Authors: Elizabeth Sinclair
The imposing, tuxedo-clad
maître d’
led her across the room. Her hips swayed gracefully with each step she took, making her beige skirt shift softly from side to side, caressing her hips, her obscenely long, curvy legs and her thighs.
Sweat beaded Luc’s forehead.
Beneath her whiskey-colored blouse, her breasts moved in rhythm with her hips, making his mouth go dry and his breathing falter. Her long, straight, auburn hair swayed seductively around her face and shoulders. When she spotted him, she tossed the shiny tresses back over one shoulder in a gesture that smacked strongly of challenge.
Loosening the tie that suddenly seemed to be restricting his air passage, he sat straighter in his chair. As casually as he could, he lifted his water goblet and sipped the icy contents, relishing the rush of coolness on his desert-dry throat.
If he was going to have to spend two weeks in close proximity to the intoxicating Mandy James, he’d have to get himself under control. And, he’d better start now. Setting the goblet back on the snowy white linen tablecloth, he dragged himself to his feet, his napkin held casually, but strategically, in front of him.
“Ms. James,” he drawled, trying to sound nonchalant around a smile he hoped welcomed her, but revealed nothing of the turmoil going on inside him.
“Mr. Michaels.” Mandy glanced at him, flashed a tentative smile, and then quickly looked away.
Lord, but the man could make a woman’s toes curl with a just a glance from those dangerously dark eyes of his.
The waiter held Mandy’s chair while she took her seat, then he withdrew.
Luc resumed his own seat and replaced his napkin across his lap. “Catherine called to say she’d be a few minutes late, but for us to order without her.”
Mandy nodded, trying to ignore the shiver that passed down her body at the caress of his deep, throaty voice. She doubted she could get a crumb to pass down her tight throat. “I’m not really hungry. If it’s okay with you, why don’t we wait for Catherine?”
Luc turned to the waiting
maître d’,
accepted the leather bound menus from him, then placed them within easy reach at the table’s edge. “We’ll wait for Mrs. Daniels.”
“Very good, sir.” The
maître d’
bowed and stepped aside to allow the hovering waiter access to the table.
“Perhaps some wine while you wait?” The waiter looked from one to the other and offered Luc the wine list.
Luc looked pointedly at Mandy. She shook her head. An alcoholic stimulant was the last thing she needed singing through her veins right now. She never did well with alcohol under the best of circumstances, and Luc was enough stimulant for any red-blooded woman. “Ice tea, please, with lemon.”
“Make that two,” Luc said.
The waiter bowed again, took the wine lists from Luc and then left them alone.
Mandy fidgeted with her silverware, lining the ends of the handles up perfectly with the horizontal weave in the tablecloth. Anything to avoid direct eye contact with Luc. Annoyed that just being in his presence should have such a strong effect on her, she checked the door, praying Catherine would magically appear.
He broke the strained silence first. “Ms. James—”
She glanced back at him. “Mandy, please. If we’re going to be living together for two weeks, the formalities seem silly.” Saying it out loud sent a shiver of—of what? Surely that hadn’t been pleasure.
He gave an almost imperceptible nod, his striking dark gaze boring into her. “Very well, Mandy. And please call me Luc. However, I think your assumption about us living together is a bit premature.”
Mandy raised an eyebrow. “Oh? I thought that decision had already been made at the board meeting last night.” Was he backing out? Her heart dropped. Without him and the test, her chances of getting the simulators into the high school lessened considerably. But was that the only reason? “If you don’t intend to agree to the test, then why are you here?”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t take part in the test. Let’s just say I came to check out
. . .
the, uh, possibilities.”
Despite the way she bristled at the innuendo in his words, the sound of his velvety, deep voice seemed to reach out and touch her in places she hadn’t had touched in a very long time. Silently, she sent up a little prayer for an epidemic of laryngitis to strike the small hamlet of Carson for the next two weeks, and Luc in particular.
She sucked in a full breath of air.
“Are you all right?”
No, she was far from all right. Her stomach felt bottomless. Like she was riding a roller coaster, and the car had just plunged into one of those death-defying loop de loops.
Quickly, she nodded and averted her eyes. “I’m fine.” She took another deep breath to steady herself. “Still catching my breath. Mrs. Daniel’s call came at the last minute, and I had to rush through some things before coming here.”
Amazed that, when her insides felt like quivering gelatin, her voice sounded so steady, she looked gratefully at the waiter, who had appeared as if by magic at their side. He placed two glasses of ice tea on the table, gave a slight bow, and then left them alone again.
Perhaps if they talked business instead of just sitting here and
. . . .
“So, Luc, I take it you don’t think much of this plan that Mrs. Daniel’s has proposed.”
“I think we need to wait and see exactly what she has in mind before either of us jumps to any conclusions about it.” With his forefinger, he drew small circles in the moisture on the side of his glass. “Two weeks sounds like a snap in time, but this could be a very long snap. I hope you’re prepared to make the investment, mentally and
. . . .
”
He paused. His gaze swept Mandy’s face. Had he been about to add
physically
? Then it suddenly occurred to her what he was trying to do—unnerve her. Well, it wasn’t going to work. She’d come up against men who were much more subtle about it than Lucas Michaels.
Mandy sat straighter. “Exactly what are you suggesting?”
Luc looked directly at her, his expression all innocence. “What exactly do you think I’m suggesting, Ms. James?”
