Melanie sighed at the return of his straitlaced demeanor. She was beginning to think it was nothing more than self-protective armor, and that made her weak-kneed all over again. “Richard, I’m sorry, but what just went on here?”
He shrugged. “I suppose, for a couple of minutes, both of us lost track of why we’re together.”
“In other words, we were behaving like a male and female who are attracted to each other, rather than prospective business associates,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault. I’m the one who’s sorry for crossing a line.”
“But I invited you to cross it.”
He scowled at her. “Quit being so damned reasonable,” he muttered. “There’s no way this weekend could have anything other than a bad ending.”
Melanie felt worse than ever. For a few minutes Richard had forgotten himself, pushed aside his responsibilities and found his long-lost inner child. He’d revealed his human side. Then she’d gone and ruined that by getting too uptight and serious. Of course, if she apologized one more time, he was liable to blow sky-high. He seemed to be operating on a very short fuse. It would have been a good time to get out of town, but unfortunately the local roads had yet to be cleared.
She held out her hand, determined to get them back on a safer footing. “Truce?”
He gave her a mocking look. “I hadn’t realized we were at war.”
“But we’re heading in that direction,” she said. “And it is my fault. I sent out all sorts of mixed messages.”
He gazed into her eyes, his expression forbidding. “Maybe it would be smarter to stay at odds,” he suggested. “We don’t seem to be able to handle anything else without getting offtrack.”
It was true, though Melanie couldn’t imagine why that was. Forget all the issues about working with him, he was far too intense—okay, far too stuffy—to be attractive to her, beyond his obvious physical appeal. And yet he was attractive, no question about that. Otherwise she wouldn’t have come so darn close to throwing herself at him without one second’s consideration of her deeply held principles about mixing business and pleasure.
She imagined that he found the whole attraction thing to be just as confusing. She was nothing at all like the rich, sophisticated, edgy women with whom he was normally seen around town. She’d seen him in black tie often enough on the society pages to recognize the glamorous type of woman he preferred.
Given that, there was only one thing to do. If they both accepted the notion of anything personal between them being insane, then perhaps the next few hours wouldn’t be too awful. In fact, perhaps by morning they’d be able to laugh about everything, shake hands and say goodbye with no lingering regrets. She’d write off any chance of landing this PR consulting contract and cut her losses. Anything else would be complete lunacy.
Even as she was coming to that conclusion, Richard reached into his jacket and pulled out a key. “Why don’t you go on back to the house?” he suggested, offering it to her.
“Where are you going?” she asked as she accepted the key and tucked it into her own jacket pocket.
“For a walk,” he said. “I’ll pick up one of those cameras for you.”
Melanie opened her mouth to offer to come with him, but he’d already turned on his heel and taken off. Clearly he was eager to escape her company. This was what she’d wanted not five seconds ago, but now she was having second thoughts.
She heaved a sigh as she watched him go, shoulders hunched against the wind that had kicked up off the river. He looked so alone. How was it possible that a man as rich, brilliant and sexy as Richard Carlton could be so completely alone?
She had answers to all sorts of questions about him stored away in her research files, but not to that one. Naturally that meant it was the one she found most intriguing, the one that opened a tiny little place in her heart to him.
And that, she concluded with complete candor, was the one that could prove to be her undoing.
Richard knew it was ridiculous to feel cranky and completely out of sorts because a woman had changed her mind—and the rules—on him. It happened all the time, and he’d never given two figs about it before. Women were unpredictable creatures, that was all. It wasn’t personal. He’d watched Destiny dispatch so many perfectly respectable suitors over the years, he’d come to accept the behavior as normal.
But he’d taken Melanie’s sudden change of heart damn personally, which meant that on some totally unexpected level she’d gotten to him. How the devil had that happened?
He wrestled with that unanswerable question all the way to the fast-mart, where he picked up a disposable camera, then had a sudden inspiration to buy a just-released video and some popcorn for that evening. If they were going to be stuck here together for another night, entertainment that didn’t require conversation seemed like a fine idea.
As he trudged back toward the cottage through the deep snow, he tried to recapture some of his earlier delight in the quiet, snow-shrouded landscape, but it wouldn’t come. Without Melanie, it was a bit as if that cardinal had flown away, taking all of the color with it.
He groaned at the thought. He did not want Melanie Hart adding color to his life. He didn’t want to start waxing poetic about her influence on him or his surroundings. He wanted to go back to that serene time earlier in the week before he’d ever met the annoying woman. Then the prospect of several uninterrupted hours in front of his computer or with his mountain of paperwork would have been the bright spot on his weekend agenda.
Unfortunately, recapturing that serenity was all but impossible when Melanie was going to be underfoot the second he crossed the threshold at the cottage. And she would be underfoot. She seemed to be the kind who liked to talk things out, make perfect sense of them, instead of accepting that they’d nearly made a dreadful mistake and moving on. He’d seen that let’s-talk-about-this look in her eyes right before he’d turned on his heel and left her a few blocks from the cottage. He hoped to hell she was over it by now.
