He’d already promised to back off on the career advice, so she wouldn’t have to endure any more lectures. Could she really take advantage of his strengths and simply ignore his weaknesses?
“You are going to need one special dress,” said Karen with a knowing wink.
Amanda couldn’t put her finger on it, but something about this just wasn’t quite right.
“I couldn’t…” she began.
“Actually,” said Karen, “you could. It’s not illegal, immoral or unhealthy.”
The Elliotts’ housekeeper appeared in the doorway. “Do you ladies need anything?”
“Yes, Olive. We need champagne and orange juice,” said Karen decisively. “We’re celebrating.”
“Are you allowed?” asked Amanda.
“In moderation,” said Karen.
“I’ll bring it right up,” said Olive, exiting the room.
Karen pointed imperiously to the closet. “I want you to start with the dresses you’d be least likely to wear in public.”
Amanda strolled into the museum fund-raiser in a black sheath of oriental silk. Sleeveless, it had a mandarin collar that eliminated the need for jewelry, and it was slit up the back for easy walking. A floral silkscreen of gold and pink cascaded diagonally across the front.
One of Scarlet’s designs, it was a compromise with Karen—elegant but not overly flirtatious.
Scarlet had insisted on a thin golden anklet that winked when Amanda walked and complemented her strappy sandals. The heels were higher than she normally wore, but Daniel gave her a steady arm to hang on to.
As they entered through an ornate archway, she took in flamboyant floral arrangements and chandeliers dripping with crystal teardrops. The ceiling beams were white with inlayed gold. Perimeter tables were immaculately set and a circular dance floor gleamed in the center of the room.
Cinderella’s ball had nothing on this place.
Then she spotted Patrick and Maeve. Her stomach clenched and she stumbled a step. “You didn’t tell me your parents were going to be here,” she whispered to Daniel, feeling eighteen and impossibly gauche all over again.
“Is that a problem?” he whispered back.
“Yes, it’s a problem,” she hissed.
“Why?”
What a question. “Because they don’t like me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
She slowed. The glitz, glitter and orchestra music were suddenly making her claustrophobic. She didn’t belong here. She’d never belonged here.
She needed to proposition Daniel and get out.
“Daniel, darling.” A sixtyish woman dripping in sequins and wearing enough diamonds to cancel the national debt gave Daniel a kiss on each cheek.
Daniel smiled and clasped her papery hand. “Mrs. Cavalli.”
“I saw your mother at the Humane Society quilt raffle last week.”
“I heard it went well,” said Daniel with an easy interest.
“It did.” Mrs. Cavalli’s gaze strayed to Amanda.
Daniel put his hand on the small of her back. “This is my friend, Amanda. Amanda, Mrs. Cavalli.”
Amanda held out her hand. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Do you have any pets, dear?”
“Uh, no.” Amanda shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t.”
“You should consider adopting one from the shelter. That’s where we got Buttons, three, maybe four years ago.” Mrs. Cavalli turned to Daniel. “The little dickens got into some caramel candy last week.”
“Did she?”
Mrs. Cavalli chuckled, her bosom jiggling. “Took the groomer three hours to get it out of her fur.”
Then she turned back to Amanda. “She’s a cockapoo. Big brown eyes. Just a treasure.”
“She sounds adorable,” said Amanda.
“Will we see you at the Children’s Hospital tea, dear?”
Amanda glanced at Daniel.
“Amanda works during the day,” he said.
Mrs. Cavalli drew back, her eyes rounding. “Oh, I see.”
“Amanda is a lawyer.”
“Well, that’s lovely, dear. Perhaps another time?”
“Perhaps,” said Amanda.
Mrs. Cavalli gave a fluttery-fingered wave. “I must go find Maeve.”
“Nice to see you,” called Daniel.
“Daniel!” boomed a hearty voice as a gray-haired man in a tuxedo reached for his hand.
“Senator Wallace,” Daniel greeted in return.
“Did you catch the closing numbers in oil futures this afternoon?” asked Wallace.
Without waiting for an answer, he held up his palms. “We have got to drill in Alaska, that’s all there is to it. Sooner the better as far as California is concerned.”
“What about conservation measures?” asked Daniel.
Senator Wallace pointed his index finger at Daniel. “You show me an SUV owner willing to turn down his air-conditioning, and I’ll show you a liberal Democrat about to support Adam Simpson.” He laughed heartily.
Amanda smiled, even though she didn’t really understand the joke.
“You get caught up in the Chesapeake scandal?” asked the senator.
Daniel shook his head. “I got out of tech stocks early.”
“Damn accountants,” said the senator. “No better than the lawyers.”
Amanda’s discomfort must have shown, because Senator Wallace acknowledged her for the first time. “Don’t get me wrong, little lady. I’m a lawyer myself. But damn these upstarts, we’ve got to put the economic clout back in the hands of the Fortune 500.”
Amanda clenched her jaw, and her hand tightened on Daniel’s arm.
Daniel quickly redirected the senator’s attention. “Senator, you remember Bob Solomon. Bob, come and say hi to Senator Wallace.”
A man disengaged himself from a nearby conversation group and shook the senator’s hand.
