The smell of cooking welcomed him as he made his way into the cavernous, white-painted room. Chocolate again. His mouth watered. How would Maddy taste to kiss when she’d been eating chocolate?
Not that he’d be kissing her again to find out, he told himself. He’d been distracted yesterday, but now he was back on track, his five-year plan firmly in mind. And he wouldn’t let himself forget it.
He hadn’t been too sure what to expect at Maddy’s “shoot.” He wasn’t surprised at the stainless steel, open-plan kitchen. Or the tall, white windows flooding the room with afternoon light.
But he sure as hell hadn’t been expecting to find a beautiful dark-haired girl reclining in an old-fashioned claw-footed bathtub full of liquid chocolate.Was she naked under there?
The tub was surrounded by photographic lights and reflectors. Maddy stood with her back to him peering at an image on a computer screen and discussing it with a short blond man whom Tom presumed was the photographer.
Tom cleared his throat to get her attention. Maddy spun around at the sound. He was gratified at the look of pleasure that lit up her face. “Tom! You got here so quickly we’re not quite finished yet. We’re having trouble with this final shot and—”
“Enough of the chitchat, Maddy,” cut in the gorgeous girl from the bath. “I want out of this chocolate ASAP. Let’s get on with it.”
“She’s worried that calories can be absorbed via the skin,” explained Maddy in the same teasing tone she used on him. “Guys, this is Tom.Tom, this is Serena and Joel.”
Joel nodded a terse greeting.Tom had the distinct feeling that Joel was guarding his territory. Who was he interested in—Serena or Maddy? It had better not be Maddy. He found himself ready to growl at the thought.Though lifting his leg to mark his territory might be going too far.
“Hi, Tom,” said Serena in a voice as rich and sultry as the chocolate she was bathing in, “I’ve heard all about you.”
She had? Tom felt like his jaw was dropping to the floor at the vision of the chocolate-coated goddess. With dark hair tumbling to her shoulders, smooth olive skin, and topaz eyes she was a picture of his “ideal woman” come to life.
So why did his gaze stray immediately to the slender redhead wrapped in a chocolate-smeared white apron?
Goddesses, he decided, could be quite boring when compared to a feisty, funny girl with freckles across the bridge of her nose, a girl whose kisses tasted of honey. Not that he was going to allow himself to dwell on how she tasted, how she felt in his arms ...
The photographer spoke, “I think we’ve got it this time, Maddy. I’ll shoot off a final set, and we can finish.”
Maddy nodded to another girl hovering behind the photographer. Tom noticed with a shudder that she was pierced not only through the nose but also below each eyebrow. “Amy, Joel’s assistant,” Maddy said briefly by way of introduction. “And over there in the kitchen is Jane, who is helping me with the cooking.”
She called across to Jane, “We’re ready for another brownie, please.”
All these people—and Maddy confidently in charge, her passion and commitment to her job shining from her. Tom found himself fascinated at seeing her in action in her world—a world so different from his own.There were not many opportunities in a law firm to work with chocolate-coated women.
Serena took the brownie and posed with it, her eyes heavy with mock desire as she held it to her mouth.
“Perfect, darling,” said Joel as he photographed her.
Tom turned to Maddy. “Can I ask what this is all about?” he asked, unable to contain his curiosity.
“Remember that brownie recipe I was testing the day I first met you?” she explained in a low voice, not taking her eye off Serena. “Hang on—Joel, stop.” She dashed over to Serena. “A piece of hair has fallen too far forward.” Gently she smoothed it back from Serena’s face. “That’s okay now, thanks, Joel.”
She stepped back to Tom. “Where was I? Yes, the brownie. It’s one of a series of chocolate recipes for a feature I’m calling ‘The Ultimate Chocolate Fix.’ We’ve photographed the other recipes like a regular food shoot but I wanted this one to be really spectacular. This is for the opening double-page spread. Don’t you think it will look sensational?”
Tom looked to the beautiful woman covered to just above her breasts in chocolate. “Sensational,” he echoed. With conviction.
“I’m glad you think so,” Maddy said. “I hope my editor will. You know I’m not permanent in my job at
Annie
magazine. I’ve been filling in for the regular food editor while she’s been on maternity leave. Now she’s decided to resign and stay at home with the baby, and I really want—”
“Done,” said Joel as he finished shooting.
