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  My hands shook as I met our very important guests, which was a virtual who’s who of everyone I never thought I’d meet in a million years. Hollywood royalty mingled with Fortune 500 business magnates, with a few politicians thrown in for good measure.

  “This is Senator De Havilland from New York,” Drew introduced as an elegant silver-haired man approached with a stunning platinum blonde at his side. “And his lovely wife, Sloane. This is our Rachel,” he beamed.

  Senator Troy De Havilland bestowed a brilliant white smile as he took my hand. “So you are the miracle worker I’ve heard so much about. It’s wonderful to meet you finally.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Senator,” I said before extending my hand to his wife. “Mrs. De Havilland.”

  “This house looks stunning,” she praised.

  Drew wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Rachel is a woman of many talents.”

  “Maybe you can send her to your new factory in China,” Alex chimed in. “Working side by side, twelve hours a day, with children not much older than Jonathan here. She’d fit right in.” Then he turned to the senator. “You have interest in that company, right, Senator? I mean, not officially… but you own a parent company that imports cheap goods to sell for pennies on the dollar rather than pay American workers a living wage. And didn’t you vote against levying taxes when jobs are outsourced overseas?”

  “You’ll have to forgive my brother, Senator,” Drew interrupted, his jaw clenched with the rage he dared not show. “Apparently he got lost on his way to Woodstock.”

  “It’s that left turn in Albuquerque,” Alex quipped. “I always seem to miss it.”

  Harrison, who had been hovering nearby, appeared magically with a silver tray of champagne glasses. “Champagne, Senator?” he asked, luring them just out of earshot. Drew flared at Alex.

  “It would be nice if you could manage to get through one of these functions without insulting our guests.”

  Alex smiled. He was quite happy to get under Drew’s skin. “Maybe I need time alone with your miracle worker,” he suggested as his eyes lit on me. “Dance with me, Princess,” he said as he offered his hand. “Teach me some manners.”

  Drew opened his mouth to intervene but I held up a hand. I glared at Alex as I took his hand, allowing him to lead me to the crowded ballroom. He swung me around in his arms until he fitted me close against his solid body, and we fell in step with the music.

  “Why do you do that?” I asked. “Your brother is nice enough to include you and you find every way you can to antagonize him.”

  Alex laughed. “You know, I can’t figure out if you’re naïve, calculating or just stupid.” I started to pull away but he held me fast to that rock hard body, his face close to mine. “Which is it?”

  “What difference does it make what I say? You’re going to believe what you want anyway. You’re hard-wired to see the worst in everything.”

  “Not everything,” he corrected softly as he scanned my face. I dropped my eyes as his thumb brushed rhythmically against my back. “But if you think you’re here tonight for any other reason than to parade you around as the new lady of the house, you’re deluding yourself.”

  “That’s what I mean,” I said. “Sometimes a teacher is just a teacher.”

  His gaze dropped to the amethyst necklace spread across the creamy white flesh of my chest. “Look in a mirror, Rachel. Then tell me again you’re ‘just’ a teacher.” His eyes met mine. “You stepped willingly into the pot full of water, and you have no clue at all it’s starting to boil.”

  He motioned to where Senator De Havilland and Drew stood chatting. “The Senator has some very powerful friends. Research a super PAC called Entrepreneurs for American Liberty. If you can stomach what you learn, more power to you. But don’t expect me to apologize for calling on him on his part in the destruction of the American dream.”

  “There is a time and a place for everything,” I said. “Ambushing him at a party won’t change his politics.”

  “It’s not just politics, Rachel,” he argued. With his mouth set in a firm line, he broke the dance and pulled me out of the ballroom onto the terrace where we could speak privately. “Drew isn’t the only prominent businessman the good Senator has contacted, to buy out that factory in China, and the company in England, and another company in Mexico. The name Dietrich Schonhorn mean anything to you?”

  “Yeah, he’s the owner of Schonhorn Tech.”

