Mystery Date

by Crystal Green

  “You still think this is a bad idea,” he said, a trace of amusement in his voice.

  “I think it’s an odd one.” She turned her liquid-brown gaze on him. “I think all you had to do was bid on Leigh’s basket and reveal who you were.”

  “She wouldn’t remember me.” He hadn’t stuck around the university long enough for there to even be a picture of him on the walls of the fraternity house, where he’d pledged for only a short time before he’d had to drop out and return home.

  But several months ago, when he’d seen Leigh on TV for the first time, he’d certainly remembered her. And when Beth had mentioned the basket auction that was being held at the reunion for their connected organizations, he’d thought of Leigh as she had been fourteen years ago, laughing all the time, taking a moment to smile at the shy freshman pledge who didn’t say much to girls—the kid who’d disappeared without ever becoming an official Phi Rho Mu brother.

  Beth sighed and walked away from the window. Adam turned around, folding his arms over his chest while she spoke.

  “Do you blame her for being cautious about this?” she asked. “For all she knows, you could be the Phantom of the Opera in this old house.”

  He dodged her comment. “I didn’t want to use any of my own homes.” Not for a one-night basket date that had sparked his imagination.

  “You know damned well that it’s not your homes I’m talking about,” Beth said. “Really, Adam, this is the strangest thing you’ve ever done. In fact...”

  She didn’t have to say anything else. Ever since his wife, Carla, had withered away from breast cancer two years ago, he had become a recluse, uninterested in most things that happened outside the walls of his homes, except for the many property and business investments that he’d inherited from Carla, money that kept his bank accounts flush, thanks to the way he’d multiplied the investments.

  “Hey,” he said, walking over to Beth and reaching out, chucking her under the chin with his finger. “This is going to turn out all right. No worries.”

  Beth rolled her eyes. “Yes, it’ll turn out all right for you. This date will provide some temporary entertainment, and then you’ll move on to whatever comes next. I’ve seen it before with your women, but none of them have ever been one of my sisters.”

  She was talking about the women he’d met online. Women he would talk to behind yet another wall—this one created by the computer. They provided mental fantasies for him, and that was all he’d needed for a couple of years now....

  Until he’d seen Leigh on TV, wearing a red-and-white-checkered shirt that was unbuttoned down to here, her stomach bared because of the knot she’d tied above her waist, her long blond hair pinned away from her heart-shaped face and tumbling down her back as she worked in her Come-on Down Kitchen by candlelight, creating sensual country meals on her show.

  She’d taken off a lot of weight since college, but he thought she’d looked just as beautiful with her curves and soft skin back then. He’d first seen her at a casual party populated mostly by his fraternity brothers and the Tau Epsilon Gamma sorority, and his heart had skipped a beat while she’d joked with her friends across the room. Her laugh had captured him in some physical way that he’d never been able to explain, but it had consumed him that night, and he’d never forgotten. And that smile she’d given him in passing—that dazzling, pure smile that had reached inside and grabbed him.... If he’d been less shy, he would’ve taken that as encouragement, but the fact that he’d never had the chance made Leigh Vaughn into a figment of his college imagination, made her into the ultimate “what could’ve been” girl.

  Of course, that had been just before he was called home after his dad succumbed to a heart attack and Adam had taken up the mantle of “man of the house.”

  He turned back around, moving to the window again. He could see that the car was still parked, and even now his heart flipped. But it wasn’t because of some old never-consummated crush. It was because of tonight’s scenario.

  The basket.

  He’d initiated all of this out of sheer curiosity. How had Leigh turned out so many years later? Did she still have the same warmth a man could feel even from across a room?

  Adam gripped the window frame. He wasn’t someone who needed warmth—it was the curiosity that was driving him. That was all. And these days he could afford to appease it.

  He could afford almost anything that broke up the boredom.

  As he kept looking through the barred window, he could faintly see his reflection: dark hair and nearly gold eyes from his mom’s Spanish heritage, a mouth drawn tight. A man wearing a black shirt and jeans. Someone he barely recognized.

  “This is only a harmless date, Beth,” he said. “For everyone involved.”

  “I’ll bet Leigh’s ready to jump out of her skin. Does that turn you on or something?”

  He paused. Did it turn him on to know that she was wondering who he was?

  Yeah. Yeah, it did. And he liked that she would never know enough about him to contact him for another date if she got it in her head that she wanted more. He didn’t do attachments. Not anymore, not after Carla had taken his heart with her.

  Beth walked away, her footsteps thudding on the polished wood floor.

  “I’m going out there,” she said.

  “To drag her inside?”

  “I don’t know what I’ll do, but this is ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as being the executive assistant to a man who wants to stay in the shadows during his entire date.”

  He laughed. His plan for dinner did sound demented. But he was in the mood for it. Besides, how was keeping a distance from his date any different from getting to know all those women online? There he could be anyone, just like tonight.

  No attachments, no strings. This was the ultimate safe date...and a game, if he had to admit it. And the more he thought about tonight’s game, the more turned on he got.

