Then stepped away. “Where do you want the wine?”
“Over there. Charlie is manning the bar. Let me put this down and I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
He handed the bottle of wine to Charlie, who shook his hand. She introduced him to the rest of her friends and he found them to be an inviting and eclectic group, ranging from business professionals such as an accountant and a stockbroker to a romance novelist and her animator husband to a couple who ran a tourist sailing operation.
Jeremy was comfortable with the group and found himself falling easily into the role of host by the time the evening ended and everyone left. But despite the fact that he was enjoying himself, he didn’t like the fact that he and Bella were clearly a couple here.
Bella smiled and held his arm as the last couple walked to their car. “That was fun. Next week we’re supposed to go to Charlie’s house. Will you be available?”
“Ah, I don’t know. I’ll have to check my schedule,” he said. He didn’t want to isolate her from her life and her friends, but he was struggling to keep her in the box labeled mistress, and hanging out with her friends wasn’t going to help.
“Okay. Just let me know if you can make it.”
“It seems like an odd group.”
“Kind of. We’ve been meeting for about two years now. It started out being just a few of us, hanging out at Chili’s, but then we decided we could hear each other better at home.”
“You’re not much for going out, are you?” he asked, realizing that she always suggested something in. “No.”
“Why not?”
She shrugged and turned aside to gather up some empty wineglasses.
“Tell me, Bella.”
“For a long time people used to stare at us. Dad’s death was front-page news.”
He couldn’t imagine what that had been like. “I read some articles about him.”
“He wasn’t like they said in those articles. He really loved our family and he was such a dreamer. He just had no head for business. Eventually he lost all he’d inherited.”
“What do you remember most about him?”
“He hated to be away from us. When he’d come home, the first thing he’d do was give Mom and me a big hug and then we’d all sit around the table and talk.”
“Was he gone a lot?”
“Yes…more and more that last year.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s been a long time.”
“But it doesn’t go away, does it?”
“No, it doesn’t. And people don’t stare anymore.
I just got used to staying home.”
He looked around her house. It was smaller than his, and not decorated with designer furniture, but it was warm and cozy. He liked the looks of the overstuffed sofa and could easily imagine sitting there with her.
“I think the Heat are playing tonight. You can probably catch the end of the game if you want to.”
“Do you want to watch it?”
“After I’m done cleaning up. Dare and I try to watch all the games. He e-mails with his highlights and asks for mine.”
“I’ll help you,” he said.
“You don’t have to help. You’re my guest.”
He didn’t say anything to that, just started gathering plates to clear the table. “Have you been to a Heat game?”
“Yes, a few. But my business is unpredictable, so I don’t have season tickets.”
“I have tickets with Kell and Daniel. The next home game, we’ll go.”
“I’d like that.”
He gathered up the plates from the table on the patio and loaded them into the dishwasher. She didn’t say anything as they worked and soon they had the place clean. They put on the game and finished the bottle of wine he’d brought. He wrapped one arm around her and held her close to him.
She fell asleep before the game ended and he shifted her into his arms and carried her down the hall to her bedroom. He didn’t want to think about tonight or the feelings she evoked in him. So instead he took off her clothes, waking her up. He took off his own and joined her on the bed, making love to her.
She fell asleep in his arms and he stared at the wall for most of the night, wondering how his carefully crafted plan had gone so wrong.
The next few weeks flew by and Bella felt that each step she took toward making Jeremy view her as more than a temporary mistress was countered by an obstacle either from her past or his friends. She carefully avoided Lucinda at any events where she and Daniel were in attendance. And Jeremy’s cousin Kell spent a lot of time talking to her about prenups and the advantages on both sides.
Which made her sad, because it was clear that he thought she was only after Jeremy for his money. If he knew how well Jeremy had protected himself against that, she suspected Kell would back off. And that made her more emotional, because she sensed that Jeremy cared enough about her to keep quiet about the mistress contract.
Yet he didn’t care enough to say that they didn’t need a contract between them any longer. Honestly, that was what she really wanted. She reminded herself of the contract to keep a certain distance between them. To protect herself from allowing her emotions to get the better of it. But it wasn’t working.
She glanced around the elegant ballroom, no longer feeling out of place. Lucinda had cornered her once and Jeremy had rescued her. It was one of the most heroic things he’d done for her. But now she was alone again, in a beautiful Oscar de la Renta gown that Jeremy had given her.
“Somehow I didn’t expect to find you hiding out on the terrace.”
Kell walked over to her. He looked very elegant and sophisticated in his tuxedo. Handsome, but not as attractive to her as Jeremy was.
“Jeremy asked me to wait here.” She was situated behind large potted trees that had been filled with twinkling lights. From her vantage point she had a view of the entire room, but no one else could really see her.
“Now it all makes sense,” Kell said. “This is one of our favorite spots.”
“Favorite spots for what?” she asked.
“Hiding out,” he said with a wry grin. Kell could be charming when he tried.
