One Winter Wedding. Barbara Hannay
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let out a snort of disbelief. He hadn’t read any fairy tales since he was six and figured it had been nearly as long since he’d believed in happily-ever-after.
“What?” Emily demanded.
“It’s—nothing.” He stabbed at his eggs. “The whole thing is crazy. Fairy godmothers, everlasting love, all of it—”
It was impossible. He’d seen far too many marriage vows broken from behind the telescopic lens of his camera. Those couples had likely had dream weddings, too, but the dream couldn’t survive reality. And sometimes—like with Cara Mitchell—happily-ever-after turned into a living nightmare.
“Well, don’t tell Kelsey her business is a joke. She takes it very seriously.”
“I bet she does.”
Seriously enough that Charlene Wilson had put Kelsey in charge of “attending to him.” He’d overheard the comment yesterday but hadn’t realized he’d be in the hands of a professional.
“Why all the questions about Kelsey?”
“Just curious.” When Emily’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully, he added, “I don’t remember you talking about her when we were going out, that’s all.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t know her then.”
“Didn’t know her? She’s your cousin, right?”
“I, uh, I meant I didn’t know her well.”
“Uh-huh.” Emily was a horrible liar and not much better at keeping secrets. He could have pressed. A few pointed questions, and Emily would have told him everything.
Connor refused to ask. Even as curiosity stacked one row of questions upon the next, he wouldn’t ask. Not about why Emily hadn’t known her own relative, not about why Kelsey had gone to public school instead of the exclusive prep schools her cousins had attended, not about why she was weird when it came to the family fortune.
He wasn’t back in Arizona to find out about Kelsey Wilson.
Returning his focus to that goal, he asked, “What’s Todd up to today? He must have a lot of free time on his hands while you and your mother and Kelsey take care of all the wedding details.”
“Oh, no. He has a meeting this morning. He’ll be at his office most of the day.”
“Really?” Now, this could be something. Connor forced himself to take a few bites of waffle before he asked, “What kind of meeting?”
“I’m not sure.” A tiny frown tugged her eyebrows. “Todd doesn’t tell me much about his work.” Laughter chased the frown away. “Just as well. I’d be bored silly.”
“I doubt that. You’re smart, Emily. Smarter than you give yourself credit for.”
“Thank you, Connor,” she said softly.
“How’d you two meet anyway? I don’t think you’ve said.”
“At a department store.” She smiled. “We were both shopping for Christmas presents for our mothers, but he didn’t have a clue. Finally he asked me for help. It was really cute.”
“Hmm. Almost as cute as when we met.”
“Oh, you mean in that sleazy bar where you had to fight off those bikers who were hitting on me?”
“A bar you weren’t old enough to be at in the first place,” Connor pointed out.
“Luckily you were there to rescue me,” she said, lifting her glass in a teasing toast.
“Yeah, lucky,” Connor agreed as he tapped his own glass against hers.
Emily might not know it, but he was here to save her again.
The tiny butterflies taking flight in Kelsey’s stomach as she drove toward the hotel turned into radioactive monsters by the time she stepped into the lobby. She’d been crazy to make a deal with Connor McClane. Somewhere along the way she was going to lose her soul.
Although they hadn’t made plans to meet this morning, the best way to keep an eye on Connor was to embrace their partnership. As she walked by the three-tiered fountain toward the elevators, the doors slid open. Kelsey gasped and ducked into an alcove—the same alcove to which Connor had pulled her aside the day before—and watched in disbelief as her cousin walked by.
What was Emily doing at Connor’s hotel?
Her cousin rarely left the house before noon, and it was barely nine o’clock. What was Emily doing up so early? Or had she stayed out too late? Kelsey’s stomach churned at the thought. She hated to think her cousin would be so susceptible to Connor’s charms. And what about you? her conscience mocked. How easily did you agree to work with Connor in this very spot?
But that was different! That was about business and keeping an eye on Connor and keeping him away from Emily…not that Kelsey had done a bang-up job at either so far.
Emily slipped on a pair of sunglasses and smiled at a bellboy, who nearly tripped over his feet as she walked by. She didn’t look as if she’d rolled out of bed with her ex-lover, but then again, Kelsey had never seen Emily look less than perfect. Ever.
Kelsey stayed hidden as her cousin sashayed across the lobby and out the automatic doors, then made a beeline for the elevator. “So much for his promises,” she muttered as she jabbed the Up button.
“But why am I even surprised?”
She stomped out of the elevator on the fourth floor. Had she really believed Connor would keep his word?
Maybe she had. Which only went to prove how some people never learned. Rapping on Connor’s door hard enough to bruise her knuckles, she thought she’d be better off banging her head against the wood.
“Kelsey.” Opening the door, Connor greeted her with an assessing look and not an ounce of shame. Bracing one arm on the doorjamb, he said, “I’m surprised to see you here.”
“Are you?” Determined to ignore the masculine pose that could have come straight from some sexy man-of-the-month calendar, she ducked beneath his arm and made her way inside. She refused to have an argument in the hall where any guest, bellhop or room-service waiter might walk by. “If I’d shown up a few minutes earlier, it would have been a regular family reunion.”
“You saw Emily?”
“So much for your promise to keep your distance!”
Connor frowned. “I said I’d stay away. I can’t help it if she comes to see me.”
“Right. And I’m sure she forced her way inside your hotel room. Probably tied you up and had her way with you, too.”
Connor pushed away from the door and stalked toward her with that challenging expression still in his eyes. “That would really mess up your plans, wouldn’t it?”
“She’s engaged, Connor. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“Yeah. It means she’s about to make a mistake.”
Connor stepped closer, and the only mistake Kelsey could concentrate on was her own in thinking she could confront Connor face-to-face and not be overwhelmed by his masculine sensuality. He hadn’t shaved and the morning stubble only made him that much more appealing. Worse, she could practically feel the erotic scrape of whisker-rough skin against her cheeks, her neck, her breasts—
Afraid he could read her every thought by the glow in her cheeks, Kelsey ducked her head. Her gaze landed on the nearby breakfast tray, on a white coffee cup and a pink bow-shaped smudge left by Emily’s lipstick. The mark may have been left on Connor’s cup, not on the man himself, but the reminder that Emily had been there first doused Kelsey like a bucket of ice water. “Emily’s only mistake was inviting you.”
“Yeah, I bet that’s tough on you,