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1 GIVEN THE CHOICE between sticking flaming skewers up her nose and attending her own parents’ thirty-fifth anniversary party without a date, Annie Davis would, without hesitation, reach for the lighter fluid and a match. Instead, she was reaching for her checkbook. Wondering just how far she could go—how much she could spend—to ensure she avoided a fate worse than burned nostrils.“Twenty-five hundred, that’s all I can swing,” she murmured, reminding both herself, and her friend Tara, who sat beside her at an empty table near the back of the hotel ballroom. Twenty-five hundred was about as much as she could stretch it and still make her bills, as well as eat next month.Tara, who occasionally helped out at Baby Daze, Annie’s successful day care center, had come only to this charity bachelor auction for moral support. Her aspiring actress’s checkbook wouldn’t allow room for a guy auctioned off in a Salvation Army parking lot, much less one at Chicago’s glamorous Inter-Continental Hotel.I
2 “GOOD EVENING,” SEAN murmured as he reached the side of the woman who’d bought him for a night. “I’m sorry if I kept you waiting.”“You have an accent!”He laughed softly. “Maybe you’re the one with the accent.”“Oh, God, that was incredibly rude, wasn’t it?” She stuck her hand out, which was so small, it practically disappeared inside his when he reached out and clasped it for a formal shake. “I’m Annie Davis. And you’re…”“Sean. Sean Murphy.”“Like Bond,” she mumbled, “James Bond.”“Not exactly,” he said, chuckling, “I didn’t say ‘Murphy. Sean Murphy. Besides, Bond was a Brit.”“You’re not?”“God, no.”As if realizing she’d insulted him, she nibbled her lip. “Sorry. I only like the older movies and you sound like Sean Connery.”So she had good taste, in Bonds at least, but obviously no ear for accents. “Connery’s a Scot. It’s not even the same island.”She appeared so flustered, he knew he shouldn’t tease her, but he couldn’t help himself. The woman, who he figured to be in her midtwenties, a
3 “OWNER AND MANAGER OF Baby Daze. Saints preserve us, she runs a nursery school.”Sean stared in disbelief at the small white business card in his hand. He hadn’t read it carefully last night when Annie Davis, his pretty “winner” had slipped it to him after the auction. Now, though, since he’d decided he couldn’t possibly wait until Saturday to see her again, and had dug it out searching for her phone number, he’d noticed what the woman did for a living.Day care.On Sean’s personal list of things to be avoided at all costs, babies were two steps below jealous husbands and three above yappy dogs that piddled themselves the moment you bent to pet them.“And she works with them. On purpose.”All the more reason for him to call the woman and tell her she’d been out of line insisting he spend an entire weekend with her—on a farm, for God’s sake—rather than just the dinner date he’d offered for the auction.To be honest though, calling her to discuss the matter was only the excuse. Calling her w
4 “FATHER SAW YOUR picture on the Chicago paper’s Web site. Do you pay off reporters to splash your face in the society pages, just to infuriate him?”Sean’s twenty-year-old sister hadn’t even said hello when he’d answered her call Thursday afternoon. She’d simply gone straight to the point, amusement lacing her tone.“Hello to you, too, Moira.”“A charity bachelor auction? I thought he was going to choke on his morning biscuits.”“He’s all right, though?” Sean asked, grudgingly concerned. The old man was a pain in the arse, but he didn’t actually wish him ill. He just wanted him to concede that simply because he had supplied the sperm to impregnate Sean’s mother, and had then paid her off to stay out of Sean’s life, that didn’t mean he owned his son, mind, body and soul.“He’s fine. Ranting and raving about the house, wondering why you haven’t given up this foolish playboy lifestyle and come home to ‘take your rightful place’ in the family.”“That’s never going to happen,” Sean said, runnin
5 SEAN HAD BEEN grabbing taxis while in Chicago for this trip. But since he had wanted Annie to get the full “auction date” package, he had hired a limo for the evening. When they walked out of her apartment building and she saw the long, shiny black vehicle standing at the curb, her eyes widened in delight.“Thank you,” she murmured as he escorted her to the door, where the driver stood waiting. “You went all out for tonight, when you didn’t have to. I’m sure you spent way too much money.”He could certainly afford it, but didn’t say that. Annie hadn’t asked him about his job, how he lived, what he lived on. He wanted to keep it that way a little while longer. “Who says I didn’t have to? You put out a lot of money at the auction…”“For this weekend,” she clarified as they got into the car. She slid across the leather seat, making room for him to sit beside her. As he did, her long, slim leg brushed against his, and Sean had to tug his stare away by sheer force of will. He hardly heard he
6 SEAN HAD TO GET OUT of here, now, while—as the old movies said—the getting was good. Judging by the flash of anger in Annie’s pretty blue eyes, the “getting” might not be good in a few more moments. Because she looked to be building up a head of steam to tell him off. Call him a tease—or worse.It was his own fault.Although he’d intended tonight to be strictly about getting the information he needed, and getting an Annie fix to last him until their trip tomorrow, he’d found himself heading down a very dangerous path with her. One that saw them both veer off the main road of slow, casual friendship they should be on. And completely in sexual desire territory.What kind of lackwit would ask her questions about what she wore to bed, and how big her bed was?If he actually planned to do something about it, that’d be one thing. But he didn’t. He’d promised her a third date. And tonight—despite how much he’d like to bend the rules and call it one—didn’t count.Besides, Sean was enjoying this n
