Lantern Lake (2 page)

Cooper shrugged, digging his hands into his trouser pockets. He’d always been uncomfortable with praise, uneasy in the spotlight. She’d been the head cheerleader…he’d been the scholarship kid who nearly got kicked out of their Calculus class for arguing with the professor.

“I didn’t do it for the money,” he said stiffly, stabbing a pang of sympathy through Vivian’s heart. She knew exactly what had motivated him to use his God-given smarts to create that particular bit of software.

“You helped a lot of people. Maybe even saved some lives.”

If Vivian hadn’t been searching his face so diligently, she might have missed the flash of grief buried deep in his green-gold eyes. “I didn’t do it for the money,” he repeated, with a smile that seemed only slightly forced. “But it sure has been nice to be able to fund my travels around the world. I’ve been to Bangkok, Jerusalem, Tokyo, Rome—all the places we used to talk about, and a lot more in between. But I guess you’ve been around the world a time or two yourself, by now.”

Vivian glanced away, afraid of what he might see in her expression. “No. I never have.”

Cooper’s voice roughened, gruff with some unnamed emotion. “That husband of yours turned out to be a homebody, huh?”

Her gaze flew back to him. “You know I got married?”

What else had he heard? Did he know the extremely public and humiliating reasons why she was no longer married?

Cooper squinted into the distance, taking on a bored tone. “Miles mentioned it a while back. So how’s married life treating you?”

Relief was a sour tang at the back of her throat. He didn’t know. But it wouldn’t take more than a quick Google search for him to find out. It was only a matter of time.

“I’m divorced,” she told him quickly, watching for his reaction. “A couple of years ago.”

But if she’d expected him to light up like a kid on Christmas, she was doomed to disappointment. Cooper only cocked his head, his face a mask of indifference. “Too bad. I guess nothing lasts forever.”

The doors to the yacht club opened behind them and the bride and groom spilled out on a tide of cheers, laughter, and applause. The joyful noise covered Vivian’s involuntary gasp at the sharp pain that speared her at Cooper’s cold words.

“What are you two still doing standing here?” Greta cried from her perch in Miles’s arms. She looped an arm around his strong neck, waved her bouquet of deep blue hydrangeas and kicked her feet in a froth of ivory satin. “It’s time to kick up our heels and dance the night away!”

“One dance,” Miles growled into her ear, a smile tugging at his mouth. “That’s all I can promise before I drag you home.”

Vivian watched the way Greta blushed and smiled, a complicated mix of emotions whirling like a blender in her stomach. Memories of her own joyless wedding butted up against the dreams she’d had about the man at her side, but she couldn’t be bitter as she gazed on her friends’ utter happiness. No one deserved it more than these two, who had been so good to her, even including her in their most special day.

Reminded of her bridesmaid duties, Vivian looked up the stairs at the happy couple. “Is there anything you need, before the reception? Anything I can do?”

“You’ve done so much already,” Greta protested. “But I guess, if you wouldn’t mind hanging onto my bouquet?”

“Of course!” Vivian smiled, pleased to make herself useful, but her eyes widened when Greta exchanged a quick, mischievous glance with her new husband and lifted the bouquet.

“Here, Viv, catch!”

Greta tossed the bouquet down the yacht club stairs to land unerringly in Vivian’s outstretched arms. She blinked down at the cluster of exuberant blue and purple blossoms, the stems wrapped in white ribbon and secured with pearl-tipped pins.

“You caught it,” Greta said, delighted.

“I think that counts, don’t you?” Miles winked at his wife.

She nodded. “Oh, absolutely. It’s settled.”

Don’t say it
, Vivian begged silently as a flaming blush scorched up her neck and into her cheeks.
Please don’t
.

Miles grinned his corporate shark smile. “Looks like you’re up next, Viv. Wonder where we can find a groom for you.”

The fact that she would never be able to repay Miles Harrington’s loyalty and generosity to her over the years was all that kept her from trying to kill him with her brain.

Unable to stop herself, Vivian risked a glance at Cooper. The look on his face made her suck in a breath. She’d always been able to read him. No matter what happened, no matter how silent he got, Vivian had always known exactly what he was thinking.

Not anymore.

