”
He didn’t give her a chance to finish--which was just as well, because she didn’t have a clue what she would have said.
Looming over her, he continued in clipped tones, “As for your clever suggestion that I take up with some ‘cute little starlet’--that’s not even worth the breath it would take for me to respond. Concerning the rest of your comments, I see no need for us to have any more public outings just for the sake of the media. We’ve put that gossip to rest and everyone has moved on to more juicy speculation.”
“Oh. Well, then.” If he really thought there was no need for further outings, then she could just end it now. It would be a great relief, she assured herself, not to have to deal with any more high-society events--wondering what to wear, how to wear her hair and make-up, what to say, or not to say. If she never heard another bored photographer call her name for a fake smile, she wouldn’t be at all disappointed. All in all, it would be beset to just call it quits right now.
She could deal with the aching hollow left inside her later. She would certainly have plenty of free time to do so once her fake relationship with Brian was over.
“From now on,” Brian added, “you and I will be together for no other reason than that we want to be. The media will have nothing to do with it.”
A dull pounding began somewhere in the back of her skull. So it wasn’t going to be as easy as she had hoped to break this off. And this was exactly why she had kept putting this talk off. Now she realized she should have made her intentions clear several days ago, before she’d given in to temptation.
It wasn’t going to be easy to convince him that she wasn’t interested in him when she had been all over him last night. And especially since she knew very well that she was head over heels in love with him--and probably had been from the first time he had walked into her shop. But that was something she could not allow him to see, since loving him did not make her right for him.
She chose her words carefully. “I’m sure we’ll see each other through Raye and John. Raylene enjoys entertaining, and we’ll be invited to dinner parties and that sort of thing.”
He was shaking his head long before she finished speaking. “I’m talking about us, Genae. You and me.”
“There is no us, Brian. It was all an act. Don’t start confusing that with reality.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Last night was no act.”
“Last night was...” she almost called it a mistake. She bit that word back because she didn’t really think of it that way. Maybe it had complicated things between them, but she had no regrets. She was going to savor those memories for a very long time.
“Last night was a one-time thing,” she said instead.
“You really think so?” he asked, his voice silky.
She lifted her chin. “I know so.”
“I’m wondering which of us is really denying reality now?”
She sighed and planted her fists on her hips. “Just what the hell is it you want from me, Brian?”
“I want you to marry me.”
Genae sagged for a moment against the kitchen countertop, needing its support. Of all the answers she had expected to her exasperated question, a proposal had not been one of them.
“Have you lost your mind?” she asked in a gasp.
Brian pushed a hand through his hair. “Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for.”
“Then let’s just pretend you never said what you just said.”
“I’m tired of pretending, Genae. This is real.”
Taking a few steps away from him, she shook her head. “I think you should leave now. It’s obvious that we need some time apart--just to clear our minds and to put some distance between us.”
He watched her without making any move to follow her. “You think my mind is clouded?”
She took another few steps away from him. “I think you’ve gotten carried away by everything that’s been going on lately. You know, spending so much time together. You getting hurt. Dinner with your parents. The wedding. And, uh...well--after the wedding.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, an odd half smile playing around his lips. “Genae?”
Now she really was getting nervous. Why the hell was he smiling? “What?”
“Where are you going?”
She realized that she had inched so far away from him she was almost entirely out of the kitchen.
Embarrassed, she stopped and looked up at him. “I’m not going anywhere. You are.”
“I know you’re afraid...”
Her shoulders squaring, she drew herself taller. “I am not afraid of you.”
“You’re afraid of how you feel about me. I understand. It’s safer to protect yourself. To follow your predictable routines, keeping your parents and your sister happy, ignoring your own dreams and wishes.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You think I haven’t gotten to know you during the past year? Everything you do is for Raylene--making sure she and Jonathan are together, going to so much trouble to see that the wedding was unspoiled. Even the shop was Raye’s dream, not yours--but you’re the one who’ll be doing much of the work there now that she’s married.”
That stung. She glared at him, almost quivering with temper and suppressed emotion. “And I suppose you consider yourself the well-adjusted one between us? You’re the one who went shopping for a wife as though you were looking for a promising new business investment. You’re the one who left a string of busty blondes to start tracking down a woman who fit some stupid list of wife requirements because you’re such an arrogant control freak you thought you could just order up a woman the way you would a pizza. And then, when it doesn’t work out with your first choice, you just switched over to her twin sister!”
She had effectively removed the smile from his face. When he moved toward her, she was unable to stop herself from taking another step backward. Not that she was intimidated by his fierce glare, she assured herself. She was simply moving out of his way if he was trying to leave.
He stopped directly in front of her. “I do not consider you to be a convenient substitute for Raylene,” he said between clenched teeth.
“Don’t you?”
“You know damned well I don’t. You’re using that as an excuse because you’re afraid to say what you really want.”
