“Whatever you’re doing can wait,” Destiny said. “I have other plans.” Her tone suggested Melanie was expected to fall in with them without question.
“What?” Melanie asked suspiciously, visions of all those lists still haunting her.
“Just a little preliminary scouting expedition,” Destiny said cheerfully. “It’ll be fun.”
“You want to go shopping today? I’d rather eat dirt.”
“We’ll start with lunch and champagne. That should get you into the proper spirit,” Destiny said, undaunted by Melanie’s lack of enthusiasm. “I’ll pick you up in an hour. Wear comfortable shoes.”
She hung up before Melanie could come up with one single protest that Destiny would buy.
Even though she dreaded the entire outing, Melanie quickly got swept along on Destiny’s tide of excitement. She tried reminding herself that her enjoyment of Destiny’s exuberance was what had gotten her into this predicament with Richard in the first place, but that didn’t seem to work as well as she’d hoped. The woman’s high spirits were contagious.
Before Melanie knew it, she was caught up in the whole shopping thing. She told herself it wouldn’t hurt, just this once, to try on a few wedding gowns in some of the most exclusive shops around. Who knew when she might have another chance to indulge in such a fantasy? As long as she didn’t sign a single credit-card slip or exit a shop with a package, what was the harm?
Her delusion lasted for about the space of a heartbeat. Within no time the shopping excursion began spinning wildly out of her control. Destiny on a mission was a force to be reckoned with. She knew the owners of every elegant boutique in Old Town Alexandria, Georgetown, and in the fanciest malls in the region. She was an indefatigable shopper.
She also knew her own mind and had little patience for salesclerks who wasted time showing them anything less than the best. Despite the brakes Melanie tried valiantly to put on, Destiny merely waved off her objections and headed for the next store. Short of planting her heels and making the woman drag her along behind, Melanie was at a loss. Her vow not to use her credit card for a single purchase was never once tested. Destiny wielded hers with the skill of a woman for whom money held no meaning beyond its purchasing power.
“I can’t let you do this,” Melanie uttered more times than she could count. She was wasting her breath. The packages kept piling up. The only conceivable thing that might slow Destiny down would be running out of trunk space, Melanie thought hopefully as she tried to cram one more package into the already jammed trunk.
“Looks like that’s it for the day,” she said a bit too enthusiastically. “We’re out of room.”
“Nonsense. We’ll just have everything else sent,” Destiny said, turning to march off to the next store on her exhaustive list.
“You can’t be serious,” Melanie said. “I’m wiped out.”
“Really?” Destiny regarded her with surprise. “I’m just getting my second wind, but if you’re tired, I’ll take you home.” She beamed. “I can’t tell you when I’ve had such a wonderful time. What time should we get started tomorrow? Another day or two like this one and we’ll have made real inroads.”
“In what? Bolstering the national economy?”
Destiny laughed. “That, too. Is ten o’clock good for you?”
Melanie ran through a frantic litany of excuses. Alone, none of them seemed to do the trick, but combined they finally bought her the next day off.
“The day after then,” Destiny said adamantly, obviously not inclined to be put off a second time. “I’ll pick you up at nine. We’ll start with florists and caterers, then do a bit more shopping.”
Melanie felt her stomach start to churn. “I can’t let you do all this. It’s wrong.”
“I’m enjoying every minute of it.”
She was, too. Melanie could see it in her eyes and that made her feel even guiltier. Panicked that the frenzy would only get worse, the second Destiny had gone, she got into her own car and drove to Richard’s office. He was bound to be there. She hauled along a few packages—the veritable tip of the iceberg—to help her make her point.
Richard glanced up when she came charging in under a full head of steam. His gaze narrowed. “I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”
“Yes, well, the day is full of surprises. I wasn’t expecting this, either.” She dumped the packages on his desk. It made the piles on Christmas morning seem a little sparse. “Look what she’s done,” she moaned.
“Destiny?” he guessed as if there might be some other crazed shopper in the family.
“Who else?” she snapped. “She picked out china and silver, bought my veil—it’s hand-tatted French lace, by the way—and started on my trousseau. She would not take no for an answer. She said I have a position to live up to as your fiancée. She wouldn’t let me pay for a thing, not that I could afford to pay for one sterling-silver place setting, much less the twelve she ordered. We have to stop this, Richard. It’s getting out of hand. No, it’s beyond that. It’s completely crazy. Destiny had the time of her life and I feel like the lowest slug on the planet.”
Even as she ranted, he reached into a bag and pulled out a silky negligee. His eyes immediately filled with heat.
“Yes, I can see that,” he murmured.
It was said in a placating tone she found totally annoying. Nor did he look nearly as distressed as Melanie had anticipated. “Richard, are you hearing what I’m saying? This has to stop. She’s spending a fortune on a wedding that is not going to take place. She’s out of control. This whole mess is out of control.”
“I hear you.” He held up the negligee, that hot gleam still in his eyes. “This doesn’t have to go to waste, though, does it?”
