Garrett gulped the rest of the wine and emptied the bottle into his glass. ‘You’re kidding, right?’
‘This is not my kidding voice, Garrett. I’m serious. The way I see it, this is your option. You either come as you are, and out Tess Delaney as Garrett Thorne, or you come as Garrett Thorne, Tess Delaney’s bad boy date. I mean, we could get some serious PR mileage off that: Tess Delaney dating Garrett Thorne.’
‘How am I going to pull this off?’ Garrett said, as much to himself as to Don. He was already going down the list of women who might play Tess Delaney. The obvious choice was Stacie, but everyone already knew who Stacie was, and she had a reputation of her own to keep, as well as the fact that she was his ex-wife.
‘Not my problem,’ Don was saying. ‘If this is how you want to play it, that’s totally fine, but you’d better find someone and she’d better be good or your ass is outed. I’m sorry, man. They want to break ground by having their big name romance writer be noted as a man. They figure women will eat it up. That’s what Romancine wants. The way I see it, you hire yourself a Tess Delaney or you come clean. I don’t care which you do, but you have to do one or the other. Think about it. And read your fucking emails, for Chrissake.’ He hung up, leaving Garrett white-knuckling the BlackBerry to his ear.
Chapter Two
‘You look poorly slept with,’ Ellis said, giving Garrett a hard slap on the back.
‘Can’t say the same about you,’ Garrett said. ‘Either one of you.’ He gave Dee a hug and took the bottle of Sam Adams his brother offered him. He leaned back against the deck railing, glancing out over the golden midday glow of the Water Hole, as Harris’s little private lake had been dubbed.
Stacie came to his side. ‘It’s friendlier on this half of the deck,’ she said, nodding over to where Harris and Kendra huddled around the grill with Wade Crittenden. Ellis and Dee’s secretaries and their spouses, along with several other people Garrett didn’t know, people he figured were friends of Dee’s, milled around down by the water.
‘Give them some time,’ Dee said, following her gaze. ‘They’ll warm to you.’
Garrett’s gaze came to rest on Kendra Davis, dressed in a baby-blue bikini top and a pair of shorts that made her legs look like they went on for ever before they joined her luscious bottom up under what he could imagine was nice soft cotton. Damn, it would be easier to dislike the woman if she didn’t look so good. Garrett’s jaw still ached in muscle memory when he recalled the hard slap she had given him down in Wade’s office back on the day when no one was really sure what would happen between Ellis and Dee and everyone was nail-biting to see how the two would deal with the sharks in the press waiting to accuse Ellis of sexual harassment. Falsely accuse, of course, but that never stopped them. Garrett still felt awful about the role he and Stacie had inadvertently played in that nightmare. One more item to add to his guilt list where his relationship with his brother was concerned. Dee and Ellis had forgiven them, and it was clear all was well in paradise, but Dee’s friends didn’t seem nearly so willing to forgive and forget. In spite of being closer to his brother than he’d been in a very long time, he still wished there was a way to make things up to him and Dee.
He watched as Kendra put her arms around Harris from behind and gave him a tight squeeze from where he leaned over the grill, tongs in hand. He’d been told they were just friends, but if that wouldn’t make a man stiff, he didn’t know what would. Garrett had given himself a hard-on several times thinking about Kendra Davis’s enthusiastic slap. How pathetic was he? Of course, in his fantasies what followed the slap was a lot more fun for him than what had actually happened. Still, he would have liked it if she at least loathed him a little less.
‘So what’s up, bro?’
Garrett turned his attention back to Ellis, but before he could say anything, Stacie spoke up. ‘Tess Delaney’s been nominated for the Golden Kiss Award.’
‘Really? That’s fantastic!’ Dee threw her arms around Garrett and gave him a proper bear hug. Seemed Ellis had told her about the lesser Thorne brother’s secret life.
Ellis gave him another hard slap on the back. ‘Congrats, Tess. You must be all aflutter.’
Garrett gave a quick glance around to make sure no one else was close enough to overhear.
‘So,’ Ellis continued. ‘If Tess has been nominated for such a big honor, then why do you look like you’ve had an encounter with a freight train?’
‘They want to out him,’ Stacie said, sipping daintily at her Margarita. ‘Tess, I mean.’
