Kissing Under The Mistletoe: The Sullivans (Contemporary Romance) (22 page)

And loved.

Mary was known for her prompt appearance at
every booking, unlike many of the models who rolled into the studio
when it suited them. Today, however, she and Jack had arrived a
good fifteen minutes after everyone else, and she didn’t care that
they were late. Not when every extra moment in Jack’s arms had been
utterly precious.

Jack gently brushed a lock of hair away from
her forehead. “I love you.” His voice was soft but oh so steady as
he brought his lips nearly to hers. “I can’t wait to let everyone
know that you’ve agreed to be my wife. Are you ready?”

She absolutely refused to acknowledge the
nerves jumping inside of her as she said, “Yes.”

It was so easy to get lost in him, she
thought as he kissed her. But before she could get more than one
too-short taste, the door opened…and Howie discovered their big
secret before they made their big announcement.

Mary was glad to see more delight than shock
on Jack’s partner’s face as he happily ushered them inside the
building. The beautiful diamond ring on her left hand was hard to
miss, and before Mary knew it, Howie was giving her a
congratulatory kiss on the cheek and clapping Jack on the back.

“Everyone,” he called out, “I believe Jack
and Mary have a very exciting announcement to make!”

It had all happened so fast, a whirlwind from
having pie and ice cream with Jack to swearing she wouldn’t mix
business with pleasure, and then not being able to stop herself
from doing just that as she fell head over heels in love. More than
once she’d worried that she was in too deep and that it had
happened too fast, but each time Jack’s constancy had reassured
her. Every step of the way, he’d been so sweet, so patient with
her, even when they’d both been driven to the edge of madness with
desire.

How, she wondered as they stood on the
precipice of announcing not only their relationship but also their
engagement, could those long-held fears rear up again?

Love, in her experience, had always been
conditional. But Jack wasn’t like that, he could never treat her
that way…could he?

“Mary?”

Though everyone was waiting for their big
announcement, Jack was looking at her as if they were the only two
people in the room.

She remembered the way she’d felt in Union
Square that first time she’d seen him in the crowd of strangers.
From that first moment she’d felt as if she knew him…and she had
known that he was special.

Just because other people in her past had
disappointed her didn’t mean that he would, too. Plus, she’d seen
him with his family, the way he and his brothers had always been
there for one another, no matter what.

Telling herself that trusting Jack couldn’t
possibly be the wrong decision, Mary squeezed his hand and let his
steady warmth settle her nerves. “Let’s tell them, Jack.”

In all her dreams of love, she’d never
envisioned a man like him could exist, one who was completely open
every single moment about his feelings for her. She’d never been
one for public displays of affection—in the entertainment business
they were almost always false—but now she couldn’t resist leaning
in to kiss him.

When she drew back, Jack pulled her close
against him, then he finally told the group, “I’m extremely pleased
to let all of you know that Mary has agreed to become my wife.”

The next thing she knew, Allen had popped a
bottle of champagne and was pouring a glass for everyone. How, she
wondered, could Allen have known to have champagne ready?

Realizing it was just the cynical part of her
that kept trying to rise up to ruin everything, she figured it
wasn’t at all impossible that Allen had the champagne on ice to
celebrate the end of their successful campaign and their upcoming
launch.

“I’m so happy that you found true love,”
Gerry said as he drew her into his arms and hugged her tight.

While it occurred to her that Gerry was the
only one in the room who had truly looked surprised at Jack’s
announcement, she assumed that was because he was the only one of
them who knew her history and how badly she’d been hurt before.

When he moved away to finish setting up his
cameras, though she was only a few sips in, Mary could already feel
the champagne going to her head, so she put her glass down.

She was just about to head into her dressing
room to do her hair and makeup for the photos, when Larry said,
“Hey, now that you and Jack are engaged, what do you guys think
about taking some shots of the two of you together with the Pocket
Planner?”

Mary’s gut clenched reflexively at the
suggestion that they use images of the two of them as a couple to
sell Jack’s invention, but even as she was working to push away the
twinge, Jack was shaking his head.

“Mary’s the face of our product. She’s the
one people want to see using the Pocket Planner, not an engineer
who’s worked out of a garage for the past ten years.”

“Actually,” Howie said as he rubbed his chin
thoughtfully, “you two do look good together. Really good. Layla
even pointed it out to me after that night at the bar. I wouldn’t
be at all surprised if people responded just as well to the two of
you as they do to Mary. And maybe Jack’s ugly mug could help pull
in even more female buyers.”

Mary felt torn right down the middle. Old
fears were screaming at her, warning her not to be so stupid a
second time by shooting pictures for a campaign in which falling in
love with the founder of the company played any part. But she loved
Jack and wanted the very best for him. And her experience with
advertising over the past thirteen years told her that the two of
them posing together would be good. Really good.

She looked at Jack and smiled. “It’s a good
idea. Let’s do it.”

Jack took her in his arms, clearly concerned
about the decision she’d just made. “We should stick to the
original plan, Mary. I don’t want you to have any regrets. Not now.
Not ever.”

For his ears only, she said, “Your dream is
just as important to me as it is to you. I think we owe it to all
those years of working in your garage to convince people to give
your invention a chance any way we can.” She lifted her hand to his
face and smiled. “Plus, just like Howie said, women are going to go
wild for this face of yours.”

Gerry had picked up his camera and moved over
to them in the hopes of capturing the poignant moment. “Mary?
Jack?”

Finally, Jack gave a small nod. Larry handed
them the Pocket Planner, and she held on to both Jack and his dream
as the camera bulbs started flashing.

* * *

Several hours later, Gerry declared that they
had more than enough fantastic pictures and headed out to develop
them immediately in his darkroom so that they could create the
final ad in time for the launch.

