Harlequin Kimani Romance September 2014 Bundle: Seduced by the HeirSecret Silver NightsSomeone Like YouIndulge Me Tonight

by Pamela Yaye

  He raised a single eyebrow and sipped his drink.

  “I take it you are a nonbeliever?” Teddy asked.

  “I’m a realist. I’ve seen too many of my friends walk down that aisle only to end up hating the person they vowed to love.”

  Teddy was in trouble. She should have taken the opportunity to walk out the door when she had it. Now she was as stuck here for as long as the meal lasted.

  “You’ve been married,” she stated. He had all the earmarks of a man who’d been hurt in a relationship, but his tone regarding orange blossoms told her he’d been down that aisle himself. His nod was barely perceptible.

  “And you hate her now?”

  He shook his head. “Quite the opposite. We’re very good friends.”

  She frowned. This was an exception to the rule of divorce. “What happened?” she asked, realizing it was probably the wrong question, but it was already out.

  He spread his hands and hunched his shoulders. “We were too young. We got married for all the wrong reasons. Mainly, we didn’t know each other, didn’t understand that our dreams weren’t the same.”

  “What was her dream?”

  He smiled. Teddy liked it. It was the good-memory smile, the one that appears when a person looks back and only he understands the happy place he’s entered. She was glad he had good memories of his marriage. She’d seen her share of people who only remembered the wedge that separated their relationship and not what created it.

  “Her dream was to be an actress.” He took a moment to eat some of his steak before continuing. “After our divorce, she moved to L.A. and got a part on a soap opera.”

  A light dawned in Teddy’s brain. Chelsea Sullivan? She rolled the name around in her mind. “You were married to Chelsea Sullivan?”

  He nodded. “She kept the name.”

  Chelsea Sullivan was the lead actress on the top daytime television program. From what Teddy read in the entertainment magazines, she was about to move her career to feature films.

  He sat back in his chair. “And you? What did you dream of being?”

  “I have my dream. I wanted my own design business.”

  He smiled fully. “Then you’re ahead of most of the world. You have everything.”

  Not everything, she thought. Her partner, Diana, married last year, and while the two of them had been friends for years, Teddy wondered at the happy changes she saw in her friend. There was a newness, a happiness that hadn’t been there before. While they both loved the work, for Diana there was something more to look forward to at the end of the day. Teddy had begun to wonder what she was missing.

  But as she sat across from Adam, Teddy wondered how anyone could talk him into meeting someone whose business was weddings when he didn’t believe in them. And so far she was sure he wasn’t the one for her.

  “What about marriage?” he asked.

  The word hit her like a spray of ice water. “Me? Married? Never made the trip.”

  “I see,” he said. “You give the story to everyone else but stand clear of it yourself?”

  “You say that as if it was by design.”

  “Is it?” Adam asked. He stared straight at her.

  “No, I suppose I’m the cliché,” Teddy said.

  “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride?”

  She shook her head. “I haven’t met the right man, yet.”

  “But your parents are determined to find him for you if you don’t do it yourself?”

  Teddy nodded. “My mother for sure. But isn’t marriage a taboo conversation for people on a first date?” Teddy asked.

  “I suppose it is, but we decided this is dinner, not a date.” He laughed again. This time Teddy laughed, too.

  “What do you do?” she asked. In speaking with her mother, she’d never asked anything about him. She’d been too busy arguing that she didn’t want to go on a blind date to think about his profession.

  “Investments. I own a brokerage house.”

  She was impressed, but kept it off her face and out of her voice. “So, I deal in dreams and you in cold, hard cash.”

  “Not cold or hard. Just ones and zeros.” There was no censure in his voice. It was also devoid of pride or arrogance.

  “Computer transactions.” Teddy nodded, understanding that everything today was done on a small machine you could put in your pocket.

  “Actual money is on the way out.” He turned to her, pulling his chair an inch closer. “How much money do you have in your purse right now?”

  Teddy glanced in surprise at the clutch bag that lay on the table. Tossing her head, she said, “Enough for a taxi and a phone call.”

  Adam smiled. It was the first time since they met that his face showed any emotion. “I remember hearing my mother telling me about taxi fare and carrying cash when she and my father were dating. Of course, their generation can remember life before cell phones.”

  “I got that story from my father. He wanted to make sure I could get home or at least call if some guy got out of hand. He said I could lose the phone or forget to charge the battery.”

  “Did it ever happen?” he asked.

  “The phone, no. The date, nothing I couldn’t handle.”

  Adam gave her a long stare. She wondered what he was thinking. She hadn’t issued a challenge, yet she felt as if he was thinking of one.

  “What about you? Any sisters to give that message to?”

  “No sisters, two brothers.”

  “Where are you in the mix?”

  “Right in the middle.”

  Teddy nodded. Spoiled, she judged. It rang true for middle children. Teddy was one of four siblings. She was the second child, the one who never got her way. Adam, as a middle sibling, would have always gotten his. And probably still did.

  “What about you? Any brothers or sisters?” he asked.

