That in turn would always lead to them winding up the night in her apartment—or in his, no longer talking about the event that had brought her into his life. They’d become far too busy with more pleasurable pursuits.
The first time he’d brought her over to his place, she’d made a mental note to call Amanda as soon as she could to tell her friend that her suspicions that Jared might be married were not just completely baseless, but dead wrong.
His apartment was somewhat neater than the abodes her own brothers inhabited, but it definitely had that man-on-his-own state of chaos about it.
The first time she’d been invited over, Elizabeth fought the urge to clean up for as long as she could, then, when Jared went into another room to show her the gift he was giving his parents, she surrendered.
When he walked back into the living room where he’d left her, Elizabeth had her arms filled with the newspapers he’d haphazardly pushed under the coffee table. His theory of cleaning was obviously out of sight, out of mind. She thought she could get to the trash before he came back in, but she’d miscalculated.
Putting the folder containing the anniversary gift down, Jared looked at her, somewhat bemused. “What are you doing?”
“Recycling?” she’d offered hopefully, saying the first thing that came to her mind.
Nothing a man hated more than a woman who tried to change their ways, that’s what her brothers had told her. The last thing she wanted was for Jared to think she was trying to take over or settle in. She just had trouble ignoring clutter.
Crossing to her, Jared took the newspapers out of her arms and dropped them—this time on top of the coffee table rather than under it.
“I didn’t bring you over here because I wanted you to clean my place up,” he informed her.
The very way he’d said it seemed to hold an unspoken promise. One that caused her pulse to speed up and her body temperature to rise in sheer anticipation.
Elizabeth cocked her head, her eyes locking with his. After a moment, she asked, “And exactly why did you bring me over here?”
It was a leading question, one they both knew the answer to, at least intuitively if not in so many actual words.
“Well, part of the reason was to ask your opinion on this.” Picking up the folder, he opened it and produced two first-class, round-trip tickets to Paris, as well as an all-expenses-paid, two-week stay at a luxurious hotel in the City of Lights. “My parents always wanted to go there, but the timing was never right, not to mention the fact that they felt it was too expensive an indulgence.”
“Well, off the top of my head, my opinion is that you’re a really fantastic son,” she told him honestly. “They are going to really love that.” She eyed him expectantly. “And the other part?”
“Hmm?” he murmured, perhaps just a tad too innocently to be convincing.
“You said that was part of the reason you asked me here,” she reminded him, then prodded, “What’s the other part of the reason?”
Tucking the two tickets back into the folder and leaving them on the coffee table beside the newspapers he’d dropped, Jared proceeded to fill his arms with her. He laced his fingers together behind her back and pulled her to him.
Fitting her torso against his was now becoming a very familiar feeling that nevertheless still managed to send his batteries into overdrive.
“Why do you think?” he murmured seductively, his eyes already making love to her.
She did her best to look innocent. “How many guesses do I get?”
“None,” he answered a second before his lips found hers.
Then they fell into bed as they did each and every evening.
As always, the exquisite lovemaking they enjoyed throughout the night took her breath away. But even though their interlude was mind-bogglingly wonderful, it was marred by the thought that their time together was quickly coming to an end.
But Elizabeth stubbornly shut that notion down whenever it would pop up in the back of her mind...and as the days—and nights—flew by, she suspected this worry didn’t cross Jared’s mind at all. She had no reason to believe that he contemplated their future because, other than the casual reference to the Christmas tree that one time, Jared hadn’t mentioned life after the anniversary celebration.
The celebration was the end goal, the focal point of all their ultimate efforts.
Beyond that lay nothing. No plans, no future, no anticipated activity.
Nothing.
Elizabeth did her best to convince herself that she was all right with that, but in all honesty, the closer the anniversary party drew, the more restless she felt inside.
Despite the fact that, ultimately, this was what she wanted. A wonderful time with no strings, no promises—and no danger of having her heart ripped out of her chest because it had never gotten that emotionally involved in the first place.
The hell it hasn’t, that annoying little voice in her head insisted.
She did her best to block that out as well, but she was becoming less and less successful as the voice became more and more adamant.
* * *
“All right, I admit it,” Megan said, her manner somewhat dejected after she had reviewed everything that her brother had taken care of in her absence. “You don’t need me.”
“Of course he needs you,” Elizabeth assured her with feeling, jumping in.
Jared had insisted she accompany him when he presented everything for his sister’s final review. He’d surprised her by saying that he needed the moral support. Although she’d only known Megan for approximately thirty-two minutes, she’d taken an instant liking to his slightly fussy younger sister.
“If you hadn’t laid out all the groundwork for him,” Elizabeth stressed, “Jared wouldn’t have had a clue where to get started or how.”
“He found you,” Megan pointed out. Her inference was clear. His sister felt that she was the one who was really responsible for getting things rolling along on the right track.
