Trouble in High Heels

Chapter Eight

Lori’s heart hammered in her chest. She stepped backward and her foot ran into a bucket. Jackson immediately put his hands on her shoulders and steadied her. She took another deep breath and felt oddly dizzy. “This isn’t exactly what I had in mind,” she said.

“Me, neither,” he muttered. “I didn’t think I would have to be chasing you down in some nightclub and tying your hands to keep you from writing checks for money you don’t have.”

“You weren’t very nice about it.”

He shot her an incredulous look. “How do you think I felt when your housekeeper told me you’d gone to a charity event instead of meeting with me? I’ve been waiting for days for your sisters to leave. If you’re really going to carry out your insane plan, then we need to get moving. At the rate you’re spending, you’re going to end up in a tent by the end of summer. And you don’t strike me as the type that loves camping.”

“Oh, you’re exaggerating.”

“Not by much,” he said grimly.

“You and I would get along much better if you would be a little more flexible,” she told him.

“Somebody has to hold the line,” he said with a growl in his voice. “I’m the unlucky guy.”

She could tell he didn’t enjoy his position any more than she was happy with hers. Lori sighed. “Are you nicer to your other clients? Can’t you be just a little nicer to me?”

“My other clients haven’t made any complaints, but I haven’t had to be as firm with any of them. The problem with being nice to you, Lori, is you are the proverbial example for give-her-an-inch-and-she’ll-take-you-for-a-hundred-miles.”

“Another exaggeration,” she said.

“Six figures for a finger painting,” he reminded her. “Six figures.”

“All right, all right,” she said. “I guess you should tell me about the prospects for the job as my husband.”

“Do you want to hear about it now or at your home?”

“Go ahead,” she said with a shrug. “I need to get my head turned back around to this idea. I may as well start now.”

He paused, studying her. “Second thoughts?”

She didn’t want to admit it, but he was clearly the kind of man who could smell any weakness a mile away. “Yes, and there will be more, but it doesn’t change my situation and it doesn’t change my decision,” she added quickly before he could interject anything. “I’m going to do this.”

“You have other options,” he said.

“This is the best plan. It’s just being around Delilah and Katie and hearing them talk about how much they love their husbands. And my little nieces and nephew, they’re so sweet, and-” A lump of emotion crowded her throat and she bit her lip. “And I need to stop thinking about it, because I’m on a different track. There.”

“Lori, are you sure?”

She met his gaze and felt his strength bolster her. Strange, she thought, that a person who annoyed her and frustrated her could make her feel more certain. “I’m sure,” she said and smiled. “Tell me about my future husband.”

He paused, and she saw a sliver of something almost like respect deepen his eyes. It was gone so quickly she wondered if she had imagined it.

“Bachelor number three,” he began.

“Let’s start with a fresh page. The first ones didn’t count.”

“These do,” he said firmly. “Bachelor number one is Dr. Frank Liebowitz. He’s a little older, but he has an excellent reputation and excellent communication skills. He would like to have money for research.”

It was weird, but Jackson approved of this guy just a little too much. “Why isn’t he married?”

“His wife passed away. He’s a widower,” he said.

“Oh,” she said, feeling sorry for the doctor she’d never met. “What kind of doctor is he?”

“A-” Jackson cleared his throat. “A psychiatrist.”

A shrink, Lori thought, noticing the way Jackson ’s eye twitched. “Not very subtle.”

“This isn’t a bad idea. Maybe he could do double duty. Help you with some of your-issues,” Jackson said and cleared his throat.

“As if I want someone around twenty-four seven putting me under a microscope, examining my every move, word, and thought. Wouldn’t you just love that, too?”

“This isn’t about me. He’s a respectable man. Worth your consideration,” Jackson said in a rock-hard voice.

“Tell me about the rest,” she said, inwardly fuming. He wasn’t joking when he said he thought she was nuts. He really believed it. Even though she knew her plan was unusual, she wanted to feel as if she and Jackson were a team. Knowing he really thought she was insane bothered her so much she barely heard him list the other prospects.

