Ryder took in Chloe’s turbulent expression and realized he was a man going down for the count. He had to act fast.

Damn it. He hadn’t expected Chloe’s mother to blurt out that she and his own mother had tried to arrange a date between their offspring. He’d deliberately exhibited a lack of interest when his mother had brought up the idea, but admittedly that’s how his own plan to approach Chloe had started to form.

Obviously, his mother had thought it better to let Mrs. Davenport believe she’d never brought up the subject with him than to confess Ryder had shown zero interest in dating Chloe. Equally obvious, however, was that Mrs. Davenport thought his mother must have eventually persuaded him to ask Chloe out, after all -- how else to explain his presence at the party today?

He should have anticipated this, but then again, how could he have guessed Chloe’s mother would draw the wrong conclusion? And what’s more, judging from the smirk on Maxine’s face, that her conclusion would be drawn in front of everyone.

Taking Chloe’s arm, he said, “Excuse us.”

As they walked away, she remained stiff under the pressure of his hand.

“Look,” he muttered, “I know you’re mad at me -- ”

“Really?” she interrupted sarcastically. “How can you tell?”

“ -- but right now I need you to tell me where we can find a private place to talk.”

He started to think she wouldn’t answer, but finally she said, “Upstairs. My old bedroom.”

When they got upstairs, he shut the door to her bedroom behind them and took a look around. The furniture was white wicker, the color scheme purple and pink.

Ten years ago, he mused, he’d have given his right arm for a glimpse of Fab Dav’s bedroom. Turning back to Chloe, he lifted an eyebrow. “Looks as if things haven’t changed much since high school.”

She looked at him coolly. “In more ways than one, apparently. My mother hasn’t redecorated, and you’re as obnoxious as ever.”

He smiled, though he knew it would incense her. Given her current mood, he doubted finding her adorable when angry would be welcome news.

“I’m glad you find this funny,” she said acerbically.

Deliberately, he moved toward her. “The other thing that’s remained the same is that I’m living out a fantasy by being in your bedroom.” His arms snaked around her before she could protest, and he kissed her. Deeply, thoroughly, satisfyingly.

When he finally loosened his hold, she braced her hands on his chest and said, “That’s it? That’s your response? To try to resolve this with sex? You intentionally didn’t tell me about our mothers’ plotting -- ”

“And you didn’t tell me your motive for showing up with me today was to have a date to show off to Maxine and Gavin. So I guess we’re even.”

He waited, and it became obvious she didn’t have a quick comeback.

* * * Chloe didn’t have a quick comeback. Except for the truth. Sure, she’d been worried about finding a date to bring to the party today, but things had changed over the past two weeks.

Gradually, it had become less important she bring a date today and more important she bring Ryder. Because she wanted him. Because she’d fallen for him.

Ryder bent and trailed warm, feathery kisses across her brow, along the side of her face and to the corners of her lips -- soothing her, lulling her.

After a couple of minutes, her eyes fluttered shut seemingly of their own accord. He was seducing her, the sneak, and she couldn’t seem to summon the willpower to do anything about it.

“Chloe.”

“Hmm?”

“I didn’t show up at the Elliotts’ New Year’s Eve party because of our mothers’ attempt at matchmaking.”

She blinked slowly. “What? Of course, you did.”

He nibbled at her lips some more before pulling back and shaking his head. “I admit, Mom told me she’d run into your mother recently and they thought it would be a great idea if I got in touch with you -- ”

“So, you admit it.”

“ -- but I told my mother, no. I arranged to run into you at the Elliotts’ bash because I wanted to, not to please my mother.”

“What?” she asked, now more alert.

He gazed down at her, his face thoughtful. “I also knew you’d never go for a date arranged by our mothers acting as the go-betweens. For one thing, you probably wouldn’t appreciate the meddling, particularly from your mother. For another, your last memories of me were from high school, when I was deliberately obnoxious in order to get your attention.”

Her heart began to lift at his confession. He truly understood her, and why wasn’t she surprised?

“But my mother’s attempt at matchmaking got me thinking,” he went on. “I knew you were single and available and working at Charisma, so I finagled an invitation to the Elliotts’ New Year’s Eve party from Cullen.”

“You went to a lot of trouble,” she said carefully.

He gave her the lopsided grin she’d come to know and love so well. “I knew Cullen through some business associates, so getting an invitation wasn’t too hard. The hard part is never getting over a high school crush.”

A giddy joy filled her at his admission. “I never understood how I got the name Fab Dav. I certainly didn’t feel fabulous in high school. “

“Remind me to fill you in one day,” he joked, then sobered and searched her face. “I’ve gotten used to being closemouthed about my career, but I figured that through your mother, you knew something about what I’d been doing these past few years.”

She shook her head. “Mom is clueless about the Internet. She’s older than my friends’ parents -- Maxine and I didn’t come along until her mid-thirties. If you said Google to her, she’d think it was a noise that babies make.”

She now remembered her mother mentioning once or twice over the years that Mrs. McPhee had said Ryder had become successful in his business career, but she’d dismissed the comments as nothing more than the boasting of a proud parent. The word successful had conjured thoughts of Ryder as a middle manager with a nice paycheck, not of a member of the multimillionaires’ club.

She watched now as Ryder grinned. “It’s good to know you were attracted to my body and not my stock portfolio.”

“Actually, when you showed up on New Year’s Eve, I thought I was destined to kiss another, ah, frog at midnight.”

He gave a half laugh. “No wonder you seemed to dwell on the fact I was wearing green.”

“Remember that, do you?” she teased, then added more seriously, “By the way, two weeks ago I may have been looking for a date for this party, but I asked you to come today because of you. Not because of Maxine or Gavin.”

She couldn’t care less about her sister and brother-in-law’s reactions. She’d wanted Ryder to come today because she’d fallen for him.

“Chloe, I know it’s been only two weeks -- ”

“Yes.”

“But that crush I mentioned earlier?”

“Yes?”

“It’s only gotten worse since high school.”

She pressed two fingers to his lips. “I know. I feel the same way.” Her heart filled with happiness as she realized she’d guessed wrong that night in his hotel room: it was his obnoxious behavior, not his crush on her that he’d thought he’d been cured of since high school.

He smiled against her fingers. “I’m thinking it’s love at this point.”

“You’d better,” she said with pretend severity, trying to hold back the well of emotion, “because I’m crazy in love with you.”

“Ah, Chloe.”

And then there was no talking for a very long time, until Chloe reluctantly broke away and said, “We should get back to the party.”

As they went back downstairs together, Ryder teased, “Think you can live with knowing your mother had a role in your encountering your future husband?”

She linked her arm through his, thinking of the little McPhees in their future. “Remind me to thank her.”

The End



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