“I’m sure you’ve looked into a mirror lately,” she managed to say more calmly. “You know what you look like.”
Her body temperature rose a full ten degrees as his smile deepened and traveled straight to her gut, swirling about like a corkscrew.
“Oddly enough, I find I really don’t have the time to spend staring into mirrors.” He held up his hand just in case she was about to contradict him. “And before you bring up the obvious subject of shaving, my mirror is usually pretty cloudy from the steam when I shave in the morning. Most of the time I do it in the shower,” he clarified. “I’ve got a little mirror attached to a shower rack.”
The thought of Brandon, standing naked and dripping in the shower as he shaved, succeeded in transforming her already wobbly knees into something that would have made Jell-O appear rock solid by comparison.
Heat swept around her, threatening to burn her into a crisp.
Get a grip, Isabelle. You’re good at what you do, you’re a sensitive, caring, busy physical therapist, not a mindless groupie with no life. Stop acting like one.
That was only half-true, she realized ruefully. Granted, she was a topflight physical therapist—she was always taking classes to keep up on any new, ground-breaking techniques rising up in her field, not to mention absorbing any new theories coming down the pike—and she wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination a mindless groupie, but she also had no actual life outside of her work.
How else could she agree to just pick up and deposit herself here, in her client’s home, without so much as a minor hassle, other than what clothes to pack and what to leave behind?
After this assignment, Isabelle promised herself she would take some time off and do something. Go somewhere. Anywhere. Just so that she could say she had gone.
Pulling together her thoughts, Isabelle forced herself to focus on the conversation and not on the fact that she could, at this very close proximity, actually feel the heat coming from Brandon’s body.
Or, at least she thought she did, which, in this case, was just as bad.
“You just startled me, that’s all,” she said, addressing the explanation to his shoes. It was easier than looking into his brilliant blue eyes. “I didn’t expect to find anyone in the hallway.”
He continued to look amused with her. “You always scream when you’re startled?”
“Actually,” she replied truthfully, “I don’t scream. This was my first time.”
He would have laughed at her expression if it wouldn’t have hurt her feelings. “Well, then, maybe we should go somewhere to discuss this,” he proposed with as straight a face as he could manage. “First times are special. Or so I’ve been told.”
Why was it that every single one of Brandon’s deep, modulated words felt as if they were cascading slowly down the length of her skin, like the gentle fingers of a questing lover?
Not that she would know firsthand what that was like, she thought ruefully. But she did have a very vivid imagination and could think herself into that sort of a situation.
Oh, no, you don’t.
Isabelle took another deep breath. Something else she was going to do on that vacation she would take after this. Find out what it felt like to have a lover. Even if it was only for one wild, hot, mind-boggling weekend.
She was tired of wondering what that felt like—to have a man caress her, cherish her, make love with her. If things didn’t change in her life and soon, it was only a matter of time before someone snatched her up, stuck her on a plate and put a glass dome over her, displaying her as the last living twenty-eight-year-old virgin in captivity.
She forced a smile to her lips, hoping she didn’t look like some kind of a grinning idiot to him. How long before she became immune to the fact that he was Brandon Slade, famous writer?
Probably a lot faster than she would become immune to the fact that, no matter from what angle she looked at him, Brandon Slade was nothing short of drop-dead gorgeous.
It would be one thing if the man was handsome in a sterile way. This was Southern California, and there were gaggles of pretty boys everywhere, looking to make a name, or a career, for themselves. If you looked at one of them, they might be momentarily breathtaking, but there was nothing behind the eyes. They had no more depth to them than a thimbleful of water.
But Brandon, Brandon was another story entirely. Brandon was warm-handsome. Friendly-handsome. There was something incredibly boyish and appealing about him. Some special x-factor in addition to the man’s chiseled chin, high cheekbones and bone-melting sky blue eyes that undermined her entire foundation and reduced her to a pile of sand.
She needed to get over that, Isabelle reminded herself. Or he would think she was some kind of an airhead and ask for her to be pulled from his mother’s case. Not that she would have blamed him. After all, she wouldn’t have wanted an airhead in charge of her mother’s therapy right after her hip surgery either—if she had a mother, which she didn’t. Not for a very long time, she recalled with the same heavy heart she felt every time she thought of that hole that her mother’s death had left behind.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to take a rain check on that celebration,” she deadpanned, playing along with what he’d just said. “I need to get to my apartment and pack a few things if I’m going to stay here awhile.” Isabelle glanced at her watch to see what time it was. “I’m sure your mother is already expecting me back.”
He laughed softly. “You show promise, Isabelle Sinclair. Only here a couple of hours and already you’ve gotten to know Anastasia well.” He found himself liking this down-to-earth girl-next-door that the physical therapy agency had sent. It was rare to find someone good who was also sensible—and could get along with his mother. “My mother has many attributes, but patience was never listed among them,” he admitted.
She liked the way Brandon said her name. Hell, with a voice like that, she would have liked the way he read the supermarket bill, she thought ruefully.
