Absolutely Not

by Daisy Dexter Dobbs

  “Hey, lady, if you remember correctly, you weren’t exactly pushing me away. You were begging for more, Miss Goody Two-shoes.”

  Snapping her head toward Keller, an outraged Maisy smacked the leather seat with her hand. “That is only because I was under the influence of your putrid-tasting wine.”

  “Yeah, it was so putrid you did everything but squeeze the damn wineglass to get the last drop.”

  Maisy gawked at him in amazement. “I can’t believe I ever agreed to have lunch with you, Mr. Chivalry. Believe me, Keller, I would have found your charms perfectly and utterly resistible if you hadn’t plied me with all that second-rate wine of yours.” Hot with anger, Maisy reached up and turned on the limo’s air conditioning, eagerly welcoming the cool stream of air on her blazing cheeks.

  “Hey, if it makes you feel better to fool yourself then you just go right ahead.” Keller’s expression twisted. “It’s not my fault if you chose to guzzle down a bottle of fine cabernet like a thirsty sailor.”

  “Guzzle?” Maisy shouted as she clapped her hand against her chest. Briskly fanning the coolness from the air conditioning vent toward her face, she said, “I knew I should have trusted my first instinct about you.”

  “Oh?” Keller slid across the seat, positioning himself close to the door of the limo, as far away from her as possible. Leaning against the door, he folded his arms across his chest and crossed a leg over his knee.

  Maisy couldn’t help but notice his body language, strongly suggesting she’d successfully rankled him to the nth degree. It was just as well.

  “And,” Keller continued, “just what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means you’re a product of the Fitch gene pool.” With a disgusted sneer, Maisy voiced his last name as if she were speaking of something related to the cockroach family. “I really shouldn’t have expected anything more from the brother of that amoral bitch.”

  A distinctly distasteful smile spreading across his features, Keller bobbed his head, muttering something under his breath. When he turned toward Maisy his eyes looked a whole lot more like scalding coffee than chocolate chips.

  “I’m well aware of my sister’s propensity toward making herself sound blameless, Maisy, even when all evidence points to her as the culprit. So at first, when I heard Sharon’s version of what happened between you and John, I naturally discounted it. But now, after getting to know you better…” Keller rubbed his hand across his jaw, and raised his eyebrows as he gave Maisy an icy once-over. “I’m not so sure.”

  “Oooh! Of all the nerve.” Punching her fist against the cushy leather seat resulted in a marshmallowy whoosh, not exactly the resounding effect Maisy was aiming for. “You can sit here and say that after all the pain and humiliation that remorseless, husband-stealing sister of yours put me through?” She plowed the fingers of both hands through her hair, growling in frustration.

  “Your sister…the woman I caught screwing my husband, in my house, in my bed. That, Mr. Fitch, is hitting below the belt.” Maisy was appalled to find her chin trembling and tears accumulating in the corners of her eyes. Gathering her purse from the floor, she grabbed a tissue and dabbed at them. Damn, the last thing she wanted to do now was cry.

  His face softening, Keller hung his head, whispering an expletive under his breath. “That was cruel and insensitive. I never should have said it. I’m sorry, Maisy. I,” he breathed a heavy sigh, “I let my anger get the better of me and went right for your sore spot.” Sliding closer to her, Keller clasped Maisy’s shoulder. “Please don’t cry, Maisy.”

  Determined to control her tears, Maisy took in a wavering breath and said nothing.

  Smoothing his hand over her shoulder and down her arm, Keller went on. “I’m afraid my angelic sister neglected to mention that little tidbit about you catching her and John in your bed when she related her version. She just said you were,” he hesitated, “a fat, bitchy shrew who henpecked poor John and made his life miserable.”

  Maisy turned her watery gaze toward Keller and he winced, evidently seeing the pain etched across her features. “My sister told me when she and John fell in love, he asked you for a divorce. You flew into a jealous rage and kicked him out of the house.”

  “My God,” Maisy whispered. Squeezing her eyelids shut, she sank back against the soft leather seat and massaged her temples. In a moment her lashes fluttered open. “If that’s what you believed about me, why on earth did you ask me out?”

