Trust in Advertising (38 page)

“You’re the Beast.” Maddie waved the book in his face.

“The Beast? What about Prince Charming? I think I’m more charming than beastly, wouldn’t you say, Lexi?”

Slowly, Lexi turned in his direction. On the other side of Madison, Vincent lazily stretched out on top of the covers, his long, muscular legs extending all the way to the end of the bed. He propped his elbow up on the pillow while his hand supported his head. He playfully grinned at Lexi, waiting for her to agree.

“I plead the fifth on that one.” Lexi laughed. “I enjoy my job too much to risk it.”

Vincent rolled back onto the pillow, clutching his heart. “Maddie, Lexi thinks I’m beastly.”

His niece kissed his cheek. “Yes, but just like Belle in the book, she loves you anyway. Now come on, we have to read!”

Once again, Lexi blushed at Madison’s innocent words. Her assessment was spot on. Even with Vincent’s flaws, Lexi still found him to be the most wonderful man she had ever met, and it was slowly killing her inside.

Madison saved Lexi from her thoughts by launching into her version of Disney’s
Beauty and the Beast
. “So let’s skip the beginning. Uncle Vincent is cursed by that mean lady who turns him into the grumpy beast.”

Lexi nearly laughed as she imagined Jade as the mean lady Madison was describing. Vincent propped himself back up and rolled his eyes, still denying he was anything like the beast.

“And we can skip the singing stuff, unless you want to sing this song, Lexi?”

Lexi’s face whitened as Madison pointed at the lyrics on the page.

“Oh, I think Lexi should have to sing, Maddie.” Vincent chuckled and egged the little girl on, earning himself the evil eye from Lexi.

“Just remember who makes your coffee every morning, Vincent. And gets your lunch. You really want to risk getting on my bad side? You can kiss all those burgers goodbye, pal.” Lexi smiled at Madison. “Honey, why don’t you sing the song? I bet you would do a wonderful job.”

Madison broke into song, looking back and forth from Vincent to Lexi as she sang, not missing a single word. After the musical interlude, she had Lexi 228

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read the book. She used different voices for each of the characters, which thrilled Maddie to no end. Vincent took over a few of the household characters, doing a spot on French accent that made Lexi swoon.

When Belle and the Beast finally met in the story, Vincent read the parts of the Beast with a low, gruff voice that softened the more he was around Belle.

Lexi turned the page, and Madison clapped with delight.

“This is my favorite part in the whole book!” She crawled out from under the covers and jumped on the bed. “You two get to dance!”

“Oh, honey, I don’t know,” Lexi stammered, having no idea how she was going to get out of this one. There was no way she could be in Vincent’s arms again without him seeing the feelings she harbored for him. But Vincent was already on his feet and walking around to her side of the bed. “Oh, we don’t really have to.”

Ignoring her completely, Vincent gave a gentlemanly bow to Lexi and extended his large hand. “May I have this dance, Belle?” he asked in character.

When Lexi paused, he gave her a playful wink.

Lexi looked at Maddie clapping her hands in wide-eyed anticipation, then glanced at Vincent patiently waiting for her to accept his offer. It was completely unfair of him to use it his irresistible wink like this, but before Lexi knew it, her legs were shifting off the bed, and she felt the soft carpet under her feet. She slipped her tiny hand into Vincent’s and took an unsure step in his direction.

He gently pulled her into the center of the room and brushed his lips over her knuckles before sweeping her up into his arms.

Madison began singing right on cue. “Tale as old as time …”

Dancing with Vincent in front of all those people at the gala had made Lexi self-conscious, but that was nothing compared to dancing with him alone in Madison’s room. The intimacy of it, the way he cradled her in his arms so gently, with only the eyes of a child on them, and the radiant smile on his face as he spun her around the room was overwhelming. The warmth from his body spread out around hers, his contact like tiny flames licking against her skin.

Lexi focused on her breathing the entire dance, trying desperately to not get lost in his eyes, but failing miserably. She watched the way his irises sparkled as he glanced over at Maddie, blowing her a kiss, and then twirled Lexi in circles.

For those two minutes, Lexi felt like she was actually living out a fairy tale.

