This Is Love: Illusion of Love / From My Heart

Her current problem was, while she loathed Bennett I’m the Neighbor from Hell Cooper, the man smelled good. Like better than good. Like steal one of his T-shirts and tuck it under her pillow good. In a totally nonstalkery way. He smelled of sandalwood and musk. And that odor set her every nerve ending on high alert in a good way. The scent of him still clung to her, and she just wanted to hug it to her and breathe deep.

Yes, she had problems. The other issue was the man tasted incredible. Tonight he’d had scotch. The good stuff. Something smoky and divine. He also tasted a little like mint. Not the kind that had so much sugar added that it obscured the taste of the actual mint. And there was something else there. Something sweet and delicious that she could eat all damn day, with one of those tiny dessert spoons where one bite was so decadent and delicious, you had to savor every bite. Yes, that was how he tasted.

And that was why this was trouble. Because he was the devil. With too much charm and far too much arrogance. And also because she’d never be able to look at him again without thinking about how good he tasted. Like she needed that headache.

And then, of course, there was James. Bennett Cooper kissing her had had one and only one upside...that she was willing to acknowledge, anyway. James hadn’t been able to break up with her properly. She’d been the one to dump him. By way of a kiss. It was juvenile, but it felt good. To not have to hear the implication You’re not good enough for me. I want someone better. Bennett Cooper and his wicked tongue had put her on top. Wouldn’t you love to be on top of him?

Oh. My. God. This was bad. Terrible. She didn’t want him. But now her body had Bennett on the libido and it wasn’t going away. This called for reinforcements.

Dragging out her phone, she video dialed her best friend and started talking as soon as Mel answered. “James tried to dump me and the aggravating neighbor boy kissed me.”

Her best friend waited two whole beats before speaking. “Honey, let me pop some popcorn, then you need to start from the beginning.

The popping popcorn was just a metaphor, so Val launched into the retelling of the second half of her night, down to the tongue teasing from Bennett-you-have-no-business-thinking-about-that-man-naked, sliding his tongue in between her lips and making her forget her name.

When she was done, Mel sat back on her couch. “Okay, first of all, I want that kiss story one more time at a later date, because that is the hottest thing I have ever heard. Second, good riddance on James.”

“Good riddance? Are you forgetting that I need a date in three weeks? I can’t show up alone again. I can’t take it. And it’s Sol’s wedding. I can’t skip it. But I am not making the trek to Princeton to have my whole family shake their head about how I cannot keep a man.”

“Okay, good point there, but maybe since hot neighbor boy kissed you, you can take him.”

Val stared at her friend. “I think you’ve lost your mind.”

Mel held up her hand. “Hear me out. You keep dating these versions of he who shall not be named.” Marcus, her ex from college. He’d been the perfect guy. Entrepreneur, good-looking. He’d done the whole Jack and Jill cotillion thing. Her parents loved him. But he’d broken up with her just before graduation, because he had political aspirations and he didn’t think she fit the bill of a politician’s wife. She’d been devastated, of course. And her family had blamed her.

“I do not,” Val muttered.

“Let the record show, Alejandro and Tyrell and now James. All essentially carbon copies of each other. Stop trying to re-create the past. I mean, did you even like James?”

“Of course I liked James.”

Mel raised a brow. “Oh, yeah? What did he taste like?”

Only Mel understood how Val categorized the men she dated. “I—”

“Go on, I’m waiting.”

Val sighed. “He tasted like store-brand chocolate. Bland, overly sweetened and waxy.”

“See? Who wants to kiss waxy for the rest of their life? And come on, you couldn’t even bring yourself to sleep with the guy.”

Val’s mouth hung open. “Oh, my God. Would you stop?”

“Or did you mange that and somehow forget to tell me?”

“Okay, fine. But we were taking it slow.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mel rolled her dark eyes. “So slow you were avoiding sleeping with him. Come on. You should have been done with him in the first week. Him and those sweater vests? He wasn’t even hip enough to pull off that common look. You kept him because you figured it would be better to go home with someone than alone.”

There were times in her life that she hated it when Mel was right. Times like this. “So, what, you suggest I find the nearest guy with a motorcycle, then ask for a ride?”

