Stolen Kisses (2 page)

“Connor, there you are! I was just saying good-night to Abby while you were getting our coats,” Jessie exclaimed, letting the words tumble over one another. She kept her eyes trained on her date as she continued to babble. “I really hate to leave, but I have so much work piled up that I’ll have to work all weekend just to catch up. Abby, it was truly a lovely party. I’ll call you soon about lunch, and we can catch up on all the news then. This party was such a fun idea—”

Only a step away from her date’s side, she was sure she was going to succeed in ignoring Trevor. Unfortunately, he had other ideas about her sudden departure. His hand closed on her upper arm as he murmured, “Jessie, darlin’, it was great seeing you again.”

The warm touch of his palm against her bare skin seemed to paralyze every muscle in her legs. She managed to turn halfway toward him to demand that he let go of her at once. But the protest was smothered against the surprising touch of his lips. She lost all awareness of time and place. Everything but the man holding her disappeared from sight. As the room seemed to spin out of control, she clutched at Trevor’s bare shoulders to keep her balance. The heat suffusing her body only intensified as his hand moved smoothly down her spine.

Then it was over. She blinked in confusion, wondering if they’d been locked in an embrace for a minute or a half hour. Gradually she began to regain her equilibrium. First she was able to focus her vision on the grinning man in front of her, then her hearing started to come back. As she recognized the sputtering noises coming from Connor, Trevor gave her a two-fingered salute and walked away without saying a word.

“Jessica, who was that jackass?”

She heard Connor’s outraged question from a great distance, wanting foolishly to say, “That was a rabbit.” She’d known Trevor was a dangerous nuisance the moment she looked into his sleepy brown eyes, but she certainly never expected anything as volatile as
that
.
Shaking her head to clear the last remnant of the sensual haze her white rabbit left in his wake, she shoved her arms into the coat that Connor was still holding. With an absent nod to her hostess she headed for the door, not bothering to see if her date was following her.

“Do you mind telling me why you’re accosting women at my party?”

Trevor slowly lowered the bottle of beer he’d been about to drink from for the third time in the last two minutes. Dispassionately he noted his hand wasn’t quite steady. His hostess was slightly miffed, he decided as he leaned his right hip against the kitchen counter, still trying to shake off the shock waves set off by kissing Jessie. What had started out as a teasing salute had quickly turned into something he didn’t want to analyze too closely. How was he going to explain it to the aggravated woman in front of him?

“Sorry, Abby, but that stuffed-shirt boyfriend of hers got on my nerves earlier,” he stated for lack of any logical explanation. Normally he had impeccable manners. “It was just one of those devilish impulses.”

“One of these days those impulses are going to get you into serious trouble,” she returned heatedly, her fists still planted on her hips. “Connor may not be the ideal date for Jessie, but she’s too nice for a smooth-talking stud like you.”

“Smooth-talking stud?” He couldn’t resist laughing at her exaggerated description. Abby was always trying to find the right partners for her friends, redoubling her efforts since her own marriage. The only two people who had escaped her clutches were his sister, who was Abby’s boss, and himself. She swore she wasn’t going to inflict instant heartache on any of her friends by introducing them to him.

“I’ll have to call Jessie tomorrow and apologize for one of my guests pawing her,” Abby continued, giving him another stern look. “Of course, she may not be speaking to me either, since I introduced her to Connor a few weeks ago.”

So the blockhead isn’t a permanent fixture in Jessie’s life.
Trevor almost smiled at the thought but rigidly kept his expression properly chastened for Abby’s benefit. He didn’t want her to know that his interest in Jessie was any deeper than playing a joke on her escort. “I suppose I should be the one to apologize, since I was the transgressor,” he said innocently and accompanied the statement with his best I’m-outrageous-but-harmless smile.

“You stay away from Jessica DeLord,” she warned with a pointed finger for good measure.

