Her Unexpected Baby
Trish Wylie

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Trish Wylie worked through a lot of careers to get to the one she’d wanted in her late teens. She has flicked her blond hair over her shoulder while playing the promotions game, patted her manicured hands on the backs of musicians in the music business, smiled sweetly at awkward customers during the retail nightmare known as the run-up to Christmas, and got completely lost in her car in every single town in Ireland while working as a sales rep. It took all that character building and a healthy sense of humour to get her dream job. She spends her days in reindeer slippers, with her hair in whatever band she can find to keep it out of the way—makeup as vague and distant a memory as manicured nails—while creating the kind of dream man she’d still like to believe is out there somewhere. If it turns out he is, she promises she’ll let you know…after she’s been out for a new wardrobe, a manicure and a makeover…

For the “Newbies.”

My special friends: Ally, Hannah, Nic and Ola.

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

THERE was something about a wedding that made families pick on the unattached members of their clan. When Dana Taylor’s brother Jack finally met his match and tied the knot, the entire Lewis family, at least the female members, seemed to descend on Dana like flies round—well, honey.

Dana refused point-blank to liken herself to anything else that flies might hover around.

‘You need to get back out there.’

‘Out there where, exactly?’ She kept a smile on her face, despite the fact she knew exactly what her eldest sister was referring to. Oh, yeah, she knew rightly. And so did not want to talk about it.

Tess sighed. ‘Dating.’

‘Oh, that out there.’

The next sibling in order of birth nodded as she took a sip of champagne. ‘Honey, it’s long since due. You can’t just sit in that run-down house of yours and wait for the menopause to arrive.’

She couldn’t? Why was she paying a mortgage, then, if it wasn’t so she could have her own space to do whatever the hell she liked in? Dana blinked slowly, then narrowed her eyes as she thought.

Tess nodded in agreement with Rachel. ‘Just because things didn’t work the first time it doesn’t mean there isn’t someone else out there who’d be great for you.’

‘You make it sound as if I live like some kind of hermit.’

‘Don’t you?’ Rachel raised an elegant eyebrow. ‘When’s the last time you went out and had fun?’

‘I took Jess to the beach last month.’

‘That’s mother-daughter fun. I mean…’ She leaned her head in closer and winked. ’Fun.’

‘She means sex.’ Her sister Lauren stated the obvious with a small nod.

Dana took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair. ‘Why can’t I just live alone and be happy?’

Tess snorted. ‘Because you’re not happy.’

‘Who says I’m not?’ she demanded.

‘It’s obvious you’re not.’

‘How the hell is it obvious?’

‘See? If you were happy you wouldn’t need to be defensive.’

Dana shook her head. ‘Sometimes I really wish you wouldn’t take the mothering role so seriously with us all. I’m fine.’

Tess, who had taken on the job of parent when their real mother had left them early on, simply shrugged her shoulders. ‘You can say that to yourself as many times as you like, but you’re lacking something in your life and we all know it. You do too, deep down. And I’m just saying that living every single day without ever taking any chances makes for a pretty empty life.’

‘My life isn’t empty. I have a daughter.’ She glanced around the room until her blue eyes fell on the figure of her ten-year-old, currently attired as a flower girl. Her baby. The reason she got up in the mornings and worked until night. She was a mother, and there was simply no more rewarding job on the planet. ‘I don’t need another failed marriage to my name. We do just fine on our own.’

Rachel reached across to pat her hand, where it lay on the table. ‘Hon, nobody is saying you should go looking for another husband. But maybe it wouldn’t do any harm to find someone to spend some—’ she smiled ‘—quality time with, every now and again.’

Dana blinked at her words. It wasn’t that she didn’t still believe in love or romance or passion. She just believed in them for other people, that was all. The Dana who had wanted those things for herself had long since received too many kicks in the teeth from reality.

‘Are you suggesting I should just go out there and sleep with someone?’ She tilted her head at her sisters. ‘Just for the sake of it?’

There was a murmur of conflicting answers from around the small table. It was Tess who eventually gave the official viewpoint, just as she had in debates of old. ‘A fling might do you good. You need to feel something again. You’ve switched yourself off, and that worries us all. It’s just such a waste.’

Rachel nodded in agreement. ‘It is. Dana, you’re a beautiful, smart, determined, funny woman—but right now you’re not letting yourself be any of those things. You shouldn’t shut yourself away. Try having a little fun time for you. Have an affair, if that’s all you want, but feel again. Feel what it’s like to be a woman.’

Dana ignored the list of her attributes. After all, anything coming from a family member was bound to be biased, right? She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it for a moment to mull over the words.

She didn’t think that she’d shut herself off. Okay, maybe at first, after the divorce, when everything had still smarted. When she’d had to sit down and admit she’d got married for all the wrong reasons. Maybe then she’d taken some time to re-evaluate her life and decided she was better alone for a while.

But, yes, perhaps it had been a long while.

‘You lot aren’t going to produce a queue of supposedly eligible men for me to test out, are you?’ The thought made her skin crawl. The words ‘charity dates’ jumped unbidden into her head.

‘No.’ Lauren smiled at the thought, knowing fine well that her smile probably gave away the fact that it had been discussed at some point. ‘We just think you should be more open to the idea of being Dana—you, not just the working mum—for a night or two here and there. When there’s an opportunity to get lost for a moment, and it feels right, we think you should go with the flow.’

Tess interjected. ‘We’re not saying cruise the bars for men.’

‘No, we’re not saying that.’ Rachel laughed at the very idea. ‘As if you would. Just open yourself to the possibilities again, is all.’

‘Let someone into your life.’

Dana sighed and looked to the balloon-strewn ceiling for intervention of some kind. They meant well. But it just wasn’t in her to be some lust-ruled female who could jump into a short-lived affair. Maybe once upon a time, when she’d been young and wild and free. But that had got her married and pregnant and divorced.

When she looked back, the three familiar, similar faces were smiling encouragingly at her. She sighed as she shook her head. ‘I’ll try being more open to the idea of seeing someone if the opportunity presents itself, but I can’t say that I’m ready to jump into some torrid affair—no matter how long it lasts or where it may take me.’

‘One step at a time is fine.’

‘We can live with that.’

‘We just worry, you know.’

She knew they did. They were all happily settled now. Even their brother Jack had managed to get past his hang-ups and had opened himself to the woman who’d turned out to be his perfect mate. It made a cynic like Dana harbour the tiniest flicker of hope inside that all that happily-ever-after stuff could still exist somewhere.

And probably it did. It just really hadn’t turned out to be for her. She’d had her chance and it hadn’t worked. Now she had to just get on with it and live the life she had. But she was making changes in her career, and working towards a better home for her daughter and herself. She had hopes and dreams for her daughter’s life. She hadn’t managed the wife part, but she could be the kind of mother her own hadn’t managed to be.

Yes, indeed. Dana thought she was doing okay. Just okay, maybe, but that was enough for her. No matter what her sisters might think.

