by Carol Rose
They’d definitely interrupted an argument.
Kelsey stared at her sister and best friend bleakly, a wave of self-recrimination breaking over her again. God, she’d been a twit all these years.
Jared slid his arm around her shoulder, jolting her back to the task at hand. She was here to fix things, if possible.
She glanced up at Jared, approximating a tender, intimate smile, praying her sister’s shock at this announcement wouldn’t blow the whole game. “We just stopped by to tell you some exciting news.”
“Oh, really?” Doug's face was tight and worried.
“Yes,” Kelsey said softly. “Jared asked me to marry him and I said yes.”
“Kelsey!” her sister yelped. “Oh, my God! How wonderful! And you said you wouldn’t date Jared because he’d be too demanding! You sneak!”
Avoiding Jared’s eyes, Kelsey submitted to her sister’s enthusiastic embrace. Damn. She’d forgotten Amy teasing her about her attraction to him.
In the midst of Amy’s stunned, excited babble of reaction and Doug’s stunned silence, Kelsey felt Jared’s arm slip reassuringly around her. She leaned back into him, letting Doug’s shocked incomplete sentences wash over her as Amy continued to exclaim over their news.
“Congratulations!” her sister said enthusiastically. “You never said a word! I knew you were attracted to him, Kels, but how could you keep everything so quiet? This is wonderful! Isn’t it wonderful, Doug?”
“O-of course,” he stammered, his face suffused with red. “I’m just, I’m…surprised. I didn’t realize…you never said.”
Jared bent and kissed her softly, his lips clinging briefly to hers.
For just a moment, Kelsey forgot where she was, his touch leaving her lips tingling. God, his mouth felt good.
He straightened, his gaze tangling with hers for a long moment.
“We kept our relationship quiet,” Kelsey acknowledged, her body registering the strength and warmth of the masculine arm around her despite the gravity of the moment.
Jared brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, his fingers warm against her skin for a fleeting instant. “We didn’t want things to get complicated for Kelsey at work, but now that we’ve fallen in love, we decided what the hell.”
“How romantic,” Amy sighed, hugging them both. “But you could have told me! I wouldn’t have blabbed.”
Amy’s face was radiant with happiness, bringing another twinge of guilt to Kelsey’s heart. She hated to lie to the people she loved. Still, this was the kind of lie Amy loved, the happy ending she’d always predicted for Kelsey.
Her sister beamed at her, laughing. “I should have known Jared would be the one to capture your heart. He’s smart enough to see what a prize you are and tough enough to win you over! We need to make a toast. You keep some champagne in the refrigerator for special occasions, don’t you, Doug?”
“Of course,” he said, still staring at Kelsey, his face pale now.
Bouncing with joy, Amy disappeared into the kitchen alcove, rummaging noises emitting from the refrigerator.
“I’ll help her.” Jared's arm slid from Kelsey’s shoulders.
She brushed aside a second of panic, watching his broad back disappear around the corner. He was giving her time alone with Doug, she knew. This was the moment of truth. She had to lie to her old friend for all she was worth.
“You never even told me you were dating him,” Doug said, disbelief and shock in his eyes. “You showed up with him at the banquet, two days ago, and now this?”
“I know,” she said, shrugging helplessly. “It didn’t seem like a big deal at first, but then—“
“How long? How long have you been seeing him?” Doug interrupted, his voice odd and distant as if he were speaking through a tunnel.
Vague dates wouldn’t do here, she knew. If this thing were to work, she had to make it believable. “We started dating right after New Year’s.”
“That’s impossible,” Doug declared. “You were going out with that guy, Tom Urhouse, in January. I remember distinctly.”
Kelsey looked down, keeping her voice low and soft. “Doug, Jared and I didn’t start out dating exclusively.”
“But what about that other guy in March, the one you were so excited about for a week or two? Hell, James Buchanan last week!”
