The Thrill of It All (15 page)

She bit her lip, regretting her outburst all over again. “Sorry, Ash,” she mumbled. “You’re not to blame. After Simon died, I…I should have done something. I should have been here for you.”

But she’d had a good excuse! Eighteen months ago, her career at GetTV was revving up. Her
All That’s Cool Afternoon
had jumped in the ratings and she’d received a personal, glowing memo from Drew’s father, the CEO of the company.

“Look, everybody, here’s how it stands,” she said, rubbing her forehead. “We have the note from Ben. I’m guessing he’s fine and lying low somewhere safe.
But we need to find out how much money he owes or find him or both. I’m thinking a visit to the Caruso plant might be a start. And then there’s Ashley—”

“I’ll take care of that,” Magee said, stepping forward. “Ashley, and Ben, too.”

Felicity frowned at him. “We don’t need your help—”

“You have it anyway.” He gazed over her head at Ashley. “Because your cousin and I are engaged.”

“What?” Felicity blinked up at him.

“Ashley’s going to be my wife.”

The room erupted in excitement. Charms pumped Magee’s hand. Someone pulled Ashley forward for a round of hugs.

For her part, Felicity focused on one corner of the room and drew a mental camera there. She imagined it in detail, from the omniscient lens to the little red light on top that signaled it as the camera to play to. And then she gave it her sweet, appealing best, determined that the audience would never know that her smiles and good wishes were anything less than sincere.

Surprise. Betrayal. Humiliation.

They stayed well hidden behind her smooth, professional veneer. After a few minutes she took a little stroll into the kitchen, looking for…for…something. Her gaze snagged on her Joanie, sitting on the countertop, and she lunged for it, her knee connecting with an ajar cupboard door.

Pain bloomed over the tender skin she’d gotten from kneeling in Magee’s car.

Which triggered yet another wave of humiliation.

Her hand tightened on the Joanie, and its abraded exterior scratched her palm. She looked down, staring into its still-serene gaze. “We’re getting out of here,” she promised.

M
agee knew the instant Felicity left the living room. Half-relieved and half-sick at how he’d sprung the news on her, he kept watch for her return. He owed her an explanation.

The hell of it was, he didn’t have a good one.

Damn it! She’d sped out of the night and blindsided
him
! He hadn’t planned what happened after, not any of it. But because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants he’d screwed up. Screwed her.

But what a thrill. She was right about that.

At the screech of peeling rubber, one of the young Charms, dressed for a round of golf, glanced out the window. “Felicity,” he announced. “Driving off like the cops are after her.”

Magee stilled.

Vi leaned over to pick up a cat, then stroked it, a slight frown on her face. “I wonder why?”

Magee wondered where. Had she run off for L.A. without a goodbye? Without another try—and with
very good reason this time—at running him over or running him through?

Maybe. He’d said he’d take care of Ashley and Ben.

We don’t need your help
. She’d sounded adamant about that—before, of course, he’d announced the engagement.

But hadn’t she mentioned something about a visit to the Caruso plant…?

The hairs on the back of his neck sprang up. Damn stupid, stubborn, crazy woman! His hand slid into his pocket and closed over his keys. He hoped he didn’t know her as well as he thought he did.

Felicity pushed out of the double doors of the corporate offices of La Vita Buona Foods and right into Magee’s chest. She gasped in surprise. “How did you find me?”

He grabbed her wrists. “It wasn’t that hard. Now, what the hell are you doing?”

She wrenched her arms from his fingers. “What the hell I
did,
” she said through her teeth, trying to keep her voice low and calm, “is meet with a representative of the Caruso family.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. You had, what? A fifteen-minute head start on me?”

She lifted her shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. “I work fast.” Then she made to step around him, intent on hurrying down the wide steps and hurrying away from Magee before she blew her cool.

He blocked her way. “We need to talk.”

No! “I don’t have time.” She sidestepped again.
Her shoulder bumped his as she rushed down the wide steps of the office building.

He caught her elbow at the bottom of the short flight. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Anywhere you’re not
. But she couldn’t say that out loud, not and keep her pride. She couldn’t let him guess what a blow it had been to hear him say he was marrying Ashley and how ashamed she was to be proven just another one of the women he’d slept with, just another one of his thrillbangs.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked again.

Determined to appear unmoved, she looked up and met his gaze. “I’m going across the parking lot to that little store right over there, where I’ll be selecting some Caruso gourmet products.”

“Jesus. Shopping.” He spit the last word out.

Vile, traitorous, rude man!

“It’s shopping that’s saving Ben’s behind,” she hissed, leaning toward him. Then she pulled back, frantically smoothing out her expression.
Don’t let him see you’re hurt
.

