What’d just happened?
It seemed that she wasn’t nearly as affected as he’d been.
“As much as I’d love to while away the day here,” she said, “I’ve got to get home. Paperwork, you know? It never ends.”
He almost said that she’d told him she had the day off, but he didn’t push it.
She’d kissed him, he thought, watching her as she went about her business as efficiently as she went about life, and although a kiss wasn’t nearly enough, he’d take it for now.
* * *
When Laurel got home, the first thing she did was hit the shower.
It wasn’t just because she smelled like horse—she needed something cold to douse the flames that were consuming her from the inside out.
But under the spray of water, under the streams of icy liquid that wiggled down her skin like fingers caressing her, she didn’t get much relief.
Her rogue thoughts kept imagining that the water was Sawyer’s fingers, Sawyer’s lips, Sawyer, Sawyer, Sawyer...
Blowing out a breath, she got out of the stall, throwing on a robe and tying the belt around her waist.
You can’t let him in, she thought. He’ll tear you apart before you know it, so don’t even start getting close to him. Just keep it fun.
But that shouldn’t be a problem, because Sawyer didn’t want a relationship, right? And wasn’t that perfect? Wasn’t that what every trigger-shy woman needed—a hottie to warm her up whenever she wanted, but without any consequences?
Theirs was just a chemical attraction, she told herself. And that’s all it would ever amount to....
The phone rang and she dashed to it, thankful for something to take her mind off him.
The ID screen revealed good news and bad.
The good? It was Juliet, her best friend since college.
The bad? Juliet was the person who’d introduced her to Steve Lucas and was a constant reminder of him, even if Laurel didn’t blame her friend for what had happened with him.
But Juliet always felt the need to apologize, and Laurel didn’t want the sorries; she just wanted her friend back, the way they’d been before the whole Steve thing had gone down.
She answered the phone. “Hey there.”
“Hey, yourself,” Juliet echoed in her Oklahoma drawl. “Thomas and I are at Brew Hah Hah’s and I just had to call.”
Brew Hah Hah’s was the big hangout near campus at the University of Oklahoma, where Laurel had won a full-ride scholarship. Juliet and her husband had gone there this weekend just to relive some old times, she told Laurel.
“Drink one for me, okay?” Laurel said.
“Already have.” Juliet didn’t exactly hiccup, but her giggle was revealing. “What’re you up to?”
Laurel hadn’t talked to Juliet since she’d met Sawyer. Actually, Laurel hadn’t met any guys worth mentioning to her best friend, and that had been a good thing. Juliet was worse than Tanner and Parker when it came to telling Laurel to be careful.
She sucked it up and spilled it out. “I went horseback riding today.”
“Cool!”
“With a guy.”
“With...a guy. Ah.” Big pause. “What’s his name?”
Juliet was already in hovering-hen mode.
“Sawyer,” Laurel said. “And before you start a background check, you should know that it’s nothing serious.”
“It’s not?”
“No. We’re...casual.”
Not serious. Casual. How many times would she repeat those words when it came to Sawyer?
Juliet had hesitated again, and Laurel could almost see her friend twirling a strand of her auburn hair around a finger, a nervous habit.
“Don’t misunderstand me,” she finally said. “I want you to get out there, Laurel, have some fun. God knows you stopped having it when...well, when Steve wiped you out.”
Just the reminder made Laurel close her eyes, but she forced herself to open them. She rested her back against the wall, across from the framed pictures of herself and her buddies in and out of uniform, hanging out in Berlin, Frankfurt, even at the Kandahar airfield.
Her past hadn’t been all bad. She reminded herself of that every day, too.
Juliet continued. “Who is this Sawyer, anyway?”
A Fortune. A rascal. A man who made her tummy flip even though she tried to hide that fact with a cool attitude.
“He’s got money,” Laurel said. “And I’m telling you that because it means he won’t rob me blind.”
But she’d only trusted Steve because she’d been in love, and because she thought that there couldn’t be anyone on earth nearly as crappy as her father. Steve had proven her wrong.
Juliet sighed. “I’m sorry I even ask these questions, Laurel. But I did such a crummy job of judging Steve. He passed my best-friend tests, he was Thomas’s pal at work and he was a civilian pilot whom I thought you’d have a lot in common with. Never in a thousand years did I think—”
“None of us did, Jules.”
Why did most of their conversations have to end this way?
Laurel didn’t want to dwell on Steve, so she changed the subject back to Brew Hah Hah’s, letting Juliet talk about new beers they had on tap and how the students just weren’t the same as they used to be back when they went to college.
Hadn’t she done the same thing a couple of times with Sawyer earlier? Changed the subject when they’d landed on the topic of her family?
As Juliet kept talking, Laurel’s mind drifted back to Sawyer. Back to their kiss.
And her head stayed there, chasing her troubles away for at least the time being.
* * *
If Laurel hadn’t been out of town the next few days, flying chartered flights, she might’ve found it easier to contain herself at the idea of seeing Sawyer again.
As it was, thoughts of him bubbled in her whenever she had a spare moment.