  “Two sisters, one brother.”

  “Do they live close by?”

  Teddy shook her head. “We’re pretty spread out, but we all make it home for most holidays.”

  “Where’s home?”

  “Maryland. Bentonburgh, Maryland. It’s near Hagerstown, not that you’ve heard of either of those places.”

  “Actually, I have,” he said.

  Teddy looked at him for further explanation.

  “A while ago I met a woman studying hotel management. She worked in Breezewood, the Town of Motels, for three years.”

  Teddy wasn’t surprised he knew a woman there. She supposed he knew women in lots of places. That fact also surprisingly left her slightly cold. Deciding to move away from discussions about herself and her family, Teddy asked about him, “How did you get into investing?” He smiled at that. She recognized that type of smile. She’d seen it a hundred times on the faces of mothers or grandmothers of the brides. They were usually remembering their own weddings and knew how in love the bride was. The smile took them back in time. Adam had that look.

  “My parents let me try it.”

  “How?”

  “I had a teacher in high school who told us about the stock market. It intrigued me. It was one of the few classes I had where I sat up and listened to what he had to say.” He spread his arms and hunched his shoulders. “I was fascinated by the possibility of turning a little money into a lot of it. I told my parents I wanted to try investing. They said it was too risky. That I would lose anything I had.”

  “And you proved them wrong,” she stated.

  “Very wrong, but it was a turning point.”

  “How?” Teddy took a sip of wine.

  She gave him her full attention, just as he must have done to that high school teacher all those years ago.

  “I wasn’t the best kid. But in high school, who was?” He paused and gave her a long st
are. “I was sixteen and rebellious. I guess I was at that age where a turn one way or the other could make me a man or send me to jail. My parents talked over the idea and agreed to let me have a thousand dollars to play with.”

  “Play with?” Teddy’s brows rose. Her parents weren’t poor, but she couldn’t imagine them giving her that much money when she was in high school.

  “Money was the first thing that really interested me. They would try anything that would hold my attention and keep me out of trouble,” he explained. “The money was enough that I would be careful with it. So I read all the reports, learned the language, took small steps. Within a year, I’d turned the thousand into five thousand.”

  “You’re kidding.” Teddy stared at him. She knew that kind of return was unheard of.

  He shook his head.

  “That’s a phenomenal return on investment,” she said.

  “It was. I made good choices and I learned that I was good with money. After that I took every class I could on investing and wealth management. After college I took a job on Wall Street, got my feet wet and struck out on my own.”

  He smiled, proud of himself. Teddy liked that he put his mind to something and stuck with it. “So if you’re ever looking to invest...” He left the sentence hanging.

  “You’re not going to give me a sales pitch?”

  “Why? Are you a hard sell?”

  “Extremely hard,” Teddy said.

  “I’m good at what I do,” Adam challenged.

  “I see,” Teddy said flatly. “So you like handling other people’s money?”

  “As much as you like the weddings you plan, I like building wealth.”

  Teddy thought about the wealth they had built, she and Diana. Both had come from humble backgrounds. Diana had been a scholarship student at Princeton, and Teddy, too, had had scholarships and had worked partially through Stanford. Both understood the need for capital and they learned management of money as a necessity to their business.

  Teddy wasn’t wealthy, but she was comfortable. Her designs were selling for thousands of dollars and she had a growing portfolio. It wasn’t managed by Adam’s company.

  “What is the name of your investment firm?” Teddy asked.

  “Sullivan Brothers Investment, Inc.” He slipped a business card across the table to her. The ease with which he did it showed a practiced salesmanship.

  Teddy had never heard of his company. That was probably a good thing. If they weren’t maintaining or increasing wealth for their clients, she surely would have heard something from the many brides that came in for planning. And there was the trade show that had financial planners in attendance every year. She didn’t know if his company had ever been represented.

  “Your brothers are part of the business?”

  He shook his head. “Initially, my brother Quinn went in with me, but quickly decided it wasn’t for him. I bought him out for all of three dollars.” He stopped and laughed at that.

  “I suppose that laugh means you didn’t actually cheat him out of a good deal?”

  “He hadn’t invested any capital into the setup. He did the legwork of finding the offices and his muscle in helping me buy and set up furniture. That was years ago now.”

  “Are you at the same location?”

  He shook his head.

  Weddings by Diana had moved twice. Once for a medical project, and the second time because she and Diana needed more space and they could afford a more prestigious area.

  “With both of us in Princeton, I’m surprised our paths haven’t crossed before,” Adam said. “Of course, my hours are unpredictable when I’m dealing with overseas markets.”

  He gave a reason for them not seeing each other. Teddy also had an explanation. “My weekends are often taken up with weddings. And unless you attend as many as I do, we’d never meet.”

  “Not unless our mothers had something to do with it,” he said.

  * * *

  The streets of Princeton were nearly deserted when Teddy and Adam left the restaurant. The September night was clear and unseasonably warm. Teddy couldn’t believe they’d stayed so late. Talking to Adam had been mostly pleasant after they broke the ice and agreed that they would eat together only because they were hungry. And when she realized they wouldn’t be seeing each other again, it was easier to relax.