“And the last one is an English duke, if you’re into titles at all. He’s a financial loser, and I think he could be the most expensive of all of them. That’s why I put him last. He’s got these old mansions that need a bunch of repairs. From the list of repairs, it looks to me like they should ditch the current buildings and start over. Plus he’s got a stepmother who needs to be sent off for a twelve-step program for her shopping habits. Geoffrey Taylor can be a last resort.”

Lori brightened. “Geoffrey Taylor. Did you say Geoffrey Taylor? I met him! And I liked him. Somewhat,” she added, remembering he’d been a grouch at first.

“You did?” Jackson asked, surprise crossing his face.

Lori nodded. “I did. He was appealing in a lost, out-of-his-element way. He needed a haircut, but…”

Jackson was looking at her with a stunned expression. “You actually liked him?”

“I like a lot of people,” she said, miffed at his implication that she didn’t like people.

“So you might be interested in marrying this guy?”

Her stomach clenched. “I don’t know. I have to see how Kenny responds to him.”

“How’d he smell?”

“I’m not sure. I think a waiter had just spilled champagne on him, but I didn’t notice anything that bothered me.”

“You didn’t find anything objectionable about him?”

She shrugged. “I liked that he had a sense of humor. I think a sense of humor is going to be important for this situation.”

Jackson gave a growl-like laugh. “That’s an understatement. A great sense of humor or medication,” he said. “Maybe both.”

His sarcasm poked at her. “Do you have to be so insulting? You act as if I’m the worst person in the world a man could be stuck with for six years. Did you ever think that maybe you have the problem?” she asked, daring to poke his hard chest with her finger. “Maybe you’re not a people person. Plenty of people enjoy my company. You may not, but plenty of people actually think I’m charming. Plenty of people actually like me.”

He grabbed her finger and held it still. “You don’t get it. I feel sorry for the guy who agrees to do this because he’s gonna spend every day of his six-year sentence being close enough to smell you and touch you, but he won’t be taking you to bed. And if he’s a normal heterosexual man, being that close to you and not having you will drive him insane.”

Was that heat in his gaze? Lori wondered, feeling her pulse race. She felt an odd warmth flare across her skin, starting at her toes and moving up to her cheeks. She tried to take a deep breath, but her lungs would allow only a puny shallow one.

She cleared her throat. “The way you say that makes me think you almost find me somewhat attractive.”

“That would be wrong,” he said. “I don’t find you somewhat attractive. Despite the fact that you think I have computer wire for veins, I’m like the rest of my gender. I know you’re a knockout. I wouldn’t be male if I didn’t wonder what it would be like to take you to bed. The big difference between me and the other guys is if I got sexually involved with you, I could lose everything. Baby-blue eyes with the too-generous pocketbook, you could blow me away in bed, but I’ve been protecting my rear for long enough to know I need to protect it more than ever now.”

Lori didn’t know whether to be flattered or insulted. “I didn’t ask you to go to bed with me.”

“Not in so many words, but there’s something there.”

She looked at him in surprise. “Pardon me?”

“I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I’m not looking back. You’re curious about me.”

“I-I-I-” she sputtered, embarrassed beyond words.

“It’s no big deal,” he said in what she guessed was his effort to reassure her. “We’re both curious. We’re both attracted. It doesn’t matter as long as we don’t act on it.”

The air in the closet suddenly felt thick and humid. Her mind shifted with rapid-fire speed to a vision of Jackson pulling off the jacket, whose seams strained from the breadth of his shoulders. His tanned skin revealed he spent some of his off-time in the sun. She could easily imagine the sculpted muscles of his chest and a six-pack abdomen. He would accept no less for himself, not out of vanity, but for strength.

She wondered where his tan line started-just below his belly button or lower. His strength and size were overwhelming to her. More than one thing about Jackson suggested he was just this side of civilized.

She wondered what that meant about his lovemaking.

He gave a swift, short oath. “It’s not gonna help matters if you keep looking at me like that.”

“Like what?” she asked and tried to pull her curiosity away from what kind of man he was out of his clothes.

“Like you’re curious about my body and how it would feel. How I would feel naked against your naked skin. How I would take you.”

Turned on, embarrassed, and not sure which sensation was more unwelcome, she closed her eyes. “This conversation is crazy.”

“Crazy, but necessary,” he said. “As long as you and I admit we’re both tempted, then we can both avoid temptation.”