“What I want is for you to leave. Now,” she added, pointing toward the door.
He ignored her gesture. “I can’t believe you would imply that I would ask you to marry me just because Raylene chose Jonathan. Do you think I’m that shallow and...and idiotic?”
He was so mad he was shaking, she realized in amazement. As much as they had been through in the past few months, she had never seen him reduced to stammering. “I don’t think you’re shallow and idiotic. I think you’ve just gotten carried away. Everything’s been so hectic and Jonathan is so happy with Rayl--”
Brian held up a hand. “You’re right about one thing,” he cut in. “We need some time to calm down and get our tempers under control. I’m going to leave now. I want you to do some hard thinking about the time you and I have spent together. And I want you to remember that I have never confused you with Raylene.”
“Just go,” she whispered, horrified at the possibility that she might cry in front of him. “Please.”
“I’ll go. But I’ll be back.”
It sounded more like a threat than a promise.
Expecting him to walk out then, she was caught by surprise when he stopped in front of her, leaned down and planted a hard kiss on her slightly parted lips. “I will be back,” he said again, staring into her eyes for a moment.
And then he was gone, leaving Genae alone.
She missed her sister, she thought, sinking to the floor with her face in her hands. She missed all the dreams she had once had. Most of all, she missed Brian.
As badly as she hurt now, she knew she had done the right thing to send him away. Not even for Brian could she pretend to be someone she wasn’t. She wouldn’t repeat the mistake she had made with Kalob, trying to change herself to fit the image he had of the ideal woman. And unless she changed, she would never fit into Brian’s high-profile, socially conscious world. It was a disaster waiting to happen, and she wanted no part of it.
She was sure once Brian had time to think about how different she was from the woman he had hoped to marry, he would agree that she’d been right to send him away.
But it hurt---as nothing had ever hurt her before.
Brian couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so angry. He was known for having a coldly dangerous temper, soft-spoken and effective. Only Genae could push him into yelling.
He tried to spend some time working at home that afternoon, but he found himself unable to concentrate Instead he paced, muttering to himself as he did so. He still couldn’t believe Genae had accused him of using her as a substitute for Raylene. He knew she was scared and uncertain about their relationship, but that had been a low blow.
If he thought she truly believed it, he’d really be upset.
“Um...boss?” Jason looked up from his folder containing a report of Donovan’s capture at the Texas border. “Are you sure you want to discuss this today? You seem a little...agitated.”
Brian whirled to face his security chief. “Am I arrogant? A control freak?”
Jason looked bemused by the questions. “Just how do you want me to answer?”
“Honestly.”
Clearing his throat, his subordinate drawled, “Well...if by control freak you mean someone who’s sort of obsessed with having everything just the way they want it, someone who likes all his ducks in a row and doesn’t leave anything to chance, then yeah, I guess you’re a bit of a control freak.”
“And arrogant?”
Jason shifted in his chair. “Well...maybe just a tad. Not in a bad way, of course.”
“And do you consider me an idiot?” Brian demanded.
Jason looked intrigued. “Genae called you an idiot? You must have really hacked her off.”
“She didn’t actually call me an idiot. She just implied that I am one. Can you believe she accused me of thinking she was interchangeable with her sister? She implied that I’m interested in her now only because Raylene married John.”
“Well, aren’t you?”
“No, dammit!"
Jason tilted his head to one side, obviously interested by seeing his employer and friend so agitated. “No, I see that you aren’t.”
“What kind of man do you people think I am?”" Brian ranted, throwing up his arms as he spun to pace again.
“I take it Genae broke up with you?”
Brian didn’t usually unload his personal problems on his employees, or even his friends, with the exception of Jonathan. But Jonathan wasn’t here, and Brian needed someone to talk to. “I asked her to marry me.”
“Did you?” Jason didn’t look particularly surprised.
“She turned me down. She accused me of swapping her for her sister. And she called me an arrogant control freak.”
Jason smiled a little. “She does have a temper, that one.”
“Yes, she does. Entirely unlike Raylene, who is very slow to anger. Other than their appearance, they’re almost nothing alike. I certainly didn’t propose to Genae because she reminds me of her sister.”
“Then why did you propose to her?” Jason asked mildly.
That took him aback. Stopping in his tracks, Brian shoved a hand through his hair. “Why?”
Leaning back in his chair, Jason laced his hands behind his head. “Yep. Why did you ask her to marry you?”
“For the usual reasons, of course. I enjoy being with her. I admire her and respect her. I think we’re very compatible.”
“She fits the list?”
“This has nothing to do with any list,” Brian growled. “This has to do with Genae, and the way I feel about her.”
“And how do you feel about her?” Jason asked patiently.
“I’m in love with her,” Brian snapped. And then he repeated it more slowly as the words sank in. “I love her.”
