Her Charming Heartbreaker (17 page)

“Good. I’d hate to see
you go through life believing you’re cursed by a silly adage. The
worst thing a person can do is become a cliché. And FYI, he hasn’t
stopped looking this way.”

“We should order now.
Otherwise, I’m going to start nibbling the table.” Although, the
thought of food made her stomach shrink back in horror.

“Look who just walked
in.”

“I’m afraid to.”

“Joyce. And she’s
really embracing the whole vintage look. It suits her. Love the
dress, love the shoes, love the bag.”

“You didn’t say that
about me.”

“Your day will come. I
live in hope.” Jimmy laughed. “She just threw the guy in the safari
jacket a killer scowl. Looks like you’ve been holding back.”

“Good luck trying to
get her to admit to anything. Even I can see there’s something
happening between those two. Whenever they’re in the same room I
feel like a third wheel in a steam room.”

“Mind if I join you?”
Joyce asked.

“Please do. You can be
witness to Jimmy slapping some sense into me.”

Joyce pulled out a
chair and sat down with a huff. “Maybe Jimmy can focus on me for a
bit. My mail order date had a thousand and one questions. Should I
be worried about him wanting to meet my parents? And no, I haven’t
told him about my parents. He wanted to know what type of flowers
my mother likes and what color dress I’ll be wearing to the
wedding. He wants to make sure his tie doesn’t clash. I’m having
second thoughts about him.”

“Is making an
impression part of the agreement?” Jimmy asked.

“We’re still
brainstorming our roles. I don’t want anyone else to know I special
ordered him at the last minute so the story is that we met last
year when I went to Melbourne on a coffee scouting trip and we’ve
been keeping in touch ever since. He happens to have some free
time, but not enough to go overseas on holidays, so he’s decided to
come here and spend a week with me.”

“You have my nod of
approval. I’m impressed and thoroughly convinced,” Jimmy said.

“I’m a novice. While I
think we’ll pull it off, maybe I should sleep on it another night.
Now, what did I miss?”

“Jimmy can do the
honors. I’m going to... powder my nose.” Eddie rose to her feet and
called on her willpower to keep her gaze averted from Theo.

“Do you want me to come
with you?” Joyce asked.

“Thanks, but I just
need to stand in front of the mirror and wag my finger under my
nose.”

* * *

“I’m afraid I did
something rather stupid,” Joyce confided.

“And now you’re afraid
to face the consequences?” Jimmy asked.

“Due to circumstances
beyond my control, I’ve been a little short tempered and I might
have spoken out of turn.” She pressed her fingers to her temples.
“In fact, I might have seeded an idea and... my interference might
now be the cause of Eddie’s heartbreak... one way or the
other.”

Jimmy nodded as if he’d
understood everything she’d said. “Now can you decode that for
me?”

“If the person heeds my
advice, he’ll break Eddie’s heart. If he ignores me, he’ll break
Eddie’s heart because she would have missed out on her chance...
because of me,” she gulped in a breath. “Any advice?”

“Run for your
life.”

“Be serious. Here comes
Eddie. Do I tell her?”

* * *

“All’s well,” Eddie
said as she sat down. “Tomorrow, I have an appointment with a wine
sales rep. If his
facebook
profile is anything to go by,
he’s single, fun to be with, and good looking. Mitch has been
grumbling about not wanting to visit a local brewery, so I can take
that off his plate. I’ve heard glowing reports about the owner. In
other words, I’m moving on. I might even schedule a trip to
Melbourne, do the rounds of local restaurants, and get some fresh
ideas. Our menu needs revamping. I’m putting myself out
there...”

“You got all this from
a visit to the rest room?”

“Finding myself
attracted to the wrong person was unfortunate, but I’ve been
coping. In fact, I’ve been doing quite well. Now I need to give
myself a final push and get on with things. Time should take care
of the rest.”

Joyce cleared her
throat. “Eddie—”

Eddie raised her hand.
“Nope. No more excuses, no more delaying the inevitable. And no
more talk about a third disastrous relationship, either. That sort
of thinking only made things worse for me. From now on, I’ll take
things as they come and make the best of them. Stay tuned for more
updates. And don’t look so surprised, Joyce. I got over Adam
quickly enough. Theo should be a cinch. It never got beyond the
fantasy, so—”

“Theo’s not Ben’s
father and he’s not with Claire...”