  Beth left the room, and Adam found himself holding his breath. He let it out, shaking his head. Carla would’ve thought he was going off-balance, too. She would’ve put her hands on her hips, asking him what the hell had happened to make him this way.

  But Carla had always gotten straight to the point, even fourteen years ago after he’d returned to his family ranch, mourning his father, keeping his mother from shriveling into a depressed heap while helping her to run their cattle operation and raise his three younger siblings the best he could. Carla, seven years older and wiser, with a family so rich that they had already bequeathed her the gentleman’s ranch next door, had come calling the second day after he’d settled in.

  Yes, even back then Carla had offered a neighborly hand to the eighteen-year-old who was so out of his depth that he could barely catch four hours of sleep per night. And as the years went by, friendship had turned into love, then into a happy marriage.

  Then she was gone.

  Through the window, Beth appeared on the driveway, her skirt swishing around her legs as she strode down to the open gate and the car beyond it.

  Adam held his breath yet again, watching to see if Leigh was going to get out of that car and embark on this strange date.

  Or if she was going to leave, just as everyone in his life seemed to do.

  * * *

  “OH MY GOD, here she comes,” Leigh said, sliding down in her car seat as she spied Beth walking down the driveway with purpose.

  “Should we hide?”

  The glee in Margot’s tone told Leigh that her friend was teasing her again. Too bad Dani had already gotten off the phone, because she could’ve joined in the chiding.

  Beth reached the iron gate, then waved, and Margot obviously couldn’t resist one last gibe.

  “‘“Will you walk into my parlor?” said the Spider to the Fly.’”

  The joke was the last straw for Leigh, and with
one defiant glance at Margot, she sucked it up, opened the door and got out of the damned car.

  The salt-tinged coastal wind threaded through her hair as she shut the door and put on a smile for Beth as they hugged in greeting.

  Margot had gotten out, too, and she embraced Beth, then held her at arm’s length.

  “I always did admire your clothes,” Margot said, surveying Beth’s sleek multihued silk dress and her strappy gold sandals.

  Beth smiled. “Even though you were a couple years behind me in college, I have to say that I looked up to your sense of style, too.” She turned to Leigh. “So what do you think?”

  About fashion? Global politics? The Kardashians? Or about the blindest date ever?

  Margot saved her from having to answer. “Sorry about the delay. Dani called about some wedding plans, and we were just going over them with her in the car.”

  “Ah, yes. I hear Dani and Riley are having their ceremony on Clint’s ranch.” Beth laughed. “I mean, your ranch, Margot, now that you’re living together.”

  Margot shrugged and actually blushed. Yeah, Margot, former queen of singletons, newly crowned empress of blushing.

  “You heard right,” she said. “We’re hosting the wedding, and you’ll be invited.”

  Then, as if she were a mom dropping off a child who didn’t want to attend a birthday party with evil clowns, Margot scooted around to her side of the car.

  “And that’s my cue to scram.” She winked at Leigh. “Have fun, you.”

  Beth took Leigh’s arm to lead her up to the open gates, and Margot used her hand as a fake telephone, putting it up to her ear and mouthing, Call me when you’re done!

  Leigh widened her eyes at her friend, then turned around to walk with Beth up the driveway. Margot’s car motor revved, then faded as she drove away.

  And that was when it became official. This was happening. Mystery date with Mystery Man.

  Beth squeezed Leigh’s arm. “So Margot drove you over here?”

  “She met me at the Sea Breeze Suites for a girls’ weekend, so yeah. I didn’t need the limo you offered.”

  “That doesn’t really answer my question.”

  Shoot. “You’re asking if she drove me here because I was cautious about this date?”

  “Exactly.” Beth laughed. “But that’s smart, really, to bring along a friend. You can trust me, though.”

  “I do trust you.” But the farther they got up the driveway, the more her stomach spun. And the more her body sang with an odd, almost warped thrill.

  Her, Leigh Vaughn. She’d never, ever done anything like this before, and she was liking it. A lot.

  Beth was clearly trying to put her at ease. “Your date got you everything you requested for dinner, from the ingredients to the cookware.”

  All the auction basket had promised was a meal featuring honey. Like Margot, Leigh had been careful in phrasing the notes in her basket, making sure that if she didn’t want the date to go too far, she wouldn’t have to live up to any wickedly spelled-out promises. But if she liked what she saw in Mystery Man and she wanted to go beyond food and give him a real taste of honey...

  Every inch of her pulsated.

  “How do you know him?” Leigh asked as they got to the top of the driveway, where gnarled bushes lined the lawn and the wind whistled a soft, meandering tune.

  Beth had probably been expecting this question, and she launched right into an answer.

  “I’m friends with him but also professional associates. Out of pure happenstance, he found my résumé online after college, and now he pays me nicely to take care of his business affairs.”

  “Didn’t you get a law degree?”

  “Yes, but there are a lot of legal angles to what I do for him. Contracts, boring stuff like that.”

  “And who exactly is ‘him’?”

  Beth laughed again. “Good try, but that’s all you’re going to get out of me.”

