Meant for You

by Michelle Major

  “Sure does,” Owen agreed, sending Trent a scathing look that clearly communicated he was the masses to which Owen referred.

  Jenny’s heart tripped at the knowledge that Owen was, in his own quiet way, defending her. And by the look on Trent’s face, he knew he’d been thoroughly put in his place.

  Trent studied the business card in his hand as if he wasn’t sure how it had gotten there. He glanced between Owen and Jenny as he stuffed it into his pocket. “Congratulations on your engagement.”

  “Thank you.” With Owen as a steady presence at her side, she was able to keep the lid on her temper. “As far as what we were talking about just now . . .”

  “I’ve actually got an early flight,” he interrupted. “I’ll be in touch on that front.” He turned to Owen. “We’ll get that drink next time I’m in town,” he told him.

  When Owen didn’t respond, Trent continued, “Or maybe I’ll give you a call at the office.”

  Owen inclined his head. “You can try that.”

  “Right,” Trent agreed. “That’s a plan. Okay, you two kids have fun. I’m going to head back to my parents’ house. I’ve had enough of people trying to relive their glory days for one night.”

  Jenny watched him walk away, then turned to Owen with a small smile. “Thank you for rescuing me there. I don’t know how I ever could have been fool enough to think I loved that jackass.”

  A sliver of unease snaked through her when Owen’s gaze remained fixed on the hotel’s front entrance. “Tell me,” he said, “about the hotel key in your purse.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Owen kept his voice neutral as he watched Trent Decker walk out the hotel’s main entrance.

  He’d never wanted to punch a man as much as he had a few minutes ago. That was saying something since he’d once discovered his then fiancée on her knees in front of his brother.

  He almost laughed at the absurdity of his life. He didn’t put much stock in his personal reputation as a tech-industry visionary and mogul. He’d always loved technology and he’d wanted to help more people use it. It was a mix of luck and talent that, in the year his fledgling company had brought it to market, the mesh router he had designed became the biggest game changer since the birth of the Internet. He’d hit the sweet spot in the wave of the world’s demand for better networks that would enable personal devices to communicate without relying on Internet service providers and a few centralized access points.

  From there, it seemed like he had a Midas touch when it came to innovations. He employed the best people he could find and made sure to treat them well so they remained loyal. Loyalty was paramount to Owen, so it was ironic that he’d been betrayed in his personal life by some of the people closest to him.

  He’d been on edge for the past two hours as a result of working to keep up the charade of his engagement to Jenny. The woman might be gorgeous, but she was a horrible actor. Every emotion she had played across her delicate features, so he’d upped his game, continually touching her or murmuring in her ear to keep her distracted enough that she didn’t give away the whole farce.

  The pretend intimacy had taken its toll on his nerves as well as his libido. When she’d excused herself to the bathroom, he’d headed straight for the bar and done a round of shots with her high school class’s starting football lineup. The liquor had burned his throat but hadn’t done anything to quench his need.

  The way the dress shimmered over her curves, the scent of her lingering in the air, the way she unconsciously pressed a little closer to him every time someone approached them. All of it thrummed through Owen until his desire was so intense it felt like it might bring him to his knees. An evening with Jenny, and the previous two years spent shoring up his defenses disappeared like no time had passed.

  He knew she was freaked out, and when she hadn’t returned, a thread of panic had snaked its way through him. Jenny Castelli wasn’t great under stress, and he didn’t know if he could keep it together if she once again turned those emotionally destructive tendencies on him.

  He’d recognized Cooper’s father immediately, and the angry sneer on the man’s face as he looked at Jenny made Owen want to wipe it right off. Then she’d turned and he’d glimpsed the hotel room key clutched in her fingers. There was no way she planned to use that key with Trent, which did nothing to explain why she had it.

  Every time he’d touched her tonight she’d bristled like a feral cat. Although the arrangement had been her idea, it was clear she regretted it. She could barely stand to have any contact with him. So what the hell was she doing with a room key?

