Authors: Glenys O'Connell
“I’m not sure I know what you mean,” Anna said truthfully. In defiance, she loaded her plate with as many hors d’oeuvres as she could, and stuck an entire cracker & shrimp combo into her mouth. Felicity frowned, ever so slightly, her disgust at such uncouth behavior manifesting itself in the tiniest of lines between her eyes.
Crumbs fell and decorated the silky blue folds of Anna’s evening dress. A dress that had cost a king’s ransom to her but which looked cheap and tawdry beside Felicity’s designer original.
“Oh, I’m sure you do – Jed tells me you’re very upset about the interview he did with you today.”
“It wasn’t so much an interview as a revenge attack – my book is a serious attempt to research and discuss a very important social phenomenon.”
A tiny unpleasant smile danced around Felicity’s lips. “Ah, really. Come, my dear – we all know that sex sells books, and you’re to be forgiven for wanting to better yourself by using
whatever means to that end. Jed said you’re from some little backwater town and you worked your way through university after local high school. You’re to be commended for your success.”
Anna ground her teeth at the patronizing tone of Felicity’s voice, but good manners and the sharp look Alex telegraphed across the still occupied tables that separated them, kept her from saying what she thought of all that condescension but Felicity’s next words left her shell-shocked.
“And don’t worry – he’ll get over whatever it was you did to him – he’s always got a dozen or so women hanging around, waiting for a chance to amuse him.” Felicity’s mouth turned up in a smile cold enough to reverse the melting of the Arctic ice sheets.
But Anna was surprised to see the green-eyed monster of jealousy blinking out of Felicity’s reptilian eyes. Did this poor woman carry a torch for Jed – a torch no amount of infidelity by the cruel Jed could extinguish?
“Perhaps we should start a club, Women Scorned By Jed Walker,” Anna offered.
At which, a look of pure rage flitted across Felicity’s face, quickly replaced by one of haughty disdain. “Oh, I don’t have to worry about Jed – once he gets it all out of his system, he’ll come back to me. He always does.” Felicity smiled, her gaze riveted on Anna. It wasn’t a nice smile.
“I wouldn’t hold your breath. I’d have thought he was getting a little long in the tooth for sowing wild oats.” Anna retorted as she turned to walk away, but Felicity grasped her wrist. Her manicured fingers dug in angrily, but anyone watching would never have guessed from her unruffled expression that she was furious.
“My dear, watching the interview and knowing Jed as I do, I’d have said there was some amazing chemistry between the two of you.”
Something like happiness surged through Anna, making her smile. “You would?”
Chemistry? Attraction? Jed liked her? Wow!
“Most certainly. I’ve known Jed for a long, long time and I know the signals he gives out. So tell me.” Felicity moved closer, her voice low and confiding. “Exactly what did you do to make him hate you so?”
***
“Don’t they make a lovely couple?” Anna jumped at the voice so close to her ear she could feel the breath behind it. Whirling around, she looked up, way up; into the deep brown eyes of the handsome publisher she had been dancing with a few minutes earlier.
“Pardon me?” Her voice was squeaky with nerves.
“I’m so sorry – I didn’t mean to startle you! I just noticed you were staring at the King and Queen of Media – Jed Walker and Felicity Freyer. She owns a whole string of magazines – Artful Woman, Yours, Healthy & Happy, City Folks – you probably know them all.”
“Actually, no – I’ve been away from the city, from the country for that matter...” She looked again across the ritzy room, across acres of plush carpet and hardwood dance area where beautiful, designer clad couples swayed gracefully, to where Jed stood deep in conversation with their hostess. His head was tilted slightly to listen to her, a serious cast to his mouth showing how intently he drank in her every word. And she – well, she was gorgeous. Well-groomed in the way only the rich can be, with the confidence that she could achieve whatever her heart desired. And right then and there it was obvious that her heart desired the handsome man standing next to her.
No doubt about it, they did look perfect together.
Her chest ached – it must be the Chicken Korma she’d enjoyed earlier…
“Why do you call them that – the King & Queen of Media?” She had to ask, feeling foolish because the answer was so obvious. Jed and Felicity were so right together.
“They’ve known each other since they were children, went to the same parties and events, grew close in university – they know all the same people, and their families like each other. They’ve both played the field, but they always wind up together. It’s a match made in heaven.” Andrew James smiled. Anna immediately caught the ‘between the lines’ information he was signaling.
All you’d be to Jed is a diversion, a dalliance in the spaces between Felicity.
“Everyone has been expecting a grand announcement from them for years. They’ve both been busy with business and careers, though they’ve always made time for each other. Perhaps now they’re getting ready to finally tie the knot.”
Both from privileged backgrounds, they knew the same people, grew up around the same Old Money Mansions and cottage retreats, the same tennis clubs and the same universities. What could she offer in the face of that? The little bungalow on a side street in a town that was more out of work than in; the foster home with the strict religious couple who’d done their best to turn her into a responsible citizen, who’d taught her the value of making do or mending, and hard work? The two menial jobs she’d worked to get herself through university?
It was simply too hard to stand there and watch the beautiful couple together. She didn’t want to examine why she felt that way about a man she barely knew (one night stands didn’t count) and who had shown such utter disrespect for her work. Feeling totally alone in the world, a world where everyone seemed to be having a great time, with no worries at all, their lives unfolding as they should, she decided it was time to leave. To skulk off back to her empty hotel room and pray to the Universe to stop the snow and get the airports open so she could escape tomorrow.
***
Jed had been watching her all evening, waiting his chance to get her alone. He didn’t know what had got into him, but it seemed every time he was near Anna Findlay and opened his mouth, he shoved his size 12 boot right into it.
Actually, it’s not true at all. You do know. Yes, you do. You’re disappointed, hugely.
