He’d matured. His face was leaner, his black hair close-cropped and there was an intensity in the deep-set dark eyes that didn’t look at her but through her. Rising on shaking knees, Denise extended her hand.
“It’s good seeing you again, Rhett.”
Rhett reached for the proffered hand, holding it firmly within his large grasp before releasing it. His impassive expression did not change as he stared at the heart-shaped face with the wide-set dark brown eyes, delicate nose and temptingly curved mouth that conjured up memories of what he’d been reduced to after they’d finished making love. It was her mouth and what came out of it that had enthralled him before he’d turned to see her face for the first time.
Denise had been blessed with the voice of a temptress. It was low, sultry and definitely had a triple-X rating. She was the only woman he’d known or met who’d been able to seduce him with hello. However, time had been more than kind to her. Although appearing slimmer than she had when they were in college together, nonetheless she was strikingly beautiful.
He forced a smile that stopped before it reached his eyes. “And, it’s very nice seeing you again. How long has it been?”
Denise’s eyes narrowed. She wanted to tell Garrett Fennell there was no reason to play mind games with her. He was brilliant. Everything he saw, heard or read he remembered, and it was his photographic memory that made him an outstanding student and astute businessman.
And he looked every inch the successful businessman in a tailored charcoal-gray suit, pale blue shirt, purple silk tie and black wingtips. Garrett Mason Fennell was the epitome of sartorial splendor.
She’d admitted to her cousin, Chandra Eaton-Tucker, that if she did run into Rhett again she would lose it. Well, she hadn’t—even though she was becoming more uncomfortable with each passing second. She’d also confessed to Chandra that she hadn’t gotten over her former lover and if she were completely honest with herself she would have to admit she would never get over him because she hadn’t wanted to.
“Six years, Rhett.”
Rhett angled his head. “Has it really been that long?”
“Yes, it has,” Denise retorted sharply. Either he was feigning ignorance, or what they’d shared was just a blip in his memory. She glanced at her watch again. “I’d like to stay and reminisce with you, but I’m supposed to meet someone for dinner.”
Rhett glanced around the lobby. “Is he here yet?”
“It’s not a he, but a she.”
“I hope you’re not waiting for Camilla Henderson.”
Denise stared at Rhett as if he’d suddenly grown a third eye. “You know Camilla Henderson?”
Rhett felt like a cat playing with a mouse he’d trapped and stunned, but was reluctant to kill. It was time he put an end to the charade and reveal his intent.
“She works for me. Unfortunately, she had an unforeseen situation where she couldn’t be here, so you’re going to have to deal with me tonight.”
“You’re involved with Capital Management Properties?”
“I’ve just taken over as CEO of CMP.”
“You…you’re responsible for the one hundred percent increase in rent on my child care center?”
Rhett’s eyebrows lifted a fraction. “Aren’t you being premature?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Her voice had lowered as her temper escalated.
“Didn’t you agree to meet with my chief financial officer to negotiate the terms of your center’s lease renewal?”
“Yes, but—”
“Let’s talk about it, Denise,” Rhett said, interrupting her. He cupped her elbow, steering her across the lobby. “I’ve reserved a table in The Lafayette.”
Denise attempted to extricate her arm, but encountered resistance. She could not escape the fingers tightening like manacles. “You deceived me!”
Rhett stopped abruptly, as she plowed into his side. He turned toward her. “Spoken like someone who’s quite familiar with the word.”
“I didn’t deceive you, Rhett.”
“Save your breath, Denise. You’re going to need it after you hear my business proposition.”
“What kind of proposition?” Denise asked, unable to ignore the shudder swirling throughout her body. Rhett was making a business proposition when they had nothing in common other than he was now her landlord.
“We’ll discuss it over dinner.”
Denise went completely still, then managed to relax when Rhett rested his hand at the small of her back. It was as if nothing had changed, as if it’d been six hours instead of six years that had separated them.
Chapter 2
However, if things between them hadn’t changed she now would’ve been Denise Fennell and probably would’ve had at least one, if not, two children. Rhett, who was an only child, always talked about having a big family. When she’d asked him what he felt constituted a big family his reply had been a minimum of four children. They’d argued good-naturedly, she refusing to agree to push out four babies, while Rhett reminded her of how much fun it would be making babies.
Denise knew conjuring up images of the passionate encounters she’d had with Rhett would be detrimental to her emotional well-being. It had taken a long time to recover from his deceit and now that her life was on track she wanted nothing to derail it again.
“Your table is ready, Mr. Fennell.”
Rhett’s arm went around her waist, holding her close to his length. Denise was relieved she’d chosen to wear the stilettos. She was five-four in bare feet, and the additional four inches put her at eye level with Rhett’s broad shoulder.
“How often do you eat here?” she asked him after he’d seated her.
“Enough,” Rhett replied cryptically.
Denise stared across the small space of the table for two, her eyes taking in everything that made Rhett the confident man she’d loved selfishly. “How often is enough?” He’d greeted the maître d’ and several of the waitstaff by name.