  He had a nice voice, deep and rich. It reminded her of late nights listening to “music for lovers only” on the radio. The DJs always had devastating voices that tended to reach through the woofers and grab hold of you. Teddy hadn’t thought of that in a while. Mainly her radio listening was done in the car while returning from a meeting or a wedding.

  Yet, Adam had that DJ kind of voice. It was reaching for her. And she was willingly leaning toward it. His breath had stirred her hair when he leaned close to her. And her own breathing became shallow and labored. Teddy’s gaze dropped to his lips and she wondered what it would feel like if he kissed her. Then she snapped back, stopping herself. What was happening to her?

  It was good to be outside, where the coziness of their surroundings didn’t play into a fantasy world. She thought about whether she would like to see him again. Of course, she would rather he liked weddings and respected what she did, but marriage and the business of marriage wasn’t for everyone. Adam had declared he was one of the ones who’d rather do without it. And that probably meant he’d rather do without her as a reminder.

  “My car is parked in the lot,” she said, looking behind them.

  Together they turned toward the nearly deserted area. Other than their cars, she was sure the remainder belonged to the restaurant staff who were cleaning up and ready to end the night’s work. Why hadn’t she noticed the bar noise dying down? Or the other dinner patrons leaving? She and Adam had been engrossed in conversation, but it was the first time ever for Teddy to be so oblivious of her surroundings that she didn’t realize they were alone.

  Adam didn’t touch her as he walked beside her to her car. Neither did he speak. She wondered what he was thinking. They could have gone on talking as long as they kept away from certain subjects, like weddings and marriage. Two that shouldn’t be discussed on a first date anyway. Except this was not a date.

  “Thanks for sharing my meal,” he said when they stood next to her car.

  Teddy thought he was being careful with his words. “I enjoyed it.” It wasn’t totally a lie, but it also wasn’t fully the truth. She pressed the button on her key fob and heard the door unlock. As she reached for the handle, Adam called her name. She stopped. Could she have imagined the softness of his voice? She turned back.

  Adam stepped closer to her. For no reason, her heartbeat accelerated. He leaned forward. Teddy leaned back an inch or so. Then his cheek brushed hers. Other than their initial handshake, this was the first time he touched her. His skin was smoothly shaven and warm. He held her for a short moment, not even long enough for her hands to reach his arms as they lifted to grasp him. Teddy didn’t move. She thought he was about to hug her. Her breath caught and held, but he only reached around her to open the car door. She got in and, without a word, Adam closed the door. He stepped back and she looked up at him.

  She started the car and, with a wave, pulled out of the parking space. As she reached the street, she glanced in the rearview mirror. Adam stood where she’d left him.

  Color me confused, she thought.

  * * *

  “How was the date?” Diana asked, setting a cup of coffee on Teddy’s desk.

  Teddy wasn’t working. Usually she would be. They had five weddings coming up in the next three months, but today her mind was on the man she’d had dinner with.

  She reached for the coffee and took a sip. “He’s got a dry humor. He hates weddings, doesn’t believe in happily ever after, he’s arrogant as hell and we won’t be se
eing each other again.”

  “That bad?”

  “Right off, we agreed to shake hands and say goodbye. But it wasn’t all bad. We had dinner.” Teddy noticed Diana’s eyebrows raise. “Only because we were both hungry,” Teddy finished.

  “What does he do?”

  “He’s the wizard of Wall Street. That’s Wall Street in Princeton.”

  “Investments?”

  Teddy nodded. “And he’s good at it. His words, not mine. So, if we’re ever ready to ditch our investments firm, I’m sure Sullivan Brothers Investments, Inc. would give us a personal presentation.”

  “You didn’t like him even a little bit?” Diana asked.

  “You know how I hate blind dates.”

  “I met Scott on a blind date.”

  Scott was Diana’s husband of six months. “How you met Scott is not the same. You and he had talked to each other online for months before you decided to meet. You knew a lot about each other. Even more after you discovered you’d known each other in college. Being set up with a total stranger in a bar is not the same thing.”

  “Well, at least you satisfied your mother’s requirement,” Diana told her. “The two of you met and had dinner.”

  Teddy took another sip of her coffee. And they talked. Teddy thought about the night and how they had been unaware of other people around them.

  “He was good-looking, though,” she mumbled, almost to herself.

  “Oh.” Again, Diana’s eyebrows rose.

  Teddy blinked, bringing herself back to the office and out of the restaurant where they’d talked. “He was very direct—”

  “Just like you,” Diana interrupted.

  “I am not direct,” Teddy protested.

  “Sure you’re not.” Sarcasm was present in her tone. “But don’t get off the subject. You were saying he was good-looking...”

  Teddy gave her a hard stare.

  “Was he tall enough? I noticed the shoes you changed into before you left yesterday had very high heels.”

  Diana knew Teddy’s height requirement. “He was tall enough.”