by Fiona Brand
“Okay, I’ll bite,” he said mildly. “Why would I want to have you living in my house for a month?”
“Because you’re secretly in love with me, can’t resist me and, last I heard, it’s the only way you’ll get a date!”
Stepping through the door, she closed it in his face.
* * *
Tobias stared at the smooth mahogany of the door, his attention riveted.
He had tried not to notice the faint sprinkling of freckles across Allegra’s nose that reminded him of the windblown young woman who used to hang out at the beach, and the warm flush that had extended across her cheekbones as she’d stared at the scar on his nose.
Or his sudden conviction that Allegra still wanted him.
The knowledge tightened every muscle in Tobias’s body, which did not please him one little bit, because Allegra wanting him was the one reason that made sense of Esmae’s crazy, manipulative will.
The crack about his difficulty getting a date made him frown. The past couple of years, up until his uncle had retired as the CEO of Hunt Security, he’d been focused on learning the financial side of business. He had spent six months with Gabriel Messena and had dated the Messena twins, as it had turned out, on a strictly friend-zone basis.
He had been aware of social media comments around the fact that both Sophie and Francesca Messena had ended up with other guys. But the plain fact was, that as gorgeous as Sophie and Francesca were, they had felt more like sisters than girlfriends.
Now, suddenly, the fact that Allegra had been his last serious date in more than two years struck him forcibly.
Up until that point, he hadn’t thought about the lack in his love life, but now his reaction to Allegra, and hers to him, was pressing alarm bells.
It was a fact that the reason he had dated Francesca Messena, before and after he had slept with Allegra, was that he had wanted to, once and for all, nix the attraction he felt for Allegra. And close the door on the “almost” relationship that had caused Lindsay so much pain.
Unfortunately, the tactic hadn’t worked. Dating Francesca hadn’t made him stop wanting Allegra.
All she had to do was walk into a room and he reacted—
Phillips, who at some point had gotten to his feet, was also staring at the door. “You going to be all right for the next month? She’s, uh...fiery.”
“I’ll survive.”
Even though she’d gone, Allegra’s light, flowery perfume seemed to float in the air. Normally, details like the perfumes that women wore went straight over his head, but with Allegra he had trouble forgetting the details. Like the freckles, and the fact that she was wearing the exact same fragrance she had worn when they had made love.
It was a salient reminder that, two years ago, despite all of the reasons he should have left Allegra alone, he hadn’t been able to resist her. He had abandoned his usual cool reason and had allowed himself to sink into the kind of whirlpool of passion from which it had been difficult to extract himself.
It had taken a bitter phone call from Lindsay, to make him do what he should have done all along, and run a basic online check of Allegra. When he had done so, he had discovered that she had recently been involved in romantic liaisons with at least two West Coast millionaires. The guilt Tobias had felt aside, he had concluded that the one night he and Allegra had shared, as intense as it had been, had been nothing more than another casual liaison.
Plan to have Allegra live with him for a month?
It hadn’t been his idea. Maybe Esmae had inserted the clause for the hell of it, to make his life difficult one last time? But, whether Allegra had had a hand in the will or not, the very fact that Esmae, who had doted on her niece, had inserted those clauses, implied that she had done so because she knew Allegra wanted him.
Tobias’s pulse rate lifted at the thought.
And there was his problem, he thought grimly. For reasons he couldn’t fathom, he still wanted Allegra. There was no logic to it, just a knee-jerk desire that had stayed with him for six years. A desire he had doggedly ignored in the hope it would peter out.
Unfortunately, ignoring what he could only term a fatal attraction hadn’t worked.
As he stepped out of Phillips’s office, with JT hard on his heels, it occurred to him that maybe it was time to try the tactic he should have used all along.
Let the attraction play out over the next month and die a natural death, like every other attraction to date.
After all, living with Allegra for a month according to the terms of Esmae’s will didn’t mean anything more than just that. They were sharing a house. If they shared a bed that hardly constituted a relationship, or the marriage for which Esmae was clearly angling.
His whole body tightened at the thought of Allegra back in his bed.
Just one month, and then it would be over.
He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of that solution before. Maybe if he had, he would already be free of the inconvenient attraction that to date had nixed every relationship he had attempted to form in the past six years.
He caught sight of Allegra at the end of the corridor as she waited for the elevator to empty. She glanced his way, as if she had sensed him behind her, her gaze clashing with his.
JT, who was in the process of checking his phone, lifted his head. “Maybe she’ll hold the elevator for us.”
And hell might freeze over.
Given the way Allegra had cut in front of him to take the parking space that morning, then closed Phillips’s door in his face, it was a given that she would shut them out.
His jaw compressed as the steel doors glided closed, but at the same time, he felt a fierce jolt of satisfaction, because Allegra hadn’t just shut him out; she had also shut out JT. Clearly they weren’t as close as JT thought.
Tobias hit the call button on the only other elevator. As he checked the numbers flashing over the door, it occurred to him that the eye contact with Allegra as the elevator doors had closed was an almost-exact replay of what had happened down in the parking garage. That confirmed that she had known he had tailed her into the parking garage and then had deliberately cut him off.
