She glanced at the clock. “It’s nine now.” She counted on her fingers. “Ten, eleven, twelve. That’s three hours. I guess I can wait that long.” Her gaze landed on Zach for the first time. “Love Muffin? How about if you’s-a come over here and help Ava-wava to her chair? I’m feeling a bit dizzy.”
Zach bit his lip and stood, scooting his chair away with the backs of his knees. He met Stoudt’s gaze, and could’ve sworn he saw amusement. Zach circled the table, then slipped his arm around Ava’s waist. “You’re killing me,” he whispered into her ear, glad the hot episode between them last night hadn’t affected her willingness to play the game.
“I’m sorry, Love Muffin,” she said in a whisper loud enough for everyone to hear. “But it’s your fault I’m in this condition. We’re engaged now. You don’t need to get me drunk to take advantage of me anymore.” She giggled, then groaned, pressing fingers to her temples.
Zach practically lost his hold on her.
He glanced around the table. His mother didn’t look at them. Theresa stared out the window. Her husband stirred his coffee, his expression blank, and Garrett’s lips pressed so tightly together that Zach wanted to warn him to watch his blood pressure.
After seating Ava beside him, Zach turned to Stoudt. “Would you mind getting Ava some aspirin? I’m afraid she’s going to have a whopper of a headache.”
Before Stoudt could respond, Zach heard the unmistakable sound of pills rattling in a plastic bottle. He turned to see Ava pouring a whole bottle of aspirin into her mouth.
“Ava!” He grabbed the bottle from her hands. Her brows lifted behind her dark glasses. “Let’s not get carried away,” he muttered. “You’re going to make yourself sick.”
He could have sworn she batted her eyelashes before reaching for her water and taking a long drink. He half expected her to choke on all the pills, but she didn’t.
“I wouldn’t worry about it, brother,” Theresa deadpanned from across the table. “She’ll be throwing up after breakfast anyway.” She turned to Ava. “Isn’t that what models do to stay thin?”
Ava’s head whipped up, and she drummed her fingers on the tablecloth. Finally, she said, “That, and a whole lotta sex.”
Zach choked on his coffee, unable to save the tablecloth.
*****
Audrey collapsed on the bed, fists pumping in the air, convinced her performance at breakfast had done the trick. Zach certainly wouldn’t be in a hurry to marry a hung-over, pill-popping hussy.
“Ava baby, I’m coming home,” she muttered, kicking her feet with glee.
She couldn’t wait to leave Sun Valley, to leave Zach. Clearly, she had no self-control around him. She’d had every intention of breaking up with him last night. Instead, she’d come on his lap.
The knock on the door brought back her smile. That would be Zach.
Forcing the jubilant grin from her face, she took on her Ava persona for what should be the very last time. She slipped her feet into stiletto sandals before swinging open the door.
Zach whooped and swept his arms around her, then lifted her off the ground and swung her in a circle. He kicked the door shut and set her down. “Dollface, that was a riot. I almost pissed my pants, it was so good.”
She sat on the edge of the bed. “Are you psychotic? I just made a complete boob of myself-”
“Pardon the pun.” He grinned.
She glared at him. “Which should have made you furious, or at the very least embarrassed you, and you’re smiling like the Cheshire Cat.”
“I’m afraid I’m not following you.” The amusement faded from his face, replaced with a look of concern and puzzlement.
Great! He was psychotic and dense. “I can’t marry you, Zachary.” Whew. There, she’d said it. She wanted to wipe her brow in relief.
“What?”
She glanced away, questioning again her sister’s sanity. He was absolute ambrosia for the eyes. She slipped the engagement ring from her finger. “Look, Zachary. I think you’re a really nice man, and we obviously have a good time together, but I just don’t love you and don’t want to marry you.” Good. She couldn’t be more blunt than that. She waited for his outburst.
When he didn’t say anything, she turned to see his reaction. Zach bent forward, his face resting in his hands, and his shoulders shook.
