Читать книгу Twice the Temptation - Rochelle Alers - Страница 7

However, if things between them hadn’t changed she now would’ve been Denise Fennell and probably would’ve had at least one, if not, two children. Rhett, who was an only child, always talked about having a big family. When she’d asked him what he felt constituted a big family his reply had been a minimum of four children. They’d argued good-naturedly, she refusing to agree to push out four babies, while Rhett reminded her of how much fun it would be making babies.

Denise knew conjuring up images of the passionate encounters she’d had with Rhett would be detrimental to her emotional well-being. It had taken a long time to recover from his deceit and now that her life was on track she wanted nothing to derail it again.

“Your table is ready, Mr. Fennell.”

Rhett’s arm went around her waist, holding her close to his length. Denise was relieved she’d chosen to wear the stilettos. She was five-four in bare feet, and the additional four inches put her at eye level with Rhett’s broad shoulder.

“How often do you eat here?” she asked him after he’d seated her.

“Enough,” Rhett replied cryptically.

Denise stared across the small space of the table for two, her eyes taking in everything that made Rhett the confident man she’d loved selfishly. “How often is enough?” He’d greeted the maître d’ and several of the waitstaff by name.

Rhett stared at Denise with lowered lids. He didn’t want to believe she was more stunning than he’d remembered. The private investigator on his payroll had more than earned his salary. He made a mental note to give the man a generous year-end bonus. The former police officer had information on the teacher she probably hadn’t remembered, or had chosen not to remember.

“I stay at the hotel whenever I have business in D.C.”

A slight frown furrowed Denise’s smooth forehead. Whenever she saw Garrett Fennell’s name linked with a D.C.-based company in the business section of The Washington Post, she was under the impression that he still lived in his hometown.

“Where’s home now?” she asked, staring at his firm mouth.

A hint of a smile found its way to Rhett’s eyes. “I have a little place off the Chesapeake.”

Resting her elbow on the table, Denise cupped her chin on the heel of her hand. “So you got your wish,” she said in a quiet voice. “You always said you wanted to live on the water.”

Rhett’s expression changed, becoming somber. “Unfortunately, not all of my wishes were granted.”

“What more could you have wanted, Rhett? You’ve become a successful entrepreneur, you have the home you wanted and—”

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” he said, cutting her off.

Denise’s arm came down and she sat back, her eyes never leaving the pair pinning her to the chair. He’d done it again. He had yelled at her without raising his voice. “If you talk to me like that again, I’m going to get up and walk out of here.”

“You do that and you’ll throw away everything you’ve worked so hard for. And knowing you like I believe I do, you won’t do that just because someone said something you don’t like.”

“You’re not someone, Rhett,” she countered angrily. “Remember, we’re not strangers.”

“That’s something I’ll never forget, because you made certain of that.”

Her eyes narrowed. “So, you’re still blaming me for something you initiated and let get out of control.” Rhett’s reply was preempted when the waiter brought menus to the table.

“Would you like to order cocktails before I take your order, Mr. Fennell?”

“We’ll have a bottle of champagne.”

“Your usual, sir?”

“Yes, please.”

Denise did not want to believe Rhett had ordered champagne without asking her beverage choice. “I don’t want anything to drink because I’m driving,” she said softly after the waiter had walked away.

Rhett smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll make certain you get home safely.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“I’ll drive you home and then take a taxi back here.”

“That’s not necessary.” It was enough that Rhett knew where she worked, and Denise didn’t want him to know where she lived.

Picking up the menu, Rhett studied the entrées as Denise seethed inwardly. His success had made him not only arrogant but also rude. When they’d dated she rarely drank. Being underage was a factor and even when she’d reached the legal drinking age she’d discovered one drink usually left her feeling giddy.

“You’ve changed, Rhett.”

“And you haven’t?” he said, never taking his eyes off the menu.

“Yes, I have. I’m no longer the wide-eyed young girl who got to sleep with the smartest guy on campus.”

Rhett’s head came up as he slumped back in his chair. “You think what we’d had was all about sex, Denise?”

“What else was it, Rhett?” she asked, answering his question with her own. “Even you admitted you’d never connected with a woman the way you had with me.”

Pressing his palms together, he brought his fingertips to his mouth. He’d fallen in love with Denise Eaton because of her outspokenness, passion and her ambition. Of all the women he’d met at Johns Hopkins, she’d been the most focused and driven. Even at eighteen she knew who she was and what she’d wanted for her future.

