by Leanne Banks
She shook her head and met his gaze. “None, but you’ll do,” she said and lifted her mouth to his.
Benjamin took her lips and felt the magic swim around them. Her lips and face were damp and cool from the mist, but they quickly warmed. She pressed herself flush against him, as if she couldn’t get close enough. He sensed her release a fraction of her reserve toward him. He could feel she trusted him a little more today than she had yesterday.
She pulled back, breathless, and her eyes were filled with wary wonder, as if she was finally feeling the power that flowed between them. Maybe she was finally getting the message.
The right man is like WD-40: He keeps his woman … well, you figure it out.
—DELILAH’S DICTUM
Chapter 19
On Monday morning, Delilah peeked out of her office to ask Sara for a file and spotted flowers on her assistant’s desk. Paul stood in the doorway chatting.
“Lovely flowers, Sara. Who are they from?”
Sara colored prettily and shot Paul a furtive glance. “I, uh—”
“They’re from me,” Paul said.
Surprise raced through her. “You?” She looked at Sara in amazement. “When did this happen? I must express my complete approval. Is he as good in bed as he looks?”
Sara opened her mouth then closed it and cleared her throat. “As a matter of fact, he is.”
Delilah chuckled. “Is this serious?”
“I’m trying,” Paul said. “Trying to get her pregnant.”
“Paul!” Sara said. Their feelings for each other were obvious. Delilah was flabbergasted. And envious. Now, that’s stupid, she told herself. The last thing she needed was romance or a baby. She thought of Willy and felt a twinge of pain. Delilah gave herself a hard mental shake. What she needed was to get Guy Crandall neutered and to purchase a self-tanner shower.
Lilly Bradford burst into the office suite with a desperate expression on her face. “I need to talk to you,” she said to Delilah.
Sara shot Delilah a questioning glance. Delilah just nodded. “It’s okay. Come into my office. Sara, please hold my calls.” She glanced at Sara and Paul and smiled. “Congrats.”
Lilly looked at the flowers. “Oh, they’re pretty. It must be in the air. I got some yesterday,” she said as she followed Delilah into her office. As soon as Delilah closed the door, Lilly’s composure slipped. “Guy Crandall left a note on my front porch yesterday!”
Delilah scowled. “He called me the other day, but I was sick so I had to hang up on him.”
“We’ve got to do something or he’s going to destroy my chances of marrying Robert,” Lilly said, her eyes filling with tears.
Delilah sighed. “I’m working on it. I really am. Next Monday I’m getting some help and—”
Lilly gasped. “You’re hiring a hit man?”
“No,” she said. “Although I’ve fantasized his demise using several horrible, painful methods.” She studied Lilly. “Any progress with Robert? Any chance you can move up the wedding date?”
Lilly sighed in disgust. “We haven’t even set a wedding date. His father wants it to be the social event of the year.”
“Yeah, Benjamin told me he’s a prick.”
“Benjamin said that?”
“No. He just described him and I sorta filled in the blanks.” Delilah thought of possible solutions. “Maybe you could get pregnant.”
Lilly’s eyes popped wide open in horror. “How?”
“The usual way,” Delilah said.
“I’m on the pill.”
“Damn, so you’ve finally done the deed. Was he any good?”
Lilly opened her mouth and worked her jaw, but made no sound.
“That either means it was really good or really bad,” Delilah concluded.
Lilly pushed her blonde hair behind one of her ears, a sure sign she was flustered because Lilly always covered her Dumbo ears. “I suppose it’s a matter of perspective,” she said with a sniff. “Robert left roses on my front porch before he went golfing yesterday.”
“Hmm,” Delilah said, studying Howard’s daughter. “But how was it for you?”
“It was fine,” Lilly said a little too quickly. “Fast, but fine.”
“It’s none of my business—”
“Exactly,” Lilly said, getting a snippy tone in her voice.
“A quickie may be fine every now and then. Exciting, forbidden. But it’s better not to make a habit of it. It’s better to make them work for it, to put some time into it. That way, you get what you want and he gets that juvenile rush of making a touchdown.”
A knock sounded on the door and Sara looked inside. “No telephone call, but I didn’t think you would mind these,” she said, bringing in a beautiful bouquet of red-tipped ivory roses. She set the vase on the desk and waited expectantly.
Lilly made an oooh sound. “They’re gorgeous. They remind me of those rare roses named after a celebrity. Who sent them?”
Surprised and self-conscious, Delilah pulled the card from the bouquet. No one had sent her flowers since Cash. She opened the note and quickly scanned it.
These are a rare hybrid of roses. Beautiful, original, rare, like you. Benjamin
Oh, wow. Her heart turned over at the message. Feeling Sara and Lilly’s curious gazes, she cleared her suddenly tight throat. “Thank you so much for fitting me in to the Botox party,” she invented. “You saved the day. Ciao, Iris.”
Sara’s face fell. So did Lilly’s.
“Botox. How unromantic,” Lilly said. “What a waste.”
Sara sighed. “I had hoped that you were finally—”
Delilah shook her head. “There’s enough of that going around between you two and your boy toys.”