Mind you, that wasn’t to say that it wouldn’t be nice to be made to feel like a woman again for a while. That deep-down sensual woman who was hidden inside every female. Mmm.

Dana unconsciously ran her tongue across her mouth. It was just a shame that the kind of men who could bring that out in a female weren’t hanging around all over the place. Though maybe that was just as well for the sake of survival.

Unconsciously her eyes moved across the room to the tall man who stood beside her brother. Adam, his best man. He was exactly the type she’d have looked at once upon a time. Tall, handsome, charm by the bucket. But she’d married one of those, and look where that had got her.

She sighed. When it came to passionate affairs Dana was in the middle of a huge desert—and it was a long, long way to the next drink of water. No matter what her most basic needs might be.

No, passionate affairs just didn’t land in her lap every day. But if one did? She smiled. Maybe just once wouldn’t be so awful. After all, what harm could it do to feel again?

CHAPTER ONE

Six months later

ADAM DONOVAN had the most amazing effect on women.

It was a gift, really, and probably had more to do with the way he looked than anything else. Though he could be charming when he really wanted to.

Dana watched as he managed to charm the pants off yet another customer.

It was truly disgusting.

She shook her head the tiniest amount. What on earth did all those women see in him? She decided to make an inventory of all things good about him. Though that did mean putting to the back of her mind the list she’d already formed of all things bad.

She’d worked with him for months now, and that latter list was getting long…

Okay, so there was his height. That was good. A woman always found it distracting if the man was so short that every conversation was directed at her breasts.

He was fairly broad too, indicating—incorrectly—that he spent a lot of time doing physical exercise to keep in shape. Dana, however, knew better. His idea of physical activity was probably limited to one particular room of the house, and that room wasn’t the kitchen.

Oops. That was from the All Things Bad list, wasn’t it?

He was a fairly good judge of clothes too. All the right clothes for all the right occasions. What he spent on a shirt would keep Dana and her daughter in groceries for a week. On this occasion he was wearing a rather nice green one, which managed to highlight the colour of his eyes. Clever guy.

His face was fit for the pages of a glossy magazine on any newsagent’s stand worldwide, complete with dimples, unbelievably white even teeth, that Dana was convinced in her own mind he had polished regularly, and a smile that could charm Eskimos into buying snow. Which, granted, was a terrific asset when it came to selling houses to people. Especially houses that didn’t exist yet beyond a great big muddy hole in the ground.

Boyish dark blond hair, cut to just above his collar, with a side parting that managed to allow thick locks to fall across his forehead when he leaned forward to talk to a woman. As if by accident? Dana smiled slightly to herself. Like hell.

He really did tick a lot of boxes on the All Things Good list. He was a partner in a thriving company, came from a good family, and was generally an all-round eligible bachelor. Very eligible. Women really, really liked Adam.

Dana, meanwhile, found him a right royal pain in the ass. But then, after all, she worked with him.

He glanced up at her from beneath thick lashes. When he found her looking at him, with just a faint smile on her lips, his eyes narrowed slightly before he glanced away. Dana knew that he wasn’t used to her smiling at him that often.

They were just very different people, that was all. Nobody had ever said they had to like each other. Which was just as well, really. Dana had managed to avoid him for years, but, since she’d bought a half-share of the company he owned and ran with her brother Jack, she had seemed to spend every single day arguing with him about something. Or about nothing. Or about pretty much anything, for that matter. When it came to Adam Donovan, it seemed that Dana was the only woman in the country who didn’t see him as God’s gift.

And she liked it that way.

Adam really wished that she’d stop smiling at him. It was disconcerting. Dana didn’t smile without reason. She wasn’t a natural-born smiler. Well, not so he’d noticed since she’d started working with him.

There he was, switching on the patented Donovan charm to seal them another contract, and she was smiling at him. How was a man supposed to work under these conditions?

Even as he was smoothly convincing Mr and Mrs Lamont of the benefits of under-floor heating in their modern interior, Dana Taylor was plotting something. He could feel it.

His partner’s sister, now his partner herself, was a devious woman.

Adam had met devious women in his time. Dated a few, avoided a few, run away very fast from a few. But this one…well, suffice it to say she was devious on a whole new level.

Dana just had a knack of getting people to do things when they really didn’t want to. They’d walk in with an attitude of ‘no way, uh-uh, not doing that’, and leave blinking and wondering how’d they managed to change their minds without knowing that they were doing it. It was a gift when it came to awkward customers or building crews, but it was annoying as all hell for someone who shared an office with her.

He glanced across at her again. Still smiling right at him. He felt his palms begin to sweat. Any minute now she’d have him wearing a skirt, and he probably wouldn’t notice until there was a draught.

He let the Lamonts look at the sketches of their dream home and excused himself for a moment.

In two long strides he was stood in front of her.

‘Okay, what?’ His low tone dictated a voice level for a private conversation. She just stared at him, a blank expression on her face. He hated it when she did that.

‘Is something wrong?’

He frowned. ‘You tell me.’

The smiling continued. ‘Nope, you’ve lost me, I’m afraid.’

Given the opportunity, he would love to. ‘You’re smiling.’

‘Am I?’ She smiled even more. ‘Is there a law against that?’

‘You don’t smile.’

‘I most certainly do. See?’ She tilted her head and smiled a big fake smile that showed her straight teeth.

‘You don’t smile at me.’

‘Does that upset you?’ She blinked innocently.

He practically growled at her, instead whispering through slightly gritted teeth, ‘You could just come on over and do that thing you do to help sell this house.’

She shrugged, smiling over his shoulder at the Lamonts. ‘Oh, you’re doing just fine, from what I can see.’

He studied her through narrowed eyes for several long moments. She was just so completely and utterly irritating. Everything about her irritated him, from her beautiful, flawless, not-a-hair-out-of-place exterior to her highly organised way of doing things. She was what would have once been termed as ‘unflappable’, and that just really annoyed Adam.

Adam, who lived by the seat of his pants in a chaotic little world of his own.

It had worked for him his whole life, and he had never felt there was a single thing wrong with it. Until Little Miss Perfect came along.

‘Stop smiling at me, then.’

She raised her elegant eyebrows a barely visible notch and looked up at him with cool blue eyes. ‘Well, if it’s annoying you so much…’

Adam shook his head, cupped one large hand over her elbow and pulled her up from her perched position on the edge of the desk. ‘Customers, Dana. The people who pay our wages.’ He leaned close to her ear. ‘People we are not having an argument in front of. So, whatever it is you’re doing—quit it.’

Dana gently extricated her elbow from the warm grasp that tingled through to her skin, smoothed the front of her jacket with her hands and then side-stepped to get past Adam’s bulk. Her calm smile remained throughout. She had irritated him, and that was always worthwhile.

Mrs Lamont smiled as she approached. ‘The house is beautiful, Dana. You have just done some wonderful things with the plans for the interior. I’m so glad Lucy recommended you.’

Dana smiled a more genuine smile. Louise Lamont’s sister Lucy had been a friend from her college days, and Donovan & Lewis had designed her new home for her just a few months ago. ‘I’m really glad you like it, Louise. All we did was put what you’d described into a few pictures, and it’s every bit as beautiful as you knew it would be.’

