Sweet Seduction

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“Until you tell me why you didn’t have a choice, I don’t care. You asked. I helped. It’s the last time. Right?”

Silence. Jamie could picture his twin brother. His head would be hanging, thumb and index finger pinching the bridge of his nose—the mirror image of himself from only seconds ago. Even in their early thirties, they were still pretty much identical. In looks, anyway, and in the fact that they both enjoyed food—but then, who didn’t?

That was where the similarity ended.

“If you’re accusing me of being unprofessional—”

“I’m not accusing you of anything,” Jamie said. “You’re the one who called me, accusing me of something. What it is, I have no idea.”

“Do I really need to spell it out for you?”

“Please.”

“You screwed my assignment.”

“What are you talking about? The piece was good. Maybe a little more engaging than your stiff, pretentious drivel, but passable as your work.”

“No. I mean you literally screwed my assignment.”

“For God’s sake, I didn’t sleep with the woman, if that’s what you’re implying. Give me a little credit.”

“So you didn’t call her curvy and perfect?”

“Well, that part’s true.”

“Tell me you didn’t invite her to the celebrity gala on Saturday.”

“Actually, I did invite her.”

“As me?”

“Well...” Jamie hesitated. He hadn’t had the chance to explain to Daisy. Yet. He thought she’d have phoned by now—he’d given her his cell number before leaving and he’d planned on telling her the first chance they had to talk. When she didn’t call, his plan had changed a bit. He was going to pick her up tomorrow, tell her who he really was, take her to the gala and point out the fact that he was the better-looking, more interesting, infinitely funnier version of Colin Forsythe. Or that Colin was the less attractive, uptight, far duller version of Jamie Forsythe. Either way, it was the first thing on his agenda, and he planned to get it out of the way so they could move on to more pleasurable activities.

“I’m hosting the gala. I can’t have you there, masquerading as me.”

“I won’t be masquerading as you. You know how much I hate that whole stick-up-the-ass feeling I get pretending to be you.”

“She can’t know about the switch, Jamie. She could blow it for me.”

“That’s not my problem.”

When his brother spoke next, his voice sounded tired—no, more than tired. Colin sounded exhausted and worried. “You don’t understand.”

“Fill me in. Then maybe I will.”

“I’ve been offered a job as one of the hosts on The Chicago Gourmet. The producers are going to be at the gala.”

“Congratulations,” Jamie said, rubbing his jaw. “So why don’t you sound excited?” The longer it took for Colin to answer, the more worried Jamie became. “What’s wrong?”

His brother said something, but it was so quiet, Jamie had to ask him to repeat it.

“I said, I’m losing it.”

“What do you mean, losing it?”

“My sense of taste.”

“What?”

“That’s where I was the other day—getting tests done.”

“What about your sense of smell?”

“It seems to be going, too.”

“What do they think it is?”

“They don’t know yet.”

Jamie let his head fall against the door frame. “Is it a tumor?”

There was a long pause before Colin repeated, “They don’t know.”

“Holy shit.”

“No one can know, do you understand? No one.”

Jamie scrubbed a hand up and down his face. “Daisy won’t expose you.”

“You don’t know that.”

It was true. Even though spending the morning with her had felt like spending time with an old friend, someone he knew but didn’t know, someone he liked a whole lot and wanted to get to know even better, he really couldn’t predict how she’d react to the news that he’d posed as his brother. The fact was, though he’d seen her in her tasty pink undies, he didn’t know Daisy Sinclair at all.

“Look. It’s not like it matters to you,” Colin said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know what that means. You go through women like disposable razors. One nick and they’re in the trash.”

Jamie stopped pacing to stare out the window of his office. While the analogy might be fair, he still didn’t like hearing it. Made him sound like an ass.

“You’ve got to let this go,” Colin said. “Besides, it’s too late.”

“What do you mean, it’s too late?”

“It means I already canceled the date.”