“Bob was a big supporter of the Nicholson campaign,” said Daniel.
The senator’s grin broadened.
Daniel eased Amanda away from the conversation.
“What I want to know,” she said, “is, if the economic clout is no longer in the hands of the Fortune 500, who the hell does he think has it?”
“Let’s move on,” said Daniel.
“Let’s move upstairs,” said Amanda.
He glanced down at her. “Upstairs?”
Amanda stopped and faced him. She had planned to have a drink, maybe two or three before this moment, but she didn’t think she could last much longer.
“I have a confession.”
His brows went up. “Do tell.”
“I rented a room.”
“You what?”
“I—”
“Wait. Damn.” He latched on to her arm and spun her around. “Keep walking. Don’t look back.”
“Is it your parents?”
“No, it’s not my parents. Jeez, Amanda. They like you already.”
“No they don’t.”
He scooted her around a corner where they were hidden from the main ballroom. Rich burgundy curtains accented paned glass doors that led to a balcony overlooking Fifth Avenue. It had started to rain, so nobody was outside. Wet droplets blurred the city lights and darkened the secluded corner.
“Who did we escape from?” she asked.
“Sharon.”
Amanda blinked at him. They were hiding from his ex-wife? Why did he have to hide her from Sharon?
“She’s been…” He tightened his jaw. “Difficult.”
Amanda’s stomach lurched. Maybe she’d got this all wrong. Maybe her imagination and Karen’s enthusiasm had led her down a completely wrong path.
She took a couple of steps back. “Hey, if you’ve still got a thing for—”
Daniel reached out and grasped her arms, halting her retreat. “I do not have a thing for Sharon.” He loosened his grip and closed the space between them. “It’s just that she’s loud and unpredictable. I didn’t want her to insult you.
”
“Insult me?”
He shifted closer still, and his voice went gravelly. “Forget Sharon. Let’s get back to the part where you rented a room.”
Amanda’s heart flip-flopped.
“You rented a room?” he prompted, his blue eyes smoldering with obvious desire.
She drew in a bracing breath. This was going to be even harder than she’d imagined.
His voice dropped to a whisper. “I rented a room here once.”
“Yeah?” she managed.
His eyes twinkled like a moonlit ocean. “It was prom night. And I got very, very lucky.”
Amanda ducked her head and focused on his chest.
“Hey.” He tipped her chin up with his finger. “Is it possible that you’re propositioning me?”
She slowly nodded. “It’s possible.”
A broad grin grew on his face. “All right.”
His palm slid around to cup her cheek, and he dipped his head to kiss her.
She stretched to meet him, her muscles tense, her entire body humming with pent-up need.
His lips touched hers, and her limbs all but melted. He opened wide without preamble, stroking her tender mouth with the tip of his tongue. Her pulse pounded and their bodies fused with delicious heat.
Her hands twined around his neck, clinging to him, while he braced a forearm over the small of her back, holding her solid.
Their kiss deepened and lengthened. The orchestra music faded to the background and the pounding of the raindrops drummed in her ears.
“Mandy,” he whispered, stroking her face with the pad of his thumb as he stared into her eyes for a long moment.
He returned to her lips. He grasped her buttocks, emphasizing his arousal. Amanda felt her bones turn to liquid.
“Daniel,” she whimpered.
“Uh-hmm.” A male voice sounded from behind her.
Amanda wrenched back, whipping her head around to see the senator, Sharon and two other people staring in shocked silence.
Nine
Daniel could think of a dozen directions this could go in. All of them bad. He’d wanted to thumb his nose at Sharon’s orders, but this wasn’t anywhere near what he’d had in mind.
Sharon’s eyes glittered like granite; her mouth was drawn into a thin line of anger.
Senator Wallace looked faintly amused. He offered a quick salute with his single malt before turning to leave.
The Wilkinsons had the good grace to simply fade back into the party.
Sharon, on the other hand, advanced. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Do we really need to do this?” asked Daniel, keeping an arm around Amanda. The seven-figure settlement should have wedged Sharon out of his life for good.
“Yes, we need to do this. What did I ask you? What did I tell you?”
Amanda started to pull away. “I think I’ll just—”
“Don’t you go anywhere,” Daniel demanded, tightening his hold on her waist.
Her eyes widened, and he moderated his voice. “Please wait.” He turned to Sharon. “Go back to the party.”
“Not a hope in hell. I’ll be the laughingstock.”
“Only if you act like it.”
“You don’t think this story has already circulated the room a dozen times?”
“It’s been three minutes.”
She leaned forward and poked him in the chest with her index finger. “You’re the one who screwed up here, Daniel. And you’re the one who’s going to fix it.”
“Don’t be melodramatic.”
“You are going to dance with me.”
“What?”
“I mean it, Daniel. You get your butt out on that dance floor and let everybody see us laughing and talking together. That’ll tamp down the gossip.”
“Not in a million—”
“You owe me.”
“I do not owe you anything.”
Amanda shifted away again, this time breaking Daniel’s grip.
He didn’t blame her. Who wanted to watch a fight between a divorced couple? It probably brought back terrible memories for her.
