Seven-Year Seduction. Heidi Betts

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СКАЧАТЬ paused with the champagne flute halfway to her mouth. No, that wasn’t quite true. She was over him. Absolutely, positively, one hundred percent over him.

      The only feelings she still harbored toward Connor were ones of resentment. Just hearing his name raised her blood pressure. Not because she missed him or wished she could be his girlfriend, but because the thought of him made her want to strangle somebody when she didn’t typically suffer from homicidal tendencies.

      To some, those emotions might be welcome in relation to an ex-lover, but to her, they only served to remind her that he had had an impact on her at all. She hated that. Loathing was better than longing, but she’d prefer to be indifferent toward him.

      “What are you doing hiding over here all by yourself? You should be dancing.”

      Her brother’s voice came to her from over her left shoulder and she tipped her head back to look at him. Clear as a bell, steady as a surgeon… Damn, she was still sober.

      “It’s not my wedding day. I’m not required to make a fool of myself.”

      “Gee, thanks.” He crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out, mugging for her the way he’d done all her life. “Look, Karen’s shoes are pinching her, but I’m still in the mood to dance, so I need a new partner.”

      Beth scanned the crowd and pointed toward an attractive brunette with the rim of her glass. “Ask her.”

      “Are you kidding me? If I danced with anyone but my sister, my new bride would divorce me before the honeymoon.” He waggled his eyebrows. “And I’m really looking forward to that honeymoon.”

      It was Beth’s turn to roll her eyes. “Please. It’s nothing new to you two, and we both know it. So will everyone else in six or seven months.”

      “Shh. We’re keeping that a secret as long as we can. Now get up and dance with me, or I’ll think you aren’t happy for your big brother’s recent state of wedded bliss.”

      With a sigh, she set down her empty glass and pushed to her feet. “Well, we can’t have that.”

      Nick grinned as he took her hand and led her onto the crowded dance floor. Rod Stewart’s throaty version of “The Way You Look Tonight” was playing, but Beth refused to give the song’s lyrics too much thought as Nick’s arm wrapped around her and they began to sway.

      “I really am happy for you, you know.”

      The corners of his mouth lifted in a grin. “I know. It took me a while to get here, but I’m awfully glad I did.”

      She chuckled. “If you didn’t put a ring on Karen’s finger soon, I think she was about ready to string you up. You have been dating since high school, after all.”

      “Yeah, but I wanted to make sure she loved me for me and not my millions.”

      Beth threw back her head and laughed. Nick was lucky he had two nickels to rub together. He and Connor owned a contracting company together and did a lot of the work themselves, but they weren’t exactly raking in the dough. Early on in their partnership, there had been months when they barely broke even; more when they were clearly in the hole.

      Things were better now, but neither of them was rich by any stretch of the imagination. If Karen had truly been looking for a man with money to spare, she’d have run screaming from Nicholas years ago.

      Beth, on the other hand, was doing pretty well for herself. Things had been tight when she’d first moved to L.A. The exorbitant cost of living on the West Coast, in addition to school loans that still had to be paid off, hadn’t been easy to swing for a girl who didn’t even have a job yet. She’d made ends meet at first by waitressing and temping at a few law firms.

      Then she’d lucked out in finding a friend and fellow attorney who did have some cash to spare and was willing to form a partnership with her. Danny Vincent was a great guy. He came from money, so he’d been the one to foot all the start-up costs of Vincent and Curtis, but she’d done her best to pay him back by scouting out the talent, wooing new clients, and even stealing a few from other, more well-established firms.

      The first few years had been backbreaking. She’d worked nonstop not only to prove herself, but to build the business so Danny never had a chance to think he’d made a mistake.

      And now, they were pretty much set. They had high-profile celebrities and sports figures on their clientele list, with others waiting in line for their expertise, and the firm was operating well into the black on an annual basis.

      She wore designer clothes, designer shoes, designer jewelry. A single trip to the salon cost her more than Karen probably spent on her hair in a year.

      Which only served to make Beth feel even more removed from the small Ohio town where she’d been raised. She missed it sometimes…the friendly faces, the slow pace, her family. But that’s what telephones and e-mail were for. She’d grown up and moved on. She was happy with her life.

      The song ended and Nick started to let her go. One of the caterers had just placed a fresh bottle of champagne on the bridal table, and she wanted to get back to refill her glass.

      “You’re not running off already, are you?”

      It wasn’t her brother’s voice that made her heart drop to her knees. Mentally, she closed her eyes and banged her head a couple of times against the nearest wall. But she’d been working with Hollywood big-wigs too long to let anyone see that she wasn’t calm and one hundred percent in control of her emotions.

      Licking her lips to buy an extra second, she forced herself to smile and turn in the direction of the loaded question.

      “Hello, Connor.”

      He looked as handsome as ever. Better even, in his best-man tuxedo, when his usual uniform was well-worn blue jeans and soft flannel shirts. His hair was still barbershop short, no signs of gray in the brownish-blond strands. And his brown eyes twinkled as though he carried a secret no one else knew.

      He did, of course. He knew what they’d done after the football game all those years ago, up at Makeout Point. She doubted he’d ever told anyone, though. She certainly hadn’t.

      “Hey, Beth. I meant to tell you earlier that you’re looking good. L.A. must be treating you right.”

      She nodded. He didn’t need to know about the small ulcer she’d developed from eighteen-hour workdays and a demanding clientele, or the antacids she kept in her purse for the occasional flare-up.

      As far as the residents of Crystal Springs were concerned, she’d gone off to California and become a huge success. There was no sense in telling them things weren’t always as silver lined as they seemed.

      “Would you like to dance?” Connor asked when another slow song began to fill the reception hall.

      With him? Definitely not. She opened her mouth to politely refuse, but he already had his hand curled around her upper arm, steering her into his embrace, and her brother seemed more than willing to pass her off.

      “Great,” Nick said. “You dance with Connor, and I’ll get back to Karen.”

      “She’s got you on a tight leash already, huh?” Connor joked, throwing her brother a СКАЧАТЬ