  She blinked up at him, as if she didn’t know what he was talking about. “I did it again, Owen,” she said, her voice miserable. “I pissed off Trent and he threatened to make contact with Cooper.” She shook her head. “Which maybe is good because he’s the father, but he hasn’t ever been a father to my son. What if he breaks Cooper’s heart?” Her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know whether it’s worse to never know your dad, or to have one who says he’ll show up to take you out for your birthday and then never comes. Trent could do that to him. He could hurt Cooper more than he already has.”

  Christ, he’d never seen Jenny cry. The vulnerability of it wrecked him.

  She was gulping in air, and he took her hand, leading her to an empty corner of the lobby.

  “But what if,” she continued, “he’s a good dad and Cooper has sisters and a brother and a real family where the mom stays home and bakes cookies and shit?”

  He laced his fingers with hers. “And shit?”

  “You know what I mean.” She swiped under her eyes with her fingers.

  “You are an amazing mother, Jen. Cooper has people who love him.”

  “That’s what I told Trent,” she answered. “But it’s not the same, you know? A single mom who works a hundred hours a week and a grandma who is slowly losing her mind are not the same as a real family.”

  “Stop.” He cupped her face between his palms. Even though she’d crushed him once before, a part of him wanted to do whatever it took to wipe the pain from her eyes. “Cooper knows how much you love him and understands how hard you’ve worked to build a good life for him.”

  “You’re right. I know you’re right.” She bit down on her lip and gave a shaky nod. “I’m pulling it together. And the key is for us.”

  It felt like his heart stopped beating inside his chest. “I’m going to need you to clarify that statement,” he said, unable to believe what he hoped she meant.

  “You and me,” she answered, pointing a finger between the two of them. “Done with the reunion and going upstairs. All night.” She frowned. “Tell me you don’t need me to draw you a diagram.”

  “No diagram.” He dropped his hands. “But are you sure? Because in there”—he pointed to the ballroom where the reunion was in full swing, the strains of an old-school dance song spilling out from the open doors—“it felt like I was driving you crazy every time I touched you.”

  “Uh, yeah,” she agreed.

  “I mean drive you crazy as in ‘don’t lay a hand on me, or I’ll break every one of your fingers.’”

  She raised a brow. “More like driving me crazy as in ‘I’m going to rip off your expensive suit and have my down-and-dirty way with you.’”

  “I like your version better,” he said, ready to worship this woman, whether it was the smart choice or not.

  He leaned in to claim her mouth for a deep kiss. Not a brush of their lips for an audience. Owen kissed her as he’d been dying to all night, like she was the only thing he’d ever needed in the world. That’s how he felt at the moment, and even the thought of how dangerous that could be didn’t stop him.

  He wanted her. All of her. He’d been a gentleman before, taking it slow because his feelings for her had overwhelmed him. He ignored that now and simply focused on how right she felt in his arms. She moaned and he slid his tongue into her mouth, his whole body lighting on fire as she met his need with her own
. She reached her hands under his coat and wrapped them around him, her nails scratching lightly through the thin fabric of his crisp cotton shirt.

  How the hell had he ever managed to rein in his need for her?

  After another moment he lifted his head, a deep satisfaction rumbling through him at the dazed look in her bourbon-colored gaze. “Shall we use that key?”

  She nodded and stuck close to him as they hurried across the lobby toward the bank of elevators on the far end. But just as they passed the reservation desk, another couple came around the corner. He recognized them from the reunion, and Jenny abruptly stopped. She and the woman eyed each other for several long moments, as if engaged in a silent conversation.

  The woman was rail thin, as if she lived on nothing but lettuce and air, with long blond hair and overly feminine features. It looked like she’d spent half her life with a Barbie doll as her style role model. But as he looked closer, he could see that her hair was mussed and her lipstick slightly smeared. She adjusted her dress and dropped her gaze from Jenny’s as the man with her chuckled.