Mandy felt her face redden. His veiled insinuation sent a pleasurable shiver up her spine. Quickly, she shifted her gaze out the window, but even without looking at him, her awareness of the man studying her so intently heightened.
“Ah, you’re both here. Wonderful.” Saved by the bell.
Not having realized the degree of tension gripping his body since Mandy sat down, Luc was surprised when he found himself relaxing with Catherine Daniels’ arrival.
He stood and smiled at her. “Hello, Catherine.”
As usual, the town’s matriarch carried herself with understated grace, quietly in charge, yet unmindful and casually accepting of her status in a way that, rather than repel them, beckoned people to approach her. Luc had always admired that in her. Perfectly coiffed, not a snow-white hair ventured from her chic hairdo. Her impeccable, burgundy silk dress needed no designer monograms to tell anyone it had come with an expensive price tag, probably one of a kind.
The waiter pulled out her chair. Once seated in front of the other place setting at the circular table, Catherine looked from one to the other. “The two of you look like I’m about to impose a life sentence on you.”
Luc glanced at Mandy and decided that if they went through with this test, and if he didn’t get his testosterone under control, these two weeks would seem like a lifetime.
“Everything’s fine,” Mandy offered. “We were just speculating on what your plan might entail.”
Catherine waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, let’s eat first. No sense ruining what could be a perfectly lovely lunch with business talk.” Catherine picked up a menu and motioned for the waiter hovering nearby.
Luc drew in a deep breath. He’d been hoping they could get this over with quickly, and then he could make a quiet exit. He should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. His life never was.
What seemed like
an eternity later, Catherine pushed aside her dessert plate, then sipped her coffee and looked from Luc to Mandy. Setting the cup down, she pointed out the restaurant window to the blue lake.
“That lake and all the land around it once belonged to my grandfather. It’s all mine now, but back then, the lake didn’t have a name. No one seemed interested in giving it one and just referred to it as
the lake
, so, on my seventeenth birthday I named it Hope.”
Wondering if Catherine was making idle conversation, but thinking she’d heard a catch in her voice, Mandy glanced at the older woman. Moisture glistened in her eyes.
She quickly blinked it away and went on. “Everyone thought Lake Hope was just a whimsical title assigned to a nameless landmark by a romantic, fanciful, dreamy-eyed teen. No one but my mother knew that it was for an entirely different reason.” Catherine signaled for the waiter to refill her water glass.
Mandy studied her, concerned about the pain in Catherine’s voice. When the older woman stared at the filled water glass and didn’t make a move to drink, Mandy knew something was wrong.
She touched Catherine’s hand where it lay balled in a fist on the tablecloth. “Are you all right?”
As if wakening from a dream, Catherine started slightly, then smiled at Mandy and patted their entwined hands. “Yes, dear, I’m fine.”
Mandy glanced at Luc, surprised to see the same concern written across his features and aimed at Catherine. The assessment of hardhearted that she’d assigned to him the evening before shifted just slightly. Maybe a heart did beat under that tailor-made jacket after all.
She shifted her attention back to Catherine, who had taken a drink from her water glass and was just replacing it on the table. The ice cubes tinkling merrily against the glass mocked the suddenly somber mood at the table.
“Perhaps we should discuss the test.” Mandy made the suggestion in hope of leading Catherine away from whatever it was that had creased her brow and painted pain in her eyes.
“I’m leading up to that, my dear, if you’ll bear with me.” Catherine straightened in her chair and cleared her throat. “Often, young girls believe that having a baby is the answer to escaping a family life that is less than happy. Or mistakenly believing that they can hold onto a young man’s affections by getting pregnant with his child. What they don’t see is the responsibility connected to bringing a life into this world, or that the young man may not want to share in that responsibility. Nor do they see that sometimes, the family may not agree. Since they are underage with no legal rights, they then may have to survive the agony of being separated from that child forever.” With pain etched across her elegant face, she looked from Luc to Mandy.
“I don’t want either of you to think that my suggestion for this test was made lightly or that I have some sexually perverted streak running through my genes that compels me to arrange illicit affairs. I assure you that my suggestion was made with both an eye for morality and with a great deal of careful thought.”
Luc smiled. “I think I can speak for Ms. James and myself when I say that no such thoughts ever crossed our minds, Catherine.”
Mandy nodded her agreement. “Absolutely.”
“Thank you for assuring me you aren’t in doubt as to my sanity or my morals.” Catherine smiled, really smiled, for the first time since she’d begun talking about the test. But it was fleeting and replaced seconds later with a serious expression. “That said, I should tell you that I have a vested interest in this little experiment in human nature. The teen that I want to take part in this test is my granddaughter, Shannon.”
Luc sucked in a breath.
Mandy reeled from the shock.
Neither of them had to say it, but she was sure that, like her, Luc knew that this raised the stakes more than a few notches.
“Normally, I wouldn’t dream of interfering in my children’s family matters, but this is an exception. You see”—Catherine took another sip of water—“Shannon is in the throes of her first love. What she doesn’t know is that I was there once, and I recognize things in my granddaughter’s eyes that I saw in my own. I hear things in her voice. I understand her reasoning, no matter how troublesome it is.” She looked from one to the other of her lunch companions. “I’m hoping that her participation in this . . . experiment will make her see that flaw in her thinking.”