  “Who lost his daughter last year off the coast of Mexico. That wasn’t an accident, Rachel. He was trying to separate himself from EAL and he was punished. He got out, but he paid the ultimate price. Do you really want to see something like that happen to Jonathan?”

  I remembered that story, where Schonhorn’s daughter had gotten drunk and fallen off of a yacht into the Caribbean while partying over Spring Break. It had been tragic, but what he was suggested sounded like whispers of conspiracy, and I wasn’t quite ready to don a tin foil hat. “Alex,” I started with the shake of my head.

  “This isn’t Texas, Rachel. This world has its own rules. And it demands everything in return. If it doesn’t kill you, it turns you into something you don’t want to be. I’ve seen it happen time and again, to Drew, to Elise… I don’t want to see that happen to you.”

  “Why is it your job to save me?” I asked.

  He stepped closer, running the back of his hand along the line of my jaw. “Maybe I think you’re worth saving.”

  Before I could stop him, he bent his head and he stole a chaste but lingering kiss. The minute we broke apart I saw Drew watching us from the glass doors leading toward the ballroom.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Alex returned to the house, completely unaware that his behavior had been witnessed by his brother. I didn’t bother to tell him because frankly I was stunned speechless. Just a few scant months before, I spent my Friday nights alone on my dinky little couch in my dinky little apartment, pigging out on ice cream straight out of the container while I overdosed on chick flicks. Now, in roughly about a month, I was virtually accosted by two different men who could have any woman they wanted.

  My mind was effectively blown.

  I made my way back to the party, scanning the room for Drew. From the angry look on his face, I wanted to assure him that the kiss was, indeed, stolen and that I did not reciprocate.

  I didn’t question why it meant so much for me to tell him that. It just was.

  I finally spotted him on the dance floor with an A-list actress named Olivia Guest. She laughed as he spun her around, bestowing his most charming smile as he bent close to whisper in her ear.

  She was young, petite and blonde, much more his traditional type than I could ever hope to be. Despite my elaborate costume, I felt immediately outclassed.

  “Champagne, Miss?” Harrison said as he held up the tray as he sidled up silently beside me.

  I managed to smile. “Thanks, Harrison.”

  “It appears your first party is a smashing success,” he commented as we surveyed the revelers who filled the beautifully decorated ballroom. Not one detail had been overlooked, even the colorful crystals in blue and purple that had been strung into the chandeliers just for the occasion. I should have been proud of what we managed to achieve in such a short period of time, but all I could think about was the tiny blonde wrapped so comfortably in Drew’s arms.

  “One party down, two to go,” I said. I knew I wouldn’t have much downtime before we began preparations for the Christmas party, so there was no real time to bask in the glory of my success.

  “Many more to go, I suspect,” he countered. “Master Fullerton is faithful to those who exceed his expectations.”

  I nodded with another smile, and Harrison moved along to the next guest. I looked up in time to see Drew escort his new companion onto the terrace. Inexplicably my mood took a downturn. I decided to distract myself by overseeing the wait staff. This was my job, after all. As much as I looked like the belle of the ball, I was
still a mere working stiff.

  This was reinforced when I saw Elise dance with her son on the dance floor. My heart lurched when I saw how happy he was as his mother paid him the crucial attention he so craved for so long. As much as I enjoyed spending time with him, as much as I had taught him and comforted him, I was a substitute of what he really needed. He wanted, and needed, the love of his mother. I had facilitated that because I knew that it was what he needed. Seeing it happen, however, made me withdraw even more from the festivities as I felt more and more out of place.

  As soon as Jonathan left with his mother around nine o’clock, I turned over my hostess duties to Simone and escaped to my suite upstairs. I felt a little like Cinderella running away from the ball. The only difference was there was no prince chasing after me.

  In fact, no one bothered me at all for hours afterward. The party raged on downstairs, well after I had abandoned my costume, scrubbed my face clean and wrapped myself up in my favorite pair of flannel pajamas. I kept expecting Drew to call to check in with me, but my phone sat silent. I had glanced out in the backyard on more than one occasion to see if he was romancing a beautiful actress amidst his sculptured gardens.

