Blind Attraction (13 page)

“Did she buy the upgrade?” He sounded amused.

Victoria blushed, realizing that the subject of the conversation was actually really embarrassing. “Um, yeah; she got the, uh, something.”

“What has you blushing so violently?” Catherine asked from the front seat, seeing the red-faced
Victoria in her rear-view mirror.

Squee
zing her eyes shut, Victoria muttered, “It was a… personal item.”

“Like what?” Catherine snorted.
“A dildo?”

“Yes,”
Victoria said meekly, almost wishing she hadn’t started the conversation

“You sell dildos in your store?” Catherine asked flabbergasted.

“Well,” Victoria glanced at James and saw that he was fighting his glorious smile, which made it a little easier to continue. At least he wasn’t completely disgusted and she really wanted to see that smile. “I sell romance and fantasy and sometimes a person doesn’t have a significant other….”

James lost the battle and his laughter
slammed against her hand. “Romance for one – interesting angle; actually I do understand its appeal, especially when one gets to be too busy for the dating scene.”

“Exactly,”
Victoria grinned, pleased to see that he was on the same wave-length as her. “However, I doubt you ever had to worry about being single.”

His enigmatic smile was enough of an answer but it was Catherine who spoke, “James? He doesn’t appreciate what the fuss is about; it’s already been established that girls tend to flock around him
; if he ever needed a date all he had to do was reach out a hand and pluck a girl from his devoted flowers.”

“Thanks, Catherine,” he said darkly,
obviously not amused by his assistant’s commentary. “I’m sure Victoria really enjoys hearing about my love life.”

“It’s fascinating,”
Victoria murmured, lowering her lashes to hide the lingering doubts. After last night’s conversation, she wasn’t sure where Catherine stood – did she want Victoria with James or didn’t she?

Catherine laughed, “I’m just teasing, Jimmy; you know that.”

“Of course,” James groused wryly.

“I just want
Victoria to be aware that there are some… unhappy women out there now that you’re off the market,” Catherine said, watching Victoria’s head shoot up, their eyes meeting in the rear view mirror. With a wink, she returned to her driving, satisfied that Victoria knew James was hers. The girl didn’t seem to be aware of her own worth.

James
tightened his hold on Victoria’s hand, turning his head to smile at her, “I think she just gave you her seal of approval.”

“Oh, I did that last night,” Catherine remarked casually, making
Victoria’s blush deepen.

“I knew you were gone too long for a simple dance,” James chuckled. “What happened? Did Cate corner you and grill you?”

“Something like that,” Victoria answered with a smile.

“Okay, kids,” Catherine said from the front seat, pulling into a parking lot. “I am giving you three hours before I absolutely must bring you home; if you’re not ready to leave by the time I arrive I’ll make you walk home.”

“Yes, mom,” James dead-panned.

“Three hours, Jimmy,” Catherine warned again. “I mean it.”

“Fifteen years old again,” James whispered in Victoria’s ear, causing her to giggle.

Victoria
sat with her back against the tree, the sun low in the sky. Perpendicular to her, James rested his head in her lap as she idly sifted her fingers through his thick, black hair. It was hypnotizing and after the sumptuous feast James had brought with them she was content to just sit there enjoying James. Even though they just made small talk while they ate, it had been enjoyable. She loved the sound of his voice as he talked about starting the business with Philip and Tony.

James, being very intelligent and highly gifted artistically, was the designer, Philip was the computer expert, and Tony was the marketing guru, selling their services around the globe.
Victoria still wasn’t a hundred percent sure what, exactly, his company did; she did know it involved graphic design of some sort. In fact, even she had heard of TRK Design*Nation; she was told to use them to design her web site but they were way out of her price range.

*****

The feel of Victoria’s fingers scraping across his scalp was having a carnal effect on James; he could imagine those wonderful fingers gliding across his naked skin. Resting his head in her lap probably didn’t help; her light, feminine musk was invading all of his senses. His erection was pressing painfully against the seam of his pants; if he got any bigger, he’d be ripping his jeans apart. Still her fingers danced over his head, her breathing rhythmic and alluring. With his ear pressed against her stomach, he could hear each breath she took.

“Tell me about your family,” Victoria’s soft, velvety voice drifted through the sensual haze she was unknowingly creating.

“Hmm, my family,” he murmured with a lazy smile. Taking a moment to collect his wayward thoughts, he reached up and felt her fingers entwine with his. “I have an older brother.”

“You’ve mentioned him in passing,” she
returned. God, he loved the feel of her fingers on his skin.

“He’s eighteen years older than me,” he explained further. The sun felt so warm on his face; it was strange to feel it and not see it even as he knew his eyes were open. But with his head in Victoria’s lap, his lack of sight didn’t bother him at the moment. “He is the one who will be taking over the family business.”

“So you branched out on you own; very impressive.” She gave his hand a small squeeze before asking, “What’s his name?”

“Nikolai,” he said, pleased with her quick understanding. With a half-smile, he added, “Actually, he’s my half-brother from my dad’s first marriage. Unfortunately,
he was going to college when I was learning to walk so I really didn’t get to know him until recently. I’m pretty close to his sons, though; they’re only a few years younger than me and, much to my mother’s consternation, they are all married with sons of their own.”

