Switched At The Altar

Stunned, Desiree sank to her chair. “Kevin told you he was going to ask me to marry him?”

“No, not in those words precisely. But I realized once I got here and took stock of the situation that that’s what he’d been trying to tell me.”

“Why? What did he say?”

“It’s not so much any one thing that he said, but several things he said. Add to that the reflective mood he was in and how his thoughts seemed to wander. Now I can see where he was heading with all that talk he was spouting about the importance of following one’s dreams, of setting goals for the future and seeing them through.”

Which explained why Kevin had upped and dashed off to Chicago the way he had, leaving her short one actor for her play and a weak promise to return in time for the opening. Kevin had gone in pursuit of his dreams—a deeper relationship with his girlfriend and a career on the stage.

Alex jammed his fingers through his hair, mussing the model-perfect cut and making him somehow more handsome because of it. “Fool that I am, at the time I thought he was talking about joining me at the firm.”

Poor Alex. She could have told him that Kevin didn’t have the least bit of interest in becoming an attorney or in joining the family-owned firm to run their megabusinesses.

“Of course, now I realize he was talking about you and his intention to marry you.”

“What!” Desiree did a double take.

“Come off it, Ms. Mason. It all makes perfect sense now. Kevin was trying to tell me he wanted to marry you.”

“And I’m beginning to think you’re one beignet short of a dozen. Either that, or that Boston brain of yours can’t handle the sky-high humidity down here. How on earth did you arrive at that ridiculous conclusion?”

“Quite easily, when you consider all the facts. First there’s—”

“Stop!” Desiree raised her hand. “I don’t even want to hear it. Kevin was not talking about marrying me. The dream he was referring to is his acting. He wants to be an actor, not an attorney.” For now, she decided, it might be best to leave out the little detail of his dancer girlfriend.

“Don’t be absurd. Kevin’s not interested in acting. He’s always wanted to be a lawyer.”

“Then how do you explain the fact that he has a role in my play and that I met him while we were both working at another dinner theater?”

“If Kevin’s shown any interest in acting recently, I’d say it’s because of his involvement with you.” Alex began to pace. “You’re the one who’s responsible for his quitting school.”

“Now, wait a minute—”

“Damn.” Alex slapped his palm with his fist. “I should have realized something was wrong when he came home a few weeks ago. He was quiet to the point of being somber. And Kevin is never somber.”

No, he wasn’t, Desiree admitted. Kevin was as happy-go-lucky as his brother was obviously serious.

“I should have known there was something behind all those crazy questions he was asking me.”

“What crazy questions?”

Alex pinned her with his dark gaze. “Ridiculous questions like whether or not I’d ever been in love or if I’d ever thought about getting married.”

Before she could check her reaction, Desiree asked, “What did you tell him?”

“No.”

Of course, his answer would be no, Desiree decided. She didn’t doubt for a minute that while Alexander Stone would probably be a generous lover, he would never give any woman his heart. For some reason she found that thought oddly depressing. “Well, I still don’t see how Kevin’s reflective mood and questions about your love life made you come to the conclusion that he was talking about marrying me.”

Alex planted his hands on her desk and leaned forward, bringing his face eye level with hers. “It was simple. Because when I told Kevin that if he had any crazy ideas in his head about getting married he should forget them, he gave me that choirboy grin of his and told me not to worry. He said he’d already proposed to you and you had turned him down, claimed you were too old for him.” Alex sneered. “But I guess once you found out about his trust fund, a few years difference in age wasn’t such a big problem anymore.”

Desiree lost it. She pushed to her feet and smacked her hands down on the desk. She leaned in, brought her face close to his, employing the same intimidation tactic he’d tried to use on her. Glaring at him, she said, “You fool, I didn’t even know Kevin had a trust fund. But if I did, it wouldn’t have mattered a lick to me if I’d wanted to marry him. But I didn’t. And I still don’t. Kevin and I are friends. That’s it. Just friends.”

“Then you don’t deny that Kevin asked you to marry him?”

“No.” Why should she? Kevin was a born flirt. He’d proposed to her and half of the females in the cast on a regular basis. No one took him seriously. No on except Alex, evidently.

The look Alex shot her could have withered a rock. “Tell me, Ms. Mason, do all of your ‘friends’ go around asking you to marry them?”

