Marriage Terms

“No.”

“Not even the little things?”

“Amanda.” His voice went gravelly, and his hand continued its leisurely path up and down her spine. “There are no little things.”

Now that was just plain crazy. “What about dinner? Wouldn’t it have been fun to pick a restaurant on the spur of the moment?”

There was a chuckle in his voice as he danced them toward one of the outer railings. “You mean you’d have rather waited in line for two hours to get a table?”

Mustering her fading energy, she smacked her hand against his arm. “You’re being deliberately obtuse.”

“I’m being deliberately logical. Planning doesn’t take the fun out of life. It keeps the fun in life because it takes out the worry.”

She looked up at him again. “Get out on a limb once in a while.”

“I don’t think so.”

“It’ll make you feel alive.”

He paused, brushing the wayward hair from her face again. This time her shiver was obvious.

“You think?” he asked softly.

“I know,” she said with assurance.

“Okay. Here’s something you probably didn’t plan on.”

Her interest perked up. “Yeah?”

He nodded, slowly drawing her toward him. “Yeah.” He bent down, slanting his mouth.

Her eyes went wide. Uh-oh. There was spontaneity and then there was spontaneity.

“This,” he whispered as his lips touched hers.

It was a gentle kiss. His lips barely parted, and the arm at her back eased rather than pulled her against his body.

It couldn’t have lasted more than ten seconds, but a frenzy of desire thrummed to life inside her. The silver stars blurred inside her head and her knees went weak.

Then he opened his mouth, and the image melted. She clung to his shoulders, silently repeating his name over and over inside her head.

Just when her frenzied words threatened to break free, he ended the kiss.

They stared at each other, standing still amongst the swaying couples, breathing deeply for long minutes.

“Didn’t plan on that, did you?” he finally asked.

She considered the glint in his eye. “Did you?”

“Oh, yeah. All week.”

“What?”

He chuckled low. “I’m a planner, Amanda. That’s just the way it is.”

“But—”

“And I don’t think my careful planning distracted from my enjoyment one little bit.”

Amanda drew back. He’d planned to kiss her?

A frightening thought entered her head, and she tightened her grip on his arms to steady herself. “Please tell me you haven’t got anything else planned.”

His white teeth flashed in the lantern light. “It’s probably better if I don’t answer that.”

Chapter 8

Daniel’s intercom buzzed on Monday morning, and Nancy’s voice came through the speaker. “Mrs. Elliott to see you.”

Amanda? Here?

Daniel could hardly believe it.

She’d seemed so jumpy after their kiss on Friday night, he’d decided to back off for a few days.

Maybe he’d been unwise to tip his hand. But he wanted to date her, and he wanted her to know that he was interested. The more he saw of her, the more he remembered what they had together, and the more he wanted to recapture the magic.

He stood up from his desk and straightened his tie, smoothing back his hair with one hand.

“Daniel?” came Nancy’s voice again.

He pushed the intercom button. “Send her in.”

The door opened and he put a welcoming smile on his face.

Then the smile died.

It was Sharon.

The other Mrs. Elliott.

She marched into his office, all five foot three of her, almost painfully thin with hair that had seen way too many salon treatments. Her blue eyes crackled as she swung the door behind her. It closed with a bang.

Daniel braced himself.

“I don’t know what the hell you thought you were up to,” she hissed, advancing on his desk.

“Up to?”

“Hoffman’s?”

He dropped down into his chair and shuffled through a stack of papers. “Is there something I can help you with, Sharon?”

She paced in front of his desk. “Yes, there’s something you can help me with.

You can uphold the terms of our divorce agreement.”

“You got this month’s check.” She’d cashed it within hours.

“I’m not talking about the money,” she all but screeched. “I’m talking about our agreement.”

“Our agreement to what?” Daniel signed the letter in front of him, then moved his attention to a marketing report. “I’ve got a busy morning here.” And he didn’t want to waste valuable brain space focused on Sharon when he could be daydreaming about Amanda. He wondered if she was busy for lunch.

