The Accidental Boyfriend (15 page)

Now it was Jack’s turn to laugh at her. “Oh what a tangled web we weave,” he teased. She cocked her head to the side and addressed Lucia while she stared at him. “But feel free to tell Danny and your grandfather…and let them know that this was all Jack’s idea.”

Jack stopped laughing. “Hey, wait a second,” he started, but Holly was already out of her chair and heading toward the hallway.

Once she left, he found himself face to face with Lucia who was watching him with crossed arms and narrowed eyes.

He settled into the seat across from her, resigned to hearing a lecture. “Okay, let’s hear it. Tell me why this is the worst idea of all time.”

Lucia raised an eyebrow. “I think you know the answer to that already.”

He did. This wasn’t fair to Holly and she would end up—

“You’re going to get hurt,” Lucia finished.

He stared at her in surprise for a minute. Did she say.... “Wait, you’re worried that
I’m
going to get hurt?”

He watched his young friend’s forehead wrinkle as she tipped her head, giving him a sympathetic look. That look was answer enough. A panicky feeling took hold of him. For a moment, he felt like Lucia could see something in him that he couldn’t. The way she was studying him reminded him of the eerie way his mother would know he was in trouble long before the principal called.

He toyed with the remains of Holly’s breakfast. “Holly is the one you should be worried about. She had a rough talk with her—” he struggled to find a word for Benjamin.

“Her infatuation?” Lucia suggested.

“Yeah,” he continued. “Did she tell you?” He leaned back and tried not to look too eager but he couldn’t deny that there was a part of him that felt like he was in junior high and he wasn’t above passing notes in class.

Lucia was watching him closely, her eyes trained on him in a way that was unnerving. He’d never noticed how similar she was to her grandfather until that moment. If he didn’t know better, he would think she was scheming.

Holly watched her friend hold up a dress in front of the mirror. It was the third store they’d been to that afternoon and Lucia was no closer to finding the perfect outfit for the fashion show than when they’d started.

“I like that one,” she said, crossing her fingers that this shopping expedition might be coming to an end.

Lucia met her gaze in the mirror and rolled her eyes. “For a summer outing, maybe, but not for a fashion show where I’ll be meeting some of the biggest designers in the industry.”

Holly plopped down on a settee in the dressing room. “You’re not just going as a bystander on Friday, are you?”

Lucia shook her head, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “The designer likes my work. She’s promised to introduce me to some key contacts.” Lucia picked up another dress from the rack and turned to her with a surprisingly serious expression. “Don’t tell my grandpa.”

Holly shook her head. “No, of course not. And you…” she started.

Lucia waved away her concerns before she could even start. “Don’t worry, I already promised Jack that your secret is safe with me.”

“Which one?” she asked. “The fact that we’re pretending to be a couple or that we, uh, we….”

Lucia was watching her in the mirror with a grin. “Had a moment?” she offered.

“Yes, exactly, that we had a moment.”

Somehow “had a moment” didn’t seem to encapsulate the epic passion of the night before but it was the perfect way of putting it because while it may have been mind-blowing, they both knew that it was just a moment. A one-time deal. There was no future for them and they both knew it.

She looked up to see Lucia staring at her in the mirror. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

For a second Holly thought Lucia had read her mind. Did she know what she was doing? No. Not a clue. To her friend she said, “Look, we’re both adults. We know what we got ourselves into. I needed
companionship and Jack….well, Jack…”

What did Jack need? She had been so consumed with her own feelings the night before, so focused on needing something or someone to take her mind off of Benjamin’s rejection, it had never occurred to her to question Jack’s motivation.

A nagging sense of guilt gnawed at her but she shoved it aside. She’d been battling that vague sensation since she’d left Jack’s bed. Part of it had to do with Benjamin. It was hard to go from imagining a life with someone to being intimate with another man without some complicated emotions. But if she was being honest with herself, she didn’t so much feel guilt about Benjamin as she felt guilty over how
not
guilty she felt.

