“Damn it,” Jansen muttered.
“It would be nice if you’d stop running,” Bradley said, ignoring the people staring at them.
“I’m not running,” she said, rising to her feet. Bradley looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Donovan shot Bradley a questioning look.
“Hey, brother, this is kind of weird because it looks to me like Jansen doesn’t want to be bothered right now,” Donovan said.
“It’s all right,” Jansen said, noticing the tightening of Bradley’s jaw. “Bradley’s going to leave.”
“No, I’m not. We can finish this here in front of an audience or we can talk in private—either way, we’re doing this.”
She shook her head. “There’s nothing left to do.” Jansen grabbed her purse. “Tell Shelby I’m sorry, but I won’t be at the wedding.” She tore off running down the street. When Bradley started to follow her, Donovan hopped over the railing and grabbed his arm.
“Don’t know what’s going on, but give her some space. Let her calm down,” he said.
“Get your hands off me.” Bradley snatched away from him.
“Look, man, I’m guessing that you’re not some stalker fan and you two have history, but let the lady breathe for a second.”
Dove crossed over to the men as if she could sense the tension between them. “Guys,” she said, “I know Jansen, and if she needs a moment, let her have it. I’m going to call her and make sure everything is all right.” She turned to Bradley. “What did you do to her?”
“Let her walk out of my life, and I’m not going to let it happen again.”
Dove brought her hand to her mouth. He was the one. “Wait—Bradley Stephens. Oh, my... I should’ve put it together.”
He furrowed his brows and looked at her as if wings had sprouted from her shoulders. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve heard some things about you, good and bad. And for you two to reconnect in Paris. There’s something old Hollywood about it,” Dove said as she clasped her hands. She turned to Donovan and smiled. “Maybe we should see if we can help them. After all, we’re in the most romantic city in the world.”
Donovan stroked her arm. “We should mind our business.”
Bradley grabbed a napkin from the table and wrote his number down on it, then handed it to Dove. “I’m going to catch up with my sister. If you hear from Jansen, tell her to call me.”
Donovan took the napkin before Dove reached for it. “Like I said. We’re going to mind our business.”
Bradley decided that it was best for him to leave rather that do something he’d later regret. Heading up the street, he was surprised to see Shelby and Jacques standing outside another café. The look on his sister’s face told him that she wasn’t happy. The last thing he needed was Shelby’s drama right now.
“You!” she snapped when she spotted her brother. “What did you do to her?”
Jacques tapped his fiancée’s shoulder. “Calm down,” he whispered in French.
“Non!” Shelby pointed her manicured finger at him. “Jansen said she’s not coming to my wedding, and I know it has something to do with whatever you said to her in the salon back there.”
“All I said to her was that I love her. Where did she go?”
“Wait. What? You told her that?” Shelby’s scowl turned into a smile. “I’m glad you came to your senses.”
“Where is she?”
“Probably at her hotel booking a flight out of here. She made me promise not to tell you, and you can’t go after her now!”
“Maybe I can stop her from leaving. Jacques, give me your keys.”
“What?” he asked, a befuddled look clouding his dark and handsome face.
“Nope,” Shelby said as she snatched the keys from her fiancé. “I’m getting married in three days. This is not happening! Besides, Jansen needs a chance to get her head together.”
“Did she tell you that?” Bradley asked, seconds from losing his patience and ripping the keys from his sister’s hand.
“No, but don’t you think this is a lot for her to take in? You breezing into her life telling her what she needed to hear years ago. I’d go to Jamaica, too. Oh, merde.”
“Jamaica?” Bradley said, now wishing he’d taken Dove’s number. He sprinted back down the street hoping to locate Jansen’s assistant and find out where in the world Jansen took off to in Jamaica.
* * *
Jansen started to ignore the constant ringing of her cell phone as she hopped into a taxi to head to the airport. She had packed faster than a zebra running from a lion in the savanna. She wasn’t running, she was just saving herself from another heartbreak. At least that’s what she told herself. When she’d planned her new future, she hadn’t expected that Bradley wanted a position in it. But could she trust that she wouldn’t end up without him again?
After all, she thought he’d made this new life without her. Why are you leaving? her inner voice called out as she reached into her bag for her cell phone. When she saw that it was Dove, she hit the ignore button again.
She only needed a few days to think, and though the last-minute trip to her vacation home in Rio Nuevo was going to cost her a fortune, it was well worth it. As she reached the boarding gate, her phone rang again. Jansen knew she couldn’t keep ignoring Dove.
“Yes, Dove?” she said, answering without looking at the caller identification.
“Sorry, it’s Shelby,” her friend said. “Jansen, I love you, girl.”
“What did you do?”
“It was an accident, let me make that clear.”
“Shell?”
“I accidentally told Bradley you were on your way to Jamaica.”
“Damn it! If I wanted him to know, I would’ve invited him,” Jansen growled.