Ah. There it was. That thing she did.

Adam smiled. Louise Lamont hadn’t had any more of an idea of what she wanted in a house than she had of how to perform major brain surgery. Every design magazine she’d bought had changed her mind, until the place was pretty much bound to end up looking similar to Santa’s grotto. Then there was Dana, and suddenly Louise had loved a mixture of modern clean lines and classic design, just as if she’d wanted it all from the beginning and it had been her idea and not Dana’s. The woman really did believe that the house had been all her idea and that she was practically a design genius!

Devious.

Louise positively beamed. ‘Lucy can’t wait to see you at the reunion. She says she’s going to tell everyone that they should see Donovan & Lewis if they want a house done.’

Dana felt warmth tinge her cheeks. She avoided Louise’s direct gaze and glanced over her shoulder. ‘I’m not actually going to make it to the reunion, I’m afraid. We’re terribly busy at the moment.’

Adam’s eyebrows raised. She was uncomfortable? That got his interest.

‘Oh, but you must, Dana. Everyone’s expecting to see you since that article you had done in Ireland’s Home & Hearth.’ She practically drooled the name of the design magazine. It had been obvious from day one that that was where Louise would have liked to see a photo spread of her new house. Nothing to do with family comfort or a personal pleasure in her surroundings…

‘Not this time.’ Dana smiled sweetly. ‘But I’m sure I’ll make the next one.’

Now, that was a lie. Adam didn’t know how he knew, but he knew. He’d just caught Dana Taylor lying about something. Oh, this was good. It had to be something big, and Adam really, really needed to know what it was. That kind of information could prove worth a fortune on the open market. How to flap the unflappable…

‘Well, we’re not so busy we couldn’t spare you for one evening, Dana.’ He stepped into the fray with a wide smile. ‘A reunion, is it? I just love those—don’t you, Louise?’

Louise fluttered her eyelashes at him, blushing faintly at his use of her first name. Good God. Dana wanted badly to be sick.

She turned her head slightly towards Adam and gave him one of her best ‘stay the hell out’ smiles. He’d witnessed them several times, so it shouldn’t take much for him to know it was time to stop.

‘I love them, Adam.’ The woman actually giggled like a ten-year-old. Dana knew that for a fact, due to the endless giggling of her own ten-year-old. Oh, come on! She glanced at Mr Lamont to see if he’d noticed. But they’d obviously hit that period in their marriage where he had developed selective deafness.

‘You should go, Dana. I bet it would be fun.’

Under normal circumstances she’d have wiped the grin off his face with a swift, cutting remark that would in turn have led to a disagreement and stony silence in the office for a few hours. Instead she took a small breath and stared him straight in the eye. ‘You know how seriously I take my work, Adam. I really don’t have time to go.’

Adam had translated her smile to mean ‘stay the hell out’, and grinned even wider. This was great. Seriously. He’d pay good money for moments like this. He slung an arm around her slender shoulders, fitting her pretty much under his expensively scented armpit, and, giving her a squeeze, continued to flirt with Louise.

‘She’s just so dedicated, isn’t she? But I think I’ll manage to persuade her to go along, don’t you?’

‘Oh, I’m sure if anyone can it would be you. I’m sure you’re very persuasive.’

Ugh! The very thought. Dana managed not to shudder.

‘Not this year. Maybe next time.’ She side-stepped out of Adam’s grip and pointed at the plans in front of Mr Lamont. ‘You’ll see we’ve kept the staircase open to allow light to flood through to the dining room.’

Mr Lamont nodded and studied the plans again.

Adam wasn’t so easily distracted. ‘When did you say this thing was, Louise?’

‘Oh, it’s this weekend. It’s not too late for Dana to go. She was so popular back in college. I think that’s why Lucy said Jim took such an interest—’ Louise’s eyes burned into the back of Dana’s head. ‘Oh, Dana, I do hope that’s not the reason why you’re not going. Is Jim going to be there? Oh, my, that could be awkward, couldn’t it?’

Adam’s eyebrows shot upwards. ‘Jim who?’

Dana’s eyes locked with Mr Lamont’s for a second before she smiled and turned back round. ‘Jim Taylor. My ex.’ She aimed the words at Adam with an icy stare. ‘And, no, that’s not the reason I’m not going, Louise,’ she lied without losing her smile. ‘I really am busy. After all, we wouldn’t want your project falling behind schedule, would we?’

Louise looked terrified at the very idea. ‘Oh goodness, no, we wouldn’t! I’ve planned to have photographers there for Christmas—haven’t I, Paul?’

Paul Lamont glanced in her direction. ‘If you say so, pet, I’m sure you have.’

‘Well, then.’ Dana nodded coolly. ‘We’d better get these final plans approved, hadn’t we?’

She shot a sidelong threatening glare at Adam as she turned. She could see plainly how he wanted to continue enjoying her discomfort, and with a spark of her eyes she warned him to drop the subject. Just try it and see what happens, bucko!

Adam took the hint and dropped it.

Until about twenty seconds after the Lamonts had left…

‘You’re not going to this reunion because your ex-husband might be there?’ He nodded with a sarcastic twist of his lips. ‘That’s mature.’

Dana folded the Lamonts’ plans carefully and placed them back inside their manila folder. ‘None of your business, is it?’

‘Possibly not, but—’

‘I think you’ll find the conversation ended with “possibly not”.’ She turned and frowned over at him. ‘Stay out of things that don’t concern you, Adam. You’ll live longer that way.’

‘What are you so worried about? Are you afraid he’ll find out you still love him or something?’ He waded on in with his size thirteens. ‘Is that it? Or maybe you don’t want him to know that you’ve stayed single all this time?’

On her way to the filing cabinet, Dana stopped dead and swung round with flashing eyes. ‘I am not still in love with him! And I’ve damn well had dates since I split with him. Not that that’s any of your bloody business either!’

Adam actually rocked back slightly. Little Miss Perfect had a temper? Since when? His mind moved more slowly than usual, distracted suddenly from simple thought by how her flashing eyes and flushed cheeks changed her usual cool exterior. She looked sexy. All she needed was to do the whole ‘remove one pin and shake her hair loose’ thing…

He recovered with, ‘You don’t have a date, do you?’

She placed a hand on her hip, cocked her head to one side and practically spat the word at him. ’What?’

‘For this reunion. You don’t have a date.’ He folded his arms across his broad chest and took a deep breath. ‘And you don’t want to see him with some sweet young thing on his arm while you’re doing the whole lonely-pint deal.’ Dana truly, truly hated him in that moment. If she hadn’t before, she did now. There was nothing more smug than an already arrogant male being proved right.

‘Whatever you think.’ She turned and marched the last couple of steps to the filing cabinet, wrenching the drawer open with too much force when she got there. Damn him. She hated losing her temper.

There was silence for a few moments, as Adam thought and Dana started counting inwardly to calm her temper.

