Authors: Grace Marshall
Garrett nodded. ‘She’s not going to like it.’
Just then the key in the lock turned and Kendra shoved her way in with Dee right behind her. Dee caught Garrett and Ellis’s gaze behind her back and offered a helpless shrug. Then she turned to Ellis. ‘What’s going on?’
‘What is it?’ Kendra added.
Garrett stepped forward toward her cautiously, always careful to stay out of the reach of her bad-ass right hand until he had gauged her mood. She’d been anything but Sally-smiley-face when she’d left.
‘While you were away –’ He nodded to the computer. ‘I got … I mean, Tess got a threatening email.’
‘Let me see.’
‘Kendra, no, don’t.’ Dee reached for her but it was too late.
Kendra shoved into the chair in front of the computer. ‘Threatening emails aren’t that uncommon for celebrities, you know. It probably means nothing.’
Garrett watched the muscles in her shoulders and neck tighten as she read, and he caught the slight acceleration in her breathing. She was good at hiding things, but he was good at finding out what people were hiding. It was one of his gifts, he supposed, but when the color drained from her flushed cheeks, he found himself surprised, and more than a little concerned, that nerves-of-steel Kendra Davis would let her fear show through in such an obvious way. He took a step closer and dropped into the chair next to her. ‘Are you all right?’
She made no response. He could see her pulse beating fast in her throat. When she’d finished reading the email, she pushed back from the computer and sat breathing hard with her eyes still locked on the screen. ‘It’s probably nothing,’ she repeated. But her voice, no matter how hard she tried, wasn’t all that convincing. ‘Just some over-zealous fan. Is this the first one?’
She listened as Garrett told her about Razor Sharp’s history. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said at last. ‘I should have told you. It’s just that up until now they’ve never been this threatening, and up until now, Tess Delaney didn’t have a face. I talked to the police –’
‘They can’t help,’ she interrupted. ‘There’s nothing they can do until … Until something happens. Like I said, this sort of thing’s not all that uncommon with celebrities, and Tess is a celebrity, and you can’t go crying wolf every time someone gets a little pissy or a little …’
‘Kendra? Are you all right?’ Garrett asked. ‘Kendra?’
She stood, then stumbled and nearly fell before Garrett caught her, engulfing her in his arms. He guided her back into the chair, which Ellis had turned around for her. Once she was seated again, she dropped her head between her knees and began to shake.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered between gasps for breath. ‘I’m sorry.’
Dee disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a damp washcloth, which Garrett grabbed away from her and placed across the back of Kendra’s neck.
‘Ken.’ Dee pushed in on the other side of her friend and stroked her back. ‘Ken, you know it’s not –’
‘No! No, it isn’t. I know that.’
‘It’s not what?’ Garrett said, gripping Kendra’s hand nearly hard enough to break bone. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Kendra had a stalker before and –’
‘Shut up, Dee,’ Kendra managed between gulps for breath. ‘It’s not him. That’s over with. It can’t be him, and you know it.’ She forced herself to sit up, still gripping Garrett’s hand for dear life. His insides twisted in anguish when he saw the pale transformation of her face, the haunted look in her eyes. ‘This man has had contact with Tess, always contact with Tess. He doesn’t know who I am. He just thinks I’m Tess, that’s all. It has nothing to do with what happened before. That’s not possible.’
‘What happened before?’ Garrett dropped to his knees in front of her on the floor, both her hands gripped in his. He couldn’t stand the thought that anyone could transform the indomitable Kendra Davis into such a state.
She jerked her hands away and shoved to her feet. The washcloth fell to the floor with a muted plop. ‘It doesn’t matter what happened before. It has nothing to do with what’s happening now. I just overreacted because I’m a little neurotic, that’s all. And my friend there –’ she nodded to Dee ‘– has a very big mouth.’
Dee made no response other than to offer a concerned gaze.
