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  “Thanks.” She felt a brief pang about the logistics of getting out to the exclusive neighborhood, then decided she’d worry later. For now she intended to enjoy the moment.

  Nikki shrugged. “It’s not like it’s my choice, Mallory. I’m just doing what I was asked to. If it were up to me, no matter how much we need to fill this position, you wouldn’t have been considered, much less chosen. And I’m sure once other people find out you’ve been hired, they’ll feel the same way. Your father cheated a lot of people, and I’m not the only one who hasn’t forgotten.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Mallory murmured.

  “You do that,” Nikki said coolly as she sashayed out the door.

  Mallory stared after her for a moment, then looked away, giving herself a mental shake. Compared to everything else she’d been through, Nikki’s attitude qualified as a minor bump in the road, she told herself firmly. Sure, the injustice of being blamed for dear old dad’s misdeeds rankled, and the thought of being thrust back into her social circle in the guise of paid employee was more than a little daunting, but she’d survive. The important thing was that she’d gotten the job.

  The reminder brought on a fresh wave of exhilaration. Once more she had to conquer the urge to jump to her feet and twirl around like some giddy little teenager. Still, it was the kind of news that wouldn’t feel completely real until she shared it with someone.

  She had her purse open and was reaching for her cell phone when she realized that the only person who might actually understand her elation was Gabe.

  She snatched back her hand. Good grief! Where had that come from? Because it most certainly wasn’t true. And even if it was, he was the last person on earth she’d call since he’d no doubt take it as a sign that despite everything she’d said, she secretly wanted him in her life.

  Which she didn’t. She couldn’t, she told herself firmly, as she picked up a pen and began filling out the first of the forms Nikki had left with her, ignoring the slight squeezing sensation around her heart.

  For her own peace of mind, from here on out Mr. Killer Lips Steele had to be just another part of a past she might finally be starting to put behind her.

  Gabriel knew by the slight tingle of awareness that slid down his spine the instant Mallory arrived at Saturday night’s Bedazzled cocktail party.

  Taking a sip of his wine, he finished listening to what the delicate blonde at his side was saying, then lifted his head. Aided by his height, he casually surveyed the crush in Melissa O’Keefe’s enormous living room.

  He wasn’t surprised to see Mallory standing just inside the hall entrance. Tonight her streaky caramel-brown hair was piled on her head in an updo that drew attention to the slenderness of her neck, while her lissome curves were draped in a slim-fitting, silvery-pink sheath that was somehow both restrained and drop-dead sexy.

  She looked good enough to eat.

  An unfortunate train of thought, he realized, as his body reacted to the image that sprang to mind of her tousled, naked and stretched out for his delectation.

  He glanced away. Taking another swallow of his wine, he returned his attention to his companion—and found her watching him with an arrested expression on her classically beautiful face. He raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  “I wondered why you offered to be my date tonight,” his sister-in-law, Lilah, said. “Now, I know.”

  He met her astute blue gaze with a steady one of his own. “And if I said I had no idea what you’re talking about?”

  She smiled. “I wouldn’t believe you.”

  “No?”

  She shook her head. “No.” Gently rubbing a spot on her very pregnant stomach, she glanced pointedly back toward the doorway. “That is Mallory Morgan, isn’t it?”

  He followed her gaze and saw the subject of their conversation was now talking to two of the charity’s founders and most influential board members, the white-haired DeMarco sisters, who also happened to be longtime Steele Security clients. “Yes, it is.”

  “I thought so. The two of us have been playing phone tag the past several days.”

  “How come?” Annalise, the older of the elderly DeMarco sisters, smiled at something Mallory said, while Eleanor, the younger, had a more reserved, wait-and-see look on her face.

  “It’s a long story, but it boils down to my having volunteered to find a new site for the fashion show we always put on, and her being the new event coordinator. Which, by the way, has caused a small furor all on its own.”

  Gabe abruptly shifted his gaze back to her. “In what way?”