He was very, very attracted to a woman whose obvious intelligence and beauty were everything he looked for in a mate. Yet this particular women was prepared to do anything to claw her way up into celebrity status – including stalking and picking up men who she thought could help her do that. And repaying them with sex. Mind blowing sex.
Yes, he was very disappointed in the truth about Ms. Findlay. She was a puzzle, one he intended to solve before he let her get away.
He couldn’t stay away from her, even as he observed her working the room with a ready, seductive smile for every man who approached her.
And there were plenty who did.
And he, Jed Walker, was going to make damn sure none of them left with her.
***
The snow was falling heavily, turning the city sidewalks into a sparkling winter scene straight out of a Disney movie fantasy. Colored lights gleamed around stores, lighted decorations seduced passers-by to stop and look into store windows. Anna was entranced. She loved her adopted home in Leeds, Yorkshire, in the UK, but the weather here in the States was so much more exciting, more temperamental, more dramatic – more epic.
How strange to think that she’d actually missed snow and snowstorms, the wild days when there was little to do but stay home and curl up with a good book while the white stuff piled up outside the windows.
Or to go outside, wrapped up warm, and throw snowballs, build snow forts, create fantasy snowmen…and snow angels, oh yes! If there hadn’t been so many people around, she’d have lain down in the thick, white snow, right here on the city sidewalk, and spread her arms wide to create a snow angel, right there and then.
She found herself staring in a store window, at a tableau in which a young couple - she with a baby on her lap, he balancing a toddler on his shoulders - smiled while an older couple, representing grandparents, stood looking proudly on.
They were only store mannequins, but they looked so happy that it brought tears to her eyes. The simple scene depicted an ideal family, and the happiness and joy it represented. How she wished she could be part of it. The coming of snow signaled that Christmas wasn’t far off, which seemed like
a Joy to the World
kind of experience to everyone else. But to her, Christmas had become a time of mourning, an angry time when she railed against the Fates that had left her an orphan.
* * *
Felicity was furious. She’d watched Jed talking to that common little imposter – a bestselling author of an academic work?
Give me a break
, she thought angrily. But anger was combined with fear – she’d seen the look in Jed’s eyes as he watched Anna moving around the room, being sociable.
She didn’t remember him ever looking at her that way.
Her heart rate accelerated when she saw Anna try to sneak out without anyone noticing – she didn’t even have the courtesy to thank her hostess. Couldn’t Jed see that this woman just wasn’t in their class? But the writer was gone, and Jed was still here.
She’d waited a long time for him – maybe now was the time to turn up the heat. Before that little – what did they call her in the Press? – sexpert? Felicity gave a genteel little shudder. That little sexpert got her claws into him.
Pasting a bright smile on her full. red painted lips, she sashayed over to where Jed stood, idly staring out of a window to the city street below. She came up behind him and put her fingers over his eyes. “Guess who?” she whispered throatily.
“Oh, let me see – Emily Blunt? Kirsten Dunst?
Oh, it’s you, Felicity.” The words were accompanied by a big grin, but she was sure there was a streak of disappointment running through them. Grimly, she soldiered on.
“I’ve been thinking, Jed – why don’t we leave all this…” she gestured airily with her hand. “All this behind us and take off for a few days, just the two of us? We could go up to the lodge, maybe do some skiing, light a big fire and enjoy…”
But Jed’s gaze was riveted on happenings in the street below. “I’m sorry, Felicity – excuse me, won’t you?” And he strode away across the room, heading for the exit without even a kiss goodbye.
Felicity peered out of the window through the thickening snow. In other circumstances, she’d have been happy to see her rival sprawled out gracelessly on the icy sidewalk.
But not when Jed was hurrying towards her, concern written all over his face.
The White Knight rescuing the damsel in distress.
Felicity let loose a string of very unladylike words under her breath. She was incandescent with fury.
* * *
It was stupid of her, really – how could she have forgotten the slippery residue left when sidewalks had been cleared? Below zero temperatures made the sidewalks slick, and Italian leather boots built for a kinder climate were no match. She had barely taken a dozen steps from the hotel entrance when she suddenly took a face dive right onto the sidewalk.
Not only was it incredibly embarrassing, but the pain that shot through her left foot and ankle made her cry out. She struggled to get up, but the smooth soles of the boots wouldn’t co-operate, and when she tried to get her left foot under her, the pain ripped her breath away.
Then strong hands were under her arms, gently pulling her to her feet. She looked up into Jed’s eyes – and was instantly mortified.
What a klutzy, unsophisticated fool he must think her! She was willing to bet that the beautiful, civilized Felicity never fell on her ass on a public street.
“Thank you – I’m okay now. Just slipped on the ice,” she panted, tearing her eyes away from his. Despite the discomfort in her ankle, just being near this guy made her heart hammer in her breast. Was it extreme attraction, fury at the way he’d treated her at the interview – or a simple allergy? Was there a pill she could take to turn her world back to normal?
“It’s a bad night – I’ll see you back to your hotel.”
Yes, she wanted that, to have his arm around her shoulders and to walk through the magical snowy night together.
No, she didn’t want to have anything more to do with him. Who’d willingly sign up for a broken heart?
Maybe it was the pain in her foot and the humiliation of having fallen, or just the simple weirdness of a winter storm, but all kinds of oddball thoughts were chasing themselves around in her mind. Pulling herself together, Anna shrugged off his helping hand and took a couple of steps forward, moving past him toward her hotel and away from Jed.
Pain screamed through her injured ankle, which promptly gave way on her and there she was again, face diving to the sidewalk…
* * *
She had to be the most infuriating woman he’d ever met – he should just hop into his trusty Jeep and head off home to…to his empty condo. Living alone had never bothered him before – why should having Anna leave his arms render him a member of the Lonely Hearts Club?