by Debra Webb
Left with little choice, she wiggled into the green skirt and its matching blouse. The pale-mint blouse was the only thing that had changed about the ensemble since its original purchase. The blouse she liked. It was silky and feminine-looking. The overall effect, she decided as she stepped back to view her reflection, she could live with. But the vest was out.
Not that Doug would notice what she wore. She was a case…a principal as he called her. He probably didn’t even see her as a woman.
Eddi stilled, one shoe on, one off. This was the first time she’d thought of herself as a woman in more years than she could remember. She was Eddi, the plumber. Her daddy’s little girl. Mom’s best helper. Everybody’s good friend. But she was no one’s lady…girlfriend…or lover.
The matchmakers were right. She was cursed.
Any sensuality she’d ever possessed had vacated the premises a few hundred leaky-faucet repairs ago.
Eddi looked at herself again and shrugged. Oh well, she was a good plumber, a good daughter and a good friend. A good girl. That was something this day and time.
Doug waited in the living room, his attention on the photographs scattered along the mantel.
When she walked into the room he looked up and smiled. Every fiber of femininity in her soul stirred.
Damn, she mused. Maybe she was more woman than she’d realized.
“Very nice,” he commented as his gaze slowly slid down the length of her. When his eyes met hers she didn’t miss the glimmer of approval there.
Oh, hell yes. She was woman.
Eddi’s eyes rounded and she bit down hard on her lower lip. What was wrong with her? She never swore. The occasional darn or dang was about the extent of her trash talk. She hadn’t gone to church every Sunday her entire life for nothing.
“Shall we?” Doug moved in close and offered his arm.
Something in her chest bounced. Her heart, she was pretty sure. Her arm looped through his of its own accord and the resulting physical reaction was nothing short of breath stealing. As if that wasn’t enough he leaned closer and inhaled deeply. “Mmm. You smell nice, too.”
She pushed a smile into place and expelled a strangled thank-you as her eyes took in his every detail from head to toe. The hair was perfect, what else could she say? Thick, dark, wavy. The eyes…well, the eyes were simply hypnotic. The light blue shirt and navy trousers and jacket fit as if they were tailor made for him. And, talk about sexy—the way he smelled was absolutely sinful.
By the time he’d opened the door to his SUV and assisted her inside, she’d gone into total meltdown.
She forced herself to look straight ahead and to breathe deeply. The entire five minutes it took to get to Ms. Irene’s house was spent this way and still it did no good. She couldn’t get the idea of sex out of her head. She couldn’t stop thinking about how his scent…his touch…those eyes.
And she wanted more.
Once he’d parked, before she could open her door he was already there, opening it for her, taking her hand. When her feet at last settled back on the ground, every square inch of her was on fire.
“What a waste,” she murmured before she could catch herself.
He hesitated at Ms. Irene’s front door. “Excuse me?”
Eddi shook her head and shrugged simultaneously. “I was just thinking about all those Sundays I’ve spent in church.”
A frown marred those devilishly handsome features. “That’s the waste that concerns you?”
She nodded, and at the same time the door opened she muttered, “Yeah, ’cause I’m going to hell anyway.”
“Eddi! Doug! You’re here,” Irene gushed. “Come in, please.”
Feeling utterly confused, Doug allowed himself to be dragged through the door by Mrs. Marlowe. Before he could question Eddi’s strange comment, he was surrounded by Mrs. Marlowe, Mrs. Brown and the Caruthers sisters.
As Doug soon learned, Mrs. Marlowe had once been all the rage on the big screen. Must have been before his time. Ella Brown was a former school-teacher and the Carutherses had been blessed with a sizable inheritance and were never forced to take on a career.
Eddi stayed in the background, laughing at all the right times, but behaving more nervously than Doug had ever seen her. He told himself that it was the pending trip to Martha’s Vineyard and meeting her grandmother for the first time that had her out of sorts, but that didn’t feel right. Every time their eyes met she looked away. Had he said or done something that offended her or made her uncomfortable? He considered his every move this evening and then he nailed it. The remark about how good she smelled. She’d behaved oddly since. An apology would be in order as soon as they had a moment alone.