  “Let’s just say that several of my fellow volunteers have concerns about her being hired.”

  “Which are?”

  Lilah gave a slight shrug. “Pretty much what you’d expect. Can she be trusted to do the job? Is she really qualified? Are they going to have to hide their purses when she’s around?”

  “You’re kidding about that last one, right?”

  “I wish I was. But unfortunately, rich people, like everyone else I suppose, tend to be pretty unforgiving when it comes to their money.” She paused to take a sip of her sparkling water. “There’s also a lot of speculation about just how she wound up with the job.” She tilted her head a fraction and considered him. “Clearly someone with influence vouched for her, but nobody seems to know who.”

  Gabe shrugged. “Don’t look at me. Like I said, I’m just here to enjoy the company of my favorite pregnant sister-in-law.”

  Something glinted in Lilah’s big blue eyes, but whatever it was she chose not to pursue it. “Don’t give me that. We both know that you’re really here because Dominic asked you to watch out for me while he’s in London.”

  “Well, sure,” he said, promptly stepping into the path of a passerby before the man could inadvertently jostle her. “And what’s wrong with that?”

  “Absolutely nothing. Except that if he doesn’t stop worrying all the time, he’ll be in the hospital before I am. And don’t pretend you don’t think his behavior is a little over-the-top,” she went on before he could so much as part his lips to protest. “I talked to Cooper the other day, so I know you’ve all taken to calling him Dr. Demento behind his back.”

  Gabe might have smiled if not for the genuine concern he saw on her face. “He’ll be fine, Li,” he said quietly. “It’s just that he’s an action-oriented guy, and having a child involves a lot of waiting. Add in that he’s wired by nature and training to protect you, yet he sees himself as responsible for you being in this situation in the first place, and I’m not surprised he’s acting the way he is.”

  “Crazed?” she suggested drily.

  “Exactly. This is just a suggestion, but you might want to consider trying, just for now, to be a little less self-sufficient.” Never much of a drinker since he didn’t like feeling even mildly impaired, Gabe exchanged his half-full wineglass for water as a waiter passed by bearing a tray. “Maybe if Dom had more to do, he wouldn’t feel so out of control. At least that’s the way it used to work when he was a kid. The busier he was, the less trouble he got in.”

  For a moment she just looked at him, then slowly she nodded. “You know, I hadn’t thought of that. Not in that context, anyway. But you may be right. Maybe I’ve been trying so hard not to worry him, I’ve made him feel as though I don’t need him. And nothing could be further from the truth.” She smiled sweetly. “You’re actually rather perceptive. For a man.”

  “Thanks.” His own mouth curved up. “I think.”

  They enjoyed a moment of companionable silence, and then found themselves the center of attention as a changing parade of people came up to exclaim over Lilah’s pregnancy, ask about Dom’s absence, discuss the recent fluctuations in the weather, the upcoming ball, and even, on two occasions, speculate on whether the new coordinator was up to her job.

  It was a good hour before they found themselves alone again, and had a moment to simply watch the crowd around them. Or at least, Lilah did. Gabe found his own gaze drawn un
erringly back to Mallory.

  She’d moved deeper into the room and was currently standing with an older couple, an interested look on her vividly pretty face at whatever they were saying.

  And then, she suddenly turned and looked over at Gabe as if they were connected by some invisible tether, and for an instant it was as if they were the only two people in the world.

  The moment didn’t last, however, as almost immediately she stiffened. Lifting her chin, she deliberately turned her back on him.

  “We went to the same high school, you know,” Lilah volunteered quietly beside him. “Taylor Union. Mallory was a few years behind me, but even back then…She had quite a reputation.”

  He turned to look at her. “For what?”

  “Wild behavior. I can’t say I paid much attention, but I think I remember something about a midnight horse race that destroyed a fairway out at the Fairlawn Country Club. And I have a very clear memory of Gran and her friends talking during my first spring break from college about how disgraceful it was that Cal Morgan just let her do whatever she wanted. As I recall, she’d flown herself and a handful of friends to Rio for Carnivale. I’m not sure, but I don’t think she could have been much more than sixteen.”

