“I—I don’t think that’s a good idea. And it won’t change my answer.”
“You can’t deny there’s chemistry between us.”
His deep, velvety tone immediately made her think of dark nights, tangled sheets, a lack of clothing and his hands on her skin.
Heat flushed her from the inside out. How long had it been since she’d had really good sex? Or sex, period, for that matter.
Did he really feel the attraction, too, or was he just saying what he needed to say to close this deal? God knows she’d fallen victim to plenty of smooth-talking guys who’d made her feel like the most important person on the planet until they had what they wanted. But then she’d been known to use guys, too, to get a rise out of her father.
She scanned Adam’s face, noting the dusky color on his cheekbones and the way he breathed through slightly parted lips.
Adam Garrison attracted to her? Impossible. She’d seen his usual bimbos and she didn’t even come close to the models and starlets he dated, especially the way she dressed these days.
“You’re my boss. Office relationships always turn out badly—usually for the employee.”
“They don’t have to. Besides, you won’t be working for me after the wedding,” he enunciated very clearly and a tad too loud. Before she could figure out why he’d spoken that way a woman jerked to a halt behind him.
“Adam?” The lady could have been anywhere from fifty to a well-preserved seventy, but it was impossible to gauge by her tightly stretched skin.
Adam looked up and hesitated just the right amount of time before releasing Lauryn’s hand and standing. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Ainsley. This is Lauryn Lowes. Lauryn, Helene Ainsley. She’s on the board of practically every charitable foundation in Miami.”
Helene Ainsley. The same woman who’d refused to come to the door when Lauryn had knocked and asked the maid who answered for a moment of her mistress’s time. The Ainsley estate was four doors down from the Laurence property, and even though Mrs. Ainsley was older, she or her children had probably known Adrianna Laurence.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Ainsley.” It would have been nicer ten months ago.
The woman looked from Adam to Lauryn through her nipped and tucked eyes. “Do we have news?”
Lauryn tensed and held her breath.
Adam sent a lingering look her way and then smiled tenderly before replying without breaking eye contact, “No news.”
Good grief, the man should be an actor. His tone, expression and body language spoke the opposite more eloquently than words.
“I could have sworn I heard you say ‘wedding.’”
Adam returned his attention to Mrs. Ainsley. “You could have. There have been a few weddings in the Garrison family lately. And of course, my sister Brittany is engaged.”
But Mrs. Ainsley didn’t believe him. Lauryn could see the curiosity in the woman’s overstretched face. How smart of Adam to plant the seed—just in case he convinced Lauryn to say yes. Not that he would.
The woman’s searching gaze focused on Lauryn. “Have we met, dear? You look familiar.”
Lauryn’s heart skipped a beat. Did she take after her mother? The only photos she’d found of Adrianna had been blurry black-and-white newspaper shots that made identifying specific features difficult, but Lauryn had inherited her father’s coloring. Her mother had been a brunette. “No, ma’am.”
“Are you quite sure? I never forget a face.”
She yearned to blurt out the truth, but the consequences of handling this badly were too great. “I’m sure. I haven’t met many people because I haven’t lived in the area very long.”
“Then we should remedy that. We’re having a few friends over on Saturday. Perhaps you and Adam will join us for couples’ tennis?”
The invitation stole Lauryn’s breath.
Doors will open, Adam had said. Lauryn hadn’t considered that those open doors would offer an opportunity to join her birthmother’s social circle.
If she married Adam Garrison she’d be one of the Miami elite and closer to getting her answers than ever before. The idea tempted her more than it should.
“Lauryn?” he asked.
“I, um…I’m sorry. I don’t play tennis.” She’d been too busy being a rebellious teen to learn. Just one more reason to regret her misspent youth.
Helene turned back to Adam. “Then perhaps you’ll bring Lauryn to cocktails on Monday evening. The club is closed then, isn’t it?”
“We’d like that,” Adam accepted without consulting Lauryn. But she didn’t care about his high-handedness. He was going to get her into a house her mother had probably visited and introduce her to people her mother had probably known. While they were on the island maybe she could convince him to show her his place and she could walk her mother’s path.
“Lovely. See you at eight.” Mrs. Ainsley glided off with the grace of the queen.
Adam sat quickly, followed by the arrival of their meal. After the waiter departed Lauryn looked at her companion. “You’re very sneaky.”
A mischievous smile slanted his lips, making him look like a bad boy inviting her to come out and play. The dormant rebel in Lauryn raised its head, but she quickly reined in her naughty urges. She’d given up her penchant for bad boys.
“I know what I want and I’m not ashamed to go after it. Helene is one of the biggest gossips in the Greater Miami area. By the time we announce our engagement it will be old news.”
She gaped at him. “Need I remind you that I turned you down?”
“You’ll change your mind.” He lifted his wineglass in a silent toast. His eyes held a challenge. “Or I’ll change it for you. We’ll be good together, Lauryn. In bed and out.”
