Felicity Stripped Bare

by Vanessa Jaye

“No one would dare,” he said, cupping her breasts, flicking her nipples into aching stiffness with his thumbs.

  A low liquid groan rumbled from deep in her throat, and Daniel laid another of his mind-draining kisses on her. He snaked an arm around her waist, holding her tight against his growing hardness while his other hand kneaded her breast, giving her nipple the odd delicious pinch to keep things interesting. Felicity lifted one leg and locked it around his. Pretty much started humping him on the spot.

  “Oh dear!”

  They sprang apart at the exclamation and looked towards the open doorway.

  “Lise, w-what are you doing here?”

  “Mom!”

  “Mom?” Felicity repeated weakly.

  “I hope I’m not interrupting?” Lise sounded coolly off-hand, despite the bright flags of color at her cheeks and the blatant curiosity in her gaze.

  “Of course not,” Felicity rushed out. Why would she mind getting caught like a dog on a hydrant with— “He’s your son?” she squealed.

  Daniel frowned. “You two know each other?”

  “We’re members of the same book club,” Lise exclaimed. “See? No mystery.” She—Daniel’s mother!—walked up to him and kissed his cheek. “Stop frowning, sweetheart. You’ll get lines like your father.”

  That comment made him scowl deeper before he realized what he was doing and cleared his brow, but his gaze remained narrowed. “What book club is this?” he asked in a dangerously pleasant voice, a muscle ticking at the corner of jaw.

  Felicity couldn’t make her mouth work. His mother! Then the realization hit with all the subtlety of a two-by-four that she’d never known Lise’s last name. And because of her reluctance to discuss her private life, she’d never referred to Daniel other than this guy she was seeing, or, after the humiliation of the eviction, that bastard.

  In either case, she would leave all the fast talking to his mother! She bit back a groan and tuned into Lise’s attempts to cover their scheming butts.

  “—you and your father like to tease me about my romance novels, but then I met Felicity at the library—you remember I do some tutoring there?”

  Felicity’s stomach heaved, and she made an abbreviated movement to stop Lise from revealing anything, but one look from the other woman reassured her. She exhaled in dizzy relief.

  “—Well, then, we girls got to talking.”

  “About what?” Daniel crossed his arms.

  “Why, about reading and books, darling. Honestly, what else would we talk about? Please pay attention.” She didn’t even blink. Bravo.

  “Oh!” Surprised comprehension dawned on Lise’s face. “Are you thinking about the discussion at dinner last night? I’ll admit that the name ‘Felicity’ caught my attention, but I didn’t think you could be talking about—”

  “That’s all sorted out now.” Daniel cleared his throat, adjusting the knot of his tie.

  “Evidently,” his mother said dryly.

  Felicity’s curiosity was piqued, but when he slid his gaze her way, she stopped wondering why she was a topic of dinner conversation as the resemblance between mother and son struck her. They had the same eyes. Lise’s seemed larger and a brighter green because of her makeup. But Daniel’s retained their piercing quality. A trait he put to good use now.

  “I swear I didn’t know she was your mother. I’m as shocked as you.” To say the least.

  “What’s to feel shocked about?” Lise asked breezily with a wave of her hand. “Now that that’s all settled, why don’t the two of you come over for dinner? Just a nice little casual barbeque.”

  “Wait a minute, what did we settle?” Daniel asked.

  “Darling, I really wish you would listen. We’ve all gotten over our collective shock, now we’re all deciding when would be a good time for you two to come to dinner.”

  While Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose, Lise gave her conspiratorial a wink.

  Felicity wanted to be her when she grew up.

  They all settled on the upcoming weekend.

  ***

  “Nervous?”

  “A little.”

  “No need to be. You already know my mother. And my father will be his usual charming self.”

  Felicity thought there was a trace of sarcasm in Daniel’s voice, but wasn’t sure. He reached over, interlacing their fingers with a reassuring squeeze and Felicity couldn’t stop her idiot grin.