  Gabe tried to imagine it. But he just couldn’t. It was about as far from his experience of scrambling to make ends meet and trying to keep the family together while they bounced from one military base to another, as Paris was from Fort Dix. “Sounds like an interesting childhood.”

  “Does it?” Lilah pursed her pretty lips thoughtfully. “I suppose, growing up the way you did, with so much responsibility, it might.”

  “But?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I just think that’s awfully young to have so much freedom and absolutely no rules or guidance.” She paused, then sucked in her breath. “Dear God in heaven,” she said with a dismayed groan. “That sounded just like my grandmother.”

  “Nope,” he said emphatically. “Not even close.”

  Her grateful look prompted them both to laugh.

  Sobering, she touched her fingertips to his forearm. “I guess what I mean is…Doesn’t it strike you as sort of sad that she didn’t have anyone to place restrictions on her, if only for her safety? And make you wonder what kind of parent lets a girl that age go traipsing off to South America without any supervision?”

  An egocentric bastard like Cal Morgan, he found himself thinking. But before he could say as much, Lilah suddenly grimaced and pressed a hand to the small of her back. “Uh-oh.”

  He tensed. “What?” All joking aside, he didn’t want to think what Dom would do if anything happened to his wife.

  “All the sparkling water I’ve had tonight just caught up with me,” she said serenely, seemingly unaware that she’d just given him a momentary case of cardiac arrest. “If you’ll excuse me?” Without waiting for an answer, she pressed her glass into his hand and took off in the direction of the powder room.

  Filled with a combination of exasperation, relief and awe—he’d rather face a truckload of terrorists any day than be a pregnant woman—he watched as she made her way across the room and disappeared into the hall, her normally light, graceful walk transformed into something that was anything but by her altered center of gravity.

  Then his gaze swung back toward Mallory, only to find that she was gone, too. A quick look around had him homing in on her slim back and taut fanny just as she disappeared out a set of French doors leading out to the terrace.

  He was halfway across the room before he’d made a conscious decision to go after her. Keeping to the same brisk pace, he stepped out onto the flagstones of a wide, multilevel patio dotted with huge pots of bright flowers and a dozen wrought iron tables. In sharp contrast to the last time they’d been together, the night was balmy, ripe with the scents of freshly mown grass and incipient spring.

  Nodding to several seated acquaintances, he went down the wide, shallow steps to join her at the railing where the patio overlooked the pool.

  She turned to glance at him as he walked up and he saw her tense. Okay, it was hardly unexpected given the way they’d last parted, the terse little missive she’d sent him afterward, or the way she’d reacted inside when their gazes had met so briefly.

  That was why apologizing was already part of his plan. He’d do whatever he had to do to get them back to the tentative truce they’d briefly enjoyed over dinner the night he’d kissed her.

  Not that he expected her to make it easy, he admitted, as she deliberately turned her back to stare out at the pool.

  “Well, surprise, surprise,” she said. “If it isn’t Denver’s own Mr. Here, There and Everywhere One Wishes He Wasn’t.”

  “It’s nice to see you, too, sweetheart.”

  “Of course it is.” There was the slightest pause, and then she glanced sideways at him. “It’s hardly a secret that I’m irresistible.” Holding his gaze, she idly began to wind a glossy tendril of hair around her finger.

  An untrained observer might have missed the subtle shift in her manner. But not someone for whom the slightest change in a person’s inflection could sometimes be the difference between life and death. Curious, he said mildly, “No argument from me there.”

  “Oh, dear.” She turned more fully in his direction, and looked up at him through the dark fringe of her lashes. “How tragic for you. I do hope my fatal allure isn’t the reason you’re here tonight.”

  “And why’s that?”