  “I didn’t say I believed it.” Smiling warmly, Keller took the tissue from Maisy’s fingers and dabbed at the single, fat tear trickling down her cheek. “Don’t forget, not only do I know my sister all too well, I also had the express displeasure of knowing John. The guy was an asshole. A first-class scumbag. You want to know why I asked you out?”

  He moved closer to Maisy, capturing her hand in his. “Because you’re beautiful and captivating and funny and sexy…and maybe just a wee bit stubborn.” He kissed her hand. “And I wanted to get to know you better. Much better.” He kissed each of her fingertips.

  Chaotic desire stirred deep within her belly but while Maisy found Keller’s words and the ardent look in his eyes deliciously enticing, she closed her heart to his appeal. Reluctantly retrieving her hand from his grip, she moved away and breathed a sigh.

  Afraid to meet his gaze, Maisy turned to the window and spoke softly. “I wish it could be different but it would never work, Keller. Today was a mistake. Look at the way we’ve been at each other’s throats ever since Sharon called. That’s just a minuscule sampling of what would happen if we continued seeing each other.”

  She risked a peek at him, wincing when she saw his steely expression and the rigid lines of his jawbone flexing. Placing a hand on his arm, Maisy said, “I’m not saying it’s your fault, Keller. It’s mine. I never should have let Norman talk me into spending time with you. Just do us both a favor and forget about calling me again…please. Believe me, Keller, it’s for the best.”

  “Sonuvabitch,” Keller hissed. Yanking his arm from Maisy’s touch, he pounded his fist against the armrest. “Talk about tunnel vision. There’s just no getting through to you, is there?” He gestured wildly as he spoke. “You don’t want me to call you again? Okay, Maisy, if that’s the way you want it, then that’s fine with me. I’m certainly not about to put myself through this kind of shit again.”

  “Fine.” Maisy folded her arms across her chest, shifting to face her window.

  “Fine!” Crossing his arms, Keller sloped his large frame toward his window.

  For the next few minutes the air between them prickled with stinging silence. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the limo came to a stop in front of Persimmon Travel. Scrambling to gather her coat and purse, Maisy raced to get out of the vehicle as fast as she could but Keller beat her to it.

  As he held the door open for her, she was struck again by how devastatingly handsome he was, even when he was seething with anger. God, how she wished he wasn’t Sharon’s brother.

  Emerging from the limo, Maisy extended her hand and looked up into those incredible eyes for the last time. They reminded her of simmering pools of chocolate now. As he glared down at her, Maisy’s resolve began to melt. The man was so magnificent. So delicious. So extraordinary.

  So irrevocably related to the undisputed queen of bitchery.

  “Goodbye, Keller,” she said as coolly as she could manage as the heat of unrequited passion raged through her veins.

  Towering over her, ignoring her proffered hand, Keller nearly bore a hole through her skull with the blistering intensity of his gaze. Hard lines of anger and frustration marred his handsome features. This was all her fault. She’d done this to him.

  “Maybe the next time you think of the name Fitch, you’ll think of this.” Grabbing her roughly, forcefully by her shoulders, Keller yanked Maisy into a kiss, bursting with such force and fire it literally made her knees buckle.

  Completely taken aback, she dropped her coat and pur
se on the ground. Keller’s kiss was so passionate, so furious, she felt downright scorched. Releasing her just as abruptly as he’d grabbed her, Keller was back inside the limo in an instant. A moment later it disappeared into the dense traffic.

  Stunned beyond measure, Maisy touched her fingers to her swollen lips. She stood in the middle of the parking lot for the next few minutes staring in the direction of the departed limo. The piercing memory of Keller’s kiss rocked her world.

  She was so disconcerted she didn’t even realize it had started to rain. Once she finally had her wits about her again, Maisy gathered her coat and purse from the ground and dragged herself into the agency.

  Chapter Nine

  “You look like hell. Like a drowned rat.”

  “Thank you very much.” Maisy sneered at Norman as she walked past his office, swiping wet locks of hair from her face.

  “What are you doing back here? I gave you the rest of the day off.”

  Norman rose from his chair and followed Maisy to her desk. She slammed her purse into the bottom drawer of her desk, then opened the drawer and slammed it again, harder.

  “Uh-oh, doesn’t look good. What happened, Maisy?”

  Maisy probed the contents of another desk drawer. “I’ve got to find something first.” After tearing through the rest of the drawers she growled in exasperation. Raking her fingers through rain-soaked curls, she walked past the desks of the other travel agents, her eyes in stealthy search-mode.