  I finally gave up at a quarter to one o’clock in the morning. Ten minutes later there was a knock at my door.

  I shuffled toward the door. “Yes?”

  “Open the door, Rachel,” I heard Drew command through the door.

  My hand shook as I turned the knob and opened the door. He stood just outside my suite, wearing his own loungewear and a robe. “Yes?”

  “The jeweler’s courier will be here early tomorrow morning to retrieve your necklace,” he said as he inspected me head to toe in my modest jammies.

  “Oh,” I muttered as I turned back into my room to fetch the borrowed baubles that I had carefully laid out on my desk. When I turned back around I realized that Drew had entered my room and stood near my canopy bed. I gulped as I approached slowly. “Thank you for loaning them to me,” I said as I held them out to him.

  “You couldn’t have been a queen without them,” he said as he took the chained jewelry from my hand. His eyes engulfed me, rendering me speechless. “Your party was a huge success. If you want to moonlight as a party planner, you have at least a hundred potential clients ready to hire you.”

  I shook my head. “I’ll be too busy planning Christmas and New Year’s.”

  “Maybe I’m keeping you too busy,” he mused as his eyes scanned my face. “A young woman such as yourself must have certain… needs.”

  I shook my head. “You know better than that, Drew.”

  “Do I?” he asked softly. “You’re human, flesh and blood. Certainly there are moments when you simply yearn for the touch of another.”

  His voice was low and hypnotic. It stirred that very longing as if summoning it from the dead. “Listen, Drew…about what you saw…”

  He flung the expensive jewelry onto my crumbled bedcovers. He stepped close enough to pull me towards him before I knew what was happening. “Tell me, Rachel,” he continued as he fit my body against his hardening contours, “do you long to be held? To be kissed?” He bent toward me and whispered, “To be taken?”

  My brain scrambled as he lifted me up to crush his mouth on mine. It was every dream realized, though I was blissfully conscious. I groaned under him as he parted my lips and dominated my mouth. Every alarm in my head sounded, but my treacherous body ignored each and every one as it strained for him with a hunger so strong I felt powerless to control it.

  His fingers wound in my hair as he stole the very breath from my lungs with each kiss. His mouth dragged to my neck, his breath hot in his ear. “Tell me you want me, Rachel.”

  I shuddered against him. “Drew…”

  “Tell me,” he begged in a hoarse whisper as his hands slid down the arch of my back and over the curve of my hip.

  My hands braced on his chest, but instead of pushing myself away, my palms delighted in how solid and real he felt. It sent a jolt through my entire body. “I don’t want you,” I eked out in a pitiful whisper.

  “Liar,” he growled as he picked me up into his arms and carried me around to the bed. He followed me down onto the firm mattress. “Tell me you don’t ache at night when you reach for me and I’m not there. Tell me you don’t dream about me… or remember that kiss we shared in my study… the very kiss that awakened that fevered beast within.” I shook my head but I couldn’t push him way even if I wanted to. “Tell me you didn’t come up here to pout when you thought I was romancing another, because you can’t imagine anyone else in my arms.”

  “Drew, please…”

  “Please what, Rachel? Tell me to leave and I will. I’ll walk out that door and never bother you again. Just say the words. Tell me you don’t want me,” he dared as his eyes bore into mine. “You can have anything you want. I can go or I can stay. But if I stay,” he warned as his eyes fell toward my mouth. “If I stay, you’re mine. And I don’t share.”

  I closed my eyes. I thought about puppies and Sunday school songs, my grandparents’ farm and old church hymns. I had to get control of myself fast or things were going to go too far. Way too far. Further than they had in a long, long time, and for very good reason.

  “Rachel,” he whispered as he nuzzled my neck. “Tell me.”

  I struggled to get away, clutching my pajama top to my chest as I did so. “We can’t do this. This is wrong.”

