by Maya Banks
She jammed the card into the lock, listened for the snick and then shoved it open. She stepped inside and slammed the door in Evan’s face.
Her feet were killing her, she was angry as hell and she was hungry. And she needed to figure out how to get off this damn island.
She kicked off her shoes and then sat on the edge of the couch next to the table with the hotel directory and a telephone. Surely the front desk could make arrangements for her departure.
The sound of the door opening had her on her feet again, and she glared indignantly as Evan walked in and shut the door behind him. He held up another key card in explanation.
He looked tired and resigned.
“Look, I know you’re angry.”
She held up a hand. “Don’t you dare patronize me. You have no idea how furious I am. Angry doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
He blew out his breath and ran a hand through his hair. He tossed his suit coat onto the arm of the couch.
She pointed to the door with a shaking finger. “Out. I won’t share a suite with you. I don’t care how many bedrooms it has.”
“I need a drink,” Evan muttered.
The man wouldn’t even fight with her, and by God she wanted a fight.
“You never had any intention of listening to my ideas, did you?”
He stopped on his way over to the liquor cabinet and turned back around to stare at her. He had the audacity to look puzzled.
“I’ve been such an idiot. I can’t believe I fell for this crap. How this was the only time you could fit me in. Blah, blah, blah. How naive does that make me? How stupid does it make me?”
He held up a hand and took a step in her direction. “Celia …”
“Don’t Celia me,” she whispered furiously. It galled her that she could feel the prick of tears. He would not make her cry. She was through letting men make her cry.
She needed to pull it together and be professional. A really nasty, vivid curse word, one that she’d learned from her brothers burst into her mind. It was certainly appropriate under the circumstances.
Screw professional.
“I have had it with men who manipulate me because of my looks. Here’s a clue. I can’t help the way I look and it doesn’t give you the license to use me or make assumptions about my character. And it damn sure doesn’t give you the right to use me to lie to your mother because your fiancée humiliated you by dumping you for your brother. Here’s another clue. Crap happens. It happens all the time. Get over it.”
Evan’s hands closed over her shoulders. She tried to flinch away, but he held tight. There was honest regret in his eyes, but there was also determination. Stubborn determination.
“Sit down, Celia,” he ordered in a low voice.
She gaped at him.
“Please.”
It was the please that did it. Or maybe it was how tired and resigned he sounded. Or maybe it was the bleak light that entered his eyes. Or maybe she was just a flaming idiot who deserved everything she got for being sucked into this in the first place.
She sank onto the sofa, her entire body trembling as he took a seat beside her.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t expect you to believe I didn’t do this maliciously or to hurt you. I swear, I didn’t.”
She cast a sideways glance at him.
He sighed. “Someone really did a number on you, didn’t they?”
She turned away, refusing to give him confirmation.
“Celia, look at me.”
He waited, and she stared ahead. Still, he waited. Finally, she gave in and turned to look at him.
“I completely and utterly messed this up. I freely admit it. I expected to have time to discuss this with you before we ran into my family.”
She struggled to control her temper. He obviously wanted a reasonable discussion when she was feeling anything but reasonable. What she really wanted was to crack his skull on the coffee table and leave, but then she’d be without a room, and if anyone was sleeping in the hallway, it wasn’t going to be her.
“First, this has nothing—and I mean nothing—to do with you landing my account. You’re going to have to do that on your business and advertising savvy. I’m not putting my entire company in the hands of a woman based on her looks or anything else. Can we at least be clear on that?”
She swallowed. “That’s not how it looks to me, Evan. It looks to me like I got played for the fool and that you led me here on the premise of listening to my pitch when you never had any intention of this being about business. Tell me this much, have you already signed with Golden Gate? You owe me that much honesty at least.”
Evan gripped a handful of his hair and closed his eyes. “You’re pissed. I get it. You have every right to be, but will you please listen to my explanation. If afterward you want me to take a flying leap, I’ll be more than happy to accommodate you. You’ll never hear from me again.”
“I think you know I don’t have any other choice,” she said helplessly.
“I’ll try to make this as short and as concise as possible.”
She nodded.
“I didn’t have any intention of coming to this damn wedding. I couldn’t care less if they live happily ever after and I have even less interest in being here to wish them well along that path to happily ever after.
“Then my mother called and she begged me to come. She was worried that I wasn’t over Bettina and that’s why I wouldn’t come. The woman has a heart of gold, but she obviously knows nothing about me or she’d realize that Bettina was nothing to me the moment she left me for what she perceived to be the better catch.”
“Harsh,” Celia murmured.
“Is it? I’m only speaking the truth. Bettina was calculating. She hedged her bets and went with Mitchell as soon as he was named my father’s successor in the family jewelry business. To her it seemed a more glamorous life. I’d like to be a fly on the wall when she realizes how wrong she is.”
Celia’s lips curled in amusement. “Not feeling a wee bit vindictive, are you?”
He gave a short laugh. “I may not harbor any love for the woman, and I may not be a bit sorry that she’s out of my life, but she is a manipulative cat, and I won’t be sorry to see her suffer for the choice she made.”