She resisted the urge to wince. Was she such a lightweight as to be excited about men for only a week or two? “Caleb Witherspoon, the model. I dated him in January. I guess, I was trying to resist my feelings for Jared. Falling in love is scary.”
Doug stared at her for a long moment, his eyes dark with so much distress that she wanted to cry. “You’ve ‘fallen in love’ before. It didn’t last. Ever. Why are you getting engaged this time?”
Kelsey heard Amy and Jared’s voices approaching, heard the clink of the glasses against the bottle of champagne. “I’ve never really been in love before, Doug. Jared…makes me feel things I’ve never felt before.”
That much was true enough. The man frequently left her baffled, a welter of emotions in her chest, hot rivers of longing sweeping through her.
“You’re not wearing a ring,” Doug said abruptly, staring at her hand, his tone almost triumphant.
Kelsey glanced down at her bare hand, swearing suddenly to herself. How could she have forgotten that particular bit of window dressing?
“That’s because I haven’t given it to her yet,” Jared said from the doorway as he wrestled the cork out of the wine bottle.
“Oh.” Doug’s smile was almost smug.
Kelsey felt her heart sink. Damn, damn, damn. Why hadn’t she bought herself a ring?
“I was waiting for just the right moment,” Jared said, handing the bottle to Amy, “but I can’t let my lovely bride-to-be go around with a bare finger.”
Surprised, Kelsey watched him draw a small velvet box out of his pocket. Jared popped the lid open to reveal a beautiful, obviously antique, sapphire and diamond ring.
“Ohhhh,” she whispered as he lifted her hand and slid the ring into place. “It’s wonderful.”
“Wow,” Amy exclaimed softly. “How beautiful.”
“No more so than Kelsey,” Jared said, his voice low as he lowered his lips to hers.
She clung to him, feeling weak and warm all at once, her head all muzzy and her body completely distracted from the job at hand. Fortunately, Jared ended the kiss before complete brain meltdown set in.
The rest of the visit passed in a blur, the engagement ring a faint weight on her hand. They drank a glass of wine, Doug looking more morose than celebratory. Amy, on the other hand, looked almost as happy as if she were the intended bride.
It was, Kelsey decided, a surreal fifteen minutes, what with the emotional spectrum displayed between Doug and Amy, and the strangely tender look on Jared’s face. Kelsey could only rejoice when Jared stood up and said they had to be going.
As they went to the door, she was surprised when Doug reached out and hugged her, his voice fierce in her ear. “I’ve always been your friend and I always will be.”
She smiled at him unsteadily as her sister hugged her. His assurance might have been comforting if it hadn’t been uttered as if he were making a vow to wait for her.
Jared held her hand as they walked down the stairs in silence. Kelsey couldn’t shake her abstraction even when they reached the street and walked to where his car was parked at the curb.
She’d committed herself to this course of action, knowing it was her only hope of making things right. Now, as the reality of the situation sunk in, she was beginning to wonder what the next year held. She was actually going to marry Jared Barrett.
“I think they both bought it,” she commented nervously.
“Of course they bought it,” Jared said. “It’s true. We’re getting married.”
He opened the car door for her and she slid in, the rich smell of leather upholstery surrounding her. He got in and started the engine.
His hands were relaxe
d on the steering wheel as he drove through the busy city streets, reminding her once again that Jared seemed at ease with most every situation. A laid-back, understated confidence existed in his every movement.
She could feel herself relaxing into the seat, the tension of announcing their scheme to Doug and her sister seeping away.
“Thanks for…remembering the ring,” she said after a moment. “It’s the most beautiful thing. Of course, I’ll give it back when we separate.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jared said blandly, reaching out to lift her hand and look at the ring. “Fits you perfectly.”
“Yes, it does,” she acknowledged, reclaiming her fingers from his hand. It seemed odd that the ring was just what she’d have chosen herself. Warmer than a diamond, the central sapphire stone glowed dark and mysterious.