Chapter Thirteen

Theo strode into The
Gloriana and sent his gaze on a discreet lay of the land
survey.

Matthew Faydon stood
behind the counter, pouring a draft beer as he talked to one of the
customers, his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows, his face
showing a five o’clock shadow.

Theo wasn’t surprised
to see Mitch Faydon standing by the pool table deep in conversation
with a woman, eyes twinkling, his smile on playful mode.

Instead of standing
like a sentinel, Markus Faydon sat by the fire on one of the
leather club chairs, his long legs stretched out, his fingers
steepled under his chin, his perpetual scowl in place.

Unlike the first time
he’d walked into The Gloriana, the hum of conversation continued
uninterrupted. That didn’t mean his presence had gone unnoticed.
Eyes had flickered his way. The Faydon brothers had him in their
sights. Theo didn’t have a hope in hell of flying under the
radar.

Trying to be as casual
as possible, Theo strode up to the bar and set his hands on the
counter. From the corner of his eyes, he caught a flash of red.
Eddie was in her office.

It’s now or never, he
thought. Drawing in a deep breath, he eased it out on a slow exhale
and pushed away from the counter. He had to talk some sense into
Eddie, talk her out of having a third disastrous relationship.

She couldn’t rush into
something like that. What if she ended up scarring herself
emotionally? What if it all backfired on her? What if she became a
diehard cynic and vowed never to have anything to do with another
man again? A third negative strike on the relationship stakes
wouldn’t guarantee her life would then turn into a bed of
roses.

He glanced at Markus
and would swear the man gave him the ‘in your shoes, I’d think
twice about it’ look.

Theo ignored him. What
would he do? Jump to his feet and block his way? Growl and scowl
until Theo beat a swift retreat, tail between his legs?

With the ease of blind
confidence and raw determination, he strode toward the small office
down the hallway. Eddie sat on the edge of her desk, her attention
focused on her thumb as if it held the answers to all of life’s
mysteries.

“Am I interrupting?” It
seemed only polite to ask.

She looked up, her eyes
heavy with concern. Theo wondered if she’d been pondering the
darker side of her life or the drudgery of some mundane task she’d
been burdened with. Noticing the spreadsheet on her computer
screen, he decided to go with the latter.

She pushed off the desk
and then eased back onto it and gave him a slow shake of her head.
While her lips parted, she didn’t speak.

Theo could tell she had
a thousand thoughts hollering in her mind, the loudest one probably
telling her to brace herself and proceed with caution.

He had plenty of
thoughts issuing the same warnings but he raised a halting hand to
the ones telling him to go slow. All of a sudden, he wanted to go
fast and furious. To stake his claim. To brand Eddie as his so he’d
never again have to walk into a restaurant and find her having
dinner with another man.

What if he was too
late?

What if she had already
picked the man to break her heart?

She still didn’t say
anything but Theo interpreted the slight lift of her lips as a
welcome sign. He didn’t need any more encouragement...

He could start with an
admission. Tell her he knew about her ridiculous belief—

Way to go, Theo. Start
by belittling her. She’ll love you for it.

Maybe he could ease
into it, in a roundabout way make a passing remark. He’d have to do
it without pointing fingers, directly at Joyce, and betraying her
confidence. Somehow, he had to get the message across to her. She
deserved more than a token fling.

Clearly, he hadn’t
thought this through. In fact, everything he’d planned on saying
dissolved when he got closer to Eddie. Moving to a primitive beat
that seemed to be drumming a single-minded tune narrowed his
options to what he wanted to do instead of what he needed to
say.

His hands followed the
prompt of days before when he’d first seen Eddie wearing a dress,
and caressed their way along her thighs pushing back the hem of her
dress, drawing a soft groan from her. He could live on her scent
alone. It smelled of radiance, of romping around in the sunshine
and something else...

