A Limited Engagement

by Bethany Michaels

  Chapter Seven

  As the early-afternoon sunlight streamed through the window of the small plane, Lilly willed her stomach to settle. She’d never had a problem with airsickness, but her stomach was definitely rolling now. She wasn’t sure whether it was the motion of the plane as it coasted above white fluffy clouds, the silence that hung in the air between her and Derek, or the utter humiliation of coming on to a guy, letting him know you wanted him, getting naked, and then being shot down. She winced and pushed her giant sunglasses farther up on her nose.

  Yep. Going off plan had been a terrible idea.

  Of course staying on plan hadn’t worked out well for her, either. So maybe she was just screwed no matter what.

  “So are we going to talk about last night?” Derek asked, setting his tablet on the empty seat next to him.

  “I’d really rather not.”

  “Fine.” He stared out the window, frowning at the passing clouds. The silence barely lasted a minute. “Because it wasn’t you. It was me.”

  “Okay.”

  “I never should have let things go so far. I knew being alone with you was a mistake the second we left the party.”

  “Okay.”

  If he’d just stop talking, she could pretend none of it had ever happened. She couldn’t wait to get off the plane. Being with him now that she’d tried to seduce him and found out he wasn’t attracted to her in the same way was the most humiliating moment of her life. Well, the most humiliating so far. It was barely noon.

  He sat up and took her hands in both of his. “Will you talk to me about this, please?”

  She opened one eye…and then wished she hadn’t. “There’s nothing to talk about, is there? I threw myself at you, you declined the offer. What’s to discuss?”

  He released her hands and shoved his fingers through his hair. The resulting disarray gave her a small sense of satisfaction—he was a little less perfect, but sadly still just as sexy. “It was for your own good. I didn’t want to hurt you, Lil.”

  “Good thinking. That worked out great.” Obviously she wasn’t his type. His type being big-breasted, wide-eyed bimbos awed by his mere presence, not conservative, girl-next-door professional types with more than two brain cells bouncing around inside their skulls.

  “You’d hate me more than you do right now if we’d gone through with it.”

  “I doubt it.” She settled back in her seat as if she were going to take a nap. She just couldn’t bear to look at him and see him feeling sorry for her. Poor little Lilly. The only woman in the northern hemisphere Derek didn’t want to bed. She was pretty sure facing a no-sex morning-after was way worse than staring across the aisle at a guy who’d seen you naked. Oh, wait, she got to do both. Doing the walk of shame with nothing to be ashamed about was just pathetic.

  He let out an exasperated sigh. “A guy can’t win. If he takes a woman up on what she’s offering, he’s a dog. If he tries to take the high road, he’s still in the doghouse.”

  “Sucks to be you.”

  “Damn it, Lilly. I can’t give you what you’re looking for.”

  “How do you know what I’m looking for?”

  “Then call it what you need. You deserve someone who’ll love you today and tomorrow. Hell, someone who will love you the way a partner should. I just don’t work that way.”

  Just like that, her humiliation turned to anger. “Don’t tell me what I need.”

  He shook his head. “You’re a good person. Hell, you’re one of the only good things in my life right now. All you did for me this weekend, everything you made possible, I wasn’t going to return the favor by hurting you.”

  “You think I couldn’t handle a one-nighter with you?” She let out a choked laugh. “You’re not as irresistible as you think you are.” A total lie, but a girl had to save face.

  “I don’t think one-night hookups are your thing. You deserve better than someone who loses control because of how gorgeous you look in a sexy dress and then leaves you in the morning.”

  “You liked the dress?” That was something.

  He looked at her as if she’d grown a third breast. “I would have had to be dead not to notice how great you looked in it—and out of it.”

  “So you thought I was a little hot.” There was a needy whine in her voice. She knew it. But her pride needed the confirmation that she wasn’t totally repugnant to him.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been so turned on. You were—are—beyond hot. You’re mind-blowingly sexy.”

