Any Man Of Mine: A Waiting Game / A Loving Arrangement

THE RESTAURANT WAS the very best Ashton had to offer, spacious, elegant, with a hint of grandeur that would have taken Keena’s breath away nine years ago. As it was, she murmured suitably as James seated her. But the sophisticated woman she’d become wasn’t overly impressed, despite the company she was keeping.

James stared at her across the table when the waiter had brought the menus, frowning thoughtfully, his blue eyes approving.

“What a change,” he murmured softly, turning on the old charm she remembered so well.

A tiny thrill shot down her spine, but it was hardly the surge of pleasure she’d once imagined it would be to see that particular look in James’s eyes. It was disappointing. She’d halfway expected the earth to move.

She shifted restlessly in her chair. Nicholas had upset her in more ways than one. What in the world was she going to do about him? By tomorrow his presence in her house would be the subject of early-morning gossip over half the coffee cups in town. Not that she minded gossip ordinarily, but she had plans, and Nicholas was going to upset them all if she didn’t find some way to pry him out of her guest room.

“Did I say something wrong?” James asked, his tone one of concern.

She mentally pinched herself. “Of course not.” She created just the right smile and reached out boldly to touch his long-fingered hand. “I’m having a marvelous time. Remember when this restaurant first opened? Mayor Henderson cut the ribbon, and the lieutenant governor was the first guest...”

“He was a friend of Max’s,” he recalled, referring to the restaurant’s owner, Max Kells.

And not in my league back then, she thought drily. “Tell me, how is Max?”

He shrugged. “Fine, I suppose. I’ve been too busy lately to socialize much.” James stared at her thoughtfully across the table, breaking the gaze only long enough to give the waiter their order.

“You really have changed.” He repeated himself. “Velvet gowns, sophisticated, worldly. Do you really work in textiles?”

“I started out there,” she admitted. “But not on the floor. I’m a fashion designer now. My casual line sells to some of the most exclusive stores in the country—and abroad.”

“So it isn’t your...houseguesťs money that’s keeping you up?” he asked with careless bluntness.

It would be an obvious conclusion for someone who didn’t know about her unusual relationship with Nicholas, but it brought back James’s cruelty of years past with full force.

“No,” she replied coolly. “Nicholas doesn’t keep me.”

“Nicholas?” he fished.

“Coleman,” she provided. Her long, well-manicured fingers toyed with her crystal water glass. “Of Coleman Textiles,” she added.

Both his eyebrows arched toward the ceiling. “Exalted company,” he murmured.

“Isn’t it?” she replied with a smile. Nicholas’s vast holdings were hardly fair comparison for James’s small company, which he ran along with his modest law practice. In fact, Nicholas could have bought it all out of what he’d term petty cash, and James knew it.

“Is he your lover?” James persisted with an interest that seemed casual, but that Keena knew wasn’t. His fingers were idly rearranging his silverware, his blue eyes glancing at hers restlessly.

She only smiled. “How have things been with you?” she replied, ignoring the question.

He shrugged, acknowledging the slight with that tiny gesture. “With the factory? Well, it could be worse. With me?” he added with a soft laugh. “Life can be lonely.”

“Can it?” she asked absently. “I don’t have time for loneliness. I’m much too busy.”

“Are you staying for good, Keena?” he asked suddenly.

She met his eyes. Along with the cruelty, memories came back of the few good times, of James laughing, teasing her, of the first time he’d kissed her, of long walks in the woods. And then inevitably she recalled that last evening, her initiation into womanhood at his careless hands...

“Goodness, Keena, I’ve missed you,” he said gently, reaching for her hand. Smiling, he caressed it slowly.

Don’t fall for it, she told herself firmly. Don’t listen. But the pull of the past was strong, and James was handsome, and she was falling ever so gently under his spell. More by the minute.

“I’ve...missed you, too,” she replied hesitantly.

The waiter, standing patiently with his tray, finally caught James’s eye and began to serve the oysters Rockefeller that James had ordered along with a magnificent salad, filet of sole and dainty little croissants with butter.

James cleared his throat, his long face betraying his obvious interest in Keena to an outsider. Keena looked up from her salad, her eyes wary as they searched his intent face. He was looking at her in a new and exciting way. She smiled at him. The evening was suddenly full of promise.

“After we leave here,” James murmured sensuously, “how would you like to drive over to the lake?”

That had been one of their favorite haunts years ago when he took her out. Her eyes involuntarily sought his mouth. He had nice lips. Almost too soft to be a man’s, and she remembered the faintly chaste feel of them. She wondered if he’d learned to be more patient with women. Involuntarily, her mind went back to the way Nicholas had kissed her in the Rolls, and she flushed suddenly.

James, thinking the blush was due to the question he’d asked her about the moonlight drive along the lake, smiled confidently.

“How about it?” he murmured over his wineglass.

“Uh—” she began.

“Excuse me, sir,” the waiter interrupted delicately, “there’s a call for you.”

James muttered under his breath as he got to his feet. “Excuse me, darling?” he asked possessively.

Darling! “Of course,” she murmured breathlessly.

Her eyes followed him to the phone at the desk. She studied his long, elegant back while he spoke into the receiver, made a sharp gesture and hung up. His face was troubled when he came back to the table.

“We’ll have to leave, I’m afraid,” he muttered, pausing long enough to take one last sip of wine before he helped Keena out of her chair. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I’ll drop you off on my way to the plant.”

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“There’s been some problem at the plant,” he sighed. “Strange, I don’t remember my night watchman having a cold, but I suppose the line could have been bad.”

She thought about that on the way out. “Did he have an unusually deep voice, you mean?” she asked with dawning curiosity.

“Deeper than normal,” he replied absently. He paused to pay the check. “That company has been nothing but a headache to me since the day my father died. There are times when I wish...” He shrugged. “Never mind. Maybe it’s fate. An albatross around my neck to curse me.” He smiled down at her. “And maybe a beautiful fairy can break the spell.”

She smiled back as she followed him out to his car. All the way home she thought about that strange phone call. She didn’t mention her suspicions to James, but she had a sneaking hunch that he wasn’t going to find any trouble at his plant at all.

James pulled up at the steps behind the elegant Rolls-Royce.

“How about tomorrow night? Oh, damn, no, I’ve got a business meeting with a client in Atlanta. Thursday, for dinner?” he asked with flattering eagerness.

“I’d like that,” she agreed.

“Sorry about this,” he murmured, leaning toward her. But a second before he could kiss her, the front porch light blazed on and James drew back abruptly.

He cleared his throat. “Well, good night,” he said reluctantly.