She let out a heavy sigh as she watched Lucia head back into a dressing room stall with yet another dress. Feeling guilt over not feeling guilty was ludicrous. She knew that. But now, there was the added layer of unease over the situation with Jack. She wasn’t worried that he would get hurt, he was a big boy and he’d made it very clear that he didn’t do relationships. Still, she’d never really used a guy before and that was exactly what she’d done the night before. Not that she’d heard him complaining. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror and caught herself smirking like a prepubescent tween. She shook her head at her reflection. Would she ever grow up? Probably not.

The uneasy pit in her stomach nearly swallowed her alive. There it was. That was the source of the guilt. Who needed a therapist when one could sit idle in a dressing room for hours on end?

Benjamin had been right all along. Things got tough for her and Benjamin and how did she try to fix it? By running off to Paris. And now she’d gone and proven him right again. He didn’t think she was capable of settling down so what had she done? Gone and slept with the closest available male.

Way to prove ‘em wrong, Holiday.
Tears pricked the back of her eyes and she tilted her head back and blinked rapidly, trying to keep them from falling. She would
not
lose it. Not in a dressing room and not when her friend was so excited about this fashion show.

She took a deep, steadying breath but it was too late, her mind had taken a treacherous turn and her thoughts were careening down a one-way street of self-recrimination. Images of the family she had envisioned flashed before her eyes.
Say goodbye to that dream
.

The life she’d planned for herself and Benjamin suddenly seemed completely delusional. Had he known that all along? Of course he had, that’s why he’d been so wary. He’d been waiting for her to wake up from her daydream and face reality. She had never been and would never be the kind of woman he settled down with because she was incapable of settling down. Maybe she and Jack were a match made in heaven, after all. They could have one-night stands in passing as they flitted about the globe from one meaningless fling to the next.

She had a flash of Jack leaning over her with that squinty-eyed Tom Cruise grin and let out a soft laugh even as a tear slid down her cheek. It wasn’t exactly the worst fate she could imagine.

“What are you laughing about out here?” Lucia asked as she came out wearing another, even more stunning, designer gown.

Holly wiped away the tell-tale tear and smiled at her friend. “That is it, Lucia. You have found the winner.”

* * * *

They got back to the apartment a little while later to find Jack absorbed in work. He looked startled when they walked in but his face broke into a grin at the sight of them in the living room doorway.

“Was your mission successful?” he asked.

Holly plopped down on the couch beside him and dropped her head back with a moan, “This woman is a slave driver. Three hours of shopping but it was a success. This little Italian will be the belle of the ball on Friday night.”

Lucia laughed as she tossed her packages onto the armchair across from them. “This belle needs to start getting ready. I’m meeting one of my college friends for dinner tonight.”

When Lucia left, they were all alone and for a moment the silence was overbearing. Holly couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt nervous but sitting there, in the cold light of day, she couldn’t deny the butterflies that were swarming in her stomach. She’d all but thrown herself at him last night and now he thought…he must have thought….

“So, about last night,” she started.

“I think maybe we should talk,” he said at the same time.

Their eyes locked and they both burst out laughing. “Okay, you first,” she said.

He turned to her with an unexpectedly serious look. “I just wanted to make sure you felt okay about last night. I hope you know I never intended to take advantage of you or your situation—”

She held up a hand to stop him. “Pretty sure you got it all wrong, mister. You didn’t take advantage of me, I took advantage of you.”

She saw his lips twitch as his eyes narrowed into a thoughtful stare. “Is that right?” he mused.

She gave a decisive nod. “That’s right.”

Jack leaned back against the back of the couch. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”

She cocked a brow. “You seemed to feel just fine about it last night.”

His laugh made her stomach do a flip flop. When he reached out a hand to pull her in toward him, she gasped in surprise. She was pressed against his side, their faces inches apart when he asked, “And what about you? Do you feel okay about it?”