  “I guess we’re not the only ones taking advantage of an evening out,” he said, drawing the woman closer. “Gotta keep the sparks flying after five years of marriage, and it sure beats line dancing with a bunch of losers from high school. Right, pook?”

  The look of smug satisfaction in the man’s grin made Owen’s stomach turn. Thank god he and Jenny could finally get out of there.

  He’d been the keynote speaker at a conference in Geneva the weekend of his own ten-year high school reunion. At the time, he’d been almost sad to miss it. Despite being the outcast within his own family, no one at his local public high school had seemed to care about Owen’s propensity toward geekdom, and there were a few fellow former members of the school’s science club that he still counted as friends.

  But tonight made him thankful he’d missed the event if his graduating class had turned out anything like Jenny’s.

  The woman tucked a stray lock of hair behind one ear. “It was good to visit with you, Jenny,” she said, “earlier in . . . you know . . .”

  “While I was turning the hotel into a biker bar?” Jenny shot back.

  The woman cringed, then looked between Jenny and Owen, her gaze apologetic. “I hope you both have a good night. Thanks for attending the reunion.” She offered a wan smile to Owen. “You were quite a draw.”

  She grabbed the man’s hand and hurried past them back toward the party.

  Owen placed his palm on the small of Jenny’s back and started toward the elevator. “I don’t think I want to know about the biker bar comment.”

  The elevator door swished opened as they approached. They walked on, and Jenny punched a button for their floor, then bolted to one corner of the small space. Owen reached up a hand to massage the back of his neck. He was getting whiplash from trying to keep up with her mercurial moods.

  “Is everything okay?” He crouched so they were at eye level. Even in heels, she was several inches shorter than him, and the combination of her tiny size and her bigger-than-life attitude was one of the things he’d always liked best about her.

  “Fine,” she mumbled, then crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re another happy couple, just like Dina and her husband.”

  There was something she wasn’t saying, but he had a feeling if he pushed her, she’d only shut down more. He had to remind himself that this woman had just been playing an enthusiastic game of tonsil hockey with him. The atmosphere in the elevator had chilled to temperatures found around Christmas in Siberia.

  When the elevator stopped, she stalked down the hall, not seeming to care if he followed. As soon as the hotel room door opened, she grabbed the front of his jacket and dragged him into the room. She launched herself at him, and he dug his heels into the plush carpet to keep from stumbling back.

  Enthusiastic was one thing, but this was downright aggressive. After attempting several times to slow their pace, he finally took both of her arms in his hands and held her away from him.

  “What the hell, Jenny?”

  “What the hell, Owen?” she mimicked, and his frustration ratcheted up another notch.

  He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to bite back his temper. His even-keeled reputation flew out the window when he was around Jenny. She pushed his buttons like no one he’d ever met.

  “Apparently there’s a fine line for you between seduction and assault.”

  She gasped and tried to wriggle free from his grasp.

  “I’m sorry,” he said immediately. “I didn’t mean that. But I can’t figure out what changed from five minutes ago to now.”

  “We’re in the hotel room,” she snapped. “What did you think was going to happen?”

  “Something that didn’t feel like angry sex when we’re not actually fighting.”

  “What does it matter how I act?” she asked, her shoulders slumping. “Who cares what kind of sex we’re having? It’s all a lie. The whole night is a lie.”

  He shook his head. “Me wanting you isn’t a lie.”

  “Then why did you stop?” She reached for the zipper on her dress. “You want me. I owe you. Let’s—”

  He held up a hand. “That’s not what this is,” he said with a growl. “You’re not having sex with me as payment for tonight.”

  Her chin notched up an inch. “The reason you want me is because you bought into what we’re pretending to be here. It’s not me you want. It’s Jenny your fiancée.”

  “It’s you.”

  She pulled the diamond ring off her finger and held out her hand, palm open. “This isn’t me.”

  “Keep it.”

