Jane Millionaire (17 page)

She found herself gravitating more and more toward Jeff. Several of the bachelors were great guys--or seemed to be. But of her options, Jeff interested her the most. Unfortunately, he didn’t make her body throb with just a look, but that response remained limited to one man.

Rob. He’d stolen her breath during his host gig. He’d been wearing his tuxedo and no man had ever looked finer. He’d glanced at her and smiled at all the appropriate times, but his eyes had never met hers. She’d meant to say hi, to find some excuse to accidentally touch him, to see if he still sent electrical shocks with each graze of his skin against hers. But the gutless man disappeared off the set faster than she could blink.

She’d not been sorry when bachelor #3, 7, and 9 had gotten booted from the show. Although, she admitted their obvious disappointment had stung. And two more bachelors would be booted during the next show. JP had told her she’d be sliding Rolex watches onto the wrists of the remaining seven men. The only Rolexes she’d ever touched had been hot or knock-offs.

If Jeff, or even Bachelor #6, Steve, got booted, she didn’t know what she’d do. She’d really come to enjoy their company. They both sort of reminded her of Dan.

She’d been willing to settle for a passionless relationship once, why not now?

But she knew the answer.

She glanced futilely around the empty studio one last time. Where was Rob? He wasn’t in any of the main areas or the exercise room. She’d hoped to catch at least a glimpse of him today, but so far zilch.

She eyed the fancy computer equipment with all the monitors. Hmmm, maybe she could find him via the cameras stationed throughout the estate. She’d sat with Rob often enough before the bachelors arrived she should be able to figure out how to operate the system. The cameras were always on, recording. All she’d have to do is figure out how to flip through them and she would know where Rob was hiding.

“Looking for someone?” JP’s question caused her to jump just as she reached the well-worn chair where Rob often sat.

“Oh. You startled me.” Did she look as guilty as she felt?

“Not who you were expecting?” The older man’s face told her he knew exactly who she’d hoped to find in the studio. Was she that obvious about her feelings for Rob?

“I wasn’t looking for anyone in particular, but I did have a question.” Okay, she was covering and had the feeling they both knew it. She glanced at the monitors and thought fast. “There are cameras everywhere. Including my bedroom. I was wondering, just how much privacy do I have? Gregory told me there were no cameras in any of the bathrooms because of some kind of privacy act. Is that true?”

“Yes.” JP appeared amused. “Nothing that goes on in any bathroom is recorded in any form. Thank God.” He grinned. “That’s why Gregory informed you to always change in your bathroom rather than your bedroom. No free peep shows for whoever edits the film.”

“Well, a girl does need some time to herself. Besides, it’s nice to know that if I need to escape for a few hours all I have to do is take a long bubble bath.”

Instantly the image of being ensconced between Rob’s legs in the large tub popped into her head. He could scrub her back. Then she’d do his. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block the images of where all that back washing might lead.

“Thinking about taking a long soak?”

She opened her eyes and met JP’s amused gaze. “Something like that.”

He laughed, wrapped his arm around her shoulder and led her to one of two sofas in the room. “Tell me, Jane. If you had to choose at this very moment, who would you pick?”

“Is this for the record?” she asked as they sat on the closer of the two flowery couches that had been set up for the crew to use.

“Because he can laugh at himself.” She pushed a strand of hair back. “He doesn’t seem to take life too seriously, which is amazing in and of itself with his background. He works as a private investigator in Texas and is ex-military. He didn’t give in to the urge to try to dominate me during our basketball game, and I think he could have won had that been his objective. He’s fun, intelligent, athletic and knows how to take care of himself without being overbearing. In real life, we have a lot in common.”

JP nodded, as if pleased with her answer. “And the good doctor?”

She shrugged again. She’d felt a connection to Jeff from that first dance they’d shared. “Jeff’s an amazingly generous man. I like him a great deal.”

“Why?”

“He’s a wonderful man.” Even if his kiss appealed about as much as a desk job. Why couldn’t he kiss like Rob? For that matter, why couldn’t he just be Rob? Or Rob just be one of the bachelors?

“But?” JP asked when she didn’t elaborate on her feelings regarding Jeff.

“I can’t figure out why he’s here. He says he needed a break from his mission work, to meet someone and forego formalities because he’s ready to marry and doesn’t have time for a normal courtship.”

“And what part of that can’t you figure out?”

“Why he’s really here. He thought I was someone else and I think that’s the only reason he’s here.” She pulled her knees up to her and wrapped her arms around them as she continued. “He’s gorgeous, smart, witty, and fun to be with. My date with him was dreamy and super romantic.”

Or would have been had he been the right man and said right man hadn’t crashed the party to remind her continuously that she was with the wrong guy.

“Why would he go this route to look for a bride? Why would any man?”

“Adventure? Giving in to an impulse? Fame? Who knows what triggered these guys into signing away a month of their lives?” JP pulled a cigar from his shirt pocket and stuck it in his mouth without lighting it. “Why did you?”

She should have seen that one coming.

“I was ready for a change.” True, although she hadn’t known it when she’d flown out of California. She’d thought her life was almost perfect, except for her breakup with Dan and Jessie’s escapades. But, she’d been deceiving herself. She’d been lonely even while surrounded by family and friends. “How long have you known Rob?”

Oops. Where had that question come from? She eyed JP’s cigar with disgust, but gratitude that he hadn’t lit it. Such a nasty habit, similar to her always having to ask questions she had absolutely no business asking. She squeezed her knees tighter. Nasty habit, indeed.

“He mentioned her,” she admitted, thinking she really needed to learn to keep her mouth shut. “I’m sure it’s on tape around here somewhere.”

