by Fiona Brand
He had come close to losing it. He knew it, and so did Allegra. And all because she had dropped her bombshell about having a fiancé, a piece of information that should have filled him with relief but which, instead, had had the opposite effect.
The fiery tension that had burned through him when she’d announced her engagement was still humming through him.
Allegra, engaged?
Not if he had his way.
Allegra Mallory was his.
The thought settled in with a curious inevitability. Why, exactly, he wanted Allegra was unclear. He knew plenty of beautiful, intelligent, charming women. Over the past two years he had done his share of dating, specifically to cure himself of whatever it was he felt for Allegra.
Six years ago, it had hit him like a bolt from the blue. Two years ago, it had resulted in his breaking up with his fiancée, Lindsay. The power of the attraction had been strong enough that, even though he was certain the stress of the break-up had contributed to Lindsay’s miscarriage, he hadn’t been able to forget Allegra.
Every time she walked into a room, despite the guilt that still gnawed at him, every muscle in his body tightened—
His door popped open. JT walked in, with a pizza box and a box of doughnuts balanced on one hand, a bottle of soda in the other. He lifted a brow. “Peace offering? Didn’t realize I was...you know, stepping on your toes.”
Tobias met the other man’s gaze for a long moment. He had been short and to-the-point, but he didn’t regret it. JT had needed to know that Allegra was off-limits. “If it helps,” he said grimly, “I didn’t know it until right then.” He checked out the pizza and the doughnuts and shook his head. “Lunch?”
“More like two glorious works of art.” JT put the pizza, the doughnuts, the soda and a small stack of napkins on his coffee table. He helped himself to a seat and opened the lid on the pizza box. “Double cheese with fennel sausage and prosciutto. And the doughnuts are salted caramel with vanilla cream.”
“You are going to die.”
“And go to heaven.” JT loaded a slice of pizza onto a napkin. “Now that you’ve apologized, you can have some pizza.”
Pizza wasn’t exactly his lunch of choice, but since he hadn’t actually eaten today, apart from the coffee on the red-eye flight from New York, Tobias accepted a slice. But he was still too wound up to sit.
When he’d finished, JT passed him a napkin. “So...you and Allegra. I guess I should have remembered that you, uh, slept with her.”
Tobias’s brows jerked together. “How did you know about that?”
“I was at Esmae’s ninetieth birthday party. I just happened to see you two down on the beach.”
“That was two years ago. Times have changed.” Tobias wiped his fingers with the napkin, then tossed it into the trash. “Apparently, she’s engaged.”
JT stopped dead, a slice of pizza part way to his mouth. “You’re kidding. That’s the first I’ve heard of it and, in this town, I hear a lot of stuff.” He set the pizza down, underlining the gravity of the moment. “I mean, with Allegra looking the way she does, she’s not exactly invisible. There are a lot of guys who would happily—”
“Stop right there, JT.”
“Yeah. Uh—sorry.” JT wiped his fingers with a napkin and tried for a rueful smile. “Well, I guess if she’s engaged that means she’s probably not dying to get her hot hands on you, after all. Although...” He closed the lid of the empty pizza box and zeroed in on the doughnuts. “What if the engagement’s just a ploy, and she’s trying to make herself more attractive? You know, make out she’s—” he sketched quotation marks in the air “‘—unavailable.’”
“Allegra’s been in Miami, living less than a mile from my apartment, and successfully avoiding me for two years, so the availability theory doesn’t exactly hold up.”
Shrugging, JT selected a doughnut. “So the engagement’s real. That sucks. Wonder who the lucky guy is?”
Tobias found himself controlling his temper with difficulty. “Someone called Mike Callaghan.”
“Thor? No way.” He took a bite of the doughnut and chewed reflectively. “Not that he’s actually the Norse god of thunder—he’s the personal trainer at the spa. Julia did a couple of sessions with him, just before we broke up. At least that explains it. He’s some serious eye candy, and they work together.”
Tobias’s jaw tightened. Up until that moment, Callaghan hadn’t seemed entirely real. In fact, Tobias had gotten the distinct impression that Allegra had pulled a name out of a hat.
And, as it happened, Tobias had made it his business to know whom Allegra was seeing. The surveillance hadn’t been exhaustive. Mostly, he had checked out her social media sites when he had a spare hour in the evenings. The overriding impression was that she had only dated on a casual level. Two, maybe three dates, was all she ever committed to with one guy, and he couldn’t recall ever seeing Callaghan’s name.
But the fact that she worked with the guy changed things, because that meant she saw him on a daily basis. Suddenly, the thought of Allegra in bed with Callaghan didn’t seem like such a stretch.
The tension that was coursing through him was oddly clarifying. He realized he was grimly, burningly jealous, but at least the feelings clarified what he had felt in Phillips’s office and in the parking garage.
He wanted Allegra.
He didn’t know for how long he would want her. Despite the complication of the will, and the mistakes of the past that still haunted him, his feelings for Allegra were, as they had been all along, curiously black-and-white.
He just wanted her, period, and he knew that, even though wild horses wouldn’t drag it from her, that she wanted him, too.