“So your mom doesn’t think you’re over Bettina. That has what to do with me and this hoax you’re perpetuating? Which I really resent by the way because your mom is nice. I feel like pond scum for deceiving her.”
“I’m getting there. Just bear with me. When I got off the phone with Mom, I was angry because I let her talk me into going and I said as a last-minute thing that I was bringing someone. I fully intended to look up someone I’d seen casually in the past. Then I remembered that Friday I was supposed to be meeting you and that this meeting was extremely important to me. It seemed logical to combine the two and bring you out with me. I didn’t lie about needing to move on this fast. I’ve wasted weeks listening to pitches. I’m ready to move.”
“I’m still seeing a but here,” she muttered.
“The but occurred when Bettina herself came to see me. She was steamed that I had the audacity to bring someone to her wedding. She felt like it was a poke in the eye at her, and if you can believe, she honestly thinks I’m still pining over her. She basically accused me of being a fraud and of trying to upstage her at her own wedding.”
Celia burst out laughing. God, he didn’t even see it. How typical a clueless male was he.
“What’s so damn funny?” he demanded.
“She accused you of doing exactly what you’re doing! The audacity. You crack me up.”
He blinked and then looked a little sheepish. “Okay, I get it. I’m an immature, egotistical man. The male ego is obviously a fragile creature. I think we can agree on that. Yes, it occurred to me to get a little of mine back on her by showing up with a gorgeous, stunning woman. Sue me. I even hatched the whole engagement scheme complete with the ring because I figured it was the best way to
get them all off my back.”
Her shoulders shook and she closed her eyes. The man was nothing if not honest. She had to give him that much.
“Celia, look at me, please.”
His entreating tone had her turning once more to stare into those intense green eyes. He looked earnest, and he looked. worried.
“I didn’t do any of this to hurt you, I swear. I thought if I just came out and asked you to do me this favor, you’d have never agreed to come with me, even with the promise of listening to your pitch.”
“So you lured me here and ambushed me instead,” she said drily.
“It didn’t go exactly as I’d planned. I’d hoped to have a nice dinner together in our suite and I was going to ask you to do me a personal favor then. I was going to outline the entire charade and ask you to play along. Just for the time we’re here. But that all went to hell when we immediately ran into my parents.”
His hand crept over hers, and she didn’t pull away. She should. She should already be on her way back to San Francisco, and she should be calling Brock to tell him that there was no way in hell she was delivering Evan Reese on a platter to Maddox Communications.
She pressed her lips together and tried to collect her scattered thoughts. “So you want me to pretend to be your fiancée.” She lifted her hand to angle the huge diamond in the light. “Complete with a really gorgeous ring. What happens after the wedding?”
Evan shrugged. “We break up quietly later. They’ll never know the difference. We don’t see each other that often. One day Mom will call and I’ll say ‘oh, by the way, Celia and I broke things off.’ And that will be that.”
She shook her head. “All of this because you couldn’t stand the thought of your fiancée thinking you weren’t over her?”
Evan scowled. “It’s not that simple. There are other factors. Besides, we’ve already established the fact that I’m an egotistical, immature male. We don’t have to go back into that territory.”
“Poor baby.” She patted his arm and then laughed at his disgruntled look. “I can’t believe I’m even considering this.”
His eyes glinted predatorily. “But you are.”
“Yes, dammit, I am. I’m a sucker for immature, egotistical males. But we need to establish a few ground rules.”
“Of course,” he said solemnly.
“My reputation is everything to me, Evan,” she said quietly. “I won’t have any notion of impropriety attached to this account. I won’t have it bandied around that I got the account because I slept with you.”
Something that looked an awful lot like lust gleamed in his eyes a second before he blinked and adopted a more serious expression.
“This favor is separate. If I don’t like your ideas, you’ll go home without my business. It’s that simple. Agreeing to be my fake fiancée doesn’t buy you anything but my gratitude. It won’t land you Reese Enterprises. Are we clear on that?”
“Crystal,” she said. “Tell me something, Evan. If I refuse to play the part of your lover, are you still going to hear my pitch? Are you even going to consider Maddox?”
“Well, I do have a fragile ego, remember?”
“Will you be serious?”
A grin worked at the corners of her mouth. She should be mad as hell at this man, not entertained by his self-effacing wit. And she definitely shouldn’t be attracted to his boyish charm or his straightforward handling of this entire ridiculous affair.
“I tell you what, Celia. The plan was always to have a quiet dinner in tonight where I could explain my plan and beg you to go along. Then tomorrow morning we were going to have our business meeting, again, in the privacy of our hotel suite. Afterward we would perpetuate my silly hoax on my brother and his grasping, manipulative bride-to-be. See? Completely separate.”
“You are completely irreverent, and I’m disgusted that I like it so much.”
He smiled, and his eyes twinkled with amusement. “You’re as diabolical as I am, face it.”
