Bride On Loan

In fact, she decided, it had nothing to do with men at all; it was more likely a psychological warning buzzer. If she couldn’t laugh off the notion that a man—any man—might not find her appealing, then perhaps her ego was getting out of line and needed a serious pruning.

In any case, she should be celebrating the fact that Caleb hadn’t tried to force her into his bed. Because if he had…

She squashed a momentary vision of Caleb Tanner’s face looming above her, his handsome features honed by desire.

Rent-A-Wife would just have had to cope with the fallout of losing an important client, she told herself.

The loss would have been monstrously unfair to Paige and Cassie, of course, but there was nothing Sabrina could have done about that. And they would have understood; there were prices that no one should be expected to pay, and sleeping with Caleb Tanner was one of them.

Obviously there was no shortage of women who didn’t agree with that philosophy, Sabrina admitted. But she’d never made a habit of following the crowd, and she wasn’t about to start now just because Caleb was involved. The fact that there were women standing in line hoping to be his bimbo of the week was no recommendation where Sabrina was concerned.

However, it looked as if Cassie had been right, after all, when she’d said Angelique’s time in the spotlight had expired. Perhaps the rest of the feminine crowd had sensed that Caleb was getting restless and ready for a change; that would help explain why women had started to swarm around him as soon as they’d heard he was hurt.

That thought provided a little comfort to Sabrina. Not that she much cared what happened to Angelique, but it gave her a little more hope for her own situation.

It appeared, from everything she’d ever heard about him, that Caleb Tanner was constitutionally incapable of sticking with any one woman for long. Implying that whichever lady he was currently seeing would last no longer than a week might be a trifle exaggerated, but the description hadn’t come out of nowhere.

Therefore, Sabrina thought, it wasn’t unreasonable to hope that he’d soon get tired of her, too—or at least grow weary of the idea of exacting revenge for his injury by keeping her dancing attendance on him. And, wildly improbable though it sounded, if she was actually successful in keeping all of his women away…

Well, Sabrina thought, he could talk all he wanted to about not wanting them around, but she’d bet her convertible that Caleb would soon be bored without his harem. In fact, she calculated, she’d give him three days maximum.

Feeling considerably more cheerful, she stuck the last flower into the vase and was starting to wipe up the water drops that had splashed everywhere when Jennings came into the kitchen carrying a cordless phone, which he held out to her without saying a word.

Sabrina took it and tried to brace herself. “Jennings, did Mr. Tanner tell you to pass his calls on to me?”

“The lady asked for you, miss.”

Relief whispered through her. “Oh, that must be my partner. She wasn’t answering her phone a few minutes ago so I left a message on her voice mail.” And you’re deliberately delaying, she told herself, because you aren’t looking forward to reporting this morning’s change of plans. “I’ll be out of your way here in a minute, Jennings. Where will I find the garbage can?”

He pointed at the far corner of the room. “I’ll take care of the debris, miss.”

“Way over there? Why? It isn’t even next to the back door, much less convenient to anything else. I don’t know a lot about kitchens—”

Even though she hadn’t yet put the phone to her ear, Sabrina could hear laughter from the other end of the line. She tucked the phone between shoulder and ear and said, with mock hauteur, “I don’t recall asking for your opinion, Cassie.”

“What you know about kitchens would fit on the head of a pin with room left over,” said her unrepentant partner.

“That may be true. But I know an inefficient one when I see it.”

“Whose kitchen are we talking about, anyway?”

“Well…this could require a bit of explanation.” Sabrina took a deep breath. “It’s Caleb Tanner’s.”

The long silence on the phone was the loudest Sabrina had ever heard. “No wonder the phone number looked vaguely familiar. Why aren’t you using your cell phone, by the way?”

“It’s not working. It seems to have been a casualty of the fall last night.”

“That figures,” Cassie said. “So about Caleb…Please tell me he invited you.”

“No, Cassie, I crashed my way in.” It was true, of course, but Cassie would never believe it—and what her partner didn’t know, Sabrina told herself, wouldn’t hurt her. “Actually, I came to apologize.”