Oh, God. She rushed over to him. “I’m so sorry.” She reached out and touched his shoulder. “Don’t be upset.”
Zach whipped upright and grabbed her face, and gave her a big, smacking kiss before releasing her. When he pulled back, his laughter echoed between them.
“My God, Ava. You are priceless.”
She stepped backward. “I don’t understand you.”
He motioned with his hands. “This is too much. Dollface, I think we have ourselves a little misunderstanding.”
Her ears buzzed a warning. “In what way?” Did she really want the answer?
“Do you remember our phone conversation last week, when I invited you up here for the weekend?”
She blinked. Then blinked again. “Ah, of course I remember.”
“What was my reason for asking you here?”
“You wanted me to meet your family.”
He nodded. “And?”
Audrey scanned her memory for everything Ava had told her about her conversation with Zach. The “F” word! “You mentioned the word ‘fiancée.’”
“And?”
“Why don’t you just tell me where you’re going with this?” She fisted her hands at her sides, the prongs of the ring digging into her palm.
“Remember me telling you how, when Theresa and I were in high school and college, we’d bring dates home we knew our parents would hate? And how they often tried to set us up on dates with people they thought were perfect for us?”
Dizziness enveloped her as comprehension crept into her mind.
“Recently, my parents took their matchmaking scheme too far.” A shadow crossed his face, and he looked away for a moment. “I thought it was time to break out the game again, by bringing home a woman completely wrong for them. Any of this ringing a bell?”
Understanding sunk into Audrey’s pores, and her stomach roiled. “You wanted a fake fiancée.” She squeezed the ring in her hand.
He nodded, and his expression changed from amused to somber. “Ava, I-”
She held up her hand to stop his words, then turned away.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I thought you understood. On the phone, you-”
She turned back around. “So you have no interest in marrying me?”
His apologetic gaze bore into hers. “None. I’m sorry.”
“And the fun we had last night wasn’t because you love me?”
He shook his head, and relief flooded through her. Thank God, she hadn’t broken his heart. Ava had panicked over nothing.
“Whew!” She threw herself backward on the bed, arms overhead, her red leather bustier riding up her torso.
“Don’t act so upset,” he deadpanned.
She rose on one elbow. “Nothing personal, Zachary, but I don’t want to marry you, either. Do you realize the lengths I’ve gone to, trying to convince you to break up with me? I broke into the kitchen last night, for goodness’ sake. I stole some dry beans to put into the aspirin bottle. Those beans are probably expanding in my stomach as we speak.”
He cocked his head. “You wanted to force me to break up with you?”
She nodded. “I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
He held up a hand and chuckled. “You’ve outdone yourself.”
She sat up, drawing her knees beneath her. She lowered her gaze, and a blush heated her face. “If you wanted to marry Av-ah, me-as I thought, then I figured you must really care about me. I wanted to let you down gently.”
He nodded once, then sat down beside her, his fingers curling over the edge of the mattress. “You are full of surprises, Ava Divine.”
“You have no idea,” she muttered.
Their gazes caught, and again her insides tugged. Too bad he thought she was someone else.
“Last night really messed me up,” she said. “I shouldn’t have gotten so carried away, since I was planning on breaking up with you.” Her skin burned hotter. She resisted covering her face with her hands.
“So last night…was all part of your plan,” he said, his voice light, like he didn’t care either way.
“No! I didn’t expect that to happen.” She glanced at him from beneath her lashes. “But I’m glad it did. Well, except for the boob part.” She giggled and held out her hand, uncurling her fingers from around the engagement ring. “Guess I won’t need this anymore.”
He returned her smile and stood. “How would you like to wear that for a couple more days, now that you know my heart’s not pining for you?”
She chewed on her lower lip at the unwarranted hurt, then pushed the feeling aside. “So your sister is in on this? She knows we’re not really engaged?”
“She suspects I’m up to my old tricks, yes. Don’t expect any help from her, though-she thinks we’ll never convince them.”