Bingo!
The name
DeLord
suited her regal stance, he decided. She had looked very royal when he first approached her after admiring her from across the room for a half hour. The cascade of inky black curls that surrounded her flawless oval face, however, tempted a man to bury his fingers in the silky tresses. In his haste, he’d been clumsy, but he’d seen the momentary look of surprise in her gorgeous blue eyes before her remote mask slipped into place. The sound of her husky Lauren Bacall voice still sounded in his subconscious. A whisky-smooth voice, cornflower-blue eyes, delicate features, and legs that went on forever—no man could resist the lure.

“Trevor Planchet, have you heard one word I’ve said to you?”

The sound of Abby’s voice broke into his lecherous daydreams. He blinked to bring her back into focus. “Now, Abby, it was just a little joke, that’s all.”

“Have you been propositioning my wife again?” Gary Bush slipped his arm around his wife’s shoulder, stroking his beard in a menacing manner. “Find your own woman, Planchet.”

“I’m trying, I’m trying,” he protested, raising his hands in the air in a show of total surrender. “She’s picking on me again.”

“Probably no more than you deserve after that kiss I saw you plant on Jessie DeLord earlier,” Gary returned with an affable grin. “She’s too nice for the likes of you.”

“It’s a conspiracy. All I did was kiss the woman because her escort was behaving like a horse’s ass,” he prevaricated. He didn’t think mentioning that she had the most kissable mouth he’d ever seen would be very politic at the moment.

“I told Abby that she shouldn’t inflict ol’ Connor on anyone she liked, but she just wouldn’t listen,” her husband stated, only to be rewarded with a sharp elbow in the ribs.

“He came up to you at the Rep while we were talking during intermission.” She gave her husband an aggrieved look as she countered his accusation. “You didn’t bother to tell me until later that he was the biggest bore in Arkansas. Jessie is one of the nicest women I know, so I wouldn’t intentionally pair her up with a dud. Which is why I was warning off the kissing bandit here.”

“I think I liked being a stud better,” Trevor announced, wondering how he was going to get more information out of his overprotective hostess. Why did Jessie have to be a close friend of hers?

“Well, she wouldn’t have time for you anyway. She’s much too busy getting her design firm established,” Abby announced as if that settled the matter once and for all.

Trevor answered her triumphant smile with one of his own. If the conversation kept going at this pace, he’d have Jessie’s phone number in a matter of minutes. “Maybe I should give her a call, professionally, since I’m almost through with the renovations on my house.”

“Not a chance. Aesthetics, Ltd. doesn’t do domestic interior designs. They work in the corporate sector,” he was readily informed.

With a glance at Gary’s smirk, Trevor decided to quit while he was ahead. The other man knew exactly what he was doing, and Abby would undoubtedly catch on in a minute. Trevor was satisfied, however, with what he’d managed to find out so far. All he had needed was Jessie’s last name, but the name of her business would help if she wasn’t listed in the phone book.

“Yoo-hoo, Trevor!”

The sound of Button Mainwairing’s shrill voice jerked him to his feet immediately. He would have to worry about his next move with the lovely Jessie later; right now he had to make a hasty escape. He made a quick exit through the Bushes’ kitchen door before the female piranha could sink her teeth into him again.

“Okay, I want all the gory details, from the moment he picked you up to the minute he said good-night.”

Jessie gave an exasperated sigh as she dropped her purse and portfolio on her glass and chrome desk. She’d expected Gina Caryle to dog her footsteps the moment she entered the office. She also knew Gina wasn’t kidding; her friend did want to know
every
detail. It was a miracle that Gina had resisted calling last night. She probably had hoped there was something going on that she might have disturbed.

“He picked me up at seven, and we went to the party,” Jessie recited while unbuttoning her cherry-red battle jacket and shrugging out of it. She raised her voice slightly as she crossed the room to where the teapot sat on the black enamel credenza that complemented their ultra-modem office façade. “There were probably forty-five people in various magic-theme costumes, some more interesting than others. We stayed about two and half hours, then he took me home. We said good-night in the car, and I was in bed by eleven.”

