“How could you possibly confuse that drab-looking librarian with the gorgeous creature with Alexander Kent?”
“That is Alex, isn’t it?”
“I heard he was available again. Who is that with him?”
Stephanie pretended not to hear the unkind remarks from a nearby table. Just as she pretended that they didn’t hurt either. It seemed as good a time as any to convince Alex that she had the necessary performance skills to make her a worthy partner on this case.
She did not see the killing look he gave the two women seated next to them. Instantly their snide laughter subsided. Alex ordered a bottle of Claire’s most expensive champagne and proceeded to engage in witty repartee that Stephanie assumed was intended to familiarize their audience with the idea that they were a couple. It was, in fact, intended to put her at ease. A glass of champagne did more to that end than any clever remark Alex could make.
Halfway through a scrumptious meal of pork medallions smothered in a rich sauce, sautéed asparagus tips, and wild mushrooms and rice, Stephanie felt better. Albeit an act put on for the benefit of the public, Alexander was naturally charming. His wry sense of humor helped her unwind, and she found little need to rely on her acting ability to feign a good time.
For his part, Alex was surprised by Stephanie’s unexpected sense of humor. Her laughter was genuine and unaffected, and she truly seemed unaware of how lovely she looked. Alex found her transformation amazing. Not only had his partner’s appearance undergone a dramatic change, her whole personality had improved with the makeover. She seemed far less defensive. And a whole lot more fun to be with.
It didn’t take Alex long to discover that the way she looked at the world was entirely different from that of the women he usually took on such outings. Without necessarily meaning to, she challenged the way he saw life as well. And she made him laugh with a quick wit that kept him on his toes throughout the conversation. Surprisingly enough, his date was proving as intoxicating as the second glass of champagne she allowed herself to have. She was utterly enchanting. Alexander found her candor as refreshing as her take on life.
“I’ve always wondered what it would be like to dine in such a fancy place—with such a handsome man,” she admitted.
Her eyes sparkled more in the candlelight than the glass of champagne he held. Considering that she was knowingly putting herself in danger, Alex found her sincere appreciation humbling.
As much as Alexander was enjoying himself, however, he never lost sight of the fact that they were the center of everybody else’s attention. Glad that Stephanie had put aside her personal aversion to him, he couldn’t decide whether she was really that fine an actress or if she truly was as intriguing a creature as he suspected. There was one surefire way to find out. His lips twitched with amusement as he reached into his breast pocket and drew out a small box covered in black velvet.
He presented it to Stephanie over a piece of white-chocolate cheesecake that she was openly savoring. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been with a woman secure enough in her own body to enjoy the taste of sugar without a plethora of guilt-ridden promises to diet the next day.
“What’s this?” she asked.
She looked adorably confused.
“Open it,” he suggested.
Everyone in the restaurant seemed to hold their breath as Stephanie reached across the table. Her hand shook as she took the proffered gift. She trembled, fumbling with the tiny pearl button that unlocked the delicate casing. Opening it at last, she gasped.
Not even in a magazine had Stephanie seen a bigger diamond. Or one more exquisite.
She was not the only one stunned by the extravagance of the present. Her gasp was echoed throughout the restaurant. Alexander could almost hear the printing presses firing up in the background. He smiled with the knowledge that the morning edition would be too late for most of its readership. Gossip in Royal easily outran brushfires devouring the open range. Cell phones materialized from stylish purses at every other table.
With their audience on the edge of their seats, Alexander cleared his throat and slipped from his chair to bend one knee upon the polished wooden floor.
Acting be damned, he felt ridiculously romantic as he took both of her hands in his own.
“Stephanie Firth,” he said for the benefit of those unable to see her for who she really was. “Will you marry me?”
The expression on her face was priceless. Her eyes softened to the color and texture of melted chocolate, and her mouth formed a perfect kissable O. Unshed tears glistened in the candlelight.
Even cynics claiming to favor plainspoken reality over girlish fantasy secretly cherish hopes of just such a moment actually occurring in their dull, predictable lives. The line between acting and realism is a blurry one that many professional actors routinely cross. Newspapers are littered with accounts of leading men and women carrying passionate onstage performances into their personal lives. Wanting to believe in Hollywood happily-ever-afters, the public laps it up and begs for more. So it was that Stephanie was rendered speechless as she looked into Alexander’s hypnotic eyes and imagined herself falling in love.
She slipped the ring onto her finger and was surprised to find that it fit perfectly. An enormous marquis spanning the distance between her knuckles, the two-and-a-half karat diamond sparkled so brilliantly that she wondered whether the reflection couldn’t be seen from a distance high above the planet. Blinking, she forced herself to remember where she was—and why she was there. Telling herself that this fabulous ring was nothing more than a zirconium knockoff, she did her best to remember her part in this unscripted dramatic performance. The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint her leading man before the curtain fell on act 1.
“Of course I’ll marry you,” she said, shyly dropping her eyelashes so that Alex couldn’t see just how caught up in the fantasy she had allowed herself to become.