If that ever happened.
“Escort me to the dining room,” Irene ordered, taking Doug by the arm and ushering him in the right direction.
When he had seated the ladies, including Eddi, who reacted stiffly to his slightest touch, Doug sat down across from her. He smiled but she turned away. Damn, the woman was frustrating. And he was an idiot. He should be glad that she was keeping him at bay. He’d certainly lost most of his perspective where she was concerned. He’d let what started out as a harmless attraction get out of control.
If he was smart, he’d use her indifference tonight to regain some lost ground. But every time he looked at her, traced the outline of that delicate cheek with his eyes, stared at that lush mouth—
“So, Doug, where do you call home?” Irene asked, shattering the forbidden trance he’d drifted into.
“Chicago,” he replied, railing at himself silently for allowing yet another incident of distraction. His first lead assignment and already he was screwing it up.
Irene frowned dramatically. “Chicago. Hmm. What do you do for a living?”
Eddi coughed indelicately. Her wide-eyed gaze collided with Doug’s.
“I’m in research,” he fudged, knowing without the little coughing jag that Eddi didn’t want to reveal anything just yet.
Ella was the next to jump into the inquisition. “How interesting? What do you research?”
The teacher in her, no doubt. No one else would have asked that question since he had not offered to elaborate.
“I do investigative research on people. Their backgrounds, finances. Things like that.”
Minnie and Mattie Caruthers exchanged guarded looks.
“You don’t work for the IRS, do you?” Mattie speculated.
Doug smiled. What were those two up to? “No, ma’am. I don’t work for the government at all. I work for a private agency.”
Their look of relief was almost comical. Even Eddi hinted at a smile.
“Tell us, Douglas,” Irene said suspiciously, “what are your intentions toward our Eddi.”
Eddi’s soupspoon clattered into her bowl.
All four members of the Club leaned forward awaiting his response.
He looked to Eddi for guidance. Now, he estimated, looked like a good time to simply tell the truth.
“She is rather naive, Douglas,” Ella Brown pressed when he was slow to answer. “It’s our duty to protect her interests. If your intentions are not honorable—”
“Ms. Ella!” Eddi butted in. “It’s not what you think. It’s—”
“She’s a virgin, you know,” Minnie Caruthers explained with a pitying glance at Eddi.
Eddi wanted to die.
This was her punishment. She’d permitted bad thoughts and this was the recompense. The look, something between shock and disbelief, on Doug’s face completed her mortification.
With lightning speed he recovered, the mask of composure falling back into place. “Ms. Caruthers, I assure you—”
Eddi held up her hands stop-sign fashion. She couldn’t let this go any further. “Ladies, you don’t understand.” She swallowed or attempted to, her muscles didn’t want to cooperate. At least now she had everyone’s attention. Doug looked eternally grateful that she’d stepped in. She wondered how grateful he’d be in about thirty se
conds.
“Doug isn’t here to court me,” she explained. The ladies’ mouths formed perfect O’s of confusion. “No, no, I’m sorry to disappoint you. He’s an old friend I met in…in Baltimore that time I visited.” She had gone to Baltimore once. A long time ago. “He’s on a business trip and just passing through. Since we’re old friends and all, I figured it wouldn’t be right to leave him in that old boardinghouse. You know how nosy Ms. Ada is.” She forced a strained laugh, but no one else made a sound. Even Doug’s smile looked pinned in place.
“Anyway,” she went on, too late to turn back now. “You ladies don’t have to worry about what’s going on between Doug and me ’cause there just isn’t anything going on.” She shrugged helplessly. “’Cause…’cause he’s gay.”
Chapter Seven
Eddi stood in the middle of her bedroom and stared at the door. She had to go out there eventually. Had to face Doug. She’d hardly slept at all last night for worrying about what he would say to her once he started speaking to her again.
