Inside our dim room, Lachlan threw his keycard on the dresser and tugged his tie loose. “Did you get Celeste’s problem taken care of?”
“Yes.” I’d spent quite a while with her on the phone, then returned to the ballroom to discover my husband had decided to ignore me. “My call was very important.” She’d needed me to register her son for a LEGO camp because she couldn’t recall his social security number. “Very impactful for Flair.” Why did it feel like an Alaskan winter in this room?
“Glad you could help.” Lachlan’s voice was bland as a rice cake and just as crisp. “I’m sure the business would’ve toppled to rubble overnight had you not intervened.”
Someone had his silk boxers in a knot. “Then you’d be without a PR firm, and Larry from McMinn and Associates would have to take care of you. Larry has bad breath and hits on half his clients, from what I hear.” I let my gaze conduct a meaningful sweep of Lachlan. “You’re totally Larry’s type.”
“What type is that? The kind who doesn’t leave his date alone for forty-five minutes while she walks her boss through how to register her own kid for a summer activity?”
Kicking off one spiteful, toe-pinching shoe, I gasped. “Were you eavesdropping on me?”
“At the twenty-minute mark I got worried you’d been abducted and needed rescue, so I went out to check on you. I think that was about the time you were instructing Celeste on which room in the house would most likely contain her daughter.”
“Why are you acting like the jealous, possessive husband?”
“I’m not.” With jerky movements, Lachlan yanked off his jacket. “I’m acting like a guy who worries you’re in a two-person cult.”
I removed a heavy, dangling earring. “Take that back.”
“Not happening.”
“Do you have any idea what I could’ve been doing tonight?”
He threw his tie on the nightstand. “Picking up Celeste’s son from band practice?”
“Working on other projects that are falling behind. Or spending time with my sisters.” I consulted the thermostat and found it dark and lifeless. “But instead I’ve given up my weekend to play the part of your wife and overserve in my role as your PR representative.”
“Larry probably would’ve joined me.”
“Larry smells like Asiago and mothballs.” I grabbed my pajamas and slammed my suitcase shut. Meanwhile Lachlan chose the moment to unbutton his shirt.Penalty flag on the field!How could I participate in an intelligent argument when I had to look atthat? “By the way, Celeste called to say you landed an interview with NPR.”
“Great,” he declared loudly.
“Good!” I bellowed right back.
Lachlan stood there angrily aiming the remote at the TV and looking like the cover model for the last romance novel I’d read. All he needed was a wind machine to blow his hair and a pirate ship floating behind him.
He dropped the remote onto the bed. “I see you ogling my irresistible form, and I’m going to have to ask you to stop.”
“You’re totally flexing right now. But I love how you always think I’m checking you out.” I dug back into my suitcase with a fury, desperately searching for other pajamas than the ones in my hand. I’d been so overextended, I’d taken Sylvie up on her offer to pack for me, and of course, she’d included one nightie made of nothing but lace and air, which I’d never seen in my life, and another from the back of my drawer that didn’t need a public showing for entirely different reasons. “For your information, I barely notice you at all, Lachlan.”
That’s right. I barely noticed the unexpectedly rippled stomach, the contours of his chest, or the splattering of russet hair. And I certainly did not notice the way his muscles contracted every time he moved or the way his tie dangled loose over his collarbone, as if daring me to grab the ends and pull him flush against me.
“You know what I think you’re really mad about?” Lachlan asked.
“Being married to a man who harasses me?” I grabbed my curse of pajamas and took three steps toward the bathroom.
Lachlan stepped into my path. “The fact that you enjoyed our kiss.”
This called for complete and total denial. “Thatkiss? The one in the ballroom?”
“Yeah.” He made no effort to move but stepped closer. “The one that lit your world on fire.”
I laughed at that, a big, loud chuckle forced from the pit of my despairing stomach. “I have zero interest in kissing you. I thought you were playing your role of a romantic husband, and I was doing my part.”
“You keep telling yourself that, Mrs. Hayes.”
How dare he be right! The unmitigated gall of the man. I would not tolerate this rudeness one more second. “I’m going to take a shower. It’ll give you and your arrogance a little time alone.”
