Taste for Temptation (Kimani Hotties)

by Bourne, Phyllis

  “You’re very welcome,” she said. “You must be excited to finally be able to lease the retail space I saw in the video.”

  “Actually, it’s no longer available,” Brandi said. “I’ll be scouting out a new location.”

  She hoped it wouldn’t make the woman change her mind about her offer.

  “I’ve been on your website, Miss Collins. Your designs are fresh and fun and allowing customers to select their own colors and fabric is a fabulous twist. I think it’s a twist women will go out of their way to take advantage of and you’ll succeed in any location.”

  A few minutes later, Lina was gone and Brandi was talking to her assistant, who said Brandi would receive the loan paperwork the next morning.

  Brandi did an impromptu happy dance. She could hardly wait to go next door and tell… Then she remembered. She couldn’t go to Adam. Not after last night.

  But he had gone out of his way to help.

  She shook off the thought. He’d lied to her. Case closed.

  Picking up her running shoes, she quickly put them on. What she needed to do now was clear her head. She grabbed her keys and pulled open the door, only to see her mother on the other side of it poised to knock.

  “Good,” Jolene Collins said. “You’re here.”

  “Where else would I be?”

  “I thought you might be next door with that new man of yours.” Her mother walked in, her eyes flitting around the living and dining rooms like she was looking for something. “So is he here?”

  “Who?” Brandi asked. She’d thought her mother would still be lamenting, having pulled together two weddings and having no married daughters to show for it.

  “You know who.”

  “Oh, the unemployed, loser gigolo who’s only seeing me for my money?” Brandi asked.

  “Don’t be silly. He doesn’t need to work.” Her mother smiled sweetly. “You could have told me he was one of those Ellisons. Anyway, I thought it was time for us to be properly introduced, seeing that you two are so close.”

  “That’s not necessary,” Brandi began.

  “Of course it is,” Jolene cut her off. Her mother clasped her hands together as if in prayer. “An Ellison, I can hardly believe it. That’s way more prestigious than a doctor. You should have seen my friends’ faces when Wesley let the cat out of the bag. It was priceless.”

  Brandi stared at her mother in disbelief. Jolene pulled a magazine from her purse and turned to a page of an aerial photo of two mansions flanked by trees and surrounded by acres of greenery.

  “This is his real home, Brandi,” she said. “Can you imagine living in a place like this with a staff waiting on you?”

  Brandi felt the first stumble off the high horse of self-righteousness she’d ridden on out of Adam’s condo last night. Is this the kind of behavior his millions bought him? Even from people Brandi would have thought would know better, like her own mother.

  “Mom,” Brandi started, but Jolene talked over her.

  “First we need to get some more of those pounds off that behind of yours, perhaps a new chic haircut, more makeup and some sexier clothes. I’ll show you how to give that other woman sniffing around him some competition.”

  Brandi’s high horse stumbled again. Adam had loved her “as is” and had never required her to be anyone but herself. Even in scruffy sweats, he’d still wanted her.

  “We broke up,” she said, wishing she hadn’t been so sanctimonious with him last night.

  Jolene’s eyes widened in horror as Brandi finally got through to her.

  “He’s back with that woman I saw him kissing, isn’t he? I should have known.”

  Brandi heaved a weary sigh and walked toward her door.

  “Where are you going?” her mother asked. “We need to talk. We need to put our heads together and come up with a plan for you to get that millionaire… I mean that man back.”

  Brandi spun around. “Mom, after our talk a few weeks back I made peace with the fact that you are who you are, instead of who I want you to be,” she said. “Now you’re going to have to do the same with me.”

  “But…” her mother began.

  “My relationship or nonrelationship with Adam is none of your business,” she said firmly. “You’ve already raised me. I’m a grown-up. I don’t need you to do it again.”

  “Brandi!” Jolene huffed.

  “Are we clear, Mom? Good,” she said, not waiting for her mother to close her shocked mouth to answer. “Now I’m going for a run. You can let yourself out.”

  A mile into her trek Brandi veered from the running path she usually took with Heather in the park and instead ran through her neighborhood toward the community’s town center.

  She remembered how busy the area had been the night she and Adam came out to Jolt’s for coffee. The retail space here was in brand-new buildings, the area was up-and-coming, and in walking distance of her condo.

  In short, the perfect place for Arm Candy Handbags had been right under her nose all along.

  Slowing her pace to a walk, she approached one of the available storefronts in a brown brick building on the same block as Jolt’s. She imagined a storefront window display of her handbags.

  Pulling her cell phone from her jacket pocket, she dialed the leasing agent’s phone number and left a message. She didn’t want to miss out on this space.

  At least her business life was finally looking up, even if her love life had returned to nonexistent. She opted to walk instead of run the short distance back to her condo. All the day’s good news for Arm Candy rang hollow without Adam to share it with. He’d helped her so much. But after the way she’d berated him last night, he probably didn’t want anything to do with her.

  Brandi had been so deep in thought she hadn’t seen Adam standing on the landing of their building until it was too late. All she could do was simply stare at him. Lines etched his eyes, and he looked tired. She resisted the urge to smooth a hand over the after-five shadow clinging to his jaw.

  “I stopped by your place looking for you. Your mother was leaving and told me you were out running, so I came out to find you.”

  He reached for her hand. “I’m sorry I misled you, Brandi. If you give me another chance, I promise my life will be an open book to you,” he said. “Do you think you can ever forgive me?”

  She nodded. “Only if you can forgive me for being so pious and self-righteous last night. I don’t care what Google says about you or your bank balance. Unemployed or millionaire, I love you, Adam Ellison.”

  Adam pulled her into his arms and captured her mouth in a kiss that left her insides as soft and gooey as his award-winning lava cake.

  “If you still want that Green Hills location for Arm Candy, I’ll buy you the entire block,” he said.

  Brandi shook her head. “That’s not necessary.”

  “Consider it a wedding present.”

  “Wedding present?” Brandi asked, unsure of what he meant.

  “That is, if you’ll marry me.”

  “Yes!” Brandi threw her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his lips.

  “Is that yes to my proposal or my buying you a building?” Adam asked when they came up for air.

  Brandi laughed. “I happily accept your proposal, but will have to decline your offer of the building,” she said, her arms still looped around his neck.

  “What good is having money if I can’t spoil my wife-to-be?”

  Brandi shook her head. “It’s not that. The Lina Todd microloan came through. I can rent a location myself,” she said. “In fact, I’m looking at a storefront right here in the community’s town center.”

  “Congratulations on the microloan. I can’t think of a business more deserving than yours,” he said.

  “I couldn’t have done it w
ithout you.” She inhaled the faint scent of chocolate as she snuggled into his embrace. “As a matter of fact, I was thinking the town center would be the perfect place for a patisserie.”

  “Really now?” Adam raised a brow, then kissed her again. “How about we look into it when we all get back from Hawaii?”

  “Hawaii? Who’s going to Hawaii?”

  “Me, you, your mother and sister and my brother and uncle.”

  “Huh? I don’t get it.”

  “Sorry, sweetheart, but I’m not taking a chance on another Collins woman non-wedding.”

  Adam pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “I’m calling our pilot. I want us all aboard the Ellison jet this afternoon, and the two of us in front of a minister as soon as we can make it legal,” he said. “So what do you have to say to that, Brandi Collins?”

  “I do.”

  * * * * *

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  ISBN: 9781459244931

  Copyright © 2012 by Phyllis Bourne Williams

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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