feel quite as sweet as he’d imagined it would.
And wondering why it was that for all he had accumulated over the years something still seemed to be missing.
CHAPTER TWO
ALI thumbed through the clothes in her closet once again. Even though Audra wasn’t in the room, she swore that every time she selected something, she heard her twin whispering, “You’re not going to wear that, are you?”
And so it was that with a mere forty minutes before the Conlans were to meet with Luke Banning, Ali found herself standing in her bra and panties, and dithering between a navy skirt and a black skirt that were the exact same conservative cut and by the same maker.
Gazing at the garments, she muttered aloud, “When did I become so damned boring?”
Exasperated, she tossed both skirts onto the small mountain of clothes on her bed and stuffed her arm into the far reaches of the cramped closet. After a minute of fruitless fishing, she finally produced what she was looking for: A suit the color of freshly spilled blood.
The jacket cut in sharply at the waist and then fell away at the hip. As for the skirt, it was a little shorter than the rest of her closet’s offerings. Instead of ending primly just below the knee, it skimmed to the middle of her thighs. She’d bought it on sale last fall while shopping with Audra, which explained the vivid color and more daring cut. She’d planned to take it back. In fact, the tags still dangled from one sleeve. Now she was glad she’d kept it. Black, tan and navy just didn’t suit her mood today.
Blood-red did.
Half an hour later, she stood in front of the full-length mirror that was affixed to the back of her bedroom door and surveyed her appearance.
None of this, she assured herself, was for Luke’s benefit. She’d been thinking about making some changes, paying a little more attention to small details like putting on eyeliner and a faint sweep of blush to highlight her cheekbones.
Besides, she didn’t want the man thinking that all she owned were blue jeans and ball caps. She wanted him to see her as a professional and an equal. And okay, she could admit it. She wanted him to see her as a woman…a woman who was off-limits.
She’d left her hair loose. She couldn’t remember the last time she hadn’t yanked it all back in some sort of clip or another. When they were girls, she had envied Audra her wild tumble of curls. The grass always being greener, her sister had complained mightily that Ali had lucked out with her stick-straight mane. Today, Ali had to admit, she rather liked the way it fell to her shoulders in a sleek cascade the same color as the antique mahogany bureau that had once belonged to her grandmother.
The suit fit as well as she remembered, accentuating curves she hadn’t known she possessed. She would die a slow and painful death before admitting it to Audra, but Ali really liked the way it looked and the way it made her feel: professional and put together, with the side bonus of sexiness.
Then she glanced down at her shoes. The serviceable black pumps with the rounded toe looked like something an arthritic grandmother would wear now that they were matched with a chic suit and a white silk blouse.
She didn’t want to do it, but Ali finally broke down. Picking up the telephone, she dialed Audra’s number, praying that her perennially late sibling had not become suddenly punctual and already left for the resort. A breathless Audra picked up on the fourth ring.
“Aud, you haven’t left.” She sighed in relief.
“I’m on my way, I swear. Practically out the door as we speak. Seth just…and then I…” She trailed off on a throaty laugh that made words unnecessary. Ali swore she felt herself blush.
“Newlyweds,” she muttered. “Don’t go into detail. Please. I have neither the time nor the inclination to listen to a play-by-play. I need a favor.”
“A favor? What kind of a favor?” Audra asked.
“I’m having a bit of…a problem,” Ali hedged. Then, “Oh, hell, I need to borrow a pair of pumps.”
“You’re having a shoe emergency? God, I love it.” Laughter bubbled through the phone line. “I suppose it would be small of me to remind you that last month when I showed off the new pair of Kate Spades I’d purchased, you asked how many feet I had that I needed another pair of shoes.”
“I knew calling you would be a mistake,” Ali snapped.
Audra wasn’t insulted at all. “No, sweetie, not calling would have been the mistake. I may have changed my life around and gotten rid of a lot of the fluff, but I still have more fashion sense in my pinky than you’ll ever have in your entire bony body.”
Damn, Ali thought, wasn’t that the pathetic truth.
“So, will you help?”
Audra made a dismissive sound. “Of course I will. What are you going to wear?”
“The suit I bought when I went shopping downstate with you last fall.”
“The red one?” Audra whistled low. “Good choice and aren’t you glad I talked you into buying it?” Before Ali could answer, her sister was saying, “Please tell me you didn’t pair it with one of those starched oxfords you seem to own stock in?”
“No. I do have a white silk blouse.” Exactly one, and again it had been purchased while out with Audra. “Could we get back to shoes? All I have are the black pumps I normally wear to work.”
Through the receiver came Audra’s low moan. “How can we be sisters let alone twins?”
“Aud, the minutes are ticking away here. I really don’t have time for a discussion on DNA. What have you got for me?”
“Let me think about it. I’ll go hunt through my closet and see what I can come up with. Come straight to my office when you get to the resort.”
“I’ll be there in fifteen. And, Aud?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for not rubbing it in too much.”
Her sister snorted. “Who says I’m done?”
Luke had already seen Ali since returning to Trillium, so he didn’t expect their meeting today to be awkward. Then, recalling the cool way in which she had regarded him during their chance encounter on Sunday, he amended his opinion. It probably still would be awkward, but not as awkward as it could have been had they not already come face-to-face.
But then she walked into the conference room decked out in red and exposing a pair of long, toned legs that any Rockette would be proud to insure, and he nearly forgot how to breathe.
Who was this woman?
Three days ago, Ali had looked almost unchanged to him wearing a ball cap and faded jeans, with no makeup on her face and her hair pulled back the way she’d always worn it. He’d found comfort in that fact and, when he’d had a chance to think about it, it made his lingering attraction to her understandable, maybe even a little nostalgic.
He wasn’t feeling