‘Shut up, Stacie,’ Garrett said between gritted teeth.
‘Out you, what do you mean out you?’ Ellis asked, and he took the stance Garrett was too familiar with, the one that said he wanted the straight answer and he would have it one way or another.
Once he was finished with the whole tale and starting on a bottle of something from one of the local micro-breweries he’d never heard of, he was pretty sure he wasn’t happy with the way everyone else who’d just heard his sad little story seemed to be smirking.
‘Why don’t you ask her?’ Stacie nodded to Kendra, who was now engaged in conversation with Wade Crittenden as though he was the most fascinating man in the whole world.
In spite of himself, Garrett couldn’t keep from offering her an admiring glance.
Ellis laughed. ‘Not sure he could survive a date with her, incognito or not.’
Dee elbowed him in the ribs, but even she couldn’t hold back a snigger.
‘All joking aside,’ Dee said, ‘PR is Kendra’s forte and this is sort of a PR task, specialty, no doubt, but still, Tess needs someone who knows her work really well and is really comfortable around big crowds, someone who could move with the movers and shakers and blend right in. Surely that’s what Tess Delaney would be able to do.’
‘Tess Delaney? What’s this about Tess Delaney?’ No one had noticed Kendra until she stood in their midst. Her blonde hair slightly wind-blown, her bright eyes at least a couple of shades bluer than the sky, and Garrett so did not want to be thinking about the way she looked.
‘Nothing.’ Garrett gave them all a warning glare, grabbed Stacie by the hand and practically dragged her away. He knew Ellis and Dee would be the epitome of discretion. Stacie he was never too sure about.
‘Tess Delaney is looking for some specialty PR help, apparently,’ Stacie managed over her shoulder before Garrett could drag her away. Damn it, the woman had a big mouth. He was sure she’d done it on purpose.
As he escorted her briskly off the deck, he overheard Kendra ask Ellis, ‘Do you know Tess Delaney?’ But he couldn’t hear his brother’s response because Wade was suddenly asking him how he liked his new house.
‘Ellis, do you know Tess Delaney?’ Kendra asked again. ‘If she needs help with PR I’m her girl.’ She lifted her glass in a toast, way more excited about any lead that would give her a chance to meet Tess Delaney than she cared to admit.
Ellis and Dee shot each other a meaningful glance, and whatever the meaning was, Kendra had every intention of getting it out of her friend the first chance she got.
‘I know her, yes.’ Ellis spoke as though he wasn’t overly willing to let the words out of his mouth. ‘I don’t know the details of what she’s looking for, Garrett didn’t exactly say.’
‘Garrett knows her too?’
He shot Dee another glance, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. ‘Better than I do, really. Maybe you should talk to him.’
Talking to Garrett Thorne was not something that Kendra really wanted to do, and for someone who was so good at giving nothing away at the negotiating table, Ellis certainly was not good at keeping his discomfort to himself when it came to talking about romance writers. ‘What is Tess Delaney, an ex-lover or something?’ she asked.
Ellis nearly choked on his beer. Dee pounded him on the back and Kendra could tell she was trying hard not to laugh. He shook his head. ‘No, nothing like that. Honestly, she’s much closer to Garrett than she is me
. Why don’t you talk to him?’
She looked over the deck railing to where Garrett was now chatting with Wade. He was the last person she wanted to talk to, but it would be really something to spend time working with Tess Delaney. And the truth was she was bored with being a lady of leisure. Though she was set for money for a long time to come, even had the funds set aside to buy a house whenever she got round to actually looking for one, a bit of interesting work, a chance to pick the brain of the woman who created such tantalizing tales would be the perfect distraction. She waited until Garrett was alone, down on the dock. He’d stepped aside to answer his cell phone. She’d just catch him when he hung up and ask him a few basic questions, then leave him to his ruminations and that would be that. It couldn’t take too long.
‘Now’s not a good time, Don,’ Garrett hissed into the phone. ‘I’m at my brother’s engagement party.’
‘Tell Ellis congratulations for me,’ his publicist said. ‘This’ll only take a minute, then you can get right back to the party.’
Garrett gave a gargantuan shrug. ‘What do you want?’
