“Sometimes talking about stressful stuff can help. You can figure things out,” she said.
“And sometimes it just keeps you from having a little relief. Speaking of which, how was your day?”
“Not as stressful as yours.”
“Tell me what you cooked today. What did I miss?” She could hear the smile in his voice.
As she told him about the different dishes–none of them as fancy as what she’d make when he was in town–she wondered yet again where they were going with this. Could there really be any future for a billionaire and his chef? Even if he could stoop to marrying her, what about her? Would she have to give up her cooking the way he’d given up his gardening?
She couldn’t do that. Cooking was her life.
When she fell silent, he said, “That sounds amazing. The food here is supposed to be good, but it’s not as good as what you cook.”
He always knew what to say to make her happy. “Thank you.”
“And now for the most important question of the day...what are you wearing?”
Sophie laughed. She was wearing her soft flannel pajamas with the little roses all over it. She doubted that was the sexiest answer, though. She could come up with something better. “What makes you so sure I’m wearing anything at all?”
He made a noise in his throat. “Don’t tempt me, woman. I have a private plane at my disposal.”
“I seriously doubt you’d fly all this way—”
”Damn right I would. Except I’m pretty sure you’re just pulling my leg. Somehow I can’t see you sitting around wearing nothing. I mean...I can picture it...boy, can I picture it...but I don’t think you’d do it.”
By the time he’d finished, her cheeks were blazing hot. Good thing he couldn’t see that. She couldn’t think of a thing to say.
“Still there?”
“Yes.”
“So what are you really wearing?”
Sophie licked her lips, mouth dry. “Pajamas.”
“Top and bottoms?”
“Um-hmm.” Her face still felt warm.
“Are they pretty?”
She looked at the red roses on the white background, and the little bits of lace around the cuffs and neck. “I think so.”
“Wish I could see that. Hell, I wish I could peel it off you, one inch at a time.”
“Rhys!”
“I want you.” His voice dropped. “You know that. If things had gone the way I’d planned the other night, I wouldn’t have to be imagining what you look like naked. I’d know.”
She still couldn’t believe he found her attractive. “You wouldn’t know. I would have turned the lights off.”
“And I would have turned them back on. I like to make love in the light. Sweetie, I want to know every part of your body even better than you do.”
He was so different from Stanford. She still didn’t know what Stanford looked like naked. “I’ve never—”
”What?”
“Never done it in the light.”
He was silent for a minute. “You’re kidding. Why would anyone let you turn the lights off?”
“It wasn’t like that. He turned the lights off.”
“Well, you can forget about that. We’re having the lights on. Every time. Got it?” When she didn’t answer right away, he said, “You have no idea how turned on I get by the thought of you naked. I want to see you, not just imagine you. Trust me.”
She did trust him, but she still got butterflies at the thought of being naked in the light.
“Trust me, Sophie.”
“I trust you.”
“Good. As soon as I get home, we’re going to pick up where we left off.”
She ignored the little thrill that ran through her at the idea. “Do you know how soon you’ll be coming home?”
A heaviness settled into his voice. “It’s going to be a few more days, at least. We need this deal to go through, but they’re playing hard ball.”
“Does this happen often? You were on a business trip when I first started here, too.”
“Not that often,” he said. “And some of the trips I take just to get away from the office; if I had a hot chef waiting at home for me, I wouldn’t take so many trips.”
She grinned and resisted the urge to wiggle in her seat. “Hmm. We might be able to arrange that.”
“Yeah? We could have dinner together in the kitchen and then I could haul you upstairs to the bedroom...”
Quashing the instant image of Janet and Raymond hovering over Rhys while he ate in the kitchen, Sophie instead tried to imagine the two of them falling into a routine. A warm, homey routine just like he’d described. “I do have to clean up after dinner. That might interfere with your hauling.”
“I can wait. And maybe I could help. Every five minutes you take, I remove another piece of your clothing. I’ll bet that would speed up the process.”
“It also might scandalize the household,” she said.
“They’d get used to it. They’d start saying things like, ‘Did you see that cute bra Sophie was wearing? Guess she was slow to clean up this evening.’”
She cried out. “You can’t be serious! No one gets to see my bra.”
“Good point.” His voice sounded suddenly serious. “No one gets to see you but me. And I get to see everything.”
A warmth traveled through her at his words. “If I say so.”
“I think I can convince you.”
“You’re welcome to try.” She wasn’t sure why she was baiting him. Just that it felt good. Fun.
“I intend to. But I won’t try. I’ll do.”
And yet again, she didn’t know what to say. She fumbled around for something, anything... “I’m, uh...I’m looking forward to it.”
And just like that, his tone changed. He barked out a laugh then lowered his voice to a husky whisper. “Now, tell me what you’re wearing underneath the pajamas.”
This was too much. She’d die of a terminal blush if she couldn’t get him to stop. “The roses are blooming,” she blurted out.
He was quiet for a second. “What?”
