Trust Me on This Read online

  “Hell, it’s worth a shot,” Harry said.

  Alec stood up. “I’ll call him.”

  “No,” Dennie said, and they all stared again. “Look, am I part of this or not?”

  “Of course you are, dear,” Victoria said. “Alec’s just not used to hearing women say no in a bedroom.”

  “Aunt Vic—” Alec said, and Dennie cut him off.

  “I met with Bond this afternoon,” she said. “He likes me. He thinks I’m a gold digger out to get Alec’s money. He’ll believe me if I tell him I’m going for the house too.” She looked up at Alec. “And it’ll be a lot easier for me to confuse him than it would be for you. He’s not going to be staring down your shirt.”

  Alec glared at her. “He’s not going to be staring down yours either.”

  “Yes, he is,” Harry said, and when Alec transferred his glare over, Harry shrugged and said, “She’s right. She’s our best bet.”

  “You had to wear that dress, didn’t you?” Alec said bitterly.

  Dennie nodded. “This dress clouds men’s minds.”

  “Well, it’s certainly working on Alec,” Victoria said, and Alec gave up.

  “Call him,” he told Dennie, and when there was no answer in Bond’s room, he said, “We’ll have to try the bar. Get the wire, Harry.”

  “Which I will tape on her,” Victoria said to Alec.

  “Fine,” Alec said, and thought, But I’ll take it off her.

  Alec found Bond in the bar without letting Bond see him, and ten minutes later, Dennie sat down a few seats away and waited for Bond to spot her.

  It didn’t take long.

  “Dennie!” He slid onto the stool next to her. “Where’s Alec?”

  “He went up to bed,” Dennie said sadly. “He likes to get plenty of rest. He sleeps a lot. And he’s so awfully disappointed about not being able to get the house.” She peered up at him woefully through her lashes. “I am too. I know it’s money-grubbing of me, but I really want that house too.”

  “Aw, honey,” Bond said, and slipped his arm around her.

  Dennie leaned on him a little and looked up at him, her eyes huge with sorrow. “I don’t want to marry Alec if all he owns is a bunch of land. He might never build a house. Men change their minds sometimes, you know?”

  “Only the rotten ones,” Bond said nobly, and Dennie refrained from rolling her eyes and went back to gold digging.

  “I wanted to look out my bedroom window and see the ocean,” she said, her breath catching on a little sob. “Just like a rich person. And now I never will.”

  Bond patted her shoulder, letting his hand slide a little as he patted. “Why, honey, you can do that if your Alec buys the property. He’s crazy about you. He’ll build you that house. Now you cheer up. Here let me get you another drink.” Bond signaled the bartender without letting go of Dennie.

  In the back room, Alec shook his head. “She’s overplaying it.”

  “He thinks she’s drunk,” Harry said. “She’s doing okay.”

  “Shhhh,” Victoria said.

  Dennie sipped her drink and tried to ignore the way Bond’s arm was slipping down her back. She pantomimed fighting back another loud sob. “I just wanted to lie there in my bed and listen to the ocean pounding and pounding. You know? Just like it was pounding on my body.”

  “Really?” Bond said, stopping with his drink halfway to his mouth.

  “Really,” Dennie breathed.

  * * *

  In the back room, Alec said, “Oh, come on,” and Harry and Victoria both shushed him.

  Dennie looked deep into Bond’s eyes and dropped her voice to confide in him. “I sleep naked, you know? In the nude. Totally. And I could just feel the way those ocean breezes would just kind of stroke all over my skin, you know?” She ran her hand lightly down her arm. “Stroking and stroking.”

  “Stroking,” Bond said, moving his hand up and down her waist.

  “Stroking,” Dennie said. “And the way my heart would just pound with the surf. Stroking and pounding. You know?”

  “Yes,” Bond said. “I know.” His hand crept around her rib cage to settle tentatively under her breast.

  “In fact, just thinking about it makes my heart pound,” Dennie said. “Here.” She pulled his arm from around her, curled his hand into a fist, and pressed it against the swell of her left breast. “Can’t you hear it pounding? Can’t you feel it?”

  “God, yes,” Bond said, his voice suddenly husky.

  * * *

  In the back room, Alec glared at the recorder. “What is she doing? What does she mean, can he feel it?”

  “Quiet,” Harry said.

  “You know, she’s very good at this,” Victoria said.

  “The hell she is,” Alec said, and then winced when Victoria raised her eyebrows at him. “Sorry, Aunt Vic.”

  Bond was practically breathing down her cleavage, and it was taking all Dennie’s strength to keep his fingers curled tightly in her fist. “I can feel it too,” she said, breathing deeply against him. Then she shoved his hand away and turned her back to him. “But it’ll never happen now. There’s no house. No surf. No pounding. He’ll never build it.”

  “Wait.” Bond put his hand on her shoulder. “Wait. Maybe there’s something I could do—”

  Dennie swung around to him again and pressed against him. “Could you? Oh, could you? I would be so grateful. So terribly, terribly grateful. This is just so important to me. I mean, having my own house and the pounding and all.” She wet her lips and cast a glance around the bar before she turned back to him, putting her hand on his knee and dropping her voice. “You see, Alec is a dear, dear, dear man, and I do love him, I do, but sometimes he’s not … well …”

  “What?” Alec said in the back room.

  What?” Bond said at the bar.

  “Well,” Dennie said, letting her voice rise. She put up her hand between them, as if to stop him from interrupting. “Now I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, because Alec is a dear, dear man and I just love him to pieces, but he works so hard at making all that lovely money that sometimes, well, sometimes he’s just a little …” She let her hand flop over to dangle limply from her wrist. “If you know what I mean.”

  * * *

  “What does she mean?” Alec said, scowling.

  “I know what you mean,” Bond said.

  “A little uninterested,” Dennie finished.

  “I’m going to kill her,” Alec said. He heard Harry snort, and he looked down. Harry was laughing.

  “I like this woman,” Victoria said.

  “That’s it,” Alec said, and started for the door.

  “Not yet,” Harry said, and Alec stopped at the door.

  “Oh, hell!” he said, audibly grinding his teeth and stomped back to the recorder.

  “That’s a shame about Alec,” Bond said, leaning closer until he was plastered against Dennie. “Is there anything I could do to … help?”

  “I wish there were,” Dennie said, trying to keep from falling off her stool. He was practically in her cleavage, and his weight was making her slide backward. “But since you can’t guarantee us a house …”

  “Well, I might be able to do that,” Bond said, moving closer and breathing heavier.

  “I’ll be damned,” Harry said.

  “I don’t believe it,” Alec said. “He fell for that line?”

  “I don’t suppose the line is all he fell for,” Victoria said. “That red dress is probably doing some of the talking.”

  Alec glared at her. “Have we got enough yet?”

  Bond’s arm was back around Dennie now, his hand creeping up to her breast. “You’re wonderful,” Dennie said to him. “I just don’t know how to thank you enough.”

  “Well, I think we could find a way,” Bond said. “You know I’ve got to make a few phone calls on this, since it’s such a special deal, just for you. And we don’t want anybody else to know that you’re getting … well, something extra.” He leered a