  “But not bed-worthy.” She sat up and tightened her seat belt as the plane began its descent. “Please, Derek. I’m not a child. And even if your intentions in turning me down were noble, it’s still pretty humiliating. All the things I said to you…getting you drunk—”

  “Wait—you were trying to get me drunk?” He gave her a lopsided grin. “I’ve attended all-night parties on just about every continent. It would take more than a little champagne to activate the beer goggles.”

  “Well, I know that now, don’t I?” She shook her head. “Let’s just forget the whole thing, okay? Pretend it never happened.”

  “If that will make you feel better.”

  “It will.” Probably. A one-way ticket to Outer Mongolia might work, too. She’d never have to see him again. Because she knew that whenever she looked at him the rest of her life, last night’s humiliation was what she was going to remember. Worse, she would know he’d be remembering, too.

  “But Lil—” He leaned forward in his seat. “There’s no way I’ll ever be able to forget how sexy you were with nothing but moonlight on your skin.”

  She swallowed hard. “What the hell am I supposed to do with a statement like that?”

  He ignored that question. “Look, even if last night didn’t end how you wanted it to, I want to tell you how much I appreciate your help this weekend. Landing Thomas Oil as a sponsor is huge. This’ll put me into position to take care of my team my way. No interference from my father.”

  “Yeah. It was a great day for good business.”

  “Come on. It was more than that. I’ve really enjoyed catching up with you. We should hang out more.”

  Great. Now she was getting the “let’s be friends” spiel. Next he’d be saying what a great personality she had. The sooner she got off the plane and away from his perfect body, the chivalrous streak she never knew existed, and his sexy bad-boy grin, the better.

  She watched out the window as the ground got closer and closer. The patches of red Georgia dirt peeking through pine forest made her smile. She really had missed her hometown and was looking forward to seeing Shana and her parents, even if she did eventually have to tell them that she’d lost her job, her fiancée, and her self-respect all inside of a week. Maybe she’d leave her self-respect out of it, since no one but Derek would ever know about her failed seduction attempt.

  They were silent as the plane descended, landed, and rolled to a stop on the runway. As she gathered her things, the fake engagement ring caught on her bag, reminding her she was still wearing it.

  “Oh, here’s your ring,” she said, twisting it off her finger. Funny how she missed the solid weight of it on her hand already. She offered him the ring, but he wouldn’t take it.

  “Keep it. I know you like it.”

  “I love it. But it was a loaner.” Just like Derek. Time to go back to reality, where he was one of the cool kids and she was the mousy little friend of his sister.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, finally taking it from her.

  “Absolutely.” She gave a weak smile.

  He tucked the ring into his front shirt pocket. “All right. I’ll owe you one, then.”

  Before she could answer, the captain came on over the intercom. “Welcome home, Mr. Derek. You can disembark whenever you’re ready. There’s quite a crowd here to welcome you.”

  “A crowd?” Lilly asked as they stood, and he put a hand at the small of her back to guide her down the aisle.

  “Probabl
y just Mama and a couple of her friends,” he said. “With them, it always seems like a crowd.”

  She stepped out of the plane and onto the stairway first. There really was a small crowd. As soon as he appeared behind her, everyone started clapping, and there were even a few wolf whistles.

  “What the hell?” he said. “I didn’t know there was a fan thing today.”

  Then she realized it wasn’t random strangers, but her parents, her grandmother, a few of Derek’s cousins, a couple of guys dressed in Stewart-Sawyer Racing polo shirts, and a dozen or so family friends. It was a welcoming committee.

  Derek’s mother was there. That was no surprise, but the man next to her was. Derek’s father. Lilly didn’t think she ever remembered seeing him with her, even when they’d been married. She had tears in her eyes, and she met Lilly at the bottom of the steps and wrapped her in a tight hug.

  “This is the happiest day of my life,” Derek’s mother told her. “I’ve prayed and prayed this day would come. I’m just happy I’m alive to see it.”

  “What’s going on, Mama? Everything all right?” Derek asked.