  “Promise you won’t be crushed?”

  “I’ll try to survive.” Of everything he’d anticipated from her—the cold shoulder, outright anger, a flat refusal to acknowledge him at all—a reemergence of her old flirtatiousness hadn’t even made the list. But then, as he really should’ve figured out by now, Mallory was rarely predictable.

  But then, neither was he.

  “Yes, well, the thing is,” she sailed on, “as much as I cherish your unselfish devotion, I’m afraid I’m otherwise engaged this evening.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  “Let me guess. Raoul?”

  It took her a moment to get it. When she did, her eyes narrowed for the merest instant. Almost immediately, however, she recovered. “Ah, yes, Raoul. How I wish I could say yes. But the truth is, the poor darling is still recovering from our latest incredibly athletic encounter. No, I happen to be here in an official capacity. You may not have heard, but I’ve been hired to take over as Bedazzled’s event coordinator.”

  “As it happens, my sister-in-law did mention that earlier. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks.” It was the perfect place for her to point out yet again that she could take care of herself. Yet true to form for tonight, she took a different tack. “Just who is your sister-in-law?”

  “I believe you know her,” he said casually. “Stunning blonde, impressively pregnant?”

  She straightened. “Lilah Cantrell is your sister-in-law? Since when?”

  He felt a stab of satisfaction as she confirmed his hunch that she’d been paying more attention to him tonight than she’d let on. “It’s Lilah Cantrell Steele these days. She and Dom celebrated their first anniversary in February.”

  “Gosh, I guess I missed the wedding. Of course, a year ago…I would’ve been Down Under for the Sydney Regatta, cheering on those hunky Aussies. Such lovely blokes.” She gave a fond little sigh, then cocked her head as if thinking. “No, wait. That was March. In February it would’ve been New York for fashion week.”

  She waved her hand dismissively. “In any event, it’s good to know someone was finding true love while I was off being useless and spending pots of money.” She flashed a brilliant smile that didn’t come close to reaching her eyes.

  He reached out instinctively, touching his hand to her shoulder. “Mallory—”

  “Oh, look,” she said brightly, glancing up toward the house at the same time she moved just out of reach. “Isn’t that Lilah now, heading this way? She must be lookin
g for you. And I really must circulate.”

  “Actually,” he interrupted, stepping over and blocking her path so she couldn’t leave without dodging inelegantly around him, “I’m sure she’s looking for both of us. She mentioned something about needing to talk to you about the fashion show, and I told her I’d find you and arrange it.”

  “And just how do you propose to do that?” she said, just as Lilah, whom he’d always considered to have impeccable timing, arrived to join them.

  “I wondered where you’d disappeared to,” his sister-in-law announced, a knowing gleam lighting her eyes in the instant that her gaze met his. “Not that I’m surprised,” she went on, turning conspiratorially toward Mallory. “The Steele men simply can’t seem to resist smart, beautiful women.” She smiled, and her genuine friendliness was impossible to miss. “Hi. I’m Lilah. I’m sure we’ve been introduced before, but it’s nice to finally get to say hello. Particularly after the way we’ve been missing each other on the phone.”

  Clearly surprised by the other woman’s warmth, after a brief hesitation, Mallory smiled back. “Yes, it is.”

  “I was just about to suggest,” Gabe jumped into the conversation, “that Mallory let us give her a ride home. That way you two will finally have a chance to discuss your business and she won’t have to wait for a taxi.” He shifted his gaze from Lilah to Mallory. “That is what you’re planning, right?”

  “Yes, but it’s really no problem—”

  “Don’t be silly,” his brother’s beautiful wife interjected, her inherent kindness coming to the fore exactly as he’d counted on. “It’ll take forever for a cab to get here, if you can get them to come out at all on a Saturday night. Besides—” she sliced him a look that let him know that while she was going along, she knew very well what he was up to “—I’d love a chance to visit. Frankly, there are times when even the nicest man can be a little tiresome.”