His Marriage Bonus

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Lauren flushed at the wicked gleam in his eyes and stepped out from under the sheltering warmth of his arm. She shot him an equally provoking glance. “I haven’t had to since I meet so many people in my line of work. And you didn’t answer my question. What would you say in an ad about yourself if you were trying to get a date?”

  “Career-oriented man seeks career-oriented woman.”

  “Who…?” Lauren prodded when he didn’t immediately go on.

  To her mounting frustration, Mitch shrugged and offered nothing more.

  “Cooks, sews, swims. What would you like any prospective date to do?” Lauren nudged as they moved off the porch and sauntered down the walk, side by side.

  Mitch regarded her with mock solemnity. “Not ask too many questions.”

  Lauren felt like stamping her foot. “I’m serious!”

  “So am I.” Mitch paused to unlock and open his car door. He grinned, looking handsome and sexy as ever in his slate-gray suit and matching tie. “This is a ridiculous conversation we’re having.”

  “Only because you don’t know yourself or what you want,” Lauren retorted as she lowered herself gracefully into the passenger seat.

  “Now, that,” Mitch said, leisurely shutting the door, circling around the Lexus and climbing behind the wheel, “is just not true. I know exactly what I want,” he told her confidently. And then he put his arms around her, hauled her close and kissed her.

  Chapter Six

  “This was not part of any bargain we made,” Lauren said as soon as she could come up for air.

  “Well, then it should be,” Mitch murmured, and then he lowered his head and kissed her again.

  And the kiss felt like a test. One, Lauren thought as she sank even deeper into the steamy embrace, she was destined to fail. She had seen Mitch watching her as she got ready to go out. Felt his hot blue gaze caressing first her legs, then her hips, her face, even her hair. The only part of her he hadn’t surveyed with much interest was her upper torso, but he was making up for that now, she realized, as his hands circled her ribs, climbing higher still. Taking her to a pleasure-filled heaven unlike anything she had experienced.

  Mitch had wanted to see firsthand just how far Lauren was willing to go for her father and the family business and the historic mansion she wanted. If the heat of the kisses she was giving back to him were any indication, pretty far. He hadn’t expected making out with her to feel so real. Having her snuggled against him this way, in equal parts wonder and surrender, her lips pressed erotically to his, her arms wreathed around his neck, her breasts swelling to fill his palms, felt right. It felt like something he should pursue. But not here, Mitch realized reluctantly as his lower body pulsed and hardened, and her nipples beaded beneath the layers of silk and chiffon. Not when they were sitting in his car in front of her home, in plain view of anyone who passed by, and he was feeling so simultaneously unsure of her and recklessly drawn to her.

  The first time he made love to Lauren—and he was beginning to see that would happen before the week was up—was going to be private. Personal. And about as far from any spying or business deals or arranged courtships as he could get them. When it happened, it would mean something, and not simply be a way to a desired result.

  Reluctantly, he let the kiss trail to an end. And drew back. “As much as I want to,” he murmured, gently pushing the hair away from her cheek, “we can’t do this.”

  Lauren drew a shuddering breath. The misty longing left her eyes as abruptly as it had appeared. “You’re right,” she said coolly as she moved away from him and returned to her side of the car. “Our situation is too complicated as it is. Plus—” she focused all her attention on fastening her seat belt, then stared straight ahead “—in case you’ve forgotten, we have a set agenda this evening. The two of us are due at the literacy fund-raiser as we speak. And I don’t want to be late.”

  Nice save, Mitch thought. Too bad I don’t believe a word of it. “I guess you’re right,” Mitch drawled as he put his key in the ignition and started the car. He looked past Lauren, making sure the way was clear as he guided the Lexus onto the street. “We wouldn’t want to set tongues wagging by coming in all disheveled, and late, to boot. Not unless we want to endure a lot of teasing from my family.”

  The color in Lauren’s cheeks increased, as did the dread in her dark brown eyes. “They’re going to be there?”

  Mitch nodded. “Everyone except my dad, who’s out of town, and my brother Chase and his wife, Bridgett, who are still on their honeymoon.” He looked at Lauren and noted with relief she was finally beginning to relax just a little bit again. Although he doubted she would forgive him anytime soon for the no-holds-barred way he had just kissed her. “What about your dad?” Mitch asked.