“Hooray,” said Serena, “now get me out of here, Maddy.”
Serena started to rise from the tub, the chocolate sauce streaming from her elegant elbows.
Tom didn’t know where to look. So he did the gentlemanly thing and turned his back. Hmm. How would Maddy look in a tub of chocolate, the rich brown contrasting against the milki ness of her skin and her copper-colored hair? No need for a towel when she stepped out, he could lick it off her, starting first with ...
He tried to force his thoughts to something less arousing. And found himself wondering if all the hair on Maddy’s body was the same vivid color.Which was even more arousing.
Serena really was very naughty, getting out of the tub like that in front of Tom, thought Maddy. She knew her friend didn’t mean to be provocative. As a model, Serena was so used to being semi-naked in front of male photographers she wasn’t even aware of the effect she might be having on a so-serious lawyer. But Tom was different. And Tom was hers.
Tom was
hers
?
Maddy beat the errant thought out of her mind. Of course he wasn’t hers. She had to deal with Tom because of Walter’s unusual will. That’s all. The kiss had just been ... curiosity. Or that’s what she’d been telling herself for the last twenty-four hours.
So why did it twist her heart at the thought of him panting over Serena—as most men did when they first met her extraordinarily beautiful friend?
She could scarcely admit her relief to herself when Tom had immediately turned away the minute it looked like the chocolate mantle would slide away from Serena’s body. She couldn’t have borne it if he’d taken the opportunity to ogle.
She held up a large towel for Serena. “Wipe off what you can, then dash into the shower,” she advised her friend.
Serena leaned close. The smell of chocolate was overwhelming. “What a hottie! Definitely a ten,” she whispered. “And he’s smitten. I can tell.”
“Shush,” Maddy whispered, terrified Tom might hear. “He’s just a friend. Not even that. More an ... an acquaintance.”
Serena snorted. “So why are you blushing?”
“I’m not blushing,” Maddy lied, feeling her cheeks get warm, “but you’re dripping chocolate all over the place—and me. Could you please get into the bathroom?”
Laughing, Serena did so, leaving a chocolaty trail behind her that Maddy knew she was going to have to clean up. She also wasn’t quite sure how she was going to dispose of a bathtub full of slightly used molten chocolate.
Joel and his assistant had gone home to start editing the numerous pictures he had taken. Maddy was just about to tell Tom it was safe to turn around when there was the sound of frantic barking from the other side of the large double doors at the entrance to the studio.
The doors opened and in scurried Brutus, yapping excitedly, trailing his leash, and heading straight for Tom.
“Sorry, Maddy,” said Will the studio manager, looking harassed. “I took him out for a walk, but as soon as I got back up the stairs, he started scratching on the door and—”
“That’s okay, Will. He must have sensed that his alph—”
“Don’t say it, Maddy,” said Tom, doing the growl-like thing again.
“—that his friend Tom had arrived,” amended Maddy.
Brutus leapt up and scrabbled at Tom’s legs. “Settle down, boy,” commanded Tom.
Brutus obeyed instantly and sat panting at his feet. He was wearing a jaunty red bandanna tied around his neck.
“Doesn’t he look cute in his necktie?” asked Maddy.
“Very cute,” said Tom dryly. “Good dog,” he said, leaning down to rub him behind the ears and unclip his leash. “I’m relieved to see he’s all right. If he’d eaten more of that meat, he would have been in big trouble.”
Maddy sobered. “That’s horrible,Tom. I’m still finding it hard to believe that Jerome could have been so ... so evil.”
“We can’t prove it, remember,”Tom cautioned. “The reporter and the photographer were hanging around, too.”
“Can’t prove what?” asked Serena coming up behind Maddy. She was now fully dressed.
Maddy filled her in on the poison T-bone episode.
Serena glowered. “That Jerome guy should be shot. He must know dogs are so greedy they don’t know what’s good or bad for them.” She pointed at Brutus. “Like right now. Watch him head straight for the spilled chocolate on the floor.”
“So?” said Tom. “Brutus eats cake.Why not chocolate?”
“Because it can make dogs sick,” said Maddy, lunging for Brutus at the same time as Serena swooped down and swept the little dog up into her arms.
