The Fountain of Infinite Wishes (Dare River Book 5) (17 page)

They walked to the door together, but instead of putting her hand on the knob to open it, she turned around and leaned against the frame, studying him in the soft light. His balls seized up, more than aware of how alluring her pale skin was against the pink of her dress. He didn’t think she’d done it to be alluring. She was just naturally that way. Still, her rose-and-musk perfume reached his nose, and he ground his teeth to keep from reaching for her.

“Shelby, you should go.”

She looked down and fiddled with her manicure, suddenly shy. When she looked up, there was a rosy blush on her cheeks. It only made her more beautiful.

“I know,” she whispered, “but I just can’t get over one thing.”

He wanted to know what it was.
 

He didn’t want to know what it was.
 

Either way, whatever she said was going to change things. He was smart enough to realize that, so he asked, “What?” just as softly.

She laid a tentative hand on his chest, making everything inside him tighten up. “I was incredibly bothered you didn’t think I was a nice person.”

She wanted him to think she was
nice?
Well, he pretty much wanted to kiss her senseless against the door and hike her dress up so he could run his hands over her thighs.

“I think you’re nice,” Vander told her, immediately chastising himself for the idiotic response. He wanted to show her what else he thought of her, standing as she was with a gentle hand pressed to his chest, but he couldn’t…

“I think you’re nice too,” she whispered.

And then she stepped forward until she was flush against his body, rose up on her tiptoes, and pressed her mouth to his. Her lips were a shock, not only because they were so soft, but also because they were so very warm. He closed his eyes, fighting for control, wanting to kiss her back but knowing he’d regret it if he did.

She put another hand to his chest, this one more certain, and he felt the electricity course down to his toes.

“Shelby,” he said in a harsh voice against her mouth. “You’re a client.”

The siren in pink detoured to his jaw, running her fingers against the stubble there. “Technically, Gail is your client since she’s the one footing the bill. Isn’t that enough of a loophole for you?”

“No,” he said, putting his hands on her waist and caressing her hips. “Shelby, I can’t have sex with you. I have a code.”

She snapped out of his arms in an instant. “Who was asking you to?” Her outrage was unmistakable.

“You were the one who kissed me,” he pointed out.

She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Kissing isn’t an invitation to sex.”

His mouth dropped open before he could stop it. “Are you kidding me?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t just jump into bed with anyone. You are so full of yourself!”

“Well, excuse me! You’re the one who just kissed me in my hotel room after telling me how nice you think I am. I can’t imagine why any man would get the wrong idea.” Shit, had he just said that? She was clearly making him crazy. He never said things like that.

“Oh,”
she said, opening the door. “I can’t believe I kissed you. You’re impossible! You make me fit to be tied.”

“Ditto,” he told her, his lips finally twitching.
 

“Forget this ever happened,” she said, turning with enough force to whip her hair around. “Good night!”

He watched her walk to the elevator and punch the up button. She ignored him while she waited, picking at her manicure. When the elevator arrived, she entered it like she had forgotten all about him—just like she’d said she would.

But he knew better.

Neither one of them was going to be able to forget what happened.

Chapter 15

Shelby returned to Nashville with a new hope in her heart that they were one step closer to finding Daddy. He was alive, and that was something.
 

Vander was now in possession of photos of him and J.P. with Me-Mother. Even more wonderful, Me-Mother had accepted their small offering of support, and Shelby and her sisters and brother had all agreed to talk about what more they could do to help their grandmother move out of her squalid living conditions. It looked like they had a relationship with her now, and that was something to be grateful for—even if they didn’t know how to broach the topic with Mama.

Even Susannah seemed to have come around after meeting Me-Mother. Her elder sister’s compassion had overridden the fear and wariness in her heart. Of course, Shelby’s heart had a dull ache from realizing their daddy had never reached out to them even though he’d been alive this whole time. She still wasn’t sure how to process that.

When Vander called Shelby a couple of days later and asked if she could swing by his office, she’d been all a-flutter.

Just the way he’d said, “Hello, Shelby,” had made warmth pool in her belly.

That night in his hotel room had played like a broken record in her mind. There was no way she was going to forget it, despite what she’d said. Heck, every time she thought about the feeling of his lips on hers, she shivered. And every time she thought about his presumption she had planned on sleeping with him, well, she got more than flustered. The nerve of that man, thinking she was some light skirt.
 

But it was also tempting to think of going that far with him.

Her one and only long-term boyfriend, Nick, whom she’d thought she would likely marry, had worn her down, saying how much he loved her and how he couldn’t wait. She’d met him in college at a Bible mixer at their student Christian forum. It still ticked her off that she’d succumbed to him after five months, especially since the experience had been…disappointing. The flash and bang she’d seen in movies and read about in books had been more like a fizzled firework. The whole process had been awkward, and afterward, his attention had waned. So had hers.

He’d broken up with her a couple months later with the cliché excuse that they were going in different directions. She still hadn’t completely forgiven herself for giving something so special to him.

Vander made her feel special. More so than she’d felt with Nick or any of the other guys she’d dated. From the depths of the emotions she experienced in his presence, everything from anger to passion to happiness, it was hard to deny that he would bring the flash and bang to bed. Her biggest problem was sex wasn’t all that to her. She wanted to make love with someone she loved—someone who loved her back.

