Identity Crisis (8 page)

Her laugh was warm and thick and he held the BlackBerry closer as though he could feel it if he tried hard enough. ‘You’re kidding, right?’

‘Actually, I was kidding, but my publisher loved the idea.’

Dear God, did she actually giggle? The sound was musical and suddenly it was hard for him to imagine the woman on the other end of the phone had ever slapped him or tried to drown him. ‘No wonder you’re … I mean, Tess is having trouble with it.’ Then she added, ‘Life is stranger than fiction, Garrett. You do realize you’re living out a Tess Delaney plot even as we speak, don’t you?’

‘I had thought about it, yes,’ he said, curling himself around a pillow, imagining that it was her scooped into his arms against his body. ‘But then I was afraid you might resort to further violence if I mentioned it to you.’

This time her laughter was explosive, and he found himself laughing too, feeling like the darkness had somehow been pushed back.

‘Oh, come on, Garrett,’ she said, ‘Aster Martin clocked Daniel Varner good in
Too Much Moonlight
and Al Tristan ended up wearing a whole bowl of rum punch courtesy of delicate little Heather Jackson in
Appealing to Heather
. I would think you’d be truly inspired by now.’

‘You know what happens next in both of those novels?’ he said, gripping the device tightly to his ear.

‘Of course I know. Angry sex. Tess Delaney writes brilliant angry sex. The inspiration is certainly there. But you’re … I mean, Tess is the writer. I’m just the lowly PR person.’ Her voice felt suddenly closer. ‘You need to get some rest, Garrett. It would hardly do for you to be falling asleep all over your lovely date’s shoulder tomorrow night, now would it?’

Chapter Eight

Strangely enough, Garrett
had
slept after Kendra called him, and that without phone sex … Though he wouldn’t have minded. It had been almost noon when he was startled awake by the buzz of his BlackBerry. He grabbed it up breathlessly, hoping it was Kendra. It was Don.

‘I hear everything is ready for tonight. My plane just got in and I’m waiting for luggage. Kay assures me that you don’t need me to come and hold your hand. She sounds amazing.’

‘Jesus, Don, please tell me you two didn’t discuss holding my hand.’ Garrett rolled over on his back and threw his arm across his face.

‘Relax, Garrett. You know I’m just concerned. Seems like the Ryde Agency has everything under control, though. Makes me a little bit nervous for my job, actually. I’m told all I have to do is show up and you’ll be there with the lovely Tess Delaney on your arm.’

The rest of the day passed in a blur. Strangely enough he found himself writing down some ideas for a novel roughly based on his experience with Kendra. She was right. It was the dream story and it wouldn’t be that difficult to twist and turn it just enough to make sure their own identities were protected. Maybe Tess would even put a foreword in the novel to the effect that some of it was autobiographical. That would be the perfect way to thumb his nose at his publisher. After the dust was all settled, after the award ceremony was over, who cared if Tess let it slip that maybe, just maybe it wasn’t really her at the ceremony.

In spite of the hours he’d spent writing, he made sure to give himself plenty of time to get ready. If he had to be the no-account woman magnet of a Thorne brother, he wanted to make sure he did his best to look the part. OK, if he were honest, he also wanted to impress Kendra Davis, and he had the distinct impression she wasn’t all that easy to impress. He’d certainly not done a great job of it so far.

He was ready 30 minutes early and, to keep from giving in to the nerves threatening to run amuck in the pit of his stomach, he settled back into writing a synopsis for the story of Tess’s cover-up. He had just gotten to their steamy kiss in the foyer when the doorbell rang. His heart jumped. This was it. This was where he placed the past ten years of his life into the hands of a woman who didn’t like him. But, he reminded himself, she did like Tess Delaney. She liked her a lot. He’d have to trust that would be enough. He swallowed his nerves, straightened his bowtie and went to the door.

The woman on the porch left him breathless. Her rich russet hair was piled on top of her head in careless but outrageously sexy curls, curls that looked as though she might have had a romp in the sheets just before she remembered she had a party to go to and then she’d had to hurry to get ready. However, the rest of her looked polished to a delicious emerald shine. The dress sheathed her like a second skin, the split high up the right side allowed her long delicious thigh to play peek-a-boo from beneath when she walked. The shoes and the jewelry were gold; the necklace sparkled with a filigreed heart resting between her breasts.