Despite his teasing tone, she knew he was serious. His eyes flickered over her face and she saw the hint of anxiety in his eyes. She dropped the joking tone and laid a hand on his chest, feeling the strong, steady beat of his heart. “I feel more than fine,” she said. He raised his brows and widened his eyes in a hopeful look and her heart gave a little squeeze. He’d been worried about her, worried that she regretted it.

“Believe me,” she said. “My eyes were wide open last night.”

He reached out a hand to brush a curl out of her face and she felt a jolt of electricity at the touch. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She knew he was talking about Benjamin and she shook her head quickly. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about him.

She saw the lines around his eyes tighten and his lips pressed together. Uh oh. Jack was having a crisis of conscience. “Look, Holly, I think you should know that I…I don’t really do relationships and I don’t want—”

Holly couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing and Jack’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “I’m sorry,” she said, still smiling at the shock on his face. “It’s just…you don’t need to give me the whole ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ speech.”

“I wasn’t going to,” he said, sounding offended. “I just wanted to be clear.”

“Mmm-hmm.” She reached her hands out and placed them on his cheeks, turning his head so he was looking at her. “And I’m just saying, it’s not necessary. I know your reputation and I’m totally fine with it.”

He looked like he might continue to warn her off so she didn’t give him the chance. “I’m a big girl, Jack. I’m not the naïve small-town girl you seem to think I am. And I’m not Ivy—I don’t live in a world of black and white.”

His eyes darkened and her heart rate quadrupled at the sudden shift in mood. He tugged her again so she was pressed up against him so tightly her breasts rubbed against his chest and his lips were so close she could feel his breath on her lips.

“So what kind of girl are you?” he teased. The flirtatious tone made her feel naughty and alive. A rush of adrenaline pulsed through her, adding to the heat that had her tingling from head to toe. What kind of girl was she?

“The kind who likes adventure,” she said.

“Oh yeah?” He leaned in so his lips caressed hers in a feather-light kiss. She nearly moaned aloud at the sweet temptation. Instead she moved into him, capturing his lips with her own and teasing his lips with her tongue.

All restraint gone, his lips moved against hers in an urgency that only heightened the fire between them. Her hand slid down his chest and started to undo his belt. She was wanton with desire, the need to feel him inside of her again and feel his hot skin pressed against her own.

His hand gently stopped hers. He pulled back slightly. “Lucia could walk in,” he whispered, his voice cutting into the hazy fog of desire. She muttered a curse and moved back. Pulling away from him was like fighting gravity.

“So now what?” she asked.

He looked at her blankly for a moment and she noticed his eyes were still glazed over with desire. Well, at least she wasn’t the only one.

“Maybe I should go get us a hotel room,” he said.

She couldn’t stop the giggle that escaped her. “I meant us.”

“Oh, right.” He ran a hand through his hair and visibly tried to pull it together. “What do you want to happen next?”

Holly leaned back a bit and said truthfully, “I want Lucia to head to her dinner so we can finish what we started.”

His answering grin was so devilishly sexy it took all of her willpower not to throw herself back into his arms. Only the fact that Lucia could walk in at any moment kept her at a safe distance. “And in the meantime? How does Ms. Adventure want to kill the time? Do you want to go out on the town? See some more of Paris?”

Holly cocked her head to the side and considered her options. “Not to be a total killjoy, but Lucia seriously tired me out this afternoon. I think I just want to stay in tonight.”

He settled back in the couch and deftly moved her so she was leaning against him as he flipped on the television and found an old black and white movie that was in English. He moved his head so his mouth was dangerously close to her ear and his breath tickled the side of her neck. “A night in sounds good to me.” With one arm tucked around her, his fingers trailed over her arm, sending a shiver down her spine.

His touch was torturously sweet and Holly felt compelled to give as good as she got. Turning so she could whisper in his ear the way he’d done to her, she said, “Don’t worry, once Lucia leaves, I’ll show you how adventurous I can be.”

She felt his body’s instant reaction to those words and shot him a victorious grin. He retaliated by moving his wandering hand to her waist where his fingers found the edge of her T-shirt and slid underneath so his fingers were lightly brushing against her bare skin.