Ignoring her, Kendra took a shaky breath, steadied herself on the back of the chair and began to pace. ‘In the meantime, we still have a major mess to clean up.’
Garrett braced himself for accusations that didn’t come. Instead, she continued as though she was a football coach planning a play. He figured that was a pretty good analogy.
‘I’d imagine the crowd out front is gone for the moment,’ she said. ‘I called in a favor from a friend, who’s just had a sighting of the sneaky Tess Delaney and Garrett Thorne over at the Heathman. Escaped through the back door, you know?’ She smiled, and Garrett could see a little bit of the old Kendra Davis beginning to surface again. He had to admit, it warmed his heart.
‘I’ve called in the troops,’ she said, still pacing. ‘I’ve noticed the cupboards are bare, and since our movement is going to be a bit restricted for a while, I’ve got someone bringing in groceries and supplies. Lots of coffee, lots of wine, lots of Diet Pepsi. I figure we’ll need all the liquid courage we can get. I’m sorry, Garrett, I had to guess at what you like. There wasn’t time for us to put together a gourmet grocery list.’
He smiled. ‘Anything’s fine with me, thanks.’
She smiled back and, to Garrett, it felt like the sun had just come out. She continued, ‘Harris is bringing my clothes. He’s thrilled about that.’
In spite of herself, Dee sniggered.
‘All of that should be happening within the hour, which is about all the time I figure we’ll have before the hordes descend again. Garrett, you’ll have to pretend that I’m holed up here writing. I think that’s our best bet. I’m afraid we’ll be stuck with each other until things blow over. Nothing to worry about. There’s always something sensational to grab the attention of the gossips. I doubt if it’ll be a long siege. And we’ll have to go before the press. We’ll make one quick appearance together to appease the masses.’ She raised a hand as she saw him bristle. ‘Be nice, and tell them something, I don’t know, something that will at least temporarily satisfy them and keep them off our backs. Once the groceries have arrived and I have something besides yoga pants and a well-partied-in evening dress, we’ll draft something, make some kind of plan.
‘That –’ She nodded to Garrett’s laptop on the table. ‘I’m wagering that’s nothing. In fact, I’m wagering whoever keeps track of Tess’s fan mail and website will get a few more nutters weighing in with their opinions before the whole Golden Kiss adventure is laid to rest and Tess can go quietly back to her ivory tower. But the police won’t help. They can’t. Please don’t call them again without consulting me first.’
This time, Garrett happily risked her wrath. He came to stand nose to nose with her and grabbed her by the shoulders. ‘If I think we need the police, we’ll call them, and you can’t stop me. Get used to it.’ He nodded to Ellis. ‘I’ll have a security team here before the afternoon is over, and you’re never to go anyplace without one of them or me, I mean it, Kendra. I’m fine with you doing your job. You’re amazing at doing your job, but there’s no way I’m putting you at unnecessary risk, so just deal with it.’
To his surprise, she didn’t slap him, she didn’t even argue. She simply blew out a sharp breath and, holding him in that incredible bright-eyed gaze of hers, nodded her consent.
Garrett had dealt with the press before, usually as Ellis’s misbehaving brother, and seldom very gracefully. He hated having the microphones shoved in his face, and he hated being stared at. He usually reacted badly. But the press, they were nothing compared to an angry Kendra Davis, so he would do his very best to smile and behave himself.
‘Are you sure about this?’ he called up the stairs to where she was getting ready in the guest room. He was still hopeful he could get her to change her mind, though why he imagined he’d have that kind of sway over her was beyond him.
‘Positive,’ Kendra called down.
He wasn’t keen that she was settling into the guest room. That wasn’t where he wanted her, but since her return this morning, she’d given no indication that she had anything in mind other than the professional arrangement they had struck when she agreed to be Tess Delaney for him. Damn it! Could she really completely turn it all off that easily? He still couldn’t be in the same room with her without his cock getting tetchy in his jeans. Was she really that cool and indifferent toward him? It certainly hadn’t felt like it last night, or this morning before they discovered the press camped out on his front porch.