  A little composure here, woman. She took a deep breath and focused on the stately parade of I’ve-got-more-money-than-god-and-I-used-some-of-it-to-buy-this-house homes. Daniel was probably taking this short cut through Forest Hill to avoid the heavier traffic on the main roads.

  “We don’t have to stay more than an hour or so. Just long enough to eat and chit-chat. Then we can leave. Go someplace quiet.”

  They’d stopped at an intersection and Daniel turned to look at her. There was no mistaking the heat in his gaze. He leaned over to press a brief hard kiss on her mouth. Others followed, each more lengthy than the one before. He eased away. “Forget the chit-chat, how fast can you eat?”

  “It depends on if I chew…or just swallow,” she said with a slow smile and watched his throat work.

  “Oh man.”

  A car horn blared impatiently behind them and he cursed, straightening in his seat. She laughed softly, running her gaze over him, from the hint of stubble on his jaw to the powerful chest encased in a shirt that fit him like it had been hand-stitched on by clever little designer elves. Lucky elves.

  He was perfect. In fact the last three days had been perfect. The only thing that sucked was her work at The Uptown, and the strain of hiding it from Daniel.

  “I don’t believe this!”

  Pulled out of her reverie, she looked around for what had set him off. Her mouth slowly unhinged to the sounds of crunching gravel as they drove down a circular drive towards a two-storied Architectural Digest wet-dream.

  “‘Casual little barbeque’ she said. I should have known better.” Daniel parked, then returned the waves of a khaki cabal making their way up the front steps.

  He turned to Felicity with a smile. “Well, we’re here.”

  One hour later.

  “He loves me.” A velvety petal drifted to the manicured grass beneath her feet, followed by another. “He loves me not.”

  “He loves me….” She hesitated, staring at the lone pathetic petal that remained. “He loves me not.” Felicity dropped the decapitated stem to the ground and took a sip of her lukewarm cola.

  The sounds of laughter drew her attention back to the flag-stoned patio and she spotted her so-called date near the buffet table. To be fair he hadn’t voluntarily abandoned her. It was more a matter of her conceding defeat. From the moment she and Daniel had arrived, everyone wanted a piece of him—to ask his opinion, or tell him some latest development.

  Finally she’d drifted away from the bewildering tide of big business legalese, and ended up on this stone bench in a little secluded corner of the landscaped garden, with only the nearby babbling fountain to talk to her. As for Lise, she’d barely had a more than a glimpse of that busy lady.

  Felicity eyed the other guests morosely. Everyone knew everyone else, belonged to same clubs, or owned cottages on the same lake. Her spirits sank lower. So this was Daniel’s world.

  She’d been so worried about keeping all her secrets safe from him, that she’d never really thought what his life was away from her. Then again his life seemed to be all about his work, and as far as she knew, when he wasn’t with her he was working. Shows how much she knew.

  She refocused her attention on the small knot of people surrounding him and made a face at the sight of newest member of the group. Standing beside Daniel and hanging off his arm like a one-woman zebra mussel colony, was a sleek brunette introduced earlier as The Vivacious Deirdra. Mentally, Felicity had promptly christened her “VD”

  “What are you doing over here all by your lonesome?”

  “Plotting murder
and mayhem,” she said to Rob, who was walking towards her. Her relief at having some company was mixed with lingering resentment at his part in the evictions. But he was charming in a cheesy, always joking around sort of way, so it was hard staying mad at him.

  “My type of gal.”

  As he sat down, her earlier handiwork caught his eye and he toed the small mound of petals. “Don’t like flowers?”

  Then he smirked. “I know what you were doing, you were playing that game, ‘He loves me, He loves me not’.” Rob batted his eyes.

  “Nooo.”

  “Yesss. Here.” He snapped off another flower and presented it with a flourish. “Best two out of three?”

  “You mean my chances could improve?” She took the flower, and plucked off a petal. “Besides the first one is the only one that really counts. The rest is cheating.” She plucked another.

  “Not cheating, playing the odds. It’s called perseverance.”

  “It’s called deluded.” Pluck, pluck.

  “Only the deluded fall in love anyway.”

  “I’m not in love—”

  Rob cocked a brow.