“Boy toy,” Lilly echoed. “I can just imagine what Robert would think of being called that.”
“He can be taught,” Delilah said slyly.
Lilly stiffened and glanced at Sara.
Sara, ever gracious and intuitive, took the hint. “I’ll leave you to your meeting. If you need anything, call me.”
As soon as Sara closed the door, Lilly turned to Delilah. “How are we going to handle Guy?”
“Well, I have personally decided not to answer my phone or be alone here at work until after next Monday.”
“What’s happening on Monday?” Lilly asked impatiently.
My big sister and her husband are coming and they’re gonna beat him up. “A securities specialist that I trust is coming to town.”
“Are you sure you can trust him?”
“Totally.”
Delilah listened for Benjamin to walk through her door that evening. As she paced her living room, it occurred to her that this had become a routine without her realizing it. Somehow in the middle of caring for Willy they’d begun sharing their evenings together and never stopped. She should probably put a stop to it now.
Yeah, right. Stop the flowers, stop the kisses, stop the good feelings. Maybe next week, she thought, glancing at her nails. At that moment, her door opened and Benjamin appeared. Her silly heart hiccupped.
“Hi,” he said.
Her heart sped up. Oh, this was silly. Just the sight of him and all he had to do was say hi and he was the sexiest man on earth?
“Hi,” she said, resisting the urge to kiss him. Instead she inhaled his scent and allowed herself to feel a little dizzy. He had the same effect on her as drinking two champagne cocktails on an empty stomach. “You were a bad boy today.”
“Me?” He shot her his innocent, but sexy look. “What did I do?” He headed for her kitchen and she heard him open the refrigerator, probably intending to drink one of the Coronas she’d bought yesterday.
“You sent me beautiful roses and they arrived when Lilly Bradford was there.”
He returned with beer in hand. “Bet she was envious.”
She chuckled. “A little. Both she and my assistant were very curious about who sent them.”
He nodded. “So was I a massage therapist tryin
g to get in your pants or a customer you rescued from hair emergency?”
He knew her a little too well. “A customer thanking me for fitting her in to a Botox party.”
“Botox,” he said, grinning. He leaned against the back of the couch. “That was pretty good.”
“You really shouldn’t do things like that. If it got out, people might get the wrong—”
“Or right idea,” he said, snagging her hand and pulling her against him. He nuzzled her nose then drew back. “Did you like them?”
Her heart tightened. “Of course I did. They were beautiful. I’ve never received such beautiful flowers, but you need to be—”
The phone rang and she broke off. She tensed and walked over to check the caller ID. The number was blocked. She held her breath for four more rings.
“Why didn’t you pick up?”
“I’m not picking up if it’s a blocked number or if I can’t identify the number until Monday.”
“Does this have something to do with Guy Crandall?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, turning away from him.
“I’ve done some checking on him.”
Delilah whipped back around to face him. “No! Don’t do that. That’s exactly what I don’t want. I need to keep this very low profile. You are very high profile.”
“I’m not high profile. I’m just—”
“A Houston Huntington,” she said, rolling her eyes. “With standing reservations in all the best restaurants in town, a membership at the best country clubs, and season tickets to the opera and every sports event.”
“Guy gambles.”
Realization instantly dawned. “So that’s why he’s upped the ante lately. Calling me, leaving notes for Lilly.”
Benjamin’s face turned deadly serious. “He’s been calling you?”
His expression was so fierce it almost frightened her. “Well, just once that I know of. But that was when I had a hangover, so I had to hang up on him.”
“You can’t keep paying him.”
“Well, if your brother wasn’t such a weenie, we might not be in this mess.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean if anyone was sure that Robert really loved Lilly, then we wouldn’t have to be so careful about keeping this quiet. But we don’t know for sure that he loves her enough to stand firm with her if there’s some controversy, do we?”
Benjamin sighed. “I don’t know. It’s hard to read him. My father’s got the screws so tight on him sometimes I’m not sure when I’m talking to Robert or my father’s mouthpiece.”
“That’s why I called my sister for help.”
Benjamin wrinkled his brow in confusion. “Your sister?”
“My sister is married to a securities specialist. They’re coming on Monday.”
“I could have handled this for you,” he said, his hurt expression pulling at her.
“Yes, except if you hired a private investigator, it would probably show up in the newspaper and the mess would be even worse. You may not realize it, but people watch you.”
“Not as much as you think.”
“Uh-huh,” she said in disbelief.
“Let’s go ice skating at the Galleria.”
She got whiplash from the change of subject. “I’m not a very good skater.”
“Good, that will give me an excuse to hold you. Up,” he added as an afterthought. “I’ll wear a stocking cap, so no one will recognize me. C’mon, don’t be a sissy.”
Nobody called her sissy and got away with it.
Hours later, after they’d skated and she’d fallen too many times to count, they’d grabbed a bite at The Cheese-cake Factory and arrived back at the condo.
He followed her inside and toured all the rooms while he talked with her.
“What are you doing?” she asked when he opened her closet.
“Just checking to see which of your underwear will fit me,” he joked.
She couldn’t help laughing at the image of him in her red teddy. “Nice try. You’re making sure Guy Crandall isn’t hiding under my bed.”
