‘Mr. Thorne, I’m wondering, would you have hit Barker Blessing last night at the awards ceremony if Ms. Delaney hadn’t dumped her chocolate mousse in his lap? Or was it, as Blessing suggests, a publicity stunt?’
The subtle pressure on his arm and the slight threat of Kendra’s nails served as a reminder to be nice. He forced a smile.
‘You were there. You saw what happened, Mr. Pittman, and what I might have done if Tess hadn’t decided to share her dessert with the esteemed Mr. Blessing is a moot point, don’t you think?’
A middle-aged woman who worked for the Oregonian elbowed her way past Pittman. ‘Ms. Delaney, clearly exciting things were going on at your table last night, things that led to Mr. Thorne dragging you away, and there isn’t a person who saw that performance who doesn’t want to know what really happened.’
Kendra stepped forward, offered everyone her award-winning smile and then a modest blush. ‘In all honesty, last night was a bit overwhelming for me. Remember I told you that I’m not much for public appearances. I was terrified I was going to fall over my own feet on my way up to accept the Golden Kiss Award. I’m a bit of a klutz, really, and here’s shy, reclusive me in front of the whole world, and then winning the Golden Kiss and all. I never expected that.’ She bit her lip and her eyes welled with emotion. Garrett was stunned again by just how good she was. Several of the reporters nodded their understanding, and Garrett could almost feel the swell of sympathy.
‘Anyway, I was mortified when my dessert fell into Mr. Blessing’s lap. We all know the weight the man carries in the literary world and how respected he is. And here he was paying attention to me, and then I go and dump my dessert in the man’s lap, and him in a white suit.’ Someone at the back sniggered. Garrett bit the inside of his cheek to keep from doing the same. Kendra took a bosom-heaving deep breath. ‘Well, as you can imagine, I was horrified, and all my plans for being graceful and impressive went right out the window. That was sort of the straw that broke the camel’s back.’ She leaned close to Garrett as though she needed his support, and he slipped an arm around her, which was no hardship at all. In fact, he wasn’t acting when he pulled her protectively to him. ‘I really am a very private person, painfully shy, actually, and right now I’m working very hard to meet a tight deadline. And all the excitement and everything, well, you can imagine the stress it caused. I was simply overwhelmed, that’s all.’
‘You seemed fine to me,’ Pittman said.
Kendra’s fingers dug into Garrett’s ribs in warning. She batted her eyelashes and offered her most sincere smile to the bastard. ‘Well, I was supposed to seem fine to you, Mr. Pittman. That was why I was surrounded by Garrett and my lovely publicist, Don Bachman. They both agreed that getting me out of a stressful situation was essential.’ Her face became suddenly serious. ‘Honestly, I can’t even think about what might have happened if they hadn’t acted so quickly.’
Everyone else nodded sympathetically, but Pittman still didn’t look convinced.
A reporter spoke up from the back. ‘The news this morning is that Tess Delaney novels are flying off the shelf after last night, and yet you say what happened wasn’t a publicity ploy?’
Kendra shook her head. ‘No. Just me being terribly clumsy and terribly neurotic, and Barker Blessing being terribly kind trying to protect me.’
Someone else sniggered, but Garrett got it. Garrett understood that no one doubted what had happened. Everyone had seen exactly what Barker Blessing was pulling. Yet, in spite of the man’s lechery, Tess Delaney was letting him off the hook, and they already adored her for it. Garrett suspected that Kendra Davis would have filled the man’s lap with scalding coffee if left to her own devices. But they didn’t need complications. Not if Tess were to return to quiet reclusiveness. And accusations were definitely complications. Again the woman’s control was astounding.
She continued, ‘I’m very sorry that I left before the press conference. It’s embarrassing finding it so difficult to put myself out there in front of everyone, but you have to understand, I’ve never done this before, and I certainly never dreamed I’d win, and all I wanted to do last night was get away before I humiliated myself further.’
‘And you spent the night here with Mr. Thorne,’ came the question from one of the gossip rag journalists close to the front.
‘Of course I did,’ Kendra said. ‘I was a nervous wreck. It took poor Garrett hours to calm me down.’