by Lori Foster
She didn’t even blink. “I’d like that.”
Smiling, he said, “We can pick out rings whenever you want.”
Nodding hard, she gasped, “Okay.”
Adam had to kiss her, so he did. As usual, she tasted so good, stirred him on so many levels, that he got carried away. Things might have gotten inappropriate, given they were in his uncle’s house, except that Cupid’s tail hit him in the chin, reminding him of the here and now.
He leaned away with a grin. “I want everyone to know you’re taken.”
Staring at his mouth, she whispered, “Long as they know you’re taken, too.”
“I’ll be telling it to everyone who’ll listen.” And definitely to anyone male who came sniffing around Issy.
“I love you,” she whispered.
Adam cupped her face, his heart full. “I love you, too.”
A tap sounded at the door, and Amber gave a loud, “Ahem.”
Adam groaned. “What now?”
“Everyone’s gathered to eat if you two want to make any—hint, hint—announcements.”
Adam stood and opened the door. “It’s uncanny how you do that.”
Beaming, she bragged, “I have my skills.”
Issy appeared at his side, leaning into him while holding Cupid. “Do your skills include ropin’ in Noel Poet?”
Amber frowned. “I’m working on it.”
From behind her, Noel said, “Good to know.”
Aghast, Amber went still, then red in the face before slowly pivoting to face Noel. “It’s rude to sneak up on people.”
“That’s never stopped you.”
Adam enjoyed seeing his cousin in the hot seat for once.
Issy broke the growing tension with a happy laugh. “Neither of you are showin’ Amber the appreciation she deserves.” Issy smiled up at him. “Adam and I are gettin’ engaged, and I couldn’t be happier!”
“And before your head gets any bigger,” Adam said to Amber, “you only played the smallest of roles in it.”
“Small, but integral,” Amber countered, grabbing them both for hugs. “Now let’s go make that announcement!”
Noel caught her arm before she could take a single step away. “Since you already know what’s going on, you don’t need to be there.” Ignoring her protests, he urged her into the room they’d just vacated, and right before he closed the door, he said to Adam, “Congrats to you both.”
Surprised, Adam stared at the closed door, and slowly smiled.
“She deserves to be happy,” Issy whispered.
They both heard Amber say, “Now wait just a—” Then her voice faded into a soft hum.
“She does,” Adam agreed. “I’d say Noel has her well on her way.” Putting a hand to the small of Issy’s back, he led her out front. The sooner everyone knew Isabella’s changed circumstances, the sooner he could relax.
And then they could get started on their future.
* * * * *
ISBN-13: 9781488086090
Copyright © 2017 by Harlequin S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:
First published as A Buckhorn Bachelor by Harlequin HQN in 2016
This edition published in 2017
Kiss and Makeup
Copyright © 2015 by Taryn Leigh Taylor
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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A hot shade of lipstick calls for a hot, sexy guy…
Makeup artist Chloe Masterson has a look for every occasion. Flying home for your sister’s wedding and family torture? Easy. Bring out the sarcastic wit and black eyeliner. Bonus—the look catches the eye of the corporate hottie sitting beside her on the plane. Turns out Ben has the exact same last name, and everyone assumes they’re married.
When they get stuck in a hotel room together, Chloe decides to accept the gift the Fates have bestowed upon her. (Tip: a bold lip color does wonders for seduction.) But as their lies begin to snowball, Chloe and Ben find it harder and harder to distinguish between what’s real and what’s all just smoky eyes and mirrors.
Kiss and Makeup
Taryn Leigh Taylor
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
CHAPTER 1
“DO YOU WANT me to kick the crap out of that seat back and tray table for you?”
Chloe Masterson looked over at Window Guy, the man that the Goddess of Economy Airline Seating had seen fit to plaster against her right side. The upper-arm contact had started in Seattle and lasted until Chicago. Thanks to bad weather, their scheduled forty-five-minute layover in the Windy City was now pushing two hours, and had featured a long wait in the plane deicing line and then a “that didn’t sound good” thunk. The plane was now sitting motionless on a vast expanse of snowy tarmac and they’d officially hit the six-hour mark of their touching-a-stranger marathon fifteen minutes ago.
It wasn’t his fault, really. Window Guy had broad shoulders, so the contact was incidental and, in a weird way, kind of comforting. She liked that the sleeve of his gray wool suit was soft and warm against her skin.
And okay, maybe she was leaning against him a little more than was strictly necessary. Not because he smelled of spicy soap and warm man—which was a pretty wicked combination—but because he smelled better than the guy to her left. The gag-inducing aroma of stale sweat, onions and something else she couldn’t quite place but preferred to leave a mystery had worn her down about twenty minutes after boarding. That’s when Chloe had decided that the comfort of her left elbow wasn’t worth permanent olfactory damage and had conceded the battle of the joint armrest to him.
