The Cinderella Deal Read online

  “What I should have done before we came.” He jerked the dress over her head, peeling it over her arms as she struggled to keep it on. When he had it off, he walked over to the window, opened it, and threw the dress out into the alley.

  “Linc!” Daisy went after it, and he caught her. He pulled the bow out of her hair and ran his fingers through her curls until they were as free and full as before, and then he kissed her. “I love you,” he told her. “I screwed up out there for a minute, but I’m smarter now, and I love you. You, not whoever was wearing that damn dress.” And then he kissed her again, harder, trying to bring her back to life, the way it worked in fairy tales.

  His mouth was hot on hers, and Daisy gave up trying to argue with him and just leaned into his heat. It felt so good to be out of that awful dress, and even better to be back in his arms. The heat flared in her and she wanted him again, the way she always did, and it was like coming home. “I thought you’d never hold me like this again,” she whispered into his jacket.

  “I’m dumb, but I’m not that dumb.” He kissed her hair, and her forehead, and her nose, and then her lips, and she laughed until she felt his mouth on her throat and then her breast, and she wanted to give herself up, but there was still too much between them.

  She pulled away from him until his eyes came up to meet hers. “I have to tell you, that portrait being here is probably a by-mistake-on-purpose deal.” He frowned with confusion, and she tried again. “I think I told Bill to take everything in the studio because deep down inside I wanted to people to see the Daisy Flattery part of me. I think the Daisy Flattery part of me just couldn’t take being squelched anymore, you know?”

  “I know.” Linc put his arms around her again. “I think the Daisy Flattery part of me is what threw the dress out the window.”

  Daisy smiled into his chest, but she had to make sure he understood. “Listen, I’m not ashamed of who I am even if I am weird. And I’m not ashamed of that portrait.”

  “I’m not either.” Linc held her tighter. “Anytime I’m feeling depressed, I’m going to go look at it and think, This is what Daisy thinks of you. And then I’m going to jump you.” He bent to kiss her, and she felt dizzy and relieved and turned on, right in the middle of Bill’s gallery. And she didn’t have any clothes. “Linc, what am I going to wear home?”

  “I don’t care. Your slip’s nice.” He slid his hand over her breast and inside the slip, and she gave up and pressed against him, but then the door opened.

  “I know you wanted to be alone with Daisy,” Julia said, squinting into the darkness from the bright gallery. “But if you’re yelling at her, I’m against it.”

  “He threw my dress out the window.” Daisy pulled away from Linc before Julia saw. “He messed up my hair and threw my dress away.”

  “Good. That dress stunk on ice.” Julia turned to go.

  “Get her coat, please.” Linc pulled Daisy close again in the darkness, sliding his hand down her back to her rear end, pulling her even tighter until she felt how hard he was, and she closed her eyes with pleasure. “She’s shy about walking around in her slip. Also, we’re going home.”

  “Why?” Julia stopped in the open doorway. “The party’s just started and it’s great. This is Daisy’s big moment. You can’t go home now.”

  Linc’s hands moved over Daisy in the dark, and his hips pulsed into hers, and Daisy couldn’t talk.

  Linc could. “We have things we need to discuss.”

  Julia snorted. “If they’re the usual things you want to discuss with Daisy, this door has a lock.”

  She closed the door behind her when she went, and Linc reached over and flipped the lock closed. Then he turned back to Daisy. “Show me where the hooks are on this Merry whatsit.”

  “Widow.” Daisy fought her way through a fog of lust. “Listen, we can’t do this here; my father’s out there.”

  Linc slid his hands up her thighs and grabbed the bottom of her slip. “That’s not a father. That’s a sperm donor. Forget him. He’s a mess. Concentrate on me. I’m terrific.”

  He pulled her slip over her head, and Daisy shivered at the impact of the cool air and Linc’s hands and felt wonderful. “Pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.” Linc’s voice was thick with confidence and lust, and he trapped her against Bill’s desk without hesitation, pressing himself into her until she breathed harder and deeper. “Forget playing hard to get, cupcake. I’ve seen the pictures you painted of me. You think I’m God.” He found the hooks and started undoing them, flipping them open while he bore down on her, and his fingers felt so good against her skin that she gave up even pretending to fight him and let the heat sweep over her, and she thought, I have it all, and then she thought only about him.

  Later, dressed in her black coat, Daisy floated through the throng of people, smiling at everyone, buoyed up by the admiration for her work and wrapped in the sure knowledge of Linc’s love. Crawford was livid, her father was disgusted, and her stepmother was supercilious, and Daisy didn’t care. She thought her stepsisters looked envious. Then she looked at Linc and thought, No wonder. It really was better being Cinderella than the stepsisters. You just had to hang on until the happy ending.

  She was gone when Linc woke up the next morning, and he panicked for a minute before he found her note on the bedside table: “Gone to see Chickie. Back by eleven. Love, Daisy.”

  Love, Daisy.

  He put the note in his drawer and got dressed, and took Jupiter out on the lawn and carefully threw sticks for him. And all the while he thought about Daisy and about Daisy’s father.

  He could have been that man. If Daisy hadn’t loved him, he could have been like that. Daisy had saved him, and he had almost ruined her. She’d worn that awful dress for him. And last summer he would have thought it was great. Thank God he’d changed.

  Olivia and Andrew came by, oddly cautious. “Is Daisy home?”

  Linc smiled at them and waved them to sit down. “She’ll be back soon.”

  They sat down to wait, and Andrew threw a stick for Jupiter, but Andrew was sloppy and it landed on Jupiter’s blind side, so he sat and looked dopey until Andrew went to show him the stick.

  “We really can’t stay too long.” Olivia seemed edgy. “We just came to show her this.”

  This was a record album with a picture of five leering musicians on the front. One of them looked vaguely familiar.

  “Could Daisy have known these guys?” Olivia’s voice was cautious.

  “Daisy knows everybody.” Linc took the album. “Why?”

  “There’s a song on here.” Olivia blushed. “The lyrics are inside. We’d better go.” She stood up and yelled for Andrew, and they walked off together.

  Linc pulled the lyrics sheet out and skimmed through it until he came to a song called “Daisy Paradise.” The song was explicit, about making love with a dark-haired woman who had a body made for sinking into until the singer died of satisfaction. Linc turned the album back over. The one who’d looked familiar was Derek. He’d made his album.

  Linc leaned his head back against the porch pillar and thought about throttling Daisy, and then sanity returned. If any of his ex-lovers ever took up rock, he’d be in the same boat. And anyway, this kind of thing was standard fallout from loving Daisy. There’d be other things in the future that would embarrass him if he stayed with her, so he’d either have to give her up or get used to it.

  And giving her up was out of the question.

  He thought about Daisy, about everything that exasperated him about her, about everything that disappointed her about him, about everything that made her Daisy, and then he left to make some changes.

  When Daisy came home at eleven, she parked the Nazimobile behind a red four-wheel-drive sport van.

  “Whose car is that?” she asked as she came up the walk, and then she stopped.

  Linc was sitting on the porch steps with Liz, Annie, and Jupiter. The animals were wearing bright red collars, and