Mary realized she’d never had that much fun
in front of the camera before. She’d always been able to perform
with people watching her, but when she was in Jack’s arms, everyone
and everything else had truly disappeared. It had been totally
different from the way things had been when she’d shot the ads with
Romain. Fun, rather than serious. Impromptu, rather than
planned.

Jack was, as she’d suspected, a natural in
front of the camera. Gerry had practically been drooling over every
frame that Jack had been in, and she had a feeling the photographer
wouldn’t be the only one. Rugged, mature men like Jack were always
in high demand in the print ad industry. Clearly, if he ever wanted
to give up engineering, he could walk right into a very lucrative
career in front of the camera. Of course, she knew he’d never give
up his work, not when his brilliant mind would always be racing
ahead to the next invention.

Mary went into the dressing room to change
back into her street clothes and was just coming back out when she
overheard Larry and Howie talking excitedly, their voices traveling
down the hall to her.

“Can you believe how well this is all going?”
Larry said to Howie. “Thank God, we walked past Mary’s photo shoot
that day in Union Square.”

She smiled, agreeing with them. Meeting Jack
that day had changed her life, in the
most
wonderful ways.

“And, thank God, she agreed to Jack’s
marriage proposal,” Howie added. “Allen was completely right when
he told us yesterday afternoon that the press is going to eat up
the way the two of them met and fell in love while working on this
campaign. He’s already put out some feelers, and it sounded like
there is going to be lots of interest already. That’s probably why
he left so fast after the celebration this morning—to go make all
those calls to confirm the news that she’s wearing his ring.”

Allen had known about her and Jack yesterday
afternoon? He’d talked to Howie and Larry about it and how the
press was going to love seeing Jack’s ring on her finger?

But he hadn’t asked her to marry him until
that evening. And on top of that, they’d agreed to keep their
relationship private, just between the two of them. In fact, Jack
had been the one who’d said he wanted to keep things private a
little while longer once they’d declared themselves to each
other.

So how could all of them have already
known?

“It’s been the perfect plan from start to
finish,” Larry agreed happily.

Plan.
Mary felt as if
her heart was tearing in two right where she stood.
It had been the perfect plan.

She braced herself against the wall and
forced herself to take a deep breath. Now that she knew what a fool
she’d been, it would be easiest to run, to leave, to get on a plane
to somewhere, anywhere, and never see Jack again.

But even bigger than her shame at how easily
she’d been duped was her anger. And, right now, fury was all that
stood between her and the bitter pain of a broken heart.

She moved quickly from the hallway to where
Jack was standing with several Walter Industries board members. “We
need to talk.”

She didn’t wait for him to respond as she
headed back into her dressing room. When she heard the door close
behind her, she whirled.

“When did you tell everyone we were together?
Did you brag about it the first time we kissed? Did you give them a
play-by-play of the first time we made love? Did all of you toast
the way you’d gotten me to be both the face of your product and
your pretty little plaything—two for the price of one?”

“Mary?” He started to reach for her, but when
she flinched away from him, he dropped his hands. “What’s going on?
What happened?”

“How dare you act like you don’t know what’s
going on!” The words erupted like a snarl from her lips. “I thought
you were such a gentleman, that you were one of the rare men who
actually cared about what I wanted. What I needed. I thought I was
more than a pretty face to you, more than just another couple of
digits added to your bottom line.” Her chest was so tight she felt
as if she could hardly breathe. She took several steps away from
him, as if that might help her find some oxygen. “When were you
going to ask for the ring back? Were you going to wait until sales
were steady enough that it wouldn’t matter to anyone that we
weren’t together anymore?”

“Damn it, Mary, what are you talking about?”
A muscle was jumping in his jaw. “Why would I want the ring
back?”

He started toward her again, but she knew the
moment he put his arms around her she’d forget to protect herself
again…and that she’d give in to her foolish heart and keep loving
him anyway.

Panicking, with her Italian temper rising up
and clouding her better sense, Mary took off the beautiful
engagement ring and threw it at him.

What the hell had just
happened?

Jack stood in the middle of Mary’s dressing
room, stunned that she had yelled at him about using her and then
nailed him in the head with the engagement ring he’d given her.

He had never been an angry man, had never
fought at school or raised his fists for anything but the boxing
training at the gym. Most disagreements, he figured, could be
worked out with a rational conversation or two. But Mary hadn’t
even come close to trying to talk to him about what was bothering
her. She’d flat out erupted.

Though he’d often seen and felt the flashes
of fire while they were making love, he’d never seen her like this.
So furious—and so hurt—that she seemed to have shut herself down to
him completely.

His eyebrow was throbbing from where she’d
nicked him with the ring, but it was nothing compared to the heavy
twisting in his gut at the thought that she might leave him.

Her hand was already on the doorknob when he
caught up with her. Fear that he was losing her made it hard to
think, to do anything but grab her around the waist and pull her
against him.

Her breath rushed out in surprise at the hard
press of his arms around her. “Tell me what happened to make you so
upset with me.” Her fury had stirred up his, but he worked to keep
his voice even. She tried to push out of his arms, but he wouldn’t
let her go. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“You
used
me.”

Her sentence ended on a sob, and even though
he knew she was furious at him, he had to kiss the top of her head.
When she was hurting, all he wanted was to help her. To ease her
pain. Even if he was suddenly the last person on earth she wanted
doing that.

“I’ve spent so long staring at circuit boards
and computer screens that I know I often miss what’s happening in
real life.” Gently, he turned her in his arms so that he could look
into her eyes. He put his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face
up to his. “If I’ve made a mistake with you, I want more than
anything to make it right. Please just tell me what I did and how I
can make it right.”