  “Where the hell is some goddamned chocolate when I need it?” she barked.

  Giving her a quick once-over, Norman crooked his finger. “My office. Now.” Grumbling, Maisy complied.

  Once in his office, he motioned for her to sit. Reaching into the middle drawer of his desk, he retrieved a chocolate bar and waved it toward her with a devilish smile. “Lookee what I have.”

  Maisy’s eyes bugged as she leaped from her chair and grabbed for the bar. “Chocolate!” Even to her own ears she sounded like some wild crack-head, desperate for a fix.

  “Uh-uh-uh.” Norman jerked the candy away from Maisy’s reach. “Not until you tell me what provoked you into this savage state of chocolate fixation.”

  “You!” Maisy wagged an accusatory finger. “If you hadn’t been so damned determined to play matchmaker none of this would have happened.”

  “None of what? You’re not making any sense, Maisy.” Knitting his eyebrows in concern, Norman leaned forward. “My God,” he whispered. “Keller didn’t hurt you, honey, did he?”

  “He most certainly did.” Glaring at Norman, Maisy narrowed her eyes. “That bastard kissed me!” She yanked the chocolate from his grasp, tearing ferociously at the wrapping. Stuffing a third of the bar into her mouth, Maisy’s eyes drifted closed and she moaned a conciliatory sigh. Ready to sink her teeth into it again, the ear-popping sound of Norman slapping the top of his desk with such force it made his pencil holder rattle stopped her cold.

  A furious scowl across his face, Norman grabbed the phone, punching in numbers. “I’m calling the cops. I want that low-life, rotten sonuvabitch thrown in the slammer. The nerve of that guy, disgracing your delicate honor by kissing you.” He glanced up at Maisy as he held the receiver to his ear, clearly trying to cover his smirk with the mouthpiece.

  “Oh for heaven’s sake, give me that phone.” Snatching the receiver from Norman’s hand, Maisy returned it to its cradle. “You are positively incorrigible.” Unable to disguise a smile, she jammed another third of the chocolate bar into her mouth. Approving purrs of satisfaction escaped from her throat as the confection calmed and coated her psyche. There was no better tranquilizer.

  “He kissed you.” With a slow, side-to-side shake of his head, Norman said, “Maisy Morganfield, aren’t you ashamed of yourself? All this fuss just because Keller gave you a little kiss.” He sank back in his chair.

  Maisy jammed the last third of the bar into her mouth as her eyes brimmed with tears. The sedative effect of the chocolate wasn’t strong enough to blot out the memory of that haunting kiss.

  “Oh Norman,” she blurted, her mouth full of chocolate and tears streaming down her cheeks. “It wasn’t a little kiss. It was an adios kiss. A sayonara kiss. A don’t-call-us-we’ll-call-you goodbye forever kiss.”

  “Keller dumped you? Why, the man’s obviously a nincompoop, a moron, a-a dimwitted ignoramus!” Norman closed the door to his office and drew the blinds. Drawing a handful of tissues from the dispenser on his desk, he took a seat in the chair next to Maisy and put his arm around her. “Go ahead, tell Uncle Normie all about it.” He patted Maisy’s back as she buried her face into his shoulder and let the waterworks flow.

  After a couple of minutes Maisy blotted her eyes and blew her nose with the tissues Norman held out to her. “He didn’t dump me. I-I guess I dumped him.” She offered a pained smile and shrugged.

  Norman lurched back, shooting Maisy a look of incredulity. “You dumped that tall, dark, handsome incredible monument to manhood?” He hit his forehead with the palm of his hand, mumbling something inaudible. “I don’t get it. Why?”

  “Because after Keller’s private chauffeur drove us to his lakefront penthouse and we had a gourmet picnic lunch on the enclosed rooftop terrace with wine from the winery he owns, Keller—”

  “Whoa. Hold on just a minute. Keller’s a walking wet dream and he’s rich too?” Norman fanned himself. “Be still my heart!”

  “Oh for heaven’s sake, Norman,” she growled, “I practically threw myself at the man. Attacked him like a sex-starved maniac.”

  “Well,” Norman gave a nonchalant nod, “seeing as how you are a sex-starved maniac it’s perfectly understandable why you jumped his bones.”