“Okay, now you two kiss!” Madison proclaimed from her bed as the song ended, bouncing with excitement.

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Lexi froze. “N-no, that’s not in the book.” She craned her neck to look at the pages, searching for any indication of a kiss.

“But that’s when Belle and the Beast start to fall in love,” Madison said with a deep frown.

“Yes, honey, but we can’t just kiss. Uncle Vincent he’s my … my …”

“Friend,” Vincent offered, tugging on Lexi’s arm, trying to calm her down.

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” He leaned in closer and whispered, “Are you worried that if we kiss we might start to fall in love?”

Way ahead of you on that one, mister,
Lexi thought to herself, wondering how she would ever find her way back from this. “Actually, I’m afraid this will just be another reason for Jade to gouge my eyes out next time she sees me,” Lexi said through a tight smile, trying to keep Madison from hearing.

“Never mind,” Madison said sadly, her excitement quickly replaced with disappointment as she sat down on her bed.

“Maddie, the problem is people just can’t go around kissing,” Vincent tried to explain.

The sight of her sadly pouting broke Lexi’s heart. She didn’t want her hang up to be the reason the little girl’s big night ended on a sad note, so she did the only thing she could. “Let’s do it.”

Vincent’s head whipped in her direction, his eyebrows rose skeptically. “Are you sure? Because I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

“Vincent, shut up and kiss me.”

He took her hand and slowly spun her in one final, torturously slow turn.

When she was facing him, he wrapped one arm around her waist, while the other cupped the back of her neck, his fingers wrapping around her long hair as he held her in place.

Lexi’s heart screamed to life in her chest as his face approached hers. She was certain he could feel her trembling in his arms, but she was helpless to stop her body’s reaction to their impending kiss. This was something she had dreamed of, fantasized about, and hoped for all those years ago, and it was about to happen.

His lips were soft as they brushed against hers, better than anything she had ever imagined. He was gentle, but completely in control of the kiss. At first he applied only light pressure, but then something changed and his mouth moved more forcefully over hers, hungrily even. She felt his grip on her hair tighten as his lips took control of hers, teasing and guiding her into a more heated kiss.

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Lexi was thankful he had a good grip on her, because her knees turned to Jel -O when she felt his warm tongue graze against her lower lip. Her body melted to his, her soft curves molding against hard muscles like perfectly matching puzzle pieces. Without warning, Lexi’s arms wrapped around his neck, and she opened her mouth, allowing him to slide in and taste her. Her tongue tentatively made contact with his, but she still allowed him to set the pace. She had been kissed many times before, but never had she felt it move through her body like an electric current, awakening every cell in its path, the way Vincent’s kiss did.

In those few seconds, she had never felt more alive. As he deepened the kiss, a tiny giggle from Madison snapped Lexi right back into reality and out of the erotic fantasy that was playing out in her head.

She forcefully pushed Vincent away and covered her mouth with her hand.

“What did I do?” she murmured, half to herself, half to Vincent. The look on his face mirrored hers, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his ragged breath.

“Lexi, wait.” Vincent reached out and tried to grab her arm, but Lexi stepped away.

“That was the best kiss ever!” Maddie fell back on her bed laughing.

You have no idea,
Lexi thought to herself. Her heart thundered in her chest, and she felt like she couldn’t catch her breath. She needed to get out of there.

She desperately needed to be as far away from Vincent as possible. The other side of the Earth even seemed too close at that moment. With unsteady legs, she took a tentative step towards the door, trying to ignore the taste of Vincent on her lips and fresh memory of his chest against hers.

“Maddie, I have to go now. It’s late. Vincent can finish reading to you.”

She didn’t even wait to hear the girl’s response before she ran out the door and down the steps.

Lexi sped past Sean at the bottom of the steps. “We need to go,” she mouthed across the room to Hope, tears starting to fill her eyes.

Hope gave nothing away to Elizabeth or Robert who were sitting in chairs beside her. She gracefully stood up from the couch and gathered up Lexi’s purse as her friend paced by the front door. “Thank you for a lovely evening,” Hope said to Anna, giving a small nod with her eyebrow raised in Lexi’s direction to let her know something was up.

