Lovers and Other Strangers Box Set: The Boston Stories (44 page)

    Perhaps that was why he'd suggested they go riding, not as Smith but as himself. As soon as the invitation was out of his mouth he wished he could swallow it. Thank god she didn't flinch. In truth she smiled at him and then looked almost shy.

    "Allain, I would love to but am not very good and I didn't bring the correct clothes."

    "Nonsense, Violet hasn't been able to exercise her horse and I have been working too much to give them the attention they need. You would be doing me a great favor. We'll pack some food and ride along the beach." Her eyes shown with pure joy and she threw her arms around him. "Yes, well, it should be fun." Ugh, even to his ears he sounded like a stuffed prig. Maybe he should take a lesson from "Mr. Smith" and just talk less. She didn't seem to have a problem with that last night.

    Marie-Hélène looked at him through her lashes. Would he confess to being Monsieur Smith while they were riding? She couldn't imagine that he hadn't said anything yet. Mon Dieux, last night had completely claimed her. Even today, just being this close to him seemed to set her simmering. She had given him a chance to confess at breakfast and he had not. Maybe he was enjoying the game he had created also? Bon. If it let him say and do things he could not otherwise then she would continue to play it.

    "Allain, you talked of a project you wanted me to look over at the foundation."

    "Yes, How much do you know about Africa?"

    "Bouf, not much, I would need access to research. What is the problem?"

    "As you know the problems are tremendous and varied. The needs of the people are huge but as much money as we allocate, it seems to make so little difference on the ground. I would like you to look into ways that we could be more effective. If we need to change the resources that we send, or move them around? I want to know. Are we working with the right people to do the projects we plan? Everything is on the table. This is as much a thought experiment as anything else. I want you to work out the different scenarios for each change you propose and I want analysis to back everything up."

    "Would you like it tomorrow?" At his raised eyebrow, she said "I was joking, it would take at least two days."

    "Brat. I am serious. I want you to completely re-examine how we approach an entire continent."

    "Allain, I will make you proud, je vous promets." and she solemnly crossed her heart. "Bon, now déjeuner. 'arold? I think Caribbean today, non? Do you know somewhere délicieux?

    "Bien sur, Marie." Harold cleared his throat. "Of course if it is okay with you sir?"

    "Harold, how kind of you to ask, as if I had any influence at all on this woman. If she needs lunch and has a craving for Caribbean, who am I to refuse her?" He sat back and shook his head but the smile that captured his lips made her want to kiss him. They were good for each other. She brought out his spontaneity, while he grounded her. She had thought he was handsome since she realized that girls could like boys. Last night showed he felt the same way about her. As a woman, to say she enjoyed the way he touched her was an understatement. Mon Dieux, she hadn't expected him to be such a skilled lover.

    She kicked off her shoes and put her feet up next to him. She loved sexy shoes but they did make her feet hurt. She rested her head back and closed her eyes. He picked her feet up and put them in his lap. Before she could say or do anything he started to massage her arches. It felt so good, a moan escaped. He laughed at her and she glared back at him.

    "I could stop."

    "Please, non. It feels so good." she pleaded.

    "I noticed you didn't wear these for your date last night. You wore your flat sandals instead."

    "Oui, I didn't know how tall Monsieur Smith would be. I did not want to, what is the word? Oh, intimidate 'im."

    "Very thoughtful." He went back to rubbing the tension out of her feet.

    "If they hurt so much, why wear them at work?"

    "So you can't intimidate me, bien sûr." She grinned at him. She liked their teasing back and forth so much better than when they would argue all the time. She knew she should be more patient but she wanted to do something with him again soon.

    "When do you think Monsieur Smith will ask me out again?"

    "How do you know he will?" She felt her eyes go wide. Please let him be kidding! He must have realized the effect his words had because he quickly added "but of course he is going to ask you out again. Did he leave you his number?"

    "Non."

    "Hmm, he does like to be in control in negotiations. I think you'll just have to wait till he gets in touch with you."