She was a Philadelphia Eaton, while he was the only child of a single mother who’d looked young enough to pass for his sister. Denise had grown up in a sprawling house on several acres with her attorney father and schoolteacher mother and an older brother. Her brother had attended the prestigious Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, with the intention of becoming a professional soldier.

Meanwhile, he hadn’t known his father, and whenever he’d asked Geraldine Fennell about him, she would say she didn’t know. His mother didn’t know the man who’d fathered him, and every time he walked the streets in his neighborhood he’d randomly searched the faces of men in an attempt to find one who he thought he looked like.

Gerri, as she was affectionately called by the few friends she’d held on to from her childhood, worked two jobs to send him to a boarding school twelve miles from their blighted neighborhood so he would get a quality education. Her sacrifice had paid off, because he’d been awarded full academic scholarships to Stanford, Howard University, Harvard and Johns Hopkins. Rhett had decided on the latter, because the scholarship included not only tuition but also books, room and board. The university was also close enough to D.C. so he could easily return home during school breaks.

The adage that there is a thin line between love and hate was evident after Denise dashed all of the plans they’d made for their future to crawl into bed with Trey Chambers. He’d wanted to hate her, but couldn’t. He’d wanted to hurt her, but hadn’t. Now the only thing he wanted was revenge—the sweetest revenge that he would exact in his own time, using his own methods.

“That was then.”

“And this is now,” she said softly.

“Yes, it is,” Rhett said slowly as if measuring his words. “Speaking of now—how is your family?”

Denise, relieved to change the focus of the conversation from her and Rhett, smiled. “Thankfully, everyone’s well.”

“How’s your brother?”

“Xavier has retired from active service. He went to Iraq a couple of years after 9/11 for two tours of duty. He was stateside for a while, and last year he was deployed again, this time to Afghanistan. A month before he was scheduled to return home he took a bullet to the leg that shattered his femur.”

“What is he doing now?”

“He just got a teaching position at a military school in South Carolina, much to the relief of my mother, who went to church every day to light a candle that he wouldn’t come back in a flag-draped casket.”

Rhett had always liked Xavier. The career soldier had become the older brother he’d wished he had. “Are your parents well?”

“Very well,” she said, smiling. “Daddy is now a state supreme court judge. Mom put in for early retirement, and now complains that she’s bored out of her mind. All she does is cook and bake cakes.”

“Your mother missed her calling.”

“And that is?”

“She should’ve become a chef instead of a teacher.” Whenever he’d gone to Philadelphia with Denise, her mother had prepared so much food that she’d invited every family member within a twenty-mile radius. Although he and Denise hadn’t been engaged, the Eatons had unofficially adopted him into their family.

Denise’s smile was dazzling. “I think you just gave me an idea, Rhett. When I speak to my mother I’m going to suggest she take some cooking classes.”

Rhett’s smile matched Denise’s and for a brief moment he forgot why he was sitting across the table from her in a hotel restaurant. “Your mother is an incredible cook, unlike my mother, who still can’t boil water.”

A tender expression softened Denise’s features when she remembered meeting Rhett’s mother for the first time. Her greeting of “you’re the daughter I always wanted” had resonated with her long after she and Rhett had driven back to Baltimore after a holiday weekend.

“How is your mother?”

“Believe it or not, she got married last year.”

“I don’t believe it. Your mother is so beautiful, and what I didn’t understand was that men were practically genuflecting whenever they saw her, yet she wouldn’t give any of them the time of day.”

Rhett chuckled, the warm honeyed sound coming from deep within his chest. “She finally met someone who wasn’t intimidated by her hostile glares and sharp tongue. Russ claims he chased her until she caught him. She used every excuse in the book as to why she wouldn’t make a good wife, including her inability to cook, until he promised to hire a personal chef.”

“Did he?” Denise asked.

“Yes. He made good on his promise and they have a cook who prepares their meals, so the only thing Mom has to do is heat them up in the oven or the microwave.”

Denise wanted to tell Rhett his mother didn’t have to learn to cook because she’d worked at a restaurant and brought food home. She also didn’t tell him that six months ago she’d gone to see Geraldine Fennell, but neighbors told her Gerri had moved and hadn’t left a forwarding address.