‘I just wanted to let you know that I’ve put it out among some of my close friends and more respected colleagues that Tess Delaney is looking for a PA.’
‘You did what?’
‘Well, I didn’t know what else to call it. I thought I could maybe screen the candidates for you. I also know some folks who have connections with the actors’ guilds and they may be able to send some possible candidates as well. I mean, we have to get on this, Garrett – that is if you’re absolutely sure you won’t just go to the award banquet as yourself.’
‘I already told you, no. Let me do the screening. If this woman is going as my date, I need to at least like her and trust that she knows enough about my work to pull it off.’ Though in all honesty he was finding it very difficult to imagine how he’d ever find someone who would understand Tess Delaney on a level that could convince people she was the woman who lived inside Garrett Thorne’s mind. But then, he wasn’t the one she’d have to convince, was she? She’d just have to convince Tess Delaney’s fans, and writers were often quite different than their loyal fans imagined them to be.
‘I insist.’ He interrupted Don’s list of reasons as to why he should choose the future Tess Delaney rather than Garrett.
There was a moment of silence, and for a second Garrett thought they’d lost the connection. ‘All right then,’ Don spoke at last. ‘I’ll send you the résumés of the candidates. But remember what I told you. She’d better be good, or you’re outed. It’s not my call. That’s just the way it is.’
Garrett hung up without saying goodbye. ‘Asshole,’ he growled, as he stuffed the BlackBerry back in his pocket.
‘So tell me about Tess Delaney.’
Garrett jumped. He hadn’t even seen Kendra until she was right on him.
‘Jesus,’ he said. ‘Do you always sneak up on people like that? Were you listening to my conversation?’ The minute he said it he realized his mistake and the phantom burn from her hand to his left cheek flared with a vengeance.
She thrust her hands on her hips and glared at him. ‘I wasn’t sneaking, and why the hell would I be listening to your conversation?’
He thought she was going to turn around and leave, but instead she took a step closer. ‘Ellis just told me that you know Tess Delaney. Is that true?’
‘Why?’ He stepped back dangerously close to the edge of the dock.
‘Well, Stacie said she needed some kind of PR help and PR’s my specialty.’
‘She doesn’t need your kind of PR help,’ he said.
‘What the hell’s that supposed to mean? And how would you know anything about PR needs? I’m damn good at what I do, and if anybody could solve her PR problem, I could.’
‘Oh, I doubt that,’ he said. Another big mistake.
She took another step closer, folding her arms across her chest, and if looks could kill, he’d have been well dead and buried. ‘Why don’t you let her be the judge of that?’ she said.
‘Trust me on this, you’re not right for the job,’ he said. ‘I know Tess Delaney, and she’s looking for someone way more cooperative than you are.’ Jesus, why the hell couldn’t he keep his mouth shut?
The smile she offered him had no humor in it at all. In fact, the curl at the edge of her luscious lips was downright dangerous. ‘Oh, I’m very cooperative with my clients. I promise you Tess Delaney will be very happy my work, and you know why that is, Thorne? It’s because I keep my nose out of other people’s business and do my job, something you wouldn’t know anything about, would you?’
He felt her words like a slap, and yet, even as he was regretting it, he still couldn’t keep his fucking mouth shut. ‘So what are you going to do for Tess Delaney, huh? Slap her around? Throw your drink at her?’
The words were barely out of his mouth before she gave him a hard shove. He waved his arms wildly, teetering on the edge of the dock, then, just before he went over, he grabbed her around the waist, and they both went off the end, hitting the mirror-bright water of the lake with a huge splash while Ellis and Dee and all the rest of the guests looked on.
Chapter Three
Jessie grabbed Amanda by the wrist and practically dragged her away from the party.
‘What’re you doing? What the on earth’s the matter with you?’ she half whispered, half hissed as he force-marched her through the open French doors and out onto the dock of the summerhouse. ‘Let me go.’
But he held on to her with a bruising grip. He held on to her until they both stood in the fresh air under the full moon reflected off the mirrored surface of the water. He held on to her until they were away from the scent of expensive perfume and wealth, away from the clink of champagne flutes. He held onto her until they were away from James Dennison.
‘I said let me go.’ She pushed both of her hands flat against his chest, against the crisp white shirt of his tux, but he held her.