    Two days later, Allyn sat in his office trying to concentrate on the spread sheet in front of him. He was waiting for the screaming and it hadn't arrived yet. Till it did, he should just give up but he had to at least pretend he was working instead of listening to every time the front door opened. This time he was more daring, he thought he could count on her accepting but still. He was lost in thought at how Marie-Hélène would react when he heard the front door open. He heard the delivery boy say he had a package for Marie. He had gotten the florist to agree to deliver the dress and invitation along with a bouquet of Jasmine. The flowers grew on her family's estate but the flower also meant attachment, sensuality, grace and elegance. She was all of those to him. Of course it also meant modesty but that didn't really fit his Marie. Ah, there it was. Girlish screaming from both Marie and Violet evidently he had done well. He tried to wipe the grin from his face when the door to his office burst open and both women started talking at once.

    "Allain! Look 'ow beautiful." Marie held the flowers under her nose and breathed in their fragrance. "Did you tell 'im we grow these?" Marie had a look of pure happiness on her face. Violet on the other hand did not.

    "Allyn, he wants her to go to the symphony this weekend but it isn't playing and this dress is... scandalous."

    "I can't listen to two conversations at once. Marie, I don't remember if I told him your family grew Jasmine or not. Violet, maybe he has made some kind of special arrangements and the dress just looks like satin. How scandalous could it be?" She held the dress up and it just looked like a length of material. When he had seen it in the boutique he immediately saw her wearing it. It was a long column of liquid satin it would highlight her every curve.

    "Marie, go try this on." Allyn leaned back and smiled. He had gotten the measurements from Enzo so it should be a perfect fit. Marie took the dress and left for the ladies room. "Allyn tell me the truth. You are fine with her dating this guy you barely know?"

    "I know him better than you think and yes, really I am fine with it. Why?"

    "I, I was just hoping... forget it, I'm just being sentimental. Its a hazard of being pregnant. I want to know everything you know about him."

    "Violet, you had your fun with Michael before you were married, let Marie have some fun while she is here."

    "I just don't want her to get hurt. I think she is trying to get over a man she has loved a very long time. I don't want her to have one of those awful rebound relationships." Allyn sat up at the mention of another man.

    "Some boy back in France? I didn't know she had any one serious?"

    "I think it was unrequited on his part, that doesn't mean she isn't vulnerable." At that Marie walked back into the room and Allyn didn't know whether to kiss Enzo or kill him. He must have misunderstood and given him the measurements of the final shirt and not of her actual body. The dress was too big but in a way that would make a man's eyes roll back in head. The silk satin clung to her breasts but the plunging neckline that was supposed to be daring was indeed scandalously low. He could only imagine what the back looked like. It was on seeing the back that he knew he had to see her in that dress. He cleared his throat to regain his composure.

    "Well, I suppose I see what you mean it is cut awfully low."

    "Non, Non, it is supposed to be comme ça." Marie was defending the dress?

    "Well but it is too long." Violet really didn't like it.

    "Non, it is perfect to wear with my tallest 'eels. And they will look beautiful with this color." He looked down and noticed that she had worn shorter heels than usual today. He braced himself as Violet walked around to the back.

    "Marie, turn around and show Allyn the back of this." Violet was completely exasperated now. Marie turned around and Allyn's breath died in his chest. Scandalous didn't begin to describe how low the back was now.

    "Oui, its very sexy, non?" Oh God help him, yes. The back of the dress was supposed to be low cut. It was a halter style he had been told, that left the back completely bare. It was seeing her sunbathing topless one day after she had graduated from university that had finally made him realize that she was a grown woman and he could no longer deny his attraction to her. She had been lying on her stomach and had removed her top to avoid a tan line. The long expanse of her bare back made him want to cover it with kisses. He had wanted to lick the salt from her skin. The dress showed her back to perfection but because it was too big it dipped down to just above the curve of her ass, exposing the back of her hips and the dimple on either side. He had no trouble imagining his hand there soothing the muscles as he did the other night. Kissing his way up those sensuous curves, nibbling up the bands of muscle on the sides of her spine.