At last he found his voice. ‘Your hair,’ he managed, ‘it’s …’

‘Red, I know. Didn’t you envision Tess as a redhead? I could never have imagined her as anything else. But don’t worry, I can be blonde again as soon as it’s all right with Tess.’

It was only when she offered him a smile and nodded to the limo that he realized he’d been staring, just standing there staring. He pulled the door to and locked it, then offered her his arm, which she took. And did she actually look up at him admiringly? Well, she was pretending to be Tess Delaney after all, wasn’t she?

To Garrett’s surprise, they’d made it to their table almost unnoticed. He figured that was because no one knew what Tess Delaney looked like, and no one honestly expected her to show up. Don was already there with some woman whose name Garrett promptly forgot after their introduction. He could barely remember his own, as focused on just getting through the evening as he was.

At the table closest to them sat the obnoxious critic, Barker Blessing. Garrett hadn’t thought to warn Kendra about the womanizing bastard, but then how could he have known? In his white tux and black bowtie, with his air-brushed hair, the man might have passed for an older version of James Bond, with a slightly slimy edge to him. Blessing’s striking good looks were quickly eclipsed when he opened his mouth and graced everyone with a vocabulary that mostly involved the words “me”, “my”, and “I”. Add to that the fact the man had the unpleasant habit of talking with his hands in the presence of good-looking women, hands that usually arrived uninvited on the more personal parts of female anatomy, and Blessing was best avoided whenever possible. Garrett could only imagine the explosion if the groping Barker Blessing’s hands invaded the volatile Kendra Davis’s personal space. He’d have to make sure that didn’t happen.

The second Garrett pulled out the chair for Kendra, Blessing was on his feet. ‘You must be the lovely, and very secretive, Tess Delaney,’ he announced loudly, bending over her hand to press a sloppy kiss across her knuckles. ‘At long last we meet.’

And that was it. The room erupted in a strobe of camera flashes as Kendra said something polite and then turned her attention to Don, who was also offering her his hand. It was clear he was very pleased with Kendra’s version of Tess Delaney. Before Don got his greetings out, there was a Dictaphone thrust in Kendra’s face.

‘Ms. Delaney, can you tell us why you chose this night to make your first public appearance after ten years of enthralling the world with your novels?’ the young female reporter asked.

Garrett bristled and was about to push his way in between Kendra and the reporter to protect her, but her hold on his arm became a vice grip, while the rest of her remained as calm and serene as a sunset over a summer ocean. ‘Why, Ms. Flannery –’ She called the reporter by name, which seemed to be a total, if delightful surprise to the woman. ‘I would have thought that would be obvious. I could hardly resist being here for the Golden Kiss Awards, not when I’ve had the honor of being nominated. It’s every romance writer’s dream to be in this place with these people, you know.’ She gave her a smile that had the reporter blushing like an adolescent. Oh, she was good. Behind them, Blessing was taking notes fast and furiously on his iPhone. Three other reporters asked her questions in rapid succession and she answered them just as easily.

Then the intrepid Ms. Flannery butted in again. ‘Ms. Delaney, I see that you’re here with Garrett Thorne. Are you two an item?’

Garrett truly had to refrain from dragging her away from the reporter. But Kendra was already as close to digging claws into his arm as she could possibly be without drawing blood. She gave him an adoring glance that softened his mood considerably, then smiled back at the woman. ‘Ms. Flannery, I never kiss and tell. I save that for my novels.’

Before anyone could ask more awkward questions, the press returned to their seats and everyone settled as the ceremony began.

In all honesty, Garrett paid little attention to anything other than the woman sitting next to him. Perhaps he was just being paranoid, but it felt like all eyes were on her. On the one hand he could certainly understand why that should be, but on the other the longer they sat there under the curious gaze of everyone anxious for their first look at Tess Delaney, the more they risked being found out. He didn’t like the way Don was looking at Kendra. He sure as hell didn’t like the way Barker Blessing was looking at her, like she was dessert. God, he wished he’d warned her about the creep beforehand.

The entertainment was endless. Someone sang, there was some ballroom dancing, a comedian. Someone else sang. Everyone clapped politely and ate their dinner as it was served up in courses. The final announcement of the winner of the Golden Kiss Award would be given just before dessert was served.