  “Very funny, Norman. You’re making jokes while I’m baring my wretched soul to you. I need more chocolate.”

  “It’s time for talk now, more chocolate later. And I’m not joking. How long has it been? Two years? Three?” He smiled kindly. “Maisy, darling, you really need to get laid.”

  “I was doing my best. I was just about to when his spawn-of-Satan sister called him on his cell phone.”

  “Yeah, and?”

  Maisy offered Norman an incredulous look. “And nothing, of course. We argued and I told Keller never to call me again. When he dropped me off, he…”

  Her bottom lip trembling, Maisy’s face contorted as she struggled to keep from blubbering. “He grabbed me and kissed me like I’ve never been kissed before in my entire life. Then he just merrily slid back in the limo and rode right out of my life. Forever.” The last word came out on a tortured, extended sob as she gestured dramatically.

  “Maisy, Maisy, Maisy.” Norman rubbed her back. “You poor little darling.”

  “Oh Norman, I’m so confused. He was so wonderful and we got along great. And now the man thinks I’m a drunken sex maniac, a lunatic and a bitch and he hates me.”

  “Don’t be silly. Why would he hate you?”

  “Well…” Cocking her head, Maisy curled her lip.

  “Maisy…?”

  “I might have unintentionally said some nasty, spiteful, awful things to him after he got off the phone with Sharon.” She gnawed the tip of her finger. “It may have come across that I was being just a teensy bit childish.” She lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

  “I’m sure Keller doesn’t hate you.” He wiped the smudged mascara from under Maisy’s eyes. “He probably just thinks you’re a sex-starved bitchy lunatic.” He chuckled then gave her a sideways glance. “You got drunk, huh?”

  “Maybe just a smidgen.” Maisy shrugged. “I had a few glasses of cabernet from his winery—mostly on an empty stomach.”

  “Oh boy. Tell me you didn’t get giggly when the man was getting amorous.”

  “Okay…I won’t tell you,” Maisy said in a small voice.

  Norman’s head lolled on the back of his chair as he groaned a sigh. “Okay, no problem. All you have to do is give Keller a call and apologize. Invite him out to lunch or dinner to mak
e up for it. Simple.”

  As Norman’s remarks fully registered she gasped. “Norman, are you insane? I can’t call him.”

  “Sure you can.” Norman dragged the telephone toward him, holding the receiver to his ear. “It’s easy. Hello, Keller? It’s me, Maisy. I’m sorry for being such an ass. Let’s do dinner tomorrow. See?” He thrust the receiver toward Maisy who looked at it like it was a two-headed rodent. “Look, I’ll even punch in the numbers for you. You do want to see him again, don’t you?”

  “More than anything.” She shoved Norman’s hand and the receiver away. “And that’s exactly why I can’t call him. Ever!”

  Norman hit the heel of his hand against his temple as if to shake things loose. “I must be losing my mind because that didn’t make a single bit of sense.” He folded his arms across his chest, shooting Maisy a challenging gaze. “Come again?”

  Maisy hopped out of her chair and paced. “Keller’s the first man who’s made me feel really alive since I hit puberty.” She paused in her pacing. “The man has magic fingers, Norman,” she said just above a whisper.

  Eyeing her cautiously, Norman nodded. “That part I understand. What I don’t understand is why you seem to think there’s a gargantuan problem.”

  Uttering a piqued growl, Maisy explained, “The man is Sharon Fitch’s brother, remember?”

  “And what? He should be crucified for that?”

  “If we were in a relationship, I’d be running into that bony bitch sister of his on a regular basis. Every time I saw her I’d want to rip her ugly face off, stomp on it and choke the living shit out of her.” Maisy grasped the invisible neck before her, wringing her hands around it with unbridled glee. “That could possibly be construed as a problem as far as her brother is concerned, don’t you think?”

  Norman chuckled. “Into every relationship a little rain must fall.”

  “Listen, Confucius—”

  “Darling, do you know how many people go through their whole lives searching in vain for their soul mate?” Norman wrapped his arm around her shoulder and squeezed. “And here you’ve had the good fortune to find your soul mate—before you get all saggy, bent and wrinkled. Are you really prepared to throw this golden opportunity for love and happiness away?”