Marriage by Mistake (11 page)

Dean lifted his chin. "Good evening,
everyone."

Troy and Robby turned to look at him then,
and Dean heard how stilted he'd sounded, particularly compared to
the casual style of conversation he'd interrupted. Kelly reacted
first, a wide smile spreading over her face. Laughing at him, no
doubt.

"Hi, yourself!" she said. "Are you
hungry?"

He stared at her. Her legs were bare and
long, and she wore something soft and drapy on top. Then,
hamburgers
, he realized. She was talking about hamburgers.
His face warmed. "No, I...ate on the way home from the office."

"Too bad." Robby reached to grab a handful of
fries. "This is way better than the grub Roberto usually
fixes."

Before Dean could reply, Kelly tapped the
back of Robby's hand. "Enough carbos there, my friend. Have a
carrot peel."

Dean saw Robby's expression change and braced
himself for the boy's nasty retort. Instead, turning utterly
complacent, Robby plucked up a carrot peel.

Dean blinked. He knew Robby made an effort to
control himself when he was living with his big brother, but this
was something else again.

"Well, pull up a chair, anyway," Kelly
offered.

Dean hesitated, still wondering about Robby's
behavior. It reminded him that he wasn't here to socialize. Hardly.
At the same time, he couldn't chew Kelly out right in front of
everyone. So he shrugged and walked up to their happy table. Trying
not to seem too awkward, he lowered into one of the wrought iron
chairs.

Kelly crunched down on a lettuce leaf. "We
were just talking about what to do over the weekend."

"Is that right?"

"Oh, we understand that
you'll
be
working, of course." Troy hooded his eyes at Dean.

Dean hooded his eyes back at Troy. "A fair
assumption. I usually do work on the weekends    unlike
somebody else I know, who doesn't work any day of the week."

Immediately, Dean was stunned by his own
words. He never goaded Troy about his lack of employment. For one
thing, it never worked. Troy would merely laugh and toss back some
flippant reply.

Today, however, a dusky color crossed Troy's
face. As if he actually cared. He dropped his gaze to pluck up his
own carrot peel. "Ah, now I wonder who that worthless fellow could
be?" Despite his faint blush, Troy was grinning again when he
lifted his eyes to meet Dean's.

Dean frowned. Despite the grin, he could
swear Troy was embarrassed.

"Yes, we know Dean will be working," Kelly
spoke up. Her smile was wry. "We've gotten to know you that well,
anyway."

Dean looked at his wife. She smiled back at
him with too much innocence, meanwhile crunching down on another
lettuce leaf.

Troy coughed, hiding a smile.

Apparently indifferent to this byplay, Robby
interjected, "I liked the park. We could do that again."

"The park?" So that's where Kelly had taken
the kid. Maggie hadn't mentioned specifics.

"Basketball." Robby gestured a hook shot.
"Those guys were all right."

"Normal children," Kelly murmured, not quite
under her breath. "Living in normal houses."

Troy did his best to suppress another cough,
or perhaps it was a snicker. In any event, Robby went on,
enthusiastic. "And Kelly, she's got quite a jump shot. You should
have seen her, Dean. Whammo! She knocked their eyes out."

Dean could well imagine she'd done exactly
that. He frowned meaningfully at Kelly. "It sounds like you two had
quite a day together."

"Yup." Robby nodded vigorously. "We did."

But Dean kept his gaze on Kelly. She was
supposed to have used her 'good judgment.' She was supposed to have
listened to him, dammit, and left the boy alone.

Kelly had the gall to smile sweetly. "You
shoulda been there."

"Indeed, I think I should have been." He sent
her another killing glance, but she remained complacent.

"Maybe next time," she said, as if there
would ever be such a thing. "Hey, we bought watermelon for
dessert." She smiled directly at Dean. "Want some?"

Despite his acute annoyance with her, a bolt
of heat shot through him.
Want some of what
? His body posed
the question, lascivious, before his brain caught up. She was
talking about watermelon.

"No?" Kelly queried.

"No," Dean replied, then added a reluctant,
"Thank you." He pushed up from his chair. "I would appreciate a few
minutes of your time, Kelly, when you've finished dinner. I'll be
in the study."