She stared at him. “What?”
His gaze caught hers. “It would be a shame to let this go to waste, don’t you think?”
Her pulse raced. “Are you crazy?” she asked, her voice a little too breathless. Surely he wasn’t suggesting…
“Come away with me,” he said, “Please.”
“I don’t think—”
He smiled. “There you go. Don’t think. I’ve spent the whole day doing enough thinking for both of us. Just say yes, Melanie. We’ll go down to the cottage for a few days.”
“So we can figure out how to handle this?” she said, still trying to maintain the illusion that that gleam in his eyes did not mean what she thought it meant—okay, what she wanted it to mean.
His smile spread. “That’s one reason.”
She regarded him suspiciously. “What’s the other one?”
“So I can see you wearing this,” he said quietly, letting the filmy material run through his fingers. He met her gaze again. “And take it off of you.”
Oh, God, she thought, her heart hammering.
“Well?”
In her head, she heard herself saying no. It was loud, clear and decisive. She repeated it just to be sure.
Then she looked into Richard’s expectant gaze.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Apparently she wasn’t satisfied that her life hadn’t descended into total heartbreak yet. She was determined to careen wildly straight into disaster.
Chapter Thirteen
Though Richard had spent the entire day trying to figure out the best way to handle things with Melanie and Destiny, he hadn’t come to any satisfactory conclusions by the time Melanie had come bursting into his office twenty minutes earlier. Leaning back in his chair, listening to Melanie’s outpouring of dismay over their duplicity, watching the color rise in her cheeks, hearing the passion in her voice had convinced him of one thing. He wasn’t going to let her go the way he’d originally intended.
To the contrary, in fact. He was going to do his best to figure out some way to keep her in his life. After all the scheming, he realized he might have a teensy bit of trouble getting her to trust him, but he’d overcome tougher obstacles in his life.
He might still be more than a little miffed over
his aunt’s meddling, but Destiny had gotten it right. Melanie was exactly what he’d needed. He should have known Destiny wouldn’t make a mistake with his happiness on the line. No one on earth knew him better, flaws and all. She’d found a woman capable of balancing his natural stodginess, a woman who could make him feel alive, a woman whose passion would make him lose his head and his heart…if only he dared to risk them.
As he’d listened to Melanie, he’d realized that for him all bets were off. Unfortunately, he’d made a commitment to her that she could end their phony relationship. He’d realized that he had one chance—if he was lucky—to convince her that ending things wasn’t what she wanted, either.
For a man not normally inclined to risk rejection, he’d taken a huge chance by inviting her down to the cottage. Letting her know that he had more than talking on his mind had been an even bigger risk, but he couldn’t deceive her about his intentions. He might take all the well-intentioned lies to Destiny reasonably lightly, but he would not lie to Melanie. They had enough hurdles to get over without adding that.
Looking across his desk at her now, heat in her cheeks, her eyes bright, he knew he would do whatever was necessary to persuade her to stay with him forever. Never before had he allowed anyone to begin to matter so much. The power of his feelings for her very nearly overwhelmed him.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked. “Do you really want to go to the cottage with me?”
She nodded.
“You know I’m asking you there to do more than talk.”
A smile played on her lips as she gestured toward that breathtaking concoction of deep blue silk and lace. “You made that clear.”
“Your employment as a consultant to my campaign has nothing at all to do with this,” he said to make sure she understood that. “Your work here is secure, no matter what happens between us personally. I’ll put that in writing if you like.”
“No need,” she said. “I quit.”
Richard blinked, certain he couldn’t possibly have heard her correctly. “What?”
“I said I quit,” she repeated more confidently. “I don’t need your business.”
Now there was a wrinkle he hadn’t anticipated. He’d counted on that tie keeping her around, even if he messed up something this week. It had been his sketchily formed backup plan.
“But I want you to go on working for me,” he said, surprised to find that he meant every word of it and not just because it had been his fall-back plan for contact with her. Damn, if it wasn’t one more thing he owed Destiny for. He regarded Melanie intently. “You’re too good to lose. I read your notes on the prospective campaign managers. They were sharp and insightful. You got a far better fix on their qualifications than I did by looking at the exact same material.”
Satisfaction glowed in her eyes. “Then I’ll be happy to bill you for that, but I still quit.”
“Why?”
“It will just muddy the waters. I don’t know where this trip to the cottage will lead, but I do know that I don’t want to be worrying about whether I’ll have a job when things end between us. And, frankly, it would be far too painful for me to be around you, when things do go badly.”
When, not if. She’d said it twice. Richard heard her certainty that the relationship would end and wondered what it would take to convince her otherwise.
In the meantime, he had to find some way to keep her from quitting. He needed all his ties with her to be strong. To his astonishment, he’d gotten used to having her underfoot. He didn’t want to lose any aspect of that. He didn’t want to lose yet another important person in his life. Losing his parents had shaped his entire outlook. He didn’t think he’d survive another emotional hit like that.