  Lilly heard the sliver of panic in his voice. She still didn’t know the full story about his parents splitting up and why it made Derek so desperate to be free from his dad, but she could only imagine what it was like to see his parents together again, even if just to congratulate him.

  His mom wrapped him in her embrace, too. Lilly could barely breathe through the heavy gardenia perfume Judy Sawyer always wore, but there was no chance of getting free.

  “I oughta wring both your necks,” she said, letting them up for air. Lilly glanced at Derek, but he looked just as confused as her. “I can’t believe I had to find out from the TV of all places that my oldest son is engaged to the girl next door.” She turned to Lilly. “I always knew you two would end up together. From the time you were kids, didn’t I, Maryanne?” She glanced at Lilly’s mother, who was just behind her. “I always said these two would end up together.”

  Derek shook his head. “It’s not really like that—” His words were lost in a chorus of congratulations and handshakes and hugs.

  Lilly’s father emerged from the crowd and hugged her tight. “I’m proud of you, peanut. Real proud.” He clapped Derek on the back and shook his hand vigorously. “I can’t say I approve of you getting a head start on the honeymoon, but I guess it’s all water under the bridge now that she’s wearing your ring. Welcome to the family, son.”

  She couldn’t help it. A wave of smug satisfaction washed over her. So he’d turned her down because he was afraid of the awkwardness that would come just from knowing he’d taken her to bed? Now Derek had to face her parents and their friends, all of them assuming he’d followed through and taken her to bed and offered her a ring.

  But as satisfying as seeing him at a loss for a change was, she couldn’t let the lie continue forever.

  “Daddy, we’re not—”

  “Oh, I know this is all a bit overwhelming, sweetie,” her mother chimed in. “You must be exhausted after all of the whirlwind. But there’s a whole lot of people who are waiting to congratulate the happy couple.”

  She swallowed hard, a sick feeling upending her belly. “There are?”

  “Oh, heavens, yes. Once word got out that Derek was engaged to a hometown girl and that that girl was you, why, even Aunt Mary came in from Savannah just to be here for the party.”

  Derek was being squired away by one of the guys in a team polo shirt who had to be his business manager. Lilly was too far away to make out any words, but the man was talking excitedly, gesturing to a stack of papers in his hands.

  “Let’s head back to Derek’s house. Everyone is there waiting to share your happy news.”

  Lilly stared at her mother for a second. “There’s a party?”

  “This is the biggest thing to happen in town since Sarah Ann Tyler made it to the Miss Magnolia state finals. Of course we’re going to celebrate! Think of it as a surprise engagement party.”

  “It’s a surprise, all right.” Her gaze shifted to Derek, but he’d been pulled back into the crowd of friends and relatives and was being smothered in hugs and handshakes and bawdy laughter. He should be setting everyone straight, but he seemed content playing man of the hour. She certainly wasn’t going to be the one to clear things up. This was Derek’s mess to clean up, and he’d best bring a big mop.

  “Oh, Derek?” she called in her sweetest voice. “Could you come over here for a sec?”

  He managed to disentangle himself from his mama’s grasp and appeared dutifully at her side. He slid an arm around her waist, wearing the smile she recognized from his TV ads. The one that said he was about to try to sell something to an audience.

  She leaned in and whispered to him through clenched teeth, “Apparently, half of Penny Ridge is at your place ready to celebrate our engagement.” She glared at him, silently willing him to do something to stop the madness.

  His eyes darted to his mother, practically weeping with joy that her oldest son was about to achieve her lifelong dream for him. All of her friends were congratulating her like she’d just won the Nobel Peace Prize.

  A flicker of guilt passed over his face…but then he raised an eyebrow, like something had occurred to him.

  Before she could insist he tell everyone that they were not, in fact, engaged, he leaned in and kissed her full on the mouth. It was a brief kiss, hard and closemouthed, but the crowd cheered anyway. “Well, that sounds about perfect, doesn’t it, sweetie? Of course we want to share our happy news with all our friends and family. People who have known us since birth.”