With quick strides she headed toward the small store, hoping his disdain for her and dislike of shopping would take him away. Far away. But he dogged her footsteps, frustration fanning from him like smoke.

“We still need to have that talk,” he said.

Instead of replying, she grabbed the store’s door handle. He slapped his palm against the plate glass to keep it closed. Her spine stiffened.

“Speak,” he said.

“Arf, arf. Now let me go inside.”

His hands landed on her shoulder and he spun her toward him. “
Felicity
. Don’t be such a smart-mouth.”

She glared up at him. “I have to get on with this, Magee. I need to pick out some products, then I need to call Drew and use my smart mouth to give a kick-butt pitch that convinces him they’ll be sure winners for GetTV. That’s the deal I made to bail out Ben.”

“Jesus, Felicity. You weren’t kidding? You walked into the Caruso corporate offices and brought up their mob dealings?” His fingers convulsed on her shoulders and he gave her a quick shake. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“It worked.”

His expression turned furious and he shook her again. “I didn’t save your goddamn life so that you could end up wearing a pair of high-heeled cement sandals.”

“Your karmic spitwad isn’t as stupid as all that. I told the front desk I was stopping by on the chance that the product manager was free because I was scouting new items for the shopping channel. That got me into a plush office for a private meeting. Once there, I mentioned that my cousin Ben was having some financial difficulties that the Carusos might know about. A phone call later, we were making a mutually beneficial deal.”

His hands had loosened on her shoulders and she used the opportunity to twist free and slip inside the
store. A bell rang, announcing her entrance, and she took her first breath of delicious smells—tomato, garlic, onion, and herbs. Stocked like a gourmet shop, the store had floor-to-ceiling shelves of bottled Caruso sauces and imported Italian products. One corner held a refrigerated unit stacked with fresh pastas. Nearby, a small wheeled bar with overhead heating lights displayed a mouthwatering selection of free samples.

Her stomach growled, the sound covered as the front bell rang again. Pretending not to notice the surly newcomer, Felicity turned toward the freebies and filled a small paper plate with ravioli, penne in a marinara sauce, and a side dish made with white beans and herbs.

“We’re not through,” Magee ground out from behind her.

She used a plastic utensil to fork up a big bite and stuff it in her mouth. Better to chew than chew him out over the end of an affair that had been doomed from the very beginning.

“Ignoring me? Don’t be such a baby, Felicity.”

She stabbed a ravioli. Fine, maybe she was a baby. Maybe she was a big, spoiled baby and that’s why his defection mattered.
She
was a successful businesswoman, the It Girl of Electronic Retail.
He
was a scruffy, bar-owning, good-for-nothing-she-wanted cretin. She studied his reflection in the stainless steel roof that housed the food bar’s overhead lights. Hair too long. Faded jeans. A T-shirt—she couldn’t read
what it said—that probably insulted her intelligence, her sex, or both.

Why,
she
should have been the one to dump
him
. Driven away with a casual wave of her hand, back to her good life and the civilized, successful kind of men who appreciated her. The kind of men who—

—had never known her like Magee.

The ravioli stuck in her throat, a dry lump. He’d known her. He’d made her laugh. He’d found his way past her facade to that raw, physical passion she hadn’t even been aware was inside herself.

“Felicity.”

She turned. It was all there, all that appealed to that secret side of her. Rough-cut hair, rough stubble of whiskers, rough, rangy man who could make her wet with just the touch of his rough, callused fingertip. Her pulse tripped, then started thrumming again, hummingbird wings at her throat, and at her wrists, and under the prim, knee-length skirt she’d pulled on that morning.

She remembered their first meeting. How she’d opened her eyes to find the man of her most deeply buried fantasies standing over her and how there’d been an almost cosmic, magical connection between them.

“Damn it, Felicity, tell me more about this business deal.”

She started. So much for connections, cosmic or otherwise. He’d already moved on and his only remaining interest in her was a practical one. Frowning, she glanced around the room. There wasn’t a clerk or
any other shopper in sight. Still, she kept her voice at a whisper.

“The man I met with made a call to old Mr. Caruso. That’s who he asked his secretary to get on the phone, anyway, Cosimo Caruso. He left the room when it came through, but once he was back we made our agreement. My
All That’s Cool Afternoon
does a prominent, month-long sell of Caruso products in the late spring, and Ben’s debt is forgiven.”

Magee’s eyes narrowed. “That was actually promised?”

“In so many words. As a matter of fact, the debt is erased as of right now. To show my good faith, I’ll be previewing a few items of the Caruso line during the show we do here at the end of the week.”

“I don’t like it,” he said, shaking his head.

She gritted her teeth. “Give me some credit, okay? For your information, there are sharks in L.A., too. I know how to negotiate.”