Damn middle seat.
“Sorry?”
Despite their close confines, she and Window Guy hadn’t exchanged more than the official “that’s-my-seat” gesture of air travelers the world over before he’d awkwardly shuffled past her to sit down. After that, he’d pulled his laptop out and tapped away at the keys like a good little company automaton while she’d worked her way through a few chapters of a gently-used Stephen King novel. She’d been so engrossed in her book, she hadn’t noticed that at some point he’d put the laptop away and moved on to reading the offerings from the seat pocket in front of him.
And that wasn’t all she hadn’t noticed.
Now that she was actually looking at him, his breach of their companionable silence was even more surprising. Because Window Guy was kind of sexy. Bedroom eyes the color of whiskey and twice as potent. A strong jaw and a straight nose. His brown hair was short enough to be business-appropriate, but long enough to get mussed up under the right circumstances. And that mouth! As she took her fill of him, it pulled slightly up at the right corner in an easy smirk that was hot as hell. He was the clean-cut kind of handsome that came with no visible neck tattoos and an expertly-knotted blue silk tie that bespoke gainful employment.
Men like him didn’t talk to women like her. He was way too…corporate. And she was…not.
At her question, he raised his chin at the worn gray vinyl seat back in front of her. “You’ve been giving that chair dirty looks for the last twenty minutes, and then you sighed,” he explained.
“I did?”
Window Guy nodded. “The sigh was pretty loud, actually. It disturbed my reading.”
“Oh. Well. I’m sorry that my sigh threw off your concentration.” Chloe sent a meaningful glance toward the airline safety pamphlet on his lap.
“The damage is done.” He picked up the tri-fold piece of card stock. “It was just getting good, too. After the cabin depressurized, the plane crashed and the passengers were proceeding in an orderly fashion for their lives!”
Huh. She hadn’t expected funny. Hot guys rarely had to develop such plebeian talents. “Sounds intense.”
“You’re telling me. I was really enjoying it until the author got all kinky and made the heroine take off her high heels before she used the inflatable slide. I think he might be a foot fetishist.” He shoved the pamphlet back in the seat pocket in front of him before he met her gaze with a teasing glint in his amber eyes. “Wow. Spoiler alert. I hope I didn’t give too much away.”
“No, I appreciate the recommendation. I’ll be sure to tell my book club about it.”
His grin was practiced, but appealing. “I’m Ben.”
Uh-oh. Time to nip this in the bud. “Well, Ben. You’re a very handsome guy, and I appreciate the effort, because I’m sure that maneuvering a sober pickup with only a safety card, an in-flight magazine, and an airsickness bag as props is a challenge that few men could meet. But don’t waste all your sweet, panty-dropping material on me. Save some of that A-game for Stewardess Barbie over there.”
They both looked at the perky blonde flight attendant who’d been making doe eyes at Ben since he’d boarded. Right on cue, she twirled her ponytail and glanced away coyly.
Ben shifted, trying to arrange his large frame more comfortably in the tiny chair—a futile cause. “Let’s get one thing straight here, if this had been a pickup, we’d already be—” he eyed his Rolex—so cliché “—three minutes into you becoming an airplane-bathroom sex convert. Let the record show that we are both still safely buckled into our designated seats, ipso facto, I clearly wasn’t flirting with you.”
Ignoring the frisson down her spine—legal jargon always had that effect on her—Chloe raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“Okay, I was kinda flirting. But, it was completely recreational. Minor league stuff.”
“Oh, please! Foot fetish references? That is gateway flirting. If I hadn’t called you out, you’d have escalated to the hard stuff—asking me my astrological sign and telling me how beautiful my eyes are.”
He laughed, and Chloe ignored the flare of pride at having elicited the sexy, rumbling sound. Not that she was flirting, either, mind you.
“Well, it’s hardly my fault that your eyes really are beautiful. Emerald green, with golden flecks that sparkle when you roll them like that because you think I’m being cheesy.”
“Oh. Well that’s probably because you are being cheesy. At least the safety pamphlet pickup was original.”
“Original enough to get your name?”
“Chloe,” she relented.
“Nice to meet you, Chloe.” He offered his hand again, and this time she accepted it.
His palm was wide and his fingers were long. He didn’t molest her hand; it was just an acceptable, firm shake between new acquaintances. Even so, a phantom warmth lingered after he’d relinquished his grip, the kind that buzzed up her arm and sort of made her wish he had molested her hand, at least a little. Chloe rubbed her tingling palm against the thigh of her jeans.
His gaze held steady on hers and his focus was flattering, almost seductive. If you went for that whole slick-successful-businessman-in-a-five-thousand-dollar-suit look. Which, she reminded herself, she didn’t. Not anymore.