  Lauren sighed, some of the light going out of her eyes. “He usually goes to this—everyone who’s anyone in Charleston does—but he e-mailed me that he was too tired to attend tonight, so I’ll be representing our family,” she stated matter-of-factly.

  Mitch didn’t know whether to be relieved he wouldn’t be spending the evening under Payton Heyward’s watchful eyes, or sorry he wouldn’t have the chance to relate to him.

  “It’s for a good cause,” Mitch said eventually as they left the city and headed out toward the ocean.

  “Yes, it is,” Lauren agreed, tugging her skirt lower, toward her knees. She turned her attention to the marsh grasses waving in the spring breeze on either side of the raised highway. “Have you signed up to collect books yet?”

  Mitch frowned as they drove across the causeway toward the towns that had sprung up close to the beach. He slanted a quick glance at Lauren. “Isn’t that done by volunteers?”

  “Right. Which is why we have to volunteer,” Lauren explained.

  Mitch maneuvered his car through the considerable traffic. “I think I’d rather just give a sizable donation…. What?” he said when she said nothing in response, just gave him one of those looks that suggested he rethink his position, pronto. “It’s a better use of my time to bring in the bucks so that I can make the sizable donations to charity that I do.”

  Lauren just shook her head. “Well, this year you may have to roll up your sleeves and wade into the thick of things like the rest of us hands-on types,” she said autocratically.

  Wondering how she figured that, Mitch drove up to the gatehouse that bordered the hotel property. He held up his invitation and was waved through the entrance by the uniformed guard. “And why is that?” He mocked her know-it-all tone.

  Lauren grinned. “Because I’ve already volunteered to drive one of the pick-up vans one night this week.”

  Well, that’s one way to spend a date, Mitch thought as he pulled up in front of the magnificent beachfront hotel where the event was being held, and parked his car in the lot, adjacent to the beige-stucco building. No sooner had they bypassed the fountain in front and begun to ascend the steps than they met his sister, Amy, and brother Gabe coming back out of the hotel. They headed straight for Mitch and Lauren.

  “Bad news,” Amy said, the seriousness in her turquoise eyes belying her status as the baby of the family. “Jeannette Wycliffe planned the gala tonight and she’s here. Thus far, Gabe and I have managed to avoid her, and we suggest you do the same.”

  Mitch frowned at the mention of his ex-wife. He knew Amy wouldn’t have brought her up in front of Lauren unless there were a problem brewing—a big one! “I can handle Jeannette,” Mitch said firmly, wishing he didn’t have to nevertheless. “It’s Mom I’m worried about.”

  Lauren touched Mitch’s arm lightly. She looked up at him with a concern that had nothing to do with any embarrassment Lauren might experience from a possible brouhaha. “Jeannette wouldn’t be unpleasant to your mother, would she?”

  Amy, Gabe and Mitch looked at each other—no one knew quite how to answer Lauren. “It’s more like what Mom might say to Jeannette, if she gets the chance,” Gabe told Lauren with the same gentle, tactful manner he used on
his patients over at the hospital.

  Amy brushed her long dark hair off her shoulders and explained reluctantly. “Mom’s still furious over the hell Jeannette put Mitch through when they were getting divorced.”

  Grace had also promised to give Jeannette a piece of her mind if she ever saw her again, Mitch recalled. None of them wanted that to happen, especially here, especially tonight, when the occasion was supposed to be about helping kids learn to read.

  As involved in helping others as always, Gabe said, “Let’s make a pact. If anyone sees Jeannette heading for Mom, or vice versa, that person’ll cut ’em off at the pass and make sure no contact is made between those two. Deal?”

  Everyone nodded—including Lauren, Mitch noted. “Where is Mom?” Mitch asked, glancing around at the well-dressed crowd pouring into the hotel.

  “She said she’d meet us here,” Amy said, “so Gabe and I thought we’d wait out here for her and escort her inside.”

  Daisy Templeton came up to join them. She was wearing a demure lilac-colored tea-length sheath, and she carried a camera in her hand. “Hi, guys,” Daisy said.

