Star Crossed (Stargazer #1)(55)
Author: Jennifer Echols

Midafternoon, Daniel found Wendy in their room. She’d draped her suit jacket over the back of the desk chair, so he got a better look at her br**sts than he had that morning. The sight heated his blood. He made a valiant effort to stare at her face instead while he waited for her to acknowledge him.

She’d set up her laptop on the desk rather than balancing it on her thighs on the bed, which told him that things had gotten serious. She even held up one finger so he would hold his thoughts while she finished an e-mail. “There!” She tapped the trackpad with a flourish and spun in the desk chair to face him. “How are you feeling?” she asked, beaming at him.

“Better, after eating,” he said. “How do you feel? I’ve stopped asking you, but you’re the one with stitches.”

“A hundred percent. Lorelei’s TV appearance went so well. Did you see it?”

He sat on the bed, very close to her chair, and tried not to stare at the tempting hem of her skirt as she crossed her toned legs in front of him. Wendy looked very sexy in skirts. “Colton and I both watched it, and then I watched it again online. You and your crew did a super job setting that up and getting the video out there.”

“It turned out great,” Wendy agreed. “I could have kissed that girl right there in the studio, but PR professionals do not inadvertently start lesbian rumors about their clients.”

Daniel laughed. “I can tell Lorelei’s public image is turning around because of that video, and people are getting excited about the fact that she and Colton might be back together. I only wish there was something else we could do.”

“Something else?” Wendy exclaimed. “I don’t know how you work at the Blackstone Firm, but over at Stargazer we are tired. Maybe we’re underachieving.”

Daniel shook his head. “It’s just that Lorelei and Colton’s bad PR has been incredibly bad. In order to counteract that, the good PR has to be over the top. Their apparent reunion and your video are steps in the right direction, but I’m not sure we’re there yet. I’m still thinking. Maybe I’ll come up with something.”

Wendy was looking at him like he was insane, so he shrugged and changed the subject. “Thank you for bringing Sarah out here to help. I know it was really for Lorelei, and only incidentally for Colton or for me, but I appreciate it all the same. Sarah is good at what she does.”

“She thinks the same thing about you,” Wendy said. “She told me you were like a master class in this business.”

“Well,” he said quietly. “It’s second nature now. I grew up with it. Couldn’t get away from it. I . . . ”

She raised her eyebrows, probably wondering why he’d stopped talking. And why he was talking about himself voluntarily. Good call.

He started over. “I know it was just a big mistake to be asleep on your lap when your colleagues came into the room. I feel awful about it. Sarah gave me a talking-to.”

“Yeah,” Wendy said regretfully, “Sarah does that.”

“I, um . . . ” He was never tongue-tied, but Wendy had this effect on him. She watched him with concern in her blue eyes as his speech ground to a halt. He doubted he would have gotten himself in this fix with her if she’d only been kind. Or only brilliant at her job. Or only hilarious, making him laugh like he hadn’t laughed since high school.

Or only sexy. He found his gaze drifting from her eyes down to her perfectly polished lips, and farther down to her br**sts again. Two nights alone with her in this hotel room and he hadn’t seen her bare br**sts, hadn’t even touched them. That was how smooth he was around her.

He couldn’t be tongue-tied now, though. He had to tell her. Reaching across the space between them and taking her hands in his, he said, “I haven’t made any secret of how I feel about you. I think some of it has been welcome and some of it hasn’t, which I really regret. But I never, ever intended to get you in trouble at work. If that’s going to happen, but we’re still uneasy about this guy who likes your hair so much, maybe you could stay in Sarah’s room instead of mine.”

“Oh,” Wendy said to their clasped hands.

“I want to be honest about this,” Daniel said. “I’ve enjoyed living with you. I hope you’ll stay.” Of course, if he’d really been honest, he would have said a whole lot more.

Wendy nodded. “Then I’ll be honest with you. We can’t have any kind of long-term relationship. Not while you’re with the Blackstone Firm and I’m with Stargazer.”

His heart sank. He’d wanted to clear the air with her—to a point. But now that she’d stated her true feelings, ambiguity didn’t sound so bad.

“Sarah and Tom won’t rat me out,” Wendy went on. “Stargazer has no way of knowing you and I are together out here. So as long as we’re in Vegas, as far as I’m concerned, we can do anything we want.”

They shared a long, serious look. Daniel’s heart pulsed painfully in his chest. Sometimes clarity was very, very good.

Wendy sat back in her chair and smiled craftily at him. “Guess what? While we’ve been chatting, I’ve come up with that over-the-top idea you wanted, the one that will rescue Lorelei and Colton once and for all.” Her words were businesslike, but her come-hither smile told him they were done with work for now.

He whispered, “Do tell.”

14

It’s going to sound crazy,” Wendy said, “but hear me out.”

“Mmmmm-kay,” Daniel said in such a knowing tone that she nearly jumped out of her skin in anticipation. Though he gave her the impression of consciousness of his own body and looks, he was un-self-consciously sexy, legs crossed casually on the edge of the bed in his dark suit pants, crisp white shirt open at the throat, dark hair perfect, dark eyes on her.

“Lorelei is great at taking scandalous photos,” Wendy said. “She’s known for it. It’s never brought her anything but trouble, but if we brainstormed, maybe we could turn that around. The thing about Lorelei and her exhibitionism is . . . she’s got a killer body.”

Daniel nodded. “If you have a thing for bony twenty-one-year-olds.”

Wendy laughed. “Most people do. And if she were to post the right pictures of her elbow or her carefully pedicured big toe or worse, that might actually make for good PR. But that’s not what she does. She takes the grossest, most unflattering shot possible and posts that, making herself look like a drunken slob.”