Читать книгу Packed With Pleasure - Lori Wilde - Страница 9

THE NEXT MORNING excitement over his upcoming date with Eden had Alec prowling the hallways of the Single Guy offices located on the fourteenth floor of Trump Towers. His exuberant edginess, as it so often did, spilled over onto his employees.

He was walking fast and talking faster, okaying cover art for the upcoming edition, sending a writer back to the drawing board on a feature article that hadn’t turned out as expected, double-checking appointments with his executive assistant, Holden.

Everyone took his or her cue from his go-go-go attitude. They were keyed up and working at a frantic pace. Everyone, that is, except taciturn Holden, who always remained calm no matter what was happening around him. The young man’s unruffled aplomb was the very reason Alec had hired him. He needed an assistant who balanced his own impulsive nature. Holden kept him grounded when Alec might have otherwise gotten off track following his quicksilver mind wherever it chose to flow.

“Reschedule my one-o’clock workout with Randy,” Alec told Holden. “Something’s come up.”

Holden, who at twenty-two was more efficient than many executive assistants twice his age, swiftly made a notation in his Palm Pilot. “Oh, and by the way, your uncle is in your office.”

“Mac?” Alec broke into a smile. “He’s back from Fiji?”

Holden nodded. “Helping himself to your Scotch, I might add.”

“He can help himself to anything he wants,” Alec’s grin widened. “I am what I am today because of Uncle Mac.”

“I’ll restock.”

Alec pushed into his office to find his tanned, lean-muscled uncle sitting cocked back in the plush leather chair that had once belonged to him. Mac looked a little tired, however, that is until he flashed Alec a row of straight white teeth and raised his tumbler of Scotch in a salute.

“You old dog!” Alec exclaimed, slipping around the desk to embrace Mac in a bear hug as he rose to his feet. “You’re back early.”

“There’s only so much of those warm tropical breezes and sultry island girls a man can take.”

“Yeah, right.”

Mac set his glass down and feigned a boxing move. Alec feigned in return. They embraced again, slapping each other on the back. His father’s younger brother had never been married and never aspired to be. He was the consummate playboy and Alec’s mentor, teaching him everything he knew both about the publishing industry and how to seduce women. For forty-nine years Mac had lived the very life he extolled in the pages of Single Guy before turning over the helm to Alec and Randy the previous year.

“So,” Mac prompted. “Any interesting conquests while I was gone?”

“Nope, no one.” Alec shook his head. Without understanding why, he really didn’t want to tell Mac about Eden. Besides, there wasn’t much to tell.

Yet.

Mac wagged his head. “Boy, you’ll never live up to my reputation if you keep spending so much time on the sidelines.”

“You’re a legend, Uncle Mac, there’s no living up to you.”

His uncle laughed, but the jocularity seemed forced and Alec wondered if something was wrong. “Well, you might not be the hound dog I was, but you’ve got the soft soap down pat.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“By the way.” Mac tapped the October issue of Single Guy lying open on the desk. “While I was waiting on you I checked out your last editorial. All Women Are Goddesses, Let’s Treat Them That Way.” He hooted. “You really believe that?”

“Yes. Don’t you?” Alec did believe women were goddesses. Nothing fascinated him more than the fairer sex. He loved the smell of them, their softness, the way their minds worked. Chalk it up to having four sisters. Fact was, he adored the women. Tall ones, short ones, plump ones, thin ones. He made no discrimination. That’s why he couldn’t commit to just one. There were simply too many wonderful ladies walking the face of the earth.

“All women are goddesses?” Mac arched an eyebrow.

“All women,” Alec said firmly.

“Even the…”

“Don’t go there.” Alec shook his head.

“Your Eagle Scout ethics are showing, but I’m betting that article got you laid ten times over.”

“Actually no. That’s part of the new sexual etiquette. No taking advantage of provocative situations.”

“Hell, then what’s the point? You might as well get married along with your buddy Randy.”

Alec studied his uncle. Something was going on. “You know I’m not interested in getting married.”

“Just remember that. The last thing you want is to end up straitjacketed in suburbia, working two jobs to support five kids, only to die of a heart attack way before your time.”

“That wouldn’t happen to me.”