  For someone who had reportedly just been kicked out of her seventh college in five years, Daisy was remarkably cheerful, Mitch thought. Daisy stepped back, tilted her head slightly and regarded Mitch with a critical eye. “Say, you’ve got a pretty good chest. Nice broad shoulders. How’d you feel about taking your shirt off for me?”

  Mitch laughed uneasily, knowing Daisy wasn’t so much coming on to him as making the usual spectacle of herself. “I don’t think so.”

  “Gabe?”

  Gabe shook his head. “Not this time.”

  Daisy snapped her fingers. “Aw, shucks. I had a feeling you two guys would say that. And you’re so good-looking, too. Well, I’ll just have to keep searching for a more cooperative model.” She moved off through the throng of people gathering in front of the hotel.

  Lauren, Mitch, Gabe and Amy looked at each other.

  “She was kidding, wasn’t she?” Amy said finally.

  “I’m not sure.” Lauren bit her lower lip. “With Daisy, you never know. Maybe we better keep an eye on her, too. I’d hate to see her get in any more trouble with her parents here tonight.” Lauren nodded in the direction of a tense-looking older couple going into the hotel lobby. Fortunately, Richard and Charlotte Templeton were blissfully unaware of what their youngest daughter was up to now.

  “How did you and Daisy get to know each other?” Mitch asked Lauren.

  Lauren edged closer to Mitch. “We’ve volunteered at some of the same charity events, from the time Daisy was a teenager.” Worry crept into Lauren’s dark brown eyes. “She was cute and cheerful and ready to help in whatever way she was needed, but also pretty wild even then. Her parents weren’t very tolerant. They were constantly scolding and reprimanding her.”

  “That can’t have been very pleasant,” Amy said.

  “It wasn’t,” Lauren admitted, her eyes once again turning to Mitch. “I’ve got to say, my heart really went out to Daisy. I think she’s sweet, beneath the rebel exterior. I think she’s just—I don’t know, I don’t want to say unloved, but—” Abruptly, some of the color left Lauren’s face. “Oh, no—” she murmured as a laughing Daisy finally found what she’d been looking for in front of the fountain. Grinning broadly, her camera still in hand, Daisy knelt in front of an extraordinarily good-looking young man who’d already taken off his jacket and tie, and was working—quite happily—on his shirt.

  “Oh, man,” Mitch echoed Lauren’s sentiments as he wrapped an arm around Lauren’s shoulders and took in the scene. “This is not a good idea. Not at all…”

  “Come on, show me some beefcake!” Daisy teased, dancing around the hunk and snapping photos from various angles as she went.

  The young man tossed off his shirt and thrust out his chest.

  “A hundred bucks if you’ll get in the water!” Daisy said.

  Behind her, a hotel employee threaded his way through the crowds of onlookers to Daisy’s side. Ignoring the cars continuing to pull up, and the prominent citizens there to attend the fund-raiser piling out onto the curb, he told Daisy sternly, “Miss! You can’t do this!”

  “Want to bet?” Daisy waggled her eyebrows at him and grinned as another limo drew up. Grace Deveraux got out, looking lovely as ever in a glittering red gown. Spotting the four of them, Mitch’s mother waved and walked over to join them.

  “You’re creating a spectacle!” the employee continued scolding Daisy Templeton sternly.

  “No, a spectacle would be if Cal here actually got in the fountain and splashed around!” Daisy said.

  Looking as anxious to please the beautiful twenty-three-year-old Daisy as Daisy was to have her way, Cal waded into the fountain, shoes, pants and all, and stood beneath the spray. Daisy hooted with laughter, kicked off her shoes, and before anyone could do more than draw a breath, waded right in after him, taking action shot after shot. And that was when it happened, when both her parents came striding out of the hotel lobby, horrified looks on both their faces.

  “Daisy, for heaven’s sake,” Charlotte Templeton gasped, a hand to her chest.

  Richard Templeton shared his wife’s displeasure as he said tightly, “Get out of that fountain right now.”

  “What do you think you’re doing?” a pale-faced Charlotte demanded of her daughter.

