by Schultz, JT
They stepped to the glass and brass doors as the doorman pulled it open. Richard allowed to Toni to go first and for some strange reason, her nerves were even more on edge.
“Welcome back Ms. Deluca,” concierge greeted as they walked through the lobby.
Toni just turned, smiled, and kept walking. The glass doors to the sitting area opened and she turned toward the elevators. Her steps paused and she turned. Richard had come to a stop and was taking in every detail.
He turned and walked toward her. “Very elegant—but not stuffy or too modern. Reminds me of the Sutherford Towers just outside of Dallas.”
She nodded and smiled. “Same builder and interior designer. Colors are darker at Sutherford—but when Kerry Sutherford, the owner, makes up his mind—everyone else can forget changing it.”
His expression turned quizzical and he looked around the room again, as if memorizing the details. She knew he had questions, but he didn’t ask them. Since she wasn’t sure what to add to the conversation, she continued toward the elevators on the even side of the building and pushed the button. Her gaze fell to the table and noticed the arrangement. It was new and off balance. She stepped toward the large silk flowers and adjusted the positions slightly.
Richard’s gaze was intent on her and she fought to ignore the tickle of realization down her spine. Thankfully, the elevator beeped and the doors opened. She stepped in, held her key fob to the reader and pushed fifteen.
The silence was deafening and she was becoming more on edge with each passing moment. She turned to the man she was supposed to marry tomorrow. Any conversation had become a struggle. Toni smiled. “It’s not the penthouse but it will do.”
“I’m sure its fine.”
The elevator stopped and she stepped off the elevator to the double glass doors with the wrought iron vine design. It took her two attempts to get the key in, due to her frazzled state, but she finally unlocked the door and stepped in. She didn’t slow her pace until she stepped into the kitchen and dropped her keys and purse on the counter.
“I’ll show you the guest room.” She started to walk past him when his hands gently captured her by the upper arms.
“Are you okay?” His tone and expression both held concern.
“No.” She slipped out of his hold, walked down the short hallway to the room, and turned on the light. “You should be comfortable in here.” She stepped over to a closet and opened the door. “More towels and blankets should you need them.”
“Can I see the rest of the place?”
She turned and nodded. “Of course.” A sigh escaped her and she offered a weak smile. “Can I get you something to drink? I have water and soda in the fridge. There is beer in the mini fridge behind the bar.”
He slid his hands into his suit pockets and studied her a minute. “Did you want to show me the place before or after you tell me what’s wrong?”
Toni sighed again and didn’t even know where to begin. “Let’s see. It could be the surprise engagement party sprung on me with a hundred guests as opposed to a quiet family Sunday dinner. Of course there is the whole detail of how I’m supposed to marry a man tomorrow who has barely spoken twenty sentences since he picked me up at my house. Then again it could be I gave up a well-paying and fairly prestigious job in New York today because it would require six to eight weeks of my time.”
This entire situation had gone from crazy to ludicrous. “I think I preferred us when we were arguing.”
“I’m sorry.” He closed the distance between them, removed his hands from his pockets, and captured hers in his hold. Heat suffused her body and she met his gaze. “Yesterday was definitely not something either of us saw coming, but we pulled it off.”
“What else could we do, your mother has threatened to sell the company if we don’t.”
He nodded and debated. “I had a great, but troublesome, conference call before I left work. Usually work doesn’t bother me too much, but with my personal life taking a dramatic turn...”
“The stresses add up. I get it—hello—you’ve met my parents.”
His handsome face broke into a grin. “Indeed.” He glanced down at her hands in his then met her gaze. “Remember when I showed up at your place for the barbeque?”
“My moment of humiliation—a fond memory. I almost didn’t recognize you without the standard designer suit and bad tie.”
His smile broadened revealing his dimples. “You asked me about my day.”
She didn’t understand. “Richard, we have to be married and live together for the next year—and make everyone believe it’s real. It would help if we were friends.”
“You’re right and you make it easy—when you’re not argumentative and sarcastic.” Something shifted between them. Her heart started to race as he studied her intently. His head lowered to hers and her lashes closed. His warm breath teased her lips.
And then, the sound of ringing filled the small distance between them. Her eyes opened and he released his hold on her before reaching into his inside suit pocket.
Toni tried to wrap her brain around what had just happened—or didn’t happen and realized they had almost kissed. The startling part—she couldn’t ever remember wanting to be kissed like she wanted to be kissed by Richard.
Not good. Not good at all.
I almost kissed her!
Three hours later, a dinner of Thai ordered in and a tour of her condo later, the thought still plagued him. They now sat outside on her balcony and he had started to relax a bit—except for the fact he wanted to kiss her yesterday and today he almost had. He would’ve if Piper hadn’t called.
Richard inhaled the warm Las Vegas air and determined that even now he wanted to. Why? He wasn’t sure. They barely knew other, were getting married and had a whole year of living together to survive before they could get an annulment. In his experience, kissing usually led to other things and other things would lead to their marriage being consummated, which would mean bye-bye annulment and hello divorce.