‘Dennison –’ he forced the words out like he’d eaten hot coals ‘– James Dennison, what’s going on between the two of you?’
‘What?’
‘I saw the way he looked at you, like he wanted to eat you up, like he wanted to, to …’ He caught his breath.
‘He asked me to dance, that’s all. Not that it’s any of your damn business who I dance with. I didn’t realize that you were keeping me under lock and key. What, have you put out an edict that no one is to look at me?’
He pulled her to him hard and kissed her hard, and she struggled against him. He felt the anger tremble through her, rising up to meet his own, and God in heaven, he wanted her. His rage battled with his desire for her, and he pulled away, chest heaving. ‘Damn it, Amanda, you’re mine. I won’t share you with Dennison, or with anyone else, do you understand?’ He shook her none too gently. ‘Do you?’
Her eyes flashed like fire in the bright moonlight, and she drew a sharp breath. ‘I don’t belong to you, Jessie Pennington, nor anyone else, and I don’t appreciate being treated like your possession.’
All it took was a little shove, just a small one with the flat of her hand, to unbalance him and send him, tux, bowtie and all, off the end of the dock, but not before he grabbed her around the waist and took her with him.
Damn, he couldn’t believe he’d actually grabbed Kendra around the waist and pulled her into the lake with him. Garrett pushed away from the laptop, breathing like he’d just finished a marathon, and sonovabitch if he didn’t have a hard-on he could hang a boat anchor from. It made no sense. The woman was a total bitch. She was a banshee from hell. How could someone as nice as Dee Henning end up with someone like Kendra Davis for a best friend?
But God, the woman was hot. He’d wanted to rip her clothes off and taker her right there in the lake in front of everybody. Of course, she probably would have killed him and ripped out his still-beating heart long before he ever got any satisfaction. At least she’d been gracious enough to laugh it off in front o
f the onlookers and lie, something about a game the two of them were playing and they got too close to the edge of the dock. He was pretty sure Dee and Ellis and probably Harris and Stacie knew it was a lie, but at least she’d tried. When Harris showed them to separate bathrooms to dry off, Garrett was pretty sure she’d growled and bared teeth at him.
And he … Well, he’d had to take care of some very pressing business before he could be decent enough to rejoin the party. He hadn’t been that turned on since … Well, he couldn’t remember ever being that turned on. How could that be? Afterwards she’d kept her distance. And with everyone else she was completely charming, and God, he wanted her.
‘She’s a bitch,’ he reminded himself out loud, trying to ignore the bulge in his jeans. ‘Kendra Davis is a total bitch. I can’t stay far enough away from her.’
Since Don was always nagging him for never checking his email, and he planned to ride the man hard about finding him someone to play the role of Tess, he pulled up his account, all prepared to write a “well? Have you found her yet” message. Instead, there was an email from Razor Sharp. Once again the man had managed to get beyond the Tess Delaney fan pages and find his way to Tess’s private email address. Garrett knew he shouldn’t read it. He knew he should just copy it to the file with the others like Detective Brewster had told him, but he’d already opened it.
Hey Lovely Lady,
Just finished reading your latest novel. A triumph, as they all are. And oh so hot. As they all are. Most definitely a one-handed read for me. Woman, what you do to me!
Rumors are flying that you’ve been nominated for the Golden Kiss Award. How very exciting.
I’ll be watching. No doubt with one hand well occupied.
Love and heat,
R.S.
Garrett sat staring at the email until the words swam out of focus before his eyes. Razor Sharp, he was calling himself now. He had been The Razor and The Deepest Cut and several other similar names. Though the emails were creepy, there was nothing seriously threatening, so why did Garrett always feel like someone had poured ice down the back of his shirt whenever he got one? And he didn’t even get them all that often. But how many people could know about the nomination for the Golden Kiss Award when Garrett’s publicist had only just told him? Granted, the man could have simply guessed. Garrett pulled a deep breath and saved the email into the file for the police. Not that it would do any good. He had more important things to think about at the moment, and Tess had her share of loopy fans. He supposed that was to be expected since no one really knew who Tess was. That certainly was a big plus. Garrett turned his attention back to composing a surly email to Don.
Identity Crisis Page 2