by Fiona Brand
She met Tobias’s gaze squarely. “I won’t sleep with you just because it’s convenient for the month.”
“Convenient?” His brows jerked together. “Believe me, sleeping with you has nothing to do with convenience—”
Tobias’s hand closed briefly around her upper arm as he moved her out of the path of a motorized wheelchair. In the process, the top of her head brushed against his jaw, one palm landed against the solid muscle of his chest, and she caught the heady scents of soap and clean skin and cologne.
His gaze locked on hers. “Damn, I wish we weren’t—”
“Tobias!”
Allegra stiffened. Tobias frowned and let her go.
Francesca Messena-Atraeus had just strolled out of the opulent jeweler they just happened to be standing next to and which was, ironically, Atraeus Jewels.
For a split second, Allegra was so shocked to see the beautiful fashion designer that she didn’t notice what she was wearing. Then, the silky, turquoise mini and camisole top, the filmy white shirt and high, strappy turquoise heels registered.
Had she mentioned that her outfit was an ultra-expensive Messena design?
Her stomach sank. There were some moments that got impressed indelibly, and damagingly, on a person’s psyche; she was pretty sure this was one of them, because there was a rule about women wearing the exact same outfit.
And it didn’t stop there. Even their hair was done the same, and their nail color matched. They could have been a mirror image of each other, the only difference being that Allegra’s hair color was darker than Francesca’s, which was currently a tawny blond.
And, as Francesca strolled toward them, a truth she just hadn’t seen hit her forcibly.
She had seen buying Francesca’s line of clothing, handbags and shoes, as a sign that she had healed, that she didn’t hold a grudge that Francesca had stolen her man, and that she had moved on. But now, she understood exactly what she had been doing. She had made herself over as Francesca, so that Tobias would fall for her.
The sick feeling in her stomach was a confirmation she didn’t want, but which she needed to face.
Two years ago, her hair had been long, with luxurious waves. Now, it was still long, but layered, so that it swung sexily around her face, a virtual mirror image of Francesca’s current cut.
She had also changed her normal low-key colors on her nails to flamboyant pinks and, instead of lower more comfortable shoes, she had begun wearing gorgeous high heels that were more about looks than practicality. Again, just like Francesca.
She had even bought a range of silk lingerie that Francesca had said was her favorite on one of her social media sites. The cost had been astronomical, and now she knew why she had splurged on something she would not normally have bought.
Another horrifying thought struck. She had to wonder if the reason Tobias had showed a renewed interest in her was that she looked a whole lot more like Francesca than she had two years ago? That the reason he had made love to her was that he saw her as some kind of Francesca substitute?
Her mother had been right, she thought blankly. Somehow, she had allowed Tobias’s rejection of her to affect her at a deep, bedrock level, to the point that she had even lost confidence in her own attractiveness.
But that wouldn’t be happening any longer.
And, if Tobias thought that she was going to continue to be some kind of Barbie-doll substitute for the woman he couldn’t have, he could think again.
Francesca jogged the last few yards, went up on her toes, wound her arms around Tobias’s neck, hugged him close and kissed him on the cheek. But it was Tobias’s reaction that commanded her attention. When his arms went around Francesca, he grinned, his teeth white against his tanned skin. Feeling increasingly miserable, she registered that he wasn’t just attracted to Francesca, he liked her.
Francesca pulled free, but kept her arm around Tobias’s waist, as she waved at a tall, blond friend who had just stepped out of a nearby boutique. She introduced the woman, whose name was Clara, to Tobias with the gleeful announcement that this was the gorgeous guy who was taking her out for dinner that night.
Allegra froze, for long seconds, stunned, then thoughts and emotions cascaded. She knew why Francesca was here; it was a business visit. But this didn’t look or feel like business, and Tobias was taking her out to dinner.
She wished it didn’t matter. But it did, because, for a few moments, she had thought that she and Tobias were finally on the brink of something special.
Now, the fact that Tobias had never taken her out for dinner, or even asked her for a coffee, struck deep. Just like he had never thought to buy her flowers or to give her any of the small gifts that were part of courtship.
She blinked, feeling like a sleeper just waking up. The way he was with Francesca suddenly seemed to point out all the lacks in their relationship, the huge abyss between what Tobias was offering and what she wanted.
And what she wanted wasn’t so outrageous. They were ordinary, everyday dreams that shouldn’t be so hard to attain, like a man of her own, a home they could share and, sometime in the not-too-distant, misty future, babies to love. All of the things a lot of women of her acquaintance had already, and which they took for granted, but which had, so far, eluded Allegra.
The problem was, trying to be in a relationship with Tobias was like hitting a brick wall. All they shared was sex.
Despite trying to appear casual and unaffected, as if meeting the other woman in Tobias’s life barely impinged upon her, Allegra’s face felt frozen as introductions were made.
Happily, Francesca breezed past the fact that they were dressed like twins by complimenting Allegra on her great taste in clothing. Despite feeling embarrassed by the clothing issue, and deeply hurt at the way Tobias had failed to court her in any way, Allegra briefly acknowledged that, if Francesca wasn’t after Tobias, they would probably be friends.