She straightened her spine, tipped up her chin and did her best to look down her nose at him. “No, not all of them,” she replied sweetly, marveling at how she managed to sound so calm when inside she was spitting mad. She took pleasure in seeing the wariness creep into his eyes. “Usually the only ones who propose marriage are the men.”

Three

Alex gritted his teeth. The woman was baiting him, and he knew it. He didn’t doubt for a second that she had any number of men after her. Trouble was, he was hard-pressed not to join their ranks, because right now he wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss that sassy mouth of hers himself.

“But don’t worry, Alex. If I ever decide to take Kevin up on his marriage proposal, you’ll be among the first to know—right after we say ‘I do.’” Tipping her chin up a notch, she gave him a chilly smile. “Now, you really will have to excuse me. I’ve got a dinner theater opening in just over a month, and I’m still short one cast member.” She reached for the stack of business cards she’d been playing with a few minutes earlier. Sitting down in the chair behind the desk, she swiveled around and gave him her back.

Maybe it was several days of too little sleep. Maybe it was the frustration of the morning’s discoveries and being unable to locate Kevin. Or maybe it was just the simple fact that he’d been suffering with a bad case of lust from the moment he’d walked into that ballroom and seen this green-eyed siren about to marry a man he’d thought was his brother. Whatever the reason, her cool dismissal had done what few people, and certainly no woman, had had the power to do before. She’d destroyed the last of his control.

He didn’t stop to think about how out of character his reactions to this woman were. He didn’t stop to think how heavy-handed he was being. He didn’t think period. Instead, he reacted.

In the space of a heartbeat, Alex was behind the desk, spinning her chair around so that she faced him. Grabbing the arms of the chair, he shoved it backward until the wheels hit the wall.

“Alex!”

He leaned forward, bringing his face so close to hers that he could see the black centers of her eyes widen in surprise, smell that damn flowered scent on her skin. “Maybe that duchess-to-peasant routine works on those college boys you’re used to dealing with, but it doesn’t work on me.”

He heard her breath catch, watched the shock in her eyes fade and darken with awareness. The air hummed between them like an electrical wire that had snapped and was dangling dangerously during a storm. Her tongue slipped out to moisten her bottom lip. Alex’s body hardened; blood rushed to his groin as he followed the movement.

“Tell me, Alexander Stone. Just what does work on you?”

Her husky, honeyed drawl set off images in his head of satin sheets, soft skin and hot sex. His brain shut down as his body tightened with renewed desire. He stared at her slightly parted lips and gripped the arms of the chair even tighter. The need to taste that luscious mouth again hit him with the force of a prizefighter’s fist As though she could read his thoughts, her breath hitched. Her eyes fluttered closed.

Alex gave up and stopped fighting himself. He leaned a fraction closer, already anticipating the feel of her mouth beneath his, when suddenly something brushed against the back of his legs. He jerked away, nearly tumbled to the floor as he felt that “something” wind itself around his feet and legs. “What the—”

“Meow.”

Alex glanced down at his feet where a black ball of fur was rubbing itself against his ankles, weaving its body in and out of his legs.

“Meow.” The cat looked up at him and gave him another rub. Then it started to purr.

Alex wasn’t sure whether he should curse the fur ball or thank it. He didn’t have time to do either because his eyes began to water. Damn, he thought, blinking in reaction to the animal fur. But his allergy kicking in was a small price to pay, Alex told himself. If not for the cat’s intervention, in another five seconds he would have been kissing Desiree.

That realization brought him up short. Alex scrubbed a hand over his face and shifted uncomfortably at the ache still present in his lower body. Lord, he’d been only a breath away from kissing her—a breath away from betraying his brother.

He winced at that sobering fact. Desiree Mason was by no means the first woman he’d ever wanted physically. There’d been several in his thirty-four years, and he’d enjoyed a number of satisfying sexual relationships with several of those women. But not one of those women had ever made him forget rhyme or reason. Not one of them had ever made him forget to put his brother’s interests first.

Guilt slapped at him. What in heaven’s name had he been thinking of? She was Kevin’s girlfriend for Pete’s sake! The woman Kevin thought he loved and wanted to marry.