Kristin Gabriel - Operation Babe-Magnet

He frowned. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“Nothing if you’re starring in a black-and-white fifties flick. The three-piece suits have got to go.” Amy stepped back and surveyed him from head to toe. “Fuschia isn’t really your color.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

Amy tapped her chin. “And I’ve got to admit, it looks like you’ve got a great body under all those clothes. Of course, you’re a gigolo, so I suppose it’s one of the job requirements.”

“I think he prefers the term male escort,” Kylie said, scribbling something in her planner.

“I prefer to wear my own clothes,” he said, as Amy pulled another outfit off the rack.

“You’ve got to trust me,” Amy informed him, holding a pair of skimpy black leather pants up to his waist. “Once we get rid of your old hairstyle, your old clothes and those horrendous glasses, you’re going to be every woman’s fantasy.”

“The glasses?” Kylie looked up. “Don’t you think we should keep them? I think they’re sexy.” Her cheeks grew rosy. “I mean, in a subtle, intellectual sort of way.”

Dexter’s heart warmed at her words, along with another part of his body. He liked the way her hair hung in a profusion of wild, thick curls around her shoulders. His fingers itched to touch it, to feel the slide of that silk against his skin.

“Look, Ky,” Amy replied, as she pushed Dexter into an inflatable chair, then ran a comb through his wet hair. “I know what I’m doing. Women don’t like subtle. They like raw sex appeal.”

Dexter cleared his throat. “I take it my ability to see doesn’t matter when it comes to fashion.”

Amy snorted. “Haven’t you ever heard of contact lenses?” Then she stepped back and looked into his eyes. “Ooh, we could go with colored lenses. Wouldn’t violet be awesome with his coloring?”

“No.” Kylie’s voice was firm. “Dexter’s eyes are perfect just the way they are.”

The telephone rang before Amy could argue with her. Kylie picked up the cordless receiver, then placed her hand over the mouthpiece. “I’m going to take this call in the bedroom. Yell if you need me.”

Amy nodded, then reached for the blow-dryer. “Relax, Dexter,” she said, flipping on the switch. “This won’t hurt a bit.”

He closed his eyes, his tension easing as she finger-styled his hair. Despite his initial reaction when Kylie suggested a makeover, he really didn’t mind all the changes. They were only temporary, after all. Anyway, the fewer people who recognized him as Dexter Kane, the better. In exactly one month, he’d take over the helm of the Kane Corporation and leave this farce behind him. Fulfilling his dream was all that really mattered. Although the thought of spending the next four weeks with Kylie made him drift into a very different sort of dream….

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” Amy said, gently shaking his shoulder.

Dexter started in his chair, opening his eyes to see her wrapping the cord around the blow-dryer. His body still throbbed with the erotic images that had danced in his head and he was thankful he still wore the plastic drape to keep the hair dye from staining his clothes. “Are you finished already?”

“With your hair,” Amy replied. “We still need to work on the wardrobe.”

“Can I see it?” he asked, as she spritzed him with hairspray.

“Not until we’re all done. I want you to experience the full effect.”

He looked around the living room. “Where’s Kylie?”

“Still on the phone.” Amy walked over to the clothes rack, once again perusing the choices. “That girl never stops working.”

He leaned back in his chair, forcing himself to relax. “I’m surprised she told you about the Harry Hanover masquerade. I thought it was supposed to be a big secret.”

“It is, but Kylie was a little nervous about pulling it off and needed someone to talk to about it. She knows she can trust me.”

Dexter wondered if there was anyone in his life he’d trust that much. He loved his brother, but Sam always seemed too laid back to take life’s problems seriously. There was always his grandfather, whom he trusted implicitly. But Dexter had always been so determined to prove he could handle any situation that he’d never allowed his grandfather see any of his fears or insecurities. Besides, the key to being an effective business owner was maintaining complete control at all times.

“How do you feel about silk?” Amy asked, pulling out an orange shirt with long puffy sleeves and draping it over the dressmaker’s dummy standing in the corner.

“I’ll sleep on silk, but I won’t wear it.”

She frowned. “You know, you could be a little more cooperative. Kylie is paying for all of this and she could use a few breaks.”

“She seems fine to me.”

“Of course, she’s fine. Nothing can bring that girl down. And believe me, she has had plenty of reason to start popping anti-depressants.”

“Like what?” he asked, surprised by this revelation. He would have guessed a woman with Kylie’s vivacity had lived a life full of sunshine and roses.

“Well, for one thing, she gave up a great job in Hollywood a year ago so she could come home and take care of her brother.”

“Was he sick?”

Amy nodded. “Hodgkin’s disease. It looks like he’ll make a full recovery, but it was scary there for a while. And now that Kylie’s nursed her little brother back to health she’s determined to do the same for his business. Handy Press has been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for years. So instead of going back to work for her famous clients, she’s staying in Pittsburgh and working for peanuts until Handy Press is in the black.”

“Famous clients?” Dexter asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“I’m not supposed to name names, but one of her clients was just chosen as People magazine’s Sexiest Man of the Year. And he thinks the world of Kylie.” She dropped her voice a notch. “Both professionally and personally, if you know what I mean.”

He nodded. Dexter didn’t have time to read People magazine but he’d seen enough pictures of Hollywood hotshots to imagine the type of man who had hired Kylie. The kind of man who dazzled all the women. The kind of man who was the complete opposite of Dexter Dependable Kane.

“Actually, Kylie and I met in Hollywood,” Amy continued. “I was doing makeup for a movie of the week and she was on the set to lend moral support to one of her clients. He was her high school sweetheart and she’d followed him to California and helped arrange his big break. He repaid her by breaking her heart. But he kept her on as his publicist.”

“He sounds like a real winner.”

Amy nodded. “She’s better off without him. She’s got good, midwestern integrity along with a wild imagination. That’s one reason she was such a hit with the glitterati. That, combined with her tendency to take risks.”

“Such as?”

“Such as volunteering to be the target when one of her clients performed a knife-throwing exhibition on ‘Circus of the Stars.’ Fortunately, Kylie only needed twelve stitches when it was over. Then there was the time she wagered a month’s salary to get her client a part on a television miniseries.”

“What did she wager?”

“That the guy would make it to work on time every day. She lost the bet, but her client was a big hit on the show.”

“Did he ever reimburse her?”

Amy smiled. “It doesn’t work that way in Hollywood. She’d probably still be there, trying to salvage her heart and her bank account, if her brother hadn’t gotten sick. Kylie would do anything for Evan.”

At least now he knew why his successful portrayal of Harry Hanover was so important to her. “So that’s what this book tour is all about? Saving her brother’s business?”