Kismet: A Serendipity Novella (3 page)

She’d left his office at three in order to
pull herself together, check into her hotel, and then go shopping.
Since she didn’t know any places like Consign and Design in the
city, she’d have to pay full price at a department store. At least
her parents were watching Olivia through the end of this school
week and then her baby was going to stay with her father and his
bimbo.

Make that Brad’s soon-to-be wife, who was
all of twenty-two years old and who possessed more money than even
Brad’s family. Lissa cringed. But no matter how much Lissa resented
Brad and his behavior, she knew Olivia was safe and cared for with
her father, giving her the freedom to be in the city and take care
of business.

She grabbed her purse, made sure she had her
credit card in her wallet, and started to leave, when a knock
interrupted her. A look through the peephole showed her someone in
a hotel uniform, so she opened the door.

“Can I help you?” Lissa asked the younger
man.

“Are you Miss Elisabetta Gardelli?” he
asked.

She nodded. Every time she heard her full
name, she was glad she’d reclaimed her maiden name after the
divorce. Olivia was still a Banks, but Elisabetta had no desire to
be one anymore.

“Special delivery for you.” He gestured to
the rolling cart Lissa hadn’t noticed before.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t
order anything.”

The man looked at the paper in his hand.
“From Saks Fifth Avenue, for you. May I?” He inclined his head,
indicating he wanted to come into the room.

“Umm, sure.” Confused, Lissa let him enter
and lay out garment bags on the bed, along with shoeboxes and
shopping bags.

He’d started to push the cart back out of
the room when her brain kicked back into gear. “Wait, please.” She
went to her wallet and pulled out some bills to tip him with.
“Here. Thank you.”

“No, ma’am. It’s all taken care of, but
thank you.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, her legs
beginning to shake as she realized there was only one person who
knew she needed clothing.

“A Mr. Trevor Dane is downstairs. He asked
me to get your permission to share your room number with him?”

Mutely, Lissa nodded. “Send him up,” she
murmured, lowering herself onto a corner of the bed, knowing her
legs wouldn’t hold up much longer.

Nothing about this interview and reunion
with Trevor was going as she’d envisioned. She’d known being with
him again would be challenging, but she’d hoped it would be
cathartic. She’d never quite gotten him out of her system and after
seeing him today, she was coming to the conclusion she never would.
She thought she’d be resigning herself to that throughout this
long, torturous weekend.

But now she was facing this ... thoughtful,
caring gesture from a man who ought to hate her. He should be doing
everything he could to make her time with him as painless for
himself as possible—by spending as little time with her as he
needed to in order to get the article written. Yet he was sending
her expensive clothing from Saks and showing up at her hotel room
in the middle of his workday to ... what?

She had no idea, and that scared her.

*

As Trevor rode the elevator to the
thirty-sixth floor, he figured he’d lost his mind. He had no other
explanation for doing something so out of character as leaving work
in the middle of the day. No doubt about it, though, his phone call
with his mother had shaken him badly.

For years he’d assumed that once Lissa had
gotten pregnant and Brad had done the right thing by marrying her,
she’d lived a charmed life as Bradley Banks’s wife. The money, the
country club, all the things that at the time, Trevor could never
be sure he’d be able to provide. And once she’d had Brad’s baby and
married him, whether or not Trevor succeeded in life no longer
mattered. He’d had a decade to build a picture in his mind of how
good her life had been without him, while no matter how much
professional success he achieved, Trevor still felt hollow
inside.

It had taken no time to have his
illusions—or rather, delusions—shattered. According to his mother,
Lissa’s married life had been a decade-long embarrassment. The
bastard had married her in name only, doing the so-called “right
thing” by his child. Not by the baby’s mother. When Lissa finally
had enough and walked out, her settlement had been paltry and she’d
been forced to take a part-time job serving coffee at Cuppa Café
while writing the obituary column for the
Serendipity
Gazette
. She lived in a small house on her original side of
town, and though their daughter’s future was secure thanks to
Brad’s parents, Lissa worked for everything she had.