Sharon placed both her hands on Daniel’s desktop and leaned forward. It was hard for an overbleached pixie to look intimidating, but she was doing her best. “Our agreement to tell our friends I was the one who left you.”

“I never told them any different.”

“Actions speak louder than words, Daniel.”

He glanced at his watch. “Can we skip to the point? I’ve got a ten o’clock with Michael.”

Her jaw clenched, and her eyes wrinkled up despite two very expensive surgeries.

“Nobody’s going to believe me if you’re necking on the dance floor with some other woman.”

Daniel squared his shoulders. “That wasn’t another woman. It was Amanda.”

Sharon waved a hand. “Whatever, you just—”

“And we weren’t necking.”

“Stay away from her, Daniel.”

“No.”

Sharon’s pale blue eyes nearly popped out of her head. “What?”

He stood up and crossed his arms over his chest. “I said no.”

“How dare—”

“I dare because you and I are divorced, and I will see whomever I want whenever I want.”

“We had an agreement,” she sputtered.

“I agreed to lie once to save your reputation. It’s over. We’re done. You have absolutely no say in my life anymore. Got that?” Particularly when it came to Amanda. Daniel wasn’t taking direction from anyone ever again when it came to Amanda. Well, maybe Cullen. But that was only because Cullen was smart, and Daniel happened to agree with him on this.

Sharon put on a pretty pout, and her expression was almost magically transformed. It was embarrassing to think he’d once fallen for that trick.

“But, Daniel,” she whined, “I’ll be humiliated.”

“Why?”

“Because people will think you dumped me.”

“If you want to save your reputation, get your own dates. Go out. Be happy. Show them all you’re well rid of me.”

Crocodile tears welled up in her eyes. But Daniel was unmoved.

She’d made her bed, and it was up to her to lie in it. He’d given her the house, the artwork, the season tickets and the staff. He was done.

He moved out from behind the desk, heading for the door.

“You’re on your own, Sharon. Fool them however you want, but leave me out of it.”

“But, Daniel—”

“No. I’m through. We’re done.”

She straightened and squared her shoulders. “At least keep that woman out of the public eye.”

Daniel clenched his jaw on the words he wanted to hurl at her. He opened the door. “Goodbye, Sharon.”

She sniffed, put her pointed chin in the air, tucked her clutch purse under one arm and marched out.

Daniel shut the door firmly behind her and stalked back to his desk.

Keep Amanda out of the public eye?

He didn’t think so.

He buzzed Nancy. “We have any high-profile invitations for this weekend? Something splashy, with the who’s who?”

“He kissed you?” asked Karen, her green eyes lighting up with a grin as she tamped soil around an African violet.

She was working in the solarium, hand tools, potting soil and fertilizer scattered on the table in front of her.

“Am I crazy?” asked Amanda, carrying a tray of seedlings to a shelf on the other side of the sunlit room.

“Crazy to fall for your ex-husband?”

Amanda groaned as she walked back. “It sounds so much worse when you say it out loud.”

“It doesn’t sound bad at all. It’s really very sweet,” said Karen, stripping off her brightly colored gloves and sitting down heavily in a wicker chair.

Amanda quickly went to her. “You okay?”

Karen nodded and smiled. “Just a little tired. But it’s a good kind of tired.”

Her gaze went to the plants. “It feels great to accomplish something.”

Amanda crouched down and squeezed Karen’s hand. “It feels great to see you so energetic.”

“Back to you and Daniel.”

Amanda groaned, but Karen just laughed.

A phone rang.

Then it rang again.

Karen glanced at Amanda’s purse sitting next to the African violet. “Is your cell turned on?”

Amanda jumped up. “Oh, shoot. I’ll shut it off.”

“See who it is,” said Karen.

Amanda flipped it open and checked the call display. Her chest contracted—not a good sign. “It’s Daniel.”

“Pick it up,” Karen urged, sitting forward.

Amanda squeezed her eyes shut for a second then pushed the talk button.