Adam took another breath. ‘I’m right, then.’

‘Oh, gee.’ She turned and glared. ‘Aren’t you always?’

Adam recognised sarcasm. Even when it had all the grace of a hippo in high heels. Not that Dana was the teeniest bit over the recommended weight for her height. God forbid. That wouldn’t be perfect, would it? No, the woman curved where she was supposed to curve, both in and out. ‘Pretty much.’

Dana took a deep breath and moved around the office with silent grace, collecting files and errant pens and putting them back into their allotted places. ‘Now that you’ve managed to score a hit, can we drop this one?’

No chance. Adam smiled inwardly. She should know him better by now.

‘So why can’t you get a date?’

‘You tell me—you’re the one with all the answers.’

‘Have you tried—hell, I dunno—’ he shrugged and leaned back against his desk ‘—asking someone?’

She actually laughed out loud. ‘You know, I haven’t.’ With a small turn of her patent leather heel she looked him straight in the eye, folding her arms across her chest and leaning back against her own desk in an exact mirror of his stance. ‘Who would I ask, exactly?’

‘You’re bound to know someone.’

‘With my schedule?’

‘Well, you must have friends who know someone.’

She smiled mirthlessly. ‘Not someone who’d be suitable for the whole—’ she unfolded her arms to make speech marks in the air with her fingers ‘“—slap in the face, up yours, Jim” effect I’d want, no.’ She folded her arms again.

Adam’s eyes narrowed. ‘You need someone to irritate him?’ Her personality wasn’t enough? ‘What—someone to make him jealous or something?’

‘Not in the way you think.’

He continued to stare at her. ‘In what way, then?’

She took a deep breath and shook her head. ‘You wouldn’t understand, so what’s the point?’

‘Try me.’

It would be a new direction if she decided to take that path. It would mean telling him something private, something vaguely embarrassing—even a little, well, girlish in places. It would also be opening a small window into her life. Into the secrets and pain she carried with her, well buried, from her past. In giving him that information she would be giving him ammunition for their next argument. And, even if he didn’t ever use it, she would still know he knew. It was a big risk.

He watched the debate unfold in her eyes as she continued staring at him. They were the only part of her that she wasn’t able to mask with an air of remote coolness. When she was annoyed or irritated, amused or excited by something, it all showed in her eyes. It was why she wore sunglasses so often to hide them, or dropped her chin, or turned her head slightly. Oh, yeah, he knew those little tricks of hers—knew them well enough to know when he’d scored a hit.

‘How about if I promise not to use it against you at a later date?’

She was surprised by the offer. It almost seemed sincere. Adam Donovan trying to be nice? Nah. Not in her lifetime.

‘Why do you need to know?’

He shrugged again. ‘Maybe I might actually be able to help.’

A small smile twitched at the edges of her mouth. ‘Oh, really? How exactly would you see that working? And, more importantly, what would it cost me?’

‘You have a very suspicious mind.’

‘Around you? Yes, indeed I do.’

‘I just offered you an olive branch of sorts.’

‘Yes, you did, and that’s why I’m suspicious.’

‘Would it kill you to try trusting me just once?’ He frowned at her. ‘It’s not like you’ve tried it before, is it?’

He had a point. Trusting him was something she’d never done or considered since she’d met him. And there probably was an underlying reason for that, if she decided she wanted to look for it. But then, in fairness, she’d seen him in action. Apart from his business dealings, Dana had witnessed nothing that would lead her into trusting him with personal information. If she’d become anything in the last eight years it was a survivalist. But she was curious nevertheless.

‘Again: why do you want to know, exactly?’

Good question. Blinking at her questioning eyes, he decided not to search too deeply for a reason. He’d go with a sensible answer. He worded it carefully. ‘Maybe if you actually took the time to trust me with information occasionally, I might do the same thing.’

‘And that would be interesting to me because…?’

He pressed his lips together and managed to swallow a sarcastic answer. ‘It might improve the atmosphere in this office, for one thing. If we tried actually getting to know each other a little instead of this constant bickering.’

She took his words and mulled them over in her head for a few moments. The bickering could be tiring sometimes; that much was true. Other times it could be quite stimulating…occasionally a little fun, she admitted reluctantly.

But could she manage to give a little without ending up giving away too much? That was the question. It was a big step in their ‘relationship’. Maybe if she tried it the once, she could decide better what to do the next time…

Hell. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

She surprised them both with, ‘Okay.’

His eyebrows raised slightly. That had been a tad too easy, hadn’t it? He felt a need to look around for the catch. But he was a big guy. He’d play. ‘So, what is it with you and this guy, then?’

Taking a deep breath, she waded in. ‘I’m not prepared to let him get the better of me.’

‘In what way?’

She knew she had to be tired to be even having this conversation, but she was in it now. She sighed. ‘He has a new girlfriend.’

Adam waited patiently.

‘And from all accounts I’m led to believe she’s drop-dead gorgeous and highly successful at everything she does.’ She gritted her teeth and forced the words out. ‘I can’t let him do the whole…’

He unfolded his arms to mimic her earlier statement. ‘“Slap in the face, up yours, Dana” thing?’

‘Exactly.’

‘So it’s tit for tat?’ He nodded wisely. ‘I’m still going with my “That’s mature” response.’

Dana stood up and walked round her desk to retrieve her overcoat. ‘I knew you wouldn’t understand.’

‘Because there’s more, and I damn well know it.’ He blocked her way when she lifted her bag and tried to leave. ‘So what is it?’

Blue eyes glared at his chest for a moment before eventually looking up. ‘Since he walked out on Jess and me he’s become Mister Successful—Mister Everything-He-Wasn’t-When-He-Was-With-Us. And meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’ve just about managed to hold my head above water.’

From the emotion he saw in her eyes he knew she was being honest, and it affected him. His voice softened of its own accord. ‘You’ve done okay.’

That was how much he knew. ‘Yeah, sure—just okay. Nothing special, nothing amazing, nothing at all in my personal life. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to turn up at that reunion and have everyone talking about how poor Dana has only just coped without good old Jim.’

He mulled her words over. Somehow he knew there was more to this story. And he wanted to know what it was. Maybe there was more to Dana Taylor than the whole Little Miss Perfect thing she did so damn well.

She didn’t like him much. He knew that and was quite happy with it, in fact, because the feeling was mutual. But he could be a nice guy when he tried. And maybe, just maybe, if he tried being nice the one time she might be less of a nightmare to work with. She’d owe him, in fact. Adam liked that idea.

‘Okay. I’ll be your date.’

CHAPTER TWO

‘ADAM offered to be your date? Really?’

Dana blinked across at her sister-in-law. They’d become close incredibly fast, considering Dana’s lack of trust for new people. But it hadn’t taken long for her to see how much her brother Jack loved Tara, and within a short period of time it had become obvious why. She was special. If a tad…well, unusual at times.

At that precise moment they were curled up on the sofa in Jack and Tara’s living room. Tara, nearly five months pregnant, was wearing a huge T-shirt with an arrow that pointed down to her stomach and the words ‘Bun in the Oven’ emblazoned across her chest.

