Reflected Pleasures

This opportunity that her lawyer had uncovered, the chance to do something for the Lost Children Foundation, was going to be her break from that former vapid existence. It was her opportunity to do something real…be someone…with real thoughts and feelings.

This evening she’d met with Jewel’s garden club and agreed to help them give their modeling show and luncheon. Fortunately, Tally Washburn was more than willing to oversee the luncheon details. Now there was a real administrator—or maybe a commandant would be a better description.

And Ty’s aunt Jewel had browbeaten a couple of the women into rounding up suspects for the mother-daughter modeling positions. This whole fashion show idea was going to work out all right. They had six weeks to pull it off.

It was just her relationship to Ty that Merri was having trouble dealing with. When she’d first come to this town and rented the cottage, the only thing she’d wanted was to be alone.

Well, to do her job the best she could, and to be alone. Far away from the runways, nightspots and microphones. Far away from the phonies of the world.

So…as much as Merri hated lying to Ty and having to hide out, she was willing to do anything for her one chance at a new life. And that included ignoring the sensual sensations she’d felt whenever he looked in her direction.

Okay. Maybe she could do that. But how on earth was she going to teach him to become less brash and uncivilized as his attorney had suggested? That was one job that might be a lot tougher than even she could handle.

Relationships, any kind of real relationships, were out of her experience. But phony ones—now there was a place where she excelled.

She smiled to herself when she thought of her recently broken engagement. Poor Brad. The tabloids were no doubt having a field day at his expense…and hers.

At first, she’d been more than willing to let herself become his tabloid girlfriend in order to throw the paparazzi off the trail of his real relationship. Brad was a good guy and she’d never minded lying to reporters—until the paparazzi caught him with his boyfriend.

But lying was exactly her problem. Eventually, her whole life had become one big, pixiedust-filled lie. Nothing but fluff. When another model she’d thought of as a friend taunted that she wouldn’t recognize real human beings if she fell over them, Merri decided that it was time to get out of her old life and find a new one.

The phone rang and broke the silence that she’d been enjoying. She blinked and wondered if it was one of the women volunteers she’d met earlier. She’d deliberately left her cell phone behind in L.A. It was too easy to trace.

Maybe tomorrow she would go to the discount store and buy an answering machine so she could monitor her calls. Heaven forbid if a reporter found her phone number and dialed her up to check.

When she did answer, a familiar voice was on the other end. “Did you manage to eat dinner, or did the garden club keep you tied up all night?”

Tyson Steele. That low, masculine voice was impossible to forget. It ran shivers over her skin and set fire to a tiny bubble of warmth low in her groin that threatened to explode at any moment. But she hadn’t expected him to call.

“Don’t you say hello before you begin your conversations? You’re not my mother, just my boss.”

Oops, that sounded a little too smart-mouthed for something that Merri Davis would say. He was her boss and she needed to try to remember it. Maybe the low, sensual sound of his voice had pulled a plug in her mind and her brain had drained.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized, before he could say another word. “But you took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting you to call after working hours.”

After a moment of silence, Ty cleared his throat and began again. “Hello, Miss Davis. Good evening. I understand from my aunt that you were late coming home from the garden club meeting. I was concerned that you might’ve had to miss your dinner.”

“No, Mr. Steele, I did not miss dinner. I fixed myself something when I got home.”

Another moment’s silence dragged along on the other end of the line. “Could we go back to Ty and Merri?” he finally asked. “I didn’t mean to sound so brusque, but my aunt was worried.”

“Your aunt?”

“All right. I was worried, too. I promised Jewel I’d see to your welfare, and I intend to keep that promise.”

She smiled, charmed by his concern, but glad he couldn’t see her to know it. “Don’t think you need to take me on as some kind of mission. I’m an adult.”