She was doing it again, she chided herself silently. She was making noises like some love-struck groupie, and that had to stop.
Just as soon as the man stopped being so perfect.
No one’s perfect. He’s got flaws—somewhere, she told herself.
This wasn’t like her. She had to snap out of it and start moving, her inner voice argued.
Words found their way to her lips. Finally. “So then I should get going,” she told him.
She’d taken exactly two steps toward the front door when she heard him say, “Why don’t I come with you?” Surprised, she turned around to look at him. He was already walking toward her. “In case there’s any heavy lifting involved.”
He probably didn’t understand that not all women had the inclination—or the money—to go on shopping sprees.
“I don’t own enough clothes to create any heavy kind of lifting,” she told him. “I just thought I’d get a few changes of clothing and a few books to read at night.”
She saw no reason for the last part of her statement to bring such an amused grin to his lips. “You’re an optimist I take it.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”
“Thinking that you’ll have the time and the energy to read at night,” he explained. “Mother will take up most of your time. She has a habit of monopolizing people,” he told her. It wasn’t a criticism or a complaint. It was just the way things were. It certainly didn’t detract from any of the affection he bore the woman who had given him life. “She loves having audiences and you will be brand-new, virgin territory for her.”
In response to his words, Brandon saw the deep pink blush creeping up the woman’s neck and face at a breathtaking rate.
Was that his fault? “I’m sorry, did I say something to—”
“No, no,” she said, cutting him off before he could begin guessing at the reason she wasn’t able to hear the word “virgin” without feeling some sort of personal failure on her part. She told herself that she really didn’t care th
at she wasn’t part of a duo, that she’d never really been with a man in that very special way that counted.
That sort of thing bothered Zoe, but not her, Isabelle stubbornly maintained. But it did bother her to be regarded as some kind of oddity in this very progressive, outgoing society where couples met on an elevator, and by the time they reached the ground floor, they were hermetically sealed to one another in a passionate, fiery embrace that only promised to be more so once they had some privacy.
“It’s just warm in here, that’s all.” To add weight to her argument, Isabelle pretended to fan herself with her hand.
“I guess you’re more hot-blooded than me,” he told her.
She looked at him for a long moment, trying to ascertain if he believed her or was just having fun at her expense. She couldn’t tell and gave up, hoping it was the former.
“Anyway,” he continued, “things go twice as fast with an extra set of hands helping and you’d be doing me a favor.”
How could helping her pack be doing him a favor? “Oh? How?”
“Well, if I’m helping you get your things together, I’ve got an excuse for not sitting at my computer, working,” he confided. “Or, in this case, suffering,” he added.
She stared at him, completely confused. She’d read his interviews. The man loved what he did. So, how could he refer to it as suffering? Was that just for show?
“Don’t you like writing?” she asked him.
“No. Well, that didn’t exactly come out right,” he said, reexamining his one-word response. “I like coming up with the idea, love jotting things down in the middle of the night as they come to me like storm troopers parachuting out of the sky. These are all things that I’m going to write,” he emphasized. “I also like having written something—you’ll note the past tense,” he pointed out. “Love rereading the finished product. Tweaking here, fixing there, making it all sound better, ring truer. That part I absolutely love,” he said with feeling.
“But the actual writing process—the sitting there, staring at the empty screen and desperately searching for the right words or semi-right words to finally fill up that awful, empty screen?” It was a rhetorical question. “No, can’t say I like that part of it. Nope, not at all,” he declared with a shake of his head. “That’s the agony part of this whole gig I’m in. It’s pretty much like—well, like sitting down at the computer, opening up a vein and just bleeding.”
When he put it that way, it seemed positively awful. “Doesn’t sound like something anyone would want to do willingly,” Isabelle observed.
He nodded his agreement. “Glad you see my side of it. So, can I come along?” he asked.
He was actually asking her to “tag” along. Boyishly and charmingly asking her. As if he thought there was a chance in hell that she would possibly consider telling him no.
Was he kidding?
What woman in her right mind would say no to him? Especially when he looked so damn appealing asking the question.
“Are you sure your mother won’t mind being left alone like this?” she asked.
“She’s not alone,” he corrected her. “Victoria’s here.”
He was referring to his daughter. She’d always liked that name. It sounded so regal, so cultured. Unlike her own name which struck her as just being sturdy. Isabelles were the workers of the world. Victorias, on the other hand, were the princesses.
Isabella was the queen who gave Columbus money, and he discovered a brand new world, remember? she reminded herself. Without Queen Isabella you wouldn’t be standing where you are.
It made no difference.
“Your daughter,” Isabelle said with a nod.
“You’ve met Victoria?” he asked, surprised. Funny, Victoria hadn’t said anything, and up until now, his daughter told him everything. He was going to miss that when she hit her teens and became a card-carrying stranger for the next x-number of years.