She opened her small handbag and took out an article on prenups she’d clipped from the Wall Street Journal a few days ago. “I saw this and thought of you.”
He took the article, glanced down at it. A brief smile touched his lips. “You’re not what I expected.”
She still hoped that her relationship would outlast the three months remaining on the mistress contract. And if it was going to have a chance to survive, she knew she needed to make more of an effort with Jeremy’s friends. He didn’t do a lot with them but she knew they were important to him—especially Kell.
“Well, I think all of us gold diggers are a little bit different.”
He arched one eyebrow at her. “Jeremy doesn’t see you that way.”
“Then why do you?” she asked.
“Let’s just say I’ve been there.”
She finally saw more than a good-looking, successful man in Kell and it was more than a little disheartening to realize she’d been so shallow. “I’m sorry. I care about Jeremy.”
“I’ve noticed that.”
“Why did you think I was a gold digger?” she asked.
He shrugged.
She knew that she should stop this line of questioning, but she had to know. What had he heard about her? Please don’t let it about the mistress contract, she thought. She’d absolutely die of embarrassment if all of his friends knew that they weren’t in a real relationship.
“Tell me. It can’t be anything I haven’t heard before.”
“It wasn’t anything about you,” he said. “Jeremy would kick my butt if he heard me talking to you about this.”
“Well, he’s not here,” she said carefully. She was almost a hundred-percent positive that whatever Kell had heard he’d mentioned to Jeremy. So he already knew whatever damaging gossip Kell had told him about her. And it had to be gossip, beca
use she hadn’t done anything for money that she regretted.
“You’d keep secrets from him?” he asked. Immediately he lost his charm and she saw the barracuda look in his eyes. She’d heard he was a corporate attorney who never lost a case and she could see why. There was an utter ruthlessness in his gaze.
She sighed. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“Of course she wouldn’t, Kell. What are you two talking about?”
She accepted the Bellini from Jeremy and took a sip of the smooth peach-and-champagne drink. Jeremy wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her firmly to his side.
“Um…”
“Gold diggers.”
“Not that again,” Jeremy said under his breath.
“I wanted to know what he’d heard about me to make him believe I’d be after your money.”
“It was old news about your family,” Jeremy said.
From Lucinda. She was the only one who would have known all the sordid details. The papers had reported that a business deal had gone wrong and her father, distraught from it, had killed himself. But the truth was a little darker. Her father had somehow gotten involved with the mob in a shady deal that she didn’t know all the details of. She could only imagine how desperate he must have been. The day after her father’s suicide, the DEA had arrived at the door to seize all of their property in connection with her father’s business dealings.
Even the papers hadn’t gotten all the details.
But her dear friend Lucinda had, because Bella had told her.
Tears burned in the back of her eyes. She didn’t think she could still feel betrayed from that long-ago friendship. But of course she could. At one time, Lucinda had been like a sister to her.
“Thanks for telling me. Does anyone else know?”
“Just Daniel, and he won’t repeat it,” Kell said. “Neither would I. It’s not anything personal—”
“I know,” she said, putting her hand on his arm to stop him. “You were just looking out for Jeremy.”
“I can look out for myself,” Jeremy said wryly.
Kell didn’t say anything, just kept watching her with that stare of his. Finally she sighed and said, “I can’t blame you there.”
Kell nodded at her and then left. Jeremy drew her back against his solid frame, not saying another word. She let the strength in his body surround her and soothe the wounds left over from Lucinda.
Nine
Jeremy watched Kell walk away. He’d known that Kell didn’t trust Bella, but he had no idea that the two of them had spent so much time chatting alone. He knew that Bella could handle herself, but he should have paid closer attention to Kell.
“Sorry if he was being a pain.”
She took another sip of her drink and glanced sideways at him. Her hair slid along the sleeve of his tuxedo jacket and he wished they were home alone so he could feel her hair on his skin. She had the softest hair.
“He wasn’t. It’s sweet the way he tries to take care of you.”
“Sweet? I don’t think anyone would describe Kell that way.”
They watched as Kell stopped to speak with his sister, Lorraine, and her group. Her women friends all moved subtly, trying to attract his attention. One woman tossed her hair, another touched his arm.
“He does have that barracuda smile—you know, all teeth—that makes you feel like you’re about to be eaten, but underneath that…he watches out for you. Why is that?” she asked.
His relationship with Kell was deep and complex. He doubted that either of them would know how to explain it. But they’d been alone a lot with the same lazy nanny and they’d spent a lot of their time escaping her. “He’s six months older than I am. And his mom used to make him promise to watch me.”
Almost absently he remembered the long days of summer when their mothers would spend afternoons on the beach drinking fruity concoctions and gossiping while he and Kell ran free like wild boys.
“I remember you mentioning that his side of the family was goofy.”
