The Bridal Chronicles

She grinned and held up her hands, liking this teasing, lighthearted side of him. “All right, all right,” she said, laughing. “I get the picture.” She sat for a long moment, gradually sobering. She had to remember why her disguise was so important—she wanted to succeed on her own. “I admit, what I’m doing seems strange, and maybe a little comical, but, trust me, I have a good reason, all right?”

He gazed at her for a moment, his expression turning serious, then nodded. “All right. And for the record, I was also asking questions because I’m curious about why you backed out. As I said, my charity is in the middle of a fund-raising campaign, and could really use the publicity the article would have generated. Seeing as how the Mentor A Child Foundation will suffer, I wanted to know what your reasons were.”

A bothersome sensation rolled around inside of her. Mentor A Child helped little kids and she might be keeping that from happening. “Are my admittedly nebulous reasons good enough for you?”

He lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “I guess, although I was hoping maybe you’d reconsider.”

A heavy load of guilt for not helping him smothered her. “Isn’t there any other way to get the publicity you need?” she asked, hoping to appease her guilt. She’d always been a pleaser, just like her mom, and it went against her natural instincts to do something that might hurt someone else—especially needy children.

“Maybe. But this article would reach a lot of readers and would be a great way to raise awareness for the Mentor A Child Foundation.” He paused and took a roll and put it on his bread plate. “Although there is a bungee-jumping stunt I was considering.”

Horror shot through her. “Bungee jumping? Are you crazy?”

“No, just driven to support this charity,” he said seriously. “Mentor A Child helps little kids who have nobody else in their lives.”

She was surprised that a flashy guy like him would care about little kids. Most didn’t. “Why don’t you just pay to run ads on TV or in the newspaper then? I’m sure you could afford to do that, right?”

He looked away. “I could,” he said, inclining his head, a new shadow lurking in his eyes. “And I will if I have to. But…this way the publicity wouldn’t seem so self-serving. You know what I mean?”

She nodded, studying him, sensing that there was more to this than he was letting on. But she wouldn’t press; she had her little secret, too, and the less said, the better.

The waiter arrived. Anna ordered, knowing she needed to eat, but the guilt and apprehension roiling around in her stomach like acid had killed her appetite. Was she overreacting and being selfish by saying no to the article? Or was she just being smart by keeping her distance from a man who seemed so much like the other men who’d scorched her, not to mention that she would be ensuring the success of her business? She’d never had something that she could call her own, something that wasn’t somehow given to her because of her connection to the Sinclair name. It was important for her dream to succeed on her own merits.

On the other hand, it was exceedingly difficult to ignore the fact that she was disappointing a lot of people, and possibly damaging Ryan’s charity, by backing out now. Should she reconsider? It had always been tough for her to put herself first, to stand up to other people, usually her dad, to get what she wanted.

Feeling torn, she eyed Ryan. “I feel really bad about all of this.”

He pinned her with his sapphire eyes. “Bad enough to change your mind?”

She let out a heavy breath. How had this become so complicated? Ever since she’d attended a fairy-tale wedding when she was a young girl, all she’d ever wanted to do was design wedding dresses. The fantasy of weddings had always appealed to her. To be able to do that, however, she had to meet her father’s terms, and that meant concealing her identity long enough to succeed on her own.

It didn’t help that, just like her dear mother, Anna had a soft streak a mile wide and a deep sense of altruism she was proud of. Her mother had always supported numerous charities.

Thinking of her wonderfully philanthropic mother clinched it. Anna simply couldn’t, in good conscience, ignore his charitable efforts. “Oh, all right,” she whispered, gripping the edge of the table, hoping she didn’t regret this decision. “I’ll sign the release.”

He reached over and put his hand on hers, then gently rubbed his fingers over the back of her hand. The contact made her jump, but she didn’t retract her hand. Warmth spread into every cell in her body, and she wanted to curl her fingers around his big, solid hand. She didn’t. Ryan was the wrong man for her to hold on to. She knew now that any man was.

“Thank you,” he said, his eyes warm with gratitude. “I appreciate it.”

She tugged her hand from his, needing to sever the connection between them. She might have overreacted to “The Bridal Chronicles,” but she wasn’t overreacting to Ryan. He was dangerous, everything she’d learned to avoid.