He was also aware that, with Callaghan now firmly in the picture, if he didn’t claim Allegra now, today, he could lose her completely.
* * *
When JT finally left, Tobias looked at the carnage of his office, the overflowing trash can, the soda spills and the clouds of powdered sugar that seemed to have settled on every available surface. Not for the first time, he thought about what life would be like without JT, then, almost immediately, dismissed the thought.
He had known JT most of his life. They’d gone to school and through BUDs together. As annoying as he could be, JT was the closest thing to a brother that Tobias had.
On impulse, he dialed his PA’s number. Even though he’d eaten a slice of pizza, he still felt hungry and, since he was moving into Esmae’s house straight after the Ocean Beach meeting, it made sense to get something now.
There was a café on the ground floor of the building that Jean liked. If he wanted to eat in, she usually got them to send up sandwiches and salads.
When he gave her his request, she was silent for a beat. “You don’t want beef?”
“I’d like to try something—different.”
“How different?” she said cautiously. “There are at least a dozen vegetarian dishes.”
Tobias frowned. “What do you like?”
“Me? I usually have the vegetarian stack, or sometimes lentil patties or a wild rice salad.” She paused. “Maybe you should have fish. They have a very nice salmon quiche—”
“I’ll try all the things you listed.”
An hour later, Tobias finished sampling the variety of vegetarian dishes the café had delivered. They weren’t bad; there was nothing he disliked. The problem was he was still hungry. The only thing he’d really enjoyed had been the coffee. Whether it was psychological or not, the food he’d eaten had failed to satisfy.
Like his love life.
He checked his watch. In less than an hour, he had to drive to the Ocean Beach Resort for his meeting with the manager, Marc Porter. Over the next month, like it or not, he was going to have to come to grips with running a luxury resort, something he knew very little about.
The only positive
was that Esmae had had a talent for surrounding herself with young, highly qualified staff, and the present manager was a case in point. The biggest issue was Allegra’s spa. He didn’t have access to those figures. All he had was a copy of the lease agreement with the resort, which expired in two month’s time.
It made sense not to renew the lease. The way he saw it, Esmae’s passing meant he could once-for-all sever his connection to Allegra, and remove the temptation she posed from his life. But the fact that he wanted Allegra back in his bed had changed things somewhat.
Madison Spas still had to go. Allegra wouldn’t be happy, but he would make it up to her. He could even soften the blow by finding her alternative premises before he terminated the lease.
Whatever the issues were, they were solvable.
But after he had gotten her back in his bed.
* * *
Allegra parked her car in its space at the Ocean Beach Resort and strolled into the premises that housed her spa. Not for the first time, her heart swelled with pride at what she’d achieved.
Ocean Beach was a luxurious resort, which catered to the affluent and those wanting a beach holiday. Her spa offered the beach vibe as well, but she had gone out of her way to create secluded gardens and quiet spaces where solitude could be enjoyed. Most of her clientele stayed at the resort proper, and came for various treatments or half or full-day packages, but she did have secluded cabins for clients who wanted the privacy and quietness of a retreat stay.
Once she reached her office, she checked the schedule of activities, specifically to find out where she might find Mike. Gym classes were finished for the day, but he did have one client booked for a personal training session, which was set to finish any minute.
She walked through to the gym, which was airy and light and outfitted with the latest state-of-the-art equipment, as well as a mirrored wall for dance classes. Mike was presently leaning against a weight-lifting frame, stopwatch in his hand, while his client, a plump, Asian executive-type Allegra recognized as one of their most faithful regulars, attempted to do lunges.
Mike directed an amiable grin in her direction, hit the stopwatch app on his smartwatch and clapped his client on the shoulder. “Better live to fight another day, eh James? Hit the showers, and I’ll see you at six in the morning for that run on the beach.”
James was aghast. “Six?”
Mike slung a towel around his neck and picked up his gym bag. “Unless you want to go earlier?”
“Arrgh... Six is fine.”
Allegra waited until the executive staggered through the door that led to the showers before opening what was going to be an awkward conversation.
Mike, who refused to wear glasses while he was working, pushed a pair of horn-rimmed glasses onto the bridge of his nose as he ambled toward her. “Hey. What’s up, boss?”
Allegra gave him her best professional smile. “Last week you asked me for more hours. At the time, I didn’t have any extra work, but something’s cropped up.”
Mike gave her a distracted grin as he dug in his gym bag. “Sounds like that could be promising for me.” He found his phone. “Did you decide to run with my proposal for a cage-fighting class in that bit of jungle down by the beach?”
“Not exactly. Most of our clients come here to wind down, so I can’t really see how something like that is going to work.” There was no easy way to say it. “The extra hours would be more in the line of acting than physical training.”
“Acting? Cool.” Mike frowned as he flicked through something on his phone. He peered at her over the top of his glasses, which were clearly for distance, not close reading. “How did you know I was looking for an acting gig?”
Allegra frowned. She did not exactly see the fake engagement as a “gig.” “You told me. In the interview.”