Mel howled with laughter. “Depends. Does hot neighbor ride a motorcycle?”

Val groaned. Come to think of it, he did have one. But she only ever noticed it in the summertime, when he brought it out of storage. “Yes, but that’s hardly the point. Come on, I need a solution for the wedding.”

“Okay, I’ll come by tomorrow, and we’ll go over all your options. Make you a fancy pro/con list for each available option and we’ll fix this.”

Val hung up with Mel and laid her head back against the door. Absently she played her fingertips along her lips. They still tingled from the remembered kiss, and her body was still far too warm for her liking.

Bennett Cooper wasn’t on the list of potentials. Bad boy was so not her thing. It didn’t matter how well he could kiss.

Chapter 3

Bennett had taken a calculated risk, and right about now he was sure that Adriana Voss was ready to kill him. Or have him fired...or jump his bones. He wasn’t sure which. But none of those options worked for him. This job didn’t just mean he’d get to shoot wildlife. It opened up his whole career. Voss owned more than just the magazine company. His name was all over galleries, museums and documentary exhibitions.

As promised, he’d taken the portfolio in to Voss Magazines’ main offices. Even though her title was basically an empty one, as VP of styling or something like that, Adriana still had an office and still showed up to work. Apparently, Voss wanted his wife close to keep an eye on her.

When Bennett asked her assistant to see her, Adriana had come out with a saccharine smile and a suit that said nothing about this is work appropriate. It was one of those couture thingies that looked good on a model walking down the runway, but in real life, on a woman with curves, it was too low cut and too tight for the office.

But he’d gone in with a smile. “I’m so sorry we didn’t get a chance to go over these the other day, but Val and I hadn’t seen each other in a while, and, well, you know how it is. I saw her ex sniffing around her and had to lay claim to my girl.” Did he sound as much like an idiot as he thought he did?

Adriana pinned him with a shrewd glare. “And how long have you two been seeing each other?”

Damn. Bennett swallowed hard. He made a good chameleon. He’d learned early to be all things to all people. Sweet and sensitive one minute. Aggro hard-ass the next. He was good at reading people and showing them the facets of his personality they needed to see.

What he was not good at, however, was outright lying. It never worked out in his favor, and he preferred not to do it. But he’d started this mess the other night, so there was no backing out now. “It’s been on and off for a few months—with our schedules, you know. But we’ve recently decided to make it exclusive.”

She crossed her arms. “Oh, really? How recently? Because I remember Carmela Alvos bragging about how intimate your photo session was.”

He held back a groan. Carmela was a bald-faced liar. She’d tried, but he hadn’t been interested. Not that he was going to quibble. Because, he had to face it, he had a type. “Nothing happened with Carmela. Val and I just needed some space. Time to work things out.”

“Well, that’s just...lovely. And you’re serious?” Her brow lifted.

Bennett didn’t know where this conversation was going, exactly, but it seemed to be headed down Nowhere Good Road and he wasn’t having it. “To be honest, I proposed to her last night.”

He would have laughed at Adriana’s slack-jawed, pinched-nose expression if it didn’t mean his future would be in jeopardy.

“Wow. Then I guess congratulations are in order.”

“Thank you. She’s a great girl.” The way he figured it, he’d start traveling soon for Voss and give Adriana a wide berth. She’d never find out the truth.

“That’s great. I’d love to get to know her better. Why don’t you bring her to the house this weekend for a dinner party we’re having?”

Oh, hell. “I’m not sure she’s free.”

Adriana’s eyes narrowed. “Well, you can just come.”

Not on your life, barracuda. “We’ll see what we have going on.”

“You do that.”

By the time he made his escape, Bennett felt on edge, his skin tight. He needed to get out and shoot. Then he’d feel better. He could take all this shit off-line and breathe for a minute. Thanks to Val, who was a surprisingly good kisser, he’d had a sleepless night on Sunday. And yesterday hadn’t been much better. He’d had a catalog shoot in the park, but he hadn’t been into it at all. He needed to get his headspace back and away from the two women who were occupying far too much of it.