He was half-frozen by the time he reached the cottage. He was grateful for the blazing fire she’d started, but as he waited for Melanie to appear, to start pestering him with comments or analysis or, God forbid, yet another apology, he grew increasingly perplexed by her absence. Had she taken off, even though the local roads were still all but impassable? Come to think of it, had he paid any attention to whether her car was still in the driveway? He couldn’t remember noticing.
Panicked that she might have done something so completely impulsive and dangerous because of him, he bounded upstairs and very nearly broke down the guest-room door with his pounding. He heard her sleepily mumbled “What?” just as he threw open the door.
Undisguised relief flooded through him at the sight of her in the bed, the comforter pulled up to her chin, her hair rumpled, her eyes dazed.
“Is something wrong?” she asked in that same husky, half-asleep tone.
The comforter drooped, revealing one bare shoulder and a tantalizing hint of breast. Heart pounding, Richard began backing away. “No, really. Sorry.”
“Richard?”
Even half-asleep, she was constitutionally incapable of letting anything go, he concluded grimly. He was going to have to explain himself, or at least come up with something plausible that wouldn’t give away how frantic he’d been when he’d imagined her risking her neck on the icy roads.
“Um, the front door was open,” he said, improvising quickly. “I thought someone might have broken in. I just wanted to be sure you were okay.”
Her gaze narrowed. “The front door was open?”
“Just a crack,” he said, guessing that she was about to worry that piece of information to death.
“But I closed it. I know I did. I didn’t lock it, because I wasn’t sure if you had another key with you and I wasn’t sure if I’d hear you if I fell asleep and you knocked, but I’m sure it was securely shut.”
“No big deal,” he said. “As long as you’re okay. Go
back to sleep. Sorry I disturbed you.”
She smiled and stretched, allowing another tiny slip of the comforter. She seemed to be oblivious to the sexy picture she presented.
“I’m awake now. I might as well get up.”
Because she seemed about to do exactly that without regard for her lack of attire—or what his vivid imagination believed to be her lack of attire—Richard bolted. He wasn’t sure his heart could take the image of a totally unclad Melanie being burned in his mind forever.
He was downstairs, in the kitchen, making another pot of very strong coffee, when she finally appeared, her face scrubbed clean, her hair tidied. He’d liked it better all tousled, but it was evident she was trying to reclaim her professional—totally untouchable—decorum. He could have told her that not even the most modest power suit of all time could accomplish that. She was an innately sexy woman, the kind who conjured up forbidden images, at least for him.
“Coffee?” he offered.
“No, thanks. Too much caffeine and I’ll never sleep tonight.”
Richard was pretty sure he wasn’t going to sleep anyway, so a little caffeine wasn’t going to matter. “I bought a video for us to watch later,” he said, gesturing to the table.
She picked it up, studied it, then grinned. “You bought a romantic comedy?”
“I heard it was good,” he muttered defensively. “I thought all women liked that kind of sappy stuff.”
“We do. I’m just surprised you took my feelings into account.”
“My aunt raised me to be a thoughtful host.”
“Even when you’re an unwilling one?” she asked skeptically.
“Even then,” he insisted. “Maybe it’s most important of all then. And Destiny obviously knew that I’d mastered that lesson when she sent you charging down here. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have risked it.”
Melanie met his gaze and opened her mouth. Richard cut her off. “I don’t want to hear another apology. We both know you’re here because of my aunt. If anyone’s to blame for the awkwardness of the situation, it’s Destiny.”
“She was just trying to help both of us out,” Melanie replied. “You can hardly blame her for caring about you and for trying to do me a favor.”
“Yes, I can,” he said grimly. “When it takes the form of meddling, I most certainly can. If this was only about that contract, she’d have planted you in my office on Monday morning, not in this cottage on a Friday night, armed with my favorite wine and food.”
Melanie grimaced. “Maybe we shouldn’t go there. We don’t seem to see eye-to-eye on your aunt’s motivation. In fact, maybe I should go in the living room and sit in front of the fire and get some work done, and you can stay in here and do the same.”
Richard bit back a grin. “Retreating to neutral corners, as it were.”
“Exactly.”
“Maybe that’s not such a bad idea,” he said as he gazed directly into her eyes. He thought he detected a faint hint of longing there. Best not to give himself the chance to discover if he was right.
She stood there, looking undecided, then finally sighed. “See you later, then.”
“Yeah, see you later.” When she was almost out of sight, he called after her. “Melanie?”
She hesitated but didn’t turn back to face him. “Yes?”
“Anything in particular you’d like for dinner?”
She turned then, her expression perplexed. “There are choices?”
“Sure. Why would you think otherwise?”
“Destiny made it seem as if…”
“As if I would be starving if you didn’t show up down here,” Richard guessed. He grinned. “Told you what she was up to.”
Melanie nodded. “Damn but she’s good,” she said, sounding more admiring than annoyed.
“It’s something we should both keep in mind, don’t you think?” he responded.
“Oh, yes,” she said, squaring her shoulders. “I will definitely keep that in mind. As for dinner, surprise me.”