‘Yes, and my face must have looked exactly like yours does now when he said it.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I think I stood with my mouth open long enough to catch flies.’

‘And then you said…?’

‘I said he had to be kidding.’

‘And he said?’

‘That it was a genuine offer. And Wouldn’t it get me out of a hole?’ She mimicked his voice.

Tara grinned, her grey eyes wide. ‘So you said…?’

‘That in order for it to get me out of a hole it would have to be believable, and we weren’t exactly a match made in heaven.’

Tara waved her finger in the air. ‘You’ve got a point there.’

‘I thought so,’ Dana sighed. ‘I mean, who on earth is going to watch the two of us together for more than sixty seconds and not recognise the fact that we can’t stand each other? That man could make a nun commit murder.’

‘You’ve mentioned that. Jack finds it hilarious.’

‘He would.’

‘Though you have to admit…’ Tara looked thoughtful for a moment, then spoke over the rim of her cup. ‘Adam definitely fills the requirements for an “in your face, Jim” date.’

‘Possibly.’ She’d already admitted that fact to herself on the drive over, although it had taken ten miles before she’d allowed the thought to take root. In fact, she’d done the whole ‘pros and cons’ list again, as it happened. If there was nothing else about Dana she was at least logical. She thought things over. Assessed them carefully. Very carefully.

Adam as a partner was just too ridiculous.

‘Walking in on his arm certainly wouldn’t do your reputation any harm.’

‘Until he opened his mouth.’

Tara smiled as Dana sipped at her tea. It never ceased to amaze her, the differences between Jack and his sisters. Especially this one. Whereas Jack was a spontaneous, off-the-cuff guy, who followed his heart in everything he did, Dana was at the complete opposite end of the scale. Sometimes it was as if the very thought of losing control of anything around her was just too big a step for her to take.

Then, just every so often, there would be a tiny glimpse of her that matched her brother. But those glimpses were rare. Rare and a wonder to the beholder.

Dana really had no idea of her own worth as far as Tara could see.

‘Aw, c’mon, Dana—he could charm the pants off the entire room within about twenty seconds of getting there, and you and I both know it. He’s a man’s man, as well as every woman’s idea of a complete stud muffin.’

Dana mulled the words over for a moment and then sighed. ‘But not the type who’d date a woman like me. It’d be completely and utterly unbelievable, and that’s why it would never work.’

‘Why wouldn’t you be the type of woman he’d date?’

Dana’s eyebrows rose slightly at the question. Then she shrugged. ‘I’m not glamour model material. I’m more…hell, I don’t know…the kind of woman that a bank manager would date.’

‘You fancy your bank manager?’

That drew the required smile. ‘You’d know the answer to that if you ever saw him. The only attractive thing about that man is the fact that he controls my overdraft.’

‘And Adam?’

Dana turned in her seat to stare at Tara. ‘You think I find anything attractive about Adam Donovan?’

‘You’re not blind.’

‘He doesn’t look like the back of a bus. I’ll give you that.’

‘And?’

‘And?’ Dana’s eyes widened. She wasn’t about to make any confession on the subject of whether or not she found Adam remotely attractive. Tara would just have to go fishing in another pond. ‘There isn’t an and, Tara. Other people may think he’s the be-all and end-all, but I know him. I work with him every day and I think he’s an arrogant—’

‘Yes, I know, I know.’ Tara waved her hand. There was just no arguing on the subject of Adam with Dana. And the romantic side of Tara had tried. ‘I get that. But you have to admit that he would be one hell of a candidate for the reunion. You’d just need to try and forget all you know about him for one little evening and then you could go back to normal. Sounds fairly simple.’

Dana blinked as she thought, the conflict visible in her expressive eyes.

Tara continued, ‘By not being there, in a way you’ll have let Jim win, don’t you think?’

‘How will I?’

‘He’ll think you didn’t go because you knew he’d be there with Melanie. He’ll think it matters to you that he’s with someone and you’re not.’

Yes, he damn well would. But it was Adam Donovan they were talking about, here. Adam bloody Donovan.

Dana searched for another exit route. ‘I wouldn’t be believable as someone Adam Donovan would look twice at.’

‘Because you’re not his type?’

‘Exactly. Like I said.’

Tara shook her head. Didn’t Dana ever look in the mirror? ‘I think I need that explained better.’

With a frown, Dana looked away from Tara’s probing gaze. ‘He exclusively dates the glamour girl type—all makeup and shiny hair and cleavage. The vaguely vacant type is all I’ve ever seen come by for lunch. Trust me. I’m not like that.’

Tara studied Dana’s controlled exterior. To all the world she was sleek, elegant, sophisticated. Nothing was ruffled or out of place, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Everything indicated that she was matter-of-fact, ultra-smart and businesslike, reliable. Nothing about her exterior indicated her creative personality or the wicked sense of humour that every member of her family possessed.

Tara’s eyes wandered over the dark hair swept back into a neat chignon at the neck of her jacket, the face with delicate features barely touched by make-up. Ah-ha…

‘We could do a makeover.’

‘A what?’

‘A makeover. Recreate Dana Taylor for one night.’ Tara’s smile grew, her imagination kicking in. ‘That’d get the room talking. The brand-new, sexy Dana with the drop-dead gorgeous Adam Donovan. Hell, that’s bound to make you the talk of the town for a few months. “In your face” material if ever I heard it.’

Dana watched as the idea formed in her sister-in-law’s eyes, her face now animated. This thing was getting out of control. Really. It was a runaway train.

‘What kind of makeover?’

‘You just had to volunteer didn’t you?’

Adam looked at his own eyes in the rearview mirror.

‘Yeah, and you nearly, almost got away with it. But, no. You went and volunteered, and now you’re going to a reunion with the woman you spend half your life trying to get away from.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re a genius, aren’t you?’

With practised ease he honed his sports car round a corner at its usual sixty miles an hour, and then swore as he had to reduce speed rapidly to make the turn into Jack and Tara’s lane way.

His business partner and best friend had let the bachelor team down badly when he’d gone and got married. But Adam had forgiven him—just about. After all, the man was happy—hell, contented, almost. He could forgive the act if it had that result on a guy he loved like a brother. But as for Jack lumbering Adam with his pain-in-the-ass sister… Well, that would take longer to forgive.

He parked his favourite toy, took a deep breath, and walked up the steps and onto the porch of the huge Victorian house. The door swung open before he got to it.

‘Hey, pal.’ Jack Lewis grinned at him from the doorway. ‘Nice tux. Don’t you look sweet?’

‘Anyone ever told you how much you’d suit a black eye?’

‘Nope, but if you reckon you’re man enough to try it out…’

Adam grinned across at him. The two men were of equal height at the six-two mark. ‘Nah, wouldn’t dare. Your wife would kick my ass.’

‘Indeed she would.’ Jack stood back to allow Adam to step into the hallway, his hand immediately reaching across to slap his back. ‘This is a nice thing you’re doing, by the way, so I’ll just get this out of the way right now…’ He waited until Adam looked him in the eye. ‘I appreciate it.’