He’d been pacing the floor of the living room dressed in his best jeans and a blue cotton shirt she had insisted he iron. When he’d hinted that he wasn’t very good at ironing, she only glared at him and nodded to the ironing board. He’d had help to do that sort of thing in New York, but he’d not gotten around to hiring anyone yet. He paced once more and then suddenly found himself looking up at her descending the stairs, and his full attention was riveted to her luscious long legs leading the way from underneath a sundress that hugged her body in shades of turquoise and gold. And how she could even walk in the shoes with the nosebleed heels was beyond him. But she wasn’t just walking, she was practically floating.
She wore her hair loose around her shoulders and the fact she was actually smiling at him rather than growling, as had been the order of the day so far, went a long way toward easing the discomfort he felt at having to face the press. The whole damn lot of them had once again rudely made themselves at home on his front lawn after they discovered that the sighting of Tess Delaney at the Heathman was a false lead.
‘It’s just that I worry,’ he said, nodding toward the kitchen and the laptop with the email.
‘Don’t,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry. These things happen.’ A lovely blush crawled up her throat and onto her cheeks. ‘I overreacted, that’s all. I’m just neurotic; something you should be warned about if we’re going to be spending time in close proximity.’
But it was more than that. He was sure of it. Way more. And that’s what really frightened him. He was pretty sure that whatever had driven Kendra Davis to her knees was not likely to be something easy. Now wasn’t the time to approach the subject. But he would approach it. There was too much at stake not to.
He returned his attention to what she was saying. ‘There was no press conference last night at the Golden Kiss Awards. We cheated them. That’s not a wise thing to do to the press. If we want to pull this off and get Tess back, first into their good graces, and then back to her solitude, we’ve got to give them what was promised, and we’ve got to do it graciously.’
‘I didn’t promise anything,’ he grumped.
‘Yes, you did, Garrett,’ She reached up and brushed an unruly lock of hair out of his eyes. ‘You did when you – when Tess penned the very first Tess Delaney novel.’ She nodded to the front door, out to the crowd camped on the lawn. ‘You promised them romance, and you’ve always delivered it. Now’s no different. Now’s even more important in a lot of ways. They get to meet their heroine. No one wants to be disappointed by those they look up to. So let’s give them something worthy of looking up to, shall we?’
It was crazy, but suddenly he wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her, just kiss her, and hold her there. How could someone who could be such a bitch see into his heart so easily?
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, not taking his eyes off her edible smile. ‘Then let’s do it,’ he said.
They walked arm in arm to the front door. On the other side they could hear the chatter and shuffling of the reporters. She offered his arm a reassuring squeeze, which he figured also served as a reminder of just how hard she would pinch him if he fucked up, but suddenly it didn’t matter. Suddenly he knew he wouldn’t fuck up, because at that moment, there was nothing he wanted more than to please Kendra Davis. He wasn’t sure why that was, but it just was. She gave him a nod, and he opened the front door.
As usual, the annoying Mr. Pittman was the first to lunge at the couple. But this time, it was Garrett who stepped forward, forcing the man back – gently and politely, but forcing him back nonetheless. He could feel Kendra bristle next to him, but he offered her his warmest smile, then he turned his attention back to the reporters.
‘If I could just get you all to step back off the porch and give Ms. Delaney and me a little breathing room, we’d be happy to answer your questions.’
Kendra offered him a quick glance of surprise as the reporters, mumbling quietly amongst themselves, did as Garrett asked.
When they’d all settled, he offered his brightest smile – for her; not for them – but they didn’t have to know that, did they? ‘I believe that I robbed you all of a press conference last night, and who can really blame me for wanting the stunning woman of the hour all to myself.’ He offered Kendra an adoring look.