“Phew, that’s a relief! Because when I get my big break, I’ll be gone.” He made a sudden, swooping plane-like movement with his hand, then went back to flicking through texts. “I’ve been waiting for my agent to contact me about a part in a new daytime soap. Some kind of Baywatch meets aliens and zombies thing.”
Allegra took a deep breath and determinedly put her irritation to one side. “In the meantime, like I said, I do have an acting job of sorts for you.” She mentioned a figure.
Mike looked up from his phone and grinned. “Who do I have to sleep with to get that?”
“You won’t be sleeping with anyone,” Allegra said frostily. “The job is strictly window dressing.” She drew a deep breath, but there was no point in beating around the bush. “I need a fake fiancé for a month.”
Mike stared at her as if she’d just grown an extra head. “Why would you want a fake fiancé?”
“It’s...complicated.”
He frowned, as if he was having trouble getting his head around the concept. “So, you need an escort? I mean, I did it for a while, but I hated the hours and the bars. Kind of messed up my fitness routine. Then there was the whole cougar thing...”
Allegra’s brows jerked together. “Do I look like a cougar?”
Mike blinked. “No, ma’am. You look like my boss.”
“Exactly.” Allegra was beginning to think she had made a major mistake in asking Mike. From what she could remember of his curriculum vitae there had been a lot of detail about his personal training, modeling and acting abilities. There had been no mention that he had ever worked as a male escort. “I don’t need an escort. I need an actor.”
Mike frowned, then nodded, as if he had finally gotten it. “So all I have to do is pretend to like you.”
“Pretend to be my fiancé,” she corrected. Then, because she was beginning to think Mike had gotten his wires crossed over what the job entailed, she clarified, “This does not involve sex in any way, shape or form.”
“And you still want to pay all that money?” He grinned, and, for a minute, she thought he was actually going to try and high-five her. “Cool.”
* * *
When she got home that evening, Allegra changed into a cotton dress that was airy and easy to move in, because she would be doing a lot of lifting, and slipped on a comfortable pair of sneakers. She packed two suitcases with everything she would conceivably need over the next month, then did a tour of the bathroom, gathering up toiletries.
She had made sure to include some evening wear, because she had planned a schedule of dates with Mike to cement the fact that they were an engaged couple. She had also packed her jewelry case, which was filled with an assortment of significant jewelry she would not feel comfortable with leaving in an empty apartment, as well as some cheap and glitzy pageant bling. If she had forgotten anything, it would be an easy enough matter to call back to her apartment.
She wheeled the suitcases to her front door. Normally, she would have carried them out to her garage and loaded them into her car herself. However, because Mike had agreed to meet her at her apartment, she figured that, as part of his role, he could take care of her baggage.
She did a quick check of the apartment to make sure the windows were locked, then grabbed a shopping tote and emptied perishables from the pantry and the refrigerator. Esmae used to have a couple live in with her, but since she’d been in the hospital, she had switched to having them just call in to look after the grounds and check the house. That being the case, there wasn’t likely to be any fresh food at the house. She set the tote next to her suitcases, then checked her watch, noting that Mike was ten minutes late.
Feeling a familiar sense of irritation at Mike’s casual attitude toward time, she made a start on loading the bags herself. After all, the important part of Mike helping her move was that he unloaded everything and carried it to her rooms while Tobias watched.
Getting the bags into her little convertible was a mission, courtesy of the fact that it was a two door. With difficulty, she managed to wedge the smaller one in the space behind the front
seats and prop the largest bag in the passenger seat. The bag of perishables went on the floor, along with her handbag.
Feeling on edge, she walked back into the house and did a last check that she hadn’t forgotten anything, ending up in her cool, stylish bedroom with its white-on-white decor and pretty little terrace. On impulse, she checked her appearance, since the last thing she wanted was to turn up at Tobias’s house with smudged makeup or messy hair.
Her mineral-based foundation, which, naturally, was the same brand her spa sold, looked smooth and perfect. Her eye makeup was subtle, but smoky, making her eyes look even darker. On impulse, she rummaged through the drawers, found extra hairpins and fastened the knot in her hair more securely.
When Mike eventually arrived in his beaten-up truck, which sprouted rusted fishing rod holders, it was a good twenty minutes past the time they had agreed, and the sun was sinking low on the horizon. Keeping her irritation in check, because it would have been so much easier to have loaded the bags into his truck than squeeze them into her convertible, Allegra gave him a copy of the schedule of dates she had formulated that afternoon and instructed him to follow her to the mansion.
Twenty minutes later, she drove through the gorgeous wrought iron gates that guarded the driveway to the Spanish-style mansion and pulled up in the circular area of gravel outside the front doors. Her heart thumped against her chest when she saw Tobias’s black truck already parked, indicating he was in the process of moving in.
Allegra pushed her door open and climbed out, just as Mike’s truck pulled to a halt behind her. Walking around the sleek exterior of her car, she opened the passenger-side door, unfastened the seat belt, then began wrangling the suitcase, until she remembered Mike was supposed to do it.
Feeling exasperated, she abandoned the case. For some reason, Mike was still sitting in his truck. The reason became evident when she discovered that he was intently reading the dating schedule.