  Daisy shrugged. “You told me I needed to get a job if I wasn’t going to be in school! So I got a freelance assignment. If I can come up with something eye-catching enough, my photo will appear on the cover of Charleston Nights magazine.”

  “I don’t care. This is quite inappropriate!” Charlotte Templeton said.

  “No,” Daisy said, whirling on both her parents furiously as she stepped out of the water, onto the cement.. “I’m inappropriate, Mother! And let’s face it, in your and Father’s eyes, I always have been!”

  Bravo, Mitch thought. Because it was true. And—from what little he had observed—it was also something that should have been said years ago. Before Daisy decided she was unappreciated and unloved.

  “We’re going home—now!” Richard Templeton took Daisy by the arm. Charlotte Templeton rushed after them. Together, the three marched toward the curb. The young man—now as red-faced as Daisy—climbed out of the fountain and retrieved his clothes. The Templetons limo appeared like magic.

  “Some spectacle, hmm?” Mitch said to his mother, guessing from the look on Grace’s face that she disapproved mightily of Daisy’s antics, as well.

  Beside Mitch, Lauren frowned. And like Mitch, her attention remained glued on the Templeton family as they climbed into their limousine.

  As much as Mitch sympathized with the irrepressible Daisy, who seemed like a duck out of water whenever she was around her stick-in-the-mud parents, he had to concede that Daisy had brought on the latest calamity herself.

  “Daisy really is old enough to know better,” Lauren murmured. “I mean, surely she could have found a less embarrassing time and place to take the tantalizing photos she wanted.”

  “It’s not her fault,” Grace said, surprising them all by siding with Daisy after such a flamboyant display. “Her parents never should have adopted her. They should’ve known—under the circumstances that…well—”

  Everyone gave Mitch’s mother an odd look before Grace could finish whatever it was she was about to say. “I’m sure they were only doing their best to give Daisy the best life possible,” he said. “And you have to admit that financially, anyway, Daisy hasn’t lacked for anything.”

  “Except perhaps acceptance and understanding,” Lauren murmured.

  “If Daisy would just meet her parents halfway and behave even half as circumspectly as her older sister, Iris, things would probably go a whole lot better for her,” Mitch continued matter-of-factly.

  “On the other hand,” Lauren interjected, taking the opposite tack, “for a while, Daisy’s brother, Connor, was pretty outrageous, too, when he wa
s her age. So maybe Daisy is just following in his footsteps.”

  Abruptly, Grace looked as if she’d had quite enough of the discussion. She put a hand to her forehead. “If you all will excuse me, I’m going inside and say hello to everyone else,” she said. “I haven’t been to one of these charity events in Charleston in ages.”

  “We’ll go with you, Mom,” Amy said as she and Gabe moved to flank Grace on both sides.

  “Sorry about that,” Mitch said to Lauren as the two of them lagged behind deliberately. “Mom’s not usually prone to emotional outbursts but she’s been a little edgy since she got back to Charleston.”

  “Understandably so,” Lauren replied with a respect Mitch appreciated. Lauren slipped her arm in Mitch’s as they ascended the steps. “It must be hard for her having to face everyone tonight so soon after getting canned by the network.”

  “I think she just wanted to get it over with,” Mitch said, relieved that Lauren intuitively understood the Deveraux family dynamics. “She knew she was going to have to make a public appearance here in Charleston sooner or later. And it’s for a good cause. The money raised tonight will help a lot of kids learn to love books as much as everyone here does.”

  THE NEXT FEW HOURS passed quickly. Mitch and Lauren managed to have a lot of fun, while at the same time interacting with the rest of his family and their many other friends. But because of the social nature of the event, she and Mitch didn’t get any time alone. As the party neared an end, Mitch was approached by colleagues in the shipping business. Amy and Gabe became equally distracted. And it was then that Grace apparently decided to make a beeline for Mitch’s ex-wife, Jeannette Wycliffe. Lauren cut her off at the pass, as planned. Seconds later, Grace was surrounded by a TV crew from a local station, there to film a small bit for the late news.

  Leaving Grace to hold court, Lauren eased away as unobtrusively as possible. And nearly bumped noses with Mitch’s ex. “Nice save,” Jeannette Wycliffe noted.