After a quick subway hop home, he jogged inside just in time to catch the elevator doors as they were closing. “Hey, hold that a second.”

The person inside fumbled with something, but Bennett got to the door and held it open just before it closed. Only to find Valentine on the phone and carrying two large grocery bags from the Fresh and Ready on the corner.

She blinked dark eyes up at him, and for a moment, all he could do was stare. How had he never noticed how cute she was before? She was a tiny little thing. Nearly a foot smaller than he was. That put her maybe around five feet three inches, give or take. Her skin was luminescent. Dark and smooth, it reminded him of liquid milk chocolate. Another woman’s voice rang in the elevator. “I swear, Valentine, you have to go to these events. You can’t just turn up for the wedding. You’re needed for the shower, and the rehearsal.”

She was talking on speaker, the phone on top of the groceries.

“Mom, I’ll call you back, okay?”

“No, not okay. And can you please tell me if James is coming for sure so I can do the place settings? You have been dodging me for months with this. They are going to the engravers tomorrow and I need to know. And while we’re at it...”

As the other woman droned on, Valentine’s gaze pinned to his and the current of electricity nearly poleaxed him. Hell. He needed to get it together. He pushed their floor number again and scooted in next to her.

“Mom, please, let me just—”

“I swear, Valentine, it’s like you don’t want to spend any time with your family. Let’s not forget that you agreed to be part of this wedding, and you living on your own like a recluse in the city, it’s just—”

“Mom, please. I will call you back.”

“You always say that, then I have to chase you down. I mean, that vagabond life you live. Why can’t you just use your economics degree and get a job in finance? Or even better, find a man in finance so that you don’t have to work. Not like being a blogger is work, mind you.”

Bennett shouldn’t have been listening. Really. He should have been paying attention to the numbers on the elevator as they went floor by floor. But he was riveted. He watched her face, dying to know how she’d shut down her mother. To be fair, her gaze never left his, either.

“Mom. I love you. I have to go.” She tried to use her chin to end the call, but that just sent the bag of groceries tipping over.

With a curse, she tried to recover and the sound of the tearing bag echoed over the walls. Bennett dived for the falling phone and milk. Valentine wobbled in her heels. He saved the milk but not the phone. And not the other bag that followed as Val grabbed for her phone.

Oranges and other fruit rolled onto the floor as a bottle of wine skidded out of her hold.

The good news was, the woman on the phone stopped haranguing her daughter. The bad news was as Val stared at the contents of her bags on the floor, her eyes welled with tears.

Shit. Bennett had a lot of experience with women. A lot. Yes, he was a bit of a man whore. But one thing he was not comfortable with were tears. She just looked so vulnerable, he wanted to tuck her in for a hug. What the hell is wrong with you?

When the elevator doors slid open on their floor, he hit the stop button. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

He let himself in to his apartment and grabbed his grocery bags. When he came back in less than a minute, Valentine was desperately trying to gather all her things into her arms.

“Here you go.”

She shook her head stiffly. “I think my humiliation is complete. Thank you. But you don’t have to help me. I got this. I can do it.”

He merely shrugged. “Everyone needs help sometimes.” When he had retrieved the last of the wayward fruit, including some spiked yellow thing he couldn’t identify, he stood tall. “Go on, I’m right behind you.”

Her phone started to ring on the floor again, and she picked it up but didn’t look at it. Just shoved it into her pocket. “Thank you,” she muttered. Then she let him into her apartment.

To say he was surprised would have been an understatement. Sure, he’d seen glimpses of her sheer white curtains but he figured given her stiffness, she’d have a sterile beige kind of place. He couldn’t be more wrong. Everywhere he turned there was color. Bold and bright. All seamlessly blended together.

“You got it from here?” he asked as she put the bags on the counter.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about the elevator. I’m sort of mortified.”

“It happens. Everyone has a bad day from time to time.”

“’Kay. Well, see you.”

He debated not asking for her help. But as he was here and he needed a hand, too, he might as well. “Okay, so about the other night.”

She shook her head. “Oh, we are not doing this conversation. I’m pretending it didn’t happen.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the thing. That woman I was with—that’s my boss’s wife.”