She reached for her water glass again and gulped some down. When she’d arrived at the restaurant, she hadn’t thought having lunch with Ryan would be a problem. But she’d been dead wrong. Not only had he talked her into signing the release, but she was also extremely attracted to a man she should stay away from.

Was history repeating itself?

A hollow pit formed in her stomach and she couldn’t help feeling that she was making another giant mistake.

Ryan stood next to his car and put up a hand to Anna as she climbed into her small car. She’d promised to meet him at the Beacon right away to sign the release.

Dragging his eyes away from the enticing curve of her hip as she slid into the seat, he focused on her gorgeous face, the lower part visible beneath the wide brim of the ridiculous hat she’d put back on.

What a beauty she was. He’d been spellbound by her creamy skin and how it had glowed in the muted lighting of the restaurant. Her thick, dark red hair had perfectly contrasted with her porcelain complexion and stunning, amber-shaded eyes.

Yeah, she was just the “bride” he needed. He frowned. For publicity, of course. After Sonya’s torching, posing for a fake wedding photo was as close as he’d ever get to being part of a wedded couple.

He sat down, turned on the ignition, and shifted his Porsche into gear, heading out of the parking lot.

Thank goodness his lunch date had turned out so well and Anna had changed her mind.

As he cruised toward the bridge that would take him over the Willamette River, he relaxed. Anna had agreed to sign the release, clearing the way for the picture to be printed. The Mentor A Child Foundation would get the publicity they needed and, hopefully, lots of neglected kids would be spared the kind of childhood he’d had. No thanks to Joanna, his image was well on the way to being squeaky clean again.

Smiling, he downshifted and zipped past another car, enjoying the sight of the Portland skyline, rising majestically in front of him against the spectacular, blue summer sky. He glanced down at the river running beneath the bridge. Sailboats and pleasure-craft bobbed like toys on the sparkling water. Casting his gaze right, he admired the other bridges connecting Portland’s east and west sides. Ahead of him loomed the West Hills, studded with evergreens glowing like emeralds in the sun.

Light-years from the ramshackle dump located in a podunk town in eastern Washington State he’d grown up in. Surrounded by poverty, constantly hungry, he’d dreamed of living in a city like Portland, a prosperous city full of tall buildings, sparkling rivers and opportunities for those, like himself, willing to work for them.

With those dreams driving him, he’d left his dirt-poor, horrific childhood and neglectful parents behind at seventeen. He’d worked his way through college digging ditches, scraped his way up and built his business from nothing. Now, ten years after he’d graduated, he was a successful businessman. He had the opportunity to promote an organization he believed in, an organization that helped kids who reminded him of himself.

When he reached the west side of the river, he swung a quick left and headed toward the office of the Beacon. Heady anticipation rose in him, carving away some of the worry that had been eating at him since Joanna had dumped her lies on the press about the kind of employer he was and his image had taken a nosedive, threatening his involvement with the foundation.

Tightening his hand on the steering wheel, he downshifted and jetted through an intersection, just making the light. He stopped at the next red light, looked in the rearview mirror and straightened his tie. Best Wedding Couple and free publicity for the Mentor A Child Foundation were just around the corner. Things were going exactly the way he wanted.

Within days, his problems would be solved.

And Anna’s problems?

Ryan shoved that niggling thought away. Anna might be a hardworking, normal woman he admired, but that didn’t make any difference. He needed to concentrate on what was important.

His business.

His charity work.

Keeping his heart safe.

After Sonya, he couldn’t let anything else matter.

Chapter Three

After she met Ryan at the Beacon and signed the release, Anna had her long-awaited meeting with Mr. Lewis, the president of Perfect Bridal. He’d seemed impressed with her designs, but admitted he was concerned about her lack of design credentials and virtually unknown name. She left the meeting with his promise to contact her in a few days when he’d made a decision about which designer he would feature exclusively in his stores.

Feeling deflated, and a bit desperate, she’d headed back to her hotel, thankful the meeting hadn’t been a total disaster. Mr. Lewis hadn’t recognized her, something she always worried about when she wasn’t able to wear her disguise during business meetings.

As she’d driven to her hotel after dropping her soiled wedding gown at the dry cleaners, she had decided that the decision she’d made to sign the release and let the picture go to print had been the right one, for both her and Ryan. If Mr. Lewis saw the picture in print, he might view her as more established and be more inclined to choose her designs. Ryan’s charity would benefit. It seemed like a win-win situation.