Brutus, thwarted, strained back toward the floor, whimpering.
“Why not let him do mop-up duty?” asked Tom.
“Because chocolate is toxic to dogs,” said Serena.
Maddy stared at her. “Toxic? I know they shouldn’t eat it. But toxic?”
“There’s a chemical in chocolate called theobromine that could be lethal for Brutus,” Serena explained. “Eat too much of it and he could start having convulsions. And then—” She mimed a finger cutting across her throat.
Tom paled beneath his tan.
Maddy had no reason to doubt Serena; her friend was a dog nut and knew all there was to know about canine care.
“What about cupcakes and peanut butter cookies?” Tom—back in full grim mode—asked Serena.
“They’ve never done him any harm,” protested Maddy.
Serena continued to clutch Brutus to her. “The fat and sugar isn’t great for him. But so long as there are no raisins or grapes in them, the odd bite of cookie or cake probably wouldn’t hurt. But let him lap up all that chocolate and it could be bye-bye Brutus.”
Maddy shuddered at the sound of her words. Death by chocolate? She’d made that dessert a thousand times without ever realizing there could be some truth in the title. For dogs, anyway.
She put her arms out to take Brutus from Serena and hugged him tight. “No more naughty snacks for you, then, mister piggy in disguise as a dog,” she said.
Did Tom muffle a laugh at her words? She looked up sharply but he was straight-faced.
“And this time I really mean it,” she said. “Honestly, Tom, I had no idea. I’ve told you before I don’t know a lot about dogs. They were working animals back home on the ranch and I wasn’t allowed to make pets of them. I had my horse and my mom had cats.”
She couldn’t bear it if he didn’t believe her. She bit down on her lower lip to stop it from quivering. “But I’m doing my best. Really I am.”
Tom’s face softened and there was a hint, just a hint, of that disarming dimple. “I know you are,” he said.
Grateful, she smiled at him, then petted Brutus. “From now on we’ve got to really watch what you eat, little guy,” she said. Brutus greedily tried to lick at a smear of chocolate on her elbow. She jerked her arm away. “I’ll have to be so careful.”
“Maddy, you need to do more than that,” said Tom, looking very serious again. “I think—”
At that moment Will the studio manager rushed into the room brandishing a newspaper. “Maddy, you should see this. I bought it at the grocery store when I took Brutus out for a walk.”
Will’s expression was a mix of curiosity and pity as he handed the sleazy tabloid to Maddy.
The headline was impossible to miss: “Heiress in Plot to Murder Millionaire Mutt?”
Maddy stared so hard at the bold black type it seemed to blur before her eyes. She had to shake her head to clear her vision.
Underneath the headline was a large color photo of her and a grim-faced Tom. She was clutching Brutus to her chest. Her dazed expression made her look guilty as hell. Of what, she couldn’t imagine. She read on, nausea rising in her throat. “Poisoned pooch in mercy dash to doggy ER.”
Worse was the second photo on the page. Her heart seemed to stop. She and Tom were kissing on the sidewalk, straining to each other as if they were about to tear each other’s clothes off. “Old man’s mistress in cahoots with attorney?” questioned the caption.
How could this be happening to her? What would this do to her career? Oh God, her family. And poor Tom ...
The blood seemed to throb, throb, throb behind her eyes. She felt dizzy from the heat of the studio lights, the sickly smell of the bathtub of chocolate. The fear of what people might believe of her.
“Maddy, what is it?”
She was aware that Will had left the room, murmuring something sympathetic, and taking Jane with him. Could hear Serena’s voice coming from a long distance away. Feel her friend’s hands gently pushing her down into a chair.
“This is so unfair,” she said, forcing the words out of a pinched, parched throat. She remembered Tom’s warning:
they’ll dig for dirt.
Tom took the newspaper as it slid from her suddenly numb fingers. Wordlessly, she watched him as he turned to the second page. He cursed.
“It gets worse,” he said, as he handed the newspaper back to her.
“Let me see,” said Serena, moving behind her. “Oh, Maddy, I’m so sorry.”
There was her grandmother at her front door, giving the camera the finger. Her father’s tight-set face with a reported “no comment.” Her high school archenemy smirking from the page with the quote: “Maddy always thought she was too good for this small town.”