She couldn’t help being relieved that he hadn’t gone all out for a big chunk of diamond. Jared could afford it, but she didn’t want to cost him more than necessary and she’d have hated worrying about losing the thing.
“So,” Jared said casually, “I figure we get married as quickly as we can pull a wedding together.”
“What?” Kelsey straightened. “Right away?”
He glanced at her. “We’re both over twenty-one, financially stable and supposedly madly in love. Why would we wait?”
“I…hadn’t really thought about it,” she admitted, twisting the antique ring on her finger. “People usually stay engaged…for a while.”
“Do you think an engagement will be enough to convince Doug that you’ve really fallen in love this time?” Jared asked calmly.
She hesitated, remembering Doug’s passionate whisper as they were leaving his apartment. “No.”
“So we get married,” Jared said. “When my sister got married, it took my mother almost a year to get everything together, but I think we ought to strive for simplicity.”
“I agree,” Kelsey said, visualizing a Justice of the Peace intoning the words to the ceremony she’d watched her mother participate in so many times.
“We should be able to put something together for, say, fifty to a hundred guests, in a couple of months, don’t you think?”
“Aah…,” Kelsey cleared her throat and tried again, “Fifty to a hundred guests?”
Jared glanced over at her as he steered the luxury car around a corner. “Sure. Don’t you think we can keep the guest list down? Do you have a lot of family who’ll be attending?”
She had an instant mental image of her address book, stuffed with ex step-siblings and previous step-families. “No, not really.”
“I grew up in Long Island. There’s a nice church there—“
“Church?”
“Yes.” Jared stopped at a traffic signal. “You weren’t planning on a church wedding?”
“To be honest,” she said, conscious of the weirdness of the conversation, “I thought we’d find some Justice of the Peace over our lunch hour.”
“No,” Jared said, the car leaping forward with the stream of traffic.
Kelsey eyed him for a moment, realizing she’d never before heard that implacable note in his voice, but not really sure what it meant. “You’ve always dreamed of a church wedding?”
He grinned, responding to her teasing. “Yes, with yards and yards of silk organza.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle.
“There are lots of reasons for a church wedding,” he said, a more serious note in his voice. “We want people to believe we’re passionately, romantically in love. My family, our friends, Doug and Amy. I’ve been married before, but you haven’t. Maybe you didn’t have the usual little girl dreams of walking down the aisle, but it’s still the best plan.”
Yes, she’d had that dream, Kelsey acknowledged to herself. Of course, it had faded as she’d watched her mother traipse down the nuptial avenue over and over again in a number of various ceremonies.
Belatedly, she realized this was the first time Jared had said anything to her about his previous union. She didn’t really have a right to ask. Not at this point. How long would they have to be married before she could comfortably ask him about it? She found she had an intense curiosity about his ex-wife. Who’d filed for divorce? Had he suffered a broken heart? Had the first Mrs. Barrett been a beautiful woman?
“You’re right,” she said, dragging her attention back to the conversation at hand. “A wedding does make sense. I just hadn’t thought that far ahead. This is getting really complicated.”
They turned the corner and slid to a stop in front of her building. Jared turned off the engine.
“I’ll walk you up.”
“This is a tow-away zone,” she pointed out.
He smiled. “I’ll walk you up quickly.”
“Okay,” she said with a sudden certainty that he wouldn’t get towed. The man seemed blessed with good fortune.
She got out of the car.
“It’s too bad you have plans for this evening,” Jared said, after he’d walked around the car. “We could hammer out the arrangements for the wedding right away.”
“Yes, it is too bad. I hope you don’t mind my having dinner with someone else on the day you asked me to marry you,” she said mischievously.
Jared slipped an arm around her shoulders as he opened the door to her building. Stopping in front of the elevator, he tapped the button before replying. “Since it’ll be your last dinner with the guy, and you’re meeting him just to let him know you’re getting married, I’ll make a concession this once.”
Kelsey glanced over her shoulder at him as she stepped into the elevator. He sounded a lot more serious than she’d expected. “No other dates just to tie things up?”
