red silk dress, she said self-consciously, “I hope I’m dressed all right. I don’t go out very often, so I didn’t have much to pick from.”
“You look fine,” he replied roughly. “Just fine.”
She did, in fact, look fantastic. He’d always thought that she was an attractive woman, but she did her best to hide it. She usually wore her black hair pulled back in a severe bun that wasn’t the least bit flattering and she wore glasses that were the wrong shape for her face and hid her eyes. Tonight, however, her glasses were nowhere in sight, and she’d left her hair loose so that it fell past her shoulders in a waterfall of black silk that his fingers itched to touch.
For the first time in recent memory she was wearing makeup, and he was amazed at the difference in her. He’d never noticed before how beautiful her brown eyes were or just how sexy her mouth was. Unable to drag his gaze away from her, all he could think of was that red was definitely her color. With the red silk sensuously draping her slender, lithe body, she looked as though she’d just walked out of a dream.
But she wasn’t his dream, he reminded himself grimly. Just the woman he was going to give a year of his life to, hopefully in exchange for a not-guilty verdict at his trial. Their arrangement was strictly a business one, and he’d do well to remember that.
“If you’re ready, we should be leaving,” he said coolly. “Our reservation is for seven-fifteen.”
“Of course,” she replied in a voice as cool as his. “Let me get my purse.”
They walked out of her house like two strangers who didn’t know what to say to each other, and without a word, Gavin opened the door of his Chevy sedan for her and helped her into the passenger seat. Moments later, he buckled in beside her and headed for the Wild Boar. The drive took all of ten minutes, but neither of them spoke the entire way.
Then, before Summer was quite ready to play the role of Gavin’s infatuated girlfriend, he braked to a stop under the restaurant’s portico. A valet was there to park the car for them, but before he could open Summer’s door for her, Gavin was there first. Taking her hand in his, he closed his fingers around hers and gave her a slow, intimate smile as he helped her from the car. Reeling from the kick of that smile, she’d hardly recovered when he linked his fingers with hers.
She’d known that they would hold hands, that he would touch her when the opportunity presented itself, and it was all for show. But it didn’t feel like much of a show when his hand squeezed hers as they stepped inside and the maître d’ showed them to their table. Heat climbing in her cheeks, Summer felt the touch of dozens of pairs of eyes on them and knew Gavin had to feel it, too. But he gave no sign of it. Not sparing a glance for anyone but her, he seated her at their table, then took the chair across from her. In the glow of the candle that burned between them on the table, he gave her a smile that was slow and intimate and should have been outlawed in all fifty states.
Hit with the full impact of his sex appeal, Summer forgot to breathe. All around them, people began to whisper, but she never noticed. Her heart pounding in her breast, all she saw was Gavin.
“Miss?” Standing at her side, the waiter cleared his throat. “Would you like a menu?”
Transfixed, Summer hardly heard him. Then Gavin smiled in amusement, and the spell that had fallen over her broke and she realized she’d been staring at Gavin like a star-struck teenager who’d just stumbled across her favorite rock star. That was, of course, exactly what she was supposed to be doing. The problem was, she’d completely forgotten it was the role she was playing when Gavin smiled at her. And that horrified her.
“Miss?” the waiter said again, this time with exaggerated patience. “Your menu?”
Jerking back to awareness, she blushed. “Yes, of course. Thank you.” Ignoring Gavin, she grabbed the oversize menu and quickly buried her hot cheeks behind it.
Chuckling, Gavin ordered champagne—to celebrate, he informed the waiter. When Summer finally lowered her menu, he was there waiting for her with a heart-stopping smile. “See anything you like?”
How was she supposed to answer that? she wondered wildly. When he forgot to brood and turned on the charm, he was a very attractive man—which every woman in the place had already noted, if the feminine glances he was getting were anything to go by. And that was exactly why they were there, she reminded herself. To have people look at him in a new light.
Remembering her role, she forced a smile that didn’t come nearly as easily as his did. “Actually, I do. How about you?”
“Oh, yeah,” he drawled, leering at her teasingly. “But it’s not on the menu.”
“It could be,” she replied, flirting for the first time in her life. “If you’re lucky.”
Chuckling, Gavin reached across the table for her hand, and that set the tone for their evening. They touched and flirted and made no attempt to keep their voices down or to be discreet. And they accomplished just what they set out to do. By the end of the meal, everyone in the restaurant thought they were falling in love.
Exhilarated, exhausted, stunned that she’d actually been able to pull off her role, Summer didn’t know whether to laugh or to sigh in relief as Gavin escorted her outside and they left their audience behind. Grinning as he took her hand, she said in triumph, “We did it! Did you see the way people were looking at us? I can just hear the gossip tomorrow.”
“So can I,” he replied. “Especially after everyone hears about this.” And with no more warning than that, he stopped and tugged her into his arms for a hot, sizzling kiss in full view of the diners sitting by the restaurant’s large picture windows.
Caught off guard, Summer could do nothing but close her eyes and helplessly kiss him back. And all the while, her heart was slamming against her ribs. Dizzy, her knees weak, she tried to cling to the knowledge that this was just another act of the little play they were putting on, but her mind had a tendency to fog over with pleasure and she found it impossible to think straight. Unable to stop herself, she melted against him, boneless in his arms.
Later, she couldn’t have said how long he kissed her. It could have been mere seconds or hours. She just knew that when he finally let her up for air, she could do nothing but stare at him in bemusement. Why hadn’t anyone ever told her that the man could kiss like that?
“Smile,” he said huskily.
Still standing in his arms, her thoughts all jumbled, she frowned up at him in confusion. “What?”
“Smile,” he said again. “Everyone in the restaurant can see your expression.”
Disgruntled, she immediately turned the corners of her mouth up in a slow, sultry smile, but inside she was more than just a little miffed. He’d practically knocked her out of her shoes with that kiss, but he didn’t seem to be affected at all.
“How’s that?” she asked through her teeth, gazing up at him like an infatuated teenager.
“Perfect.” Chuckling, he released her, but only long enough to take her hand. “I think we’ve done enough damage for one night. C’mon, I’ll take you home.”
Any fears she had that he might try to kiss her good-night ended the second they reached her house and he followed her inside. Refusing the coffee she offered, he immediately began analyzing the evening. “Did you see the mayor? His eyes nearly popped out of his head