Garrett barely touched his wine. He barely touched his food. All he wanted was to get Kendra and himself and Tess out of this place as soon as possible before the vultures could descend again. It was Kendra curling her fingers around his that drew his attention back to the present as some man on stage crooned a medley of love songs. She leaned close to him. ‘You’re supposed to be enjoying yourself. You’re the date of the most mysterious, most exciting woman in the whole room. This is Tess’s moment.’ She moved her hand down to rest on his thigh. If she hadn’t had his full attention before, she did now. ‘Kiss me on the ear,’ she whispered. ‘And slip your arm around me. You’re supposed to be into me, remember?’

Doing as she asked was no hardship, and it helped take his mind off the position in which they now found themselves. The fact that doing so not only made her smile, but made her blush and giggle softly went a long way to focus him on things far removed from what was happening onstage. He could feel Blessing’s gaze boring into the back of his head, but that didn’t matter quite so much as he dropped a kiss on Kendra’s ear, then another on the glorious expanse of her neck laid bare by the off-the-shoulder dress.

And then it was time. The two MCs stood before the microphone and read the names and recent achievements of the five novelists. A big deal was made out of the fact that this was Tess’s first ever public appearance. The camera zoomed in on her, where she sat smiling demurely next to him, and suddenly Kendra’s lovely face filled the big display screens that had been placed so everyone could get a good view of what was going on. Garrett felt the muscles in his shoulders knot even tighter.

The reassuring squeeze of her hand against his was just beginning to calm him when the MC said, ‘And the winner of this year’s coveted Golden Kiss Award is … Tess Delaney!’

Chapter Nine

The crowd went wild. Garrett nearly catapulted from his chair, an act that Kendra turned into an exuberant winner’s kiss for her date followed by a reassuring caress of his biceps. Then she made her way up the aisle toward the stage, and Don did his best to subtly ease Garrett back into his seat. Not that it mattered; all cameras were on Tess Delaney, all adoring eyes were on her, and Garrett wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t going to throw up. He felt hot all over, he felt like his chest was about to explode and his stomach was about to implode. He wanted to run up to the stage and whisk Kendra away before she could open her mouth. Dear God, surely this was expecting too much of even her.

‘Calm down,’ Don hissed in Garrett’s ear. ‘Let her take care of it. Just smile like the adoring lover. That’s right. Tess won, Garrett, Tess Delaney won the Golden Kiss. You know what that means?’

‘Shut up, Don,’ Garrett hissed between barely parted lips.

‘Then sit down and behave yourself.’ Don made no effort to disguise the warning in his voice. Garrett was sure the man would have put him in a stranglehold if he felt it necessary. Well he was certainly welcome to try, Garrett thought.

On stage, Tess took possession of the golden trophy topped with its replica of Rodin’s sculpture, The Kiss. She graciously gave each of the two presenters a peck on the cheek to a roar of applause. Then she stood, smiling brightly in front of the microphone, till the room quieted. She waited for a second, then the smile broadened and became contagious. Garrett couldn’t help noticing that everyone was smiling back at her. Even he was smiling back at her.

‘This is such a wonderful surprise.’ She looked down at the trophy. ‘I can’t tell you how honored I am even to have been nominated for this award, to be in the company of such esteemed writers, writers who are my heroes in the romance world. But to actually win – well, I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. I don’t mind saying that I was a little bit nervous when my publicist suggested that the Golden Kiss Awards might be the time to make my first ever public appearance. I mean –’ she leaned close to the microphone ‘– it’s just so very public, isn’t it?’

Her captivated audience laughed their appreciation.

‘As I’m sure you can imagine, I’ve always felt more at home behind the laptop than I do in the public eye. I guess most writers probably feel that way. I’m guessing I’m not the only one who finds myself a lot more comfortable talking with my characters than with real people, a lot more at home with the people I’ve created in my novels than I am with, well, people in the real world. I’ve always found them a bit scary, a bit intimidating. But, well –’ she offered the audience a dazzling smile
‘– you all are lovely. Thank you. Thank you so much.’

There was a spontaneous round of applause, and when there was silence again, she continued, ‘That I’d like to thank my publicist and my editor, and all the bookish folks who make my novels a reality, is obvious.’

She leaned a little closer to the microphone, and Garrett could swear she was looking right at him. He braced himself. Was this it, then? Was this the point where Kendra Davis got her revenge? He held his breath as she continued.

‘Not so obvious are the people who inspire me and help me and encourage me in quiet ways, the people who never take the bows, even though they deserve them, even though this –’ she raised the trophy for everyone to see
‘– this could have never happened to me without them. Thank you. You’re truly amazing.’