He grimaced at his old joke. He shouldn’t have said that. Most people were unaware that Kell’s mother was a recluse, prone to depression. For as much as he had happy memories of his childhood, it was also tinged with memories of Aunt Mary’s “sadness,” as his mother called it. They’d often rushed to her house so that his mom could cheer her up.
He suspected his mother used Aunt Mary’s illness to ignore the fact that Jeremy’s dad spent more time with his mistress than with them.
It didn’t always work. His childhood memories were clouded with the secrets of his aunt Mary’s depression and Kell coming to live with them for months at a time. He wouldn’t share that with Bella. Some secrets weren’t his to tell.
Just as Lucinda should have kept quiet about Bella’s family. He’d said as much to Daniel.
“That’s because my branch of the family isn’t crazy,” he said.
She looked steadily at him. “I think there’s more to it than what you just said.”
Jeremy shrugged, not really comfortable talking about Kell or his relationship with him. But there were some things he wanted to share with Bella. She quietly accepted everything about him. Even his flaws.
Whenever he was with her, he felt…complete. Which made no sense to him. He’d been happy with his life before they’d become lovers. Now he didn’t like to think about what going back to life without Bella would be like.
“Tell me,” she said. She wrapped one arm around his waist and glanced up at him expectantly.
“He saved my life one time.”
“Literally?”
“Yes.” A sailing accident that had surprised Jeremy. He’d always been at home on the water. But he’d been hit by the boom as they’d changed direction and been knocked overboard. One minute he’d been on the yacht, and the next thing he remembered was Kell’s hand on his wrist, pulling him to the surface.
She cupped his jaw, bringing him back to the present. He glanced down into her honey-brown eyes. There was such a well of caring there that he felt like he’d taken a punch to the gut.
“I’m so glad he saved you,” she said, raising up on tiptoe and kissing him. It was a soft and sweet kiss. The kind that made him glad to be alive and holding this woman in his arms.
“Me, too,” he said. Never more so than this moment.
From the first time he’d met Bella, he’d sensed she was different from other women. At first he’d thought it was because she was no longer part of the moneyed set he ran in. But the more time he spent with her, the more he realized that she had an innate innocence that drew him to her.
He knew she wasn’t innocent, that her life had been carved out of emotionally tough events. But she’d retained a certain sweetness that she showered on those around her. And he thanked God that he’d been fortunate enough to bind her to him when he had.
They only had three months left on their contract. His gut tightened at the thought of her leaving him. He needed to start planning for the next phase of their relationship, but he had no idea what that would entail.
“You ready to get out of here?”
“You did promise me a dance.”
And he realized, as he deposited their drinks on a tray and led her to the dance floor, that he never wanted to break a promise he made to her.
She and Jeremy stayed for another half hour before they left the party. Twice Lucinda had made eye contact with her and indicated she wanted to talk. But Bella’s evening had been perfect and she hadn’t wanted to ruin it, so she’d ignored her onetime friend.
Jeremy put the top down on the convertible and drove them to the beach. It was a Saturday night and luckily she didn’t have to work tomorrow. He held her hand loosely on his thigh.
Everything felt just about perfect, and that worried her. Because whenever she got too comfortable, something bad happened. And she was depending a lot on Jeremy—more than she wanted.
When she’d signed the contract with Jeremy she hadn’t been too sure what she expe
cted. Maybe a chance to reclaim something that had been stolen from her as a young woman. But she’d found so much more.
Did he feel the same? Sometimes she sensed he did, though it was true that he kept part of himself from her. He didn’t speak of emotions or longevity—but neither did she.
Part of her was afraid to rock the boat. She was used to her life being constantly in flux, never taking anything for granted, but there was something very solid and reassuring about Jeremy and his presence in her life. And she wanted to believe that he was going to be a permanent addition to it.
She’d never been in love before, but she was falling for Jeremy.
“Deep thoughts?” he asked.
She shook her head, frantically trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t leave her vulnerable to him. “Just enjoying the night and the wind in my hair.”
He lifted her hand to his mouth, brushing a kiss along her knuckles. She liked that he was accepting of the limits she placed, that he didn’t push her past them. Of course, it was different when they were in bed. There he would stand no barriers between them.
He’d pushed her further than she’d ever expected to go with any man. He made her give him everything she had, and never let her hide behind her own inhibitions.
“Then you’re going to love what I have planned for us.”
“What is it?” she asked. This was yet another instance that gave her hope. He was being very romantic and not at all businesslike about their relationship. After he’d offered her the town house, she expected him to focus on just the sexual side of things. Instead, he was always romancing her, planning evenings that fulfilled secret dreams she’d scarcely realized she had.
“A surprise,” he said, slowing the car as they turned into the yacht club.
“I don’t like surprises.” But she did like going out on his yacht. She’d realized fairly early in her relationship with Jeremy that he was most at peace at sea. He liked to entertain on his boat, sleep on his boat, hold her on his boat. He never said much about it, but she could see a difference in him as soon as they motored out to sea.
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