Momentary Marriage(5)

Before Kelsey could do more than tug her short skirt down and smooth a hand over her dark chin-length hair, the elevator started moving again. Whisking up two more levels, the capricious contraption stopped on her floor and popped the doors open as if it had been behaving itself all along.

Kelsey felt herself being propelled from the elevator into the agency’s foyer. Her knees wobbled beneath her as Jared’s hand remained firm at her back.

“Are you okay, Kels?” Doug asked, following solicitously, concern on his face.

With the floor solid beneath her feet, she said, “Yes. There doesn't seem to be any harm done.”

“You could have broken a bone, hit your head and gotten a concussion, the way that thing dropped,” Doug sputtered.

“Why don't you find the maintenance people and get them working on the problem,” Jared suggested, nodding toward the other elevator. “I'll meet you in the ground floor lobby in a minute.”

Doug hurried to the other elevator.

“Of course.” Doug glanced doubtfully between Kelsey and his boss. “I'll drop by your office later for a visit, Kelsey.”

“Good. See you then,” she murmured, still suffering reaction from her near meltdown in Jared's arms. It was something of a shock to realize how susceptible she was to the guy’s undeniable physical attributes.

Looking up, Kelsey found Jared watching her, hands slung into his pants pockets, a smile playing on his lips, the ever-present challenge in his eyes.

“Thanks for breaking my fall,” she said calmly despite her quaking nerves. Sometimes she got the feeling that Jared enjoyed rocking people off their balance and she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing the sensual riot his embrace caused in her.

“My pleasure,” he assured her, his straight face belied by the smile in his eyes. “We’ll have to do it again sometime soon.”

On her way back to her small office, Kelsey reminded herself of why she shouldn’t get involved with Jared Barrett

He was a client. Although, heaven knew that didn’t create an insurmountable barrier. In the carnivorous business of advertising, what the client wanted, the client got.

No, the biggest reason to turn away from the invitation she saw in his eyes was the man himself. Kelsey played the dating game by certain rules and Jared struck her as being a man who made his own.

She might enjoy being clasped to his manly chest, breathing in his intoxicating scent, but she couldn’t see the wisdom in risking her peace of mind by getting close to the man.





CHAPTER TWO

A light tapping on her office door the next morning made Kelsey look up.

Doug stood in the open doorway, as neat as ever in his conservative suit, a smile on his boyish face. “Busy?”

“Always. Come in.” She’d spent the last twenty-four hours thinking about Amy and Doug and her own blindness to their feelings.

Doug glanced back down the hall. “Jared’s checking with J.T. about the dates for the new campaign. He’ll be right here. We thought maybe you’d have time to go over the proofs for the magazine layouts.”

“Certainly,” Kelsey smiled awkwardly, suddenly self-conscious about every gesture. How did a woman convey to a man that he was an important friend, but not feed his hopes of something more? “Just move the stuff out of those chairs while I dig out the proofs.”

She rummaged through the piles on her desks, reflecting that she’d had plenty of experience in getting rid of men she wasn’t interested in. That was fairly simple. But telling a friend and possible future brother-in-low to get lost just wasn’t an option. Doug wasn’t the usual mindless predatory jerk she generally ran into. She didn’t want to hurt him. She just wanted him to see the light.

“I-I tried to call you last night,” Doug said. “Did you go out?”

As if her ears had suddenly been opened to a whole new range of sound, Kelsey heard the studied casualness in his tone, the delicate question. It was as if Amy’s words had opened her senses to reality. She felt like crying. How had she been so blind?

“Yes,” she said with a bright smile. “There was an opening at a new gallery.”

“Who was your lucky swain this time?” Doug asked, the pleasantness in his voice not reflected in his eyes.

“James Buchanan,” Kelsey said. “He called out of the blue yesterday.”

Doug frowned. “I thought you said he was a jerk and you didn’t want to see him again.”

Kelsey shrugged, wishing she’d remembered that when James called. As it was, she’d been so distracted by the Amy and Doug problem that she’d agreed to go out with the guy even though they hadn’t spoken for several months. For good reason. His arrogance bored the heck out of her.