But she was going on twenty-eight, and her only experience had been akin to drinking the dreaded warm milk her mama used to insist upon before bedtime. Dammit, she wished she could just hop into bed with Vander and have a good time without analyzing it to death. But she couldn’t. Sometimes, she hated being raised with the values her mama had always hammered home. As an adult, she could no longer blame it on her rearing.

“Do you want me to organize the rest of the clan?” Shelby finally asked Vander after what must have been a long pause. She needed to control her lustful thoughts.

“Not unless you want to,” he said. “Charlie and I talked it through, and she agrees with my plan. When I go to Haines, I’m going to keep the cover I used with Lenore. I’m going in as your boyfriend.”

Simply hearing him
talk
about being her boyfriend had her fanning herself. She pushed back from her desk and went to turn the air conditioner down. “You already mentioned that,” she said, merely to push his buttons.

“I’m simply reminding,” he answered back and cleared his throat.

“Okay,” she said, not completely understanding. “Why are you and I meeting alone?”

He chuckled softly. “Since you asked me to forget about that kiss
and
you’re a client, I won’t give you the answer that comes to mind. I need you to swing by so we can take some photos of us together. People tend to be more sympathetic when they think a man is trying to find the father of the woman he loves.”

That phrase—
the woman he loves
—made her take deep breaths, but
she had to remind herself it was all an act. Vander didn’t feel that way about her.

But he did feel something. So did she.

Damn him and his infernal code.

“I take it you’ve had some success with that sob story in the past?” she made herself say to fill the silence over the line.

“Yes,” Vander said, a jaded edge in his voice. “People love helping others get their happy ending.”

Of course, a man who didn’t believe in wishes probably didn’t believe in happy endings either.

“I also remember you mentioning you wanted your father to see the resemblance between the two of you, and I thought you might like…well, him to see a picture of you along with J.P.’s if and when I track him down.”

Her heart pretty much stopped working. He’d
listened
to her. And he was actually doing something about it. She tried to think of a time anyone outside her family had ever been so sweet.

“I can stop by after work,” she said, and she was probably going to kiss him on the cheek. How could she not help herself?

“How late do you work?” he asked. “I have this feeling you work as hard as I do.”

“I like working.”

“So do I.”

Were they really shooting the breeze about their likes and dislikes? This ruse of a relationship felt more real than anything Shelby had experienced in months. No, years.

“I can meet you at your office at seven,” she said, running through the final tasks she had on her daily to-do list.

“I know it’s an odd request,” he said, “but could you bring a couple changes of clothes? Nothing complicated. Oh, and a jacket too. So it shows we’ve been together for a while now. People internally catalogue time by the kind of clothing people wear.”

“Should I bring a ball gown?” she asked, just to be contrary.

“No,” he said, chuckling, “but I’d bet you look good in one. See you at seven, Cinderella.”

“Vander,” she said smiling at the unexpected endearment. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“You know what.”

He was silent for a moment, and then said, “Shelby, I’m only doing my job.”

But he wasn’t, and they both knew it. When he hung up, she ended up closing up shop fifteen minutes early—after making a mistake that had required her to delete an entire row of expenses. Of course, he’d blown her concentration.

On top of that, he’d all but asked her for a fashion shoot with no warning. Did he know nothing about Southern women?

At seven o’clock, she wheeled her carry-on across his lobby. Her makeup bag was attached to the top, and her new cream and rhinestone Jimmy Choos clicked on the marble floor. The shoes were a perfect complement to the cream silk dress she’d cinched with a silver belt made of rhinestones. She’d fretted mightily over what to wear for the photos, wanting to show her daddy she was both beautiful and smart—somehow that mattered to her.

Vander’s assistant wasn’t present, so she headed down the hallway. As she passed the second doorway, someone called out her name. Poking her head in through the open door, she saw Charlie.

“Where in the world are you going?” the woman asked after closing her mouth. “Prom?”

Shelby narrowed her eyes. Of course a woman who only wore masculine-looking black pants and a white cotton shirt to work would say that about silk and rhinestones. “Vander wants to do some photos.”

Charlie bit her lip, and Shelby could tell she was trying not to laugh. “Oh, brother. I wish I could stick around to watch. He’s in his office.”

Shelby took a step and then stopped. “I…want to thank you for everything you’ve been doing to find our daddy.” She hadn’t said it before, and her mama had raised them to thank the people who deserved it. With it only being the two of them, it felt like a good time.

“I like you better when you’re snarky,” Charlie said. “I need to keep remembering you work for Gail. You mustn’t be a total goody two-shoes with her.”

Considering Gail had bought a “genuine” Civil War cannon today from an antique dealer in Charleston and asked Shelby if she thought she could expense it under historical preservation, she couldn’t deny she knew what Charlie was talking about. “She’s zany sometimes, but she’s also the smartest woman I’ve ever met.”

Charlie made a gesture with her hands. “I’m not real good with the whole Southern beauty queen thing. Sorry about the prom comment. Those girls used to make fun of me in school.”

“The girls in my school made fun of me for being a goody-goody and a preacher’s kid. Everyone gets picked on for something.”

“I suppose,” Charlie said, sticking a pencil behind her ear. “I don’t care now. I’m doing exactly what I want with my life, and a lot of them are probably unhappy. People who take out their frustrations on other people tend to be. I see that all the time in this job.”

“I imagine so,” Shelby said. “Well, I should get to Vander. I expect he likes things to be on time.”

Charlie nodded, clearing her throat. “I have to do some undercover work myself tonight.” She went over to a coat hanger dangling from cabinet and unzipped a garment bag hanging from it. “What do you think of my dress?”