“Hey, if I’m not getting any, then he’s not getting any.”
She lightly punched him. “Guy’s too chicken to show up at my condo.”
He shook his head and pulled her against him. “Not if he’s desperate.”
Disliking the thought of Guy Crandall invading her space, Delilah sank against Benjamin and savored his strength. “Does this mean you’d be willing to guard my body?” she asked, trying to pull back the lighter feeling she’d enjoyed with him all evening.
He pulled back slightly. “Your body, heart and soul,” he said. “You want me to sleep in the extra bedroom?”
No, I want you to sleep with me all night long and chase away all the boogey men. Surprised at the power of her desire for him, she gave herself a hard mental shake. Buck up, girlfriend. This isn’t like you.
“That’s a very nice offer. Can I have a raincheck?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Bang on the wall if you need me.” He turned to leave and she grabbed his hand.
“You forgot something,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“You forgot to kiss me,” she told him.
“Oh, so you want me to kiss you?”
“As long as you’re not going to act all cocky a—”
He pulled her into his arms and stopped her words with his kiss, knocking the breath and sense out of her. Oh, wow, she was going to have to put a stop to this. Next week. Or the week after.
As Robert rubbed one hand over her breast and drew her hand to his crotch, Lilly arched against him and rubbed him intimately. He groaned with approval and she rubbed some more then drew back slightly and sucked in a deep breath.
“I think we’re steaming up the windows,” she murmured.
“You’re steaming up more than my car windows,” he said.
“I wish we had more time,” she said, rubbing her mouth against his jaw. “We could do more.” She slid her hand to his thigh, struggling with the desperate feelings that had plagued her all day. “I wish you could stay.”
“I do too.” He groaned, this time in frustration. “I’m going to have to do something so we have some more alone time together.”
“That would make me happy,” she said. When they were alone, she believed Robert would stand by her. When they were alone, she believed he almost needed her.
“You’ve been a little quiet, tonight. Anything wrong?”
Lilly tensed. She had been counting on Robert’s absentmindedness to cover her turmoil. “Of course not. What could possibly be wrong? I’m engaged to the man I love and steaming up his windows …”
He chuckled and hooked his thumb under her chin. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
She held her breath. “Very sure.”
“If you need anything, you should let me know,” he said.
“I just need your love, to be your wife.”
He stroked her cheek. “My mother and father suggested a June wedding date. What do you think?”
“That’s a long time,” she said, thinking about the ticking time bomb of Guy Crandall.
“I agree, but my mom says it will take at least six months to plan everything. It sounds almost as involved as running for election.”
“I guess. Do you mind walking me to the door?” she asked, still spooked by the appearance of Guy’s note on her front porch.
Robert escorted her up the steps. “I’d love to go inside with you. You remember I’ll be picking you up for Thanksgiving dinner with my folks?”
“I couldn’t forget it.” She pressed her lips against his. “Good night, darling.”
She stepped inside her door and bit her lip. How long could she keep hiding her father’s secret from Robert? How long did she want to? She was ready to bite her acrylic nails to the quick.
She loved Robert and wanted to be with him. She wanted so badly to be a part of his family that it possessed her, bu
t she was tired of pretending she was perfect when Lord knew she wasn’t. Sighing, she triple-bolted the door and climbed the stairs to her bedroom.
She still wasn’t sure he really loved her. The doubt taunted her. What if she was fighting for something that was never going to happen? What if he was never going to love her?
Stepping into her familiar bedroom decorated in the Queen Anne cherry her mother had given her when she’d moved to New York, Lilly kicked off her shoes. What if she wasn’t able to keep the secret until she and Robert were married? June, she remembered him saying and her stomach turned. She would have to lie until June.
What if he hated her for keeping the secret from him? What if the press found out at an awkward time? Then both Robert and his father would hate her.
Lilly groaned as she unbuttoned her blouse. She wanted to be the woman he needed and loved. She wanted to be the woman he turned to. She wanted to be part of his family. Even though his family was a little dysfunctional and her future father-in-law was the most controlling man in the universe.
Discouraged down to her bones, she hung up her clothes and put on her pajamas. She went through the motions of removing her makeup and brushing her teeth and slid under the covers. Needing some extra warmth tonight, she turned on her electric blanket. Reaching out to turn off her bed lamp, she caught sight of her engagement ring.
She knew the diamond was real. A Huntington would do no less. She just wished she knew if their marriage would be real.
On Wednesday during lunchtime, the front entrance receptionist paged Delilah at her desk. “I’m sorry to bother you, Miss Montague, but there’s a young woman here who says she has an appointment for services, but she’s nowhere on the books and you know how slammed we are. She insists on seeing you.”
Delilah rolled her eyes. Probably some prima donna college girl on break. “What’s her name?”
“Lori Jean—”
Delilah smiled. “I’ll be right there.”
She told Sara to hold all her calls until further notice and continued to the front desk. Her youngest sister, Lori Jean, dressed in designer jeans stood at the desk, her eyes dancing. Her long blonde hair silky straight, she cocked her head in subtle warning toward a big, beefy man standing in the background.