  “Owen, no. This ring costs a fortune. I don’t—”

  “You’re going to need it. I’ve decided what I want as payment for tonight.” He glanced at the bed and back at her, his conviction to stay careful and in control disintegrating in the heat of the moment. “And it isn’t as simple as a roll in the sheets.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  His sister’s voice pounded through his head. He didn’t have anything to prove to his brother or the rest of his family, but he couldn’t deny that he wanted to. He needed to show them that he’d moved on, past the slights and betrayals of his childhood.

  “I need a date to my brother’s wedding.” He pinned her with a stare that told her exactly how serious it was to him and pitched his voice low. “I want a fiancée.”

  Her eyes widened. “We agreed to one night.”

  “We agreed that you owe me.”

  She looked around wildly, as if searching for an excuse. “Where’s the wedding?”

  “West Virginia. The town where I grew up.”

  “No way,” she answered immediately. “I can’t leave Cooper, and don’t even ask me to bring him. It’s bad enough he knows about tonight, but to be witness to—”

  “Cooper doesn’t have to know. The wedding is the last weekend in June.”

  It took her a moment to react. “When he’s at camp,” she muttered with a scowl.

  He hated himself for wanting to kiss the frown off her face. “I think your exact words were ‘I’ll do anything.’”

  “Can’t you just be into kinky sex like a normal guy?”

  “Maybe I am.”

  He took a step closer and she moved away until the backs of her knees hit the bed. Her eyes had darkened to the point that they looked like melted chocolate, and he wanted to sink into them—into her—until nothing else mattered. She didn’t fool him. Desire was obvious in her gaze. Hell, it was coming off her in waves.

  “But you won’t find out tonight. Enjoy the hotel room, Jenny.” He took a step back. “I hear room service has fabulous cookies on the late-night menu.”

  Before his desire obliterated the willpower he was holding on to like a lifeline, he walked away. It was the most difficult thing he’d done in years.

  “Don’t eat that.”

  Jenny paused with the cookie halfway to her mo
uth. She was sitting in the dining room at her mother’s assisted living facility the next morning. The breakfast dishes had just been cleared, but she’d snagged a chocolate-chip cookie from the plastic container shoved under the counter. They must have been left over from a family member visiting another patient in the memory care unit the day before. Jenny definitely hadn’t taken Owen up on his suggestion to order late-night room service after he’d left, but somehow she couldn’t suppress her craving for a cookie right now.

  She examined the round cookie she held between her fingers. “Why shouldn’t I eat it?”

  Mona Castelli wrinkled her nose. “They’re store bought.” Her tone made the words sound blasphemous. “I made a batch yesterday after school and pulled a few out for you and Claire before Ty and Charlie get to them.” She gave a soft chuckle. “I can barely keep enough food in the house for two growing boys. I’m going to need to ask Mrs. Bishop to raise my grocery budget for the month.”

  Jenny set the cookie on the napkin in front of her. Her mouth was suddenly filled with sand. “How old do you think Ty and Charlie are now, Mom?”

  Mona looked at Jenny as if she were crazy. “We just celebrated Charlie’s birthday last week,” she said, her tone mildly disapproving. “How can you not remember the lasagna dinner I made? It’s his favorite. One more year and he’ll be allowed to vote, which makes Ty fifteen. You have a milestone birthday coming up, too. Double digits.”

  “Ten years old,” Jenny said dully. It was hard to believe that just six months ago her mother had still been living in the cozy condo she’d retired to after working as the Bishops’ housekeeper for most of her adult life and acting as a surrogate mother to Ty and his siblings for much of that time. Ty was Jenny’s best friend, but his older brother, Charlie, and younger sister, Claire, had loved to remind her of her status as the daughter of hired help. Ty’s parents, Eric and Libby Bishop, were kind—if condescending—and Jenny had chafed at the rules and restrictions placed on her, living in the strict Bishop household.

  Her father was never in the picture. He’d divorced her mother while Mona was still pregnant with Jenny. A musician and a gypsy at heart, according to her mother he wasn’t meant for sticking around. That had left Mona to raise Jenny while also taking care of the wealthy family that paid their bills.