“I thought this consulting job was going to be your big break,” he reminded her, grasping desperately at straws. “That’s what Destiny led me to believe. Was she wrong?”
“No, she wasn’t wrong.” Her gaze remained unflinching. “I’ll find another big break, Richard, one without the complications.”
Richard heard the finality in her voice and nodded slowly, not even trying to hide his reluctance to let this be the last word on the subject. “You’re sure?”
She chuckled. “As sure as I’ve been about anything since the day we met. Things have been a bit confusing since then.”
“Tell me about it,” he responded.
“Maybe you’re the one who needs to think about this trip you have planned. Are you sure? You’re not a man who’s big on complications, and this could be a huge one.”
Richard grinned at her assessment. It had been true once, not all that long ago. He’d hated sticky situations, especially of a personal nature. But he was definitely looking forward to this one. For the first time ever he saw the possibility of a real future for a relationship, something more than satisfying sex.
He stood up and walked around his desk to stand in front of her. “I’m sure about this one,” he said with quiet assurance. “I don’t know how it happened, but I can’t get you out of my head.”
Her gaze narrowed suspiciously. “Are you hoping this weekend will purge me from your system? Because if that’s the case, let’s call the whole thing off. We can forget about the trip, the phony engagement, all of it. I’ll return all this stuff and take all the blame with Destiny.”
The possibility that she could turn her back on him so easily grated. Richard looked directly into her eyes. “I appreciate the offer, but that’s not how it’s going to happen.”
She bristled visibly at his tone. “Oh?” she asked, as if daring him to utter another order.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to the cottage. We’re going to put all of this other nonsense aside for the next few days. We’re going to make love until we’re exhausted, then maybe do it a few more times just to be sure we’re getting it right.”
“Were you an activities director at one of those singles resorts in another life?”
Richard chuckled at the totally incongruous suggestion. “I seriously doubt it. Are we clear about the plans?”
For a minute he seriously thought she might balk, but she finally met his gaze.
“Okay,” she said quietly but firmly. There was no apparent doubt in her eyes or in her tone.
His heart soared. So did his libido. He was wise enough not to let her know about either reaction. “Good, then. I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
“We’re going tonight?”
“No time like the present. My desk is clear. Yours?”
“Clear enough,” she admitted. “I have plans with Destiny day after tomorrow.”
“I’ll take care of that. I’ll tell her we’re going on a romantic getaway before all the wedding frenzy takes over our lives. She’ll be delighted.”
“Maybe you can convince her not to do anything precipitous without us,” Melanie suggested hopefully. “Tell her we want to be a part of every decision. That way there’s a slight chance we won’t come back and find that every detail has been hammered out and nailed down with ironclad contracts.”
Richard nodded at the sensible suggestion. “Good idea. I’ll call now. You’d better get moving if you intend to be ready in an hour.”
She gave him a long, measuring look, then scooped up the negligee that made his mouth go dry, let it dangle sexily from a finger, and said, “How much packing will I need to do, if this is all you expect me to wear?”
Richard was still trying to form a coherent thought when she sashayed past him. Given that remark, he wondered if it was possible they could be on the road in thirty minutes. Of course, with his body in a state of complete and total arousal, it might be very wise not to leave his office for a while.
Melanie arrived back at her house to find Becky sitting at her desk, staring glumly at her computer screen.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came in because I needed to talk to a friend. Where were you?” she asked accusingly. “You told me you’d be working today.�
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“Long story,” Melanie said, regarding Becky with concern, her own plans forgotten for the moment. “What’s wrong? They were all out of your size at Nordstrom’s?”
“I didn’t go shopping.”
That was so startling Melanie sank down in her own chair. “Why not?”
“I broke up with Jason.”
“Again? Why?”
“He’s been cheating on me.”
All of Melanie’s good feelings toward the man vanished at once. “How did you find out? Are you sure?” she asked, sharing Becky’s indignation.
“I spotted him with a woman in the men’s department,” Becky said. “Trust me, I recognized all the signs. She was practically drooling over him.” She regarded Melanie with obvious misery. “And that was after he’d told me he’d rather be carved up into itty-bitty pieces than go shopping right after Christmas. He knew where I was going. He wanted me to see them together. The coward. It was easier than being honest with me.”
“You’re right. It was a cowardly thing to do,” Melanie agreed. “But, Becky, wouldn’t you rather know the truth?”
“No,” Becky said at once, then sighed. “Okay, yes, but it’s the holiday season. Who will I be with on New Year’s Eve?” She regarded Melanie hopefully. “We could do something. There’s still time to plan a party.”
Melanie debated telling Richard they would have to be back for New Year’s Eve, then decided against it. They had their own problems to sort through.
“I can’t.”
“You have a date?”
“In a way. Richard and I are going away.”
Becky’s mouth dropped open, her own sad plight momentarily forgotten. “You’re kidding! Where? When?”
“We’re going back to the cottage at the beach.” She glanced at her watch. “In about twenty minutes. I need to pack.”
“Then go. Don’t worry about me.”
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