The next day, she spent most of her time in her hotel room, working a new design that featured lots of taffeta and delicate Italian lace, then munching on the healthiest snacks she could find in the hotel vending machine. As she worked, concentrating on the square neckline and bell-shaped sleeves, she ignored thoughts of Ryan clamoring through her brain, absolutely determined not to remember how his hair had looked like dark honey in the sunlight. How his tux had hugged his well-honed physique. How his electric-blue eyes had zeroed in on her, making her pulse speed up.

She drummed her drawing pencil on the table, her lip clamped between her teeth, looking at her sketch. She raised a brow. The clean lines, defined by the taffeta skirt, looked right, and the overall medieval look appealed to her, but the empire waist and the dimensions of the neckline, which she’d been working on for an hour, were off.

Frustrated, she tore off the page to expose a clean sheet of paper. Blue eyes appeared in her brain…

Darn. Why was she unable to get Ryan out of her mind?

She dropped the pencil and fidgeted. She then scraped her thumbnail clean of the French manicure nail polish that she’d painstakingly applied last night while watching old Brady Bunch reruns on TV, fantasizing about growing up in the Brady’s normal—or her skewed perception of normal—household.

Her phone rang and she jumped. Ryan? Eyeing the phone, she chided herself for thinking he had any reason to call her and snatched the handset up. “Hello?”

“Miss Simpson?”

“Yes?”

“This is the concierge desk. Pierre’s Dry Cleaning is here to deliver your cleaning, but there’s a bit of a problem. Would you mind coming down to clear this up?”

She breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t Ryan, only to suffer a spurt of anxiety over the wedding dress. “I’ll be right down.”

A few minutes later, she hurried across the lobby to the concierge desk. The dress was one of only a few she’d brought with her. It was made of lots of delicate satin, fragile lace and intricate beadwork, and the matching veil was fragile, as well. She fervently hoped the dry cleaners hadn’t ruined or misplaced it. “I’m Miss Simpson. You have my dry cleaning?”

The older, gray-haired man behind the desk smiled. “Ah, yes, miss. Thank you for coming down.” He held up the large dry cleaning parcel, then pointed to the receipt. “As you can see, the receipt from Pierre’s clearly stated you had left two items, yet only one item was returned.”

She nodded, frowning slightly. “Yes, I did leave two items.” She unzipped the heavy plastic garment bag. “A dress and a veil.” She carefully moved the bead-encrusted dress aside and let out a breath when she spied the spidery veil tucked inside. “And they’re both here.”

“Ah, good. Just wanted to be sure.” He motioned for a young man, presumably from Pierre’s, to come forward. “Everything is in order.”

The short, blond young man looked at her, squinted, then pointed to her face. “Hey, I know you. Aren’t you from Philly?” He cocked his head to the side and squinted. “Aren’t you some rich dude’s daughter? I used to live there, and my girlfriend cut out newspaper pictures of you and taped them all over the place, trying to get her hair to look like yours.” He shook his head, smiling appreciatively. “Man, she never even came close. Didn’t you used to be a brunette?”

A chill skipped up Anna’s spine. She reached up to her head. Darn. She’d left her room in such a hurry she’d forgotten her hat and glasses.

He continued staring, then snapped his fingers. “Anna Sinclair, right?”

Her stomach twisted into a panic-induced knot, she ducked her head, grabbed her dry cleaning and mumbled, “Must be somebody else.” She took off at a sharp clip across the lobby, wondering how she could have been so stupid as to forget her hat and glasses.

One quick trip to the lobby without her disguise and some dry cleaner deliveryman had recognized her. Granted, he was from Philadelphia, and she was much less well-known here in Oregon. But his recognizing her still bothered her.

While she waited for the elevator, chewing on her lip in the unladylike way her father hated, one thought blazed through her brain. She absolutely couldn’t afford to risk her identity and a chance to realize her dream, as Anna Simpson, by allowing the picture of her and Ryan go to print, even if Mr. Lewis might view the extra publicity as positive.

Even if she felt incredibly bad that she couldn’t help Ryan’s charity.

Oh, how she wished she’d put this all together before she foolishly agreed to fill in for the missing model.

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