Lone Star Wedding

His mouth covered hers before she had the presence of mind to resist. She must have closed her eyes, because suddenly she had to rely on her other senses. Her lips parted, and a rush of feeling flooded over her. Their breath mingled, their lips clung. His hand went around to the small of her back, pulling her closer, until their bodies touched ever so lightly.

Her hands found their way to him, one inching up to his shoulder, the other spreading wide over his chest. He made a sound deep in his throat, and his heart raced beneath her palm.

Parker had always had a good imagination. God knew, it had been working overtime this past week, but imagery couldn’t hold a candle to the jolt of excitement that had begun to pulse through him the moment his lips touched Hannah’s.

She sighed, her long, lean body going fluid against his. Her three-inch heels made her the perfect height for kissing. Her waist fit his hands, the flare of her hips enticing him to explore. A few moments ago the garden had seemed idyllically private. Suddenly it wasn’t nearly private enough.

Music played from the other side of the courtyard. A bed of tall ornamental grasses blocked them from view of the others. Another shudder went through him, want and need melding, burrowing deep inside him.

“I don’t want to stop.” His voice was a rasp in the semi-darkness. “But we have to, at least for now.”

Hannah came to her senses slowly. She glanced nervously around, relieved to find them alone, the shadow of an old sweet gum tree on one side, tall grasses swaying in the breeze on the other. She placed her hands on her cheeks and took a backward step.

“That shouldn’t have happened.”

“I disagree.”

No doubt. She had to think, and it wasn’t easy to do with him standing there looking at her. “In a sense, you’re the enemy.”

“If you’d care to explain, I’m all ears.”

He wasn’t really, she thought. He was all shoulders and planes and angles and…

He slid a hand into the pocket of his dress slacks, the action drawing attention to a place she really shouldn’t be looking. She glanced up at his face, only to find herself staring at the cleft in his chin. For heaven’s sake, did everything about him have to be riveting?

Taking control of her senses, she said, “I’ve overheard bits and pieces of several conversations tonight, and the general consensus around here seems to be that you don’t want Ryan to see my mother. Something tells me it isn’t a moral issue with you.”

“At least you’re not blinded by my brains and good looks.”

He was very good at deprecating humor. If this had been a laughing matter she would have smiled. “At least it hasn’t gone to your head.”

“That isn’t what’s gone to my head, Hannah.”

She had absolutely nothing to say to that. Thankfully, footsteps sounded on the garden path, and she was saved from having to try to reply.

“Hannah, there you are.” It was her mother. “Oh, hello, Parker. Am I interrupting something?”

“Yes,” Parker said.

“No,” Hannah said at the same time.

“I see.”

“Parker and I have been talking. I was just telling him that neither Cole nor I will try to influence you when it comes to your relationship with Ryan. I didn’t have a chance to tell him how I feel about prenuptial agreements. Perhaps you’d like to enlighten him.”

“Parker’s just doing his job, dear.”

It was hard to tell who was more surprised, Hannah or Parker, but it was Hannah who said, “You’re defending him?”

Lily looked at Parker, but spoke to her daughter. “I believe Parker has Ryan’s best interests at heart. Ryan trusts him, and Ryan doesn’t trust just anybody.”

Parker found himself at a rare loss for words. He was accustomed to receiving respect when he earned it, but there was compassion in Lily’s expression, too. It left him feeling raw, as if something was missing from his life. It made him uncomfortable. Almost as uncomfortable as unspent desire.

Hannah linked her arm through her mother’s. Bidding Parker good-night, the pair strolled away. Parker watched until they rounded a curve and were out of sight.

He finished his walk alone, deep in thought. He had to get hold of this situation. His fantasies had been playing tricks on him. Now that he’d kissed Hannah Cassidy, he could get her out of his system.

He glanced at his watch. Coincidentally, his fifteen minutes were up.

Parker strode out the back door of the business complex that housed Malone, Malone & Associates. Snagging his key out of his pocket, he pointed it at the ground-hugging Corvette parked between the Mercedes and the Cadillac. The push of one button unlocked his door. The touch of another started the engine. Pausing, he listened closely. The timing was off. He’d better make an appointment to have his mechanic take a look at it.

Footsteps sounded behind him. “Parker,” his father called. “You’re just the man I wanted to see.”