“Because I made it my mission in life to save you from my brother’s fate. Thank God, I succeeded. Can you imagine yourself living in Connecticut and trotting home on the train to your sweet little wife who’ll only give you nooky twice a month with the lights off if you’re lucky, three rug-rats with attention deficit disorder, two neurotic cats and a dog who won’t quit peeing on the carpet?”

“No, I can’t imagine it.” Alec shifted his weight uncomfortably.

They’d had this conversation many times before and, while he was glad to see Mac, he really didn’t want to get his uncle started on his favorite soapbox issue.

What he wanted was to get on the phone and make reservations for his lunch with Eden. He could have gotten Holden to make the arrangements, but for some odd reason Alec wanted to handle it himself. He glanced at his wristwatch.

“I won’t keep you,” Mac said, picking up on his signal. “I just dropped by to invite you to dinner with Sophie and me.”

“Which one is she again?”

“You remember Sophie. I’ve dated her on and off for fifteen years. Leggy redhead, Southern accent, killer rack.”

“Now, now,” Alec chided. He’d never realized before how immature his uncle sometimes sounded. “No objectifying women.”

Mac shook his head. “Good thing I retired when I did. I can’t keep up with all these new rules. Oh, by the way, Sophie’s got a date all lined up for you.”

Alec winced. “Listen, Mac, I don’t know about this blind date.”

“Shh. You’re the publisher of Single Guy. You’ve got a reputation to uphold and, seeing as how your partner has decided to up and get married, the mantle of sustained bachelorhood rests firmly on your shoulders. Gotta show the world you’re all about the fun. Besides, Sophie says her friend used to be a circus acrobat.” Mac winked. “Bet you never dated one of those.”

“You got me there.”

“I’ll send a car around at six. We’re going to see The Producers after dinner at Kim Sum’s. I’ll spring for the check.”

Alec didn’t want to go on a blind date, but he hadn’t seen Mac for over a month. It was the least he could do for his uncle. “Sure. Okay. See you tonight.”

The minute the door closed behind Mac, Alec plopped into his chair and reached for the telephone. Circus acrobat be damned. He had a sexy, erotic gift-basket designer on the hook and he wasn’t about to let her get away.

Alec made reservations at an intimate restaurant on Forty-fourth Street that was way overpriced for lunch, but what the hell? What was the point of having money if you couldn’t use it to spoil a special lady? He was definitely looking to impress her.

Eden represented the kind of naughty, no-strings-attached relationship he’d been searching for since Randy had announced his engagement. Showing her a great time would remind him exactly how good it was to be single, footloose and fancy-free.

He rubbed his palms together, requested the restaurant’s most expensive bottle of champagne, asked them to ice it and then called his florist to order a small bouquet of flowers. He planned on laying his cards on the table, giving Eden the full court press. He wanted her to know exactly what was on his mind—that he was very attracted to her, but he wasn’t the marrying kind.

Alec didn’t want to waste either of their time with silly mind games, nor did he want her to get hurt. If his initial impression of her had been wrong and she wasn’t all about fun and adventure, then he needed to know that now.

Because ever since their electric meeting yesterday afternoon, Alec had only one goal on his mind.

Seducing Eden Montgomery.

“YOU WERE RIGHT,” Jayne Lockerbee told Sarah Ramsey Armstrong. “They are perfect for each other. Sparks flew the minute they laid eyes on each other.”

Sarah pushed a strand of sleek blond hair behind one multipierced ear and grinned over the top of her cubicle at her co-worker. They were both financial analysts for Dean-Sterns Investments, although Jayne worked only three days a week.

“When you gave Zach and me that erotic gift basket for a wedding present I knew whoever had made it was exactly the kind of woman Alec needed. Earthy, grounded, intelligent and yet incredibly sensual.”

“That’s Eden to a tee—even if she doesn’t yet have the self-confidence to realize her feminine power. But with our help, she will.” Jayne grinned.

“Yes! Enough with the airheaded bimbos already. Alec goes for them because they’re not a threat. My brother needs someone who’ll challenge him both inside the bedroom and out, whether he knows it or not.” Sarah clapped. “Making this match is going to be such fun.”

“Are you sure Alec is ready to settle down?” Jayne frowned. “I care about Eden and I don’t want to see her hurt. She’s vulnerable, especially since the fire. I think the last guy she was seeing really did a number on her ego.”