“So what’s keeping you? Sabrina, do us all a favor and get out of there before something else happens.”

“Now you’re treating me like Typhoid Mary,” Sabrina complained. “Honestly, Cassie, you make it sound as if I’m too clumsy to walk down the street and whistle at the same time!”

“You have to admit you’re the only person in Denver who can fall over a ray of sunlight—I’ve seen you do it. Just don’t take any chances, all right? Maybe you don’t realize how important Tanner is to Rent-A-Wife right now, but I saw last month’s profit-and-loss statement when Paige was working on it, and believe me, we can’t afford to lose this client.”

“I know,” Sabrina said quietly.

Cassie had gone straight on. “Plus, on a personal level, Sabrina, I’d kind of like to remain on speaking terms with my future husband’s boss, so if you could avoid offending Caleb any further—”

Sabrina raised her voice. “He’s asked me to help him out for a few days.”

“Help him…. You’ve got to be joking.”

“He can use a hand just now. Twenty-four hours a day, in fact.”

“Caleb Tanner wants you with him around the clock? What’s the man taking for pain medication, and does his doctor know he’s showing symptoms of psychosis?”

Sabrina went straight on. “So that means I can’t handle my regular clients.”

“I suppose you want to pass them off to me? Sabrina, you know I’m only scheduled to work half days till my wedding—”

“What were you saying about the Tanner account being very important just now?”

Cassie swore under her breath. “All right, give me your list.”

Sabrina closed her eyes in relief. It was one small blessing—not so much for her sake but for Cassie’s—not to have to give her partner every last detail. Why should both of them have the whole mess to worry about? “Thanks, Cassie. It’s not that long a list, really. And I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”

By the time she put the telephone down, Jennings was taking containers of food from the refrigerator, stacking them almost haphazardly on a tiny strip of countertop nearby. “Is there anything particular you’d like for lunch, miss?”

“Heavens, no. Don’t go to any special trouble for me.”

He caught a paper-wrapped bundle just as it slid off the pile. “I’d be happy to cook whatever you’d like. Of course, if you’d prefer to make yourself at home in the kitchen—”

Sabrina said hastily, “I’m not big on kitchens. Is this one really as inconvenient as it looks?”

“It’s the worst arrangement I’ve ever seen, miss, but then there hasn’t been time to do much about it. I expect when Mr. Caleb gets back on his feet, there’ll be some changes.”

“Then this house is a new purchase? That’s a relief—I was thinking it might be the family homestead, handed down for generations.”

Jennings almost cracked a smile. Sabrina felt rewarded.

“Oh, no, miss,” he said. “Mr. Tanner’s parents live in Boulder, and until last month he had an apartment in one of the new developments downtown.”

“Really? But he moved here? Why?” Sabrina raised an eyebrow. “No, let me guess—I bet the landlord objected to the bimbos getting into a traffic jam in the lobby. Actually, it’s too bad he didn’t stay there, because the doorman could have doubled as a security guard.” And I’d have been saved a lot of trouble.

An asthmatic-sounding chime wheezed from the front hall. There’s Angelique, Sabrina thought. She said she’d be back in an hour.

It was apparent that Caleb had heard it, too. He called, “Sabrina! Come in here, will you? And bring Jennings with you.”

She carried the vase into the living room, setting it with exaggerated caution in the precise center of the coffee table, just out of his reach. Then she picked up the motorcycle enthusiasts’ magazine that had slid off his lap, gave it back and said, “What do you want me to tell Angelique?”

“Nothing. Just let her in, Jennings.”

Silently, Jennings headed for the door.

“I thought you wanted me to defend you,” Sabrina said.

“You’re going to. Sit down. No, here on the floor right beside me, with your back to the couch.”

She looked doubtfully at him, but there wasn’t time to argue; she could hear the squeak of the front door opening. As Sabrina folded herself up on the carpet, she bumped the sore spot on her shin where the car door had caught her yesterday and grimaced.

