Chapter Four #3
“Not hardly,” Rhett said flatly. “Lily’s different, and when I get back, I won’t be living at the office like I do now either. I intend to spend every spare minute I can with her.”
“Damn, but you’re full of surprises,” Garrett said. “This may turn out to be good for you.”
“Count on it.”
“I’ll see you when you get back.” Garrett clicked off.
Somehow telling Garrett how he felt about Lily made his feelings seem real rather than imagined, and for all his bluster to Garrett just now, his feelings scared the hell out of him.
Rhett gazed out the window of his hotel suite at the twinkling lights of Surrey and wondered for the twentieth time that day what Lily was doing.
He had no clue, and that irked him. He found he wanted to know everything about Lily Foster, and the notion ran counter to his ingrained instincts where women were concerned. Yet something about Lily felt so right.
He had told her the first night they were together that he’d make her care about him a lot, but he’d said that just to get her to sleep with him.
So who had ended up caring about whom? He had only been half-joking, when he’d told her he’d make her care about him a lot, though her old-fashioned ideas—about not sleeping with someone unless she cared a lot—did hold merit.
Mostly, the merit lay in the fact that Lily had warmed very few beds unless she fell in love with every guy she dated.
He cracked his knuckles as that thought simmered.
The image of her sleeping with another man bothered him more than he cared to admit.
Actually, the thought made him want to hit something. Hard.
He yanked open the mini-bar door and snatched out two airport bottles of scotch. Dumping them both in a glass with some ice, he took a long pull. If Lily fell in love with him, he’d want it to be the real deal.
Thunk!
The glass hit the counter hard enough to slosh the scotch over the side.
What the hell had put that thought in his head? Good thing he was in England where he could get his head on straight before he saw Lily again.
Trouble was, tucking her in two nights earlier in their Manhattan hotel suite had held more sensuality than full consummation with other women he had known.
Damned if he wasn’t ready and willing to wait for Lily to be sure too.
He would wait forever if he had to—for making love to her would be spectacular.
Man could that woman kiss, and when she let her passion go that night in their suite, he had almost come apart at the seams.
Get my head on straight, my ass!
This whole scenario had rocked him to the core.
He had never taken a woman with him on a business trip before, but now that he had, he couldn’t imagine leaving Lily home.
How had that happened in such a short period of time?
Why had it happened? He didn’t believe in love at first sight, especially since he’d stopping believing in love years ago.
Why now? Why Lily?
He reached for the phone to call Lily and immediately set it back in its cradle.
Insanity had struck—that must be his problem.
He should run for the hills while he had a chance.
This was not like him. He didn’t wait around for any woman.
Pickings were far too plentiful, and if a woman wasn’t ready to warm his bed when Rhett was ready, he moved on.
End of story. No attachments. Not for him.
Never, ever had he wondered how any woman had spent her day, let alone wanted to hear about it. He was far too busy for such nonsense.
No, he was lucky the London office had needed him this week, considering his present train of thought. He needed this time away. Distance would force some perspective into his situation and force him to focus. Lily had merely bedazzled him. That was all. The thrill would wear off, right?
He had shared very few pieces of his personal life with anyone, even Garrett.
Rhett had never felt comfortable relating particular pain-filled parts of his past. Bringing them to light always hurt, even after all these years.
Yet he’d been ready to share them with Lily.
That made no sense. Better he kept them all hidden and get his head back on straight.
He needed to face facts. He had operated in a blur since first laying eyes on Lily, and he found he liked the feeling and wanted more.
How crazy was that? His gut instinct told him Lily was as pure and innocent of female wiles as she seemed, and his gut had never been wrong.
Going with his gut had made him a billionaire. So why stop and question his gut now?
Because his Lily was too good to be true, that’s why.
She only appeared to be a love-at-first-sight sort of girl, and he knew from experience that no such girl existed.
She had an all-American aura she worked to perfection.
Another day in London, and he would be thinking clearly again.
No perfect girl existed for Rhett Buchanan.
He made too much money for that to be possible, and no woman could want him solely for himself.
Too many variables eked into the scenario.
