Shay a chance to offer more arguments.
“I can afford him, Brandi. And he’s the perfect gift!” Brandi stared at her sister, and Shay grumbled defensively, “Well, he is!”
With her face bright red and her posture rigid, Brandi appeared more than determined to send him on his way.
Sebastian interrupted before she could do just that. “When you say ‘little’ sister, you aren’t exaggerating.”
Shay grasped the change of topic gratefully. “Brandi looks like the family. Petite and dark. I’m afraid with my gawky height and fair hair, it’s me who’s the oddity.”
“Ha!” Brandy now had her hands on her narrow hips. “A beautiful oddity and you know it.” To Sebastian, she said, “Shay is the reining matriarch of the family. She does her best to boss us all around, and usually we let her because she enjoys it so much. It gives her something to do and keeps her out of trouble. But this time…”
He didn’t want to be dismissed, so he held out his hand to Brandi and quickly interrupted. “So I’m a birthday present, am I? I suppose I’ve been worse things in my line of work.”
She put her small hand in his large one, gave it two jerky, firm pumps, then mumbled, “Nice to meet you.” And in the next breath she asked with a good dose of suspicion, “What exactly is your line of work?”
Shay poked Brandi in the ribs, causing her to jump. As Brandi rubbed her side, scowling, Shay explained. “Sebastian owns a personal security agency and he does a credible job of taking care of people, watching out for them, protecting them from danger of any kind. It’s one reason for all the brawn you noticed.”
Brandi’s eyes flared and her cheeks flushed. So she’d noticed him to that degree had she? Excellent.
She stuttered a moment, then ended with, “I’m going to kill you, Shay.”
Shay looked totally unconcerned with the threat. She fluttered her manicured hand in Brandi’s direction as if to fan away the anger. “Sebastian has to stay in top shape. His job can be, at times, very physical. But he’s up to it. He’s real hero material, he just doesn’t realize it.”
“I do my job the same as anyone else, Shay. There’s nothing heroic about it.”
“You see what I mean?” Shay asked Brandi, then added in a stage whisper, “Actually he’d be a perfect male if he wasn’t such a chauvinist. But Sebastian thinks of all women as delicate and frail and he wants to save them all.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Oh, I don’t know about that, Shay. I certainly wouldn’t term you as delicate. Tough as shoe leather maybe, but not—”
Shay smacked at him, laughing. But Brandi frowned as if she didn’t quite trust him, regardless of her sister’s romanticized declaration. Then she turned to Shay, and though she lowered her voice, he heard every word. “I don’t know what you’re up to here, Shay, but it won’t work, so stop it right now. You bought him, you can just keep him.”
“I don’t want him!” Shay said, frowning now herself. “He’s a great guy, but we’re too much alike. We’d kill each other within twenty-four hours. Besides, I’ve already been this route and don’t intend to go it again.”
“But I should?”
Shay shrugged. “You know how it is about a path never traveled. Your weeds are growing tall, Brandi. Pretty soon you won’t be able to find the path anymore.”
“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Brandi muttered. “That’s the dumbest bit of argument you’ve ever come up with.”
Sebastian was beginning to feel like a stray mutt. Not since he was twelve years old and had begun gaining his height and physical structure had a woman showed such disinterest in his company. He wasn’t vain, but then, he wasn’t stupid, either. He’d had women argue over him before, plenty of times actually—but never to see who had to be stuck with him. More often than not, women chased him.
But now Brandi wasn’t chasing him—she was trying to chase him away. Perversely, he was determined to hang around.
Shay had her hands on her hips, mimicking Brandi’s stance, and she looked every bit as determined as Brandi. “I wanted to give you something special for your birthday, Brandi, but I was at a loss. I couldn’t think of a single suitable gift. Then, well, you mentioned your new plans, and inspiration struck.”
Sebastian bit his upper lip. He didn’t understand the part about “new plans,” but inspiration was apparently the way Brandi had stared at him while he was onstage. Her sister had interpreted that eat-him-alive look as interest, so maybe he hadn’t misread her after all. Maybe it was that her interest hadn’t quite encompassed five days alone with him, as the prize package specified. He didn’t understand why—but he was already determined to find out.
Brandi waved a small dismissive hand—the same as her sister had done earlier, only this time it was aimed in his direction. “He wasn’t part of my plans.”
“He’s perfect for your plans! You’re twenty-six today and you never have any fun. Sebastian is fun.” She glanced at him and demanded verification. “Aren’t you fun, Sebastian?”
“A laugh a minute.” But he didn’t feel like laughing. He felt like telling Shay to be quiet and stop pushing her sister. Hell, Shay was practically forcing him on Brandi, and she was resisting admirably. It was a new experience—and he didn’t like it one bit.
Brandi closed her eyes, then opened them again. “No.”
“Now, Brandi…”
It was most likely male pride that motivated him, because he didn’t like being rejected any more than the next guy. Especially not after Brandi had managed to intrigue him so thoroughly with her blatant, wide-eyed, somehow innocent staring. He should just forget about the whole thing. He didn’t have time to take away from his other commitments. He was in the middle of screening new help for hire at his office, and each room in his home was in some stage of renovation. His free time these days amounted to nil.
But he found himself stepping in front of Brandi and Shay, hiding them from the crowd. That damn no had sounded entirely too final, and he’d already determined not to let her say no.
“I’m sorry you’re not happy with the arrangement, Miss Sommers,” he said, not quite able to keep the annoyance out of his tone, “but the fact is, neither of us has any choice at this point. The press is ready to snap a shot of anything that even remotely looks suspicious. If you hesitate or look as if you’re being coerced, Shay’s publicity will suffer. My business will suffer. The women’s shelter will suffer.”
Turning very slowly, Brandi stared up at him. “You’re exaggerating.”
“We’re next in line for photos. If you look unwilling or unhappy you can imagine how the text will read below the picture. They’ll slaughter your sister’s intentions, and my business will be given a bum rap. They’ll somehow twist it so that you had reason to refuse my company on the trip. This whole event will end up looking like a disreputable scam, and the efforts to provide housing for battered families will lose ground.”
After spewing that nonsensical garbage—all of it exaggerated, just as she’d claimed—Sebastian waited. If Brandi Sommers