“The roses–I thought you might like to know how the garden is doing.”
“All right.” His voice still held a note of laughter. “You can change the subject.”
They talked for a while longer, covering everything from the household staff to national news. At length, she said, “I should get to sleep. So should you.”
“Yeah. I just wish you were beside me.”
“Me too. But we wouldn’t get to sleep that way.”
“Damn right. Okay...you sleep tight, sweet one.”
“You too.”
They said good night and hung up.
Chapter 23
The next day, Sophie met Dan for coffee in the mid-morning. She’d already prepped for lunch so she would be able to finish it up and get it on the table in time and still have as much as an hour to meet with Rhys’ lawyer.
The coffee shop had couches and small tables over to the side. After she got her coffee she spotted a man in a suit with a thick briefcase coming in the door. He had to be Dan.
He spotted her right away but glanced around the room before approaching her. “Sophie Teisburg?”
“You must be Dan.” She put her hand out.
As he shook it, he said, “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Rhys did say you were beautiful.” Before she could say anything, he continued, “I’ll get my coffee. Could you snag us a couch?”
A few minutes later he sat down beside her. “I assume you know all the details of the case? That’s why you called me right–you realized you could counter Sophia’s argument.”
What was he talking about? “I just know some woman with my name is suing Rhys for harassment.”
Dan pulled a yellow legal pad and a pen out of his briefcase and set them on the desk. “He didn’t tell you any more than that? Figures.” He put the coffee on the table and leaned toward her. “She was the chef before you.”
<
br /> “That stretches credulity.”
“Yes, it does. And she was named Sophia, like you.”
This seemed insane.
“But that’s where the similarity ends. Your personalities are very different; I can tell that even from the small amount of time we’ve spoken. And you have a wholesomeness about you she doesn’t have.”
It didn’t take Sophie very long to realize what he meant by “wholesomeness.” He meant she was chubby. And the other woman wasn’t. She tried not to cringe.
“And while I haven’t sampled it myself, I’m told your cooking is much better than hers.” He took a sip of coffee.
Sophie swallowed and tried to forget the wholesomeness remark. “So what does all of that mean? Will it help Rhys somehow?”
“You two are dating, right?”
“Yes, but we’re keeping it quiet.”
“It won’t be quiet if I put you on the stand. Be sure you’re ready for this. But to get back to your question, if we can show the kind of woman Rhys is attracted to and you’re a totally different kind of woman from his accuser, it’ll support his argument that he was never attracted to her in the first place.”
Right. Show that he’s attracted to fluffy women, not skinny women. “You’re not worried that the similarities might backfire and hurt his case instead? And just because—” She waved at her body. “Just because he’s attracted to me in particular doesn’t mean he couldn’t also be attracted to a slim woman. Some men don’t care that much about a woman’s size.” Or so she’d been told.
Dan stared to the side for a second, expelling a breath. “That’s true. And in my experience, Rhys has been attracted to women of various sizes. But the one size he’s never been attracted to is hers. She’s model thin. A lot of people would see her as the epitome of beauty. But that’s not what Rhys likes. I’ve never once seen him date a woman smaller than a size eight.”
“And you think my taking the stand will show that?”
“It’ll certainly support our argument. I need more details first, though. I need to make sure nothing in how you two got together supports her argument instead. So tell me. How did you two meet?” He pulled the yellow legal pad onto his lap and sat with pen poised.
Crap. If she told him the whole story, that Rhys pretended he wasn’t her billionaire boss, and that he pushed her and pushed her to go out with him, that would look bad. At the same time, she couldn’t lie on the stand. Maybe it was all in how she worded it.
“At first, I thought he was the gardener,” she said. “He came into my kitchen covered in dirt. And then...we just hit it off. He came down to the kitchen often, asking for cookies, and we talked and got to know each other.”
“Any bumps in the road?”
Like her telling him off for lying about who he was? “A few. But who doesn’t have bumps?”
“Like...”
What wouldn’t hurt him? “Like–he didn’t tell me about the trial and I heard him talking about Sophia and I thought he meant me.”
“Ouch. I’ve heard some of the things he says about her. But you got it worked out. What else?” He scribbled madly on his yellow pad.
She couldn’t think of anything else innocuous enough to mention.
Dan rested his hand on his notepad, gazing at her. “You need to tell me. If there’s something that could hurt him, I need to know before I put you on the stand.”
“Fine.” She played with the top of her cup of coffee. “When we first met, I thought he was the gardener. And before he corrected me, I told him that I’d dated my last boss and it hadn’t worked out and that I’d never do that again. So he kept his identity quiet hoping I’d fall for him before I found out who he was.”
He stopped writing. “Obviously you know now. How’d you find out?”
“At the party for his niece.”
“And his plan worked? You’re dating.”
“Well...that night I told him we were through. Not that we’d really started. But he later convinced me to give him another chance.” She ripped through the plastic of the cup top. “Is this going to hurt him?”