Rhett stared at Denise with lowered lids. He didn’t want to believe she was more stunning than he’d remembered. The private investigator on his payroll had more than earned his salary. He made a mental note to give the man a generous year-end bonus. The former police officer had information on the teacher she probably hadn’t remembered, or had chosen not to remember.
“I stay at the hotel whenever I have business in D.C.”
A slight frown furrowed Denise’s smooth forehead. Whenever she saw Garrett Fennell’s name linked with a D.C.-based company in the business section of The Washington Post, she was under the impression that he still lived in his hometown.
“Where’s home now?” she asked, staring at his firm mouth.
A hint of a smile found its way to Rhett’s eyes. “I have a little place off the Chesapeake.”
Resting her elbow on the table, Denise cupped her chin on the heel of her hand. “So you got your wish,” she said in a quiet voice. “You always said you wanted to live on the water.”
Rhett’s expression changed, becoming somber. “Unfortunately, not all of my wishes were granted.”
“What more could you have wanted, Rhett? You’ve become a successful entrepreneur, you have the home you wanted and—”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” he said, cutting her off.
Denise’s arm came down and she sat back, her eyes never leaving the pair pinning her to the chair. He’d done it again. He had yelled at her without raising his voice. “If you talk to me like that again, I’m going to get up and walk out of here.”
“You do that and you’ll throw away everything you’ve worked so hard for. And knowing you like I believe I do, you won’t do that just because someone said something you don’t like.”
“You’re not someone, Rhett,” she countered angrily. “Remember, we’re not strangers.”
“That’s something I’ll never forget, because you made certain of that.”
Her eyes narrowed. “So, you’re still
blaming me for something you initiated and let get out of control.” Rhett’s reply was preempted when the waiter brought menus to the table.
“Would you like to order cocktails before I take your order, Mr. Fennell?”
“We’ll have a bottle of champagne.”
“Your usual, sir?”
“Yes, please.”
Denise did not want to believe Rhett had ordered champagne without asking her beverage choice. “I don’t want anything to drink because I’m driving,” she said softly after the waiter had walked away.
Rhett smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll make certain you get home safely.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“I’ll drive you home and then take a taxi back here.”
“That’s not necessary.” It was enough that Rhett knew where she worked, and Denise didn’t want him to know where she lived.
Picking up the menu, Rhett studied the entrées as Denise seethed inwardly. His success had made him not only arrogant but also rude. When they’d dated she rarely drank. Being underage was a factor and even when she’d reached the legal drinking age she’d discovered one drink usually left her feeling giddy.
“You’ve changed, Rhett.”
“And you haven’t?” he said, never taking his eyes off the menu.
“Yes, I have. I’m no longer the wide-eyed young girl who got to sleep with the smartest guy on campus.”
Rhett’s head came up as he slumped back in his chair. “You think what we’d had was all about sex, Denise?”
“What else was it, Rhett?” she asked, answering his question with her own. “Even you admitted you’d never connected with a woman the way you had with me.”
Pressing his palms together, he brought his fingertips to his mouth. He’d fallen in love with Denise Eaton because of her outspokenness, passion and her ambition. Of all the women he’d met at Johns Hopkins, she’d been the most focused and driven. Even at eighteen she knew who she was and what she’d wanted for her future.
She was a Philadelphia Eaton, while he was the only child of a single mother who’d looked young enough to pass for his sister. Denise had grown up in a sprawling house on several acres with her attorney father and schoolteacher mother and an older brother. Her brother had attended the prestigious Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, with the intention of becoming a professional soldier.
Meanwhile, he hadn’t known his father, and whenever he’d asked Geraldine Fennell about him, she would say she didn’t know. His mother didn’t know the man who’d fathered him, and every time he walked the streets in his neighborhood he’d randomly searched the faces of men in an attempt to find one who he thought he looked like.
Gerri, as she was affectionately called by the few friends she’d held on to from her childhood, worked two jobs to send him to a boarding school twelve miles from their blighted neighborhood so he would get a quality education. Her sacrifice had paid off, because he’d been awarded full academic scholarships to Stanford, Howard University, Harvard and Johns Hopkins. Rhett had decided on the latter, because the scholarship included not only tuition but also books, room and board. The university was also close enough to D.C. so he could easily return home during school breaks.
The adage that there is a thin line between love and hate was evident after Denise dashed all of the plans they’d made for their future to crawl into bed with Trey Chambers. He’d wanted to hate her, but couldn’t. He’d wanted to hurt her, but hadn’t. Now the only thing he wanted was revenge—the sweetest revenge that he would exact in his own time, using his own methods.
“That was then.”
“And this is now,” she said softly.
“Yes, it is,” Rhett said slowly as if measuring his words. “Speaking of now—how is your family?”
Denise, relieved to change the focus of the conversation from her and Rhett, smiled. “Thankfully, everyone’s well.”
“How’s your brother?”
“Xavier has retired from active service. He went to Iraq a couple of years after 9/11 for two tours of duty. He was stateside for a while, and last year he was deployed again, this time to Afghanistan. A month before he was scheduled to return home he took a bullet to the leg that shattered his femur.”
