Sandra Marton - The Bride Said Never!

Laurel sighed. He was right. She was a pro, this was her job, and that was all there was to it. Unfortunately she’d slept badly and awakened in a foul mood. It didn’t help that she felt like a ninny, posing in a bikini in front of a silly backdrop that simulated sea and sky. What did bikinis, sea and sky have to do with selling computers?

“Laurel, for heaven’s sake, I’m losing you again. Concentrate, darling. Think of something pleasant and hang on to it. Where you’re going to have supper tonight, for instance. How you spent your weekend. I know it’s Monday, but there’s got to be something you can imagine that’s a turn-on.”

Where she was having supper tonight? Laurel almost laughed. At the kitchen counter, that was where, and on the menu was cottage cheese, a green salad and, as a special treat, a new mystery novel with her coffee.

As for how she’d spent the weekend—if Haskell only knew. That was the last thing he’d want her to think about.

To think she’d let Damian Skouras humiliate her like that!

“Hey, what’s happening? Laurel, babe, you’ve gone from glum to grim in the blink of an eye. Come on, girl. Grab a happy thought and hang on.”

A happy thought? A right cross, straight to Damian Skouras’s jaw.

“Good!”

A knee, right where it would do the most good.

“Great!” Haskell began moving around her, his camera at his eye. “Hold that image, whatever it is, because it’s working.”

A nice, stiff-armed jab into his solar plexus.

“Wonderful stuff, Laurel. That’s my girl!”

Why hadn’t she done it? Because there’d already been too many eyes on them, that was why. Because if she’d done what she’d wanted to do, she’d have drawn the attention of everyone in the room, to say nothing of ruining Dawn’s day.

“Look up, darling. That’s it. Tilt your head. Good. This time, I want something that smolders. A smile that says your wonderful computer’s what’s made it possible for you to be out here instead of in your office, that in a couple of minutes you’ll leave behind this glorious sun and sea, traipse down to the cabin and tumble into the arms of a gorgeous man.” Haskell leaned toward her, camera whirring. “You do know a gorgeous man, don’t you?”

Damian Skouras.

Laurel stiffened. Had she said the words aloud? No, thank goodness. Haskell was still dancing around her, his eye glued to his camera.

Damian Skouras, gorgeous? Don’t be silly. Men weren’t “gorgeous.”

But he was. That masculine body. That incredible face, with the features seemingly hewn out of granite. The eyes that were a blue she’d never seen before. And that mouth, looking as if it had been chiseled from a cold slab of marble but instead feeling warm and soft and exciting as it took hers.

“Now you’ve got it!” Haskell’s camera whirred and clicked until the roll of film was done. Then he dumped the camera on his worktable and held out his hand. “Baby, that was great. The look on your face...” He sighed dramatically. “All I can say is, wow!”

Laurel put the computer on the floor, took Haskell’s hand, rose to her feet and reached for the terry-cloth robe she’d left over the back of a chair.

“Are we finished?”

“We are, thanks to whatever flashed through your head just now.” Haskell chuckled. “I don’t suppose you’d like to tell me who he was?”

“It wasn’t a ‘he’ at all,” Laurel said, forcing a smile to her lips. “It was just what you suggested. I thought about what I was having for dinner tonight.”

“No steak ever made a woman look like that,” Haskell said with a lecherous grin. “Who’s the lucky man, and why isn’t it me?”

“Perhaps Miss Bennett’s telling you the truth.”

Laurel spun around. The slightly amused male voice had come from a corner of the cavernous loft, but where? The brightly lit set only deepened the darkness that lurked in the corners.

“After all, it’s well past lunchtime.”

Laurel’s heart skipped a beat. No. No, it couldn’t be...

Damian Skouras emerged from the shadows like a man stepping out of the mist.

“Hello, Miss Bennett.”

For a minute, she could only gape at this man she’d hoped never to see again. Then she straightened, drew the robe more closely around her and narrowed her eyes.

“This isn’t funny, Mr. Skouras.”

“I’m glad to hear it, Miss Bennett, since comedy’s not my forte.”

“Laurel?” Haskell turned toward her. “You know this guy? I mean, you asked him to meet you here?”

“I do not know him,” Laurel said coldly.

Damian smiled. “Of course she knows me. You heard her greet me by name just now, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know him, and I certainly didn’t ask him to meet me here.”

Haskell moved forward. “Okay, pal, you heard the lady. This isn’t a public gallery. You want to do business with me, give my agent a call.”

“My business is with Miss Bennett.”

“Hey, what is it with you, buddy? You deaf? I just told you—”

“And I just told you,” Damian said softly. He looked at the photographer. “This has nothing to do with you. I suggest you stay out of it.”

Haskell’s face turned red and he stepped forward. “Who’s gonna make me?”

“No,” Laurel said quickly, “Haskell, don’t.”

She knew Haskell was said to have a short fuse and a propensity for barroom brawls. She’d never seen him in action but she’d seen the results, cuts and bruises and once a black eye. Not that Damian Skouras didn’t deserve everything Haskell could dish out, but she didn’t want him beaten up, not on her account.

She needn’t have worried. Even as she watched, the photographer looked into Damian’s face, saw something that made him blanch and step back.

“I don’t want any trouble in my studio,” he muttered.

“There won’t be any.” Damian smiled tightly. “If it makes you feel better, I have every right to be here. Put in a call to the ad agency, tell them my name and they’ll confirm it.”

Laurel laughed. “You’re unbelievable, do you know that?” She jabbed her hands on her hips and stepped around Haskell. “What will they confirm? That you’re God?”

Damian looked at her. “That I own Redwood Computers.”

“You’re that Skouras?” Haskell said.

“I am.”

“Don’t be a fool, Haskell,” Laurel snapped, her eyes locked on Damian’s face. “Just because he claims he owns the computer company doesn’t mean he does.”

“Trust me,” Haskell muttered, “I read about it in the paper. He bought the company.”

Laurel’s chin rose. “How nice for you, Mr. Skouras. That still doesn’t give you the right to come bursting in here as if you owned this place, too.”

Damian smiled. “That’s true.”

“It doesn’t give you the right to badger me, either.”

“I’m not badgering you, Miss Bennett. I heard there was a shoot here today, I was curious, and so I decided to come by.”

Laurel’s eyes narrowed. “It had nothing to do with me?”

“No,” Damian said, lying through his teeth.

“In that case,” she said, “you won’t mind if I...”

He caught her arm as she started past him. “Have lunch with me.”

“No.”

“The Four Seasons? Or The Water’s Edge? It’s a beautiful day out, Miss Bennett.”

“It was,” she said pointedly, “until you showed up.”

Haskell cleared his throat. “Well, listen,” he said, as he backed away, “long as you two don’t need me here...”

“Wait,” Laurel said, “Haskell, you don’t have to...”

But he was already gone. The sound of his footsteps echoed across the wooden floor. A door slammed, and then