“Yes, she came in just at the tail end of my evaluation of your mother’s condition. She looked more poised than she did in that photograph I saw of her in People Magazine.”
It took him a second to remember the article the therapist was apparently referring to. “Oh, right. The four-page spread last year,” he recalled, nodding. “That was written just as And Death Do Us Part came out,” he recalled. “Victoria was eleven when it was written, and as she likes pointing out, she’s ‘matured’ since then.”
And was in oh such a hurry to grow up, he thought as a sadness tugged on his heart. He knew he couldn’t keep Victoria a little girl forever, but he’d secretly been hoping that he was going to find a way to slow time down. No such luck.
He smiled at the very thought of his daughter. He’d fallen in love with her the first moment he saw her—and could never understand how Jean, his ex, could have walked out on her. But that was Jean’s loss, he thought. Right from the beginning, he’d made sure that Victoria would never feel as if she’d been abandoned—the way he had been. His ex-wife’s cavalier behavior had left a scar on his heart, but from that first moment, he was determined that it would do no such thing to their daughter. He liked to believe he had succeeded.
“She keeps me on my toes,” he confided. “And her grandmother on hers. I’d say that of the three of us, Victoria’s easily the oldest one.” He laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t know if that speaks well of us or not, but it makes my mother happy. She has no use for numbers unless they apply to box office takes or residuals from previous airings. Definitely not when they apply to something as ‘mundane’—her word—as age.”
As Isabelle listened to him talk, she had to struggle not to get lost in the sound of his resonant voice.
Emerging from her semi-euphoric fog, she suddenly realized that, if he accompanied her, the writer would, perforce, wind up seeing her apartment. That instantly sobered her.
The idea of having someone like Brandon Slade over to her small, crammed flat when he lived in a house that could easily accommodate half a dozen of her apartments didn’t exactly thrill her. She didn’t consider herself vain, but neither did she like to appear poor or become some kind of an object worthy of his pity.
Isabelle bit her bottom lip, thinking. Maybe she could talk him into staying in the car while she threw a few things into a suitcase.
He’s a man, not a pet to leave in the car while you run an errand. Besides, it’s hot today, unseasonably hot. You want him to get sunstroke?
You’re not supposed to be vain, remember? Especially when you have nothing to be vain about.
Having convinced herself, she lifted her head again, summoning a bright, breezy smile to her lips as she looked into his eyes and said with all the cheerfulness she was able to muster, “I’d love for you to come and help me pack, Mr. Slade.”
“Brandon,” he corrected automatically. “And you lie very smoothly,” he told her in a tone he could have used to compliment her choice in shoes.
Brandon took her arm as if they’d been friends forever and guided her toward the door. The grin he gave her was equal parts sexy, mischief and sunshine.
The latter felt as if it was just bursting through her, giving light to all the dark corners she possessed.
Her stomach bunched up again just as Brandon made a prophesy based on his last assessment of her ability to bend a lie to sound like the truth, something he did on the pages of his books time and again.
“Know what, Isabelle Sinclair? I’ve got a feeling that we’re going to get along just great.”
With all her heart, Isabelle fervently hoped so.
Chapter Four
Instead of following her in his own car, the way she had assumed that he would, Brandon walked with her to her car and gave every indication that he was planning on accompanying her to her apartment in her vehicle.
Isabelle took an immense amount of pride in her little car because—apart from it being economical and reliable, as well as, in her opinion, “cute”—it was also the very first new car she’d ever owned. Every
other one she’d driven had been secondhand, time bombs, for the most part, waiting to go off.
Those details not withstanding, she didn’t see why Brandon would choose to ride shotgun in her car. Since he was somewhere between six-two and six-four, and the vehicle had obviously been manufactured with passengers no taller than five-nine in mind, seating promised to be severely cramped for the author. Even when he pushed the passenger seat back as far as he could before attempting to get in.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked him uncertainly.
“I’m game,” he told her as he began to fold himself up and angle his way into the limited space. It took a bit of doing, but he finally managed to get his entire torso inside the vehicle. As he contorted his arm to get the seat belt’s metal tongue into the slot, he cracked, “By the way, when’s the rest of the car coming?” This was not a good idea, Isabelle thought. “I’m sorry. When I bought it, I wasn’t expecting having someone your height getting into it. I hope you’re not too uncomfortable.” Even as she said it, she knew he was. He made her think of an early Christian martyr, doing penance.
Brandon began to wave away her concern and discovered that he really couldn’t—at least, not literally. There wasn’t enough space available for him to execute the movement.
“Don’t worry about it. This is roomy compared to some of the seats on the rides I’ve gone on with Victoria. There was one once at Jamboree-land where I thought I was going to have to fold my legs up around my shoulders, if not over my head.”
She’d begun driving the second he’d managed to close the passenger side door. “You don’t live very far away, do you?”
“You don’t consider Oxnard far away, do you?” The unguarded look of dread that slipped over his face had her hastily negating her response. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” she assured him with feeling. “I’m just up the road in Bedford.”
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