The minute her feet touched the ground in Red Rock on Saturday, she headed for her office, where she planned to call Sawyer about that small cocktail party he’d talked about for his birthday. Actually, she wanted to talk her way out of attending tomorrow.
For one, his family would be there, and friends with benefits didn’t do intimate family gatherings. Two, she wasn’t sure she had a dress nice enough for cocktails with the Fortunes, even if most of them ran around Red Rock in jeans and boots nowadays.
When she opened the door to the office, she got the surprise of her life, her breath jamming in her lungs.
Sawyer?
Seated in her desk chair, he looked perfectly at home, his brown hair tousled as if he’d just gotten out of the shiny red Jaguar convertible everyone said he drove around, speeding above the limit with the top down. He was also reading one of the three books she always had on hand.
He lifted it up so the cover faced her. It was a book of essays that analyzed the effects that popular fiction had on society. “Very informative, Laur.”
There was that Laur again, and she was liking the sound of it more and more from him.
“It’s a good read,” she said, tossing her flight bag onto a nearby chair, giving him a what-the-hell-are-you-doing-here look.
He could obviously read her as well as any book. In a lot of ways, anyway.
“I’m just thinking about the significance of your literary choices,” he said. “You could be reading actual fun, popular-literature books, but instead, you’re choosing to read about them.”
She hadn’t thought about it that deeply, but now that he mentioned it, she was a fairly analytical person.
“I listen to my fun stuff on audio,” she said in her defense.
He cocked an eyebrow, put that book down and gestured to her other two, a sociological rumination on why people could be rude and a book on healthy eating.
Analytical, analytical.
“Stimulating stuff,” he said. “I’ll bet you read that Fifty Shades book at night, though.”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?�
�
He grinned that sexy grin that had won her over at Mendoza’s—a tickle to her heart, a trickle of heat winding through her belly.
Damn, she was ridiculously happy to see him. Too happy.
She crossed her arms over her chest, but that didn’t work, because she couldn’t help smiling at him.
“So what brings you here, Fortune? Did you schedule a flying lesson with another pilot today?”
“No.” He leaned back in her chair and folded his hands behind his head, making him look even sexier. “I’m in dire need of a woman’s touch.”
Had he just said...?
He laughed at her silence. “What I mean is that I need some help picking out wedding gifts for my brothers and their soon-to-be wives, and I thought of you.”
Okay, that made more sense. “That’s right—the wedding is in a couple of weeks.”
“I was on my way to San Antonio when I realized that I had no earthly idea what to get them. So I called here, and Max Allen told me that you were due in around this time.”
“No one has ever accused me of being a shopper before, Fortune. Are you sure I’m the girl for this job?”
“I’ll take my chances.”
His words had all kinds of meaning, but she didn’t—no, wouldn’t—latch onto any one of them.
But she couldn’t help wondering...was this the start of their friends-with-benefits time?
Her body roared with the hope that it was.
She calmed herself down. No way was he going to see what she was really feeling.
“Do you have any ideas whatsoever for those gifts?” she asked.
“I really don’t. But I thought if you wanted to come with me to check out a department store or two, that would get me going.”
Another innuendo? Because just the sound of his voice, the sight of him and his wickedly gleaming blue eyes were enough to get her going.
Besides, it wasn’t as if she’d planned to do anything tonight. Just another Saturday evening in front of the TV, reading, eating something she’d picked up from the market and going to bed early. If she hadn’t met Sawyer, she might’ve even ended up at Mendoza’s again, telling herself she couldn’t possibly feel lonely in the middle of a crowd.
He stood. “So what do you say? I’ll even take you out for a birthday dinner.”
“If that means I don’t have to go to that cocktail party with your family tomorrow, then I’m game.”
He held a hand to his chest. “You wound me, Laur.”
“I just...” She shrugged. “People like us don’t go to family functions. Know what I mean?”
People like us. Friends with could-be benefits.
His gaze darkened with something she thought might be yearning. Just the possibility of it sent her adrenaline racing, her blood rolling.
“Besides,” she said, “Tanner’s taking me out to lunch tomorrow to celebrate while we have a day off, so my schedule’s kind of full.”
“Even with lunch, you’ll still have a lot of time before cocktails.”
She wanted to toss up her hands in exasperation. “Do you think you’ll get your way on this? Because it’s not going to happen, Fortune.”
He smiled, as if she was going to find out she was wrong eventually. As if he always got what he wanted.
And that was probably true.
He came out from behind the desk, six feet tall and dressed in those muscle-hugging jeans, brushing past her with his leathery scent and stopping at the door, holding it open for her and grinning.
Her legs had gone weak.
The question wasn’t what he would talk her into doing tomorrow, she thought. It was what he might get her to do tonight.
Chapter Four
He’d gotten his way, all right.
Laurel had indeed come with him, sitting in his Jag convertible without making excuses or telling him to take a hike after he’d unexpectedly shown up in the flight-school office.
But just how easy was Laurel, really?
That very question stimulated Sawyer as he got behind the wheel and took off from the airport parking lot to the road, where he put pedal to the metal all the way to San Antonio with the radio playing loud country music.