"Sure, Dean." She plucked up another leaf of
lettuce. "I have nothing but time these days."

###

Kelly knew Dean was furious. She also knew
she hadn't done anything wrong, or at least not much wrong. How
could it be wrong to give Robby some much-needed attention, to get
him out of the house and playing with other boys? Nevertheless, she
dawdled at the outdoor table as long as she possibly could. She
waited until the watermelon had been eaten to the green. She waited
until Robby, himself, decided it was time for a bath. She was
waiting for Troy to leave, too, but instead he arched a brow and
leaned over the wrought iron table.

"You aren't afraid of him, are you?"

Kelly shot him a glare. "Who, me?
Afraid?"

Troy's smile broadened.

Kelly crushed her teeth together. "I think
it's
you
who's afraid of him."

"Oh, absolutely." Troy had no problem
confessing. "I was afraid of Dean even before I had to attend the
same school with him and live up to    or fail to live up
to    his example." He laughed. "And it's only gotten
worse as I sink lower and lower to my true level."

Troy was smiling, but his little laugh hadn't
sounded happy. Kelly suddenly wondered what might be going on at
Troy's "true level." Before she could ask, he laughed again, in a
tone more like his carefree self.

"But recently I've been able to relax." He
grinned. "Seeing that Dean's got you in his sights, instead."

Kelly went from worried about Troy to
scowling at him. "For heaven's sake, Dean doesn't have anybody 'in
his sights.'"

"No? A few minutes ago I could swear I saw
his finger on the trigger." Troy was still grinning as he got up
from his chair. "Have fun."

Huh. Kelly remained at the patio table as
Troy walked away. She didn't believe Dean had his finger on the
trigger, or at least she wasn't afraid of that. She
was
afraid because the mere sight of Dean coming out to the patio
had...stirred her so. She'd felt her heart beating and her lungs
struggling for air. Sexual, again.

It made no sense. The man had been avoiding
her, he looked down on her, but that didn't seem to matter. Her
body kept acting like he was the tender, loving friend she'd made
beside a casino slot machine. No, worse than that. Her body acted
like this fellow would do just as well as the other    if
not better.

The sun was starting to descend into the tops
of the trees. Kelly shook her head and pushed out of the chair.
Friend or foe, it was time to face him down.

###

At the desk in his study, Dean sifted through
his papers, not really seeing any of them. All he could think was:
you asked her in here, to be alone with you, you idiot. What
were you
thinking?

Dean slapped his hand down on a perfectly
well-conceived business plan. He was thinking about Robby, that's
what he was thinking. Robby was the reason he'd asked Kelly into
his study for a good talking-to. She was going to break the child's
heart, carelessly, recklessly. Dean wasn't about to stand around
and let that happen.

Dean stared at his hand on the desk. It
occurred to him that Kelly might not intend to do wrong. She might
sincerely want to be kind. Tapping his thumb on the papers, Dean
discarded the idea as irrelevant. No matter her intentions, in this
case it was not kind to be, well, kind. In fact, kindness could be
the worst sort of cruelty. He had to get that through to her.

The door cracked open. Kelly's face peeked
round the jamb. "You wanted to see me?"

Dean let out a long, slow breath. His skin
heated at her mere presence. He had to struggle to recover his
equanimity as he stood. "Yes, please come in."

She slipped through the doorway cautiously,
gracefully, like a deer. Her gaze swept the papers set in piles all
over his desk. "I don't even know your job title. President,
CEO?"

"Chairman of the Board." Of several boards,
in fact, but even the one sounded pompous, suddenly.

"Family business?" She tilted her head.

Dean paused. "You could say." He'd founded
the genetics research company himself, then added to it by the
judicious merging with innovative competitors. He didn't feel like
explaining the lone nature of the enterprise to Kelly, however. He
was part of a family, wasn't he? So that made his business a family
business, even if no other member of his family had ever had
anything to do with it. "Please," he ordered. "Have a seat."

She thought about it, then moved toward the
chairs. Intellectually, Dean understood the discipline it took to
create her sinuous stride. Viscerally, he wanted to stop that
stride and pull her under him onto the Aubusson rug.

