Quarterback's Secret Baby(129)

I had said the same thing, lying in the heather with him one day after we'd spent all afternoon in bed together. It was true. It was still true. He felt me stop resisting and go limp in his arms.

"If you're lying, Darach..." I said, my voice muffled against his chest as I breathed in the scent of him.

"I'm not lying, Jenny. I'll tell you everything. Everything you need to know."

I looked up at him. "It was Diane?"

Darach nodded. "Of course it was Diane. She had some help from one of the new staff - one of the gardeners I think it was - but yes, it was Diane."

I remembered catching the groundsman coming down the stairs from Darach's room. I thought he'd given me a strange look and it made sense now.

The roller-coaster of going from dejection to the euphoria of being in Darach's arms again was disorientating. All I could do was stand there, looking up into his blue eyes, speechless with relief and happiness.

"Come back to Scotland with me, Jenny. I'll make this up to you - I know how awful it must have been for you. I'm not asking you to make any promises, just come back for the rest of the summer - not as a employee. As mine."

I didn't want to turn Darach down, which was lucky because even if I had I wouldn't have been able to. I stood up on my tiptoes and wrapped my arms around his neck and he lifted me off my feet, holding me so tight I could hardly breathe.

"Now get your things, Jenny. I've got a hotel for tonight and I'm taking you out for dinner. Do you have a cocktail dress?"

I gave him a look. "Do I have a cocktail dress? No, Darach, I do not. I have a dress - one dress. It's red and it's cheap. Will that work?"

Darach ran his hand down to my ass and gave it a smack: "I don't know, does it show your arse off?"

"No, it doesn't show my ass off," I replied, emphasizing my pronunciation of the word 'ass,' "you're in America now, you have to say words the right way."

"It doesn't sound like this dress of yours is going to do the trick, Jenny. So get your things, we'll have to go shopping first."





Chapter 14


Darach had arranged a town car with a driver and I spent the entire drive to Neiman Marcus floating on a cloud of joy, snuggled up tightly against him and half-wishing we were on our way straight to the hotel room.

When we got to Neiman's he leaned down and kissed the top of my head.

"I don't even want you looking at price tags, Jenny, alright?"

I nodded, already feeling like a princess and still not entirely convinced it wasn't all a dream. In the end and after much trying-on I settled on a cream jacquard sleeveless Alexander McQueen dress with a full, flouncy skirt that fell only to about my mid-thigh. It wasn't at all the kind of thing I was used to wearing.

"Are you sure?" I asked Darach, "I feel so...exposed." I was also worried about the color - so pale and perfect and prone to stains.

"Jenny, it's gorgeous. Look at that color against your dark skin, it's striking."

He wasn't wrong - stain-prone or not it made me glow. It also made me feel beautiful, with the hem swishing around my thighs expensively and the internal structure making my breasts look ripe and perky even without a bra.

"Alright, now for the shoes." Darach took the dress out of my hands and draped it over his arm and we headed for the shoe department. It took over an hour for me to settle on a pair of light gray patent Louboutin Biancas that managed to straddle the line between pure, iconic sexiness and my need to be able to walk.

We had to go back to Simone's apartment after buying the shoes and the McQueen dress so I could shower and then spend about three hours moisturizing, doing my hair and make-up and just generally making sure that every part of me was smooth and primped. I knew that after dinner we would be heading to the hotel and I knew what was going to happen at the hotel - that was if I managed to make it that far without jumping on Darach.

"Where are we going?" I asked in the car when I'd finally felt ready to leave the house.

"Le Bernardin - have you heard of it? I always eat there when I'm in New York."

Le Bernardin. Of course Darach always ate there. It was one of those places I knew about and always just assumed I would never see the inside of - it had three Michelin stars, a world-famous chef and a clientele I imagined was made up mostly of Russian oligarchs and the oldest of old money.

I felt like a rock star exiting the black town car and walking into Le Bernardin but the best part was the look on Darach's face. That was it. That was the look I'd waited my whole life to see on a man's face - a mixture of pride, happiness and naked lust.

"Dammit, Jennifer. I'm not sure I can last through dinner. Maybe we should just go to the hotel right now?"