True Love (Nantucket Brides 1)
For a moment the two women stood there staring in disbelief. The cabinet held bottles of booze and mixers. What was unusual was that nearly all the bottles were rum: dark, light, gold, white, and at least a dozen flavored varieties. In the middle of the cabinet was a marble-topped surface, and below it was a single-drawer refrigerator full of fresh citrus fruits. The kitchen may not have been modernized in nearly a century, but the bar was straight out of a decorating magazine.
“We can see where Miss Kingsley set her priorities,” Izzy said.
Alix wondered if the reason she’d associated rum with Nantucket was from having seen people drinking it in this room. Whatever the logic behind the cabinet, there were drink recipes taped to the back of the doors and she wanted to experiment. “How about a Zombie?” she asked Izzy. “It takes three kinds of rum. Or maybe a Planter’s Punch?”
“No, thanks,” Izzy said. “I’ll stick to champagne.”
It didn’t take them long to get their food and drinks into the TV room. For tonight the other rooms were too big, too intimidating for them to use.
“You have three days,” Izzy said and they both knew what she meant. “He” would return in three days. “I wonder if today is one of the three? Which means that you only have two left. I’ll have to do a lot of shopping quickly.”
“The luggage should be here tomorrow and I have plenty of clothes.”
“I saw what you packed. All you have are sweats and jeans.”
“Which is what I’ll need,” Alix said. “I plan to work while I’m here. I thought about asking my dad if he knows anyone who summers here and if I can get a job. It would have to be under his license, and his approval, but maybe it could work out.”
“I’m not talking about your father,” Izzy said.
Alix took a deep drink of her Planter’s Punch. Usually she got drunk easily but she was on her second rum drink and wasn’t even feeling a buzz. “I want to learn from Jared Montgomery. If I show up in shorts and a halter or some designer concoction, he’s going to look at me like he did at that girl today.”
“So where’s the problem with that?” Izzy asked.
“I don’t think he took her seriously as an intelligent being, do you?”
Izzy sipped her champagne. “You and work! Don’t you ever think of anything else?”
“And what’s wrong with that?”
“What’s wrong with you thinking only about work?” Izzy was incredulous. “Jared Montgomery is over six feet of muscle! He walks into a room and every female in there goes limp. Her forehead lights up with a sign that says TAKE ME. PLEASE. There’s never been a woman who has turned him down, but you … All you can think about is his mind. I didn’t know he had one. Alixandra, you’re getting old.”
Alix took another long drink, then set her glass on the rug. “You think so? You think I don’t see him as a man? Stay here and I’ll show you something.”
She ran up the stairs to get her laptop and turned it on so that by the time she got back down to Izzy the screen was on. She had to go through about eight levels of files before the document she’d always hidden came up.
Jared’s Lower Lip
Soft and succulent, luscious and firm
Beguiling, enticing, calling to me
A Siren’s song, Pied Piper’s flute
I dream of it asleep, awake
To touch it, caress it, kiss it
The tip of my tongue, breaths mingling
To draw it in, to caress it
To feel it against my own
Ah, Jared’s lower lip.
Izzy read it three times before she looked up. “You do think of him as a man. Wow! Do you ever!”
“It was a few ye