Kara Lennox - Reluctant Partners

“You’re not the only person in the world to be taken advantage of,” he said, his words soft, no longer angry.

She wondered what had made him say that, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. However, she found she no longer had the energy to argue.

“I will do my best not to rile you up when we have to work together,” she said. “Maybe Max or Reece could stand in for you.”

He surprised her by laughing. “I’d pay money to see that.”

They rode in silence for a while, but then Cooper’s phone rang. He didn’t answer.

She opened her eyes. “Shouldn’t you get that? What if it’s a potential customer?” Allie’s phone had rung a couple of times today with people wanting more information about Remington Charters.

“It isn’t.”

A few minutes later it rang again, and again he didn’t answer. She wondered what that was about.

SOMEONE TAPPED SOFTLY ON Allie’s bedroom door at the B and B. She’d been about to climb into bed, but she froze and her heart raced wildly as her traitorous imagination wondered if her visitor was Cooper.

“Allie, it’s me, Sara,” came a hoarse whisper.

Well, that answered that question. Allie felt like an idiot as she walked to the door and opened it, summoning a smile for her friend.

“Where’ve you been?” Allie asked. She’d been surprised that Sara wasn’t home when she and Cooper had arrived back at the B and B about an hour ago.

“Date, perfectly awful, not worth discussing.” Sara let herself in and promptly plopped on Allie’s bed. “So spill it. How did your big weekend with Cooper go?” Sara’s eyes sparkled with mischief, making Allie wonder if her friend was psychic. How else would she have known that it was anything but a business trip to work a trade show?

Allie had already decided she wouldn’t rehash her stupidity with Sara. Some things were best forgotten as quickly as possible, though how Allie would ever forget the feel of Cooper’s touch, she didn’t know.

“It went fine. We gave away a lot of brochures and signed up people for a drawing. The booth looked great.”

“And…?”

“And nothing.” But Allie couldn’t meet her friend’s inquisitive gaze.

“You mean to tell me you went away for the weekend with that gorgeous hunk of man who practically salivates every time he looks at you, and nothing happened? Do you not have hormones or what?”

Oh, she had hormones, all right.

“Allie? You better tell me what happened.”

Allie sighed and flopped onto the bed on her stomach, grabbing one of the pillows and scrunching it under her head. “It was the best and worst weekend of my life.”

Sara clapped her hands as she hopped onto the bed. “I knew it!” But then she sobered. “Sorry. All that was for the ‘best weekend’ part. Was it dreamy?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“That’s all I get? C’mon, Allie, I haven’t had dreamy sex in so long I’ve forgotten what it’s like.”

Allie raised her head. “You?”

“Well, you don’t have to act like I’m a major slut. Yes, I was a bit wild in my youth, but I’ve calmed down considerably in my old age. No more cozying up to guys I couldn’t possibly have any future with.”

“But that’s the thing, don’t you see?” Allie said. “Cooper and I couldn’t possibly be together in the future. When someone’s beaten you in court and deprived you of something you believe is yours, how can you even exist in the same room with them?”

“Do you think he’s going to win?” Sara whispered.

“No! I think I’m going to win. If the judge were to rule fair and square in Cooper’s favor, I might get over it enough not to hate him. But I’m afraid the reverse isn’t true. Cooper is the kind of man who expects to win. He’ll hate me when all this is over.”

“You don’t know that for sure. Maybe you guys could work it out somehow. Share ownership or something.”

Allie raised her head and peered suspiciously at Sara. “Have you been talking to Cooper?”

“What? No. I came straight in here as soon as I got home. Why?”

“It’s just that he proposed the exact same thing. He bought me those beautiful clothes, he put me up in a luxury suite at the Hotel Alexander-”

“You stayed there? I’d give up all my Guns n’ Roses CDs to stay there!”

“Sara, focus. He wined me and dined me, he…took care of me when I got a little freaked out about a small fire at the hotel-”

“The Alexander burned?”

“Just a couple of rooms.” Truthfully, she’d forgotten about how understanding he was during that incident. That couldn’t have been part of his evil plan. Even Cooper couldn’t risk burning down his family’s hotel just to put her in a vulnerable situation so he could look like a hero. And he’d been so sweet when she’d injured her finger, going out and getting her bandages.

She refused to dwell on that. “Then he cinched the deal by…by seducing me-”

“Oh, Allie, don’t be so Victorian. You can’t tell me you weren’t a willing participant.”

Allie bit her lip, trying not to remember how utterly wanton she’d been. “Okay, yes, I did my part. But you’re missing the point. By this morning I was nothing but a glob of quivering goo, and then he springs it on me-as if it had just occurred to him. He proposed a fifty-fifty partnership.”

Sara stared at her blankly. “And…?”

“Don’t you get it? He buttered me up, then tried to catch me in a weak moment. He planned it from the start.”

Sara scratched her head, her brow wrinkled in thought. “Let me get this straight. The man dumps a bunch of money into your business with no guarantee of any return.”

“Because he expects to win,” Allie insisted.

“Fair enough. He’s so sure he’s going to win that he invests thousands of dollars into your business. He whisks you off to Houston, puts you up in the acknowledged best honeymoon hotel in town, wines you and dines you-did you wear the dress, by the way?”

“As a matter of fact, I did. I assume you had something to do with that, and I’m not sure whether to thank you or curse you, but it did come in handy.”

“Okay. So he wines you and dines you and you have great sex with him-I’m assuming it was great sex, right?”

Allie nodded miserably. She couldn’t lie about that. Not that she was any expert when it came to bedroom Olympics, but there was no mistaking good sex when she had it.

“And after all this, he offers you fifty percent of a business he’s positive he’s going to own, anyway. Do I have it right?”

“He was hedging his bets. He’s trying to get half my business because he…thinks…” Oh, hell. There seemed to be a large error in her thinking.

Sara smiled triumphantly. “Exactly. All of his actions have indicated that he thinks he’s going to win the Dragonfly . So why would he offer you fifty percent?”

“I…I just don’t know. But he must have an angle.”

Sara picked up a pillow and whomped Allie on the head with it. “You dolt! What were you thinking?”

Allie sat up. “I don’t know! He got me all confused.”

“No, it’s that rat fink uncle of yours who messed you up. He’s the one who was out to grab everything he could from you, legally or not. But that doesn’t mean every man is out to do the same. I’ll admit, it’s suspicious how the Remingtons haven’t shown their faces in Port Clara until there was money and property involved. But something tells me this situation is not all black and white.”

Allie had hoped that by showing up at the breakfast table as early as possible, she would miss Cooper and his cousins. But no such luck. The man hadn’t slept five hours over the weekend, yet he looked as polished and alert as always, decked out in his yuppie casual.