Jared looked down at her, no glimmer of amusement in his face. “I don’t think so.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, getting off when the car stopped on her floor.
Jared followed her to her door, waiting while she unlocked it. Kelsey couldn’t help but remember standing here together two nights ago when she’d wanted so badly for him to kiss her and he hadn’t.
Then there was the…sizzle, the out-and-out sheer breathless blazing passion when they had kissed in her office and when he’d brushed his lips against hers earlier after giving her the ring.
Jeez. Just thinking about kissing him made her want to fan herself.
She pushed her door open and turned back to face him.
Jared stood there, his dark eyes serious and intense. At that moment, he looked nothing like the playful man who’d joked with her in the car only moments before. He looked…dangerous.
“Well…,” she started to say.
He stepped toward her, capturing her between the wall behind her and the wall of his chest. His mouth dropped on to hers in an instant.
Heat flared up in her like the flame of a torch, scorching as their lips met. Crushed against him, the full length of his body pressed against hers, Kelsey opened her mouth and surrendered.
Nothing casual happened when he touched her. Every touch, every sensation was new and unforgettable. She’d been kissed by a lot of men. Never had she wanted to merge before, cling so close that not even air came between them.
He kissed her slowly and thoroughly, the stroke of his lips building raging fires within her. She couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, didn’t care.
They stood in the hall of her apartment building, but all she knew was him. His powerful body, the press of his thighs against hers, the ache of emptiness in her. The urge to rub herself against him like a hungry cat.
She had no awareness of time, only knowing the swamping, massive, roaring desire he evoked in her.
Jared lifted his head, breaking the contact of their mouths, but staying pressed intimately against her.
As dazed as she’d been that morning when his touch had unexpectedly sent her up in flames, Kelsey looked up at him.
His eyes were even darker than usual, black as night. He looked fierce and hungry. “Now you don’t need to be kissed
goodnight.”
“Okay,” she said vacantly, tremors rippling through her. God, he felt so wonderful, his body hard against hers.
Jared straightened, leaving her leaning against the wall next to her open door. He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath, as if to calm himself down.
“This weekend, Saturday,” he said, his voice rough. “If you don’t have other plans, maybe we could go visit my family in Long Island. We can talk about the wedding on the drive.”
“Saturday?” she said blankly. “Okay.”
“I’ll call you.” A glimmer of a smile crept on to his face. “I’m leaving now, so I don’t get towed.”
“Okay.” Kelsey still leaned against the wall, reaction to their kiss leaving her boneless.
His smile broadened. Jared reached out, his hands on each of her shoulders. He tugged her gently away from the wall and steered her into her apartment, reaching for the door knob to close the door. “Have a nice time tonight.”
He shut her door. She stood in the brief entry hall, staring at the portal as she slowly returned to normal, her heart rate eventually settling down.
Yeah, have a good time. Sure. Fat chance. There was no way that Ray Sanchez could measure up to that kiss, Latin background or not.
This was possibly Jared’s intention, she concluded, collapsing into a chair. He’d had a flash of possessiveness when she’d mentioned going out tonight with another guy. Had he kissed the socks off her to keep her lips from straying?
She grinned, an unwilling admiration dawning for his inventiveness. Most men would have blustered and tried to lay down the law. It seemed crazy to her that a man could feel possessive about a woman he didn’t love.
Jared puzzled her. If sex was his biggest motivation to marry her, she’d have thought he’d press her for a little prenuptial preview. What was his reason for holding off? He might still make a move, but she wasn’t sure. That, of course, was the reality with Jared. She could rarely predict just what he’d do. The man intrigued her.
He was hotter than a boatload of firecrackers, but he had an iron control.
She, on the other hand, went up in flames every time he touched her, which wasn’t her usual response to a near-acquaintance’s kiss. If Jared had relied on her to put a stop to that kiss, he’d have definitely been towed by now and her date might have gotten the shock of his life when he came by to pick her up.