“I hope she’s happy.”

“She is,” Rhett confirmed. “Once I convinced her to give up one of her jobs, she got her GED and eventually went online to get a liberal arts degree. She says she doesn’t know what she’s going to do with it, but earning a college degree is something she’d always wanted.”

The sommelier approached the table with two flutes and a bottle of champagne in a crystal ice bucket. He poured a small amount into one flute, handed it to Rhett, and then filled both when he nodded his approval.

Rhett offered Denise the wineglass, their fingers touching. Holding his flute aloft, he gave her a long, penetrating look. “Here’s to a successful business arrangement.”

With wide eyes, Denise stared at him over the rim. “What business arrangement?” The query was barely a whisper.

He took a sip of the sparkling wine. “Drink up, Denise.”

Her fingers tightened on the stem of the glass. “No. I’m not going to toast or drink to something I know nothing about.”

Rhett set his glass down. He knew his dining partner well enough to know she wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want to do. “I want you to stand in as my hostess for the summer.”

A soft gasp escaped Denise when she replayed Rhett’s business proposal in her head. “You need a girlfriend?” There was a thread of incredulity in the question.

“No, Denise, I don’t need a girlfriend. I broke up with my girlfriend a couple of months ago, and I’m not looking for another one. Unfortunately I’ve committed to quite a few social engagements this summer, and I need someone who will stand in as my date and hostess, providing your boyfriend doesn’t object.”

Clasping her hands together, she concealed their trembling under the table. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“That alleviates one obstacle.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Why don’t you contact a dating service, Rhett? I’m certain they can find someone to your liking.”

Leaning forward, Rhett’s face suddenly went grim. “I don’t do dating services.”

Denise refused to relent. “Have you been in a monastery since we broke up?”

“Who I’ve slept with is none of your business,” he retorted.

“I didn’t ask who you were sleeping with, Garrett Mason Fennell. I said—”

“I know what you said. You have a choice, Miss Eaton. Either it’s yes or no.” He knew she was upset because she’d called him by his full name.

“What are my options?”

“If you say no, then you’ll receive a lease renewal agreement doubling your current monthly rent.”

Denise blinked, unable to believe what she’d heard. “That’s blackmail!”

“I call it negotiating, Denise. You want something from me, and I’m offering you a way out of your dilemma. I could’ve said I wanted you to sleep with me.”

“That’s sexual harassment.”

“Call it whatever you want,” Rhett said quietly. “You have exactly one minute to give me an answer, or the deal is off the table.”

“And if I say yes?” Denise felt as if someone had put their fingers around her throat, slowly squeezing the life out of her.

Rhett knew he had Denise on the ropes when he saw her shoulders slump. And, like a shark drawn to the smell of blood, he went in for the kill.

“You give me the next three and a half months of your life and I’ll offer you a two-year lease with a ten percent increase.”

“Make it three years and six percent,” she countered.

“Three years, eight percent, and that’s my final offer.”

Denise felt as if she’d won a small victory. Picking up her flute, she extended it. “Deal,” she crooned, touching glasses. She took a sip of champagne. “Why me, and not some other woman?” she asked, seeing his smug expression.

Rhett lowered his gaze, staring at the back of his left hand. “I don’t have time to tutor someone about social etiquette and protocol.”

“How often will I have to stand in as your hostess?”

“Every weekend.”

“Every weekend?” she repeated. “You’re kidding me, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not kidding you, Denise. We’ll either entertain here in D.C., or on Cape St. Claire.”

The waiter’s sudden appearance to take their order was the only thing that stopped Denise from spewing the acid-laced response poised on the tip of her tongue. She narrowed her eyes, glaring at Rhett when she wanted to wipe the smirk off his face. Crossing her arms over her chest, she counted slowly in an attempt to control her temper.

“It can’t be every weekend,” she said when they were alone again.

Rhett angled his head. “Is your business open on the weekend?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “No.”

“It can’t be because of a man, because you said you didn’t have a boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend or not, I still have other obligations.”

Rhett glanced up, annoyance and frustration welling up within him. If he wasn’t careful, his plan would backfire and that was something he wanted to avoid, given the risks he’d taken to exact revenge from Denise Eaton for turning his world upside down. His most ruthless business foes hadn’t been able to affect him the way she had.