No wonder she’d nearly passed out when he’d
mentioned a formal affair and a dinner party this weekend. Not only
couldn’t she afford those kinds of clothes, she probably didn’t
even own them. Trevor had misjudged her, the life she’d lived, and
who she’d become. And though nothing could change what had happened
in the past, he damned well respected her choices now.

He should have known better. If he could
have gotten past his hurt and anger sooner and let his mother fill
him in, he’d have known how unhappy her life had to be. Would it
have changed anything? Would he have gone back for her, married or
not?

He’d never know.

On that thought, a mechanical voice
announced he was on the thirty-sixth floor, and the elevator door
opened in front of him.

Well, whatever was in the past, Lissa was
here now and Trevor had this one chance to see what might have
been. What could be. Either way, when this interview process was
over, he’d have the one thing that had been missing all these
years.

Closure.

And he’d also have Lissa one more time. He
refused to accept any other outcome.

Trevor reached Lissa’s room and found the
door partially open. He walked in to find her sitting on the edge
of the bed surrounded by bags of clothing.

“Hi,” he said to capture her attention.

She glanced up, meeting his gaze with a
wide-eyed, wary gaze. “What is all this? And don’t say
clothes
,” she said, before he could do just that. “Why
didn’t you just let me go shopping?”

Trevor ran a hand through his hair,
embarrassed. It wasn’t like he went around ordering clothing for
women. “It wasn’t hard to figure out that I was putting you on the
spot with the formal affair and the dinner party.”

“And I said I’d go shopping.”

“You also mentioned something about serving
coffee and you literally paled when it dawned on you that you’d
have to buy new things. I realized I knew nothing about you now.”
He stared up at the ceiling, knowing he had no choice but to admit
the truth. “So I called my mother and she filled me in.”

Lissa felt her face flush hot with
embarrassment and awkwardness. “So you found out all about my life
and realized I couldn’t really afford a new wardrobe for the
weekend. You felt sorry for me and sent these clothes over?” Her
voice rose along with her mortification.

“Hey, that’s not it.” He sat down beside
her, close enough so their legs were touching. “It’s more like I
got a shocking lesson in making assumptions.”

She swallowed hard. “You thought I lived
well off the Banks money.”

“Well, I assumed that if the guy was doing
the right thing by marrying you after he—” He caught himself before
saying
knocked you up
. “After he got you pregnant, then he
would treat you right after he split up with you, too.”

“You know what they say about someone who
assumes things,” she muttered.

To her surprise, he laughed. “Yep. And an
ass certainly describes how I acted today. So maybe the clothes
were an apology, too.”

Lissa didn’t know what to do with this
kinder, gentler Trevor, and part of her wondered if that wasn’t his
intention. To keep her off balance, guessing, unsure of herself
during the time she was with him. To her dismay, she realized she
didn’t know him all that well anymore.

“I’m sorry things have been so hard for
you.”

She forced a smile. “I managed.” She’d also
put herself in the position of having to marry Brad, but it didn’t
seem smart to get into the specifics of their past right now.
“Thank you, though.”

“You’re welcome.”

“And thank you for these.” She swept her
hand toward the bags surrounding them on the bed.

“That was my pleasure.” His smile warmed her
straight down to her toes.

She was trying really hard not to think
about the fact that they were sitting in a hotel room alone on a
king-sized bed, but it wasn’t easy. Trevor’s pants-clad thigh
touched her bare one and she could swear she felt the heat of his
skin through the material. When she inhaled, he smelled deliciously
male and need rose quickly.

It had been so long since she’d had a man’s
arms around her, a man who made her feel good and wanted. Unlike
her ex, Lissa had remained faithful in her marriage, and her one
short relationship afterward had left her cold and wondering
whether she’d ever feel real desire again.

Well, now she knew. She ought to be
surprised that it was Trevor who’d awakened her long-dormant
hormones, but she wasn’t. Not really.