The ticket agent gave her a confused look. Nodding at the woman as if to say everything was all right, she told Shelby she had to go.
“If you turn around and come to my wedding, you’ll miss him.”
“Goodbye, Shelby,” she said as she handed the agent her boarding pass.
Chapter 10
Bradley stalked around his hotel room like a caged beast. Kenyon shook his head as he watched his brother. “You need to get your life together, brother,” he said, then crossed over to the minibar and poured himself a drink. “She left, let it go. Sometimes everything isn’t meant to be.”
“Shut up.”
Kenyon took a sip of his drink and shrugged. “She bolted on you. If that doesn’t answer your questions, I don’t know what will. So she’s not engaged, but she isn’t trying to start over with you, either.”
“Shut up!” Bradley walked over to the minibar and poured himself a drink, as well. “What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“You have two choices.”
Bradley raised his eyebrow at Kenyon as he spoke. “And they are...?” he asked.
“Go after her and maybe make a fool of yourself or continue to be miserable and make the women of Atlanta miserable, then find yourself on an episode of Snapped.”
“You’re annoying me. Where in Jamaica can she be?”
Kenyon took a seat on the sofa and shook his head. “How is it that I remember more about your woman than you do? Remember after the accident when we wanted to get away from the media and all the well-wishers?”
“Yeah, right before you sued me,” Bradley said sarcastically.
“Are you ever going to let that go? How many times do I have to say I was wrong?”
“We went to...”
“Rio Nuevo,” they said in concert. Bradley nodded.
“I bet that’s where she’s going. She loves that place,” Bradley said.
“Before you go rushing off to Jamaica, don’t you think you owe it to Shelby to stay here and walk h
er down the aisle, Mr. Family Values?”
“She called you already?”
He nodded and downed the remainder of his drink. “We came to Paris for our sister. After the wedding you can go after Jansen and try to have this idyllic life you think is still waiting for you.”
Bradley knew he couldn’t disappoint Shelby. After the wedding, he was going to get his woman back.
The next few days in Paris, Bradley felt as if he was in a daze. While his sister reveled in the festivities of the wedding—the parties, the dress fitting and more parties—he wondered if it would be like this for him and Jansen when they finally professed their love to the world.
By the time Shelby’s wedding day rolled around, Bradley could only think of one thing as he walked his little sister down the aisle and into the arms of Jacques Luc, saying I do to Jansen.
All he had to do was convince her they belonged together.
* * *
Silence, except for the waves gently crashing against the shore, should’ve given Jansen peace. There were no cameras following her around Rio Nuevo, even though the tabloids had started telling the tale of Jansen’s devastating breakup with Donovan and his relationship with her assistant. The fact that she and Donovan never had a relationship didn’t get in the way of a good story. She’d counted her blessings for being able to avoid the paparazzi while in Paris. Lord knows she’d had a couple of public spats that would’ve filled the blogs and tabloids for days.
While Jansen was happy that Dove and Donovan had found each other, she wondered if it was true love or would Dove face a harsh heartbreak as she had with Bradley?
Was he for real now? Did he really love her and want a future together? Why hadn’t she given him the chance that she knew he deserved? Fear.
“When did I become a coward?” she muttered as she shifted in the hammock. The wind blew over her and she sighed. There were only a few more days for her to wallow in her self-imposed paradise prison before she had to return to Paris for Donovan’s show. Would Bradley still be there or had she run him off this time?
Rising from the hammock, she untied her sarong and walked toward the beach. A swim would clear her head, at least she hoped that it would. Diving into the clear blue water, she swam about a half a mile out from shore, then decided that she was a little too distracted for a long swim. She’d been thinking about Shelby’s wedding and hoped that her friend would forgive her for not being there two days ago. There was no way she would’ve been able to watch Bradley in a tuxedo and not think of what could’ve been.
Stepping out of the water, she pushed her wet tresses off her forehead, and she must have been hallucinating because there was no way Bradley Stephens was standing on the steps of her cabana.
“Hello, Jansen,” he said.
Now she was losing her mind, because the mirage was talking. Blinking, she realized that she wasn’t seeing things. Bradley was here.
“How did you...”
“Jamaica. I remembered how much this place meant to you and how it helped us after Mom and Dad died. I meant what I said in Paris.”
“You said a lot in Paris,” she said with a smile. He stepped down and closed the space between them. She drank in his casual image, beige linen suit, brown leather sandals and Ray-Bans covering his eyes. Despite the shades, she felt his gaze roaming her wet body, clad in a red bikini.
“Red is your color,” he said with an appreciative smile.
“Bradley, I’m sure you didn’t fly all this way to tell me I look good in red.” She stepped away from him and headed up the steps to retrieve a towel. He touched her elbow and stopped her in her tracks.
“When I walked Shelby down the aisle, I wondered what it would be like to be Jacques. Standing there waiting for the woman he loves to meet him at the altar and begin their life together. I was a little jealous.”
“Why?”
