His sudden transformation from devoted suitor to smug co-conspirator made Grace blink. Pulling herself together quickly, she snarled, “You licked my hand, you degenerate.”
He laughed softly. “And you taste delectable—as I suspected you would.”
She scooted nearer to him, gazing up at him through her lashes and keeping her voice a low, husky croon. “Bryan?”
His gaze fell to her moistened lips. “Mmm?”
Some evil impulse made her lean even closer, well aware that the neckline of her blouse gaped when she did so. In typical male fashion, his gaze dropped lower. “When this is all over—”
“Yes?” he prodded without raising his eyes.
She straightened away from him. “I’m going to have you killed.”
He laughed and reached for his water glass. “It’s always nice to have something to look forward to.”
Chloe and Donovan were waiting at the airport when Grace and Bryan arrived in Little Rock early that evening. Chloe rushed forward to greet them, Donovan following a bit more slowly at her heels.
It still startled Grace at times to see the short, fashionably choppy hairstyle her twin had sported for the past few months. They’d always worn similar styles in the past—and Grace had traditionally been the one to break rank and try something new. They’d stopped dressing alike in elementary school, and had maintained separate apartments for years, but their lives had still been tightly intertwined, both personally and professionally. Grace was aware that many things would be changing between them once Chloe and Donovan married and formed their own family.
Chloe hugged her, then stepped back to look at her as though it had been longer than a couple of days since they’d seen each other. “Did you have a good time in New York?”
“It was very nice,” Grace answered without a blink.
Glancing quickly around them, Chloe lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Do you think you accomplished your goal? Keeping the gossips confused about us, I mean.”
Grace smiled with a patience she reserved only for Chloe. “I know what our goal was. And, yes, I think we made some progress on that front.”
Bryan and Donovan had greeted each other with slaps on the shoulders—a ritual Grace had always considered the male version of a hug. Bryan then turned to Chloe, taking her hand in both of his and bending to brush a kiss across her cheek, murmuring a complimentary greeting as he did so.
Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, Grace watched the interplay between Bryan and her sister, trying to read his expression. Only a few short months ago he had asked Chloe to marry him. Though he’d seemed to accept Chloe’s relationship with Donovan graciously enough, Grace couldn’t help wondering how he really felt about Chloe now. Surely he’d had some sort of strong feelings for her if he’d actually considered spending the rest of his life with her, raising children with her. Frankly Grace couldn’t imagine anyone not loving Chloe.
But Bryan had managed to move on from several previous relationships without ever looking back—at least according to those gossip columnists who’d been making their lives so stressful lately.
They all pretended not to notice the attention they received from others in the airport terminal, though all four were aware they’d been recognized by at least a few. When Bryan draped an arm casually around Grace’s shoulders, drawing her closer to him as they headed for the exit behind Chloe and Donovan, she knew he was making sure they were seen as a couple. She saw Chloe slant them a sideways glance, but she didn’t return the look. If she was going to bluff her way through this, she couldn’t meet Chloe’s eyes.
They went out to dinner, choosing a restaurant that was popular enough to keep them in the public eye, yet quiet enough to allow them to talk comfortably. Though they chatted about Grace and Bryan’s trip to New York, they were careful not to even obliquely refer to the purpose for that excursion. They were always aware of the possibility of being overheard.
Grace wondered how Bryan could stand living such a fishbowl existence. The average wealthy businessman could live in relative privacy, but Bryan, with his extraordinary looks and influential, highly visible circle of friends and associates, was hardly average. Something about him had drawn the interest of the media from the time he’d broken away from his prominent family’s long-successful business holdings to strike out on his own, finding success at a very early age, even in the era of twenty-something multi-millionaires. His predilection for beautiful and famous women had placed him solidly in the gossip columns, even though he’d once told Chloe that he’d long since moved beyond that fascination.
Still, a man with his looks, his money and his access to the most exclusive social circles was bound to stir the imaginations of a celebrity-obsessed society, and Bryan hadn’t been able to take himself out of the public eye once he’d moved into it. Rather than running from the attention and becoming a privacy-obsessed hermit, he had learned, instead, to manipulate it—as he was doing now with Grace. There were still drawbacks to the fame, of course—the constant awareness of security among the worst, in her opinion, but he seemed to be comfortable enough with his life as far as Grace could determine.
She wondered if he’d given up on finding a suitable mate to share that life with, or if he was only waiting until after Chloe and Donovan’s wedding to resume his carefully calculated search.
Not that she was particularly interested in Bryan Falcon’s future private life, she assured herself, even as he asked for the benefit of a hovering waiter, “Would you like dessert, darling? The strawberry cheesecake is excellent here.”
The one thing she looked forward to when this farce was over was shoving his “darlings” right back in his pretty face. Grace made sure no hint of that rather ferocious fantasy was evident when she smiled and mur
mured sweetly, “No, I’m fine, thank you.”
She could tell from the gleam in his eyes that he’d guessed at least the essence of her thoughts. They’d been spending entirely too much time together if they were starting to read each other’s thoughts, she promptly decided.
Chloe was watching them again, and for some reason that made Grace uncomfortable. Though they’d never had that eerie psychic bond some identical twins claimed, there were times Grace had to make a real effort to keep Chloe from reading her too closely. There were aspects of Grace that even Chloe didn’t know, and Grace kept it that way deliberately. She had always disliked feeling stifled. As much as she loved her sister, there were times when she felt smothered by being half of an identical pair. She had her ways of rebelling, of breaking loose at times, but she kept that part of her life completely separate.
“Don’t forget about your fitting tomorrow afternoon,” Chloe reminded her as the two couples prepared to part after the meal.
Grace wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know why I need to be measured and pinned and fussed over. Just try my dress on while you’re being fitted for yours. If it fits you, we know it will fit me.”
Chloe sighed. “I know you hate fittings, but it won’t take long. You really do need to try the dress on yourself—just in case. Besides, you haven’t even seen it. What if you don’t like it?”