“You’ve made me the happiest man alive,” he replied so smoothly that the trite line sounded sincere even to ears that knew better.
Other ears strained to overhear the conversation. Reactions varied from widows who sighed and dabbed tearfully at the memories Alexander’s proposal evoked. Younger women looked either shocked or cross. Their mothers politely mouthed empathetic expressions over napkins held to their lips.
“Let’s make it look good,” Alex whispered as he rose from his kneeling position to take her in his arms.
Stephanie panicked at the realization that he was going to kiss her. There was little she could do to prevent it. And little she would have done if she could have. If the truth were known, she had longed to kiss this man since the first time she laid eyes upon him in the kissing booth next to the poetry stand she and Carrie had run together.
“At least I don’t have to pay for this one,” she murmured so softly that Alexander could barely hear her, let alone any nosey parkers nearby.
Stephanie knew it was a lie.
She suspected that she would have to pay for this kiss for the rest of her life.
Alex didn’t know what she was talking about. Nor did he care. The crowd they were playing to faded into nothingness as he bent his head toward hers. One hand slid down her back and pressed against her spine, shifting her closer to him. His other hand gently cupped the back of her head. Stephanie’s long lashes fluttered shut, and her lips opened invitingly.
He intended to kiss her soundly and convincingly, but not with the kind of ravenous hunger that marked a man who had completely lost his senses in public. Drawing her even tighter against his body, Alex explored her mouth and found it surprisingly sweet—and addictive. Gentleness gave way to greed as Stephanie kissed him back with an intensity equal to his own. Her hands went around his neck, clinging to that strong column as if to a lifeline. Her body arched against his. A kittenish moan emanated from deep inside her throat.
Feeling her breasts swell against his chest, Alex was emboldened to deepen the kiss. Struggling for control, he stopped
himself just in time. He tore his mouth from hers and gazed down into a face illuminated with passion. This woman was either the finest actress to walk the earth, or he was in big trouble.
A little old couple at a table across the way began the applause that registered in Stephanie’s ears and echoed in her heart. That Alexander was looking at her with such a penetrating stare didn’t do anything to calm her shattered nerves. A woman who had always prided herself on restraint and respectability, she couldn’t believe that her body would betray her so completely. Had it not been for Alexander’s self-control, she might well have found herself rolling into the caviar the waiter had brought to their table. Stephanie blushed at the thought.
Alexander’s voice roughened as he whispered in her ear. “Shouldn’t you take a bow or something?”
Stephanie looked as if he had taken his glass of water and thrown it in her face. She knew that a kiss had forever altered their relationship that had just recently moved from outright animosity to tenuous friendship. It also had shaken her belief that she would someday settle down with some unassuming, unexciting man. She doubted whether Alexander knew how he had ruined that humble dream by immersing her in a fantasy spun with gossamer and sprinkled with diamonds. She felt her throat knotting.
Knowing that tears would not play well to their audience, Stephanie did her best to restore the intimacy of a mere moment ago. “You didn’t charge nearly enough,” she whispered in his ear.
When Alexander responded with a perplexed look, she smiled. “Women would gladly have paid double for a kiss like that.”
The bright smile she gave Alex seemed strained. It was all he could do to refrain from wiping it off her face with another kiss.
“Would they now?” he asked, his own lips quirking into a lopsided grin that made him look less like the playboy the media liked to portray him as and more like a little boy who’d discovered an unexpected present hidden beneath the Christmas tree.
The role of a doting fiancé was proving to be less of a stretch than Alex had first imagined. Although he knew that once their mission was over, Stephanie would never consider keeping the ring he purchased, he had made a point of picking out the most conspicuous stone in the jewelry store. Alex told himself it was only to fan the fury of gossip that was sure to surround their whirlwind romance and make their elopement to Vegas all the more believable. It actually had more to do with his wanting to see the expression on Stephanie’s face when she was treated as a precious gem herself.
She hadn’t disappointed him. In fact, her reaction had been so genuine and moving that it threatened to melt the heart of the most resolute bachelor in all of Texas. It almost made Alex wish that he cared and trusted someone enough to risk the rest of his life trying to make her happy. Almost.
The irony of his extravagant purchase did not escape him. Innumerable past relationships had come to a crashing halt the instant the woman with whom he was involved demanded a ring as a sign of his commitment. He imagined any number of them were going to be shocked and angry to read about his impending nuptials in the newspaper. It was all part of creating a credible background for them as newlyweds when they attempted to crack the illegal ring operating out of the adoption agency that Natalie suspected was a front.
As they took their leave from the restaurant, patrons stopped Stephanie and asked to see her ring. Pretending that it was too heavy to hold up, she propped one hand up with the other and proceeded to blind those bold enough to take a peep.
“How gorgeous!”
