Momentary Marriage(36)

It might be an up-hill battle, but he would win her heart.

***

Sliding into the room as quietly as possible, Kelsey found a seat in the back row and sat down. The investment seminar was already in progress and she was glad she didn’t have to chit chat with her neighbors. The awkward clutch of tension in her throat would have made doing so difficult.

Taking the packet offered her by a man in a suit who stood at the back of the room, she flipped it open automatically, her gaze fixed on the men who were presenting the evening’s program.

Before coming here this evening, she’d dithered about it all day. Several days, actually, ever since seeing the notice in the paper.

She’d taken to reading the financial section of the paper in the last few weeks. It was good to be informed. The fact that she’d run across her father’s name several times really had little to do with it.

But when she’d seen the notice of this seminar, presented by his investment firm, Kelsey had been curious. That was what brought her here tonight. Nothing more. She hadn’t said anything to Amy. Her sister was so caught up in the progress she felt she was making with Doug that very little else penetrated these days.

Kelsey was glad for her.

So she’d kept John Layton’s seminar to herself, not sure until she’d turned left after leaving the office that she would even come here tonight. Why should she? Her father had shown no interest in she and Amy all these years.

But she’d wanted to see him from a distance, to see what he looked like and how he carried himself. She’d sit here for a few minutes and then pick up her supper from a deli on her way home.

It hadn’t been so far out of her way to stop in.





CHAPTER EIGHT

This wasn’t the kind of place she’d have expected Jared to choose for a business dinner. In Kelsey’s experience, he didn’t usually conduct his meetings with such formal pomp.

The restaurant was sumptuous and muted in both decor and lighting. Dark, rich woods paired with burgundy and hunter green prints. Everything was hushed, from the diners’ voices to the clink of cutlery on china. Brass hunting horns hung on the walls.

Kelsey prodded the elegant concoction on her plate, trying to look nonchalant as the men’s conversation eddied around her. She liked good food as well as the next person, but preferred that it at least be identifiable.

Her knife slipped, clanging against her plate with greater emphasis than she’d intended.

The noise drew a glance from the third person at the table. Stewart Black’s brow lifted, a sympathetic smile quirking the corner of his mouth.

Kelsey smiled back without making any comment, turning her fork to try a different angle. She was here as window dressing, she supposed. Certainly, Jared didn’t need her help in handling his business.

In his middle-thirties, blond and pleasant, Stewart was nothing like she’d imagined a union     representative. This guy looked like a lawyer or businessman. Stereotypically, she’d have expected someone less at ease in these rarefied surroundings.

From the conversation flowing between he and Jared, Stewart seemed sharp as a tack.

Jared, of course, was no slouch in the intelligence department. He sat next to her, darkly attractive in his expensive navy blue suit, exuding power and sex appeal. As usual, he seemed confident and at ease.

The snowy white of his shirt, just visible beneath the sleeves of his suit jacket, seemed to emphasize his strong, tanned hands. Despite the fact she was trying not to envision their future, she couldn’t help wondering what it would feel like to have those hands on her body.

Soon, she’d know. The wedding plans were progressing with the speed of light. All due to the combination of money, influence and Mary Barrett’s management, Kelsey knew.

He might have gotten that killer smile from his father, but Jared’s mother had definitely contributed the force of character.

Jared had called Kelsey last night to ask if she were available to join he and a business associate for dinner tonight. She’d agreed, of course. Her participation in social and business activities was part of their deal. Then again, now that she was officially engaged, her social life was going through a definite transition. She’d had the night free.

Being picked up at work by the limo was different. She’d had the oddest sensation. Mr. Barrett’s car was waiting for her, the doorman had said.

Weird. She’d gone out with wealthy men before, but never had she felt so…owned. It was an odd sensation, as if she were a package to be delivered. Jared Barrett had bought himself a fiancée. Not with money, but in an even more bizarre exchange.

She felt, however, that she’d gotten the better end of the deal. The situation with Amy and Doug left her few options. She needed a husband more than Jared needed a wife. If he wanted her to come along on his business dinners, what the heck?