She closed her eyes and exhaled a disgusted breath. Why on earth had she told the ladies in the Club that he was gay? Why hadn’t she simply told them the truth? Eddi walked over to the door and rested her forehead against it. Because it was too hard…too confusing. And telling anyone outside the family would make it too real.
So she’d said the first thing that came to mind to throw the matchmakers off the Cupid game.
She would never, ever forget the look of startled disbelief on Doug’s face. He surely thought she was just the most horrible, selfish, thoughtless person on the planet. With another sigh Eddi grasped the door-knob. She couldn’t stay in here forever. Today was the big shopping day. Tomorrow they would leave for Martha’s Vineyard, assuming Doug wasn’t so mad at her that he’d decided to resign from her case. Real anxiety twisted inside her at that thought. She couldn’t do this without him. Silly as it sounded, she trusted him. It didn’t matter that she scarcely knew him. She simply trusted him. He’d spent time around the financially blessed. He knew all the answers, or at least more than she did. With his guidance she might just get through this.
She stood tall and squared her shoulders. Her only choice was to apologize profusely and beg his forgiveness. The longer she put it off the tougher it would be.
She opened the door with a firm twist of the knob and marched straight to the living room where Doug waited at the dining table, a cup of fresh-brewed coffee in hand.
“I’m sorry I told Ms. Irene and her friends that you’re gay,” she said without stopping to think or giving herself time to back out. “I had to derail their matchmaking scheme.” She set her hands on her jean-clad hips. “It was your own fault anyway for starting this mess with that whole dinner thing the first day you arrived.”
His deadpan expression never changing, he set his coffee aside and smiled. “Good morning to you, too.”
Good morning? Was that all he had to say? Ire kindled deep in her belly. After she’d tossed and turned all night? For goodness’ sakes, he hadn’t spoken another single word to her during the rest of dinner or the ride home last night. He hadn’t even said good-night and all he could say now was good morning?
“I lost a whole night’s sleep and all you have to say is good morning?” she demanded, giving voice to her growing irritation.
The smile broadened across those sinfully full lips. “I’d say we’re even.”
Her mouth dropped open in astonishment. He’d done that on purpose! He’d wanted her to toss and turn all night. He’d…
Okay, maybe she’d deserved that at the very least.
“No hard feelings?” she entreated, feeling contrite all over again for her thoughtlessness.
Doug wasn’t sure how to answer that one. To say she engendered no hard feelings in him would be an outright lie. Hard appeared to be his new watchword. The remark about his being gay…well, he certainly hadn’t appreciated it but his confidence in his own masculinity wasn’t so fragile that he couldn’t take the occasional blow to his ego. Especially since he knew that she knew better.
As to the hard feelings, there were some things she didn’t need to know. “None,” he lied for her benefit.
All he had to do was look at her and his sexual preference made itself well known. Case in point, if he didn’t know how sincere and innocent Eddi was, he’d swear that she’d dressed this morning with torture in mind. But he knew better than that. The tight-fitting jeans probably had a lot more to do with frugality than fashion. The material was worn soft with age and use. The torso-hugging pale yellow blouse provided an arousing preview of what lay beneath the T-shirt and baggy overalls she usually donned. She wore her long hair down today and the D’Martine streak of white looked softer somehow, far less stark than when she kept that thick mane pulled back into a braid. Yet, her manner of dress could in no way be defined as seductive and, still, it was exactly that.
He moistened his lips and forced himself to take another sip of coffee just to distract his wayward thoughts. Today, he mused, in spite of his best efforts not to, plumber Eddi Harper looked sexy. Young and sexy, he reminded that wicked little voice in his head. Young and virginal.
Eddi wasn’t the only one who hadn’t gotten any sleep last night. He’d already developed a serious case of “unobjectivity” where his principal was concerned. Neither the braid nor the overalls or even the toolbox had stopped him from developing a healthy case of lust where this little plumber was concerned. He’d tried hard not to look at her as a woman…but it hadn’t worked. Had failed miserably, in fact.