Tendrils of desire wound through her. And that, Lauryn realized, was the crux of her dilemma. The answers she wanted were right at her fingertips, but only if she broke the promise she’d made to her father and herself before the ink on her annulment had dried.
Next time, she’d vowed, she’d marry for all the right reasons.
And the business alliance Adam proposed didn’t even come close.
He almost had her.
Adam didn’t know why the idea of drinks with the Ainsleys’ stuffy crowd excited Lauryn, but he’d seen the flash of interest in her eyes and the heightened color on her cheeks earlier at lunch.
He rinsed the last of the shaving cream from his face, patted dry and then padded nak*d into his bedroom to dress for a Friday night at the club. He fed off the pulse of the music, the flash of the lights and the energy of Estate’s guests. Knowing he provided a good time for hundreds of people each night and was financially rewarded for doing so filled him with satisfaction.
Work. He lived for it. Why couldn’t his family—specifically his brothers—see that? But they viewed his life as one big party and treated him like a perpetual frat boy.
He made it halfway across the room before the mental image of Lauryn in his bed stalled his steps. Hell, he couldn’t be attracted to her, could he? Before Brandon’s suggestion, Adam had never had a sexual thought about his accountant. Or any employee, for that matter.
Lauryn had done nothing to light his fire. She was cool and withdrawn. She didn’t flirt. Even though he’d spent an hour with her today, he didn’t know any more about her than he had before lunch except that the smiles he used to make other women melt didn’t affect Lauryn Lowes.
But he had to admit something happened when he touched her to quicken his pulse and heat his blood. Was his interest piqued solely because she’d said no?
Shaking his head to clear the image of her pale skin spread across his black sheets, he headed for his closet. Any anticipation he might feel for seeing her again could be attributed to moving closer toward his goal. The marriage would be strictly business. Not pleasure. Although he was beginning to suspect Lauryn had a good body beneath her shapeless clothing and that he could derive a great deal of pleasure from exploring it.
All right, so he wanted to see her nak*d, but that was only because he was curious to know what she was hiding and why.
And if she wanted to dip her toes in Miami Beach society, he’d lead her to the water even though he usually avoided such events like he’d avoid swimming through a school of jellyfish. You never knew when you might get stung.
Drinks at the Ainsleys’ could include anywhere from a half-dozen to a hundred guests. Adam hoped like hell his mother wouldn’t be there drinking herself into oblivion. Lauryn would get a dose of Bonita Garrison soon enough.
After the wedding he and Lauryn would have to attend some of the Sunday family dinners, but until then he didn’t dare risk letting his mother’s increasingly bitter barbs scare off Lauryn because he didn’t have the time or inclination to search out another wife candidate. The nominating committee had already begun their search.
Guilt nagged at Adam as he dragged on a silk shirt. Finding out her husband of thirty-eight years had a twenty-seven-year-old illegitimate daughter from a long-term and on-going affair couldn’t have been easy for his mother. But that was no excuse for pickling her liver by living in a bottle of booze. His mother’s drinking had been a problem for as long as Adam could remember, and with it came the lies and excuses to cover the things she’d done or forgotten to do. But the situation had worsened since the reading of the will and the open acknowledgment of Cassie, his father’s illegitimate daughter by his Bahamian lover.
Adam made a note to hire a full-time driver for his mother. He couldn’t risk letting her get behind the wheel of a car. And he needed to talk to his siblings about drying her out before she killed herself.
He stepped into his trousers and pulled them over his bare butt. He hadn’t known about his halfsister, Cassie, but he had known about his father’s affair for years. Should he have told his mother? Or had she already known? Was that why she drank?
Five years ago during a trip to the Bahamas, Adam had stumbled upon his father and Cassie’s mother in an intimate clench. He’d tried to force his father to end the affair and failed. The confrontation had been ugly. Later that same year his father had turned over the running of Garrison, Inc. to Parker and the hotel operations to Stephen. Adam had received nothing. Nada.
And now it was too late to make things right with his father.
He tamped down the loss and frustration tightening his chest and finished dressing, then grabbed his keys and cell phone and jogged down the stairs. He couldn’t go backward. He could only move forward.
For his plan to work he needed absolute secrecy. Only Brandon knew the whole truth behind Adam’s proposal. And even though his best friend was crazy in love with Adam’s newly discovered half sister, Adam knew he could count on Brandon to keep his lips zipped. Not just because of client confidentiality, but because Brandon was that kind of guy—as honest and loyal as a summer day is long.
In the meantime, Adam would keep Lauryn away from his family until the contracts were signed and the wedding knot was tightly tied—and he had no doubt it would be tied. If Lauryn slipped up and revealed his strategy to his siblings he wouldn’t have a chance in hell of gaining more involvement in Garrison, Inc.