Cooper was smiling, but his eyes were dark and hot, hinting at an inner turmoil Vivian could only guess at. With an ironic quirk of one golden-brown eyebrow, he offered his arm to her once more, as impeccable and graceful as any of the wealthy, privileged boys they’d gone to school with.

“Let’s get to the reception,” Cooper said smoothly. “Who knows? Maybe Prince Charming will appear. Most people meet their future spouses at weddings, after all.”

Cooper had once been invited to a Hindu wedding while he’d been in Bangladesh, a spur of the moment invitation that had resulted in him getting to participate in a raucous, colorful three-day-long celebration that involved clouds of incense, beautiful women in bright saris, and a pair of elephants. Cooper was no stranger to weddings.

But this reception on a small, pristine stretch of beach on Sanctuary Island was like nothing he’d ever seen.

Beside him, Vivian gasped. He glanced down at her, transported back in time by the giddy appreciation on her beautiful features as she took in the splendor of the glass-sided, clear-roofed structure. The dark blue carpet beneath their feet echoed the color of the ocean spread out under the darkening sky beyond the glass tent. From the tables to the crystal chandeliers to the bandstand set up by the gleaming parquet dance floor, Miles and Greta had created a wedding wonderland.

It was the perfect setting for what Cooper had in mind.

Miles and Greta were swarmed by the guests and family members trickling into the tent. Keeping a firm hold of Vivian’s hand, Cooper went in search of the table that would give them their seat assignments for dinner. He wasn’t disappointed.

“Looks like we’re both at Table Two,” Vivian said faintly, casting a sidelong glance at him.

Cooper smiled in dark satisfaction as he scanned the room for the table with the number two engraved on a notecard sticking out of the beach-themed centerpiece of starfish, sand dollars, and blue flowers. If Miles had known what Cooper intended to do with Vivian Banks, he probably wouldn’t have been quite so helpful about setting them up for a romantic evening together.

Let the punishment fit the crime. It was a sentiment Cooper had seen played out in countless cultures, all over the world. And even though in this case there was no proportional response to the way Vivian had betrayed everything they’d had together with no explanation, Cooper wasn’t one to pass up an opportunity.

He had tonight. One night. A single night of seduction, sensual pleasures and temptations. A night to exorcise his demons and lay his memories of this woman to rest once and for all.

And in the morning, he’d walk away from Vivian without a backward glance. Poetic justice. All he had to do now was sweep her off her feet.

Putting his plan into effect without delay, Cooper deftly snagged the bouquet from her grasp and set it on one of the gilded place settings at table two. Then he plucked his tuxedo jacket from her shoulders and draped it over the back of the chair at the next place setting. “Now our seats are saved. Come on, let’s get this party started.”

“The band is still setting up,” Vivian protested. “And aren’t we supposed to wait until after the bride and groom have their first dance?”

“You snooze, you lose.” Cooper took her hand and pulled her across the dance floor to the bandstand. Waving the band’s front man over, Cooper leaned up to mutter his request in the guy’s ear. He didn’t totally get the amused smirk the punk-haired Englishman gave him when Cooper slipped a fifty dollar bill into the pocket of his silky blue shirt, but a moment later, the familiar strains of the song he’d requested picked up.

Whirling Vivian onto the dance floor, Cooper took her into his arms and spun them both into a languid waltz as the guy he’d tipped crooned, “At last, my love has come along.”

“This can’t be happening,” Vivian shook her head as if to clear the haze of sleep from her mind.

“But it is,” Cooper said, the hand gripping her waist flexing to feel the supple curve of her body.

Her pupils dilated, black and lush with heat, and she let out a nervous laugh. “I mean, I would swear that’s Dash and the Danger Boys up there.”

Cooper had no idea who that was, but he stole a glance over his shoulder at the band. “But one of them is a chick. Playing the drums. With pink hair. That’s kind of hot.”

“Oh my gosh, then it definitely is them,” Vivian exclaimed, laughing. “I can’t believe it. Only Miles would have the number one rock band in the country playing his wedding reception.”

“What was your wedding like?” Cooper wished he could call the words back the instant they left his mouth. He cursed silently as the happy glow died out of Vivian’s eyes. Great seduction technique, Casanova. Bring up the failed marriage she ditched you for!

