by Nicola Marsh
‘You’ve just said this is your first night out in fourteen months and that’s not right. I can’t begin to know what Joe was thinking in not giving you some much needed time out but I can make an accurate judgement on what I see now, and what I see is a woman on the edge. A woman who is burned out, a woman doing her best to keep it all together for the sake of her child without thought to what happens if she goes under.’
Maya should’ve been furious. She should’ve ignored him, rebuffed him or laughed off his concern. Instead, the unthinkable happened and tears began to well up. How could he sum up her situation so perfectly? Joe had ignored her for over a year, not caring what happened to her or their son.
‘Chas is everything to me,’ she said softly, blinking rapidly to dispel the tears that threatened to seep down her cheeks and ruin her make-up job.
This time Riley didn’t hesitate to take her hand, his strong grip infusing her with confidence. ‘I know, but you have to start thinking about yourself. The little guy is adorable but he’s exhausting too. One picnic and I had to rest up for a week.’ His mock grimace was designed to make her smile and she managed a slight twitch of her glossed lips.
‘Being a mother is amazing. It’s what I want to do and I want to do it well. Yeah, I’m exhausted all the time but I can handle it.’
‘I’m not questioning your ability to handle anything but I am worried that you’re on the brink of collapsing.’
He traced an index finger under her eyes, his gentle touch raising goose-bumps along her bare skin. ‘As gorgeous as you are without make-up, I know this stuff hides the fatigue I usually see here. And here.’
His finger dropped to the corners of her mouth, tracing their outline with infinite slowness, creating warmth which spread through her body with languorous ease. ‘Your lips are the stuff fantasies are made of so why am I used to seeing them compressed rather than smiling?’
Her mouth dried at the nearness of his fingers and the power of his words. Riley dropped his hand, his expanding pupils a clear indication that he felt as rattled as she did.
He thought her lips were fantasy material?
Oh, boy! Maybe he needed to rest up more than she did.
‘You’re a young woman. You should smile more, you should enjoy life, and that includes doing more than working with horses and raising Chas.’
At least he’d distracted her from crying and as she struggled between wanting to tell him where he could stick his judgement calls and hugging him for caring, a waiter came to take their order.
‘A lime and soda for me, please,’ she said, jumping in quickly before he could ask what she wanted, hating the surprised look or the ‘cheap date’ comments that followed when people realised she didn’t drink alcohol.
‘Bourbon on the rocks,’Riley said, not looking in the least surprised at her choice while she struggled to hide her revulsion at his.
Though at least it wasn’t Scotch.
‘So, at the risk of you doing more of that lip compressing thing, why don’t you go away for a weekend or overnight and leave Chas with me? He’ll be fine and you’ll come back refreshed and relaxed. What do you say?’
Instinctively, she found her lips thinning and forced them into a smile instead. ‘He’ll fret.’
He leaned over and recaptured her hand in his, making her more jittery than she had been seconds ago when he’d been tracing her lips with his finger. ‘Don’t you mean you’ll fret?’
‘A bit of both, I guess,’ Maya said, wishing his reassuring touch didn’t feel so good and that he’d stop staring at her with those blue eyes that could melt any red-blooded woman at twenty paces or less. ‘Thanks for the offer, but—’
‘Think massages, spa baths, Vichy showers—’
‘Vichy what?’ She knew what a Vichy shower was but she couldn’t believe a guy like Riley did.
‘I’m a metrosexual,’ he said, grinning broadly. His grip hadn’t loosened and she studiously avoided looking at their joined hands while simultaneously trying to ignore the startlingly vivid image of Riley having a massage under a shower of warm water jets. A very naked Riley.
‘So the workaholic is giving me advice on how to unwind, huh?’
‘I’m just telling it how it is. You need a break and I’m offering that to you. What do you say?’
With his blue eyes fixed on her face, his hand clasping hers as if he’d never let go and his lips curved in a warm caring smile, her resistance to the idea of leaving Chas even for one night faded.
Riley was right. She needed a break desperately and until now, she hadn’t trusted anyone enough to leave her precious son with them overnight.
Yet here was the perfect opportunity to recharge her batteries, knowing that Chas would be in safe hands.
Strong, capable hands by the feel of them clasped around her own.
She sighed and found herself responding to his smile with a tentative one of her own. ‘Okay. Sounds like a plan.’
‘Great. How about next weekend?’
‘Gee, you’re pushy.’
‘And you’re not going to wriggle out of this,’ he said, leaning closer, infusing her personal space with his presence, making her wish that the two of them could remain in this intimate bubble away from the pressures of the everyday world for ever.
‘Who’s wriggling?’ Maya said, doing just that as she subtly slid back from him and pulled her hand out of his. She needed to establish some much-needed distance between them before she did something silly like lean into him for a cuddle.
He’d crawled under her defences tonight. She’d planned on spending an obligatory hour at the Ball at the most, including this pre-dinner drink, knowing that spending time with Riley on a night like this—two years to the day since she’d met Joe—would be tough.
Not because of Joe’s memory—she’d come to terms with her faded feelings for Joe a long time before his death—but because of Riley, for the exact reasons that flashed through her mind now.