He realized in an instant that if he wanted to get anywhere in his relationship with Amanda, he had to neutralize Sharon. And, right now, neutralizing Sharon meant dancing with her.
“Fine,” he spat out reluctantly. He turned to Amanda. “This will only take a minute. Meet me by the statue?”
“Sure,” she agreed with a shrug and an enigmatic expression.
Sharon grasped his arm, and he followed her onto the dance floor.
But halfway through the fake dance, Daniel spotted Amanda. She was leaving.
He swore under his breath and abandoned Sharon, practically sprinting for the exit.
“Amanda.” Halfway across the foyer, he caught her by the arm. “What are you doing?”
She turned a glare on him. “You’d better get back to the party, Daniel. You wouldn’t want people to gossip.”
“I don’t care if people gossip.” He’d just left Sharon fuming in the middle of the dance floor. The gossip was well under way.
“Yes, you do,” said Amanda.
“I was just trying to get rid of her.”
“By dancing with her?”
“You saw what happened.”
“Yeah. I saw exactly what happened.”
“So you know—”
“Did you or did you not just blow me off for the sake of appearances?”
“It wasn’t like that.” He didn’t care what people thought. He’d just wanted to get Sharon out of their hair.
“It was exactly like that. Not that I ever had any doubts.” She shook her head and started walking again.
“Amanda.” He matched his pace to hers.
“This was a mistake, Daniel.”
“What was a mistake?”
“You, me, us. Thinking we could have the best of both worlds.”
He blinked at her. “What best of both worlds?”
“Never mind.”
“No. Not never mind. You have a room. We have a room.”
She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Right. We’re going to sneak upstairs together. What if the senator sees you? What if your parents see you?”
“I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do.”
He took her arm and tried to turn her around. “Let’s go. You and me. Upstairs. Right now.”
She shook him off. “Well, isn’t that just the most romantic invitation I’ve ever had.”
Daniel clenched his jaw.
A doorman pulled the glass door open.
“Good night, Daniel,” said Amanda, shaking off his arm.
Short of throwing her bodily over his shoulder, Daniel had no choice but to watch her walk away.
“Good morning.” Cullen strolled jauntily into Daniel’s office. “I hear you had a date with Mom on the weekend.”
“Where’d you hear that?” Daniel growled. He’d been trying to get Amanda on the phone for the past thirty-six hours.
“Aunt Karen told Scarlet, and Scarlet told Misty.”
“Word travels fast in this family.”
Cullen straddled a guest chair. “How’d it go?”
Daniel glared. He was pissed at Sharon and a little bit pissed at Amanda.
He’d done the right thing for them. He’d done the right thing for her. Sharon was poison, and they didn’t need her out gunning for them.
“What?” asked Cullen, studying Daniel’s expression. “I don’t need intimate details or anything. ’Course if Mom’s giving them to Karen, I’m going to hear eventually, anyway.”
“Where are the weekly sales figures?”
Cullen drew back. “You want to talk business?”
“We’re in the office, aren’t we?”
“But—”
“And whatever happened with the Guy Lundin situation?” The time theft issue had been nagging in the back of Daniel’s mind for a week. Not that he wanted to adopt Amanda’s style of business management�
�far from it. He just wanted to understand what had happened, and how they could avoid it in the future.
“The time theft thing?” Cullen squinted. “Are you saying that me asking about Mom on company time is the same thing as a bogus sick claim?”
“Depends on how long you talk about her. Did we fire him?”
“I’m meeting with personnel this afternoon.”
“What’s your gut telling you?”
Cullen looked confused. “My gut?”
“Yeah. Your gut.”
Cullen paused. “You already have all the verifiable facts.”
He might have all the verifiable facts, but Daniel kept hearing Amanda’s voice inside his head asking him how well he knew his employees. “What about the nonverifiable ones?”
“They’re not relevant.”
“Are there any?”
“Guy Lundin claims he was taking his mother to the cancer clinic.”
“Did we check on that?”
Cullen sat down in one of the guest chairs. “There was no reason to check.”
“Why not?”
“There’s no provision for taking family members to medical appointments.”
“So what do people do?” Daniel had taken Amanda out for a drink on company time. He’d ordered her flowers on company time. If she was sick, you can bet your ass he’d take her to the doctor on company time.
“About what?” asked Cullen.
“Family medical appointments. Emergencies. Crises.”
Cullen held up his hands. “I don’t know.”
“Well, maybe we should think about it. Do you think Guy’s mother is really sick?”
“He’s not habitual about sick leave. He only took one day last year. Two the year before.”
“Let’s drop it,” said Daniel, picking up his pen and flipping to a letter waiting for his signature.
“But my meeting—”
“Cancel the Personnel meeting. Give the guy a break.”
“What about the other employees?”
“What about them?”
“What happens next time somebody has a sick family member?”
“Good question.”
“Thank you.”
Daniel pushed the intercom. “Nancy?”
“Yes?”
“Do we have a copy of the employee manual?”
“Yes, we do. Shall I bring it in?”
“Not yet.”
“Okay.”
Cullen leaned forward in his chair. “What are you doing?”
Dynasties:The Elliots, Books 7-12 Page 25