But Elizabeth neatly deflected the veiled praise. “Only because he was dealing with the caterer who knew someone who, in turn, made a recommendation because they’d heard me play.” She deliberately made it sound as if she had only a minor hand in all this, rather than being the one Jared had used as a sounding board. “But Jared told me you were the one who said he needed a caterer in the first place.”
Not exactly relishing his role as a simpleton who needed help putting on his shoes, Jared quietly interjected, “I think I would have ultimately figured that part out.”
Neither woman seemed to hear him, or, if they did, they weren’t acknowledging it.
“If you hadn’t left him that list, he would have been completely lost,” Elizabeth concluded.
Megan looked at her in surprise. “You know about the list?”
Elizabeth did her best to suppress the smile that rose to her lips. She’d managed to pierce through Megan’s dejection. “Jared showed it to me. He was impressed at how comprehensive it was,” she added.
Megan perked up at the word, her confidence, for the most part, seemed to have been restored. “I guess it was pretty ‘comprehensive’ at that.” Megan turned to look at Jared, as if suddenly realizing that he was still there. “I like her,” she said, nodding toward Elizabeth.
Jared slanted a well-pleased glance in Elizabeth’s direction. “Yeah. Me too.”
Rather than feel triumphant at the approval and that she’d managed to make Megan feel better, all Elizabeth was aware of was that uneasiness had suddenly climbed up another notch inside her chest, even as she forced a smile to her lips.
Chapter Fifteen
“That was really quick thinking on your part,” Jared said later that evening after they’d left Megan’s house and had driven over to her apartment. “Not to mention kind. Megan can be a little prickly to deal with at times.”
Elizabeth shrugged away the compliment, although she was rather glad he’d taken notice. “It wasn’t hard to see that your sister fe
lt unnecessary because you’d handled everything so competently. Everyone needs to be needed.” To her, that was a simple fact of life she’d always found to be true. “I just made sure that your sister felt needed.”
Jared laughed. “You’re a pretty good diplomat,” he told her, getting a kick out of her terminology. His grin widened as he echoed the phrase she’d just used. Was that her way of flattering him, or had she really meant what she’d just said? “‘So competently,’ huh? That was because I had you to reinforce all the weak points for me,” he remarked. “And before you say anything further, I don’t need to be needed—at least, not when it comes to planning events and the thousand and two things that go along with it. I do, however, like the fact that you need me.”
Elizabeth felt her heart suddenly skip a beat and all her nerve endings go on high alert. She looked at him uneasily. “When did I say that?”
“You didn’t have to,” he told her, his lips lightly grazing hers.
Oh God, she couldn’t pull together a proper defense when he was doing that. He was clouding her mind, weakening her resolve.
Making her yearn for just one more time.
Well, what was the harm in that? her mind silently challenged. The anniversary celebration was just two days away.
Two days, and then it would all be over. The need to get together, to see each other, to set fire to each other’s worlds. All that would cease to be. Jared would go back to whatever routine he’d had before all this had begun and she, well, she would go back to doing what she seemed to do best, she thought ruefully. Providing the background music for other people’s lives.
The pang that hit her with the suddenness of a speeding bullet was almost overwhelming.
So overwhelming that she became practically frenzied in her movements, in her actions. They had just barely walked across her threshold—there was leftover pizza in her refrigerator, which had provided the necessary answer to the nightly question, “Your place or mine?”—when she’d begun pulling off Jared’s clothes as well as her own.
Frustration nibbled away at her because she was succeeding only marginally, sending pieces of apparel flying haphazardly about her neat-as-a-pin apartment. She thought she might have ripped off a button, or maybe torn part of his shirt, in her haste to get both of them naked as quickly as possible.
“Hey, hey, what’s gotten into you?” Jared asked with a perplexed laugh as he caught both her hands in his and momentarily stilled them.
“Shut up and get your clothes off,” she ordered seductively, capturing a corner of his mouth as she skimmed her lips against his.
“Yes, ma’am,” he responded dutifully.
His eyes danced with humor as he shed the last of his own clothing, then covered her breasts with his hands. Absorbing the heat, he allowed it to sizzle through him for a moment.
And then he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to her bedroom, his lips urgently sealed to hers.
Using his back to push open her bedroom door all the way, he slowly crossed to the center of the room, to her bed, and gently deposited her onto it.
Their mouths momentarily separated, he found he could hardly catch his breath. He didn’t know what had gotten into her, but he knew that he certainly liked the vitality, the sheer lust he’d just previewed.
“Remind me to have you talk to Megan more often,” he said, only half in jest.
Then, entangling his limbs as well as his lips with hers, he wound up dispensing with the need for any further talk for a good long while.
* * *
At times, especially when it had been in its infancy stage, Jared had begun to feel as if, like Godot, this evening he’d been planning would never come.
But it was finally here.
The anniversary party was under way and he had pulled it off.
They had pulled it off, he silently amended in the next breath he took. He and Megan had actually managed to surprise their parents.
To be honest, he wasn’t sure just how well that would have gone had Elizabeth not agreed to play the part of his girlfriend, thereby instantly transforming into a person of immense interest, at least as far as his mother was concerned.
