Again, his lips curved in that knowing smile.
“Good night, Mr. Costain,” she said, her voice tight.
“Good night, Miss DeLacey.”
The way he said her name made her insides curl with pleasure.
And then she frowned. “How did you know my name?”
He shrugged. “You must have mentioned it.”
She stared after him as he left the store. She was certain she hadn’t told him her name. The fact that he knew it without being told left her feeling violated somehow.
He returned to the store every night just after midnight for the next week, and he always bought something: a dark pinstriped suit; a dozen dress shirts—black, brown, navy, and dark gray—all silk. He bought four pairs of Armani slacks in varying shades of brown, as well as three pairs of black slacks, two belts, three ties, a pair of black slippers, a black silk dressing gown.
Tonight he picked out a Trafalgar American Alligator wallet priced at five hundred and fifty dollars.
He gave her a long, lingering look that made her insides curl with pleasure before he left the store.
“He’s a big spender, that one,” Parker said, coming up behind Megan. “I wonder what he does for a living.”
“I have no idea.”
“Well, I hope he sticks around. We haven’t had a week like this since Bono came in to do his Christmas shopping.”
Megan nodded, though secretly she hoped that Mr. Rhys Costain would go back to wherever he had come from. His mere presence flustered her, and she didn’t like it. She was far past the age to come unglued in the presence of a handsome man, especially when that man was at least ten years younger than she was.
It was close to three A.M. when Megan arrived at the small, two-story house she shared with her best friend, Shirley Mansfield. Shirl was a fashion model, which sounded a lot more glamorous than it was. Being a model involved dedication and self-denial, especially for Shirl, who was older than most of the popular models and had to work harder to keep fit. Of course, as far as anyone in the business knew, she was seven years younger than her actual twenty-eight years. Shirl rose every weekday at six and headed to the gym for a thirty-minute workout. Then she came home, took a shower, and ate a calorie-controlled breakfast. Then she was off to casting appointments and fittings, and because she was extremely popular, more often than not she had a fashion shoot in the afternoon. She didn’t usually make it home before five. Of course, the pay was excellent.
Megan didn’t see much of Shirl during the week, since Shirl was usually in bed long before Megan got home from work.
After taking a quick shower, she slipped into a pair of comfy pj’s and curled up in her favorite chair, determined to read for a few minutes before she went to bed. But she couldn’t seem to concentrate on the words. Instead, Rhys Costain’s image drifted through her mind. She told herself to forget him. For one thing, he was much too young for her; for another, there was an air of danger about him that scared her on some deep inner level she didn’t understand.
With a sigh of resignation, Megan closed the book and set it aside. Tomorrow was Saturday. She didn’t have to work Sunday or Monday. If Shirl didn’t have anything scheduled for Sunday night, maybe they could get together for dinner and a movie.
Later, lying in bed waiting for sleep to find her, Megan was irritated to find her thoughts again turning toward Rhys Costain. How did he spend his weekends? Was he buying all those new clothes to impress a new girlfriend? Or a new wife?
The thought of him with another woman was oddly disconcerting and she shook it away. She didn’t like him. Didn’t like the way he made her feel, or the dark thoughts that flitted through her mind whenever he was near.
Flopping over onto her stomach, she pounded her fist against the pillow. She had been spending far too much time thinking about the man.
Yet even as she tried to convince herself that she didn’t care if she ever saw him again, a little voice in the back of her mind whispered that she was a liar.
ZEBRA BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 2010 by Amanda Ashley
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ISBN: 978-1-4201-1760-8
Everlasting Kiss Page 31