Sometimes she forgot everything was being recorded. Like right now. Although she’d searched for a camera, she never had figured out if the studio was a camera safe zone or not. But she’d dealt with enough high tech surveillance equipment to know that even something that looked like a simple fountain pen could record. It was highly possible that Rob could watch this later. Ugh.

“Mandy was an older woman who dazzled Rob during an impressionable period of his life. He’d just hit stardom in the box offices. She swept in and had him chained to her faster than you could blink an eye.”

“She was older than him?”

“By a few years. Rob was barely eighteen when they married. Mandy had a few films to her credit, but wasn’t the instant success Rob was in front of the camera. Or behind the camera, for that matter. She was a beauty, I’ll give her that. Still is, but if she’d been as smart as many gave her credit for, she’d have hung onto her marriage to Rob.”

“What happened?” Yep, her propensity to ask questions that were known of her business was one heck of a bad habit. She could have bit her tongue, but JP didn’t look irritated that she’d asked.

He considered her with his unusually light blue eyes before he answered her with slow deliberation. “Rob’s ex wanted things he wasn’t able to provide at the time.”

“Funny,” Jill mused, letting JP’s response soak in. “That’s practically what Rob said word for word.”

Not-so-shameful guilt plastered itself onto JP’s face. Jill’s eyes widened and she play punched him. “You sly dog, you.”

The sofa springs groaned beneath JP’s laughter. “Well,
someone
has to edit the tapes.”

# # #

Rob stopped halfway through the studio doorway. Fifteen feet in front of him, Jane and JP huddled on one of the overstuffed sofas.

Jealousy slapped him in the face.

What were they doing? Why was Jane smiling pretty as you please? She hadn’t smiled at
him
in over a week.

As much as it pained him to admit it, he missed her. For that matter, how could you miss someone who was everywhere you looked? Who was the entire focus of your work?

And how could he be jealous of a man twice his age? One he respected and trusted with his life?

Stupid. JP might be a big flirt, but he was harmless where Jane was concerned. JP’s career ranked first in his life, always had, always would; just ask any of his ex-wives.

But Rob wasn’t so sure about himself. Not anymore. He hadn’t questioned his lifestyle until recently, and now that he had, he couldn’t say he was satisfied. He had an expensive house filled with expensive toys. A big house. A big
lonely
house.

Was that why it never bothered him to be gone for months at a time on a shoot? Because when it came down to it, he had nothing to go home to except an empty mansion in Beverly Hills?

He didn’t like the thought any more than he liked how cozy JP and Jane looked. He popped his neck from side-to-side, hoping to ease some of the tension knotting there.

Both JP and Jane turned at the cracking sound, as he’d known they would.

“Rob.” She jumped to her feet. She wore casual clothing, jeans and a clingy dark green knit shirt. He couldn’t help but notice how her breasts gently bounced with her quick movements.

He forced his gaze to her face and his mind from thoughts of peeling her clothes from her body. Not that he couldn’t still see the image plastered in his mind.

“How did it go?” she asked, gazing intently at him with her big green eyes, although she didn’t bestow a smile on him. Not even a tiny one.

Damn, he wanted a smile. Her smile. Just for him. Insane as the desire was since her interest only complicated matters more.

But he was beyond caring. He’d already decided he’d gone irrational with longing. She’d worn him down, made him insane with her kiss.

He wanted a smile. That wasn’t too much to ask for, surely?

“As expected, the kids gave them hell. You’ll get to watch the videos later tonight.”

“With you?” Her bright eyes took on a hungry appearance. Hungry was good.
No. Hungry was not good
. That was why he’d avoided her as much as he possibly could--cause he was starving, and she was banned from the menu.

“Actually, I’ll be taking care of that,” JP interrupted. “Rob has other plans for tonight.”

“I do?” he grunted, then realized JP was giving him an easy out. Just like he’d been doing since that garden kiss. Damn it.

Not that he could satisfy his hunger anyway. He was doomed to starve. A healthy, grown man shouldn’t be forced to starve, not in this day and age.

“Oh, yeah. I do.”

He did have a hundred things that needed done and feasting on Jane’s delectable body wasn’t on the menu.

Chapter Eleven

Later that night, a supposedly ready for bed Jill paced across the elaborately woven rug that covered the polished marble floor of her suite.

Lost in thought, she picked up a porcelain vase, ran her finger across the ornate hand-painted surface, and set it back on the intricately carved wooden table.

She couldn’t take much more. Knowing Rob was so close and yet so removed from her. Yet also knowing staying far away was the smartest, safest thing she could do.

A little over two weeks remained.

Two weeks and she’d have to choose one of the dwindling dirty dozen. Striding back across the room with nervous energy, she rubbed her arms when she stepped off the rug and her bare feet touched the cold marble floor.

Two weeks, then her romantic week in paradise.

Once her pretend honeymoon was finished she’d never see Rob again.

And that was just if one of the bachelors chose her over the money. It was highly likely that she only had two weeks left with Rob.

An invisible vice squeezed her heart.

A month from now when she was far away from this castle set in a fairy land of rolling green hills and men clamoring for her attention, what would be her most cherished memory when she looked back on her Jane Millionaire adventures? Her biggest regret?

Without a doubt, Rob Lancaster would star in both.

His kiss in the garden ranked as her most treasured moment. Not kissing him again her biggest regret. Her gaze landed on the solid wood door connecting their rooms.

Rob was less than twenty feet away, but more than a locked door separated them.

What would he do if she knocked on that door and kissed him? Told him she wanted to know what it felt like to make love to him? Would he turn her away? Or would he give in to the passion she’d seen in his eyes?