“Jess-i-ca!” Gina wailed before dropping into the bright yellow acrylic chair by the side of Jessica’s desk, crossing her long legs at the knee to show she was settling in for an inquisition that would put Torquemada to shame. “What am I going to do with you? This is the third candidate you’ve brushed off. How are you ever going to find Mr. Right at this rate?”

Jessie finished pouring her tea and added a packet of sweetener before she bothered to answer. What would Gina’s reaction be if she told her about Trevor the rabbit? Studying her friend through half-closed eyes, she shuddered. They’d been friends for too many years, through college and their apprenticeships, for her not to know exactly what the other woman would think—Trevor was wonderful. If Jessie had anything to say about it, Gina would never know about her amorous encounter at the Bushes’ party.

“Wait a minute,” Jessie answered thoughtfully while walking across the room to take a seat behind her desk. “Aren’t you the one who said I was being too coldblooded about trying to find a husband? I shouldn’t make up a list of positive traits and look for a man who fits nine out of ten qualifications?”

“Of course I did. This shopping for a man like an item off the shelf is ridiculous,” the brunette acknowledged, flipping her long curly hair over her shoulder and settling her elbows on the desk. Her dark brown eyes never left her partner’s face, the direct look almost making Jessie feel guilty about keeping Trevor a secret—almost. “You keep reading all those silly books on how to date, how to meet a man, how to captivate your date, how to be the perfect mate—” Gina broke off, seeming to lose count on her fingers, and threw her hands up in exasperation. “Why not just see if there’s an instant-husband-and-father kit on the market? Just add a little water, zap him in the microwave for a minute or so, then presto!”

“Gina, we’ve been over this already,” Jessie said patiently, sipping her tea. “I’m thirty-eight years old, and I want to have a family.” Until recently she hadn’t even been aware that her biological time clock was ticking, when suddenly it seemed ready to explode. She wanted a baby. “I’m not modern enough to go to a clinic and order an instant father for my child. I want it all. Isn’t that modern women’s battle cry?”

“At least you haven’t totally lost your reason. Artificial insemination is sort of like going to a salad bar to select the father’s genes,” Gina admitted reluctantly, but she wasn’t about to give up her original purpose. “You can’t tell me you’ve come up with any likely candidates with your handy little list either. I didn’t meet number three, but one and two both had the personalities of igneous rocks. You’re letting your childhood memories skew your judgment.”

“That’s ridiculous. You and I are simply attracted to different types,” Jessie returned hastily. She didn’t want to admit that Trevor’s easy charm had reminded her of her father’s gregarious personality. But a beguiling smile and easy manner just didn’t go along with commitment and responsibility. Her child was going to have a quiet, dependable man for a father and a stable home life. “Just because our clients think we look like sisters and we tend to think alike on most matters, it doesn’t mean we are going to agree on the right husband. I like your Jeff, but I don’t want to marry him.”

“You have to admit that Jeff is charming and fun as well as stable and dependable, not to mention supportive,” Gina shot back smugly in defense, of her husband of four years. She always managed to point out that flaw in Jessie’s argument. Jeff Caryle could probably be used as an example of the ideal husband by anyone’s measure. He was the exception, not the rule, as far as Jessie was concerned.

“Yes, I do. You found, the one-in-a-hundred man who can be frivolous without being a bum,” she admitted with a sigh, wishing that the lop-eared image of Trevor’s smiling face hadn’t instantly appeared in her mind. Hadn’t he haunted her dreams enough?

“So you still haven’t told me if candidate number three has any potential,” her friend challenged.

Jessie suppressed the urge to ask
“Who?”
Suddenly she couldn’t remember anything about the man who had taken her to the Bushes’ party, including his name. Although every moment spent with Trevor seemed to be engraved in her memory, she couldn’t muster a single image of her date. All she could recall was having a tremendous headache by the end of the evening.

“That bad, was he? Can you even remember his name?” Gina’s teasing smile quickly disappeared, making it apparent that Jessie wasn’t masking her thoughts. “You can’t remember his name, and you thought he was good husband potential. Oh, Jessie, we really need to have a serious talk about this list of yours.”