“I’m not admitting anything,” she retorted. “I would have to be a masochist to be attracted to a man who thinks I’m a twerp.”

“Keep telling yourself that, baby girl, and we’ll be just fine.”

The first sign of a serious problem was the jammed-full voice mail on the cell phone Jackson had dedicated to the Lori marriage project. He’d turned the damn thing off late last night to charge, and it was only 6:30 a.m.

Not a good sign, he thought as he finished drying off from his shower. He listened to the first message.

“Greg Staunton here. I’m calling to be considered as a candidate for Lori Granger’s husband. I’m an entrepreneur and was very successful until the market caved in on the dotcoms. I’m willing to submit a blood test and-”

An undertow of dread tugged at his gut. How had Greg Staunton heard about Lori’s plan to get married? Jackson swore, punching the delete key.

“My name is Rose McKinney, and I’d like to suggest my grandson as the perfect husband for Lori Granger. He’ll be eighteen years old next May-”

Starting to sweat, he punched the delete key again.

His home phone rang and he snatched up the receiver. “Jackson James.”

“ Houston, we have a problem,” Lori said.

His stomach twisted. “What do you mean?”

“I mean my phone has been ringing since six a.m. Six men asking for my hand in marriage have already been turned away.”

He cringed as her voice rose.

“And ten more are on my front porch. What did you do? Take out an ad in the newspaper? This was supposed to be confidential.”

“There’s obviously been a leak,” he said, his mind clicking into emergency mode. He’d known all along the news would get out sometime. He’d just hoped to get Lori safely engaged and married by then. He would alert Mr. Hollingsworth so that his boss could take care of the source.

“What am I supposed to do with all these men on my front porch?”

“Sit tight,” he said, pulling underwear out of a drawer. “Pack a suitcase with just the essentials. I’m taking you away.”

“Where?”

The strong note of distrust he heard in her voice irritated him. “Where no one will look for you. Get packed. We need to move fast.”

“I need to know where I’m going so I know how to pack.”

Jackson rolled his eyes. This woman didn’t know what essentials were. “Pack underwear, jeans, and shirts. And any medication you’re taking.”

“I’m not taking any medication,” she said, her voice dripping with ice.

“I keep hoping,” he muttered. “Trust me. You won’t need your tennis bracelet where we’re going.”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Maybe it wouldn’t have if you had told me your husband needs to pass the sniff test and the Kenny test.”

“Oh, no. You’re not pinning this on me. I haven’t told anyone what I planned to do. Not anyone but you.”

Jackson eyed a box of bullets in the back of his closet. This woman could make him chew the whole box. “You want to waste time arguing whose fault this is? That line of men is just going to get longer. Every loser in Dallas is going to be knocking on your door.”

“I was so stupid,” she said. “You’re so committed to being ethical that I was sure I could trust you.”

Jackson felt an unwelcome bitter taste in the back of his throat. “Looks like you’ve got a choice, then. I can bow out, and you can handle this on your own or with some other sap.”

Silence followed. “It’s an impossible choice, but I’m not letting you off that easily.”

Thirty minutes later, after asking his neighbor to take care of Sadie, Jackson wove his way through snarling rush-hour traffic to the back entrance of Lori’s home. He dashed out of his vehicle and inside her house, expecting Lori to be ready to go. Instead, she stood gaping out one of the front windows.

“Where’s your luggage?” he asked.

She tore her gaze from the window for a second and pointed her finger upward. “Upstairs in my bedroom.” She turned her head to look out the window again, shaking her head in a combination of horror and wonder. “I’m shocked that this many men would be interested in marrying me.”

“For your money,” Jackson emphasized, glancing outside to see a line of men standing on her front lawn.

She threw him a look of irritation. “You say that as if I couldn’t find someone to marry me for love. Or at least intense like,” she added.

“I didn’t say anything about you finding someone to marry you for love. You’re the one who decided it should be a business proposition. This is like one of those reality TV shows where people agree to marry for a million bucks, except in your case, the guy gets a lot more than a million bucks.” His exasperation at the turn of the situation soared. “C’mon, let’s get going.”

“I need to take Kenny out to tinkle before we leave.”