Garrett was sure she was looking right at him, and he sat a little taller, and for the first time in the evening his smile was easy and genuine. There was another round of applause, and Kendra moved off the stage. The applause continued as she glided between the tables and back to her place, back to Garrett. And it became deafening when he stood, scooped her into his arms, and kissed her. Best of all, she kissed him back like she really meant it, pulling away only enough to beam her bright smile at him and mouth the words “we won”, before she yielded to his next assault.

He could have just kept on with the kissing. He could have just kept on with her there in his arms, pressed tightly against him all warm and soft and breathing hard with the excitement of victory. But Don butted in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek and his date, Julie – that was her name, Garrett remembered – did the same. And then Barker Blessing shoved his way in for a grope and a slobber before Garrett could pull Kendra possessively back to him and before everyone settled in for dessert and an onstage tribute to musicals.

It was when chocolate mousse arrived, mounded high with whipped cream and topped with a huge fresh cherry, that Blessing made his move. He forced his chair in between Kendra and Don – after all, Don was Tess’s publicist, and Blessing always situated himself with the movers and shakers whenever possible. If Garrett had been Ellis, then no doubt he would have squeezed in where he could rub shoulders with him too. But clearly Garrett’s reputation was well known to Blessing who, after a curt nod in his direction, turned his full attention to Kendra, who had just begun her mousse.

‘My dear, I must congratulate you again. I think I speak for everyone here when I say Tess Delaney has stolen our hearts.’

Garrett was never 100 per cent sure about what happened next, though he did play the events over and over in his head many times afterward.

He read Kendra’s body language before he was able to see, from his poor vantage point, what was actually happening. Her spine stiffened and tension tightened her shoulders, which until now had been completely relaxed.

‘As you know, I’ve reviewed all of your novels very well, very well indeed.’

Bullshit, Garrett thought. He had always approached Tess’s books as he did all romance novels, as though they were the bastard stepchildren of proper literature, and the best he’d ever said about her work was that it was not bad for what it was, and that it was a pity such talent was wasted on such low-brow literature. As Blessing’s hand moved up high on Kendra’s right thigh, Garrett had visions of strangling the man with his bow tie.

‘I’m sure my reviews were taken into consideration in these awards, Tess – I can call you Tess, can’t I?’ He addressed Kendra’s cleavage, ‘So, in a small way, I guess you could say I’m responsible for you carrying away that lovely piece of metal. And I’m willing and able to help advance your career in ways you haven’t even thought of.’ His thumb slid beneath the soft green fabric of her dress and his fingers followed suit, finding their way to Kendra’s bare thigh.

What happened next seemed to unfold in slow motion. Garrett rose from his chair and grabbed the bastard by the back of the collar just as Kendra looked up and caught his eye, then she shook her head and mouthed the words “sit down”.

He didn’t. He just couldn’t let the bastard touch her like that. But before he could bodily heave Blessing out of his chair, before he could do more than lay a hand on the man’s jacket, Kendra, without so much as batting an eye, daintily and very deliberately dumped her entire chocolate mousse upside down onto the lap of the man’s white suit, making sure to give it a good hard shove, adding a slide from side to side so there would be no easy clean-up. The whole incident might have been subtly covered up if, at that moment, one of the cameramen hadn’t chosen to zoom in for a close-up of the beaming winner and catch the whole magical moment and multiply it and enlarge it on the big screens that surrounded the room, resulting in a raucous round of applause.

And that was when Garrett decided it was time they made their exit before he did the man serious bodily harm. He cupped her elbow in his hand, helping her from her chair. The applause was thunderous.

‘Garrett.’ She spoke between clenched teeth. ‘What the hell are you doing? We can’t leave before the press conference. Garrett!’

‘Fuck the press conference,’ he growled. ‘We’re leaving now, before I kill the bastard.’

For a split second he was sure she was going slap him. Her eyes blazed blue fire and her lips were parted, to make room for each accelerating breath.

‘Now,’ he said, tightening his grip on her arm.

She blushed ever so slightly, made a little curtsey to the applauding crowd, then yielded to Garrett’s none-too gentle tugging. As the room fell silent, all except for the sputtering and cursing of Barker Blessing, who was now being ministered to by a couple of the male wait staff wiping at his bemoussed crotch with white linen napkins, the two walked out of the room with all the dignity of royalty. Without a word, they quick-marched down the stairs into the foyer and out into the warm summer evening, where Garrett practically shoved her into the waiting limo, the Golden Kiss Award still suicide-gripped in her hand.