girl-next-door image, but blatant-vamp persona felt a ridiculous reach. Angelina Jolie in The Tourist, she wasn’t. But the knee-length dress was a contradiction, as well. It had a demure, high front, but Derek had the real view—a seriously low, cowl neck in back exposing just about every inch of her from nape to waist, all of which was prickling—and not because the temperature in the house was too low. She wasn’t a gambler, but she could feel Derek’s gaze contemplating what she was and wasn’t wearing beneath the thing.
At the long buffet in the dining room, Eve indicated the spot where the bowl should go and stepped aside for him to put his hefty load in its place. “I do appreciate this,” she said as discreetly as she could, counting how many pairs of eyes had noticed.
“My pleasure. Besides, that dress doesn’t look like anything you can machine wash and I’m fast concluding that eau de shrimp isn’t the right fragrance for you.”
She heard a few chuckles from people overhearing the exchange and felt a betraying heat creep into her face. Special Agent Roland was flirting … with her. The man whom she last saw angry enough to bite inch-thick bolts in two when he’d come to confront Wes about his affair with Samantha. She couldn’t begin to wrap her mind around that idea.
“Eve, introduce me to this gallant gentleman,” Rae said, joining them. “I thought I’d greeted all of our guests, but I’m obviously remiss in welcoming you,” she added to Derek. She extended her beautifully manicured hand in a way that best displayed her French-tipped fingernails and several carats of diamonds.
Almost as tall as Derek and luscious in a silver-sequined, full-length gown, Rae’s personality was cranked tonight to radiate mach charm. Her reputation in Denver was at once admired and resented due to her ambition and fearlessness. She never questioned her taste or decisions and if a client did, they didn’t need to hire Rae Grainger for their function. That matched her bold appearance—flaming red hair and matching lips, permanent liner and eyebrows, and teeth that any TV personality would kill for.
With wry circumspection that played well to her brashness, Derek picked up a napkin, wiped his right hand and took hers. “Mrs. Grainger. Thank you for allowing me to join you.”
“You don’t look like a golfing buddy or business associate of my husband’s. And you have better manners.”
“More like an associate of D.A. Maines, who is taking pity on someone relatively new in town. Derek Roland.”
Rae’s face radiated her recognition and she nodded approvingly, which almost ended suspiciously like a royal bow. “I remember now. How lovely to have you, Special Agent-in-Charge Roland.”
Eve resisted the urge to roll her eyes by respecting her incredible memory. Rae could recite event quotes, guest lists and her daily phone log from a month back.
“Call me Derek, please … unless I come bearing a warrant.”
With a throaty laugh, Rae replied, “Well, Derek, you are obviously blessed with as much good taste as you are with chivalry and wit. I’ve about given myself an ulcer at the idea of all this loveliness going to waste.” As she spoke, she swept her hand toward Eve.
For the briefest moment, Eve thought the groan in her mind actually burst from her lips. But unable to stay silent out of fear total humiliation was forthcoming, she stage-whispered, “This was my former neighbor, Rae. My ex and his are now married.”
Rarely rattled, the resilient redhead muttered a brief, “Crap” through a frozen smile.
“Or something to that effect,” Eve muttered, wishing for a glass of anything to swig down. Crawling under the twenty-thousand-dollar dining table was out of the question. “I’m going to get the last of the sushi now,” she said to the room at large. “With luck, I’ll trip along the way, knock myself out and come to with amnesia.”
Once back in the kitchen, she leaned her forehead against the cool glass of the refrigerator. What had she done to deserve this? Even though Derek was being an absolute gentleman, he was a reminder of everything she’d been trying to put behind her, namely her failure as a wife and as a woman.
Hearing the door creak open behind her, she quickly made her way to the sink where she pumped soap into her palm and then ran water to wash her hands before setting to work again. She wasn’t surprised to see Derek’s image suddenly reflected beside hers in the sink window.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Sure. This happens to me every day.”
“You don’t sound okay.”
“Well, don’t take this personally, but having all but cried my way through Christmas because I missed my family and we were too busy to get time off to fly down to see them, the last thing I needed was my past hitting me in the face like a tacky pie-throwing joke.”
As she witnessed Derek’s head rear back as though she’d struck him on the chin, Eve grimaced and turned to face him. “I didn’t mean you. I meant the affair and everything. You’ve been all kindness. But you don’t know Rae. She may have appeared apologetic, but she’s taking your consideration to me the wrong way, as she will your presence. Trust me, regardless of what I said, or will say, she’s got an idea in her head and she will Frankenstein monster it into—I don’t want to think what.”
If he was upset at that news, Derek didn’t show it. Instead, he ripped off a sheet from the paper towel roll beside him and handed it to her.
“Oh, good grief, see? I’m dripping all over the hardwood floor and myself.”
“I wish you weren’t so uncomfortable about our reunion,” he said as she dried her hands, blotted her skirt and quickly dabbed at the few drops on the floor.
“You aren’t?”
“Not at all. I remember you as lovely in all ways, and I felt as badly for you as I did for myself. More actually.”
His flattery was as potent as wine and she was grateful for the need to turn her back on him so she could toss the paper towel in the trash compactor. “Why? You don’t know me. Maybe I deserved what happened. Do you realize this is the longest conversation we’ve had in all the time we were neighbors?”
“My work requires me to read people well.”
Thinking of his choice in marriage partners, she spun around. “I have two words for you and her initials are—”
“Resist that one.” Derek came an inch away from touching his index finger to her lips before stopping himself. “I don’t want to be remotely tempted to speak your ex’s name in rebuttal.”
As he continued to be transfixed by her lips, Eve grasped at humor as she always did when finding herself in an uncomfortable moment. “Hey, I never said I’m a good judge of character. I’m always surprised when people don’t mess up or let me down. Take my mother for example—I counted on her to produce another sibling so I wouldn’t be stuck being the baby of the family and forever being treated as if I have packing bubble for brains and shouldn’t be let outside after dark. But did she follow through? Nope.”
His tender smile was a dirty trick. It transformed his face in a way that made her tummy tighten and her heart flutter. In self-defense, Eve circled the island the long way around to take the plastic wrapping off of the