The women all smiled that wistful smile women got when they were wishing their guys were so romantic to them. And the men all nodded their agreement – that they would certainly feel the same way as Garrett if they had Tess Delaney on their arm. All the men, that is, except for Mr. Pittman, who seemed completely focused on getting a story.
‘Mr. Thorne, I’m wondering, would you have hit Barker Blessing last night at the awards ceremony if Ms. Delaney hadn’t dumped her chocolate mousse in his lap? Or was it, as Blessing suggests, a publicity stunt?’
The subtle pressure on his arm and the slight threat of Kendra’s nails served as a reminder to be nice. He forced a smile.
‘You were there. You saw what happened, Mr. Pittman, and what I might have done if Tess hadn’t decided to share her dessert with the esteemed Mr. Blessing is a moot point, don’t you think?’
A middle-aged woman who worked for the
Oregonian
elbowed her way past Pittman. ‘Ms. Delaney, clearly exciting things were going on at your table last night, things that led to Mr. Thorne dragging you away, and there isn’t a person who saw that performance who doesn’t want to know what really happened.’
Kendra stepped forward, offered everyone her award-winning smile and then a modest blush. ‘In all honesty, last night was a bit overwhelming for me. Remember I told you that I’m not much for public appearances. I was terrified I was going to fall over my own feet on my way up to accept the Golden Kiss Award. I’m a bit of a klutz, really, and here’s shy, reclusive me in front of the whole world, and then winning the Golden Kiss and all. I never expected that.’ She bit her lip and her eyes welled with emotion. Garrett was stunned again by just how good she was. Several of the reporters nodded their understanding, and Garrett could almost feel the swell of sympathy.
‘Anyway, I was mortified when my dessert fell into Mr. Blessing’s lap. We all know the weight the man carries in the literary world and how respected he is. And here he was paying attention to me, and then I go and dump my dessert in the man’s lap, and him in a white suit.’ Someone at the back sniggered. Garrett bit the inside of his cheek to keep from doing the same. Kendra took a bosom-heaving deep breath. ‘Well, as you can imagine, I was horrified, and all my plans for being graceful and impressive went right out the window. That was sort of the straw that broke the camel’s back.’ She leaned close to Garrett as though she needed his support, and he slipped an arm around her, which was no hardship at all. In fact, he wasn’t acting when he pulled her protectively to him. ‘I really am a very private person, painfully shy, actually, and right now I’m working very hard to meet a tight deadline. And all the excitement and everything, well, you can imagine the stress it caused. I was simply overwhelmed, that’s all.’
‘You seemed fine to me,’ Pittman said.
Kendra’s fingers dug into Garrett’s ribs in warning. She batted her eyelashes and offered her most sincere smile to the bastard. ‘Well, I was supposed to seem fine to you, Mr. Pittman. That was why I was surrounded by Garrett and my lovely publicist, Don Bachman. They both agreed that getting me out of a stressful situation was essential.’ Her face became suddenly serious. ‘Honestly, I can’t even think about what might have happened if they hadn’t acted so quickly.’
Everyone else nodded sympathetically, but Pittman still didn’t look convinced.
A reporter spoke up from the back. ‘The news this morning is that Tess Delaney novels are flying off the shelf after last night, and yet you say what happened wasn’t a publicity ploy?’
Kendra shook her head. ‘No. Just me being terribly clumsy and terribly neurotic, and Barker Blessing being terribly kind trying to protect me.’
Someone else sniggered, but Garrett got it. Garrett understood that no one doubted what had happened. Everyone had seen exactly what Barker Blessing was pulling. Yet, in spite of the man’s lechery, Tess Delaney was letting him off the hook, and they already adored her for it. Garrett suspected that Kendra Davis would have filled the man’s lap with scalding coffee if left to her own devices. But they didn’t need complications. Not if Tess were to return to quiet reclusiveness. And accusations were definitely complications. Again the woman’s control was astounding.
