Part 12 (2/2)

His hands had made their way beneath her cashmere sweater and he was slowly ma.s.saging her hips. Surprise registered on his face, almost as if his fingers had sought out her bare skin subconsciously. Pulling his hands out, he reached for her winegla.s.s and guzzled its contents. Shay couldn't summon the strength to admonish him.

”I'm sorry your plan didn't work. I really wanted it to.” He placed the empty winegla.s.s back on the counter.

That makes two of us.

”Thank you for coming anyway.”

Shay shrugged one shoulder. ”Julianne went to a lot of effort. And my mama didn't raise me to break a promise.”

His lips curved up into a soft smile. Not his usual showstopper, but one much more intimate. Her breath caught in her chest.

”You look amazing.”

”What can I say? Julianne is truly a fairy G.o.dmother. Of course, it all wears off at midnight.”

”That's okay,” he said softly. ”I'm pretty fond of the real Shannon.”

A lump the size of a boulder formed in her throat, and her body ached with something more than desire now.

”Which means I'll get to see her later tonight.”

Shay blinked in confusion.

”Try not to react too ferociously because my lawyer sister has her laser eyes trained on us,” he murmured. ”But we're sharing that room upstairs.”

h.e.l.l's bells, how did that part slip by? The gorgeous room she'd been shown to earlier had its own fireplace, a claw-foot tub, and a comfortable divan chair tucked beneath a window dormer. But only one bed. A fluffy four-poster queen-sized model. It seemed she'd be tortured even in her sleep. If she was able to get any, that was.

”My mom pulled a fast one on me and switched us from two double beds. I couldn't make a scene without blowing our cover.”

She nodded. ”It's a big room with lots of floor s.p.a.ce.”

”You might have left me some room in the drawers.” His teasing roused her out of her panic. ”And Julianne should have bought you some lingerie, at least. Those panties of yours look like ones my grandmother might wear.”

Shay knew what he was doing and she was grateful. Brody couldn't soothe her with his touch, but he could turn his charm on her. And it was actually working. She could feel her nerves settling beneath the warmth of his playful gaze.

”What I wear beneath my clothes wasn't part of the deal.” She crossed her arms over her chest and joined in with his banter.

Brody scoffed. ”My bad. It should have been.”

She acted as if she hadn't heard him. ”It's pretty disgusting to think you actually know what kind of panties your grandmother wears.”

He laughed then. ”Atta girl. We'll work out the sleeping arrangements later. For now, I just want you to relax and enjoy yourself. You deserve some time off. Oh, and ignore my sisters. They all go on these crazy starvation diets trying to fit into their dresses before a big event and it makes them a little psychotic.” He waved his fingers at his head in disgust.

It was Shay's turn to laugh. ”Your sisters-your whole family, in fact-are delightful.”

”My family is a pain in the a.s.s,” he said, his tone lacking any real conviction. ”What about your family, Shannon? Surely they're not as overbearing as mine.”

Shay considered him a moment. The differences between their two families couldn't have been more p.r.o.nounced. The Janik family was large, warm, and exuberant in the security only affluence brings. They were the type of happy family most people dreamed of being a part of. Her own family consisted of just the five of them: Mama, Daddy, Teryn, Shay, and Meemaw. No other grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins to share the joys-and heartaches-of life. Meemaw was awful, Teryn self-absorbed, her daddy locked in his own world, and her mama surviving the only way she could. They might not have been perfect, but they were all Shay had, and in the end, she answered him the only way she could.

”My family's delightful, too.”

Brody's eyes shone. ”I couldn't picture you with a family that was anything less.”

The lump in her throat was nearly choking her now, but she didn't have time to think about her lie as they were joined by an elderly gray-haired gentleman with bushy black eyebrows s.h.i.+elding twinkling blue eyes, clearly identifying him as a Janik.

”Leave it to my grandson to keep all the pretty girls in a corner to himself.” Brody's grandfather reached out a large sun-spotted hand to Shay. A big man who smelled of Altoids and fresh air, it wasn't hard to see where Brody had inherited his charm from. ”This boy has too many women falling at his feet. Make a widower's evening and sit next to me at dinner, darlin'.” He placed her hand on his sleeve before she even knew what had happened.

Brody shook his head. ”Shannon, this is my grandpa, Gus. Gramps, this is Shannon.”

Gus was already leading them toward the large dining room. ”So, pretty lady, are you a model or an actress?”

”She's a PhD student, Gramps,” Brody said from behind them. ”She's studying nutrition.”

”Pfft,” Gus said. ”You're too pretty to be a scientist.”

Shay laughed in delight as Gus held out a chair for her. Basking in the glow of someone actually noticing her looks before her brains, she thought to herself that she might enjoy this weekend after all.

Dinner was a circus. Brody's nephews and niece took turns scrambling in and out of his lap while he tried to figure out what he should and shouldn't eat. Shannon was no help. If grandpa Gus wasn't chatting her up, one of his evil sisters was monopolizing her attention.

At least she'd begun to relax. He'd been eaten up with guilt-not to mention s.e.xual frustration-all week at having forced her into this situation. Worse, her little plan hadn't worked and they were both back to square one: roommates without benefits. Not that his trust issues were looming that large anymore. The more he got to know her, the more he believed Shannon was incapable of selling him out. He just didn't know where that left them exactly.

Grandpa Gus reclined back in his chair, patting his lean stomach. ”Now that was an amazing meal,” he said to no one in particular. ”My compliments to the chef.”

”Yeah, a meal like that makes you want your own personal chef,” Brody's brother-in-law Skip called out from a table across the room. ”Too bad you're not Brody, Gus, or you'd have one.”

Shannon fidgeted in the chair next to him.

”Don't tell me you cook like that every night for Brody?” Grandpa Gus's eyes lit up and Brody could tell he was formulating a plan to spend the entire season in Baltimore.

”I'm not that kind of chef,” Shannon said demurely. ”My meals aren't gourmet, just well-balanced.”

There was snickering from some of the other tables as the room quieted to focus on what Shannon was saying. Clearly, his family and friends doubted Shannon and Brody were together because of her cooking skills.

”I've been trying to get Brody to eat nutritiously for twenty-seven years now,” his mother chimed in. She raised her water gla.s.s in salute to Shannon. ”I'm delighted to know that someone succeeded where I couldn't.”

He could have kissed his mother for her attempt at trying to diffuse what was becoming an awkward conversation, but her little course correction didn't take.

”No offense, Sybil,” Skip said. ”But I'm pretty sure Shay has other means of getting Brody to eat nutritiously.”

”Skip!” Gwen hissed at her husband. His brother-in-law had obviously had a few too many during the afternoon's golf outing, but that didn't excuse him in Brody's eyes. He was used to the rest of the world thinking he was a philandering jock, but it p.i.s.sed him off that even his own family had begun buying into the image. Not to mention the embarra.s.sment Shannon had to feel at Skip's pointed comments.

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