  As they arrived at the massive carved wood door, Leigh paused.

  “Why is he taking such pains to be a mystery?” she asked, hoping that Beth would at least answer this.

  Beth’s smile straightened out as she hesitated, then said, “Your basket was a game, Leigh, and he’s making a countermove, continuing the game. It’s all in fun.”

  A game? What kind of man played this way? And what sort of guy could afford a place like this?

  She ran her gaze over that door, noticing the iron lion’s-head knocker. “He’s rich. I can tell that much.”

  “He’s got a few bucks to spare. Did you run this address through the internet?”

  Leigh nodded. The house was owned by a rental property that had led her and her friends to dead ends. “We assumed the place isn’t his.”

  “It isn’t. He’s only vacationing.” Beth reached out to open the door, but she hesitated again.

  Meanwhile, all Leigh could hear was the sound of her heart boom-boom-booming through her.

  Beth spoke, her hand still in midair. “It’ll be a harmless, fun night,” she repeated. “If you go inside with that in mind, you’ll walk away happy.”

  Fear—or was it something else?—zinged through Leigh as Beth opened the door, revealing a foyer with a stone floor and a yawning staircase just beyond.

  Adventure. That was what Margot would’ve said this was, and as Leigh’s pulse went wild, she craved it as she’d never craved anything else in her life.

  She had a good figure now. She’d been told she was actually pretty after all that weight had come off.

  It was time to make the most of what she’d never had.

  She stepped across the threshold, breathing in, out, trying to keep her heart in her chest.

  As Beth closed the door behind them, Leigh heard a voice just beyond the foyer, to the left.

  “Good to see you here, Leigh.”

  A deep, dark tone.

  Leigh’s adrenaline pushed her forward. She wanted to see him. Wanted to know who had paid $5,000 for the pleasure of her company.

  But when she rounded the corner, she came to a halt, surprised as hell at what she found.

  2

  LEIGH HAD EXPECTED to find him, Mystery Man, standing there with a saucy grin on his face.

  But all she discovered was an antique table holding a small wire stand that propped up a smartphone. Next to it was her auction basket; it was open, exposing blue-and-white-gingham lining, plus the jars of honey she had labeled with each course idea for this date.

  Looking at the inside of that basket, she felt as if this man had already undone part of her, like a button on her shirt.

  She shivered, especially when he spoke again.

  “You took a while to get up here, Leigh.”

  When she answered him, she tried to control her voice. “Fashionably late, right?”

  There had only been a bit of a quaver in her words. Not bad.

  “Better you come late than never coming at all,” he parried.

  Leigh didn’t know whether to laugh or melt into a stunned pool of sighs. Had he just tossed a sexual innuendo her way? And did he have any idea how twisted this was? How...

  God, how kind of, sort of...okay...absolutely intriguing?

  She sneaked a glance back at Beth, sending her a nonverbal message. Seriously? Talking to me through a speaker is part of the date?

  Beth smiled. This is just the beginning. Then she walked toward the table and picked up the phone. “How about a quick tour of the place before we head to the kitchen?”

  They were trying to get her settled. Not a bad idea, although Leigh wondered if she would ever feel relaxed tonight.

  “Sounds good,” she said.

  She followed Beth back through the foyer and past the grand staircase, all the wh
ile keeping her eye on that phone in Beth’s hand.

  The parlor, or living room, or whatever superrich people called a place like this, was just as expansive as the staircase and foyer. It boasted a wall-wide view of the beach below, the waves rolling toward the shoreline as the sun kept descending. The furnishings reminded Leigh of a leather-, cherrywood-and brass-filled museum.

  “How old is this house?” she asked just to make conversation since the phone had been silent.

  Mystery Man’s voice answered. “It’s not as ancient as it seems. It was built to look like old money, but it hasn’t been around for more than thirty years.”

  “I was hoping you’d tell me something like it’s been in your family since the Dark Ages. But among other things, I know you don’t live here.”

  As the voice on the phone laughed, even Beth seemed tickled that Leigh was still attempting to unearth information.

  Maybe Beth had been right: enjoy the night for what it was, because it sure seemed as if Mr. Millionaire had the means to give her a decadent date. And how many times had she been on one of those?

  Sure, she was used to living a better lifestyle now with her show and all. But her date had flown her down here, then offered to put her up in a high-class hotel, which she had refused because it had seemed like too much. He seemed to be pretty free with his money.

  As Leigh walked around the room, touching the grand piano by the window, then running her hand along the top of the long curved brass-backed sofa, she pictured a man who might go along with the voice. Secretive mogul? Billionaire cowboy?

  “Does it bother you,” he asked, “that I might know more about you than you know about me?”

  “I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t.” And she’d be lying if she said that it didn’t do something to her in a deep, shady place that she’d always repressed. This game he was playing was almost like voyeurism, where he could see her but she couldn’t see him.

  There was some power in knowing that he was interested in her enough to have singled her out, wasn’t there? It was kinky, and made her feel a little audacious. Lord knows, she’d never been audacious with a man before.