7 ANNIE HAD SEEN SLEEK, ridiculously expensive convertibles like the one Sean had rented, but she’d never actually ridden in one. So she’d never heard the way the engine’s powerful roar actually sounded more like a smooth rumble from the inside. Nor had she realized the engine’s power felt tangible, like the vehicle was a living creature harnessed and impatient to go.“God, this car is sexy,” she said, amazed at how good it felt to just ride, watching the miles slip past as the car’s broad tires skimmed over the steaming blacktop below.“Handles beautifully, too,” he said, talking loud enough to be heard over the wind and the music. “Maybe you can get behind the wheel for a while later.”Not a chance. With her luck, she’d drive it into a ravine and end up having to sell a kidney to pay for the damage.“That’s okay, I’m fine here,” she said, settling deeper into the buttery-soft leather seat.Usually the two-and-a-half-hour trip back home seemed interminable and boring. Each mile passing und
8 THIS WASN’T STARTING off very well.Annie hadn’t even heard the approach of her oldest brother, Jed. But she’d heard Sean’s surprised grunt, which tore her attention off the pure pleasure she’d been experiencing from his touch. Under the hot sun and the blue sky, with his hand on her thigh and his mouth on her hip, she’d been able to forget for a moment that they were about to go hand-in-hand into the lion’s den.Until one of the stalking beasts had come out of that den and pounced, catching them completely unawares.“Dad’s right on the porch,” her brother snapped.Annie glanced toward the house, but couldn’t see it. Sean had parked the tiny sports car between two of the monster trucks her brothers drove, and it was completely hidden from view of the house.“Thanks for coming to get us,” she said, making no effort to disguise her sarcasm.“You were taking so long, he was about to come down and see if you needed help with your luggage.”Right. As if they had a trunk full for an overnight vis
9 “YOUR PARENTS SEEMED very happy tonight.”Annie, who was curled sideways in the passenger seat of Sean’s rental car, watching the way the warm summer breeze lifted his hair back as they drove through the night, nodded and smiled. “Yes, they did. I think they were surprised to see how many people care about them and wanted to share their big day.”It was after eleven and the two of them had just left the Elks Lodge, which was on the outskirts of Green Hills, about five miles from the farm. The party, which started at six, had finally wound down until only Davis family members, both close and extended, remained. Seeing Annie’s yawn—after the long day and the drive to town, as well as Sean’s, after the long day, the drive and the testosterone-laden football game—her mother had insisted that they head back to the house early.Good thing. Randy had nearly lost his mind when he’d seen Sean’s car. He’d begged to ride with them, and when Anne had told him the Ferrari was only a two-seater, Rand
10 ANNIE WASN’T SURE what to expect when they reached the city. Sean might take her back to his hotel as he’d sworn to do. He could be planning to make love to her in every way humans had ever tried until tomorrow morning when the sun came up.Or, judging by the near silence—broken only by occasional small talk—in which they’d shared the two-hour ride, he might be ready to drop her off at her place. Some men might toss her cat and her suitcase on the sidewalk, and drive like hell to the airport.She should have kept her mouth shut, should never have told him exactly what her mother had said. Honestly, though, the intuitive words had stunned Annie so much, she’d almost had to share them. If only to see whether saying them out loud made them any less shocking to her own ears.Her mother had seen love in their eyes? Hers and Sean’s? Was that even possible? After one week, could such a thing really happen?In her mother’s opinion, of course it could. She and Annie’s father were a well-known ca
11 THE FIRST LETTER arrived two weeks later.Annie was sitting at her desk an hour after Baby Daze had closed. Everyone else had left, and she was sorting through bills, making up the next week’s schedule. The usual.Life had returned to normal, busy and fulfilling.It was not happy. Not yet. Maybe she would be again, but getting over Sean wasn’t proving to be the easiest thing she’d ever done. More like the most difficult.But then she saw the white envelope with large, spiky black handwriting, addressed to her. It was postmarked from Paris.And she began to have hope again.“Sean,” she whispered, touching the tip of her finger to her own scrawled name.She’d heard nothing from him since that day in his hotel room, when he’d done his damndest to push her away. It had taken every ounce of her strength to let him do it, rather than continue to fight him. But in the end, she’d known she had to.Only by letting him go—letting him come to terms with his own life—would she ever be able to hope he’d
Epilogue
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