  What the hell? Did he actually want her to go along with this? That was so not going to happen. He’d assured her it would end when they hit the tarmac. She had plenty of stuff on her own plate to deal with. She wasn’t handling all of his leftovers, too.

  She tried to pull out of his grasp. “Derek. I think you need to tell everyone that—”

  Without warning, he dipped his head and smothered her words with his lips. The whole crowed shared a collective happy sigh as if they were looking at a Facebook meme of a puppy cuddling a kitten, cuddling a teddy bear, cuddling a cupcake with a big squishy heart gumdrop on top.

  She wanted to be mad. She was mad. Extremely. But the warm pressure of his lips against hers brought all of last night rushing back. The way he’d kissed her, touched her. The way his mouth had done things to her she’d only read about in naughty romance novels. It was a dirty trick, distracting her with his kiss. And it totally worked.

  By the time he let her up for air, she was breathless, and anger was only the second-most-prominent emotion powering her brain.

  “Come on back to the house, y’all,” he said as she struggled to clear the erotic haze. “I’ll tap the first keg!”

  …

  “Are you nuts?” Lilly asked as soon as Derek climbed behind the wheel of his pickup. It was strange to have her here in the truck he’d had almost as long as he’d known her. A hundred girls had ridden shotgun in that seat, and not one of them had been Lilly.

  “Give me just a minute,” he said.

  “I’m not giving you one minute. Not one second. Did all those years of inhaling brake dust finally rot what little brain God gave you?” Her voice was high-pitched and tight. She was pissed, and Derek couldn’t really blame her this time. “We have to tell them the truth.”

  He started the truck and turned onto the state highway behind a line of cars heading for his house. Fooling an overly aggressive man-eater into thinking he was engaged to Lilly for a weekend was one thing. Pulling the same sham over on his family and friends was something totally different, even if he had a very good reason.

  “You’re right. We need to tell them.”

  “As soon as we get to the house. You pull your parents aside and clear up the whole thing before Preacher Jones pops in for a beer and an exchange of vows.”

  He frowned, focusing on the two-lane road in front of him
. Mark, business manager for the team, had pulled him aside as soon as he’d stepped off the plane and told him he’d been inundated with calls from companies offering sponsorship opportunities. Companies they’d approached in the past and failed to bring on board. It seemed all the interest in his personal life, of the confirmed bachelor falling nose cone over spoiler for a hometown sweetheart, had seriously bumped his Q rating, whatever that was. All Derek knew was that it meant not only securing his independence, it meant his team would not worry about money for a very long time.

  But it wasn’t just the business opportunity that made him hesitate to reveal the truth.

  It had been years since he’d seen his mother smile like she had when he’d gotten off the plane with Lilly.

  And his father’s presence—that had been a surprise. Obviously he’d pissed the old man off enough that he’d left his glass-and-steel fortress in the city and made the journey home to yell at Derek in person. Well, Derek had a big surprise for him. He almost looked forward to the confrontation.

  After the party, he’d be able to talk to Mama, figure out how to break the news in a way that didn’t shatter her heart all over again. But there was no time to explain all that right now. He just needed Lilly to agree to ride it out for a few more hours.

  He turned down the long country lane where he’d built his house a few years back. “Did you see how happy your mama was?”

  She shifted in the seat beside him. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so thrilled. Yours, either.”

  “So why do you want to go and ruin it now?”

  She stared at him. “Derek. We have to tell them. I know you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.”

  He pulled into his driveway, which was choked with familiar cars and pickups. So was the street. And the lane. The whole damn town was there.

  “I was thinking that I don’t want to embarrass our parents in front of all their friends and family,” he said. “I was thinking that it wouldn’t hurt anything to tell them it was all a mistake after the party.”

  “You think the humiliation would be any less then?” She shook her head. “We need to tell them now. Besides, I don’t see how anyone would believe it, anyway.”