  “I’m not.” Pluck, pluck, lie, lie.

  “Yes, you are.”

  Pluck, pluck. She looked back to where Deirdra was pressed up against Daniel like they were in a Tokyo subway station. His head was bent, seemingly attentive to her animated chatter, but he was looking around distractedly, until his gaze rested on Felicity. Relief flashed across his face, followed by a slight frown.

  Felicity frowned back. It was a wonder Miss Static-Clingy still had both feet on the ground and not locked around his waist.

  “I. Am. Not. In. Love.” She tore off several petals at once. “What’s the deal with Daniel and VD, anyway?”

  Rob made a choking sound. “Listen I don’t think you should be telling—what I mean is, Dan and I are close, but we don’t…ah…discuss things of that nature.” His face was flaming brighter than the rosebush beside him.

  She knew it was unfair to put him on the spot like this, but she was hoping to at least read something in Rob’s expression. “I’m not asking for details. Just if there’s something I should know about her and Daniel?”

  “Her?”

  “VD.” She whipped her poor peony in the direction of the brunette barnacle in question. “The Vivacious Deirdra.”

  “VD?” Rob’s face went blank before he let loose a loud belly laugh that had heads turning in their direction. Including Daniel’s. His brow looked downright thunderous.

  She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out.

  “You don’t have to worry about Dan and VD—” Rob started laughing again. “Whoo boy, that didn’t come out right.”

  Wiping away tears from his eyes with one hand, he laid the other over hers, stilling her unconscious twirling of the amputated peony. “Daniel knows how to deal with Deirdra. I think it’s you he doesn’t have one clue on. Poor bastard.”

  His chocolate dark eyes were still crinkled with humor, but a hint of seriousness crept into his gaze as he tucked a loose curl behind her ear.

  “You two seem to be hitting it off.”

  Felicity jumped at Daniel’s voice. How had he gotten over here so fast? She looked up. His expression was tight. Size 6 feet in size 5 1/2 shoes tight. He drew her to stand.

  “I was just keeping Felicity company.”

  Daniel gave his friend a hard look, while pulling her closer. “So I noticed.”

  Her eyes narrowed. He was jealous. The realization should have made her gleeful, instead she felt like a toy that had been discarded till someone else wanted it.

  He brought her hands up to his mouth. “Sorry, I left you alone,” he said, before pressing soft kisses in quick succession against her knuckles. “Forgiven?”

  The jackass. She pulled her hands from his. “You ditched me almost as soon as we got here.”

  “That’s not fair. You saw how everyone wanted a piece of me the minute we arrived.” He tried to recapture her hands, she tucked them behind her back.

  What she’d seen was how VD wanted a piece of him. Everyone had seen that. Felicity bit back the accusation. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her jealousy, and guess the true depth of her feelings.

  “You can keep your little apology. If it hadn’t been for Rob, I could’ve left thirty minutes ago and you wouldn’t have noticed.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. I knew where you were, and I knew who you were with.” He flicked a glance at his best friend that wasn’t very friendly. “You wouldn’t have made it as far as the front door without me stopping you.” Daniel’s serious tone held not even a wisp of the sweet-talkin’ softness it had just moments ago.

  A bit of wind went out of her sails. It was true, time and again she had watched him scan the crowd for her, and in fairness it wasn’t just Deirdre who’d monopolized him. Felicity realized in moment of clarity that she wasn’t really angry with him, she was angry with herself. Why had she drifted away?

  Because she’d been afraid he’d start to make the inevitable comparisons between her and the other guests. So she’d done the rejecting first. It was the story of her life,

  Well, she needed to start a new chapter, or this story would turn into one of those sad tragedies where the heroine grows old, bitter and alone, then gets eaten by her cats when she dies in her sleep.

  The starch went out of Felicity completely, and Daniel wrapped an arm around her waist.

  “Now, am I forgiven?” He dropped a gentle kiss on her mouth before she could answer.

  She nodded and he kissed her again, deeper, entangling her tongue with his.

  His brain-sucking technique worked. Forgive him for what?