“I don’t like it that
you
are involved.” His hand reached out and he stroked his fingertips along the curve of her cheek.

She held herself still, though she was unable to stop the goosebumps sliding down the side of her neck, toward the site of that silly, sexy, junior high hickey he’d given her.

He let out a soft groan as if he remembered it, too. “Lissie…”

Those prickly bumps rushed up her thighs, between them. She took a step toward him. Undeniable, that connection between them. Unignorable and…im
portant. If she kissed him maybe she could understand it. If she kissed him, maybe he’d forget all about Ashley and be—

“I’m sorry,” a female said from the other side of the room. “I didn’t hear anyone come in. We were in the back and—Magee!”

The last two syllables were rife with delight.

As one, Felicity and Magee turned toward the voice. In a pair of black pants, a white shirt, and a red-checked apron around her waist, a young woman was gazing on him with a smile in her eyes and on her full pink lips. As she rounded the sales counter, her bouncy blond curls, twisted at the back of her head and then pinned in a tousled top knot at her crown, jiggled with the same enthusiasm as her full breasts.

“Magee,” she said again, coming to a stop in front of him. She put a palm on both of his lean cheeks and brought his mouth down for a juicy, noisy kiss. As he lifted his head, the woman smiled at him again. “That’s because I’m glad to see you.”

Smiling wider, she reached around and gave him a lusty pinch on his perfect butt. “And that’s because you broke my heart!”

Magee shook his head, a smile tugging at his mouth. “It’s been too long…” He hesitated, his gaze dropping to the tag pinned over her voluptuous right breast. “Tracy.”

Felicity rolled her eyes, cursing herself for ever imagining
she’d
had anything special with Magee. This woman had probably thought the same, and the jerk couldn’t even recall her name! Give him a
month—a week!—and Felicity would be just another of his hazy memories.

While she’d remember him the rest of her life.

“Magee!” A second delighted, trilling voice echoed in the small shop. A second young woman wearing a red-checked apron danced toward him.

Not a
second
young woman. A
twin
.

Felicity’s jaw dropped. The whole scene played out again, the kiss, the pinch, the “You broke my heart,” followed by Magee’s sheepish smile, except this time it starred Tanya, not Tracy.

As he slipped an arm around each of them, Felicity backed toward the door. Twins. Twins!

Even the wild sex he’d shared with Felicity had probably seemed like a day at kindergarten to him. What had been exotic and erotic to her had been ho-hum, run-of-the-mill for Magee.

Tracy and Tanya were chattering away as Felicity slipped out. She’d get her Caruso products elsewhere.

Anywhere away from Magee.

She made it only as far as her car.

“Damn it, Felicity,” he said, striding toward her. “Don’t think you’re going to duck the rest of this conversation.”

She rolled her eyes. “Why not? Your actions speak for themselves.”

He frowned. “And what do you mean by that?”

“Twins,” she muttered.

“So that’s what has your panties in such a tight twist.”

She shot him a look. “Admit it. You’re a deviant.”

“And that’s exactly what you like about me.”

She froze. Then, damn it all, she laughed. Leaning against the side of her car, she crossed her arms over her stomach and let the helpless laughter bubble out. What could she do? The man did know her
much
too well.

But it was time for her to move on, too.

“I suppose I do like you,” she finally managed to get out. “However…” Straightening up and then lifting to tiptoe, she grabbed his face between her hands and transferred a noisy, juicy kiss to his mouth—a kiss just like the twins’.

“That’s because I’ll be glad to see the last of you,” she said, striking a friendly, it-was-fun-but-now-I’m-done tone. Then, as she beamed up a carefree smile, her hand shot around his hip to administer her own cheeky pinch. “And that’s because you broke my heart.”

Her sassy smile died.
And that’s because you broke my heart
, replayed in her head. Oh, God, no.

No
.

Magee’s gaze swept over her naked face. “Lissie,” he whispered, as if what he saw pained him. “Sweetheart…”

She spun away, fishing through her purse with her back to him. “Leave me alone,” she croaked out, desperate for her car keys.

“Lissie—”

“
Leave me alone
.”

Only then could she convince herself she hadn’t just spoken the truth.

Magee knew the exact instant Felicity realized he was following her car. The Thunderbird slowed for a second, then the vehicle jumped forward.

Crazy woman. As if he could leave her alone after seeing her stricken expression. Was he responsible…?

No
. He couldn’t have
hurt
her, not really. Not Felicity Charm, with her L.A.-sized ego and her short, strict list of acceptable men. For God’s sake, she would have been crossing him off herself in less than a week. Her annoyance came from the fact that the situation with Ashley meant he’d beaten her to it.