“Because I’d run the woman I love away again. This time, I knew I had to find you immediately,” he said as he spun her around and held her against his chest. Her dampness seeped through his suit, but he didn’t care. Just feeling her warmth against him caused his blood to heat. Bringing his lips against hers, he kissed her soft and deep. Jansen melted against his body, her loud doubts that brought her to Jamaica dulled to a quiet whisper as he nibbled her bottom lip.
Moaning, Jansen closed her eyes, almost feeling as if she was in the middle of one of her dreams. The moment she felt his hands stroking her back, she knew it wasn’t a dream.
“Jansen,” he moaned as he slipped his hands inside her bikini bottom. Cupping her behind, he brushed his lips across her neck. “I want our future.”
“What?”
“Marry me.” He kissed her neck and she shivered.
“I—I... What about the center? How are you going to run the center in Atlanta while I’m starting my business in New York?”
Bradley smiled. “That’s the good thing about a family business—you have help. And if New York is where you need to be, then I’m going to be right next to you.” He rubbed his hands up her sides.
She smiled, her eyes filling with tears. “Bradley,” she whispered.
He took her face in his hands and kissed her again. “I have never loved anyone as much as I love you. Jansen, you stole my heart and never gave it back.”
“Bradley, I’ve tried to get over you. I wanted to believe that you’d moved on and had this family in Atlanta. I turned down several modeling gigs there because I didn’t want to run into your wife or see a little boy running around Peachtree Street with eyes like yours.”
“You were in no danger of seeing that because if I couldn’t have that life with you, I didn’t want it.”
“And you want it now?”
He nodded. “I want it right now.”
“How can we just—”
“Do you love me?” The heat from his breath sent shivers down her spine.
“Yes.”
“Then, here’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “Donovan and Dove are here with that dress you tried on in Paris. Shelby and Jacques Luc are making me pay for their honeymoon here and Kenyon is looking for a pastor or justice of the peace.”
She tilted her head and glanced at him. “What are you saying?”
“That you’ll be my wife by sunset. Let’s go inside.”
Jansen, though she was a bit confused, followed Bradley inside the villa and gasped when she saw Donovan and Dove standing there with the dress.
“What in the...”
“Congratulations,” Dove said with a huge smile on her face. “When Shelby told me the story about you two, I had to help.”
“And,” Donovan said, “I can’t think of a better way to premiere my wedding dress collection than having the Face actually get married in the showstopper.”
“But you have to get cleaned up first,” Shelby said as she walked in the front door. “And even though you dipped out on my wedding, I’m going to make sure you and jerk face over here make it down the aisle because you two are wearing me out!”
“Shut up, Shell,” Bradley said.
Jansen shook her head, overwhelmed at everything that was going on. “We’re really doing this?”
“Yes. Unless you can think of a reason why we shouldn’t.”
She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. “No. Only that we should’ve done this a long time ago.”
Shelby and Dove linked arms with Jansen. “Come on, let’s go.” While the ladies headed upstairs, Bradley and Donovan stood in silence.
Finally, Bradley got tired of just watching the designer when he had questions about the true nature of his relationship with Jansen. Before he could get his question out, Donovan laughed. “I know what you’re thinking, and no.”
“You and Jansen...”
“
Are just business partners. I have to say she did inspire my latest line, and were it not for her, Dove and I would’ve never met. Trust me, if there was something between Jansen and me, I wouldn’t have given up so easily. Maybe now the tabloids will move on to something else.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Bradley said as he headed over to the bar in the corner of the room and pulled out a bottle of rum.
“How did you know following her here wouldn’t leave you with egg on your face?” Donovan asked when Bradley handed him a glass of rum and cola.
“I didn’t. But when you really love someone, you just have to take that leap of faith.” The men clinked glasses.
“You’d better go get ready,” Donovan said as he glanced at his watch.
“Thanks for bringing the dress. When I saw her standing in that wedding gown in Paris, I knew it wasn’t too late.”
Donovan laughed. “And you thought she was getting ready to marry me. Rule number one in being with the Face—don’t believe anything you read.”
“True that!” Bradley said, then headed outside to his car. If Kenyon found a pastor or justice of the peace, he would have his wish and be making love to his wife by the time the sun set.
* * *
“Is this really happening?” Jansen asked her friends as she smoothed gloss across her lips.
“The better question is—is this finally happening?” Shelby quipped as she toyed with her friend’s hair.
“All this time I thought you were just superpicky, but if I had that man waiting for me, I would’ve been the same way,” Dove said. She held up her phone and snapped a picture of Jansen as she stood up and looked at her reflection in the mirror.
“I had no idea he was waiting for me,” she said.
“That’s because you wouldn’t let me tell you,” Shelby said, then picked up her cell phone to snap a picture of her future sister-in-law. “Both of you have been miserable all this time and too damn stubborn to admit that you still love each other.”
“Point taken, Shelby.”
Blissful Summer: Make You Mine AgainUnraveled Page 8
