Bride by Design: Flights of Fancy (3 page)

I kept getting rejection letter after rejection letter. But finally, after a year of waiting tables and applying for jobs, I landed a gig writing about beautiful homes for an interior design blog, FamiliesAndHomes.com. The pay barely covered my bills, but the work was fun. As the blog became popular and got more readers I gained a bit of exposure and snagged a handful of low-paying gigs designing homes and nurseries on a budget, trying to please tasteless housewives who wanted to impress the neighbors. Things seemed to finally be moving along - until the blog was sold.

I couldn’t blame Matt and Glenn. They’d always dreamed of opening a furniture and home-wares store together, and now they’d been offered seven figures for their blog by a prominent media company. They’d been great bosses; it was just too bad that the media company buying us out had their own staff and didn’t need me on board anymore.

I wandered down the street slowly, lost in my own thoughts. I barely noticed the large black limo following me, until it pulled up alongside and the driver honked.

When I looked through the rolled-down window, I saw Green Eyes leaning out.

“Get in,” he called softly.

I shook my head and kept walking. Who did he think he was? And I couldn’t waste my time with him, I needed to get a new job, pronto.

The car kept following me. “Please, Lisa, get in. I swear, I just need to talk to you.”

How did he know my name? Come to think of it, how did he know where to find me? My heart thumped in sudden fear and alertness.

People were starting at me, and I noticed the limo was holding up traffic.

“Just get in the car, lady,” yelled the driver of a red Saab. “We all need to get home.”

I slid in, mortified, and glared at Green Eyes. “I have pepper spray in my bag,” I said, “And I’m not afraid to use it.”

He chuckled, and rolled up the window. “I promise, I just want to talk.”

“How did you know where to find me? And how do you know my name?”

He smiled. His eyes were shades of grey and green, and his presence was making my body react in ways my brain disapproved of. I couldn’t forget that amazing orgasm I’d had up in the air, but I tried to push it out of my mind and focus on the situation at hand.

Green Eyes was obviously crazy, he’d found out my name and where I worked. My mind was whirling at the absurdity of it all. I didn’t feel like I was in any danger yet, but I kept a hand on my pepper spray and decided to give him two minutes to explain himself. The limo windows were all dark, and nobody could see inside.

“You didn’t come to the park. So I had to call a friend at the airline to tell me your details.”

I shuddered. “And why do you need my details? Are you some kind of rich American Psycho?”

I noticed now that the car seemed to be winding its way down to the Bronx, to my apartment. So he really had pulled all my details!

“Relax.” He sounded annoyed now. “I’m not a psychopath. Don’t you know who I am?”

I made sure I was near the door. Manhattan traffic was always slow, but peak hour traffic moved at a snail’s pace. I had no doubt I could jump out at the traffic lights if I needed to.

Green Eyes saw that I was preparing to make a run for it and said, “Please. My name’s Colin Anderson. Surely you’ve heard of me?”

I sank back in my seat. So that’s why he looked so familiar - he was always in Forbes, Fortune, New York Magazine and the tabloids. Being a billionaire playboy will do that to you, I guess.

Once again, the absurdity of the situation hit me like a ton of bricks. So Green Eyes, my random park crush and airplane one-nighter was a successful, famous real estate developer, who was linked with a different model or society beauty every other day.

“So,” I asked warily, “In addition to being a real estate tycoon, you’re also a psychopath who preys on girls in parks?”

He laughed out loud this time. “No, seriously,” he stuttered when his laughter stopped. “I just want to talk to you.”

Something about his relaxed manner seemed convincing. “Ok, shoot. What is it?”

“Didn’t you get the note I left you?” He looked serious.

I shook my head. “What note?”

He sighed with exasperation. “I left a note on your seat. Clearly you were more interested in sleeping than talking to me after our…” His eyes moved down to my breasts and I drew in a quick breath before he looked up at my eyes again. “Anyway, I wanted to ask you out properly. You know, a date and all.”

“There was a note?” I was incredulous. I didn’t know if I should believe him or not.

“Look, it must’ve slipped off when you woke up.”