  “You two need to get a room,” Rob protested.

  “Exactly what I had in mind,” Daniel said. “Catch you later, bud.” He turned her towards the house. “Now to find my mother and say our goodbyes— Ah, perfect timing.” Lise was coming down the path, followed by a distinguished looking older man.

  “Why are you three hiding yourselves away?”

  “Not hiding,” Felicity lied. “You have such a beautiful garden, and it’s nice here with the bench and fountain.”

  “Thank you.” Lise beamed. “We had a landscaper in for the initial plan, but I still like to come out here and putter about. I’m particularly fond of the peonies… Oh!” She froze, her gaze widening as she stared at Felicity’s feet.

  All eyes followed…to the thin carpet of petals that covered the grass. Felicity raised her head and opened her mouth, doing fairly good imitation of a flycatcher.

  “We were actually about to leave, Mom,” Daniel came to her rescue.

  “But you can’t leave yet, we haven’t spent a minute together.”

  “And whose fault is that? I thought you said this was going to be just the four of us,” Daniel said with a hint of exasperation.

  “I’m not the guilty party here. This is all your father’s doing.” Her mouth pursed as she glared at the man beside her. “Did it behind my back, too, then told me this morning, fait accompli. The sneaky devil.”

  “Sneaky? That’s a bit of the pot calling the kettle black, don’t you think?” he pointed out dryly.

  “I’m not sneaky. I’m strategically stealthy.”

  Lise shushed their laughter, before addressing Felicity. “I don’t think you’ve met Daniel’s father, Michael. Darling, this is Daniel’s friend I was telling you about, Felicity.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Michael Mackenzie, eyes crinkling with a smile that held no warmth, shook her hand.

  Her stomach folded in on itself. “It’s a pleasure to meet you also, sir.”

  “Daniel’s been keeping you a secret from us—” He flinched and looked down at his wife’s casual hold on his arm. She smiled brightly up at his frowning face.

  “What a silly thing to say!”

  He returned his scrutiny to Felicity. “Have we met before?”

  “I don’t think s
o.”

  “Are you sure? You look familiar—” He broke off abruptly, and glaring at his wife, removed her hand from his arm.

  “Are you through interrogating my date?”

  His father pinned Daniel under a hard look. “I’ve triaged a conference call between us, New York and Maple in another half hour. But there’re some things I’d like to go over beforehand.”

  “No one told me about any conference calls. We came here for a quiet little dinner. Not for an afternoon of Mackenzie Phillips and Bassett business. As I said before, I was just about to take Felicity home.”

  “I’m sure Felicity can wait.” Michael Mackenzie’s mouth curled slightly.

  There was something about the way he looked at her that made her squirm inside.

  “I’ll make sure she’s all right,” Lise said, soothingly.

  “And I’ll be here too, bud,” Rob offered.

  If anything, Daniel’s expression became more unhappy as he looked from her to his friend.

  “Let’s get this over with.” He dropped his hand from her waist and, not waiting for his father, stalked away.

  Michael gave his wife a quick peck on the cheek, then for a brief second, over her shoulder, his hostile gaze focused on Felicity.

  Chapter Fourteen

  After the Mackenzie men left, Rob went in search of some more beer while Felicity and Lise toured the garden, though, Felicity noticed, Lise steered clear from the peonies.

  Exchanging giggles, they recounted the shock of their close call, and reviewed all the (now obvious) clues they’d missed in the connecting mother and son.

  “So things are going well with you and Daniel?” Lise’s smile could only be described as self-satisfied.

  “No complaints,” Felicity said, but couldn’t stop her gaze from searching the patio area. There was no sign of VD.

  “What’s the frown for?”

  “Nothing—” Lise’s sharp look demanded the truth. “It’s just that Daniel never talked about his background.” She swept a hand out to indicate the house, the people, the wealth. Her fingers brushed against a leaf of something that she started to fondle until she was pulled away.

  “I’m not surprised.” Lise sighed. “My son keeps a lot to himself. Part of that has to do with the situation between him and Michael.” She rubbed between her brows.