“I see I’m not the only one who suffered damage in our collision,” Caleb said. “You should have told me.”

“Would it have made any difference in your demands?”

“Of course not. But we could have felt sorry for each other.” He shifted onto his side and swore irritably. “Not being able to turn over without help is going to get mighty aggravating, you know.” He draped one arm around her shoulders and slid the magazine onto her lap. They must look, Sabrina thought, as if he was leaning over her to point out something. It was a nice, friendly little pose….

“Darling,” Angelique said, “I do hope you’ve gotten some rest, because—” She rounded the end of the couch and stopped dead in her tracks. “What in the—”

“Hello, Angelique,” Caleb said calmly. “I’m glad you stopped in. Sabrina was just telling me a minute ago that she wished she could thank you properly for helping out this morning till she could get here. In fact, she said when this is all over, she’ll throw a back-to-good-health party for me and invite you.”

Angelique opened her mouth and shut it again.

Sabrina, half-stunned herself, had no trouble imagining what the woman was feeling.

“You can’t mean this,” Angelique said. “You can’t toss me aside like this, Caleb. You need me, especially now….” Her voice trailed off.

His voice sounded oddly gentle. “I told you days ago that we were finished, Angelique. You wanted to follow through with the Halloween party since you’d gone to so much trouble over it, and I agreed. But the party’s over, honey. And messing up my knee didn’t change my mind.”

Angelique’s tone was suddenly venomous. “You didn’t say anything about her.”

“Surely you’re not surprised. It would hardly have been respectful to drag Sabrina into it, because she didn’t cause the breakup, you know. It was just time, Angelique.”

“Of course she didn’t cause it.” Angelique’s voice dripped sarcasm. “I’m sure she just happened to be innocently standing there when you started looking around.” She glared at Sabrina. “Well, let me warn you, girl, you’ll be just one more in a long line. Whatever he tells you, the truth is as soon as he’s got what he wants, he’ll start looking around again. So enjoy it while it lasts—because it won’t last long.” She tossed her long hair and stormed out of the room. The bang of the front door told Sabrina that this time Angelique hadn’t waited to be respectfully bowed out.

Sabrina slammed the magazine down on the carpet with a satisfying bang. “That was the worst, most obnoxious, horribly callous piece of behavior I have ever seen.”

Caleb leaned heavily on her shoulder in order to push himself into position on the couch. “Angelique isn’t known for her tact, but I didn’t expect she’d be quite so unrestrained. I’m sorry about that.”

Sabrina wrenched herself around to face him. “I was not talking about Angelique,” she snapped. “I’m not in the least offended at what she said, because every word of it’s absolutely true. Crude, maybe, but I’ll make allowances for that, since she got her cataracts ripped off without an anesthetic. But as for you, making me look like just another one of your bimbos in order to hold all the other ones off—”

“Can you think of a better way to discourage all the women who’d like to step into Angelique’s shoes?” He sounded perfectly calm.

“Yes. Rent a medevac helicopter and take off for Costa Rica!”

“Do be serious, Sabrina. As soon as they know there’s a new woman in my life, they’ll realize there’s nothing to be gained by making spectacles of themselves, and they’ll stop.”

“Or else they’ll redouble their efforts. For all I know they’ll lay siege to this house, and—”

“Not once they’ve seen you.” He sounded very sure of himself. “That’s what makes you so perfect for this job, Sabrina. You’re exactly the kind of woman I like.”

Sabrina almost screeched. “You are a piece of work, Tanner! I ought to kick you in the kneecap for insulting me like that.”

He looked vaguely puzzled. “What can you possibly find insulting about me saying that you’re my kind of woman?”

“Make that your other kneecap!”

He shrugged. “The point is, they’ll take one look at you and they’ll give up. I’m actually doing them a favor, saving them all the time they’d be wasting otherwise.”

Sabrina rolled her eyes heavenward.

“But you see, what they don’t know is that because of certain characteristics you possess, I’m immune to you.”