I nodded. “Fine, you’ve redeemed yourself. You’re not a strange jerk saying weird things to me at the airport.”

We exchanged smiles. Maybe this wasn’t so bad, after all. I was still a bit overwhelmed that he’d tracked me down and turned out to be a famous entrepreneur. “But I don’t really have much time for a relationship,” I admitted.

“Why not?” Colin’s eyes were sharp and narrow. Clearly this was a man who was not used to hearing “no”.

“Umm…” Surely exposing myself as a jobless loser wasn’t a great way to start off with a guy I wanted to impress. I gulped. “There’s a lot going on in my life right now.”

“Why don’t you tell me about it?”

He slid down the partition separating us from the driver and said, “We’ll get down here, thanks.”

The driver pulled up and we slid out in front of a cafe. I followed Colin inside, and we sat down and ordered coffees. My stomach was growling at the sight of all the pastries displayed, but I didn’t want to seem greedy.

“So,” said Colin, as soon as we were alone, “What’s going on in your life? Why can’t you have a relationship?”

I tried not to stare at him in disbelief. Were we really having this conversation? Most New York men balk at saying the “R” word anytime before the first three months together, if not the first three years. Colin was linked with a different, gorgeous woman each day - or maybe this kind of talk was the way he got linked with them in the first place. But why go to so much effort for me?

“Why are you so interested in relationships?” I tried to keep the disbelief and doubt out of my voice.

Thankfully Colin didn’t seem offended. “I like you,” he said. His eyes seemed thoughtful. “I saw you in the park, and… I didn’t want to scare you off, but I thought we could have something.”

I wanted to nod, but something in my stomach told me things weren’t what they seemed.

“So why not just ask me out? Why wait till last weekend?”

He smiled ruefully. “I thought you might not be right for me, that you were just a crush. But then I saw you at the airport, helping out that noisy family… And I knew you were special.”

His voice was soft and there was a strange hopefulness in his eyes. The hair on the back of my neck stood up when I looked at him - he was so beautiful, so magnetically attractive. I could understand why he’d seen so much success. He exuded charisma and talent, there was something so charming about him, and he seemed to genuinely care about me. I was sure whoever he was talking to felt like they were the center of his universe for that moment. It would be hard to say no to anything he wanted.

“I guess a few dates once in a while couldn’t hurt,” I mused.

I thought I saw that glint in his eye again. But it was gone before I could be sure, and he looked thoughtful and interested.

“Tell me what’s going on in your life, what’s wrong?” He tilted his head and waited for me to answer.

I took a deep breath. Now that I’d gotten over the “maybe he’s a psychopath” doubts, and the shock that he was a billionaire playboy, Colin seemed so nice, so genuinely down-to-earth and interested in me. It wouldn’t be fair to lie to him.

“I lost my job,” I admitted, and it all came rushing out. He prompted me at times, encouraging me to tell him everything, as he sat and nodded and took it all in.

I heard warning bells ringing softly in the back of my mind. “Be mysterious,” the How To Snag A Man guides all said, “Don’t let him know everything about you, even if he seems nice.”

But it’s not in my nature to be mysterious - I have a hard time opening up to people, but if I feel comfortable enough to talk about myself, then I don’t believe in deceiving or holding back.

Colin smiled and seemed very interested as I told him about how I’d gotten the job and how I’d lost it.

“But I’m sure you’ll get a new job soon,” he encouraged. “Haven’t you been applying?”

“Of course I have, I know not to just sit around!” Colin merely smiled, so I went on, “But nobody’s hiring. It’s a bad economy, even bankers and doctors are losing their jobs, no-one needs luxuries like interior designers.”

“Some people do.” There was a low rumble in Colin’s voice.

“You seem to have someone in mind?” And then it struck me that he worked in real estate, maybe he had contacts who…? I wanted to ask him if anyone he knew was hiring but I hesitated. The Man-Snagging guides definitely frowned upon asking your date for a job.

And anyway, Colin didn’t venture any further information about who might be hiring an interior designer, so I decided that I’d done enough talking about myself.

“What about you?” I asked. “What’s up in your world of real estate development?”