If he opted for his tried-and-true cynical outlook on women—expecting all of them to have an ulterior, usually-after-his-money motive—then he would have to give up Lily. He let loose a disgusted sigh and moved away from the window.
So why had being with Lily felt so right? And so soon? Why couldn’t he just let himself run with it?
Maybe he could. Just this once . . .
~ ~ ~ ~
As president of Jupiter Savings and Loan, the town’s oldest and most prestigious bank, Chester Armstead could be solicitous about whom he granted appointments for his valuable time.
Developers and investors waited days or even weeks for an appointment with the great grandson of the bank’s founder.
Chester’s influence extended well beyond the bank, due in no small part to the secrets investors were willing to share when they desperately needed Chester’s financial or political support.
Chester’s position on the city council allowed him to publicly wield a modicum of the total power he enjoyed, and only one person had free rein to the inner sanctum of Chester’s private office.
On Tuesday morning, Delia sailed right past the secretary’s desk and sashayed into her father’s office, barely able to contain her excitement. “You have news for me, Daddy?” she said and hurried across the room.
“Yes, pumpkin, I do.” Chester grinned at his only child and rose to his feet to wrap her up in a hug.
Delia allowed the hug, but air-kissed Chester to prevent redrawing her perfect lip lines. “So tell me everything,” she said and took a seat in a leather wing chair in front of his massive mahogany desk.
“All right, dear.” He smiled and moved to the matching chair a couple feet away.
“You’ll be pleased to know this woman you’re so worried about is neither wealthy nor a Jupiter Island resident.
Her name is Lily Foster, and she’s a landscaper.
” He wrinkled his nose. “She owns a nursery if you can believe that. Hardly a woman Rhett Buchanan would dally with for long.”
She waved him off. “I already know that, Daddy, and dallying is exactly what Rhett is doing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the little slut thinks she’s some kind of Cinderella with her secret identity, but I intend to make sure she knows Rhett is my Prince Charming.”
He frowned. “How did you find out about the woman so fast?”
She pursed her generous lips into a practiced pout. “Did you think I was incapable of doing any investigating on my own?”
“Why, my smart little girl!” He grinned lovingly at her. “How did you figure it out?”
“Garrett told me Rhett met the Foster woman on the afternoon of my party for Horning. Rhett met her at a nursery called Bloom & Grow, so I went back to the nursery to find out who she was and where she lived. I told some grubby gardener there that I had her scarf and wanted to return it, and he told me everything I wanted to know.”
“My smart girl,” he repeated. “Anything else?”
She sighed. “No, other than she lives in a tiny house at the back of the nursery. She’s not Rhett’s type, and I’m betting he doesn’t even know what she does for a living. I’m also betting she’s after his money and intends to run some kind of scam.”
Chester leaned back, looking very pleased. “Agreed. But here’s another tidbit about the fair Ms. Foster that you don’t know.”
“Don’t keep me in suspense, Daddy.”
“Well, it seems her little nursery is the last chunk of prime real estate in Jupiter between U.S. 1 and the Intracoastal Waterway capable of supporting a sizable golf course resort or community.”
“So?”
“So, Buchanan’s lawyers are after the parcel.”
“No!” Delia clapped her hands gleefully. “Maybe she’ll move away after she sells.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that, my dear.
” He grinned deviously. “You see, Rhett lets his real estate team and attorneys make initial site selections since he’s too busy with all his globe-trotting and other investment ventures.
He doesn’t become involved, other than assisting with the choice of general locations, until the closing when the site is ready to go to design and construction.
Often parcels are purchased as investments and then sold off later without ever being developed, so he needn’t concern himself with them. ”
“So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying his attorneys are pursuing that nursery property, and Rhett doesn’t even know to whom the parcel belongs or exactly where the parcel is located.”
Delia felt her jaw start to sag and quickly snapped it closed. “But she’s already told him, I’m sure.”
Chester shook his head slowly.
“No?”
His grin widened. “The fair Ms. Foster isn’t even aware.”
“You’ve lost me again.”