  “Because you want someone else?” he questioned as he lifted himself up.

  I shook my head and answered as honestly as I could. “This isn’t about anyone else. This is about me. You know my history. I am not the kind of girl who would be comfortable in sharing your bed like some convenient concubine.”

  “Is that how you think I see you?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m confused.”

  He ran his hand through my hair. “I don’t want you because you’re convenient. I want you because you’re passionate… because you’re strong. I want you because you’re you,” he added in a soft whisper that delivered a lethal blow to my resolve.

  My eyes fluttered closed. “Please don’t say these things.”

  I couldn’t even look at him. I knew the minute I lost myself in those bright blue eyes that I’d never find my way out again. He hesitated for a long moment before he finally rose from the bed. He picked up the jewelry he had come for, and then walked quietly toward the door.

  I glanced his direction in time to see him pause and turn back to me. “I want you, Rachel,” he declared in a soft voice. “And I know you want me.”

  I didn’t argue because I couldn’t. As inappropriate as it might have been, and as much as I never wanted it to happen, I had fallen for Drew Fullerton despite every iota of common sense that screamed I shouldn’t.

  “I will give you time because that is what you need. I think you’ll find that I am a patient and reasonable man. But, Rachel,” he cautioned in an ominous voice, “do not betray me again.”

  Before I could deny I had betrayed him at all, he slipped from my room with a slight slam of the door.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I tossed and turned the entire night, finally passing out somewhere near dawn, where the stress made its way into my dream. Instead of sexy dreams, I dreamed I was back in my apartment in Texas, hunkered under my coffee table as the civil defense sirens blared. Tornadoes swirled around just outside my window, and right before they hit, my door burst open and I saw Alex fill the tiny doorframe. He held out a hand and called my name, but I was paralyzed with fear and unable to move.

  A knock at the door dragged me out of my nightmare. I was almost afraid to answer, given the events from the night before. I slipped into a robe as I padded toward the door. “Who is it?”

  “It’s Cleo.”

  Puzzled, I opened the door, to find the older woman holding a silver tray with a complete breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast, fruit and juice. “What is this?”

  “Compli
ments of Master Fullerton,” she grinned.

  Drew stepped in behind her, his tall frame filling the doorway. “A thank you for all your hard work with the party.” He took the tray from Cleo, who acquiesced with a nod before silently disappearing down the hall to the kitchen downstairs.

  “This is very sweet but completely unnecessary. I just did the job you gave me to do.”

  “You did more than that,” he said softly as he brushed past me into the room, toward my desk where he deposited the tray. Without turning around he added, “Everyone in attendance fell in love with you last night.”

  I sighed. Alex remained the white elephant in the room. “Listen, Drew… we need to talk about last night…”

  He wore a smile as he turned. “After breakfast. We have a busy day.”

  “We do?”

  His eyes swallowed me whole as he approached. “Since Jonathan won’t return home until later this evening, I thought we could unwind a bit after our hectic month with a hike in the mountains. If you’re up for it,” he added with a wink.

  “I’m up for it,” I said immediately. An opportunity to reconnect with nature while all my feelings were in chaos? That was my favorite kind of therapy. “But do you think it’s appropriate?”

  He stopped just a hair away from where I stood. “You owe me a quarter.” After a beat, he continued. “What’s so inappropriate about two friends taking a hike together in the mountains? It’s not like I’m whisking you away to Las Vegas to elope. Yet,” he added with a wink.

  My whole body lit up with the idea. “Drew.”

  “I’m leaving in an hour,” he announced as he walked toward the door. “I hope you join me.”

  With that, he was gone. I glanced over at the breakfast on my desk as I contemplated my choices.

  An hour later I was downstairs, in jeans, a T-shirt and a button-up shirt on top, with a hat to protect my face and a bottle of sunscreen in my backpack. I wasn’t made up, I even wore my hair in pigtails, but he wore a triumphant smile as he hoisted a picnic basket on one arm and guided me out to one of his two-seater sports cars.