Lord. He fought to bring his body under
control. Robby, he reminded himself. His brother's welfare. That
was his purpose here. Nothing else.

Kelly halted and rested her hands on the back
of one of the brocade chairs. "I know why you called this little
meeting," she admitted, "and I don't blame you one bit."

Dean raised his brows. She was going to make
this easy for him?

"It's time we stopped fooling around here,"
she said.

"Excuse me?"

"We have less than two months now." She
strolled around the armchair. "Clearly, you're a busy man, but
you're going to have to find some sort of slot to fit me into your
tight schedule."

Dean went very still.
A slot to fit her
in
?

She was directly in front of his desk now,
close enough to bang her thighs against it. "I need to get to know
you," she said.

Dean's brain went cock-eyed. She needed to
get to know him
? Only by looking at her face and seeing the
utter sobriety there, did her real meaning penetrate.

She needed to get to know him, him as opposed
to the man she'd married. This had been her avowed goal as his
temporary wife. He wanted to talk about Robby, he needed to talk
about Robby, but...she had a point.

"Well?" She crossed her arms.

Dean raised his chin. "Of course. You do need
evidence if you are to reach any conclusions. I understand that."
But damned if he wanted to spend ten minutes in her company.

On the other hand, he had to spend time in
her company. Implicitly, he'd given his word. Flustered, Dean heard
himself blurt, "What about the opera? Saturday night."

She stopped her gentle banging against his
desk. "What?"

'What,' indeed. It was a ridiculous idea. But
Dean had gone too far to turn back. He adopted a lofty tone. "Come
with me to the opera on Saturday night. A date. That is the
conventional means by which couples get to know one another, is it
not?"

"A date," she murmured.

A date at the opera. He was an idiot. Yes, he
had tickets for the special benefit performance Saturday evening,
but he'd planned to forego them. His showgirl wife would hardly
appreciate La Bohème, and in his present circumstances he could
hardly invite somebody more suitable.

"The opera," Kelly went on, speaking louder.
One corner of her mouth curved thoughtfully. "Sounds...great!"

"It does?"

"That's a whole evening, right? Dinner, the
show, at least three, four hours?"

"Closer to five." Dean was regretting his
impulsive invitation more by the second. It would be five hours of
temptation, five hours of physical affliction.

On the other hand, maybe a date with his wife
would be a means to extinguish this inappropriate lust, once and
for all. Seen against the backdrop of his real life she would have
to look less attractive... Wouldn't she?

"Five hours," Kelly breathed. For an instant
Dean thought she turned uncertain, too, but that had to be his
imagination. What would she have to be uncertain about?

And, indeed, she gave a decisive nod.
"Saturday night," she said. "It's a date."

###

A date with her husband. It had to be the
worst idea in the world, Kelly decided. Why? For one thing, she
didn't have a thing to wear.

Kelly stood inside the Olympic-size walk-in
closet of her bedroom suite on Saturday afternoon, her arms crossed
over her chest and one hip locked. No, not a single, solitary thing
hanging in that closet was appropriate to wear to the opera. Not
that Kelly knew what was appropriate to wear to the opera, but she
was certain she didn't have it. And it was too late to go shopping.
Besides, she needed to save her money, not working for two
months.

Kelly scowled and fit one of her fingers
between her teeth. All right, she wasn't worried about what she was
going to wear; she could always figure out something. What had her
all hot and bothered was being roped into this 'date' at all.

Five hours together with Dean Singleton.

Oh, it was her own fault. In Dean's study,
knowing he wanted to blow up at her about Robby and not wanting to
back down about her involvement with the kid, she'd reached wildly
for some way, any way, to distract him.

So now they had to spend time together, five
hours worth of time. Together.

Kelly let out a deep breath. Well? So? Wasn't
it her goal here to spend time with Dean    'this' Dean
   to get to know who he was? She needed to put the
question of this marriage firmly behind her.

But there was one small problem. Every time
she saw Dean there was the heart beating, the blood rushing, and
the sensation of butterflies in her stomach.