“Now that’s the first sensible thing you’ve said in some time,” she muttered.

“And that’s also the beauty of the whole idea. Not only do you understand that I’m not vulnerable to you, but because of that little accident last night, you owe me. So, unlike every one of those women, you’re under absolutely no illusion that you could crook your finger and ensnare me.”

The man was utterly serious and so completely sure of himself that he was mesmerizing. All Sabrina could do was stare at him in morbid fascination.

“You will very efficiently hold them off until I’m healthy enough to defend myself. Meanwhile, I’m in no danger from you. Once I’m back on my feet—” he kissed his fingertips “—it’ll be goodbye, Sabrina.”

And he could start taking applications for bimbo of the week again, Sabrina thought. It couldn’t happen quickly enough for her.

“It’s perfect,” Caleb said. “Don’t you agree?”

CHAPTER THREE

SABRINA stared at him with the same wariness that she would have accorded to a crocodile who’d suddenly reared his head from the middle of the threadbare carpet. She’d encountered egotistic males in her day, but never one quite as sure of himself as Caleb Tanner.

It was long past time for someone to teach the man a lesson, she thought. It would do him a great deal of good to be the jilted one for a change, chasing hungrily after a woman who ended up coldly rejecting him. Maybe even turning green around the edges with jealousy.

The woman who accomplished the feat would be striking a blow for her sisters around the world. In fact, Sabrina thought, she’d deserve sainthood.

For a moment, she actually considered trying it—and then her common sense reasserted itself. Not only weren’t the odds of success exactly favorable, but she suspected that anyone who made the attempt to break Caleb Tanner’s nonexistent heart was more likely to end up in a mental health ward than in the feminist hall of fame.

Even contemplating the idea was courting temporary insanity. She’d rather take on a suicide mission. I’m immune to you, he’d said—and Sabrina wouldn’t put it past him to be telling the precise truth.

“Perfect?” she said. “Of course. Who could possibly question the clarity of your logic?”

Suspicion sparkled in Caleb’s eyes, but before he could pursue the discussion the asthmatic doorbell chimed once more.

This time Caleb drew her down to sit facing him on the edge of the couch, with her hip nestled warmly against his. She landed a little off balance and had to brace a hand against the arm of the couch, just above his shoulder, to keep herself upright.

The man should be a stage director, she thought irritably. From the doorway, it would look as though they’d either just finished a kiss or were about to start one.

“Who’s this visitor likely to be?” she asked. “I doubt the news of Angelique’s comeuppance has spread across Denver in the ten minutes since she left. Is this likely to be one of her friends going behind her back in an attempt to seduce you, or someone from an entirely different branch of your feminine fan club?”

She heard the door squeak as Jennings opened it, and then a man’s voice from the front hall made her release a long sigh of relief. “That’s Jake,” she said, and tried to sit up straighter.

Caleb’s fingers curved around her wrist, preventing her from moving. “So?”

“There’s no need to pretend for his sake. He wouldn’t believe in this charade of yours, no matter what script you ran past him.”

“Why not? Do you already have a boyfriend or something?”

“Oh, nobody you couldn’t threaten into disappearing, I’m sure,” Sabrina said dryly. “But that wasn’t what I—”

“Then he’ll believe it. He won’t have any other choice.”

“You mean you’re going to lie to him.”

“I mean we’re both going to be very convincing. Let’s get one thing straight, Sabrina. We aren’t going to tell anybody about our private arrangement, and I mean anybody.”

“But Jake’s different,” Sabrina argued. “He was right there yesterday. He heard what you said to me.”

“And he will surely understand how profoundly I now regret that outburst,” Caleb said.

His voice was deep and warm and so convincing that even Sabrina felt herself wavering. “How do you do that?” she asked admiringly. “If anybody ever does a remake of the Garden of Eden, you’d be a natural to play the serpent. One word from you and apple sales would skyrocket across the nation.”

Caleb laid a finger across her mouth to shush her, then with the edge of his nail lightly traced the outline of her lips.