    "Allyn, say something." Was his sister kidding? He couldn't breathe and she wanted coherent thought.

    "Yes, well..." Violet looked at him like he had turned purple as he sat there.

    "Violet, Je t'aime but I am going to meet Smith in this dress. 'e bought it for me and I like it." She snatched the flowers off his desk and walked back to the ladies room to change back into her clothes.

    "Allyn, you weren't very helpful. Couldn't you have at least told her it was indecent?"

    Allyn cleared his throat. He was not as unaware of his sister's actions as she might think. "It is no more scandalous that she wear that to meet her date than you deciding underwear is optional during business hours." His sister turned scarlet and gasped. Allyn burst out laughing. "Did you think no one noticed? From the way your walk changed, am I safe in assuming that your dear husband is behind this."

    "Oh! Allyn don't you tell a soul. I swear... Oh, I am going to get even with him." He laughed harder.

    "I'd tell you not to get your panties in a bunch but... Oh, don't worry. Who would I tell anyway? If she wants to wear the dress let her."

    "But what will he think?"

    "That he is a devilishly lucky guy." Marie walked back into his office in her regular clothes.

    "Violet are you still talking about the dress?"

    "Marie, I just, I think it sends the wrong message." Marie-Hélène answered his sister but stared straight at him.

    "Non, I think it sends just the right message. 'e wanted me to know that 'e thought I was beautiful et desirable. If I show up in something else then 'e will think I didn't comprehend." She looked down at her feet for a second then stared into his eyes. "The dress is very sexy but 'e makes me feel that way. All 'e has to do is touch me and..." she turned to face Violet. "Don't you feel that way about Michel?" Violet blushed to her toes.

    "Yes, I would wear anything he asked me to, within reason." His sister glared at him and he almost started laughing again. "Fine wear the dress. Do you want me to come to the house tonight and see where we can have it altered? It is bias cut so it would need to be done by a professional."

    "Non, c'est bon. I know how I can fix it. It will be sexier but less revealing." Allyn tried to keep his face neutral and failed. Sexier? The woman was going to give him a heart attack. He couldn't wait till the weekend.

    Standing behind a pillar waiting for Marie to arrive he thought back over the last couple of days. He had been surprised at the initiative she had taken on the project he had given her. She had arranged interviews with people on the ground at their various sites in Africa. She had even interviewed him on the money and resources that were available. He had to work to keep from grinning like an idiot while she did. Her questions were intelligent and incisive. She hadn't interviewed him as much as cross-examined him. He was proud of her in a way that made no sense. She was just the woman he was in love with but her intelligence had made an impression on everyone.

    If he hadn't loved her before he would have after the afternoon they spent riding. His chest hurt just remembering how wild and free she looked. She had left her hair down and worn jeans and a bikini top with a shirt over it. The vision of her on the horse, wind whipping through her hair, her laughing, daring him to catch her was breathtaking. It was a moment he would treasure always. She had fallen asleep in the sun after lunch. It gave him a chance to at least pretend that it could be like this forever.

    So now he stood hiding in the dark waiting for her to arrive. He was far enough away from the entrance that she wouldn't think to look for him there. He had told her he would bring her in through the doors in front so she would be expecting him to come from that direction. His palms were sweating while he waited for her to show up. Would she reconsider? She had seemed adamant about wearing the dress and meeting him when she was talking to Violet. Could she have changed her mind? When he looked up his heart stopped and then slammed in his chest.

    Harold had escorted Marie in.

    "Mademoiselle, are you certain you want to do this?"

    "'arold, now you sound like Violet, I will be fine. 'e will be 'ere for me en une minute. Allez, Allez-vous, go, 'e is very shy." Allyn shook his head behind the pillar. Did everyone think Mr. Smith was evil?

    "Do you have your phone if you need it?"

    "Ought," Allyn almost burst out laughing at the caricature of an exasperated teenager, "Oui Papa. 'arold, 'e will not allow anything to 'appen to me, seriously. Go!"