He damn well should. Adam smiled at the younger man. ‘No problem.’

Jack’s face changed slightly. ‘If you knew what that useless ex-husband of hers—’

Adam had moved closer as Jack began to confide in him, but was distracted when movement caught the corner of his eye from the top of the stairs. Turning his head, he glanced upwards as Dana approached.

If his mind hadn’t recognised the woman as Dana Taylor he’d have fallen in love there and then. She was, quite simply, stunning.

‘Are you going to keep on looking at me like that all night?’ She didn’t look across at him as he smoothly changed gears and sped along the wide road.

Adam gritted his teeth. This was going to be the longest night of his life. ‘And how exactly am I looking at you?’

She took a breath and stared at the alien that was her own reflection in the windscreen. ‘Like you’re a chocaholic and I’m a bar of best Swiss.’

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. How in God’s name had she noticed that, when she’d spent the last twenty minutes staring straight ahead? The atmosphere in his small car couldn’t have been cut in half with a chainsaw.

‘That’s how most men with a pulse look at women who wear dresses like you’re wearing—didn’t you know?’ He smiled sarcastically. ‘It’s a chemical reaction, so don’t get your G-string in a twist.’

Dana sincerely hoped his remark was flippant and not because he could actually see what she was wearing beneath the dress.

Tara had been like a woman possessed from the moment the word makeover had left her lips. Dana, left to herself, would never have worn a dress like this in a billion years. After all, at her age she had things like hypothermia to consider.

‘Well, could you kindly stop it?’

‘Why? Aren’t I supposed to be your date? Let me tell you, if this was a real date and you wore that dress we wouldn’t even have left the house yet—and you’d have your make-up to fix in about an hour.’

She squirmed slightly on her seat, his words conjuring images in her mind that her imagination had no business creating. For the entire day she had been trying to think up ways of getting out of this charade. But Tara had been having so much fun with it all, and in a small way it was flattering to have people stunned by her transformation. Even if the majority of them were family and the other was the one person on the planet who irritated her most.

‘Well, we’ll never know, will we? Because this isn’t a real date.’

They drove on in silence for several long minutes, each of them alone with their thoughts. Adam caught her squirming again in the seat beside him and smiled with sudden realisation. ‘You’re uncomfortable as hell with how you look tonight, aren’t you?’

Great. Insight. When had he developed that?

‘I’m not exactly dressed as me tonight, am I?’ The words spilled out. She really shouldn’t have drunk all that red wine while Tara got her ready.

He shrugged. ‘Not as the anally retentive you that I work with every day, no.’

‘Anally retentive?’ She turned her head to frown at his words. ‘You think I’m anally retentive?’

Adam glanced at her and grinned. ‘Hell, yes. You think you aren’t?’

Was she? She mulled his words over in her mind as the car sped towards their destination. The Dana of old would never have been described as anally retentive. Far from it. She’d been wild back in the day—a practical joker, a live wire. But back then she’d been carefree. Life had changed that. Now she was a single mother, and responsibility came with that title. Maybe she was a tad anally retentive in her working life—when Adam saw her. It was the only part of her life she’d ever allowed him to see. She’d been careful about that. Even Jess, her daughter, had never been brought to the office. So he really had nothing else to base his assumption on, did he? She shouldn’t actually have cared that he thought it. But somehow she did. It ruffled her feathers.

‘I like things at work to be organised.’ She tilted her head slightly as she said the words in a sharp tone. ‘And you can’t tell me that that office didn’t need some organisation. You couldn’t even find a pen when I first arrived.’

It was true. But that hadn’t stopped the business from being successful. They’d always got the important things done on time. It might have meant a night or two of burning the midnight oil to get there. But they’d always managed it. Just.

He wasn’t so pig-headed that he wouldn’t admit that her need for neatness and systems had helped. Now the place ran like a well-oiled machine. But in a small way that had taken some of the fun out of it for Adam.

‘You could loosen up a bit and it wouldn’t kill you.’

‘I’m loose.’ She blushed at her own words and he grinned across at her.

‘I don’t need to know about your personal life, Dana.’

‘You don’t know anything about me!’

Not beyond what she wanted him to see. He knew that much. Had known it for months. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t known Jack’s sisters before, but Dana was as much a mystery to him now as she’d been when he’d first set eyes on her. Elusive, almost. It was another one of the many things that bugged him about her.

‘You’re right. I don’t.’ He focused his gaze back on the road as they approached the turning to the hotel where the reunion was being held. ‘Any more than you know anything about me. But that doesn’t stop you from judging me, does it?’

She snorted quietly. ‘And you’re going to tell me you have some hidden side to you, are you? It’s well hidden, isn’t it?’

He screeched to a halt in front of the large building, yanking the handbrake with superfluous force before silencing the purr of the engine and turning to scowl across at her.

‘You don’t want to get to know me, Dana. That’s your problem. You’re so bloody uptight that you prefer to just place people in safe little boxes and never look any deeper than what you see on the surface. Makes everything very safe and secure for you, doesn’t it?’

Her heart beat a little faster as her anger grew. ‘And this is precisely the reason I didn’t want to bring you to this damned reunion. We’re not even inside the building and already we’re having an argument!’

Adam took a deep breath and looked out of the windscreen. He watched several people in evening dress filtering in through the hotel’s glass doors. They were here now. And, as much as he wanted to turn the car around and take her right back to where they’d come from, he was a bigger man than that. He wouldn’t let her off that easily. She was just so determined to be right all the damned time. Well, not this time. He’d make the evening convincing if it killed him.

‘You need to pretend you like me for this to work.’

‘I’d win an Oscar for that.’

He turned to look at her again. ‘Give it a try. Pretend I’m someone else, if you like. Because that’s what I intend doing with you.’

‘Pretend I like you?’

He nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘Forget who you are?’

‘Yes.’ His jaw clenched. ‘Just for a few hours. Try looking at me as a man, and not as something you picked up on the heel of your boot. I can do it if you can.’ Though it would take some effort. ‘All we have to do is forget about real life for tonight. Make like we’re two people who just met and are still getting to know each other. No preconceptions, no false judgements. Live for the moment and all that.’

He made it sound so simple. She blinked across at him. Was it? Was it just that simple? Forget that he was Adam for one evening and get to know him as if he was just some guy? Like a blind date of sorts? She took a breath. It would be a stretch.

The old Dana would have pulled this off with her eyes shut. The old Dana would have found it all hilarious, a great joke—a challenge, even. Was there any of that girl left any more? Or had reality squashed her down too much?

Another deep breath. She would try. It was a college reunion, for crying out loud. If that couldn’t remind her of the girl she’d used to be then what could? She was walking into that room completely made over, à la Cinderella. And with a ridiculously attractive Prince Charming type at her side, too. What the hell else did she need to pull it off?

Guts, possibly? She’d had those once.