“I could have used some of your evilness in the past. That’s for sure. I’m a little envious of how you don’t mind poking your finger in the eyes of those who have screwed you over. I need to learn how to do that.”
He cocked his head to the side. “What happened to you, Celia?”
She flushed and turned away. “It’s nothing. Definitely in the past and that’s where I want it to stay.”
“Okay. Fair enough. But I hope one day you’ll tell me.”
“We don’t have that kind of relationship,” she said lightly.
“No,” he murmured. “We don’t. Not yet.”
Her gaze lifted but his expression didn’t betray his thoughts. She swallowed the knot in her throat and hoped she wasn’t making a huge, huge mistake. So much could go wrong with this.
“You’re so worried about the position I’ve placed you in,” he said. “But the truth is, if I don’t like your ideas tomorrow morning, what’s to say that you don’t leave me to face the festivities on my own? I’d say that gives you all the power and none to me.”
“Or you could just say you like my ideas to keep me on the line long enough to get through the wedding,” she pointed out. “Nothing to say that you don’t dump me the minute we get back to San Francisco.”
He nodded. “True. All of it is true. Looks like we both have some trusting to do.”
She looked down at her hand that was still underneath his. His thumb pressed into her palm, and his fingers lay still over hers, but the warmth of his touch spread up her entire arm and into her chest.
She liked this man. Genuinely liked him, stupid ambush aside. He hadn’t sugarcoated any of it. And above all else, she liked honesty. He hadn’t shied away from how the entire situation made him look. It certainly didn’t make him appear very noble, but she couldn’t get beyond thinking he was just that. Noble and honest.
The ring on her finger sparkled and glinted in the light. For just one moment, she allowed herself to imagine what it would be like if it were all real. Two seconds later she mentally slapped herself silly and told herself to get over her foolishness.
She had a job to do. She had to impress this man with her brains and her creativity, her drive and her determination. She could do all that. And if it meant she had to go beyond the call of duty to do a personal favor for him, then she needed to suck it up and just get the job done. Too many people were counting on her.
It was silly. She felt like an idiot and she was sure Evan didn’t feel any better, but it wasn’t up to her to question his motives. For whatever reason, he didn’t want his brother and his fiancée to see him bleed. She could understand that. She would have died rather than let her old boss and his scheming wife know how much they’d destroyed her.
“All right, Evan. I’ll do it.”
Triumph mixed with relief flared to life in his eyes.
“Thank you for not bashing my skull in and leaving, but more than that, thank you for not reacting in front of my family. It was more than I deserved given how I sprang it on you. I swear, that was not the way I wanted to approach you with my proposition.”
“If we’re done with all that, can we eat? I’m starving. You can tell me all I need to know about your family and also tell me how it was we met and when you proposed, but not until I get something to eat.”
He leaned forward, caught her jaw in his hand and turned her toward him. Their lips were so close that his breath blew warm over her mouth. She swallowed nervously, wondering if he would kiss her. And then she wondered if she’d let him. Or if she would kiss him instead.
“Thank you,” he murmured.
Slowly, he withdrew, and to her chagrin, disappointment washed over her.
Seven
Evan watched as Celia sat sideways on the couch, her back against the arm and her knees doubled in front of her. She looked comfortable and completely relaxed, which was more than he could have hoped for given how stupidly he’d sprung the whole engagement thing on her.
After her in
itial fury, though, she’d calmed down and had taken it well. Damn, but he liked this woman. Oh, he was definitely attracted to her sexually, but beyond that, he genuinely liked spending time with her.
If he was smart, he’d take that as a huge warning sign to stay away and not become involved, but he’d never claimed brilliance.
She’d changed into nothing more glamorous than a pair of sweatpants and a San Francisco Tide jersey. Odd, but she hadn’t struck him as a baseball fan.
Her shoes had long since been shed, and her toenails, painted a delicate shade of pink, teased him. Hell, he was even attracted to her feet. Small and dainty.
He was officially losing his mind. Never before had he lusted after a woman’s feet.
She forked another bite into her mouth then sighed and made a low sound of agony before putting her plate down on the coffee table.
“That was fabulous. I’ve eaten so much that I won’t fit into that sparkly dress I brought for the wedding.”
That statement brought a whole host of splendid ideas to mind. Namely that they could both skip the wedding and stay in bed where clothing was entirely optional.
He shifted in his seat and wondered for the sixth time why he was so bent on torturing himself.
“So tell me something, Evan,” she said as she leaned farther into the sofa cushions. Her eyelids lowered and she tucked those pink toes underneath a throw pillow. “What made you walk away from your family’s business and start your own in a field that was so different from the jewelry trade?”
It didn’t surprise him that she knew so much about his background. She would have researched him tirelessly. Still, he debated how much to tell her.
Their gazes locked, and he saw only simple curiosity. No ulterior motive, just interest.
“There were several reasons,” he finally said. “Emotion has no place in business and yet I find myself making emotional decisions.”
Her eyebrows rose. “I’m surprised you’d admit that. Doesn’t jive with your big, bad, ruthless businessman persona.”