A heady combination of
sultriness. It seemed to thicken the air in the small office.
Pheromones, he thought. His. Hers. Having a private party of their
own.

His fingertips drew
circles on her thighs, his eyes danced around her face absorbing
the happiness he saw sparkling in her eyes. But from one moment to
the next, her joy turned into a fierce scowl. She slapped her hands
against his and tried to push them away.

“What are you doing?”
she asked in a half growl, half whimper tone suggesting she
couldn’t quite decide how she felt about interrupting his
seduction.

He didn’t want to miss
a beat. Yet Theo realized he’d skipped past a step or two. He
should at least have said hello or...

“I’m not with Claire.
Ben’s not my son,” it occurred to say, his throat clogged with
frustration as he waited out the next few moments, his sanity, his
raison d’être, hanging in the balance.

He knew the precise
moment when the words registered in her mind. Eddie tilted her head
back and gazed at him from lowered eyes that now brimmed with a
blaze of wanting and needing more from him. Theo’s leashed need to
touch her and kiss her broke free and careered out of control.

Standing close enough
for the heat of his mouth to mingle with hers fired up an
overwhelming need to push down his trousers and do what came
naturally right there in her office, even with the threat of raging
repercussions from her brothers hanging over him.

Before his voice of
reason could intrude, the hunger pulsing through him urged him to
plunge headlong into a ravaging assault on her mouth.

Kissing Eddie felt like
a symphonic opera playing in perfect tune. A gathering of senses,
all responding, all rising to a crescendo…

Nipping her bottom lip,
he drew back long enough to say, “I’m not with Claire. Ben’s not my
son,” only to realize he’d already told her that.

Her eyes shone and
filled with amusement, which gave way to determination. With a soft
groan, she pulled him toward her, claiming his mouth with ravenous
hunger and a demand for more.

Theo savored the taste
of triumph. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. Then he
realized something significant. Every part of his body clamored for
the touch of her skin. His entire body begged to get naked with
Eddie. Nothing he’d ever experienced compared to this moment.

He’d had his share of
affairs. If he measured his experiences against what he felt right
that minute, he’d have to admit he’d only ever felt sparks of
pleasure, fractions of a whole that had always fallen short of
taking full form. This was something entirely different. And he was
only kissing her...

Being with Eddie
promised to be more than a mere slice of heaven or a single
firecracker brightening the sky. Sex with Eddie held the promise of
a full fireworks’ display, like the New Year’s Eve extravaganza
from Sydney that even he watched from the other side of the world,
fulfilling and satisfying on all levels.

A rumble of frustration
rose inside him.

Theo pulled back and
took a moment to explain to the rest of his body that being in the
right place at the right time would work out better for everyone
concerned.

“Dinner.”

Her brows pushed down
in confusion. “What about dinner?” she asked, her voice crisp and
sharp, as if she’d hurried to get the words out before she drifted
away in a haze of pleasure.

He drew in a long
breath. “A minute.”

“Theo?”

Another breath
followed. Sharper. More intense. He lifted a finger. “Give me a
minute.”

She sat back, her eyes
skipping across his face. “Theo?”

“Give me a minute,” he
insisted. He needed to get his body under control, but it rebelled.
It wanted more. Now. Not later.

“Crap, I broke you. My
brothers always told me to play nice with my toys but within days
my dolls lost eyes and arms and hair—”

Theo chuckled. “You
didn’t break me. You reduced me to monosyllables.”

She sighed with
apparent relief. “That’s an improvement. This time you managed a
whole sentence.”

“Go ahead and
laugh.”

She took his hand and
pressed it against her heart. “I felt it too,” she said in a husky
murmur.

* * *

It took all his
willpower to walk away from Eddie.

Tonight.

Tonight he’d have her
all to himself. They’d sit down and have a civilized conversation.
Although, after the way he’d jumped her, sounding like a concerned
older brother, or even a friend watching out for her wellbeing,
would be out of the question. According to Joyce, Eddie was
determined to have a dead-end relationship. She’d made up her mind.
And he’d be a fool to think he could sit down and talk. He was
geared for action now. Maybe he could convince her to abandon her
plans and just enjoy a moment out of time together. They could work
something out...