He licked his lips, trying to regain some footing; it was too easy to confess everything to this girl. It
was too easy to fall under her spell; if he wasn’t careful he was going to tell her all of his secrets, things he didn’t tell anyone else.

*****

Victoria smiled, hearing the fondness for his family in his voice. Watching his face relax as he talked about his brother, Victoria knew that James was a good man; that he loved his family a great deal. Slightly distracted by the way James kept playing with her fingers, drawing circles on her palm, interlocking his fingers with hers, she asked, “No girls?”

“Nope,” he shook his head as his grin grew. “Nikolai had three boys and so far, each of them has had only sons; family get-togethers tend to be laden with testosterone.”

Victoria laughed, picturing James in the middle of a game of tag surrounded by his nephews. She could easily imagine his boisterous laughter as he let the younger ones catch him, scooping them up into the air and spinning around.

“Actually,” he murmured, his for
ehead knitting together in a frown. “I was an ‘oops’ baby.”

“I’m pretty sure your parents had you for my sake,”
Victoria teased, seeing the sorrow around James’s eyes as he confessed being an accident. She was rewarded with a warm smile and a tightening of his fingers around her hand.

“That, too,” he grinned, the consternation vanishing as abruptly as it had appeared. “Just after
his divorce, dad had an affair with his much younger assistant and she got pregnant. He married her to give me his name and they were going to get a divorce after I was born but then something strange happened….”

“They fell madly in love,”
Victoria finished, a dreamy smile on her lips.

“Something
like that,” he grinned.

Hesitating a moment, watching their hands, she softly asked, “So, if Catherine had gotten pregnant, you would have married her?”

He blushed, actually blushed, at her blunt question. “Er….”

She laughed, saving him from having to answer. Bringing their entwined fingers up to her lips, she brushed a kiss across his knuckles. “I didn’t know a grown man could blush; you are so sweet, James Templeton.”

“Uh,” he didn’t know what to say to that, though he felt something shift near his heart.

“You
were
a blessing,” she murmured, her words so certain that James felt the shift deepen, strengthen. Maybe his parents weren’t lying to him to make him feel better about being an ‘oops.’ “Of course you were a blessing – you
are
a blessing.”

Her words were burning right through the layers around his heart; had she not already invaded it, she would be gaining access right about now. “
Th… thank you.”

“For what?” she asked lightly, running the palm of her hand across his forehead. Looking down at him, she couldn’t help but notice how relaxed he looked; he seemed content, at peace. For a long moment she was silent. When she spoke, her voice was soft, serious, “You know, James, I was an ‘oops’ baby, too.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“When I was sixteen, I found out that the man I have always known as dad wasn’t my father,” she said, her voice quiet.

“How did that happen?” he asked, encouraging her to talk.

“Well, I had an emergency appendectomy and I got pretty sick.” At his sharp inhalation of breath, she smiled.
She guided his hand along the small scar on the lower, right side of her stomach. His touch was so gentle as he traced the incision. Flattening her hand over his, she continued, “On the third day that I was in the hospital, mom came in and her face was all red and puffy – by the way, I take after my mom when I cry; it isn’t pretty.”

“That’s good to know,” he
grinned, his unseeing eyes twinkling with laughter.

“Anyway, she takes my hand in hers and says, ‘Vi, sweetie, you know that daddy loves you, right?’ and I’m thinking she’s going to tell me that they are getting a divorce, which didn’t make any sense because I thought they were happily married, which they were,” she paused, adding, “Which they still are.

“So, I’m freaking out, wondering why is my mom acting so strangely? What kind of fight did she and dad have that would lead to divorce and have her rushing to my hospital bed to tell me? Then I started to wonder which parent I was going to choose to live with; and because I was sixteen, I wondered if I’d get double the allowance if they split up.”

At James’s chuckle, she lifted a shoulder self-mockingly. “I was a very practical child but I digress. She managed to convince me that they were
n’t getting a divorce and I’m lying there thinking that she had me worried for no reason when she goes and drops this huge bombshell….”

“You’re not your father’s daughter,” he finished for her.

“Exactly,” Victoria said on an exhalation of breath. “I’m like, what? And she repeats herself, ‘Your daddy is not your father.’ Yeah, I got that part and my mind is quickly doing the math, thinking she got pregnant and then married dad but no, they had been married when she got pregnant; she had an affair.”

Victoria
sighed, “Apparently she had known the truth for a while. I guess they had been trying to have kids for a long time after I was born and when I was eight it was discovered that daddy couldn’t have children; he had had mumps as a boy and is completely sterile.”

James winced in sympathy and
Victoria grinned wryly, “I know. That’s when mom knew I was the product of a brief affair, though to this day she refuses to tell me who my father is. I don’t remember how upset daddy got because everything was in chaos. That’s when they sent me to Serenity Elementary, managing to qualify for financial aid, which is weird, right? Financial aid to go to elementary school? But that’s where I met Taylor.

“My very first day, she walked up to me and said, ‘I’m Taylor Danner; we’re going to be best friends.’”
Victoria smiled at the memory. “God love her, she was right and we’ve been best friends ever since.