How To Succeed At Love

“You were doing so well, but I’m not like you. I dislike taking advantage of people. I hate lying. And I especially hate lying to people I love. I’m going down there now,” she said, turning sideways to shimmy past him. She hurried toward the stairs then paused at the top step to turn and face him again. “I’m going to tell them all about this ridiculous mistake I’ve made,” she said, grasping the rail. “Then Neal will drive you into town and we can put all of this behind us.”

Spencer slowly shook his head.

“What?”

“It’s not a good time for that.”

“It’s as good a time as any because sooner or later they’ll have to know that I’ve been...” She’d almost said fired. What got into her every time she spoke to this man? His easygoing, confident manner pulled the truth right out of her. If she didn’t watch herself, she’d be blurting out the whole, tawdry story of how she’d lost her job.

“Don’t stop now. Let it out,” he said, joining her at the top of the curved staircase.

“Okay. Dumped. I’ve been dumped by my boyfriend.” Just before he emptied my bank account and “borrowed” my car. She stared hard, daring him to smile. “Are you happy now?” Spencer looked disappointed. But not for long.

“Mildly perplexed. Look, I could be wrong, but I don’t think you’ll be bringing any of this up tonight.”

“Well, I’m not interested in what you think. This is a personal matter,” she said, continuing down the stairs. “I made two mistakes. I allowed myself to panic. And I involved you. I’m not making a third one by keeping this charade going any longer.”

He followed her across the tiled foyer toward a set of oak doors. “What charade are you talking about?”

For a scary moment, she had the feeling he was referring to her firing. But he couldn’t know that because nobody knew yet except Sylvia Bloomfield and her. They’d both agreed that the announcement would be quietly made after the holidays.

She closed her hand over the shiny brass door lever. “Don’t be cute. All you have to concern yourself with is that you’re getting the meal I promised you, eating it quickly and getting back upstairs to repack. You’re leaving here tonight. It’s a done deal, Spence.”

His growing smile sent a shiver of suspicion through her.

“Did you ever notice that things are never as simple as they seem?” he asked, sauntering toward her.

“As far as you’re concerned, they are.”

“What’s your big hurry?”

“Look. All along I’ve planned to spend a quiet holiday with my family. Alone. Without strangers.”

“Flexibility is a highly underrated virtue.”

She narrowed her eyes as he wrapped his hand around the brass lever next to hers and smiled. What was he up to now? They pushed opened the double doors.

From all parts of the room came a rousing chorus of “Surprise!”

Three

Twelve hours, too many half-truths and one champagne hangover later, Jade walked into the Chocolate Chip Café. Mouthwatering aromas of gourmet coffees and homemade desserts were mixing with the snow-scented air that blew in with her.

Smiling to herself, she closed the door then looked around her old high school hangout, now a successful college coffee-and-dessert bar owned by a former classmate. Behind the counter, Megan Sloan managed to return her wave between twisting knobs and flipping levers on the cappuccino machine. The whooshing sounds added to the background hum of conversation in the sun-filled room. Her friend had made several changes to the place yet managed to retain the fun feeling that still made it one of Jade’s favorite places in Follett River.

As she shrugged out of her coat, the bell above the door jingled, signaling someone else’s arrival. She looked over her shoulder at a smiling Spencer.

“No dents,” he said, referring to the car he’d just parked.

“Considering the way you drive,” she murmured, “that could start me believing in Christmas miracles.”

But she wasn’t thinking about Christmas or miracles. She was reminiscing about the old days when the place reeked of greasy burgers, industrial-strength hair spray and teen spirit. Behind her, Spencer was stomping snow from his shoes and unzipping his bomber jacket. Surprisingly, his sounds were blending with her cherished memories. The nostalgic moment wrapped itself around her heart, making her smile.

For about two seconds.

Suddenly Spencer opened his arms, closed his eyes and pulled in a deep, noisy breath. The grand movement jolted her out of her memories and back to reality.

“Ahh. I love the smell of cappuccino in the morning.”

His dramatic delivery sent four nearby coeds into a table huddle and a frantic flurry of whispers.

Jade winced. She had yet to go anywhere with Spencer that he didn’t attract attention. She turned to give him a disapproving look but ended up tapping her toe on the floor. With his eyes still closed, she could only stare and wait for him to open them.

Several seconds later she was still staring. From his sybaritic smile to the snug fit of his jeans, there was no way any female in a hundred-yard radius could not stare. He was a startlingly handsome man.

Casually brushing at her bangs, she managed a peek toward the coeds. With the thumbs-up and appreciative smiles they were sending her way, the girls appeared to be in wholehearted agreement.

She responded with a weak smile then turned around to face Spencer. “When you’re done emoting, you can hang up my coat,” she said, shoving it against the solid wall of his chest.

She reached around him to shut the door but he was faster. His move brought his face inches away from hers.

“Are you still mad at your mother because she insisted I drive her car?” he asked, his fingers covering hers in a warm caress.

“I’m not mad at my mother. Unlike you, I know exactly what she’s up to.”

He tilted his head. “And what’s that?”

“I’ll give you a hint. Last time I brought someone home, she tried to throw us a surprise wedding.”

Beneath her hand, Jade could feel soft laughter rumbling in his chest. An odd tickling sensation started deep in her own. She started to smile, but stopped the instant she realized her defenses were dropping away. Why had she told him that? Was he laughing at her? Or was he laughing with her? Drawing her hand away, she let him know by a quick change in her expression that she was through with their bantering.

“What is her favorite color, by the way?”