“She hasn’t put her land on the market. The attorneys found the parcel, the attorneys want the land, and they’re jockeying with the Code Enforcement Board on recent zoning changes to squeeze her out.”
“Can they do that?”
“Good attorneys can do anything, and Carstairs Whittenhurst is superb. Carstairs has a legal brief ready to go to Tallahassee to the Department of Community Affairs arguing Ms. Foster’s ability to use her grandfathered-status exemption to live on-site.
That exemption is her only argument against recent Jupiter zoning regulation changes, which preclude residents from living within commercial property boundaries inside city limits.
He expects his legal brief to be accepted and her grandfather-status exemption to be summarily denied, or rather revoked. ”
Delia stared wide-eyed. “And she will want to sell, or have to sell, if she is forced to move?”
He grinned wickedly. “That’s what Carstairs is counting on. If not, then he has code violations at the nursery property he is ready to pursue, which will tie up even more of her funds.”
“Oh, this is choice. Rhett is going to run his little sweetheart out of town, and he doesn’t even know it.”
Her father nodded slowly.
“She’ll hate him for it.”
“One can only hope. But I’m sure you’ll be there to pick up the pieces. Won’t you, my dear?”
“Of course.” She gave her father a delicious smile. “Did you help Carstairs with this?”
“I might have given him the proper direction to proceed to accomplish his directive. But not a word of this to anyone,” he admonished, “or I might have to recuse myself from any votes the City Council may take in the matter on the advice of the Code Enforcement Board.”
“Never.”
~ ~ ~ ~
Tuesday afternoon, Lily carefully steered the ancient nursery tractor toward the laydown yard while dragging a long string of carts loaded with bedding plant containers to be staged for shipment the following day.
Her cell phone vibrated, so she pulled the unwieldy train off the nursery drive and shut off the noisy engine in order to hear.
“Miss me?” a deep voice asked when she answered.
Rhett.
Her heart did a wild flip-flop. “Of course, I did.”
“Whew! Now I can sleep tonight,” he said and chuckled. “Did I catch you in the middle of something?”
“No, no. I’m so glad you called. How was your trip?”
“Long and lonely, and I’m still here. I’m sorry I had to send you back early.”
“Stop,” she said, smiling. “I had a wonderful time and loved seeing Beauty and the Beast with you.”
“Well, you’re going to see more of me if you’ll have me.”
Her heart rolled over. “I sure hope I do.”
“Listen, Lily, I only have a minute. I’m meeting my VPs from the London office for dinner here at the hotel. We’re making good progress, and I’m booked on a flight out of here early tomorrow morning. My plane gets in at four.”
“That’s wonderful.”
Oh, please want to see me soon.
“Are you free tomorrow night?”
She silently pumped a fist in the air.
Then panic struck. He would want to pick her up.
“I, uh—”
“You’re not free,” he said flatly.
She couldn’t hide. She needed to see Rhett Buchanan like she needed to breathe. Never in her entire life had she felt like this, and she wanted it to last forever. Or at least for one more night.
“No, I am free,” she said quickly, “but I have a late meeting. What did you have in mind?”
“Dinner.” He sounded relieved. “And I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
She couldn’t tell him she’d be happy with Chili’s and tried to think of a somewhat expensive, yet reasonable, restaurant a socialite would consider. If such a thing existed in Jupiter.
Inspiration dawned. “How about Jetty’s at the Lighthouse? I love their crab cakes.”
“Great, that’s close for both of us.” He paused. “At least, I think it is. It just dawned on me I have no idea where you live.”
“In Jupiter, silly,” she said, hoping she sounded casual and not panicked like she felt, “just like you. I’ll meet you there at 6:30, okay?”
He hesitated.
“I’ll have to come straight from my meeting,” she quickly added.
“Sure, that’ll be fine.”
“Be careful over there driving on the wrong side of the road.”
Rhett laughed. “I’m not doing any driving, so you don’t have to worry. My guys just walked in. I have to go.”
“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, sad to have their conversation end so soon.
“Lily?”
“Yes?”
“I-I miss you.”
Her heart thumped hard. “I miss you too, Rhett.”
More than you know.