“Can’t your housekeeper do that, since you’re leaving him here?”

She looked at him as if he’d sprouted an extra head. “I’m not leaving him anywhere. Kenny goes where I go.”

Jackson groaned. “Well, you better hope Kenny can hold it, because we’ll be on the road for a long time. And I’m not stopping every fifteen minutes for your dog.” As he stomped up the stairs to get her luggage, he heard her mutter.

“Crab.”

“I heard that,” he tossed over his shoulder.

“Good,” she tossed back.

Jackson growled under his breath. This trip was going to be hell. Neither of them was starting out with a great attitude. He pushed the door open to her bedroom to find five suitcases stacked beside each other. Shaking his head in disbelief, he called down to her, “You’re not seriously planning to take all this luggage, are you?”

“Serious as a heart attack. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone; therefore, I don’t know what I’ll need.”

“So she just packed everything,” he said to himself and juggled the suitcases downstairs. He loaded them into the car and waited impatiently for Kenny to do his business.

He hustled her and the dog in the car, then got in the driver’s seat. Starting the ignition, he glanced at her as she arranged herself and Kenny in the seat. “You need to duck until we’re out of your neighborhood.”

“Duck?” she echoed in disbelief.

“Hide,” he repeated. “Put your head down.”

She looked at him for a long moment. “I can’t believe that anyone will notice me in-”

“This has gotten out of control. We’re not taking any chances,” he said. “Either lie down in the back seat, or duck.”

In order to keep her head out of Jackson ’s lap, Lori had to smash her rear end against the door of the vehicle, and Kenny didn’t like being on the floor at all. Although she found herself staring at the dash, she was still entirely too aware of Jackson ’s proximity. He might be cranky, but he’d responded to her crisis with gratifying speed. Despite the fact that someone had leaked her secret, she still felt safe with him.

Because she represented the most important account he’d ever been assigned, she told herself. It had nothing to do with integrity or the kind of man he was, she tried to tell herself, but something inside her disagreed. She would think about that later, she brooded, stroking Kenny to comfort him and herself.

“So the whole world knows I’m willing to buy a husband,” she said, her stomach twisting at the thought. It was bad enough that she’d privately concluded that love wasn’t in her future. Knowing that everyone else knew she was so desperate she had to pay a man to marry her was mortifying. “How are we going to pull this off now?” she asked. It sure looked futile to her.

“The whole world doesn’t know,” he said. “Just Dallas,” he added, his words offering little comfort. “This will blow over. It’s the gossip of the week. The important thing is to take you out of the public eye for a while. We still have four prospects, five if you include the broke duke.”

Craning to look at him, she lifted her head. “But how am I going to meet with them if I’m staying out of the public eye? And for that matter, where are you taking me?”

Jackson pushed her head down. “Stay down,” he said. “I’ve put the word out that you’ve taken a trip to Europe.”

Lori Jean brightened. “ Paris? Tell me it’s Paris.”

“It can be wherever you want it to be, because you’re not really going there. I’m taking you to Miracles in Motion. It’s perfect. It’s in the middle of nowhere, and no one will expect you to be there.”

She automatically lifted her head. “But I don’t ri-” -de horses anymore. Lori barely managed to swallow the entire confession. She felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. She didn’t want Jackson to know she didn’t ride anymore. The last thing she wanted was to admit any frailty or insecurity to him. It would only give him another reason to think less of her.

Jackson glanced at her. “Damn it. Keep your head-” He glanced back at the road and swore again, jerking the steering wheel to the right.

The sharp swerve sent her over the dash, her head poised above Jackson ’s crotch.

“Crazy driver, pick a lane and stay in it…”

He continued to mutter while Lori tried not to notice the way his worn jeans outlined his powerful thighs and the bulge between his legs.

She closed her eyes, and an image sneaked into her brain of her skimming her hands down his hard belly and him urging her on.

Lori started to sweat. Giving her head a small shake, she told herself she definitely needed to move.

Jackson abruptly stopped muttering and swearing, prompting her to steal a glance up at him.

He met her gaze, then she felt his gaze linger on her mouth, causing her lips to feel burned.

“Now, that’s a sight I won’t forget for a long time.”