She gasped. “You two were...cozy.”

“Yeah, not to my liking. I told her you and I were together to get her off my case, but now she wants to have the two of us for dinner at her place. And given what I heard on the phone, I think maybe the two of us can help each other out.”

For one long beat, she stared at him. “You realize this, right here, is the longest conversation we’ve ever had with each other?”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is you don’t even know me. But you want me to pretend to be your girlfriend?”

“Fiancée, actually.”

A bark of laughter tore out of her. “You’re nuts.”

“Look, you need a date or whatever to some wedding, it sounds like, and I need a fiancée. This is win-win.”

She took the grocery bags and turned them upside down, emptying them before shoving them back at him. “We can’t stand each other. You with your tattoos and your loud punk music or whatever.”

He frowned. “Excuse me, that’s classic rock.”

“Whatever. No. You are all wrong. If you have a clean-cut brother, I’m down. But you and I will not mesh. Not to mention that woman looked like she wanted to carve me up into pieces, so thanks, but no thanks.”

This was not the end of this conversation. “Okay, well, you think about it.”

“Answer’s no.”

“You want to tell me what you have against me?”

“You mean besides you being arrogant, loud, a womanizer, flirty and accosting me with kisses?”

He smirked. “You liked the kiss, I could tell.”

She stormed past him and opened her door. “Out.”

With a sigh he turned to go. “I’ll give you a couple days to think about it.” She rolled her eyes, but as he left, he could have sworn he saw her lips twitch. Well, at least it was a start. He had a few days to wear her down. He wasn’t going to the Voss house without her.

* * *

“So tell me exactly what happened. You came home with James, my least favorite friend, and then next thing you know your neighbor’s kissing you?”

“I have no idea what happened.” Val paced back and forth in her living room in front of the couch as Mel looked up at her. “One second, James was bumbling through a breakup, and the next thing I know Mr. Sexy and Tattooed and Terrible Neighbor was kissing me.”

“So exactly how did he kiss you?” Mel asked. “Was there tongue, or was it a peck? Did he hold you close up against him? Or was it one of those cases where he just leaned in with his face?”

Val considered. Her mind ran through the kiss over and over again like a movie reel. Bennett with his direct stride and intense focus on her. Bennett wrapping his arm around her waist and sliding one into her hair and then tucking her against him intimately as he lowered his lips. “Yeah, he definitely had me pressed up against him.”

Mel hooted. “This is fantastic. Finally, someone we can dig our teeth into who isn’t a boring Marcus replacement.”

Val frowned at her best friend. They didn’t talk about Marcus, since he’d unceremoniously dumped her before her final exams senior year. Val didn’t like to reminisce about that period of time. Marcus and everything that came with him was better left forgotten.

Mel held up her hands. “Easy does it. All I’m saying is that ever since Marcus, you’ve been looking for that perfect Morris Chestnut kind of guy. You know, tall, athletic, charming as hell, great job, the right connections, the right schools. You’ve pretty much been dating a cookie-cutter version of the same guy for the last five years, and it never works out for you.”

“You’re wrong. I am not trying to replace Marcus. So what if some of the guys have the same qualities? I happen to like those qualities.”

Mel shook her head. “No. Your parents like those qualities. You don’t know what you like.”

“Of course I know what I like.” Mel had no idea what she was talking about. Val knew what she liked. Of course she knew what she wanted. She dated. Yes, maybe she aspired for a very specific look. Tall, chocolate and in good shape. That didn’t make her super shallow, did it?

“No, you don’t. Because you’ve never dated anything other than the Marcus version. And let me just say, if you’re gonna date versions of Marcus, please upgrade. Do not downgrade. That makes no kind of sense. Now, I want to hear more about that sexy neighbor. He sounds like someone completely opposite to Marcus.”

Val’s stomach flipped at the mere mention of Bennett. Stupid hormones. So what if he made every nerve ending stand up and pay attention? There was more to a relationship than great chemistry. “No, not gonna happen. I don’t know what his deal was. But I’m not jumping on the gravy train.”