He’d designed his retribution as carefully as he studied a company on the brink of bankruptcy before he stepped in to take it over. Rhett had been hard-pressed not to shout at the top of his lungs when his investigator uncovered that Denise had opened a child care center in D.C., and on property his company had recently purchased from a developer who’d been forced to abandon his plan to revitalize four square blocks of commercial real estate after the housing market bottomed out. He’d paid the developer a little more than half the fair market value for the property, and the developer took the check and thanked him profusely.

His game plan included seducing Denise back into his bed, then walking out on her as she had walked out on him. The only difference was there wouldn’t be a woman waiting for him as there had been for her years ago.

“What type of other social obligations?”

“I have two fundraisers—one in June and the other in August. I’m also involved in planning my cousin Belinda’s baby shower.”

Belinda Eaton-Rice was due at the end of the month and the family had decided that a get-together over the three-day weekend would provide an opportune setting for a baby shower.

“Does she know about the shower?”

Denise smiled for the first time since she’d agreed to go along with Rhett’s unorthodox proposal. “No. My parents are supposedly hosting the get-together, and that will give Griffin time to drive Belinda to Philly while the rest of us decorate their house in Paoli. Once they arrive, Griffin will have to come up with an excuse why they have to return to Paoli.”

Rhett lifted his eyebrows a fraction. “I must say I was quite surprised when I’d heard that Griffin Rice had married Belinda Eaton.”

It was Denise’s turn to raise her eyebrows. “How did you hear about it?”

“Keith Ennis.”

“You know Keith?” Denise asked. The Philadelphia Phillies ballplayer was a sports superstar. As Keith’s agent, Griffin had helped the naturally gifted athlete from a poor Baltimore neighborhood to superstar status with a five-year multimillion-dollar contract, along with high-profile endorsement deals.

“We’d shared a table at a Baltimore fundraiser, and I overheard him tell someone he was going to be a groomsman in his agent’s wedding. When I heard him mention Belinda Eaton I knew then it was your cousin.”

“Griffin and Belinda shocked everyone when they announced they were getting married,” Denise said, smiling. “I’d always thought they couldn’t stand each other.” She sobered. “Griffin losing his brother and Belinda her sister brought them closer together after they became guardians for Donna and Grant’s twin daughters.”

“I’ve always liked your family, Denise.”

She nodded, scrunching up her nose. “I kind of like them, too. In fact, Chandra asked me about you.”

“And what did you tell her?”

“She’d asked if I’d run into you now that I’m living in D.C. and I told her I hadn’t.”

Rhett leaned closer. “That is, until now,” he said softly.

Denise stared at Rhett. There was something in his eyes that communicated he was mocking her. A sixth sense wouldn’t let her feel comfortable about their reunion. It wasn’t coincidental that he’d happened to purchase the building where she’d set up New Visions Childcare. His reputation as a ruthless corporate raider had earned him the reputation as one of thirty under thirty rising stars in Beltway Business Review. At twenty-eight, Garrett Fennell was touted as the Warren Buffett of his generation. She knew there was only one way to find out what he was up to, and that was for her to play the same game.

“Do you have anything planned for the Memorial Day weekend?”

Rhett drained the flute. “I have an invitation to a neighbor’s cookout on Sunday. Why?”

“Belinda’s shower is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, and I’d like you to come with me. After that, I’m all yours for the rest of the weekend.” Denise knew she’d shocked Rhett with her suggestion when he stared at her as if he’d never seen her before.

“You want me to hang out with your family?”

“Of course,” she said flippantly. “I’m certain they’ll welcome you back with open arms.”

A beat passed before Rhett spoke again. “What did you tell your parents about our breakup?”

Denise closed her eyes, recalling the meeting with her parents. She’d managed not to break down when they’d asked when she and Rhett were getting married.

She opened her eyes, her gaze fusing with the man. Despite her silent protest, she still loved and would always love him. He’d deceived her with another woman and she still couldn’t hate him.

“I told them the truth.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “I said I’d fallen out of love with you.”

Reaching across the table, Rhett took her hand, increasing the pressure when she tried to escape him. “Do you hate me, Denise?” The second hand dial on his timepiece made a full revolution as they stared at each other.

“No, Rhett, I don’t hate you.”

Exhaling a breath at the same time he let go of Denise’s hand, Rhett stared at a spot over her shoulder. “If that’s the case, then I’ll go with you to Belinda’s baby shower.”