It was all she could do to sit still. From the corner of her eye, Sabrina noted that Jake had stopped on the threshold as if he’d run smack into a glass wall. Slowly, still watching the couple on the couch, he crossed the room and set a bulging briefcase on the floor next to the couch. “Don’t think, just because you’re wounded, that you’re going to take a vacation, Caleb,” he said. “I brought all the—”

Caleb didn’t appear to hear. He was still looking soulfully into Sabrina’s eyes.

“Caleb?” Jake said a little louder.

With a long sigh, Caleb let his fingertips drop from Sabrina’s face—though he didn’t release the wrist he was holding with his other hand—and turned toward Jake. “It’s amazing how a simple accident can clarify your vision,” he mused. “That fall yesterday was probably the luckiest thing that has ever happened to me, because I might never have met Sabrina otherwise.”

Jake looked at him as if he were a scientific specimen. “Did they X ray your brain last night, Caleb?” he asked brusquely. “Because if not, they should have. Sorry, Sabrina, but—”

“Oh, you don’t need to apologize to me, Jake.” Sabrina looked straight at Caleb while she peeled his fingers loose from her wrist. “I told you he’d never believe it.”

“It may take him a little time to be convinced.”

She stared at him in utter disbelief. Surely, in the face of Jake’s obvious skepticism, Caleb wasn’t going to pursue this nonsensical course. Was he?

He went on smoothly. “In fact, I expect lots of people are going to have their doubts for a while. Even though it isn’t every day I confide that I’m serious about a woman, my friends may well be hesitant to believe—”

“You’re absolutely right about that,” Sabrina said judiciously. “It’s not every day, and it’s not exactly a whispered secret from you to your friends, either. From what I hear, it’s more like twice a month and announced in the society page headlines.”

Caleb’s scowl was clearly a threat, but his voice was gentle and reasonable. “It’s not at all the same thing, my dear. All the women who have been in my life up till now sort of run together into a blur as I think about them.”

“That I can believe,” Sabrina muttered unrepentantly.

“In fact, my darling, compared to you they don’t even exist. I’ve never declared myself this way before, because I’ve never felt about any woman the way I feel about you, Sabrina.”

The seemingly innocent sincerity in his voice left Sabrina staring at him in reluctant appreciation. She’d run into men before who had an endless supply of gall, and ones who possessed more than a touch of pure blarney. But she’d never before encountered a man who not only possessed both qualities but who used them so effectively. No wonder women fell over themselves to get near him—and no wonder he left such a swathe of destruction in his wake.

And to make it worse, he was telling the precise truth. I’ve never felt about any woman the way I feel about you. Well, two could play at that game.

She patted Caleb’s cheek and said with utter honesty, “And of course there’s never been a man who could inspire the sort of feelings I have for you, Caleb, dear.”

She realized abruptly that it was the first time she’d actually said his name. She had neither anticipated nor avoided the action; in fact, she hadn’t given it any thought at all. So it came as a shock to discover that the taste of his name on her tongue was like the hottest of chili peppers—it not only tingled at first exposure but it hinted of a burn that instead of fading would grow even stronger with time.

She edged away from him. “I’m sure you don’t need me sitting right here while you talk business.”

“And you’d probably be bored by all the details,” Caleb agreed.

Sabrina bit her tongue to keep from retorting that she wasn’t his typical bimbo, incapable of understanding the nuances of a business discussion. Bringing up the point again would probably make no more impression on Caleb than the last time she’d tried. Besides, it would just make her situation worse by giving him an excuse to keep her sitting beside him—the last place on earth she wanted to be.

And what difference did it make, anyway, if he thought she was as airheaded as the rest?

Talk about his ego, Sabrina told herself. You’ve got more than a little problem with your own, if you’re worried about what he thinks of you.

She smiled sweetly and murmured, “And it would be so rude of me to yawn in your face just because I couldn’t possibly keep up with the discussion, darling. Far better if I just go away while you and Jake have your important talk.”

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