But before he could change the subject, Vivian shook her head. “Nothing like this. My wedding was…an event. Everyone who was anyone was invited. All my society friends, my parents’ business partners and investors. It was more of a board meeting or a country club social than a wedding.”

“Sounds like a blast.”

A corner of her mouth kicked up. “No, it wasn’t fun, but then, it wasn’t meant to be. It was meant to show off who we knew, how much money we had, and how much power my parents wielded. Now this wedding…”

With a sweep of her arm as they circled past the wedding cake, a multi-layer confection of curlicued white frosting, filigreed gold leaves and blue flowers made of sugar, Greta said, “This wedding is a reflection of the personalities of the bride and the groom. If you’d never met Miles and Greta and somehow stumbled into this wedding, you’d get a good idea of who they are and what’s most important to them.”

Their next turn around the dance floor swung them past the receiving line by the tent door, still lively with congratulating guests, hugs, and joyous greetings. “Family and friends,” Cooper agreed.

Vivian nodded. “And making sure we all have a fabulous time. Miles and Greta pull everyone they love into their orbit, spreading the wealth of their happiness and letting the rest of us bask in the reflected glow. It’s not a bad deal, especially when you’re low on glow of your own.”

Glow was one thing Vivian Banks had never lacked. Although now that Cooper had his arms around her and an ironclad reason to be studying her closely as they danced, he could make out some small changes to the face that had been etched in his memory. Vivian had always been bubbly, with all the charm and fizz of a glass of champagne—but faint new lines beside her eyes and a slight translucence to her skin gave Cooper’s dance partner a more reserved, mature look.

This was a woman who had lived, not a girl with her whole life still ahead of her. Cooper couldn’t help wondering exactly what cares had put those shadows under Vivian’s eyes.

It didn’t matter, he reminded himself. It was none of his business how her life had gone once she chucked him out of it. His only business with Vivian Banks was a quick and dirty seduction.

Steering back on course, he murmured, “As far as I can tell, your glow hasn’t changed in ten years. You’re as beautiful as ever, Viv.”

He expected a pleased smile or a blushing laugh—anything but the unmistakable skepticism that tightened the corners of Vivian’s shuttered eyes. She tripped, throwing them off step for half a second, but it was enough to turn their easy, sensual dance into something mechanical and awkward.

“Sorry about that,” Vivian murmured, still pale as sea foam. “At least I’m still as clumsy as ever.”

She acted as if she didn’t believe him. How could she not know how beautiful she was?

Frowning, Cooper tightened his grip on her and drew in a breath to ask what the hell happened to turn a confident, vivacious girl into the somber, withdrawn woman before him. But the music died, and Vivian pulled away with an air of relief. She used to love dancing, too.

Cooper fought down his growing awareness of the mystery of Vivian Banks. He didn’t want to see a mystery. All he wanted to see was Vivian, naked and splayed over his sheets, reaching for him with a sultry smile.

“Excuse me,” Vivian said, her gaze landing somewhere in the vicinity of his chin and sticking there. “I should really go see if the bride needs any help with anything.”

“I’m pretty sure the wedding planner and Greta’s mom have everything in hand.” Cooper studied her downcast eyes and nervously twisting fingers. “But sure, let’s go talk to Miles and Greta. I have a little something for them, anyway.”

She hesitated, confirming his suspicion that she’d suggested helping Greta at least partly to get away from him.
It’s not going to be that easy
, Cooper wanted to tell her. As if she’d heard his silent promise, Vivian blew out a breath and nodded. “Okay, lead the way.”

Triumph smoldered in his chest like a white-hot coal.
Oh, I’ll lead you, all right. Straight to my bed. And after tonight, I’ll never think of you again
.

After tonight, I’ll finally be free of you
.

***

Vivian steadied herself and commanded her heart to stop racing like a runaway horse. There was no way Cooper’s compliments and smiles meant what she wanted them to mean. He’d always been a charmer, when he wanted to be—and from what she’d read in the gossip rags over the years, he’d honed that ability to razor sharpness as his sudden, stratospheric wealth propelled him into the highest society.

He didn’t mean anything by dancing with you, or holding you close
, she scolded herself silently.
He’s being…if anything, he’s being kind
.