As if I could, Richard thought, but he nodded. Maybe when it came to dinner, he could come up with something totally unexpected. Lord knew, though, that the woman seemed able to read his mind when it came to anything else.
Melanie grabbed her cell phone and marched outside, oblivious to the cold. She punched in Destiny Carlton’s number, then waited for a connection. When it came, the signal was faint, but she could hear Destiny’s cheerful voice.
“You are one very sneaky woman,” Melanie accused, though without too much rancor.
“Melanie, darling. How are you? Are you stranded down there with Richard?” There was an unmistakably optimistic note in her voice.
“I’m sure you knew I would be,” Melanie grumbled.
“Not knew, hoped,” Destiny corrected. “Is it going well? Has he agreed to hire you yet?”
“No.”
“Oh,” Destiny said, clearly disappointed. “Maybe I should have a talk with him. Where is he?”
“In the kitchen working, and I am not letting you talk to him,” Melanie said. “I think you’ve done quite enough meddling for one weekend.”
“Has something gone wrong?” Destiny asked worriedly. “You two haven’t had words, have you?”
“Not the way you mean. What we have done is compare notes. Now I’m even more suspicious of your motives than I was the other day. In fact, I’m convinced that your intentions were not entirely aboveboard and honorable.”
“That’s a fine thing to say when I’ve only been trying to help you out,” Destiny said with indignation.
“Nice try,” Melanie retorted, not buying the huffy act for an instant. “And I’m sure that getting me this contract is at least a small part of what you’re after, but you want more out of this weekend, don’t you?”
“I have no idea what you’re suggesting,” the older woman claimed blithely. “Whoops, there’s my other line. I’m expecting an important call from Richard’s brother Mack. Have a lovely time down there, darling, and give Richard a kiss for me. Don’t you two dare leave until the roads are cleared. I don’t want to be worried sick that you’re skidding into a snowdrift.”
She was gone before Melanie could respond. Give the man a kiss for her, Melanie thought irritably. Right. That was exactly what Destiny was after, and the more kissing the better. She punched in Destiny’s number again, but this time the connection wouldn’t go through at all. Melanie sighed, jammed the cell phone back in her pocket and went inside.
Richard walked into the living room just then and regarded her quizzically. “What on earth were you doing outside without a coat?”
“Calling your aunt.”
His lips twitched. “And?”
“She denies that this was a setup for anything other than getting a business deal worked out.”
“What did you expect, that she’d admit to it?”
“Yes, I expected her to be honest.”
“I’m sure she was. In fact, I imagine if you went over every word that came out of her mouth, you wouldn’t find a single thing that wasn’t accurate and truthful.”
Melanie considered the conversation she’d just had with the maddening woman and concluded Richard was right. Destiny had skirted carefully around any outright lies, while admitting nothing. “She should be the one going into politics,” she muttered.
“Heaven help us if she chose to,” Richard said. “She doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and the political arena is crawling with idiots. Destiny’s completely nonpartisan when it comes to calling it as she sees it. After a few weeks, no political party would have her.”
“Just think how refreshing it would be to listen to her, though,” Melanie speculated.
“Refreshing is not the word I would have chosen,” Richard replied. “But, then, I’ve been listening to her most of my life and have seen what she’s like once she gets a bee in her bonnet. She’s relentless.”
“And you think that’s what we are, a bee in her bonnet?”
“I’
d stake my life on it.”
“Well, too bad,” Melanie said forcefully. “She’s just going to have to lose this one. You and I have agreed on that.”
She looked up to find Richard staring at her, that disconcerting heat once again blazing in his eyes.
“Have we really?” he asked softly.
Her pulse leaped. “Yes, of course, we have,” she said, trying hard to sound irrefutably emphatic.
“Then Destiny will just have to accept it,” he said, with what sounded like a vague note of regret in his voice.
Melanie swallowed hard, trying not to choke on her own regrets. “Suddenly I’m starving,” she said. “Must be all that fresh air and exercise.”
Richard finally tore his gaze away. “I’ll start dinner then. Would you like a glass of wine? There’s another bottle of cabernet.”
“Sure,” she said eagerly. One glass would calm her nerves. And one was her limit. Two would weaken her resolve, and it was already nearly in tatters.
She followed Richard into the kitchen. “Do you think we’ll be able to get away from here in the morning?”
“The main roads will definitely be clear, and I imagine even that insubstantial little car of yours will be able to get out to the highway.”
He sounded almost as eager to put an end to this weekend as she was. If he mattered to her in a personal way, his words would have hurt her feelings. As it was, there was just a tiny little nip to her ego. Or so she told herself.
“Stay here while I cook,” he suggested, his fingers lingering against hers as he handed her the glass of wine.
“Not a good idea,” she said.
“Why?”
“You know the answer to that. We seem to lose our heads when we’re in the same room for too long.”
“And that’s such a bad thing?”
“Richard!”
He shrugged. “I just thought it would be nice to have some company.” He grinned. “I’ll give you a knife, and you can cut the vegetables. If I get out of line, you can defend yourself.”
Millionaires' Destinies Page 6