“Did you tell her that?”
Grimacing, Brian shook his head. “No.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I just told her I wanted to marry her. And that it had nothing to do with Raylene.”
“And you expected her to accept that without question. Even though you made the newspapers less than two years ago for being engaged to that bathing suit model. And only a few months ago you were talking to Raylene about getting married. Hell, I can’t imagine why Genae would have thought she was just next in line for a proposal, can you?”
Brian groaned. “You’re fired, Colby.”
Jason chuckled, not without sympathy. “For answering you honestly?”
“For making me realize that I have, indeed, been an idiot.”
“I wouldn’t say you’ve been an idiot. A little misdirected when it comes to romance, maybe, but how many men do you know who aren’t clueless when it comes to this sort of thing? I’m divorced, myself, you know. And it wasn’t so long ago that Jonathan was swearing he was never going to get married, and now he’s off on his honeymoon. So we are capable of changing--with the right incentive.”
Brian sighed. “I’ve got my work cut out for me, don’t I?”
“Oh, yeah. She’s going to make you crawl.”
Nodding in resignation, Brian turned toward the door. “I’ve got to do some thinking. I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah, sure. Um--you want me to keep going through this report, or should I be looking for another job?”
“Go through the file. You’re hired again--until the next time you show me up for the fool I am.”
“Nice to have job security,” Jason grumbled sarcastically, but Brian didn’t pause to respond.
He had to come up with a whole new plan.
The roses arrived at the shop on Monday. Two dozen of them. They were vivid yellow, tinged with fuchsia edges, the most unusual Genae had seen in a long while.
Nearly hidden behind the enormous bouquet, Justin carried them into her office. “Are these delicious or what?” he demanded, looking rather enviously at the blooms. “They must have cost a fortune. That man sure has a thing for you, Gen.”
Because Justin was one of the few people who knew the truth about why Brian and she had been dating, she made a face at him. “He’ll get over it,” she muttered, watching as he set the vase carefully on Raylene’s empty desk. “Just like he did all the others.”
“Mmm. I wouldn’t be so sure. I’ve been watching the two of you.”
“Go tend to our customers, Justin.”
He grinned impertinently and flipped her the envelope that had been tucked among the roses. “Chicken,” he muttered as he left the office.
Genae felt decidedly cowardly as she held the small envelope in her hands, working up the courage to open it. When she finally did, she frowned as she read the words.
Genae, Raylene prefers pastel roses. These are much more suited to your tastes. Brian.
He was right, of course. Raye would have found these colorful roses a bit gaudy. Genae adored them. So what was Brian trying to prove? That he knew what sort of flowers she liked, just because he’d twice given her roses that she found beautiful?
Hardly a basis for marriage, she thought with a sniff, annoyed with him all over again.
But they really were beautiful, she thought, unable to resist leaning over just to inhale their fragrance.
On Tuesday he sent her a two-pound box of dark Swiss chocolates. And she suspected that he was well aware that Raylene didn’t like dark chocolates. Raye preferred milk chocolate, because she thought the dark kind was too rich. As far as Genae was concerned, the darker the better when it came to chocolate.
So Brian knew her tastes in flowers and candy, she thought, glowering at the beautiful gold box of sweets. So he noticed things like that. Was she supposed to be impressed?
The gift she received Wednesday was harder to brush off.
She carried the wrapped package to her office to open it away from her employees’ avidly curious eyes. What would it be this time? Jewelry? If so, she was sending it back immediately, she decided with a scowl. Surely Brian was aware that she couldn’t be bought.
Lifting the lid of the small box she had unwrapped, she frowned and lifted out a beautifully carved wooden box. Not just a box, she realized, turning it over. A music box. She wound it up, then opened the lid. Two intricately detailed plastic figurines inside began to twirl to the tinkling notes of “You Go To My Head.”
It was one of the first songs they had danced to together, she remembered. She had almost forgotten. It stunned her that Brian had remembered.
She closed the lid abruptly, stopping the music in mid-note. And then she picked up the phone and dialed his number without having to look it up.
“This has to stop,” she said when he answered, not bothering to identify herself. “No more gifts.”
“You haven’t liked them?”
“That isn’t the point, and you know it. It’s over, Brian.”
His reply was smooth. “Not by a long shot, darling.”
She hung up on him.
She wasn’t at all sure what she had accomplished with that terse phone call, but something told her it hadn’t been what she’d hoped. Just hearing Brian’s voice again had renewed the dull ache that hadn’t completely gone away since she’d all but thrown him out of her apartment last Sunday. And it had been clear from his tone that he had no intention of quietly giving up and going away.
She groaned and rested her face in her palms. Just what had she gotten herself into when she’d agreed to that crazy plan of his? And how was she going to get out of it without having her heart shattered in the process. Or was it already too late for that?