When Tobias mentioned Madison Spas, the transfixed look on Francesca’s face gave Allegra the distinct impression that Francesca had suddenly placed her, and not in a good way. That meant she knew about the scandal in her past.
She didn’t come across that reaction so often these days, especially not in the spa business, which was so far removed from her previous career it could be on another planet. But, every now and then, the past did jump out to bite her.
Allegra managed a polite, professional reply, then Francesca surprised her by asking specific questions about her spa treatments. Normally, she would be in her element talking about mud wraps and their super foods menu, but relaxing was difficult because every time Francesca touched Tobias’s arm with a small, intimate gesture, she felt miserable and increasingly tense.
Because despite the hurt of the past, despite her strategy and the caution she had thought she was exercising, she had fallen for Tobias, hook, line and sinker.
Again.
Thirteen
Allegra’s phone trilled. Relieved to have an excuse not to look at the gorgeous couple Francesca and Tobias made, she fished it out of her tote.
The call was from Mike. She had been so distracted that she had completely forgotten about him. “Where are you?”
“Uh... MIA.”
Her brows jerked together. Miami International Airport?
Aware that Tobias could hear what she was saying, she walked a few more steps away and tried to keep her voice smooth and pleasant. “I need more details, Mike.”
“Uh...sorry about breaking the news to you like this but, you know I was trying out for that soap? Well, thing is, someone put in a good word for me, and I got a part. Not the lead, but who knows? Now that I’m in, the sky’s the limit—”
“Mike.”
“So, yeah. I need to be in LA tomorrow—”
A feminine voice cut Mike off, followed by a loud rustling, as if Mike was attempting to cover the speake
r end of the phone.
Although muffled, Allegra distinctly heard his muttered, “Felicity, babe, just give me some space for a minute? I’m talking to, you know, her.”
Felicity. That would be one of the girls Mike shared an apartment with and who Allegra had thought was just a good friend. Clearly, they were a whole lot friendlier than he had let on.
“Let’s cut this short,” Allegra said crisply. “You’ve got some kind of acting part. Now, you’re flying somewhere with a friend—”
“Felicity, yeah. We’re leaving for LA. Like, right now.”
Allegra frowned, sudden suspicion gnawing at her. Mike was broke, he had told her so, and she hadn’t yet paid him for being her fake fiancé. That was one of the things she was going to address this afternoon. So where did he get the money to pay for flights to LA, not only for himself, but for Felicity? It was possible the production had paid him an advance, but it was a small part, and he had only just heard this morning. Added to that his departure was so sudden, and organized when, normally, Mike couldn’t organize his way out of a paper bag, that she didn’t see how any of it was possible.
Suspicion coalesced into knowledge. Mike had failed to make their date; instead, Tobias had turned up. “When, exactly, did Tobias buy the tickets?”
There was a small horrified silence. “How did you know?”
Allegra’s jaw tightened. “The same way I know he was the one who ‘put a good word in for you,’ probably with one of the financial backers. So, when? Yesterday, or this morning?”
The timing made a difference, because, if Tobias had arranged to get rid of Mike last night, before they had slept together, that would make his actions in sleeping with her even more calculated.
“This morning. He got in contact with someone in LA. An hour later, the production manager offered me the part. Tobias was totally cool. He paid for our tickets, even arranged accommodation—”
“And your job at the spa?”
A final boarding call echoed in the background, cut through by Felicity’s terse statement that she was boarding now, even if Mike wasn’t.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Mike mumbled. “I sent an email, like, ten minutes ago. Look, I gotta go—”
The call terminated.
Allegra flicked through to her emails and opened Mike’s resignation, which barely extended to two lines, one of them being, Hi, Ms Mallory.
She closed the email and slipped her phone back into her tote. Grimly, she noted that her strategy with Mike had worked, after a fashion. Tobias had reacted in a possessive, macho way, but not as she had hoped.
Instead of expressing an interest in having a real relationship, where they dated and got to know one another, like he had done with Francesca, he had behaved in the exact opposite way. He had gotten rid of the “threat” Mike had posed by buying him off and shipping him to the other side of the country. And there was only one way Mike would have suddenly gotten a part in the production; Tobias had also paid for that.
As if he had never heard of fighting for the woman he wanted by courting her.
Instead, he had been one step ahead of her, clearing the way so he could have unimpeded access to her for the next month.
His actions were ruthless and definitively alpha, and they informed her that Tobias really did want the sex, enough that he had been prepared to pay for it.
If she hadn’t had the state of their “relationship” pointed out to her by the way he was with Francesca, maybe she would have been thrilled by the fact that he had been prepared to go to such lengths to get her to himself.
But, the plain fact was, he had inexcusably changed the rules. Just over two years ago, she had fended off two wealthy men who thought she could be bought with money, gifts and influence.
She hadn’t been selling herself then, and she wasn’t doing it now.