Adriana Winterset had been so focused on meeting the woman he supposedly considered important enough to share a major family event with that she wound up being oblivious to almost everything else, including the fact that rather than the hotel restaurant, they were being ushered to the hotel ballroom that was ordinarily closed to the general public.
His mother was still plying Elizabeth with the typical first-encounter questions—“So where did you and my son meet?”—when the doors to the ballroom parted and one hundred and fifty of his parents’ closest friends and relatives all shouted out in unison: “Surprise!”
Somehow, she remained oblivious.
It took his father, physically grasping his mother’s head and gently turning it so that she was actually looking into the ballroom rather than at Elizabeth, before what was transpiring actually registered for the woman.
With a stunned gasp, followed by a squeal of delight, Adriana finally comprehended exactly what was happening. But even then, she assumed that Elizabeth was who her son had said she was—until Elizabeth disengaged herself from the hold the older woman had on her arm, politely telling her that “I really have to go join the ensemble now, Mrs. Winterset.”
“What does she mean, Jared?” his mother had asked, looking rather confused.
That was when he’d told his mother that Elizabeth was a violinist he’d hired to play at their party. The very first violinist, he emphasized, adding that the people within the ensemble had been handpicked by her. Elizabeth, he told her, had an excellent ear for blending.
Though her expression didn’t change, he could see by the look in his mother’s electric-blue eyes that her utter delight over the surprise party had waned just the slightest touch.
Soon, Mom, soon, he’d silently promised the woman. He intended to have Elizabeth become exactly what he’d told his mother she was when he’d made the initial introduction.
But first he needed to tell Elizabeth, he thought with a rueful smile. After all, it was only fair that she be forearmed with this information—that he had fallen in love with her—before he informed his mother how he felt and have her make a beeline for Elizabeth as he knew she would.
In all his wild imaginings, he’d never thought that he’d find someone who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Moreover, he’d always felt that what his parents had was not just special, but exceedingly rare as well. To believe that lightning could strike not once but twice within the same family, well, that was the stuff that Hollywood movies were made out of. It didn’t happen in real life.
And yet, she made him want to take a chance, to set his sights on something loftier than just the end of the week with the same woman he’d begun it with.
“It’s a wonderful party,” his mother told him with enthusiasm when he stopped by their table to see if there was anything that either one of his parents might need.
“Yes,” his father zealously agreed, clearly touched that so many people had turned out to help them celebrate this milestone. “Thank you, son.”
“Megan set everything in motion before she left,” Jared reminded his parents.
“She’s a good girl, too,” his mother commented, then seemed compelled to say, “But you know what would make this wonderful party even better—?”
“Adriana.” His father’s voice rose ever so slightly in a partial warning note. Having shared so much of their lives together, Matthew Winterset apparently knew exactly what his wife was thinking and where she was going with the thought she was voicing.
She looked at her husband, the soul of innocence. “I’m just saying, Matthew...” She deliberately allowed her voice to trail off without finishing her sentence.
“I think we all know what you’re saying, honey,” his father said, fondly brushing a kiss to her forehead.
Gr
anted Adriana had a few annoying habits, but so did Matthew. It was, and always had been, the bottom line that counted. And the bottom line in this case was that everyone knew Matthew loved this woman. But he seemed to love her more when she refrained from voicing certain recurring sentiments.
Lacing his fingers through hers, Matthew coaxed, “C’mon, let’s dance, honey.”
“Yes, dear,” she murmured, gracefully rising to her feet.
Jared watched his parents walk onto the dance floor, then meld into one being as they defined one another with their fluid movements.
Dancing. That was, Jared thought, a very tempting idea.
So far, he hadn’t had a single dance with Elizabeth, although he’d been on the dance floor a number of times. But each and every time it had been with one of his relatives. There had been his father’s widowed sister, Aunt Alicia, and then he’d taken a turn with several of his younger cousins because they had all come without a “plus one” in tow.
He’d even attempted one dance with Megan, but halfway through she had cut it short, flagging and saying if she didn’t sit down, her ankles and feet would swell up like balloons.
That was more than enough to persuade him to escort his sister back to her table—and her husband who had wisely chosen not to dance tonight—posthaste.
And, as irony would have it, the one woman who had captured his fancy had not been available so far. He intended to do something to remedy that.
Jared crossed the dance floor, making his way over to the ensemble. Coming to a stop beside Elizabeth, his intended target, he said, “Any chance of you taking a break while the rest of your friends go on playing?”
This was almost like the first time she’d laid eyes on him, Elizabeth thought. Chills kept insisting on running up and down her spine. Was it because of her attraction, or was it because she had already initiated the program that would ultimately result in her being alone again?
She just didn’t know.
“Sorry,” she told Jared, “I’m afraid it’s one for all and all for one. Either we all take a break, or we all play,” she informed him, having every intention of spending the entire evening seated right where she was even during a band break.
A Perfectly Imperfect Match (Matchmaking Mamas) Page 15
