Needed: One Convenient Husband(18)

Jacinta strolled back in with the clipboard in her hand, this time with  a couple of sheets attached. Her dark bob was perfect and glossy, her  vivid pink cotton dress, cinched in at the waist, made her honey tan  look even darker and more exotic. "You said you wanted to talk to me  about a new wedding."

Eva slid the page with the basic plan she had arrived at across her desk. "It's my wedding."

Her eyes widened with shock. "But, since Jeremy went to Dubai, you're  not even going out with anyone-unless Troy Kendal proposed?"

"Uh-uh. Not Troy." Eva tried to look unconcerned and very busy  shuffling pieces of paper as Jacinta flipped the sheet around and stared  at the line that contained the groom's name.

"You're marrying Kyle Messena?" There was a curious silence. "Now I am  confused. He's a babe, but I didn't think you even liked him."

Eva avoided Jacinta's curious gaze and tried to look serenely in love,  which was difficult because nothing she felt for Kyle fell into the  "serene" bracket. "Like doesn't exactly describe what I feel for Kyle."

That, at least, was honest. Nothing about any of their interactions had  ever fallen into comfortable friendship territory. "We had a thing  years ago, and when he knew how close I came to marrying Jeremy, he,  uh...decided we should be together."

Jacinta managed to morph surprise into sparkly enthusiasm. "Sounds take-charge and...romantic."

Eva caught the subtext, and so not like Eva. She searched for a little enthusiasm herself. "Like I said, we go way back."

Desperate to quit the conversation, she checked her wristwatch.  Happily, she had arranged to have lunch with Kyle, so she had a  legitimate out. Jumping to her feet, she hooked the strap of the sleek  handbag over her shoulder. "You know," she said vaguely, "the family  connection."

Jacinta added the sheet to her file, her expression vaguely horrified. "Of course. If he's a Messena, then you're related."

Eva frowned at the way she said it. "The connection is hardly close.  Mario was Kyle's great-uncle, and don't forget that I'm adopted."

"It's coming back."

Eva forced a smile. "Which reminds me, I have a favor to ask. We want  to get married this week, and I was wondering if you could be my  bridesmaid?"

"This week?"

"Thursday." She caught another little piece of subtext. "I'll supply the dress and shoes from Sophie Messena's boutique."

Jacinta's expression brightened. "Okay." She hugged the clipboard to  her stomach. "I guess you must have both discovered you're crazy in  love? Like a fatal attraction, since you didn't seem to even like one  another at the Hirsch wedding."

Eva's phone chimed, negating the need to answer. Clutching the cell  like a lifeline, Eva answered the call, which was from Kyle. She said  his name with a pleased smile and waggled her hand at Jacinta, as if  this somehow answered the question of whether or not she was in love.  Happy to be free from the interrogation, she stepped out of the office.                       
       
           



       

"You sound happy."

The low register of Kyle's voice brushed across her nerves as she  punched the call button of the elevator. She had stuck to her resolve  that she and Kyle wouldn't sleep together, but listening to Kyle's  voice, which was drop-dead sexy, didn't help. Neither did the fact that  Kyle was exhibiting a kind of calm, measured patience with her that was  downright scary. She shouldn't like that in an utterly male way he was  waiting for her to get back into his bed. "It's lunchtime. I get to  eat."

"And I intend to feed you."

Eva's fingers tightened on the phone. Why did that sound so carnal? She  stepped into the elevator and hit the button to close the doors.  "Where, exactly?"

"It's a surprise. I'll be waiting for you downstairs."

* * *

As she stepped out of the elevator, despite giving herself a stern  talking-to on the way down, her heart skipped a beat when she saw Kyle.  She was glad she had worn one of her favorite dresses, a cream sheath  dress that made the best of her honey tan and tawny hair. Kyle was  dressed in a sleek, dark suit with a snowy-white shirt and dark red tie  and looked edgily handsome and just a little remote. She tried to look  breezy and casual as she walked toward him, as if making love with him  and agreeing to marriage had not been earth-shattering events but, even  so, her stomach automatically tightened.

He held the door for her, and she stepped through, suddenly feeling  ridiculously feminine and cosseted. Since the dinner with his mother and  sisters, courtesy of living in the same house, they had spent more time  together than she could remember since the Dolphin Bay days, and the  tension was wearing on her nerves. "Where are we going?"

He opened the passenger side door of the Maserati and named an  exclusive jeweler's. A glow of pleasure infused her. "You don't have to  get me a ring."

His gaze touched on hers. "The ring's nonnegotiable. My family will expect it, and so will the media."

Her jaw squared at his reasoning and the quick little dart of hurt that  went with it. Just for a moment she had felt that Kyle really did care  for her and the engagement meant something more to him than a business  arrangement. It was the kind of dangerous thinking she knew she couldn't  afford, but which somehow kept materializing. As if it mattered that  Kyle should care for her.

As if she wanted this marriage to be real.





Ten

Jaw squaring, Eva slid into her seat. "You don't have to buy the ring. I'll get one for myself, after lunch."

There was a moment of silence before the door closed with an expensive  thunk. Fingers shaking just a little because out-of-the-blue anger had  piled on top of the hurt and all over a piece of jewelry. Kyle slid into  the driver's seat as she fastened her seat belt.

Somewhere behind them a horn blared. Glancing in the rearview mirror,  she saw a delivery truck waiting for the space that Kyle had illegally  commandeered. Her cheeks heated as she became aware that Kyle, aside  from starting the car, wasn't moving. "We should go before you get a  ticket."

"Not until we get something straight. I buy the ring."

Taking a deep breath, she forced her fingers to loosen on the buttery leather of her bag. "No."

The delivery truck gave another extended blast on its horn.

"I'm not moving until you agree."

She frowned at his steely blue gaze and the rock-hard set of his jaw.  Not for the first time, she saw the defining quality that had seen him  promoted in the military and which made him such an asset in the banking  business: the cold, hard-assed ability to force his own terms.

It passed through her mind that living with Kyle would not be a  cakewalk. He would be demanding, opinionated and difficult; she just bet  that with his military training, he probably liked to make rules.  Irritatingly, it also registered that she could never be happy with a  man who didn't challenge her, that a part of her relished the battle.  That in some crazy, un-PC way, Kyle suited her and that she would rather  argue with him than agree with any other man she knew. "What if I don't  want a ring?"

"Sophie said you wanted a dress. Why not the ring?"

She thought quickly. He was right, she did want the ring.

She guessed that, in her heart of hearts, it was tied in with the  reason she wanted a real wedding in the first place. She liked the  enduring conventions and traditions, the beauty and hopefulness, and she  wanted to enjoy the occasion. Somehow, in going through the same  process that countless other couples had entered into, there was a  comforting sense of being a part of something time-honored and lovely,  even if the marriage was a sham.                       
       
           



       

She decided the timing was right to mention another detail of the  wedding preparations. "I'll have the ring, but on the condition that we  get married in a church."

Kyle pulled out and let the delivery van take the space. "Let me guess. You've already booked the church."

"Since it's difficult to get one of those at short notice, I booked as soon as I had the date."

The extended silence that accompanied Kyle's smooth insertion into city  traffic underlined the fact that he wasn't happy with the idea of a  wedding in a church.

Suddenly incensed, Eva contemplated telling Kyle to pull over so she  could get out and walk back to her office. Her shoes were too high, her  feet would hurt and she'd probably wilt in the heat, but it would be  worth it. "If you think I'm going to stand in some dusty registrar's  office somewhere, you can forget it."