For the most part, her tiny diamond nose stud and purple highlights were enough to warn corporate wunderkinds that they had nothing in common with her.
But then she remembered that she no longer had purple highlights. She’d dyed her piecey, deconstructed bob for her sister’s wedding. Right now it was a respectable, boring, normal shade of mahogany that skimmed her jaw before angling a bit lower in the front. The dye job was her attempt at a peace offering to her family. She just hoped it would be enough.
“…so if you look at it that way, cheese could be considered a high form of flattery, you know?”
Ben’s voice snapped her out of a flashback of the most recent guilt-laden, middle-name-invoking phone call with her mother.
“What? Sorry. I wasn’t listening.”
Ben’s grin was endearingly self-deprecating. “Tough crowd.”
“It’s not you.” Chloe shoved her offensively monotone hair behind her ears. “Going back to Buffalo has put me in a rotten mood.”
“That doesn’t seem fair. What’s Buffalo ever done to you?”
The derisive laugh slipped out before Chloe could stop it. “Now there’s a loaded question.”
Ben cocked a questioning eyebrow.
“I’m going to see my family.” She didn’t add “for the first time in four years,” because that was the scary part, the part that turned her stomach into a churning pit of nerves and dread. “My little sister’s getting m-married,” she said, forcing the word out. Man, was it hot in here? She reached up and twisted the overhead air vent open.
“Oh! Well, that should be…” Ben paused in a way that let Chloe know she hadn’t managed to hide her true feelings on the matter. He corrected midcourse, “no fun at all. Rings are like tiny shackles. Screw love. That’s what I say.”
It was a sweet attempt at a save, but Chloe was too far down the well to grab the rope.
“Weddings…” Suck. Wreck relationships. Ruin lives. She flipped through her mental thesaurus before going with, “aren’t really my thing.” She tugged at the front of her black T-shirt, but couldn’t quite shake the sudden sensation of a phantom Swarovski-crystal-encrusted, sweetheart-necklined noose tightening around her rib cage.
Oblivious to her cold sweat and racing heart, Ben continued to aim for small talk. “It’s a good thing you decided to fly in to Buffalo a few days early. This storm is really wreaking havoc on our arrival time.”
Chloe shook her head. “I’m not early. She’s getting married tomorrow.”
Instead of the nauseating cheer that announcement had been garnering since her sister had started flashing her showy, four-carat diamond engagement ring around social media, Ben had the decency to look puzzled. Chloe appreciated that.
“Your sister’s getting married on a Thursday in January?”
“You are only surprised by that fact because you’ve never met her,” she informed him. “Anyone who knows my sister would expect nothing less from her than to inconvenience her entire network of family and friends by making them take a day off of work. Can’t let a petty thing like the schedules of four hundred people interfere with her narcissistic, lifelong fantasy of having a winter wonderland-themed wedding on her birthday.”
Ben nodded. “So you and your sister ar
e close, then?” he deadpanned.
Chloe’s smile caught her by surprise, but at least she could breathe again. He’d talked her down without even being aware of it. “You’re a funny guy, Ben.”
“It’s a gift.” He shrugged with faux modesty and loosened his sapphire-colored silk necktie. The hint of dishevelment made Chloe’s breath hitch, but this time it wasn’t the result of a chest full of anxiety. This feeling was warmer, and a little bit tingly.
She hadn’t dated a man in a suit since Patrick—hadn’t even looked at one. She preferred bad boys, the disreputable kind that parents didn’t approve of. So why was Mr. Future Businessman of America giving her a serious case of the wobblies?
She didn’t get a chance to scrutinize her odd reaction further. They both glanced up as an electronic chime sounded from the speaker above Chloe’s head.
“Good evening, passengers. This is your captain speaking. Due to a mechanical issue and the impending storm, our scheduled flight has been canceled.”
A collective groan filled the plane.
“Your flight crew will be handing out discount cards valid for a stay at any Value Inn location, a proud partner of Jetopia. Your boarding pass will be valid for tomorrow’s rescheduled flight to Buffalo, weather permitting. If you have further questions or are unable to make the 8:00 a.m. flight, please speak with a member of your flight crew. Again, we thank you for choosing Jetopia, and we apologize for the inconvenience.”
“What does he mean, tomorrow?” There was a definite note of panic in her voice, but Chloe was proud she’d managed not to shriek.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess he means the day after today.”
“Hey, Ben?”
“Yeah?”
“That thing I said about you being funny? I take it back.”
He waved it off. “As long as handsome panty-dropper still stands.”
She couldn’t even appreciate the joke—reality was seeping in. “I can’t be stuck in Chicago. I need to get to Buffalo. Tonight.” The wedding rehearsal and dinner were this evening. Her family would be expecting her.