Jaw set, Allegra dropped her phone into her bag, made an executive decision and walked. On the way, she saw a cleaner mopping up something that had been spilled on the floor, so she stopped and handed her the bouquet of roses.
Holding a bunch of flowers, that looked like they had been bought for her by a lover, now only seemed to symbolize what was not in her future. They represented the romantic aspects of a relationship, which Tobias had once very publicly extended to Francesca, but which he had never extended to her.
As if all he truly wanted from her was the sex.
* * *
Tobias saw the moment Allegra turned on her heel and headed for the elevators.
Suddenly over Francesca and her friend, and the incessant girl-talk, he said a clipped goodbye and strode toward the elevators.
At a guess, Allegra had just gotten a call from Callaghan. From the way she had reacted, she knew he’d gotten rid of him.
That meant that either Callaghan had crumbled and blurted out that Tobias had arranged to move him to the West Coast, or she had extracted the information.
He was betting on the second option.
Allegra stepped into the elevator. Her gaze, which was definitely frosty, clashed with his as he stopped the doors from closing with a hand and stepped in with her. “We were in the middle of a conversation.”
“Were we? I hardly noticed.”
“We were talking about a relationship.”
“There’s a big difference between the kind of interaction you call a relationship, and what I want.” Her dark eyes shot fire. “You paid Mike off!”
A little grimly, he wondered how those two statements fitted together. “I got rid of Mike so we could have a relationship.”
The elevator stopped at a floor; the doors slid open.
Allegra jabbed a finger at his chest. “You’re paying for sex!”
There was a small, vibrating silence as an elderly couple, who were waiting for the elevator, stared at them as if they’d each grown an extra head.
Tobias nodded in their direction, took Allegra’s arm and hurried her out of the elevator. “How in hell am I paying for sex?”
She jerked free of his hold. “How much did it cost to get rid of Mike?”
He quoted the six figures it had cost him so the producer could be convinced that Callaghan could handle a small part.
She gave him a horrified look. “They make movies about this stuff.”
“I just did what worked. Now, tell me how that equates to me paying to have sex with you?”
She met his gaze squarely. “Simple accounting. You’ve bankrolled Mike’s acting career to get me into bed, so now it’s almost as if you’ve paid to have sex with me. You’ve commoditized our relationship.”
“I don’t see it that way,” he said bluntly. “We slept together last night. As far as I was concerned, you already belonged to me, so why would I pay for what’s already mine? I got rid of Callaghan because he’s a guy. If he had tried to touch you, I would have had to deck him.”
She stared at him for long seconds, her eyes oddly dark. “You really do want me.”
“It’s a little more than that.” Tobias steered her in the direction of the parking lot. “Like I said before, I wanted to talk about a relationship.”
* * *
Allegra drove with care through the rain, which was steady now. The clouds above were dark and heavy-bellied, but the temperature was still warm enough that steam wisped off roads and sidewalks. The traffic was thick, but she was still intensely aware that Tobias was once again tailing her, although, this time, she felt entirely different about it. Instead of feeling ruffled and on edge, excited waves of pleasure kept zinging through her.
Tobias wanted a relationship with her. Finally, he was seeing her as “the prize.”
She turned into the long driveway to the mansion, hit the garage remote and parked jerkily in her space. Weirdly, she was actually nervous, and felt all thumbs as she grabbed her key. Tobias’s black truck glided to
a halt beside her convertible.
Her tension ratcheted up another notch as she climbed out from behind the wheel and reached over to grab the tote, but, as she did so, Tobias pulled her into his arms and kissed her, his mouth warm against hers.
Dimly, she registered that she’d let the tote drop onto the driver’s seat and, because the door was still open, it had then overbalanced and tumbled onto the garage floor. But, in that moment, nothing mattered but the relief that, finally, Tobias was kissing her.
But, before they made love again, she needed the answer to the questions that had gnawed at her. Planting her palms on his chest, she pushed free. “Francesca Messena?”
He frowned. “What about her?”
“You dated her before you slept with me two years ago, then you dated her afterward. In fact, you pursued her—”
“I didn’t pursue her,” he growled. “Why would I? She’s not my type.”
It wasn’t the answer she expected. It was blunt, male and irritable, but it made her happier than any other answer could. She stared at him for a long, silent moment, because this was important. “Am I your type?”
His brows jerked together. “Is this some kind of trick question?”
“No tricks.”
A rueful smile quirked the corner of his mouth. “After six years? Babe, you know you are.”
She tried not to dance on the spot. “Okay, last question. What kind of relationship, exactly, do you want to talk about?”
“A real one,” he said flatly. “I want you with me, so no other guy can get near you. We’ll argue, because we’re both strong-headed, but, the way I see it, even though things aren’t perfect, we stay together and figure it out.”
She blinked. Those words could have come out of her own mouth. “Okay. Where did the aliens take the real Tobias?”
He grinned, and Allegra stared at him, suddenly transfixed and almost too happy. But, at the same time, there was a peculiar tension at the back of her mind, because it all seemed too quick and easy. Twice, things had gone wrong, so she couldn’t quite believe it was going to be smooth sailing this time around.