“Of course you’re not. Because you never do anything outside of your little box.” Before Val could even argue, Mel continued. “You’ve been saying for the last year how you want to shake up your life. With Sol getting married, you were trying to do your own thing. Break free a little of the usual expectations. What happened in that? Because James was not making that happen. And to make matters worse, he was calling you boring. How is that even possible?”

Yeah, the jackass had called her boring. That was hardly fair, especially since most times when he talked Val had to fight to stay awake. She hated it that Mel was right. But she had said for her New Year’s resolution that she wanted to try something different, something new. For once do things for herself. “Okay, fine. I might have said that, but it’s not like I’m not already doing that with my job. I take risks and chances all the time.”

“You know that’s not what I mean.” Mel tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “You need to supercharge your life. Yes, you love your job, but sometimes I feel like one of the reasons you love your job is because you know it makes your family crazy.”

“Mel, you know how much I love what I do. I love to eat, and plus, with my nose and my senses, it’s a perfect fit.” Her nose had always been sensitive, but after an accident at age eight, her sense of smell raced off the charts.

“Fine. I hear you. I just want you to have joy in all areas of your life, not just work. And to do that, you’re going to have to stop doing the usual and step out of your comfort zone. You are the one who said you wanted to do that. It wasn’t me. Let’s face it, I’m lazy. I would never have agreed to such a thing for a New Year’s resolution. But then again, I don’t have sexy tattooed neighbors kissing me.”

“Damn, Mel. Do you have to bring him into this every couple of minutes? It’s already impossible to think about anything else.”

“That’s because your subconscious wants to think about him. Honey, would it hurt to do something different? What would you have to lose? Worst case scenario, you march over there asking why he kissed you, he says he doesn’t know, he was bored, then you two make out like a couple of teenagers.”

Val had to laugh at that. Mel could be ridiculous. But she also had a point. She wanted to shake up her life—well, this was one way to do it. “Fine, I’ll talk to neighbor boy. Are you happy now?”

“I won’t be happy unless you take him to Sol’s wedding and tell me he has a twin.”

Chapter 4

Nobody in their right mind would believe that Val was dating someone like Bennett. Nobody. Especially not her parents.

As she posted her latest review of a restaurant on Spring Street that did a killer Thai avocado salad, she glared at the wedding invitation pinned to her calendar.

Yes, she needed a date, but that guy? He had helped her with her groceries, and he was right, James was a jerk. And the look of irritation and annoyance on James’s face had been well worth it. But the most irritating part was that he was an excellent kisser. And he knew it.

That’s because the man has kissed a lot of women. She’d seen him. It wasn’t even speculation. More times than she could count, she’d seen him practically mauling some leggy model in his doorway.

Not that she could blame them. The man radiated sex appeal. But in no way was he appropriate. Like, at all. And she was way past the irritate-Daddy-with-my-new-boyfriend phase of her life. Not that she’d ever had that. She’d been the good one. Not that that ever made her parents happy. She’d bring home an A, her mother would ask why wasn’t it an A-plus. She’d make the lacrosse team, she’d ask why she wasn’t team captain. Never mind how great she was. She wasn’t good enough. Her father, while stern was warmer. Sometimes, he’d find her after her mother had just put her through the ringer and ask if she’d done her best. When she said yes, he’d say, “Great, then I’m proud of you.”

And truth was, she’d made things easy on her parents. She didn’t buck the system. She never met a rule or regulation that she didn’t follow.

Until, of course, instead of using her economics degree she’d started her own business. Blogging about food, no less. Her lifestyle brand had really started to take off during her last year at NYU. It was one thing to post funny commentary on ingredients. It was another thing to have people pay her for those opinions.

Val shut down her laptop and climbed into bed, carefully wrapping her hair in a satin scarf. After her career choice, she was pretty sure her mother would have an aneurysm if she showed up with someone like Bennett. What did he do, anyway? An artist or photographer, she wasn’t really sure. Hell, he could have been a badass biker who ran a motorcycle club, and she’d have no clue. Really time to get to know your neighbors better.

She didn’t mean to be a recluse. Well, not really. And maybe she was a bit rigid. But it was often easier to stay in her routine than change it. She’d taken enough risk in her life, thank you very much.