Lissa pulled in a deep breath and forced
herself to continue the conversation. For all she knew, she was the
only one feeling the heat and she didn’t want him to think she’d
misinterpret a kind gesture for anything more. She knew how he felt
about her.

His first unguarded reaction had shown his
true emotions, and though he was trying to be nice now, she knew
the resentment still lurked below the surface. She couldn’t let
herself think anything else was at play or she’d be risking her
heart. She was sure Trevor’s was locked up tight, at least to
her.

“How did you know my size?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I asked my secretary to guess.
Some of the things will have to be returned.”

She nodded. “I look forward to trying them
on.”

“I look forward to seeing you in them.” His
gorgeous eyes sparkled at the thought.

“What time should I be ready tonight?”

“I’ll pick you up at seven.”

Lissa shook her head. “I’ll meet you there.”
This wasn’t a date; it was business. She couldn’t let him play the
gentleman and go through the motions. It would only make her want
things she’d never have.

He scowled. “I don’t mind picking you
up.”

“There’s no need for you to treat me like a
date. I’m a journalist writing your story,” she felt compelled to
remind him. Or maybe she needed to say it out loud for herself.
“The Waldorf, correct?”

He nodded, but she could see from the
stiffness in his shoulders he wasn’t happy with her suggestion.

“Great,” she said, rising from the bed.
“I’ll see you there.”

He rose and stood way too close. “You’ll see
me, all right,” he murmured too enigmatically for her liking.
Reaching out, he placed his fingers beneath her chin until she
looked directly into his eyes. “We have a lot to catch up on.”

He tipped his head and her stomach did a
nervous roll as his lips came closer to hers. A yearning the likes
of which she’d never felt before rose up to greet him. But instead
of touching his mouth to hers, he placed a kiss on her cheek, his
touch too short to make any promises and yet too long to mean
nothing.

He stared at her for a long while afterward,
as if studying her.

She curled her hands into fists at her
sides, her heart pounding, her body responding in ways she’d long
forgotten. Her breasts grew full, her nipples peaked, and dampness
pooled between her thighs.

“See you later,” he said in a deep voice,
gruffer than before.

“Bye,” she whispered, unable to form a
coherent thought. And though he hadn’t really kissed her or touched
her at all, heat licked at her from the inside out.

Oh boy, was she in trouble.

Lissa spent the rest of the afternoon
pulling herself together. She tried on the variety of dresses
Collette had sent over, surprised to find each one fit. It was up
to her to decide which to wear and which to return. The answer came
down to one question.

How sexy did she want to be?

She luxuriated in a scented bath and took an
amazing amount of time getting herself ready. The last time she’d
primped so much on her appearance had been back in high school.
Sadly, that had been the last time she’d truly cared about
impressing someone, and she had to admit it felt too good to make
the attempt now.

Though she knew she ought to eat and had
ordered up something light, she merely picked at the salad and
fruit, too nervous for a full meal. Still, at least she had
something in her stomach so that she could nurse a drink and not
feel tipsy. Something told her she’d need to be in full control of
her faculties this evening when dealing with Trevor. Not to
mention, she wouldn’t be taking notes on the people she met and on
Trevor’s interactions, so she’d need to rely on memory when she
wrote up her interview notes later.

Finally, gown and shoes chosen, she gathered
her evening bag—another smart choice by Collette—and headed
downstairs to hail a cab. Except when she reached the lobby, she
found Trevor waiting for her.

Standing against a pillar, clad in a
perfectly fitted tuxedo, the man exuded confidence and sex appeal.
She was so surprised to see him, so affected by his masculinity,
that she nearly tripped in her high heels as she made her way over
to him.

“I thought I said I’d meet you there,” she
said.

“And I told you you’d see me. I just didn’t
say where.” His gaze raked over her, hot and heated, devouring her
with its intensity. “You look gorgeous.”

“Thank you. Collette chose well.” She
managed to speak though her mouth was bone dry.