Stray blond hair from her braid flew in the wind as she leaned her head back, her sunglasses on, a smile on her face as she rested her arm on the top of the door where the window was down.
It looked as if she was flying high, the speed and the all-encompassing air taking her to a better place.
But what did she want to escape? Her dysfunctional family?
Or more, as he’d suspected the other day at the picnic?
When they got to San Antonio, he pulled into an upscale shopping complex in the North Central part of the city and gave the Jag over to the valet.
“Where to now?” Laurel asked, sliding her sunglasses to the top of her head. She’d rolled the sleeves of her white linen shirt to her elbows and untucked it, tying it at the waist of her khakis. She came off as someone who didn’t have to try hard to be stylish. She wasn’t even wearing more than a light coat of lipstick, as far as he could tell.
Still, she was a knockout.
He pushed back his rogue hair that’d been tossed around by the wind. “We’re going to Hurston’s. I figure there’s bound to be something there my brothers will like.”
“But not anything they’ll need.”
She smiled at him, and he gave her the point.
They walked into the second-floor entrance, through the cosmetics and perfume section. He couldn’t help but notice that Laurel didn’t linger over the counters; she didn’t even cast a moony glance over to the left, where he caught a peek of a secluded room that contained the flash of diamonds.
Most women would’ve dropped about fifty hints to him by now about those shiny necklaces and bracelets. How do you think this would look on me, Sawyer? This...and nothing else, if you know what I mean...
But Laurel didn’t play those games. She was on a mission, headed for the escalators, passing a man in a black suit playing an old standard on a baby grand piano.
Sawyer joined her at the store map and they surveyed the departments.
“Any thoughts?” he asked.
“You know your brothers better than I do.”
“But you were right earlier when you said they don’t need anything. I suppose I should be thinking about what they want.”
He noticed that, off to the side, near the high-end women’s department, a few ladies in elegant suits and chignons were giving him and Laurel the once-over. He counted down to how long it’d take one of them to put a name to his face.
And five...four...three...
A woman with black hair and a red designer suit made a beeline toward him, leaving her coworkers in the dust.
“Good afternoon,” she said in a refined drawl. “My name is Jasmine. Is there anything I can help you with?”
He could feel Laurel sneaking a glance at him, gauging his reaction to the beauty queen. But he just wasn’t interested.
Not in Jasmine, anyway.
He said, “We’re shopping for a wedding.”
“Oh.”
She sounded slightly disappointed by that, and Sawyer realized that she thought he was talking about a wedding for him and Laurel, who was back to surveying the store map.
Had she been paying attention to his exchange with the salesclerk? From her nonreaction, he guessed she hadn’t.
This might be fun.
Jasmine had a very professional smile on her red-shaded mouth, her dark eyes all but filled with dollar signs now. “Which department would you like to see first, Mr....”
“Fortune.”
“Of course, yes, I knew it was you. Your family is in the papers quite a bit.”
Before she could launch into a gossip-column item about all the charity events he’d ever attended with a society belle on his arm—or, God forbid, the Jeanne Marie scandal—Laurel smoothly walked between Sawyer and Jasmine, giving him a
subtle nudge.
“I think,” she said to Jasmine, “we’d like to concentrate on a travel package—items you’d pack for, say, a tropical vacation for a husband and wife.”
Well played, he thought as he followed Laurel away from the escalators and toward the women’s department. He could give Asher, Wyatt and Shane and their fiancées suitcases filled with hints about where he could send them on romantic trips after they finished their official honeymoons.
Jasmine was all over that, her heels clicking on the marble floor as she took the lead in front of Laurel, who shot him an amused smile. He still wasn’t sure she’d heard Jasmine mistake this shopping trip for their own wedding spree, though.
Laurel hung back with Sawyer as Jasmine slipped around the racks of women’s wear, targeting the most expensive section near the back.
“Do you know what sizes your future sisters-in-law take?” Laurel whispered.
“I’ll find out. We can just look for now and, if we see anything we like, I’m sure Jasmine will accommodate us later.”
“Accommodate you.” Laurel stifled a laugh.
Lightheartedly, he cupped his hand on her nape, squeezing. He’d meant it to be a joking gesture, but when he felt a shock zapping him from his fingers to his chest, he let go.
Did she feel it, too?
From the way she nearly lost a step, he thought so. But she recovered so quickly that he wasn’t sure.
Either way, his pulse took him over, beating in his ears, his belly.
Jasmine had stopped in front of a purple satin-curtained room—probably a boutique that held pricey goodies for women.
“I think,” she said, “you’ll find all kinds of things in here for a tropical vacation for a bride and groom.”
Laurel went in first, but he wasn’t far behind. And when he saw all the lace and silk, his libido banged up another notch, because he immediately started picturing her in the pink baby-doll number to his right.
As for Laurel, she widened her eyes at him. What the hell?
“Clearly,” Jasmine said, “you’ll want some items for the bride’s trousseau.”
Sawyer decided to make the most of the situation, and he reached over to a sheer, charcoal-gray bodysuit with flowers covering the strategic spots.
A CHANGE OF FORTUNE Page 5