“Relax. My little brother’s got his faults, but he’s not a heartbreaker.”

“But he publishes a magazine worshiping the merits of bachelorhood over marriage and he has dated a lot of women,” Jayne mused.

Sarah waved a dismissive hand. “A lot of what you see is public relations. Alec doesn’t treat women frivolously and he hasn’t had nearly as many girlfriends as he likes everyone to believe.”

“Really?”

“Now, he wouldn’t admit it if you tortured him, but I’ve seen the wistful way he looks at Randy and Jill and me and Zach. No matter how much he protests to the contrary, he’s not built like Uncle Mac. Sooner or later he’s going to realize what he’s missing by clinging to his silly belief that love and marriage mean the death of fun and freedom. And I think your Eden is just the woman to teach him how to face his fears. He’s going to love the intimacy of monogamy once he gets a taste of it.”

“How do you know?”

Sarah held out her left hand and admired the big diamond sparkling there. “Until I met Zach, I was afraid of commitment, too. We Ramseys are a stubborn bunch, but when we do fall in love, we’re in it for the long haul.”

“I remember.” Jayne laughed. “I kept trying to tell you what a wonderful thing a good marriage was.”

“So I’m a slow learner. Let’s hope Alec realizes sooner than I did that there’s nothing more profound than finding your soul mate. Not to mention hot, hot, hot.”

“The sexual chemistry between those two was unmistakable,” Jayne said. “I thought Eden’s boutique was going to combust.”

“All they needed was a push in the right direction.” Sarah nodded. “They’ll thank us in the end.”

“I’ll call Eden after she comes back from their luncheon and see how things went.”

“I’ll keep you posted on what Alec says.”

The two women grinned at each other and Sarah started humming the matchmaker song from Fiddler on the Roof.

WOULD LIGHTNING STRIKE twice? Or had yesterday simply been a fluke?

Wetting her lips to dampen her nervousness, Eden changed from her Nikes in the ground-floor ladies’ room at Trump Towers and slipped into the pair of four-inch Jimmy Choo ebony sling-backs Jayne had loaned her.

Was Alec Ramsey really the man she wanted as her love mentor?

That was the question she was here to answer.

In the meantime, she had caved in to Ashley and Jayne’s demands that she vamp out, although she couldn’t shake the feeling she was leading Alec on, acting like an experienced, sexually confident woman when that’s the last thing she was.

“Act the part,” Ashley had encouraged when she’d insisted Eden borrow her skintight black leather skirt that was long enough to hide Eden’s burn scars but short enough to generate plenty of head-turning interest. On the subway ride over she’d gotten a half-dozen appreciative wolf whistles.

“Perceiving, behaving, becoming,” Jayne had imparted along with the Jimmy Choos, and a pair of dynamite black fishnet stockings with sparkly rhinestones sewn into the back seam.

But what had finally convinced her to give their plan a try was the editorial in the front pages of the October issue of Single Guy. She was impressed by the way Alec advocated responsible sex and described all woman as goddesses. As the publisher of a magazine aimed at bachelors, he might be commitment shy, but reading the article clued her in that Alec definitely knew how to indulge a lady.

And that was exactly what she needed. A temporary tryst with a tender and considerate man who wouldn’t head for the hills when he discovered her secret.

Eden peered at herself in the bathroom mirror and was startled to see how unruly she appeared. She ran a hand through her rowdy curls to tame them. The humid weather played havoc with her hair, giving her a just-tumbled-out-of-bed look. Her lipstick color too red, her mascara too thickly applied.

Bad-girl glam.

She felt restless and reckless and edgy. And those alien feelings scared her. She wished she’d had the courage to explore her sexuality more fully before the fire, before she had the scars to contend with, but she’d been too chicken. Frightened of catching a communicable disease or of ending up like her mother or of getting her heart broken.

Or all three.

Which was why she was in the situation she was in now. Sexually frustrated, with her creativity stagnant. Dared she hope that Alec Ramsey held the key to her liberation?

She glanced at her watch. Five minutes to one.

“Show time,” she whispered to her reflection, slipped her sneakers into her satchel, took a deep breath and headed for the fourteenth floor.