She grinned and slipped his ring back onto her finger. “I think she’s going to be eating her words, Mr. Banister.”
Chapter Five
“I could strangle you right now, Ava,” Audrey hissed into the cell phone.
“What did I do?”
“It’s what you didn’t do. What you didn’t tell me.” Audrey paced to the windows and peered out at the empty pool.
“What are you talking about?”
“Hmm, let’s see. Where should I start? Oh, yes. How about, Zachary Banister never wanted to marry you.”
“What!”
“Yep. And how about, this weekend is all just a joke to get even with his family. You send me here to do something that was your responsibility, and I make a total boob of myself, all because you weren’t listening.” Speaking of, she adjusted her falsies, closing her eyes to make last night’s memory disappear. When Ava didn’t respond, Audrey said, “Well? Don’t you have anything to say to me?”
“Some guy named Rod left you a message. Who is he? He sounds cute.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of ‘I’m sorry, Audrey.’ Or ‘How silly of me, Audrey.’ Or ‘Thanks so much for everything, Audrey. You always come through for me.’”
She waited.
Finally, Ava said, “Okay. Sure. Those things. So who’s Rod?”
“He’s a neighbor, and the principal at my school.”
“Isn’t that unethical?”
“We’re not dating.”
“Why? Is he ugly, bald, or fat?”
“None of the above. I’m just not sure I want to get involved with him.”
There was a pause on the line. “You need to lighten up, Aud. Stop looking for Mr. Perfect, and be happy with Mr. Right Now.”
“I should take romantic advice from you? She whose entire love life has been a procession of Mr. Right Nows?” Audrey paced back across the room, trailing her fingers along the footboard of the bed. She stopped under her buddy, the deer head.
Audrey wanted to meet Mr. Right, someone she could picture herself with in fifty years. Even though she’d recently turned thirty, desperation didn’t define her yet. Just hope.
“Down! Down, dog. Audrey, your dog’s breath really stinks. Do they make doggie breath mints? When did you say you’re coming home?”
“I’m staying through the weekend as planned.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you promised Zach you’d help him.”
“I promised him no such thing.”
“Maybe you don’t remember, just as you don’t remember other things about that conversation, but you did promise him, Ava. And because we Thompsons are girls of our word, I’m going to stay. Besides, like you’ve been telling me for years, I need some excitement in my life. Here’s my chance.”
“Well, be careful okay? I’ve known Zach Banister for a long time. I’ve seen the effect he has on women. I don’t want you getting any stupid ideas.”
“Gee. Thanks.” She glanced up at the deer head. “Don’t look at me like that,” she muttered to her taxidermied friend.
“I don’t mean it in a negative way, Aud. But I’ve seen the type of women he’s dated. He dates women like me. You live in a small town, grow your own vegetables, stay home at night, and sit on your front porch watching sunsets…”
“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves here, sis. I’m not planning on falling in love with the man.”
“What did he say when you told him who you really were?”
Audrey’s face warmed. “He didn’t say anything.”
“He wasn’t, like, totally shocked and ticked off?”
The deer head stared at her, silent. She headed back to the windows. “I haven’t actually told him yet.”
“What? Why not?” Ava shrilled.
Audrey pulled the phone away from her ear. “That would just complicate everything,” she said toward the receiver. After a moment, she brought the phone back to her ear. “It was Ava Divine he invited here, so it should be Ava Divine who rides out the weekend.”
But it would be Audrey Thompson’s head on the wall if she screwed up.
*****
Zach glanced up at Ava’s balcony. She was supposed to join him at the pool. He couldn’t wait to see what she had up her sleeve this time.
Having a fiancée, especially a phony fiancée, was much more fun than he expected. He still couldn’t believe she thought he’d been serious about wanting to marry her, how she’d said “yes” just to spare his feelings.
Stretching his bare legs on the chaise lounge, he pulled the baseball cap over his face and closed his eyes, thinking about last night with her. For all the years he’d known her, he’d never kissed her like that. He’d never wanted to.