Toni exited through the large balcony doors and passed him a bottled water. “Why the strange expression?”
“I was just thinking.” He responded leaving out the part of what she’d taste like and if her lips were as soft as they looked.
An amused expression crossed her face. “Should I be scared?”
Definitely. I am.
“Downstairs you knew about Sutherford Towers and Kerry Sutherford. I take it you know him and the interior designer.”
She pulled out the chair across from him and nodded. “I know him very well. I was the designer on both projects.”
“Damn!” The word fell off his tongue in a whisper. “I have a client who lives in Sutherford. Absolutely loves it.”
She smiled. “I did Sutherford first. Then here at Ivy Garden. When he asked me to do this one, I negotiated one of the units in my fee. This unit originally sold for $900,000 when they were new. Then the recession hit and their values decreased, but with the changes on the strip and the fact there has been growth and development, a comparable unit in this tower, two floors up, sold for just over a million recently. I figured I might as well broaden my portfolio with property. I also mentioned that by giving me one of the condos it would guarantee my availability on his next project.”
He shook his head. “Incredible. Creative, beautiful and business savvy. How is it you’re still single?”
“Actually, according to a judge, my single status is no more.”
Richard couldn’t control the chuckle. “Fair enough.”
“I got busy, got run down and burnt out for a while, and then threw everything into work and focused on my career. My career and I were quite happy together.” It wasn’t so much what she said, but what she didn’t say. “Besides, I could say similar things about you.”
He paused and debated. “I’m not exactly Mr. Commitment, and like you, I work all the time.”
She nodded in understanding. “I gathered, by your sister and niece’s reaction
s.”
Yeah, he hadn’t expected their positive reaction or them warming to Toni as quickly as they had. Especially Lauren, she could be distant and anti-social at the best of times. “Neither knows about the sentence. At least I don’t think so. I have no clue what mom told her and Erik, my brother—but they don’t know—not yet. I mean eventually it will come out.”
“I was disappointed I didn’t get to meet your brother.”
“You will soon enough—and like I said—he’s a flirt.” He thought of his brother. “He’s a photographer—a very good one and isn’t exactly Mr. Responsibility.”
She nodded and inhaled deeply. She had obviously relaxed considerably since first arriving at her place. It was furnished differently than her house. He was starting to see the different sides of her—and liked them. “Do you ever wish we could get back at our dads?”
Richard chuckled and nodded “The first forty-eight hours after the sentencing, I would daydream and imagine about eight million ways to do just that.” He studied her under the dim candle light on the patio table. She really was stunning and tomorrow, she would officially be his wife.
She smiled and sipped at her bottled water. “Come up with anything good?”
“Nothing that was anything short of fifteen to life behind bars.” He glanced down at the water in his hand and twirled the bottle. “What about you?”
She sighed and glanced out at the Vegas skyline. He had to admit she had quite the place and the view of the strip was something else. Toni met his gaze and shook her head. “I was too overwhelmed by the situation and the craziness with the mothers and having to make this believable and then having to cancel my buying trips.” Sadness touched her features and he understood.
He reached out and covered her hand, ignoring the way the simple touch ignited the skin all over his entire body. “We’ll figure this out.” He wasn’t sure how, but they were both smart—most of the time. “Maybe I can take time off and go on one or two of your trips so we don’t we break the terms and you don’t feel like you’ve lost everything.”
Surprise and another emotion flickered in her dark eyes. “I’d like that,” she whispered and withdrew her hand. She stood up from the table and inhaled a deep breath, then slowly walked over to the railing, propped her forearms on it and stared out across the town to the distant mountains. Richard pushed back his chair and joined her. “This is nice, an incredible view—I don’t know what could be better except revenge on our fathers.”
She turned and smiled at him. The dessert wind teased the ends of her hair and brushed her cheek “The other night, at Andrew and Kayla’s, Kayla joked when I commented how this was like an arranged marriage and she said I should be grateful my father didn’t seal the deal with goats, chickens and a pig.”
He couldn’t control his laugh. “Mom would love that showing up at the house.” He studied the woman next to him. “I like Andrew and Kayla, they seem like good friends.”
“They really are the best. I’m relieved you all get along.” She paused and a thoughtful expression crossed her pretty face. “What if the animals showed up in court?” Toni grinned. “Your mother has some gorgeous and extremely expensive, did I mention gorgeous—area rugs which might suffer if they showed up at the house. I’d probably cry as much as your mother if they got destroyed. However, daddy really should have given your father a dowry to ensure you could support me.”
Richard lifted his brows and his lips parted in surprise. The woman before him was really something else. “You’re truly wicked.”
She shrugged, then lifted her water and sipped. “I have my days.”
He couldn’t help noticing the fullness of her mouth or how her lips curled around the bottle. Antonia Deluca was downright kissable. Not that he dared to go there, but he certainly could imagine. “So, that would cover my dad, and I have a client whose brother owns a petting zoo who can help us on that. What about your father?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know; something equally as disturbing. I know in biblical times a man bought his bride with gold and silver. Only it would get expensive and cost us way too much to get enough of it to be disturbing.”