Perversely, the fact that she was boldly crossing swords with him in a way no other woman had ever done, ignited something primitive in him; the urge to answer the challenge when, if he was smart, he would just wait out the month and let her go.
But, even as he formed the thought, he knew he wouldn’t do it.
Despite what Allegra had said, he wasn’t convinced that she hadn’t had a hand in Esmae’s will, but the fact that she wanted him seemed to override even that consideration.
The thought of her lying naked in his arms once again made every muscle in his body tighten.
Suddenly, the next month didn’t seem like such a prison sentence.
Four
Allegra watched with satisfaction as the floor numbers flashed while the elevator descended to the underground garage.
The moment she had seen Tobias exiting Phillips’s office with JT directly behind him replayed. Adrenaline had pumped as Tobias’s eyes had locked with hers. That in itself had been annoying, but not as annoying as the fact that, evidently, he had expected her to want to stay eye-locked with him as he had strode toward her.
As if she was some kind of Barbie doll robot just waiting for him to activate her.
No way was Tobias even remotely that important in her life, so she had stepped into the elevator and hit the close door button. It was a small act of revenge but, after the scene in Phillips’s office, there was no way either Tobias or JT should expect to share an elevator with her. Happily, she had timed things nicely, so they hadn’t even been close when the doors had snapped shut, sealing her into blissful isolation.
On the way down, she checked her hair and makeup in the mirror. Despite all of the turmoil, she looked almost as smoot
h and composed as she had when she’d left home. That was thanks to the beauty pageant circuit, which had taught her that, no matter what went on in the dressing rooms, you stepped out on the stage with a smile on your face.
Humming beneath her breath, she found her ear pods, put them in her ears and dialed up some soothing music on her phone, then spent the remaining seconds watching the numbers flash over the door until the elevator came to a halt. A few seconds later, an elderly man sporting a cane, who was cute and kind of reminded her of her granddad, trundled in the door and peered at the numbers, as if he was confused.
A quick conversation, and the press of a button, and she had him sorted out. As the elevator lurched into action again, she realized she was still breathing a little too fast. Technically, she was hyperventilating, which was not good. She needed to breathe deep and slow.
The elevator stopped for the old guy to get off, and while she waited for the doors to close and start speeding down again, she checked the heart rate app on her watch. The last thing she needed was another SVT event, because those attacks, as easy as they were to fix, were scary.
Just over two years ago, when she had ended up in the ER, following the “interview” with the partners at Burns-Stein Halliday, she had listened to her doctor’s advice then consulted the oracle—that was her mom—before deciding to make some changes in her life.
Both of her parents had wanted to bring charges against Burns-Stein Halliday for sexual harassment in the workplace. Her mom had even threatened to “go over there,” and that was some scary stuff. But Allegra definitely hadn’t wanted the stress of a court case, which could have landed her back in the hospital, or worse.
The last thing she had wanted was to die or end up in some clinic somewhere, making baskets, all because BSH was a horrible employer. The way she saw it, she owed it to her parents, and the world at large (not BSH, she didn’t owe them anything) to stay happy, and stay alive.
Once she had made the decision not to sue BSH, it had been an easy step to embrace a career that was founded on the two things she knew she was good at: money and beauty.
A few weeks holiday with Esmae in her private beach mansion had given her the inspiration she needed to start up her own retreat spa.
Esmae, who had been something of a risk-taker and adventurer in her younger days, had offered to back her, mostly because she was tired of being treated like she was old and washed-up, and so Madison Spas had been born. The name Madison had seemed appropriate, because that was a second name they both shared.
The spa had been up and running for almost two years now, and, in that time, she had expanded to offer a number of beauty and pampering treatments. Lately, it had become something of a destination for burned-out celebrities needing to recharge, hence her need to open a second retreat, this one in a more remote location.
She had already earmarked a possible property. Once she got past the hurdle of the next month, she would be able to have a conversation with her bank manager and arrange the finances she needed to expand.
In the meantime, Esmae’s will had literally locked her and Tobias together for the next month.
Logically, she had known that the resort would go to Tobias, because the place had been built on Hunt money. She just hadn’t thought he would turn up in person to take over as manager.
Now, not only was her life totally ruined for the next four weeks because she had to share a house with Tobias, but Esmae had also managed to throw them together in their working lives!
The terms of the will had left zero doubt that Esmae was attempting to matchmake from beyond the grave. And, to make matters worse, Allegra was pretty much sure it was all her fault, because, somehow, Esmae had gotten the mistaken idea that she still wanted Tobias.
The elevator doors opened to the darkened underground garage.
Strolling at a moderate pace, because her shoes were too high for anything more than a sedate saunter, and still listening to the soothing music, she made a beeline for her car. The sound of the second set of elevator doors opening behind her, which she could still hear quite well because the ear pods were the expensive kind that let you hear everything else as well as the music, sent tension humming through her. Despite the temptation to speed up her pace, she kept her gait smooth and even. So what if it was Tobias? He didn’t scare her—
“Allegra.”