‘What’s wrong, Dana?’ His voice dropped to a deep, intimate note. ‘No guts, no glory. If you’re too chicken for this, or if you’re not woman enough to walk into that room in that dress…you just say the word.’

Damn, damn, damn. Why did it have to be him?

It was as if the room went still when they walked in. To the outside view they made one hell of a couple.

Dana couldn’t tell if the assembled company had actually done the whole silent thing, due to the band playing on stage at one end of the large area, but heads certainly turned and conversations were certainly interrupted.

Dana smiled. It was actually a nice feeling. She couldn’t remember the last time people had looked at her as if—well, like they were doing right that second. With a sense of awe, almost. With maybe a touch of ‘wow’ in their expressions. It felt good.

Adam noticed her smile and smiled himself, moving his hand up to touch her back, to guide her into the room. He was reminding himself to play the game. He only remembered when his hand touched soft skin that her dress had no back.

His hand jumped away as if burned before he forced himself to set it back in place, moving his long fingers in an unconscious caress as he ushered her into the crowd. Her skin felt good, his mind recognised, silken and warm to the touch—and that was only on her back. Being male, his mind wandered to other areas where a woman’s skin was softer still. If she was this soft where his hands were now…

He cleared his throat, suddenly noting how warm the room was for so early in the evening.

Dana had jumped too when his hand touched her. Surprise, she told herself. After all, it wasn’t as if Adam made a habit of touching her naked skin on a daily basis. When his hand settled the second time, and those long fingers of his began their smooth caress, she felt her pulse beat erratically. She’d always known he had quite an effect on women. And she’d always wondered why. But if the simple touch of his hand had that kind of effect then she now had a pretty fair idea of the ‘why’. TMI, as her daughter would say. Too much information.

She glanced up at him with a tilt of her head, her blue eyes exploring his profile for signs that he’d noticed her reaction. After a second he glanced down and their eyes locked. He moved his hand along her back again, his forefinger tracing a line along the ridges of her spine, downwards to the inward curve of the small of her back.

Her eyes grew heavy. He was good at this make-believe stuff.

Adam watched her reaction to his touch. She was quite the little actress. Pretend she was someone else. That was what he’d said he’d do, right? Well, hell, it wasn’t going to be tough. The woman in front of him was a complete stranger—as far removed from the Dana he knew as…as Godzilla from Brigitte Bardot.

This woman was hot. Hot to the touch, hotter than hell to look at—and, had an alarm bell not sounded at the back of his head to remind him occasionally of who she was, Adam would have wanted her. Big style.

As she flicked the edge of her tongue across her mouth he leaned towards her ear. ‘I think we got their attention.’

Waiting until he raised his head slightly, she looked into his eyes and smiled. ‘I’d say so.’

His eyes wandered from hers to a lock of curled hair that brushed against her flushed cheek. He reached out to turn it between his fingers, his other hand still continuing its caress against her spine. ‘So, do you want to mingle, get a drink, dance? Or maybe…’ His eyes met hers again. ‘Maybe we should just find a corner to continue convincing them in.’

If he did much more convincing Dana was fairly sure she’d explode. Her poor pulse would just beat its way right out of its little passageway. The nerves she’d had about attending the stupid reunion and all that red wine were obviously making her react in ways she wouldn’t have under normal circumstances. Yeah, that was it. It was a form of stage fright, that was all. This acting thing was a toughie. But she wasn’t going into any corner to convince anyone of anything when Adam was looking at her like that.

It was as if she’d stepped into a different reality. But she could deal with it. She could make it through—somehow…

‘I think I’d like a drink.’

His smile widened, awarding her a glimpse of those perfect white teeth and those dimples of his. ‘I can arrange that.’ He suddenly leaned down. Dana tilted her head at that exact moment to listen to what he was saying. The two movements in the same split second caused his lips to just barely touch across the sensitive skin below her ear, and his voice tickled against the goosebumps the touch had created. ’Chicken.’

She watched him as he walked away from her, his broad shoulders stretching the material of his jacket as he moved. About six steps away he looked over his shoulder at her and winked. Dana laughed as he turned away again. He really did have enough arrogance to fill the room. Reluctantly she had to admit inwardly that it had a certain element of charm about it. Wild horses wouldn’t drag the words from her lips, though.

Even as she laughed at his departing figure she was suddenly surrounded by arms, and lips kissing her cheeks. When she was finally freed she glanced round at the four grinning faces of her friends from the old days. The ones who had known the old Dana best.

‘Oh, my lord, Dana, where did you get that hunk of man from?’

‘How long have you been seeing him?’

It was Lucy who eventually stepped forward to silence them all.

‘Now, girls, give Dana time to catch her breath.’ She winked sideways at her. ‘And after seeing you in action I’d say you need a moment or two to catch your breath.’ She flapped a hand in front of her face before smiling a warm smile. ‘I never knew you two were an item. I thought you just worked together.’

Tracey McKenna blinked at her. ‘You know that man?’

‘Of course I do.’ Lucy nodded. ‘He’s Adam Donovan—as in Donovan & Lewis, the designers. Dana and Adam work together.’

‘You work together? How do you concentrate long enough to get anything done?’

Dana smiled. ‘Believe me, it’s tough. But I manage somehow.’

‘He’s sex on a stick, isn’t he?’

‘God, you always could get them.’ Ella Dawson blinked at her with a twinkle in her eye. ‘If there was a great-looking guy within fifty paces he always ended up chasing round after you.’

Dana searched for a hint of sarcasm in the woman’s eyes and blinked in surprise when she found none. She examined the words. Really? Ella thought that? She glanced around to see if a crowd of men had formed that she hadn’t noticed. Nope.

‘You really need to get glasses, Ella. There’s no rush of men in my general direction.’

‘Not while you have Adam Donovan with you, there’s not!’

No, and pretty much never, actually. She was a single parent who was apparently anally retentive; surely that in itself was enough to keep the men from breaking down her front door?

Lucy smiled. ‘You were always popular with the guys, Dana. And, in that dress, what warm-blooded male wouldn’t be interested? You look sensational.’

‘Doesn’t she, though? I said pretty much the same thing.’

The deep, familiar voice sounded beside her left ear, and Adam charmed all of the women as he rewarded them with a smile they each thought was meant only for them. He then handed Dana her glass with a sparkle in his eye, and immediately replaced his hand on her back, where the skin was still warm from the last time he’d touched her.

Dana raised an eyebrow as she sipped at her wine. He’d said no such thing, actually. What he’d done was gape at her from the bottom of the stairs, then steal glances at her on the trip over. And now he felt he had carte blanche to keep touching her.

‘We were just saying how typical it is of her to end up with the best-looking guy in the room.’ Tracey leaned towards Adam as she spoke. Lots of women did that, Dana knew.

Adam blinked. ‘Really? Bit of a goer, was she?’

Dana gritted her teeth beneath a smile and elbowed him hard in the ribs. ‘Isn’t he just the funniest?’

‘Just a small part of my many charms—isn’t it, babes?’

And if he called her babes again she was going to elbow him lower next time. She felt him move his hand across her back to her hip, leaving his thumb to play against her skin as he pulled her closer to his side.