“What is he doing now?”
“He just got a teaching position at a military school in South Carolina, much to the relief of my mother, who went to church every day to light a candle that he wouldn’t come back in a flag-draped casket.”
Rhett had always liked Xavier. The career soldier had become the older brother he’d wished he had. “Are your parents well?”
“Very well,” she said, smiling. “Daddy is now a state supreme court judge. Mom put in for early retirement, and now complains that she’s bored out of her mind. All she does is cook and bake cakes.”
“Your mother missed her calling.”
“And that is?”
“She should’ve become a chef instead of a teacher.” Whenever he’d gone to Philadelphia with Denise, her mother had prepared so much food that she’d invited every family member within a twenty-mile radius. Although he and Denise hadn’t been engaged, the Eatons had unofficially adopted him into their family.
Denise’s smile was dazzling. “I think you just gave me an idea, Rhett. When I speak to my mother I’m going to suggest she take some cooking classes.”
Rhett’s smile matched Denise’s and for a brief moment he forgot why he was sitting across the table from her in a hotel restaurant. “Your mother is an incredible cook, unlike my mother, who still can’t boil water.”
A tender expression softened Denise’s features when she remembered meeting Rhett’s mother for the first time. Her greeting of “you’re the daughter I always wanted” had resonated with her long after she and Rhett had driven back to Baltimore after a holiday weekend.
“How is your mother?”
“Believe it or not, she got married last year.”
“I don’t believe it. Your mother is so beautiful, and what I didn’t understand was that men were practically genuflecting whenever they saw her, yet she wouldn’t give any of them the time of day.”
Rhett chuckled, the warm honeyed sound coming from deep within his chest. “She finally met someone who wasn’t intimidated by her hostile glares and sharp tongue. Russ claims he chased her until she caught him. She used every excuse in the book as to why she wouldn’t make a good wife, including her inability to cook, until he promised to hire a personal chef.”
“Did he?” Denise asked.
“Yes. He made good on his promise and they have a cook who prepares their meals, so the only thing Mom has to do is heat them up in the oven or the microwave.”
Denise wanted to tell Rhett his mother didn’t have to learn to cook because she’d worked at a restaurant and brought food home. She also didn’t tell him that six months ago she’d gone to see Geraldine Fennell, but neighbors told her Gerri had moved and hadn’t left a forwarding address.
“I hope she’s happy.”
“She is,” Rhett confirmed. “Once I convinced her to give up one of her jobs, she got her GED and eventually went online to get a liberal arts degree. She says she doesn’t know what she’s going to do with it, but earning a college degree is something she’d always wanted.”
The sommelier approached the table with two flutes and a bottle of champagne in a crystal ice bucket. He poured a small amount into one flute, handed it to Rhett, and then filled both when he nodded his approval.
Rhett offered Denise the wineglass, their fingers touching. Holding his flute aloft, he gave her a long, penetrating look. “Here’s to a successful business arrangement.”
With wide eyes, Denise stared at him over the rim. “What business arrangement?” The query was barely a whisper.
He took a sip of the sparkling wine. “Drink up, Denise.”
Her fingers tightened on the stem of the glass. “No. I’m not going to toast or drink to something I know nothing about.”
Rhett set his glass down. He knew his dining partner well enough to know she wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want to do. “I want you to stand in as my hostess for the summer.”
A soft gasp escaped Denise when she replayed Rhett’s business proposal in her head. “You need a girlfriend?” There was a thread of incredulity in the question.
“No, Denise, I don’t need a girlfriend. I broke up with my girlfriend a couple of months ago, and I’m not looking for another one. Unfortunately I’ve committed to quite a few social engagements this summer, and I need someone who will stand in as my date and hostess, providing your boyfriend doesn’t object.”
Clasping her hands together, she concealed their trembling under the table. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“That alleviates one obstacle.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Why don’t you contact a dating service, Rhett? I’m certain they can find someone to your liking.”
Leaning forward, Rhett’s face suddenly went grim. “I don’t do dating services.”
Denise refused to relent. “Have you been in a monastery since we broke up?”
“Who I’ve slept with is none of your business,” he retorted.
“I didn’t ask who you were sleeping with, Garrett Mason Fennell. I said—”
“I know what you said. You have a choice, Miss Eaton. Either it’s yes or no.” He knew she was upset because she’d called him by his full name.
“What are my options?”
“If you say no, then you’ll receive a lease renewal agreement doubling your current monthly rent.”
Denise blinked, unable to believe what she’d heard. “That’s blackmail!”
“I call it negotiating, Denise. You want something from me, and I’m offering you a way out of your dilemma. I could’ve said I wanted you to sleep with me.”
“That’s sexual harassment.”
“Call it whatever you want,” Rhett said quietly. “You have exactly one minute to give me an answer, or the deal is off the table.”
“And if I say yes?” Denise felt as if someone had put their fingers around her throat, slowly squeezing the life out of her.
Twice the Temptation Page 2