Parker stopped and slowly turned. Another minute and he would have made his escape. His car wasn’t the only one whose timing was off.

“What is it, J.D.?”

“I’ll make this brief. I just came from the Double Crown Ranch.”

Parker acknowledged the information with a slight nod. “Any luck convincing Ryan to push that prenup?”

Tucking his briefcase beneath one arm, J.D. shook his head. “He wants his divorce from Sophia, and he wants it now. All he can think about is marrying the Cassidy woman. He says he trusts her.” J.D. made a disparaging sound. “You’ve got your work cut out for you, son. I understand you’ve made contact with Lily Cassidy’s daughter.”

Parker’s eyebrow rose a fraction of an inch, his only indication of surprise. “I suppose you could call it that.”

“Think you can get close enough to her to make her see reason?”

Parker knew how J.D.’s mind worked. By “reason,” he meant whatever suited him in his efforts to win the most money, the most assets, the lion’s share for his client.

“I don’t think so, J.D.”

“You kissed her.”

Parker didn’t even try to hide his reaction to that one. Did the man have spies?

J.D. smoothed a hand down the length of his tie. “I happened to be on that garden path last week. She looked pretty…shall I say, pliable.”

Parker clenched his jaw. “She’s refusing my phone calls. The flowers I sent her were returned to me, wilted.”

“So you’re already on it.”

J.D. turned to go. Accustomed to his father’s dismissals, Parker quickly strode the remaining distance to his car door.

“Parker?”

He looked up, one foot already in the car.

J.D. was watching him, eyes narrowed, his gaze cool and steady. His father had an uncanny ability to assess a person, a situation, a half-truth or an out-and-out lie. As a kid, that look had made Parker feel like a germ under a microscope. It still did.

“Check your calendar and let me know when you have an evening free,” J.D. said. “I’ll have my cook broil some steaks. You look like you could use a cattleman’s cut, medium rare.”

Parker hadn’t planned to smile. “I’ll do that, Father.”

J.D. smiled, too, but only briefly. And then he headed for the office. The father-son moment was over. It was business as usual.

An hour later Parker strummed his fingers on the steering wheel. His windows were down, but there wasn’t much air moving in downtown San Antonio today. Consequently, the plush leather seats felt at least a hundred and five degrees.

Come on, come on. He was parked along Smith Street, two car lengths away from a storefront painted a subtle charming beige. Two women, probably a mother and her grown daughter, had left a few minutes ago, arms filled with books and bags, heads undoubtedly filled with wedding plans.

It was twelve o’clock on the dot when he got out of his car and headed for the building bearing the sign The Perfect Occasion. A wind chime jingled softly when he opened the door, and air that was slightly cooler greeted him.

Hannah glanced up, the ready smile on her face suddenly looking a little less steady. “Parker, what are you doing here?”

He strolled farther into the room, the epitome of nonchalance, a hand on one hip, the other fiddling with a clasp he picked up off her desk. “I just happened to be in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d stop in and say hello.” He failed to mention that Ryan “just happened” to drop the name of Hannah’s business in passing that very day. He paused. “Is your air-conditioning on the blink?”

“No, why?”

His gaze made a quick trip over her sleeveless dress. She appeared cool and comfortable. “Never mind. I’m on my way to lunch. Care to join me?”

He could tell from her expression what her answer was going to be. Raising a hand, he said, “Would it sway your decision if I told you how much trouble I went to and how much time I spent juggling appointments so I could just happen to be in the neighborhood right now?”

“If you would have called first,” Hannah said, straightening pamphlets lying on her desk, “I could have saved you the trouble.”

“That’s a marvelous idea. I should know. I’ve tried it. You won’t take my calls.” He waited until she looked up to grace her with his sexiest smile. “And I take it you don’t like flowers.”

Her hands stilled for a moment, then resumed their task.

“Come on, Hannah. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for weeks. Even my father thinks it’s taking a toll on me. From the looks of all the brochures and swatches of material and files in this room, you’ve been busy, too. I have to eat. You have to eat. We might as well eat together.”

He gave her a second dose of his sexy smile.

“I can’t, Parker.”

