“I’m having a great time,” she lied, watching Brant sit down on the opposite side of Serena. “I just wish Phillip hadn’t left so early.” That, at least, was the truth.
Serena’s eyes turned sympathetic. “He needs time to adjust.”
Kia felt her throat close up. She didn’t deserve Serena’s sympathy. Or anyone else’s, for that matter. She was such a fraud. “I know,” was all she could manage.
After that, talk around the table turned to other things. Her heart took the chance to settle back to its regular beat as she listened to the discussions going on around her. They were all such nice people.
She glanced at Brant, his dark head tilted toward Serena while she spoke to him. Well, nearly all of them were nice. She couldn’t exactly call Brant Matthews “nice.”
It didn’t apply to a man with probing eyes and an inscrutable expression, a man whose body coiled with barely controlled sensuality but bordered on an unfriendliness that belonged to an archenemy.
Thankfully the music started up again, this time playing rock and roll, and Simon asked her to dance. Desperate to forget thoughts of Brant, who was now asking Serena to dance with him, she willingly went with the older man to the dance floor, where he showed her that being middle-aged still made him capable of some daring moves.
“He’ll be paying for that tomorrow,” his wife teased to Kia when she returned to the table with Simon after only one song.
Kia smiled, but before she could catch her breath, Bill Stewart grabbed her hand and insisted on a dance, too. She figured out then that they were making sure she was having a good time even without her fiancé.
When she eventually got to sit down, she saw Simon about to get to his feet again. “No more,” she gasped, reaching for the jug of ice water. They were killing her with kindness.
“Oh, but—” Simon began.
“No more,” Brant said firmly across the table, the look in his eyes reminding them all who was boss. “Kia looks tired.”
Kia didn’t want to agree with him, but she didn’t want to dance again either. “I am a little,” she smilingly apologized to Simon.
“That’s okay,” the older man said with obvious relief. “I wasn’t sure I had another one in me anyway.”
After that, the music got even louder, until it became more impossible to talk. It wasn’t long before the older couples decided to call it a night.
“Would you ladies like to go home soon?” Brant said, encompassing both her and Serena with his question. “It’s nearly midnight.”
Rather than going home with Brant, Kia would have sat here all night if she knew she hadn’t been inconveniencing Serena. “That’s up to both of you.”
“I’m ready when you are,” Serena agreed, giving a delicate yawn followed by a self-conscious laugh. “I have an early appointment in the morning anyway.”
“No sleep-in for you then,” Kia teased.
Brant quickly finished off his drink. “Right. Let’s go,” he rasped, getting to his feet.
Startled by his tone, Kia got to her feet, too, followed by Serena, who didn’t seem to notice and continued to talk while they made their way through the tables to the exit.
Kia listened even while she wondered why Brant’s face looked like thunder. Had it been her mention of sleeping in tomorrow morning? Did it remind him of being in bed? Of making love? She must have reminded him that he wasn’t about to get any sex tonight. Not from Serena. And certainly not from her.
Of course, he would still have plenty of other woman friends who would willingly sacrifice themselves for his pleasure. He only had to make a phone call and it would be his.
But she soon forgot all that when they reached the front of the hotel and were discussing where they lived while waiting for Brant’s car to be brought around. It appeared Serena lived closest.
“Then we’ll drop you off first, if you don’t mind,” Brant said as the gray Mercedes glided to a stop in front of them.
Serena smiled shyly. “Of course I don’t mind,” she said, and before Kia could do a thing about it, Brant was holding the back door open for Serena and she had slid onto the backseat.
Kia was tempted to slide in right next to her, but as if he knew, Brant took her by the elbow and walked her to the front passenger door.
His touch made her shiver in the balmy night air. Soon she’d be alone with a man who had no need to touch to get his way. A man who had perfected foreplay with just a look. Perhaps it was as well she was an “engaged” woman now.
Three
Kia consoled herself on the way home that at least her presence wouldn’t give Brant the opportunity to seduce the innocent Serena. Not that she really thought he would now, not after the brotherly way he’d been treating the younger woman all night.
Then she remembered her father and all the young women who’d passed through his life and she knew that some men just couldn’t help themselves.
Five minutes later, she watched from the car while Brant walked Serena to the front door of her house. The security light had come on at their approach and Kia saw everything clearly. She breathed a sigh of relief when Brant gave Serena a smile and a quick peck on the cheek, then strode back to the car.
“Was that chaste enough for you?” he mocked as he started the engine.
Chaste? A kiss from this man could never be considered chaste. Not for her, anyway.
She forced a cool smile. “I didn’t think you knew what the word meant.”
He smiled grimly as he pulled out from the curb. “I could say the same about you.”
“Me?”
He glanced sideways, his eyes boldly raking over her. “Sweetheart, you ooze sex appeal. Why do you think young Danny was falling over himself?” Obviously seeing her surprise, his eyes narrowed. “Surely Phillip’s told you how sexy you are?”
Sexy? No, Phillip had never told her that.
“Yes, of course,” she lied.
“You don’t sound too sure.”
She stiffened. “Of course I’m sure. It’s just that…” Think. “Well, since the accident we’ve been concentrating on him rather than me.”
He appeared to consider that. “He’s going through a tough time right now.” Once more his gaze slid over her, almost contemptuously this time. “But if any woman can make him think like a man again, it’s you.”
She didn’t appreciate the comment. “You’ve missed your calling. You should be doing talk shows.”
This time he laughed. A deep, rich sound that made her catch her breath and confirmed why women of all kinds wanted him. She didn’t even like him and this was her reaction.
Luckily for her, they came to some night roadwork and Brant had to slow the car and concentrate for the next kilometer. After that, except for her directing him, they both remained quiet until they reached her street.
“It’s the house at the end,” she said as they came around the corner into the leafy cul-de-sac.
A few moments later he pulled into the driveway and cut the engine. “You live here by yourself?” he asked, his eyes going over the ground-level house nestled amongst the lush garden. It was obviously too big for one person.
“I live by myself, yes, but the house has been divided into two. The owner lives in one apartment and I live in the other.”