“Teal,” she said, lifting a newspaper from a stack near the door. Creasing it with a snapping sound, she tucked it under her arm. “Why?”

“I overheard her and your father discussing what to get me for Christmas. I was hoping you’d give me a few suggestions for what to buy them.”

“No. Don’t even think about it. You’ll only be encouraging them. Besides, I didn’t bring you here to talk about Christmas shopping. I have a much more serious subject to discuss.”

“Uh, oh. So this is to be my farewell breakfast before I’m exiled to the Hotel Maxwell?”

“You already had breakfast. And you know as well as I do that you can’t leave me now.”

“Why not?” he asked, as he brushed a few drops of melted snow from the top of his head.

“Because that fan club you started amassing at the train station yesterday and continued amassing at last night’s party would demand an explanation as to why my assistant moved out on me. And I can’t think of one.”

“Hmm. Sounds like a valid argument for us to stick together.” His sympathetic expression would have convinced most people that he was concerned for her situation.

But Jade wasn’t one of them.

“Look,” she said, tapping her finger on the center of his chest. “You might as well know what I think of your presence in my life. You’re as welcome in it as a sharp stone in my shoe. Fingernails on a chalkboard. A paper cut. But as long as you’ll be leeching off my family, you and I are going to have to agree to a few ground rules. I’ve made a list of—”

“Gotcha.”

“No,” she said, jamming her finger a little harder against his colorful pullover. “I don’t think you do. I have a reputation to protect, and thus far your behavior has been borderline at best. Those two facts aren’t mixing well.”

He moved to hang her coat over a sturdy hook. “You mean, you’re concerned that I could do something that would get back to Sylvia Bloomfield and put your job in jeopardy? Maybe damage her image and your career?”

Jade’s mouth went dry when she tried to swallow. “Something like that,” she mumbled, as she fixed her gaze on the Santa Claus and reindeer stenciled across the café’s bay window. Spencer had an uncanny talent for catching her off guard, then scaring the heck out of her when she least expected it.

Spencer patted her softly on her cheek. “You worry too much, kiddo.”

The spur-of-the-moment touch was just what she needed. Thoughtful, tender, and the first sincere gesture from him that she could remember. And because of those things, his unanticipated tenderness was also just what she didn’t need. Her nerves were near the snapping point. Breaking into tears moments before she planned to tell Spencer what was expected of him would not be wise. She brushed his hand away. “Don’t patronize me.”

“I mean it. Not everyone has parents as proud of their kid as yours. Last night I thought your dad was going to start crying along with your mother when your girlfriends started in about what a shining example you’ve always been to them. Even the mayor couldn’t say enough about you. And when that question came up concerning the whereabouts of your absent boyfriend, everyone was extremely sympathetic.”

Clenching her fists, she fought to contain a growl, then turned and headed for a table in the back corner of the café.

Spencer hung up his jacket then followed her. As he pulled out the chair next to hers, Jade dropped her leather bag on the seat. He shrugged then moved to the one directly across from hers. “What’s the matter?”

“I was perfectly capable of explaining Richard’s absence without you butting in,” she said, dropping the newspaper on the table.

“No, you weren’t. Your face got so red when your friend Rebecca asked you about him, I thought you were going to have a stroke.”

“I thought I was, too,” she said, taking her chair then riffling through her bag for a pen and pad. “But not until you said he was in the hospital donating a kidney to his brother. Where do you come up with these things?”

“I’m a writer.” He smiled. “A writer who badly needs another kick of caffeine this morning. You, on the other hand, look as if you could use a decaf.”

“That I could,” she said, slapping a pen on the table as he started away. “Wait. You don’t know what I like or how I like it.”

“I don’t? We’ll see about that,” he said, his devilish grin sending a pleasurable tickle straight up her thighs and deep into her belly.

As he walked away, she forgot about looking for her pad of paper and looked at him instead. His confident stride through the maze of crowded tables reminded her of someone on his way to a podium to make a speech or accept an award. But it wasn’t tuxedo trousers pulling snugly across his behind, it was dark indigo denim. Those jeans were caressing his hips and thighs with the tenacity of a passionate lover. She indulged herself with an admiring sigh. Every step he took was an early Christmas gift...she had to decline!

She planted her elbows on the table then pressed her face into her hands. He was trouble. A train wreck waiting to happen smack-dab in the middle of the worst crisis of her life. She was nuts for even thinking about what it would be like to touch him like that. Besides, she knew her strengths and her limitations. No matter the circumstances, she would never be so daring as to stroke a man’s behind.

Lowering her fingers a few inches, she watched Spencer leaning against the counter as he talked to Megan. His natural charm and easygoing manner were undeniable, but so was the fact that while he obviously enjoyed the company of her girlfriends, he wasn’t out to seduce them.

But what about her? She squirmed uneasily in her chair. When it came to sexual chemistry, she wasn’t totally stupid. The first time they’d spoken on the train, she had trouble keeping her eyes off him. And he hadn’t left her alone for more than a minute during the entire journey. She sighed and looked away. Yesterday afternoon in the bedroom, he’d had a perfect opportunity to kiss her. And didn’t.

“Jade, Jade, Jade,” she whispered to herself. “When are you going to learn?”

From across the room, she heard his laughter—genuine, strong and compelling. Looking up, she saw he’d moved behind the counter with Megan who was teaching him how to work the cappuccino machine.

Jade drummed her fingers on her chin as she watched him carefully following Megan’s instructions. More research for the novel he was writing? Maybe that was the explanation for everything—irritating or otherwise—that Spencer did and didn’t do.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.