“I need to go over it some more. There are pros and cons here; I just need to decide if putting you on the stand would help more than it might hurt. There’s another danger too, of course. If the prosecution finds out about you dating Rhys they might call you to the stand themselves. If that happens, you won’t have a choice.”
“So keeping our relationship secret is a good idea.”
“For now. Let me figure out the cost benefit on this first.”
That worked for her. She still didn’t know how this relationship could even work out. At the same time, she was perfectly willing to get on the stand to help Rhys. So while she wanted to keep it quiet...she didn’t want it that badly.
They talked for a little longer then she headed back to the mansion. She had just reached the door when her cell rang. Rhys had promised to call her during his lunch break. It had to be him. She didn’t even check, just accepted the call and put the phone to her ear. “Rhys?”
“Who’s Rhys?”
It took her a couple of seconds to recognize the voice. “Stanford?”
“Hey, baby. Who’s this Rhys person?”
She should’ve checked. She never would have picked up if she’d realized it was him. “Don’t worry about Rhys. I don’t have long to talk. What do you want?” She didn’t care if her voice sounded cold.
“I want you back.”
Leave it to Stanford to say the one thing that would floor her.
“I miss you, baby. Come back to me.”
“How can you even think that I’d do that?” Did he not remember their baby? The callous things he’d said? She’d never go back to him, whether Rhys was in the picture or not.
“I’m so sorry for everything. Just meet with me. Give me a chance to prove how much I miss you.”
“I can’t.” Couldn’t. And wouldn’t.
“Sure you can. Come out to dinner with me tonight.”
“I’m working tonight.” And any other night he wanted to go out. She got days off, but no way would she share them with him.
“So blow it off. You know you want to.”
He’d said things like that when they were dating, too, but relented when she reminded him he wouldn’t have food on the table if she didn’t cook. “No, I can’t. I don’t think we have anything else to talk about. I need to go now.”
“Baby, come on. After all that’s been between us, can’t you even spare me a few minutes? Coffee. I’ll pick you up.”
“No. I have to go. Goodbye, Stanford.” As she hung up, his voice still called to her from the tiny speaker.
What was that all about? He’d said he wanted to get back together, but why? She didn’t believe it for a second.
She knew some people remained friends after breaking up but she couldn’t see that happening with Stanford and her. There had been too much between them. So why was he calling?
Chapter 24
That night when Rhys called, she didn’t have much to say. She had decided to keep her discussions with Dan quiet for now, so it would be a pleasant surprise for Rhys once it was all set up. And she didn’t really want to tell him about Stanford. It wouldn’t matter anyway, since she was done with Stanford. And she wouldn’t make the mistake of not checking the caller id again.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to call at lunchtime,” he said. “They decided to keep working and have sandwiches delivered instead.”
“It’s fine,” she said. That morning, Rhys had texted her to let her know he couldn’t call. She just hadn’t seen it until after the Stanford fiasco. “Thanks for the letting me know.”
“Of course.”
“Some men wouldn’t.” Stanford wouldn’t. “I appreciate it.”
He told her a little about his day, skirting the details of the negotiations as he had the night before. Then he questioned her about the food she’d made that day until he protested that his mouth was wate
ring. He asked her to have cookies ready for him when he returned.
“Do you know when that’ll be?” She didn’t want to sound clingy but she couldn’t wait to see him.
“With the progress we made today, I’m hoping it won’t be more than another two days.”
Two days. That seemed like forever.
“I can’t wait to see you,” Rhys said.
“Me too. I miss you.”
“I miss you, too.”
They talked for a while longer until Sophie couldn’t hold back her yawns.
“Let’s not hang up,” Rhys said. “Just put the phone on your pillow and it’ll be like we’re going to sleep next to each other.”
She hadn’t heard anything so hopelessly romantic since high school. She loved it. “Okay.” She turned out the light and snuggled under her blankets. “Good night, Rhys.”
“Good night, sweetheart.”
Chapter 25
The next morning, Rhys hurried to get ready for the continued meetings. His phone had died in the middle of the night so he plugged it in and willed it to charge quickly. Rhys hadn’t wanted to get Sophie’s hopes up, but he thought he could wrap things up today and maybe even make it home tonight. It would be a lot of work to make it happen, but he was determined.
He’d never felt this way about a woman before. He’d had relationships, even thought he was in love a time or two but what he felt for Sophie went beyond all that. With the Skinny trial and everything else going on, this was the worst time in the world to fall in love. But that’s what this felt like. And he’d do whatever it took to make her fall in love with him, too.
That morning’s meetings went well. He managed to negotiate the minimum he needed, even though he had to make some concessions that really hurt. At least things were finally coming together, and he’d managed to cut a deal rather than having it die in a stalemate.
By mid-afternoon, he knew he’d be able to finish his part of things in another hour or two and leave the final touches to his staff. By dinner time, he was on a plane flying home to Sophie.
Crazy About Curves: 10 Luscious Reads Page 88