“Isn’t she?” Alex responded, looking straight at Stephanie and causing her to turn a most becoming shade of pink. He did not see her blushing as a drawback to her theatrical reputation but rather as a charming sign of her inexperience with rogues such as himself.
Taking her by the elbow and maneuvering her toward the front door, he checked his watch and spoke loudly enough for several people to overhear the conversation.
“We’d better hurry, darling, if we’re going to be on time.”
“And just where do you think you’re taking me now?” Stephanie asked, momentarily forgetting how quickly their plan needed to be put in action. Things were already moving so fast that her head was swimming.
“Why, to the chapel, of course.”
Five
Not exactly the church Stephanie’s mother had always envisioned for her only daughter’s wedding, the chapel to which Alexander referred was in Las Vegas. He had a copy of a phony wedding certificate inside the bag tucked in the overhead compartment, eliminating the need for an actual ceremony. Even if it was just playacting, Stephanie was relieved to be spared the nightmare of a quickie marriage featuring a black-velvet painting of Elvis as a parting gift. Staring out the window of the plane, she watched her hometown shrink to the size of a miniature Christmas village and wished her worries could be so easily minimized.
It was hard to believe that only a couple of short nights ago, she stood on a high-school stage encouraging her hodgepodge cast of characters to continue working on their lines over spring break. She promised to be back for rehearsals in two weeks, at which time scripts would no longer be allowed onstage.
If only she had a script for what lay ahead of her!
As flattering as it may be that Carrie had volunteered her for this misadventure based on her acting ability, Stephanie quailed at the thought of sharing a hotel room as Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Kent. It was hard enough keeping this fantasy in perspective when they were merely sharing first-class accommodations on an afternoon flight. It was quite another when a honeymoon suite entered into the equation. Not that consummation of this make-believe marriage was even an option. Stephanie expected nothing more physical than a perfunctory kiss now and then in public to reinforce their cover and give credence to their claim that they wanted a baby.
The same kind of kiss that completely turned her world upside down and let her think of little else since she had left Claire’s dazed and dizzy.
Stephanie steadied her nerves with another sip of complimentary champagne. Two days ago she had asked herself what harm could come of an ugly duckling such as herself indulging in every woman’s fantasy. Today she bleakly faced the answer to her own question. Flying first-class was just one of the luxuries one could easily grow accustomed to as Mrs. Alexander Kent. Not to mention the way people treated her like a princess in Alexander’s presence. And how she suddenly felt as pretty on the outside as she always had on the inside.
It would not be easy returning to her lonely apartment and boring, predictable life once this mission was over. It was going to be impossible to forget the kind of kisses that were bound to render every other man’s advances inept and inadequate for the rest of her life. Taking another sip of her champagne, Stephanie came to the realization that she didn’t mind putting her life in danger nearly as much as she feared risking her heart.
She suspected that the only way of surviving with her pride intact was to convince Alex that she truly was the greatest actress in the world. Maybe if she could copy his cavalier playboy attitude and make it her own, she stood a chance of not looking like a complete fool. There was no reason a woman such as herself couldn’t adopt that love-’em-and-leave-’em attitude such as his.
No reason other than the fact that beneath her professed cynicism that true love was nothing more than a playwright’s invention to sell more theater tickets, Stephanie secretly believed that love was a sacred force over which foolish mortals had no more control than they had over the wind.
Her challenge then was to persuade Alexander that she was unaffected by him while somehow insulating her heart from the knowledge that she had already fallen under his spell. Piece of cake, she thought miserably, draining the last of the golden elixir from her glass.
Mistaking Stephanie’s nervousness for fear of flying, Alex squeezed her hand reassuringly. The playfulness that marked the earlier part of the day had disappeared from her eyes. Those mysterious dark orbs were shiny with thoughts that took her far aw
ay from him.
“Don’t you want to know where we’ll be staying?” he asked, wanting to pull her back into the present moment.
Wanting to pull her into his arms and offer her a guarantee that everything was going to be all right…
The thought caught Alex off guard. Not the type to offer false assurances, he wondered why he felt so suddenly protective of a woman who insisted she was eminently capable of taking care of herself.
When she offered a noncommittal response to his question, he volunteered the information. “A brand-new hotel called the Lost Springs Casino.”
“That’s nice.”
Alex knew very few women who didn’t feel the need to fill their time together with conversation. Although the ensuing quiet was not particularly uncomfortable and did allow him the time to think through the details of initiating contact with the suspect adoption agency as soon as possible, he couldn’t help but wonder where Stephanie’s thoughts were taking her. They were certainly traveling in a different plane than the one which they physically occupied.
They reached Las Vegas without incident just after dark. Stephanie said she thought it boded well that their landing was smooth. Having never ridden in a limousine before, she delighted in inspecting all the latest gadgets in the one that took them from the airport to their accommodations.
Amused, Alex told her, “You’re worse than a kid.”
He couldn’t remember the last time any of his dates had expressed such enthusiasm about the mode of transportation that got them to and from one social gala to another.
Pretending with the Playboy Page 5