Anna wrapped her arms around Hope. “It was wonderful meeting you,”

she said and then whispered something to Hope.

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Lexi did her best to cover her distress as she hugged Robert and Elizabeth and waved to Anna over her shoulder. “Thanks for having us, Anna. Sorry we have to run. Vincent’s upstairs finishing the story with Maddie.”

“Bye, Lexi!” They all called after her as she practically ran out the front door with Hope trailing behind her.

“What did Vincent do now?” Vincent heard Sean ask as he rushed down the stairs looking for Lexi.

“I don’t know.” Anna turned just in time to see Vincent come flying down, his eyes scanning the room frantically.

“Where’s Lexi? I have to talk to her.”

Sean pointed his thumb at the front door. “She just left, man. Ran out of here like a bat outta hell. You have any idea why that is?”

Elizabeth intently watched from across the room with Robert, waiting to hear Vincent’s response. “Let’s give them some space to talk. He needs Sean.

He’s the closest thing to a brother he has right now,” Robert said. Vincent gave a grateful nod as his father led Elizabeth into the kitchen.

Vincent refused to look Sean in the eye. A noise outside caught his attention, and he focused on watching Lexi as she climbed into the passenger’s seat of her car, visibly upset. He pushed open the door and stood on the porch to watch the car speed away.

Sean came up behind him and put his hand on Vincent’s shoulder. “You want to talk about it?”

“I have no idea where to start.”

Vincent’s posture tensed, his arms folded across his chest in a blatant leave-me-alone gesture. Not scared off, Sean asked casually, “Can I just make an observation then?” Sean watched Vincent’s eyes flicker over to his, waiting for what was coming next. “You like her.”

“She’s my friend.” Vincent leaned back against the rail of the porch and sighed.

“I’m not talking about in a friendly kinda way, man.” He watched Vincent busy himself by picking chipped paint off the wood beside him. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. At the gala, at the office when she’s busy on the computer.

Hell, tonight at the tea party, I’ve never seen you laugh so much.”

Vincent raked his hands through his hair before rubbing them over his face. “It’s complicated.”

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“No, it’s not. You like her, she likes you. And she does, in case you haven’t noticed. She gets this cute little grin on her face when you walk in the room, and she watches you when you aren’t looking, all the time.” Vincent rolled his eyes but Sean ignored him and continued. “What’s so damn complicated?

Explain it to me.”

“Oh, I don’t know—Jade.”

“Screw Jade,” Sean said, sitting down on the swing.

“Lexi’s nice and I’m not.”

“So be nicer.” Sean rolled his shoulders.

“She has a good heart.” Vincent hopped up on the railing near the swing and leaned against the post beside him.

“And so do you.”

“I don’t know if I can trust her,” Vincent said in a serious voice.

“And you trust Jade? Are you insane?” Sean stopped the swing and leaned toward Vincent. “Why are you still with her? She makes you miserable far more than she makes you happy.”

That was the question Vincent had been asking himself for months now.

The only good things about Jade he could think of after a while were the facts that she traveled a lot and that even though she was a pain, he knew what to expect from her. She was predictable and safe. He would never allow her close enough to hurt him, and she frankly didn’t want to be that close to him either.

She liked being with Vincent because of who he was and he knew that. She was shallow and petty, caring about a man’s status far more than his soul.

“I know what to expect with her. And I can keep her at arm’s length so she can’t screw me over. With Lexi, I don’t think I could do that. I’d want too much.”

“So you’re choosing to be miserable over being happy?”

“I’m choosing to be safe over sorry.”

Sean got up off the swing with pity in his eyes. “You have to let all that baggage go eventually, Vincent. Before it ruins you. Yes, people screwed you over in the past, but it’s in the past. Don’t let them continue doing it to you by keeping you from someone who might make you truly happy. You’re scared.”

Vincent hopped off the rail and began pacing the deck. “I’m not scared, Sean. I’m just not ready to trust someone completely again, if ever. I did with Adria and others before her and look what happened.”

“Adria was a bitch and a money grubber who wanted power and her own company. She was and still is a sadistic shrew who has probably screwed men 233