“True.” He thought for a moment and despite the stress of the last few days, losing his singlehood for the next year, he was actually enjoying spending time with Antonia. At first, he’d thought her flighty, but more and more he saw she was very bright and extremely talented. Richard thought of Hank’s reaction to her and oddly enough, it still bothered him that his colleague and friend looked at her as a piece of ass.
A light went on his head as he remembered Hank’s son, Tommy, had had a Pirate themed birthday party. “If the gold and silver were those plastic coins—we could get thousands of them for hardly anything.”
“I do know some event planners that might be able to get us a copious amount.”
“Copious—good word. I like it. I say we fill his office.”
“I totally agree.” She giggled and the sound resonated over his skin. “It truly couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. I’ll call Felix in the morning.”
He smiled and lifted his water bottle. “To revenge.”
Toni grinned and lifted hers. “One that won’t have us serving another sentence.”
Richard chuckled and stole a sideway glance at his pretty wife-to-be. Maybe their current sentence wouldn’t be so bad.
Chapter Five
Kisses and Chaos need to stop!
Toni entered the kitchen and came to a halt. Sitting at the table near the floor to ceiling window, Richard sat reading a newspaper. He lifted a mug and continued reading. A strange sensation washed over her as she realized this was now her life.
There was no dispute Richard was handsome and if this is what she would be greeted with every morning, at least it would make things easier. There was something intimate about the situation. She ventured further into the sun-filled room. “Good morning.”
He glanced around the newspaper with his mug in hand. His gaze raked over her bare legs and drifted slowly up her navy skirt and white sweater until he looked her in the eyes. A slow smile crossed his firm mouth. “Good morning.”
Toni ignored her suddenly racing heart. Not so simple to ignore was the way her body heated, both inside and out, from his languid gaze. “I see you’ve made yourself at home.” She smiled, though nerves infused it with flutters in her stomach. “I’m glad.”
“You could have read the paper on your laptop or tablet—I do have internet.”
He nodded. “I could have, but there is something about holding an actual paper in my hand that I enjoy, as quirky as it sounds.”
“I have a pink streak in my hair—I get quirky.” She sighed and walked over to the coffee machine. “So…I never asked, but do you plan on wearing a wedding band?”
“I think it would be for the best. My father and both my grandfathers wore them; it would look strange if I didn’t.”
She nodded and shook her head. “I understand.” Toni grabbed a mug from the cupboard and an espresso K-Cup from the metal carousel on the counter. She dropped the coffee in the machine, lowered the lid, and pushed the button.
“So how do you want to do this?”
Talk about a loaded question.
She turned to Richard and deleted all initial comebacks and the memory of the almost kiss from her mind. “Do what?”
“The marriage thing?” He responded, somewhat matter of fact.
“Whatever is easiest for you, hell, I don’t care if we go to a drive thru.” She furrowed her brows. “I think they have wedding drive thrus’. You can get food and prescriptions at a drive up window anywhere, but this is Las Vegas, why not weddings?”
A broad grin crossed his mouth. “I gathered.”
“But whatever, I mean, toss a penny you’ll hit a chapel.” She focused back on the coffee emptying into the mug beneath it and off the handsome man sitting in her breakfast nook.
“I don’t think that will work.”
; She stepped over to the fridge and tugged open the door, while trying to remember if she had creamer. “Why not?”
“Even though this is a Vegas wedding, my mother is going to want photo evidence.”
She turned and stared at the hunky hubby-to-be. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
He set the paper on the table and shook his head. “No.”
“So much for wearing jeans.” She glanced in the fridge and found some Sweet Italian cream on the shelf and stepped over to her coffee cup. “I never thought about a dress,” she giggled, “after I hid the wedding magazines from my mother.”
“Did you throw them out?” Amusement danced in his blue gaze as she walked over to the table and dropped in the chair across from him.
“Nope.” She sipped her coffee and smiled over the mug at him. “A garbage can would mean they could be retrievable. So I buried them under a couple logs and set a match to her and dad’s backyard fire pit.”
“Smart.” Richard’s eyes sparkled. “That’s funny. You actually burned them? Wow, most women live for that stuff.”
Toni nodded and sipped her coffee. “I’m not most women.”
“I’ve already figured that out.” His tone and expression had changed to one more serious. “So, will the limousine take us around?”
Her shoulders lifted in a shrug. “If you want or we can drive my car.”
His long jet black lashes blinked at her. “You have a car here?”
She smiled and nodded. “I do.”
“Another classic car?”
“No, those are all in California. I have a newer vehicle here.”
The expression on Richard’s face held question. “How many cars do you own?”
Toni shifted in her seat and suddenly became uncomfortable. “Four.”
Richard blinked at her in surprise. “I see.”
“Anyway we can take my car, and swing by the jeweler and I’ll grab something to wear that will satisfy your mother. We can come back here and change and then…”
He nodded. “Sounds good, one last question.”
“What’s that?”