the plastic watering can and filled it with water from the washroom in the back. On Thursdays like today, she closed early, at five-thirty.
The bell on the door signaled her departure into the steamy heat outside. The petunias looked as wilted as she felt. Think positive. Find the silver lining. Get chocolate…Hmm, she did have a secret stash in the storeroom….
Turning, she bumped into a broad chest. “Sorry…” Her voice trailed off as she saw who was steadying her. Rad. Her pulse surged into overdrive, proving the point that her intense reaction to him the other day had not been a fluke. He wasn’t even wearing his impressive dress blues uniform today. His blue jeans fit him to perfection as did the dark blue polo shirt he wore. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to talk to you.”
“This isn’t the time.” She stepped away from him and held the watering can in front of her, as if it could protect her from the sex appeal he radiated. “I’m expecting someone any moment regarding an important business matter.”
“I know. You’re expecting me.”
Jeez, the man was arrogant. “No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.” He followed her inside.
“I’m expecting the new owner of this building.”
“That’s right. That’s me.”
“But you’re a Marine.”
“Affirmative. A Marine with money. Not usual, I know. But I inherited a great deal of the green stuff from a Texas oil baron grandfather I barely knew.”
She tried to make sense of what he was saying. “Why did you buy this building?”
“Because it’s a good investment. And because I need your help.”
“You bought the building because you need my help?”
“Affirmative. But then I always have been the radical one in my family.”
Okay, clearly she needed to close early today. She flipped the sign from Open to Closed even though it was only five twenty-five and the store normally stayed open that night until five-thirty. This wasn’t a conversation she could have in front of any customers. Luckily the store was empty and her assistant had already left for the day.
Serena got right to the point. “What about my lease?”
“I’ll be glad to renew it at the present terms…if you help me out.”
“If I do what you want, you mean?”
He nodded. “You help me and I’ll help you.”
Serena could see where this was going. “Well, you can forget it. I will not have sex with you!”
“Sex? Who said anything about sex? I don’t want a lover, I want a fiancée. Or more accurately, someone who’ll pretend to be my fiancée.”
The mental light bulb finally went on. Serena had heard about the military’s position about sexual orientation—don’t ask, don’t tell. She nodded understandingly. “I get it. You’re gay.”
“Gay?” Rad repeated incredulously. “I am not gay!” he growled before tugging her into his arms. The heat of his body permeated through the Indian cotton dress Serena wore. She was so close to him she could see the sherry-colored flecks in his brown eyes. Lowering his lips to just above hers, he whispered, “Want me to prove it to you?”
Chapter Two
Somehow Serena found the willpower to resist the temptation Rad presented. Hastily stepping away from him, she tried to keep her expression calm. “No, I don’t want you to prove you’re not gay. I’ll take your word for it.”
“What made you think I was?”
“You said you didn’t want a lover, you wanted a fiancée.”
“And that made you think I was gay?”
“It was a logical assumption.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
She was about to argue with him over that fact when she realized that that’s probably what he wanted. “Why don’t you tell me exactly what it is you’re proposing? Then I won’t have to jump to conclusions.”
“I’m not proposing.”
“That was a figure of speech.”
“Just so we’re clear. What I need is a make-believe fiancée. Not the real thing.”
“Why do you want someone to pose as your fiancée?”
“Because I’m having some trouble with the general’s daughter Heidi.”
“What did you do to her?”
“I didn’t do anything. I smiled at her when I met her. That’s about it.”
“What’s she done to you?”
“Made my life miserable. She’s convinced she’s fallen in love with me at first sight, which is ridiculous.”
“It certainly is!”
Her instant and emphatic agreement shouldn’t have irritated him, but it did. “You don’t think a woman could fall for me?”
“I didn’t say that. I said that falling in love with someone you don’t know is ridiculous. She must not realize how arrogant and bossy you can be.”
“She’s a general’s daughter. Her father is ten times bossier than I am. Clearly that’s not a problem for her.”
“It would be for me.”
“Your father’s not a general or something is he?” Rad demanded, his expression suddenly suspicious.
“No, my father has been out of the military for some time. He’s in construction now.”
“Is he the reason you have this thing against what you mistakenly perceive to be bossiness?”
There was no way she was confessing anything about her past to Rad. The less he knew about that part of her life the better. “Why don’t we get back to your reasons for needing a fictional fiancée?”
“Fine. As I was saying, Heidi has been chasing me for several weeks now. When I didn’t ask her out, she asked me. When I refused, politely of course, she warned me she was going to make my life difficult.”
“What did she do?”
“For one thing, she got her father to give me that stupid assignment speaking at the middle school’s Career Day.”
His dismissal of the event irritated her greatly. “There was nothing stupid about the event. The only indication of a lack