He’s considerate, responsible and switched-on.
He’s well-mannered, articulate and sexy.
Generous with his time, willing to help, one in a million.
And she was never giving in to the growing attraction between them or the feelings she had bubbling beneath the surface.
Chas came first, now and for ever.
She would be the model mum if it killed her.
‘There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about,’ Riley said, not moving an inch. Maya was leaning so far back in her chair to give them some space that she was in serious danger of toppling backwards, chair and all.
‘What’s that?’
‘Us.’
Maya clenched her jaw tight to prevent it from dropping open, her eyes darting frantically around for an escape.
She wasn’t going to have this conversation.
Having fanciful dreams about Riley was one thing, having the guy sit there looking calm while wanting to discuss what she’d only thought to be in her imagination another.
‘Uh—’
‘Here you go, folks. Enjoy.’ The waiter deposited their frosted glasses on the table, winked at her and sauntered away, giving her valuable seconds to think.
However, there was only one response to a bombshell like the one Riley had just dropped and she hardened her heart, knowing it would hurt to deliver a line so patently untrue.
‘We’re friends,’ she said, staring at the twinkling city lights over his right shoulder, unable to meet his steady stare. ‘Just friends.’
She’d been wrong.
It didn’t just hurt, it ached and throbbed like an old wound as the last small piece of hope she’d harboured in her heart curled up and died.
Hope that they could move past the scandal associated with Joe’s death, past the old ties, and look to a future without hang-ups or gossip or possible whispers about Chas’s mother and his uncle.
‘We need to talk about this. This attraction between us…’ Riley reached forward to ta
ke her hand but she snatched it away, knowing his touch would unravel her in a second. ‘We need to be honest.’
Taking a steadying breath, she pushed her chair back and stood, knowing she had to end this here and now before he coerced her into saying more than she could allow. She couldn’t fight him and her own feelings.
‘You know I’m a straight-shooter. You want honesty? You’ve been an amazing support to me, not just the last few weeks but straight after Joe’s death. You stood by me and I truly appreciate everything you’ve done. You’re a great uncle and a wonderful friend. But that’s all we can ever be. Friends.’
His eyes glittered with emotion, whether anger, confusion or something deeper she had no idea and she’d prefer to keep it that way. She didn’t want to delve into her feelings, let alone his right now.
She didn’t wait for his response. Head held high, she concentrated on the onerous task of putting one high-heeled foot in front of the other and walked out of the bar, managing to hold on to her dignity till she reached the black and gold bathroom next to the ballroom where she collapsed on to a plush ruby ottoman with the aplomb of a rag doll who’d had the stuffing ripped out of her.
Friends.
Nothing had to change between them. They could ignore the last part of their little chat tonight and go on as before.
Then why did she have a sinking feeling that the gleam she’d seen in his eyes before walking out of the bar held more than a hint of challenge?
CHAPTER NINE
RILEY WATCHED MAYA dancing with Brett Gould, her handsome boss, trying to dismiss the nasty niggle in his chest as heartburn from the rich Beef Wellington he’d had for dinner. However, he wasn’t stupid. He couldn’t confuse heartburn with jealousy and, at that moment, he knew he had a distinct case of the latter.
Logical? No.
Ridiculous? Yes.
Brett was happily married with two bouncing boys of his own and was the epitome of a loving family man, yet here Riley was, turning greener by the minute at the sight of Brett’s hand splayed over Maya’s back and the constant smiling chatter they kept up throughout the way-too-slow song.
How had he made such a mess of things? For a whiz in the boardroom, his communication skills sure went awry around Maya.
He’d never given much credence to Joe’s off the cuff remarks, putting his brother’s jibes down to his constant competitiveness since they’d been kids. But he was beginning to think that Joe hadn’t been far off the mark when he’d said that a woman like Maya would never look twice at a dull workaholic like him.
It had been the final time they’d spoken, the night Joe had died, and the guilt that he’d contributed to his brother’s death constantly weighed him down. Joe had made him so damn mad, telling him the only reason he’d gone after Maya was because he’d seen the way Riley had looked at her at this very event two years earlier.
Joe’s casualness had sickened Riley and he’d done the only thing known to really hurt his brother, refusing to bail him out financially any more. Joe had turned nasty then, a torrent of abuse pouring forth. Most of it had centred around how much their parents had favoured Riley, how Joe had spent his life trying to beat him and how he hated being second best.
Riley had been stunned at the depth of Joe’s animosity. Despite the urge to mollycoddle him as he had his whole life, Riley had stood firm. Joe had walked out after calling him a miserable old bastard and that had been the last time he’d seen his brother alive. The extent of Joe’s gambling debts and the mess he’d left Maya and Chas in reinforced his guilt that if he’d given in to Joe that day, his brother would still be alive.
And Riley’d be exactly where he was right now: wanting the one woman he couldn’t have.
Thankfully, the song ended and Maya slipped from Brett’s arms, uncertainty flickering across her beautiful face as she scanned the perimeter of the dance floor.
The next dance was his.
