“ I’m all about your pleasure,” she said, picking up her fork.
The double meaning of that statement zapped other coherent thought from his head. She wasn’t anything he’d expected her to be, nothing like the reticent young woman he’d planned to befriend and assist. “You keep surprising me,” he said, honestly.
“I’m surprising myself.”
He studied her features, her shiny hair and the way the light glowed on her bare shoulders. He wasn’t the one who was supposed to feel like he was walking on marbles. He had to be very careful around this woman.
“I’ve begun asking myself what Lily would have done.”
“Lily Divine?”
“My great-great grandmother. I think there’s a lot more we don’t know about her. And a lot we think we know that isn’t true.”
“Like what?”
“She’s famous for being the Shady Lady, but that was just the name of her saloon. I don’t think she was a prostitute.”
“How do you explain that painting over the bar?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know that I have to.”
“The dresses? The saloon?”
She looked him in the eye. “You can hang fuzzy dice around your neck and go stand in your garage, but that doesn’t make you a car.”
He laughed.
She laid down her fork and placed her napkin on the table. “I’ve been reading your great-great grandmother’s journals.”
“Which grandmother?”
“Catherine Douglas. Amos’s wife.”
“I’ve never heard about any journals.”
“Well, they belong to Tildy Matheson now. Remember you told me about Emily Stanton and Brad Vaughn going through things at Tildy’s and finding the deed? Well, it seems Catherine left her belongings to Tildy’s grandmother.”
“That’s strange.”
“She plans to bequeath a trunk full of items to the historical society.”
“It’s odd those things weren’t kept in the family,” he said, thinking out loud.
“Many families don’t have heirlooms because things get discarded before they’re actually valuable or have much sentiment. It’s fortunate that someone kept these things in good condition.”
He could see that and nodded his agreement.
She picked up her glass and sipped wine. The recessed lighting flattered her dark hair, and the sparkle in her eyes accentuated the feminine hollows of her collarbone and the curve of her shoulders. Riley noticed the way the red fabric was designed to loop over the top of each arm and drape suggestively across her breasts.
He didn’t remember much about the painting of the Shady Lady except those exceptionally appealing breasts. At some time or another, he’d bet every teenage boy in Thunder Canyon had been intrigued by that enigmatic woman from the town’s past…and by her breasts. In the next heartbeat, his thoughts took a natural turn and he imagined Lisa without the dress. The mental image was a complete turn on.
“Would you like to see them?”
If he’d been standing, he would have fallen. Here? She was looking into his face, and he made himself meet her eyes. His heart pounded.
“Riley, would you like to see the journals?”
“Oh! Yes. I’d love to see the journals…thanks.”
“If you don’t have any other plans, you can come to my place when we’ve finished eating. What kind of business do we need to discuss?”
He gathered his senses. “State and federal regulators. Water quality inspectors. Ladders and escape routes.”
“You really know about all that stuff?”
“I’m educating myself on the aspects of mining so I can advise you.”
“That’s as impressive as the wine.”
He filled her in on what the inspectors would be looking for the next day. “The rest can wait,” he told her. “We’ve talked enough business this evening.”
She smiled. “I agree.”
Lisa’d had him figured out since day one. She took a swallow of the luscious wine and let the warm glow suffuse her insides and spread to her limbs. He’d been hell-bent on endearing himself to her, making his services indispensable, and truth be told, she didn’t mind all that much. She needed the know how, experience and quick mind he had to offer. She didn’t mind the attention. But his ruse was so transparent, she’d have to be blindfolded in a dark windowless room not to see it.
His surprise at her transformation was gratifying. More than gratifying. Delicious. She’d caught him off guard. Turned the tables on Mr. Cool. She was sure he’d intended to impress her with an expensive meal and this incredible wine and his charming company. But he’d been expecting to impress and win over the Lisa with the baggy clothing and the wild coils of hair, not this new and improved version.
She smiled to herself. Maybe he’d just have to try a little harder now. Seeing him give his all could prove…rewarding.
“What’s so amusing?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
He raised one ebony eyebrow in question.
“A girl can have her secrets, can’t she?” She chuckled at that because it sounded so ridiculous to her own ears, but her pathetic attempt at flirting must have been pretty good because he smiled, too, and his gaze traveled her face and hair in an altogether appreciative and intriguing way.
Lisa had been determined to break out of her timid boring self and become someone confident and exciting. So far so good. She had him fooled, anyway.
What would someone named Lily Divine do if she was finally given the chance to stir things up with a man she’d had the hots for since adolescence? Okay, not the hots necessarily. Back then it had been an innocent unrequited yearning. Now it was the hots.
Well, someone confident like Lily would probably cast inhibition to the wind and grab opportunity with both fists. “Do you want dessert?” she asked.
“Do you?”
“I have brownies, ice cream and fudge topping at my place.”
A grin tilted his lips, drawing her attention to their shape. “More wine?”
The bottle was empty. She wanted to remember the rest of the evening. “Better not. I can’t feel my nose.”
He signaled to their waiter, signed for the check and accompanied her to the door.
It was full dark now, a luminous crescent moon bright in the summer sky. Riley placed his hand in the small of her back as they walked toward the car. The warmth of his touch suffused the fabric of her dress and ignited another glow inside her.
They reached the red Jaguar and Lisa heard the whir of a camera. Riley had opened her door and she turned to face him, standing in the minimal space between his body and the interior. “Maybe my place isn’t such a good idea,” she said, and her disappointment was sincere. “I have to think about tomorrow’s headlines.”
“What about the ice cream? And the journals?” he asked.
She shrugged.
“I can lose those guys. And I know of someplace private.”
“Where?”
He leaned close so he couldn’t possibly be overheard. “I have a cabin outside town. No one except family knows about it.”
His whisper created goose bumps down her arms and across
her shoulders. She looked up at him in the moonlight. “Then you’d
better go back in and order dessert to go.”
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