She continued, ‘I’m very sorry that I left before the press conference. It’s embarrassing finding it so difficult to put myself out there in front of everyone, but you have to understand, I’ve never done this before, and I certainly never dreamed I’d win, and all I wanted to do last night was get away before I humiliated myself further.’
‘And you spent the night here with Mr. Thorne,’ came the question from one of the gossip rag journalists close to the front.
‘Of course I did,’ Kendra said. ‘I was a nervous wreck. It took poor Garrett hours to calm me down.’
No one looked very sympathetic toward poor Garrett, and a few of the men looked downright envious.
She shot Garrett an adoring glance that made his insides tumble in a very good way. ‘I don’t know what I would have done without him,’ she said.
‘Mr. Thorne,’ a reporter from the back spoke up. ‘How long have you and Ms. Delaney been an item, if you don’t mind my asking?’
‘Not nearly long enough.’ This time it was Garrett’s turn to play the part. He lifted her chin on a curl of his index finger and brushed her lips slowly, seductively with his. Cameras flashed; the shifting in the crowd was a mix of discomfort and ain’t-that-sweet. It was clear he’d caught Kendra off her guard. Quickly, she rested a hand against his chest, and for a second he thought she was going to push him away. Instead, she fisted her fingers in his shirt and pulled him still closer, to a smattering of applause from the crowd.
She pulled away with a happy sigh and turned to face everyone, her fingers still curled in Garrett’s shirt, either seductively, or as a threat of what was to come behind closed doors. Clearly everyone in the press was convinced that what was going to happen behind those closed doors was going to be pretty fine. Kendra looked around the lawn, taking in everyone with her most charming smile, then she said. ‘If it’s all right with all of you, I really do have work to do, and later this evening –’ She looked at her watch. ‘Garrett has a nice bottle of champagne chilling to celebrate, so if you don’t mind …’ She nodded toward the door behind them.
‘Please, Ms. Delaney, just one more question, if I may.’ Garrett recognized Ms. Flannery from the award ceremony as she pushed her way forward from the back, and the others seemed to clear a path for her. There was a sudden whisper among them, as Kendra gave the nod that it was OK.
The woman was small of build and dressed in clothes that looked slept in, like most of the press. She had a mass of unruly dark curls hanging nearly to her shoulders. Her voice was gravelly and sexy for someone so young. ‘Ms. Delaney, I’ve heard a rumor that Mr. Thorne has brought you here to keep you safe.’ A murmur rose like a fast-moving breeze among the rest of the press that let Garrett know none of them had heard such a rumor. The reporter continued, ‘Rumor has it there have been threats leveled at you, and I notice there’s security around the property now that wasn’t here when we left on our wild goose chase to the Heathman.’ Again there was shuffling and mumbling among the other reporters. Clearly they hadn’t noticed the security. ‘Can you comment on that?’
Garrett felt Kendra stiffen against him. Instinctively, he tightened his grip. ‘The security is just a precaution,’ she said. ‘I’m told I’m a hot commodity now, and I need to be kept safe.’ There was a trickle of a laugh from the press, but they didn’t seem very convinced. ‘That’s all.’
‘Then there is no threat,’ the surly Mr. Pittman chimed in.
‘Just a precaution, like I said,’ Kendra answered. Garrett noticed the tiniest bit of edge in her voice, but he was certain no one else did.
He didn’t wait for further questions. He spoke up. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse us. Ms. Delaney has a deadline looming.’ He took her by the hand and led her back into the house, managing to close the door behind them before there were any more questions.
Carla didn’t feel good about confronting Tess, and she might not have had the guts to go through with it if she hadn’t noticed the security around the house. They tried to blend in with the press, but her father was ex-military, and he now ran a security company. She knew things weren’t always as they appeared, and she knew when security was trying to blend in. It used to be a game she and her father played – spot the hidden security. OK, perhaps a strange game for father and daughter bonding but, like most kids, she’d taken what she could get. She’d put out feelers to make sure that no one else had noticed. They hadn’t. But she did, and she understood the implications.