Maybe he’d never really tried to get to know her. Despite her outrageous exterior, he sensed a realness and vulnerability inside her that he’d never noticed before.
“Holy Christ,” Garrett Banister muttered from across the pool.
Zach nudged up his cap to see what had caused his father’s quiet but forceful outburst. His jaw dropped.
Ava Divine and her body had arrived. She stood beside the pool deck, her gorgeous figure barely covered in a candy-apple red bikini. Her luscious breasts looked ready to fall out of the tiny scraps of material, and Zach’s palms began to sweat. Her blond-streaked hair hung loose around her shoulders in an artfully messy tangle like she’d been making love all morning. Black cat-eye sunglasses shielded her eyes from the bright mountain sun.
Swallowing back a lump the size of Bald Mountain from his throat, Zach shifted in his chair to hide his growing interest in Miss Divine’s amazing assets.
“Hi, Love Muffin!” she called, blowing him a kiss. “Wanna see something really incredible?”
Oh, yeah. Did he ever. “Sure thing, baby,” he called back, his voice breaking.
She glided across the deck toward the deep end, her hips swaying with every step. She removed her sunglasses and set them on a nearby lounge. Did she plan to do a strip tease for him? Liquid fire shot straight to his groin. But here? In front of his entire family? No.
She surprised him by starting up the ladder of the high dive. “Are you watching?” she called from the fifteen-foot platform.
“Can’t take my eyes off you,” he said, his gaze glued to her shapely backside, which flexed and wiggled with every slow step up that ladder.
Could he possibly be more turned on? He imagined those long, toned legs wrapped around his hips as he buried himself deep inside her. Yeah. He could.
He pulled the cap from his head and set it on his lap, hiding his arousal.
She walked to the front of the diving board, the lines of her body fluid and lithe. He sensed the gazes of everyone present fixed on her as well.
Balancing on the edge by her toes, she gave a little jump in the air,
raising her arms overhead like a ballerina. Then she leapt from the springboard. Just as Zach imagined a perfectly executed dive, she shouted, “Cannon ball!” tucked her legs into her chest, and landed in the water with a splash that soaked everyone on the perimeter.
Amidst the outraged sputtering from his family, Zach found himself smiling ear to ear. He rose from the lounge and headed to the edge of the pool. Her body moved through the deep water, and she emerged like a mermaid right in front of him, her hair slicked back and dark with water, her skin glistening like dew in the morning sun.
Squatting, he reached down to help her out. Instead, she tugged him into the water and pressed her near-naked body against his. His body reacted despite the mental reminder that this wasn’t for real. For either of them.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled his face closer. Just when he expected to feel her soft mouth upon his, she whispered, “I lost my boob.”
Zach choked back a laugh. “Excuse me?”
“My fake boob slipped out of my top, and is somewhere at the bottom of your pool,” she muttered, then nibbled on his earlobe. An arrow of fire shot directly to his groin.
“How did that happen?” he asked, running his hands up and down her bare back, feeling goose bumps rise on her skin. From his touch, or the cool water?
She raked her fingers through his hair, and peered deep into his eyes. “There’s a little pocket inside the bikini top that’s supposed to keep it secure.” She kissed a path to his ear. “Will you dive down and get it for me while I stay against the side here? Pretty please?” She batted her long eyelashes. From this close proximity, he saw they were real.
“You’re beautiful,” he said before he could edit his thoughts.
Her face turned a flattering shade of pink, and she dropped her gaze. “My boob, please, before someone sees it down there.” She made a motion with her head to the right. Theresa’s husband stood and stretched in his Speedo, looking like he intended to dive in next.
Before he could stop himself, Zach planted a big kiss on her full mouth. She tasted of sunshine and sexy promises. Pulling back, he said, “I’ll be right back, dollface.” He dove beneath the surface of the water, its coolness doing little to quench the inferno raging through his body.
Passionate Kisses 2 Boxed Set: Love in Bloom Page 127