I half-expected him to smile and shrug, and act as if I was too dumb to understand his work. So I was quite pleased when he started telling me about a new project he wanted to win.

“There’s a massive commission and profits involved,” he said, “But that’s not really the reason I want this project. I can’t wait to see the finished work.”

I nodded, understanding. “That’s exactly how I feel about my work - you want to see how much better things are once you’ve finished.”

“Exactly. And, the work is for Sir Donald Jeffreys.”

“The reclusive British businessman?”

“Yep, that’s the guy. He owns a completely undeveloped island in the British Virgin Isles - Manchala. Can you imagine, completely untouched forests, pure sandy beaches, a tropical paradise… Anyway, it was one of the conditions of his purchase that Sir Donald build a resort on the island within five years.”

“And that’s where you come in.” I could feel his excitement, the potential to turn a completely untouched virgin island into a grand holiday destination.

“Hopefully. Sir Donald hasn’t decided who he wants to develop the final resort, but I’m in the running. I just need to beat out four other guys for the top spot, then it’s all mine. Manchala.” He said the word softly, caressing the vowels, and his face glowed with a fire reflecting a passion I understood. “The five of us developers that he’s choosing from are meant to go to Manchala next week with out wives. We hang out with him on the island, show him our designs, and hopefully he’s impressed with my ideas and we’ll work together.”

We sat silently for a few minutes, Colin obviously daydreaming about what he’d do with the island, and I mused on how lucky he was to be passionate about his work. I was passionate about my work too, but I’d be lucky to see any success.

“So, tell me about your family,” he said abruptly, turning the full power of his intense gaze on me again.

I paused for a minute, feeling a frisson of electricity travel between us, jolting me upright.

“Well, there’s my brother Alex - he works in marketing.” I wasn’t about to tell a stranger about Alex’s troubles, so I went on, telling him about my parents’ deaths, and how I’d taken care of Alex since I was nineteen.

He cocked his head and murmured, “That must’ve been difficult for you. Alex was very lucky he had you to take care of him.”

“Well, of course I’d take care of him! I couldn’t just send him away to some foster home, and our only relative is a strange old aunt who lives on farm in Darlington, Wisconsin. I wasn’t about to send him there.”

Colin nodded. “And what about here? Do you have a roommate?”

“Oh yes.” There was so much I could say about Katie - we’d gone to high school together, and then university. She was one of the few high school friends who’d stayed with me through my mother’s death and while I cut back on classes at university. I didn’t have time to party with the rest of my classmates in between my part-time job and taking care of Alex, but Katie always understood.

She moved to New York after graduation too, and got a job working in accounting. I would always be grateful to Katie for being there for me during my difficult times, and I was determined to help her out now, as much as I could. I babied her whenever possible, cooking meals in our tiny kitchen, cleaning up and doing most of the housework, and trying to be supportive of her crazy relationship which was obviously not working out.

“You’re such a good friend,” Colin murmured, and I thought I caught a quizzical note in his voice. “How helpful of you.”

“Hmm.” I shrugged. “It’s the least I could do.”

I remembered the time I took sick leave from work to take care of Katie when she had the flu. “We’re like sisters, we need to take care of each other. Katie’s family lives up in New Jersey and she doesn’t see them often. If we don’t take care of each other, who will?”

Colin was smiling sardonically. “Well, I’m sure her family could drive down more often if you weren’t here. And I’m sure she’s got other friends…”

I shook my head. “No, it doesn’t work that way. Katie’s like the sister I never had … what about your family?” I tried to change the topic.

Colin looked down at his empty coffee mug and shrugged. “Not much to tell. Only child, blah blah blah.” He looked up at me again. “Wait here.”

I watched him go to the counter and pay our bill. The man thought of everything, he wouldn’t even let me offer to pay. Or wait, was this just his way of running away from the conversation?

I didn’t know much about Colin, I rarely read the tabloids or the stories in Forbes, but I was fairly sure I’d read somewhere that he’d been adopted. Funny he didn’t mention that.

Colin was back, and leading me out to the waiting limo.

“No, it’s fine,” I protested weakly, “I can just take the subway.”

“This is important,” said Colin. “We need to talk.” He sounded serious.