Controlled chaos greeted her when she stepped off the elevator and pushed through the double glass doors with Single Guy etched into the panels with a bold, masculine font.

Phones rang incessantly. People hurried to and fro squeezing past each other in the narrow corridor at the same time someone was holding an impromptu sales meeting right there at the central credenza.

The walls were bright and splashy, featuring advertisers’ posters hawking everything from imported liquor to expensive automobiles to the trendiest menswear fashions.

Copies of Single Guy were stacked everywhere. Executive toys rested on computers and desktops. Daring alternative rock music blared from a high-tech sound system and a help-yourself popcorn machine filled the air with the scent of freshly popped, buttered popcorn.

The place was energetic, lively and imaginative. A grown-up guy’s playground. And Alec was right in the big middle of the free-for-all.

Eden stood to one side for a moment, watching him.

He wore a black turtleneck sweater and formfitting trousers that showed off his breathtaking physique. His longish hair was sexily tousled. His profile was dazzling—regal nose, rugged chin, high cheekbones.

Her pulse bounded through her veins at a feverish pace as the William Tell Overture galloped crazily inside her head.

He migrated from person to person, pumping his employees up, urging them to give a hundred and ten percent to the job at hand. He brainstormed concepts on the fly, storytelling, networking and motivating with nothing more than a smile and his irresistible presence.

She quickly realized he managed his team with the mental equivalent of chain-saw juggling. He kept a permanent smile hardwired to his chiseled features. He was everything she was not. Witty, inspirational, charming, impulsive.

Without a doubt this mover and shaker would be a dynamo between the sheets. If she slept with him, would some of that high-energy enthusiasm rub off on her? She hoped so.

Eden noticed a serious-looking young man hovering at Alec’s elbow. He was keeping up with everything that transpired, calmly and methodically jotting down notes in a Palm Pilot.

Ah, she thought, the follow-through guy. Alec was the idea man; the younger dude was the one who made it all come together. Alec was smart enough to surround himself with the right people.

In that brief span of two minutes, Eden’s admiration for him doubled. Oh, to be so spontaneous, so unselfconscious, so alive.

Alec pivoted on his heel, spun in Eden’s direction and stopped cold.

The minute he spotted her, his grin widened and his eyes rounded. He looked as if he’s just won an Atlantic City jackpot. The million-dollar expression in his eyes went a long way in repairing her damaged self-esteem and earning him a hundred brownie points toward becoming the lover she finally let see her scar.

“Wow,” he said, low and husky as he stalked closer, “look at you.”

Leisurely, he combed his gaze from the top of her head, down her low-cut red sweater, to the snug-fitting leather skirt, to her fishnet stockings, to the sexy stilettos and back again. Her clothes issued a provocative message Eden feared she could not back up. A long moment passed and she almost turned and ran.

But the appreciative look in Alec’s eyes held her anchored to the spot.

The entire office had followed his movements and now all of his employees were staring at her, obviously intrigued by the woman who’d captured their dynamic boss’s interest.

Eden felt her cheeks flush. Oh great. She was blushing like a schoolgirl. But no man this influential had ever had quite this reaction to her before. She had longed for this very outcome when she’d donned her sexy outfit, but now that she had his undivided attention, she wasn’t sure what to do with it.

She smiled shyly and raised a hand to her throat. “I overdressed, didn’t I?”

“No. Oh, no. You look absolutely gorgeous. Are you ready to get down to business?” His gray eyes smoldered with a sexuality that took her breath away and his full, masculine lips held her mesmerized.

“Pardon?” Eden blinked. She’d been fantasizing about kissing him and his question caught her off guard.

“Lunch, the gift consultation.”

“Oh, yes.” She patted her satchel. “I’ve got everything right here.”

“Yes, you do.” He grinned rakishly, allowed his eyes to take another trip over her body and Eden knew he wasn’t talking about what was in her portfolio.

In that moment, she made her decision. In spite of the nervousness knotting her stomach, in spite of her fears that he was anticipating a femme fatale and there was no way she could measure up to his expectations, in spite of the gamble she was taking by risking his ultimate rejection, Eden knew what she wanted.

Correction, what she desperately needed in order to recover her creative self-confidence.

A red-hot fling with the sumptuous Alec Ramsey.