And now, well, suffice it to say that he had his work cut out for him today if he planned to do the job for which he’d been hired. Since this was the first major assignment of his new career, he’d damned well better do it right. Victoria Colby prided herself in the integrity of her agents. He wasn’t about to let her down. Or Eddi.
“Are you ready to go shopping?” he asked as he pushed to his feet and ordered his brain to reroute any forbidden thoughts to some dark side of his mind where they belonged. “There’s more coffee.”
“None for me, thanks.” She smiled, sending a new jolt of desire straight to his loins. “I’m ready to get this show on the road.”
“Very well then.” His movements uncharacteristically awkward, he carried his cup to the kitchen and turned off the coffeemaker.
All he had to do was get through this day and the coming night. Once they were in Martha’s Vineyard, under the close regard of Thurston and Mrs. D’Martine, keeping his perspective would be considerably less difficult. Not to mention that he would need to be more on guard for any threat to Eddi, as well as himself. The paparazzi were never far away from a name like D’Martine. Keeping his face out of the limelight wasn’t going to be a simple task.
But keeping Eddi safe was his first priority.
The moment her connection to the D’Martine name became headlines, so would her value as a tradable commodity in the media.
DOUG DROVE TO A LARGER, nearby city and quickly discovered a small cluster of exclusive shops. One or two of the names he didn’t recognize, but he knew the look—high credit limits required. Since Mr. Thurston had directed that Eddi be prepared in every way, Doug felt no hesitation in shopping for the best.
“We should go to the mall,” Eddi suggested, looking a little worried that he’d parked in front of one of the exclusive shops. “This place is—”
“Exactly what we’re looking for,” he countered. “I have Mrs. D’Martine’s authorization to purchase whatever you require for your debut.”
Eddi’s forehead scrunched into a scowl. “Get real, Doug. It isn’t like I’m some celebrity.”
He shook his head in regret of just how little she understood in regards to what was about to happen. He’d tried to get the point across to her, but there was really no way to make her comprehend how much her life was about to change.
Eddi didn’t like how this was going. She didn’t shop at places like this, but
she followed him inside just the same. This was his ball game and the only thing she could do was play. She had to trust his judgment.
An elegantly dressed woman seized their attention before the door even closed behind them. “Good morning.” Those glossy lips stretched into a wide, welcoming smile. “How may I help you?” Her smile slipped just a bit when she got a better look at Eddi, but quickly pushed back into full bloom for Doug. A snob. Eddi knew it before she even walked in the door.
The next few minutes proved somewhat mind-boggling for Eddi. Doug gave instructions and the sophisticated saleslady jumped to obey. She seated Doug in a comfortable-looking overstuffed chair in a large mirrored room. Four doors, each leading to a huge dressing room, were strategically placed about the circular space. At first, Eddi merely stood in the center of the room while the saleslady measured and estimated the proper size.
“Oh, yes, just as I thought,” the older woman murmured to herself. “A size four.”
Eddi could have told her that if she’d only asked. Without further ado, the saleslady, who identified herself as Doris, flew into a frenzy of garment gathering. She then held offering after offering in front of Eddi. The wardrobe offerings weren’t for Eddi’s benefit; the full and undivided attention of the saleslady was focused on Doug. A simple, negligent nod of encouragement would send the woman scurrying for yet another selection.
When she had at last produced a dozen or so acceptable ensembles ranging from slacks-and-sweater combinations to skirts and matching blazers, she ushered Eddi into the spacious dressing room and started the next phase.
Her stomach twisting with tension and her nerves frayed beyond reason, Eddi, with the assistance of the saleswoman, slipped into one outfit after another, then traipsed around the showroom for Doug’s entertainment.
By the fourth outfit Eddi was furious. His expression never changed. That frustratingly scrutinizing gaze followed her every move, thoroughly raked her body, but not once did she see even a glimmer of particular interest one way or the other. She felt like a horse at auction where the buyers endeavored to keep their intentions unknown until all the bids were placed.