Parker understood a simple no when he heard one. This wasn’t a courtroom, and she wasn’t a witness he could badger. She was a woman, and she’d made herself perfectly clear. He straightened and carefully returned the clasp to the edge of her desk. He did a quick inventory of the room. There were framed photographs on several shelves behind her; a yellow flowered sofa sat at a comfortable angle near a matching overstuffed chair. White lights were strung through the fronds of huge potted plants. Balloons bobbed from strings that were tied to an antique filing cabinet, a cardboard cut-out clown propped nearby.

It occurred to him that Hannah Cassidy made her living from planning more than weddings. Redistributing his weight to one foot, he said, “I’d like to hire you.”

“What?”

She had a suspicious mind. He’d given her good reason for it. “I’m thinking about having a party.”

“You’re kidding.” Her disbelief showed in the tone of her voice. Recovering slightly, she said, “What kind of party?”

“I don’t know. I just thought of it.”

“Parker, why are you really here?”

That was a good question. He worded his answer very carefully. “It isn’t because I have a lot of idle time. It’s just the opposite. Yesterday I was trying to talk an irate husband out of hiring a private investigator to follow his wife, whom he suspected was cheating. I was in the middle of trying to explain that in no-fault divorce states, there’s no use. Suddenly your image crowded into my brain. You’re interfering with my concentration.”

Hannah didn’t know what to say. Doggone it, she felt complimented. She had no business feeling that way. She and Parker were complete opposites. While she planned weddings down to the smallest detail, he took marriages apart, asset by asset.

“Look. I have an appointment across town with a very anxious bride to be.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a price list and several brochures depicting the different themes she’d used in planning parties. Placing the pamphlets near the edge of her desk, she said, “You can look these over, if you’d like. If you truly want my help planning a party, let me know. Otherwise…”

He glanced at the brochures, the rest of her statement hanging in the air, unfinished. That “otherwise” spoke volumes. He could hire her services as a party planner, but she didn’t plan to see him socially.

“I see,” he said. “Maybe I’ll do that.”

“Goodbye, Parker.”

Hannah watched him stride toward the door. It was in her own best interests to let him go. And she was letting him go. It was better this way. A clean break from what could have turned out to be a disastrous relationship.

She covered her lips with three fingers, remembering how it had felt to kiss him. If she let him go, how would she ever know what might have been?

She didn’t need to know. It was for the best. For both of them.

She wondered if he’d really been burning the candle at both ends. Had there been shadows beneath his eyes?

“Parker?”

His fingers were already wrapped around the doorknob when he turned around. His eyes looked hooded. She couldn’t read their expression from here. “You forgot your brochures.”

He retraced his steps, taking the brochures from her outstretched hand. Praying she didn’t regret this, she took a breath for courage and said, “I can’t have lunch with you, but I could free up my schedule for this evening. We could talk about this party you suddenly want to have then.”

The eyes staring into hers filled with a curious intensity. “Dinner?” he asked.

She pushed her chair out and stood. “That would be too much like a date.”

There was a good reason for that, Parker thought. “What else did you have in mind?”

“Do you own a bike?”

“A motorcycle?”

She shook her head. “A bicycle.”

“Not since I was thirteen.”

“That’s what I thought. You probably don’t have a pair of in-line skates in the back of your closet, either. Something tells me you get your exercise playing racquetball or walking on a treadmill. I prefer more spontaneous activities.”

Parker had the strangest urge to defend himself.

“Maybe we could go for a walk,” she said.

“You want to take a walk?”

She smiled. “That sounds lovely. Thanks, I’d love to.”

Parker shook his head. She thought she was so smart. That was okay. He happened to like smart women. “I’ll stop by around seven.”

“You can if you want to, but I won’t be back until seven-thirty.” She was grinning openly now.

“Seven-thirty, it is.”

“Oh, and Parker? I have one small stipulation.”

Of course she did.

“You can’t try to arm wrestle me into using my influence to change my mother’s mind about going public with her engagement to Ryan.”

Parker took a frank and admiring look at her. Her hair was down today, her dress a creamy beige that seemed to blend in with her surroundings. She had a great body, but he was beginning to realize that in front of him stood a woman who preferred to be recognized for having a great mind.

“If we arm wrestle,” he said, his gaze delving hers, “it’ll be to determine how far we go.”

Leaving her to mull that over, he strode loftily out the door.

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