She’d avoided him for most of the evening, flitting from one dance partner to another, telling him she had to network, and he’d tortured himself by imagining every smile, every glance she cast at her partners as meaningful.
Smart? No.
Stupid? You bet.
Just because he’d blundered into the sensitive topic of what he’d hoped was a burgeoning relationship between them with all the finesse of a lumbering elephant and Maya had harpooned him accordingly, it didn’t mean she was at fault for making small talk with a bunch of work colleagues.
Besides, she may have thought she’d had the final word but she was wrong.
She wanted to stay friends for now? Fine.
As reticent as he may have been with women in the past, he wasn’t a complete fool and, if he’d read the signs correctly, Maya was attracted to him.
Egotistical? No.
Wishful thinking? Oh yeah.
But, either way, he had no intention on giving up.
Striding through the crowd, he watched her fiddling with the sash at her slim waist, nibbling on her bottom lip, her eyes sweeping the room. She looked incredible, the sassy strapless dress hugging every delicious curve of her body, her blonde hair swept up in a sophisticated style which didn’t detract from the heart-stopping face beneath.
He’d been gobsmacked the first minute she’d walked into the bar and, as she caught sight of him now, her eyes widening and her lips curving in a small nervous smile, the same overwhelming ‘wow’ factor slammed into him, rendering him dumbstruck.
‘I really need to go after this dance,’ she said, casting an almost frantic glance at the band as if willing them to play a quick song and be done with it. ‘Tomorrow’s a big day.’
Managing to unglue his tongue from the roof of his mouth long enough to reply, he said, ‘Sure.’
She cast him a strange look, obviously expecting him to say more but instead he whisked her into his arms as the first strains of a waltz filled the room. Words he could botch, holding her close would be a cinch.
‘I’m not very good at this,’she said, her posture rigid, her hand clasping his lightly as she averted her head to one side, determined not to make eye contact.
‘Neither am I. Just sway in time to the music, it’ll all be over before you know it.’
Her gaze snapped up to his and he silently cursed for letting that last bit slip. He hadn’t meant to say it but, after seeing her so willing and pliant in the arms of her other dance partners in comparison to her stiff, unyielding body now, a streak of bitterness hammered home the fact that she didn’t want to be this close to him.
‘Don’t do this, Riley.’
‘What? Dance with a friend?’
He deliberately kept his voice devoid of inflection, not wanting her to misinterpret anything else. He’d bungled enough for one night. This dance was supposed to make up for that, to take a step in the right direction to re-cementing their friendship and, hopefully, towards more. Much more.
Her mouth relaxed out of its grim line at his response, along with some of her body’s stiffness. ‘Touché.’
‘Look, how about we don’t talk and just enjoy the dance?’ That way, he couldn’t say the wrong thing and mess up what little of the evening remained.
‘Fine.’
Thankfully, the last of the residual tension left her body as she relaxed into his hold, her cheek resting lightly on his lapel as he guided them around the dance floor, wishing he could have her in his arms like this for ever.
Yes, they were friends but logic told him otherwise.
He respected her decision to keep him at arm’s length but he didn’t agree with it.
However, if Maya wanted him as her friend, it would just have to do.
For now.
Maya dashed into the powder room, needing a few seconds to steady her nerves before driving Riley home.
She’d known tonight would be tough and she’d been right, big time. Everywhere she’d turned people had asked how she was coping and was there anything they could do and what Material Girl’s cha
nces in the Cup tomorrow were. ‘Fine, no and good’ had become her stock-standard answer and, though she’d soon tired of the constant barrage, at least it had kept her away from Riley.
Not that it had helped. She’d felt his eyes on her everywhere she’d moved and, darn it, she’d liked it. In fact, she’d liked far too much about this evening: the way he looked, the way he stared at her with something bordering on need in his eyes and the way he made her feel when he’d spun her around the ballroom like Cinderella with Prince Charming.
She’d danced with many guys and had mentally convinced herself that dancing with Riley wouldn’t be any different.
Yeah, right.
Friends…friends…friends… had echoed through her mind as they’d twirled between the other dancing couples. Try as she might, it had been difficult to remember her own rules when it felt as if his hand was burning a hole through the satin in the small of her back and his spicy aftershave had impregnated her smell receptors for ever.
And now she’d offered to give him a lift home out of politeness and her plans to beat a hasty retreat, the main reason why she’d brought her own car in the first place, had gone up in smoke.
As the door opened and a burst of giggling followed, she dashed into a cubicle, not wanting to make small talk with anyone else tonight. Many people had been genuine in their concern for her welfare but she’d also seen the sideways stares, the snide smirks when she’d danced with Riley—another reason why she’d kept her distance.
Those who knew her in racing circles liked and respected her but, unfortunately, many of Joe’s shallow phoney friends were here too and she’d steered well clear of their plastic smiles and fake platitudes.
‘Did you see her draped all over Joe’s brother? Didn’t take her long.’
Maya froze as a shrill voice drifted over the cubicle partition, hoping the cruel words weren’t aimed at her and insanely jealous if they weren’t.
‘Yeah, she’s a real piece of work. You know the only reason Joe looked twice at a plain Jane like her was because she got knocked up? Everyone knows it.’