Despite her confidence, the deep, curt tones of his voice made her stomach tighten, but she kept her pace smooth and unaltered. After all, she had ear pods in; chances were she hadn’t heard him.
The sound of footsteps sent tension humming through her. As tempting as it was to speed up, she kept her languid stroll, but took out her phone for good measure, so Tobias could see she was doubly busy.
The next second her phone rang. It registered an unknown caller, but she knew exactly who it was.
She hit the accept call button. “How did you get my number?”
Tobias’s deep, curt voice filled her ear. “You gave it to me two years ago.”
Wrong answer. “I took it back.”
“Then I guess I must have forgotten to delete it.”
“What do you want?”
“Turn around and find out.”
Stabbing the disconnect button, she threw a seemingly confused look over her shoulder, as if she hadn’t understood that Tobias, accompanied by JT, had been behind her all along. “Oh, it’s...you.”
She made a show of removing the ear pods. “Sorry. Were you trying to talk to me?”
Amusement surfaced in Tobias’s gaze. He dangled a key. “You’re going to need this.”
Allegra instantly recognized the pretty beaded key chain, because it was the same one she had used when she had lived with Esmae, before she’d found her apartment.
Taking care not to brush his fingers with hers, she took the key but, as she did so, emotion welled up. It was still so hard to believe that Esmae, who had made her feel so at home in Miami, was gone.
She met Tobias’s gaze squarely, suddenly glad she had decided to wear such ridiculously high heels, otherwise she would have had to tip her head back to do so. “Thanks. Although, for the record, I do not want to live with you—”
“We won’t be living together.”
Her gaze narrowed. The knowledge that, despite everything she had said in Phillips’s office, Tobias really did think she was after him, and was scheming to trap him, settled in.
She had always wondered where the impulse to hit someone came from. Now, she knew.
JT offered Allegra a good-ole-boy smile. “Honey, I think Tobias knows you don’t want to live with him. I mean, you’ve already said why, chapter and verse—”
“Don’t call me Honey.” The words flowed out, cool and crisp, cutting JT off, so that he stared at her, surprised.
Allegra hadn’t meant to offend JT, who was an occasional client, especially not when he had been defending her. But he hadn’t exactly been her friend in Phillips’s office, and, since the horrible events of San Francisco, she’d developed a zero tolerance for that kind of casual intimacy.
Tobias slanted JT a pointed look. “You should stay out of this.”
JT backed off a step, his expression wary. “No problem. Not my fight—”
“That’s right.”
“Okay. Well...” JT shrugged. “I’m on my way back to the office.”
JT’s footsteps echoed through the garage as he headed for his car, but, now that they were alone, the tension between her and Tobias was suddenly thick enough to cut.
Tobias frowned. “You’ve done something to your nose.”
Taken off guard by the change in tack, Allegra automatically touched the side of the bridge of her nose, which had once been marred by a small bump. The bump had only been discernible from certain angles, but after being ditched by Tobias, the imperfection, which came from the Toussaint s
ide of the family, had seemed to glare back at her every time she looked in the mirror. “I had surgery to fix it. It wasn’t a big deal.”
Tobias gaze shifted. “And you’ve changed your hair.”
She blinked, for long moments transfixed by the color of his irises, which seemed softer and darker than she remembered, fringed as they were by inky lashes. She dragged her gaze free, breaking the moment. The problem was, she didn’t know whether to feel pleasure that Tobias had noticed the surgery or her hair color, or irritated for the same reason.
She shoved the house key in a zip pocket in her handbag, along with her ear pods, while she tried to figure out why on earth he was almost complimenting her. When she couldn’t, because there was no way he could be trying to sweet-talk her into a date, she decided to keep things neutral and treat him with politeness, like she would a client. Who knows? The politeness might even rub off on him. “Thank you for noticing. I haven’t changed anything—that’s my natural color. I used to color it with blond streaks, but since the spa provides natural therapies and detoxification regimes, it wouldn’t look good if I showed up for work as a bottle blond.”
But, underneath all of her annoyance with Tobias, she couldn’t quite suppress the warm, fuzzy feeling of pleasure that he had noticed the changes she’d made.
Then a horror-filled thought nixed the pleasure. Now that she had to share a house with Tobias, could he possibly be thinking that she would be open to sharing his bed, on a strictly casual basis, of course?
Suddenly, the month with Tobias seemed even more fraught. Two years ago, she had fallen for him and thrown caution to the winds. If he seriously set out to seduce her now, would she be strong enough to resist him?
Out of the blue, a solution settled into place. It was the perfect answer to a situation that seemed to be getting way out of hand.
Digging her car keys out of her bag, and sticking with the business owner/client synergy, she plastered a neutral smile on her face. “As I was saying...one of the reasons I don’t want to share a house with you is that...” She drew a deep breath and crossed the fingers of one hand behind her back. “My fiancé won’t exactly be happy if I move in with you.”