‘She was just so much fun to be around.’

Adam gaped slightly at Lucy, the only one of the women he’d met before. Fun? To be around? Dana Taylor?

’Really?’

Dana glared up at him. If he was supposed to be pretending he was in some great relationship with her surely he shouldn’t look so damned surprised at the thought that she might actually be fun?

Fortunately Lucy appeared to be a couple of wine glasses past observant. ‘Oh, yeah! I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen her dance on tables or lead us all on some madcap trip somewhere. Do you remember the Twenty-Four-Hour Club, Dana?’

As his thumb continued to move along the edge of the material of her dress, over her skin and what he thought might be the minute string of her underwear, Adam’s mind worked overtime. He sincerely hoped that the Twenty-Four-Hour Club was no relation to the Mile-High Club, or he would never be able to share an office with Dana again.

Dana’s face began to flame. Not so much because of Lucy’s reminiscences of the past as the fact that she was now being completely distracted by Adam’s hand against her. The last thing she needed was for him to find his earlier assumption as to the kind of underwear a woman was forced to wear beneath this type of dress had in fact been correct. She tried to squirm subtly further away from the steel wall of his body.

But Adam was having none of it. He pressed his hand firmer against her hip and drew her closer. With a downward glance that said Oh, no you don’t, he asked the obvious question. ‘Twenty-Four-Hour Club, babes?’

She swallowed. He really could be quite intense close up, couldn’t he? She damped her lips. ‘Probably not what you’re thinking it was.’

‘Then why don’t you tell me?’

‘It was basically an excuse for drunken trips away.’

Dana grimaced at Lucy’s choice of words. They were accurate, which didn’t help her cause any. She gulped down more wine.

Lucy, meanwhile, continued. ‘The idea was to get as far away from base—which was college—as possible, and back again within twenty-four hours, on a pre-agreed budget.’

Adam smiled at the thought. ‘To anywhere?’

‘Oh, yes. We got all over the place—didn’t we, Dana?’

Dana opened her mouth to answer, then closed it again as Lucy continued. ‘It started with a boat trip to Scotland, then one to France, then some of us got a bit further afield until Dana the Master topped us all.’

His smile upgraded to a grin as he looked down at her. ‘Where’d you end up?’

‘New York.’ She finally managed to get a word in edge-wise.

‘On a budget of what?’

Lucy laughed. ‘That was the best bit. She dressed up as some kind of medical person, and carried a pig heart in a freezer case a medical student mate of hers had got from the hospital. She blagged her way onto the flight for virtually nothing because she was carrying a donor organ. Took some major flirting, from what I’ve heard, but she was famous after that.’

Adam looked at her with more respect than she’d ever seen before from him. Trust him to value her more for her immoral and irresponsible ways of old than for her ‘anally retentive’ organisation around the office. Typical. ‘I’m impressed.’

‘You just would be, wouldn’t you?’

He tilted his head. ‘I’m seeing a whole new side to you here.’

She managed a small smile at the truth in his words. ‘I guess you are.’

His thumb moved slowly backwards and forwards against her skin. Hypnotic, almost. With a lazy blink of his green eyes he lowered his voice to a deep rumble. ‘Anything else you want to tell me about?’

She hadn’t wanted him knowing anything in the first place. The hypnotic movement continued against her skin. ‘What do you want to know?’

His eyes looked deep into hers. What changed you? The question formed in his brain and almost made it to his mouth. But he closed it just in time. He needed to keep reminding himself this was Dana Taylor, his very own personal nemesis, the woman who made work days seem much longer than their allocated eight to twelve hours.

A voice sounded from outside the sexually charged bubble they were creating. ‘You know she sings?’

CHAPTER THREE

IT WAS officially becoming the longest night of her life.

You know she sings? had progressed as the evening continued to You should sing with the band for old times’ sake. Several glasses of wine later, and the runaway train had gained speed to Boys, get Dana to sing, and eventually half the room had chanted until she set foot on the stage.

Things had just never really improved from the minute the word makeover had left Tara’s lips until the second Dana stepped up to the mike and looked down on the face of her ex in amongst the crowd, disapproval written all over him.

Add to all that the fact that the make-believe game she was playing with Adam was proving entirely too easy and—dare she think it?—enjoyable, and really things couldn’t get much more complicated.

He had smiled down at her with his impossibly attractive smile as she’d been pulled from his side by the people she had once called friends but probably never would again after this night. And as she had glanced back over her shoulder at him she had, for a very brief second, not wanted to leave him. ‘Let’s pretend’ at its most convincing!

Billy, the lead guitarist with the band she’d regularly sung with at college, stepped forward to announce, ‘This one’ll bring back some memories for you lot. Guys, girls—give it up for Dana Lewis!’

She blinked for a moment at the use of her maiden name, then the first soulful notes of an old blues song sounded up. Oh, great. A song with innuendo.

Of course. What else would it be in the nightmare from hell she was currently having? Okay, so it was one she’d sung on many different occasions, but not to a crowd that held an ex-husband who might read a lot into the lyrics and a ‘date’ who appeared to be convinced she was in love with the ex. A ‘date’ who was forcing her blood to thrum in her veins in ways she’d never before experienced.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes to shut out the surreal place she was currently visiting, and began to sing.

Adam shut his mouth when it occurred to him he must look like a child who’d just been told Santa didn’t exist. Who the hell was this multiple-personalitied woman?

The Dana he worked with every day sure as hell didn’t look like the kind of woman who would stand on a stage and sing like that. Her voice was husky, sultry. In fact, in the dictionary under ‘sexy’ it probably said ‘listen to Dana Taylor sing’. The sound went straight from his ears to—well, much further south than his ears, and he was stunned by his own reaction.

She slipped a hand up to caress the mikestand, up and down, and his mouth went dry. Dear God.

Her hips swayed slightly as she tilted her head and stepped one foot out to the side. The long slit in the side of her dress allowed a long, glorious, illegal-in-most-countries length of leg to be exposed to the room. Adam gulped and glanced around at the number of men looking up at her. He felt a sudden need to run up and cover her with something—anything that would shield her from their prying gazes.

She opened her eyes and looked directly at him, damped her lips with the end of her now familiar pink tongue and sang directly at him, her eyes burning him from across the room.

He stepped closer, drawn in by the small smile she gave him. Then her eyes moved and he followed her line of vision to the tall fair-haired man near the back of the crowd. So that would be him, then.

His eyes moved back to her. She threw her long, dark, curled hair back over one shoulder with a flick of her head, her eyes shining with—what? Anger? Pain? Adam wasn’t sure he wanted to know which.

There was clear innuendo in the words of the song as she sang them—to him?—then turned her gaze back to the remainder of the crowd, closing her eyes and raising her arms slightly with a shrug of her naked shoulders as she continued.

Had she chosen to sing that song specifically for him? The ex? The one she claimed she wasn’t still in love with? And why the hell did he, Adam, care all of a sudden if she was or wasn’t?

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