Bachelor Unleashed - Brenda Jackson [40]
He held his beer bottle to his lips, ready to take another healthy sip, when he was hit with a realization that had his heart pounding, his pulse racing and his esophagus tightening. This couldn’t be happening to him. No way. But as he stared into space for a few seconds, he knew that it had already happened. He had fallen for Farrah and hard.
Damn.
What had happened to that strong resolve to guard his heart? What had happened to all those instilled and painful memories of what Dionne had done to him? He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he knew, just as surely as he knew Diana Ross was once a Supreme, that he was in love with Farrah Langley.
He set his beer bottle down, thinking that definitely put a whole new spin on things. It hadn’t been his intent to fall in love, but it had happened and now he planned to do something about it, which didn’t include running in the other direction. No, he’d confront the opposition head on. This was his heart they were talking about.
He knew without being told that if she got wind of his feelings, she would make things even more difficult. But he had news for her. Not only was he going to have his fling with her in the Big Apple, but it would continue right to Charlotte and eventually lead into marriage. Marriage?
Yeah, marriage.
He smiled, thinking he liked the sound of that. He knew the hell she would probably give him, but he was up for the battle. All was fair in love and war, and he would do whatever it took to win her over and make her realize that regardless of what had happened in her past, he was the man for her.
It was a good thing Farrah wasn’t there to see the sly smile that had formed around his lips. She wouldn’t know what hit her until it was too late for her to do a damn thing about it.
Chapter 9
Farrah wasn’t so sure how today’s session with Kerrie Shaw and Lori Byers would pan out when Rudolph Byers strolled in by his wife’s side with a smirk on his face, as if he knew something they all didn’t. She couldn’t help wondering if all the progress she’d made with the two women would get flushed down the toilet by the man who was determined to keep a wedge between the friends.
“Good morning, everyone, and welcome back,” she said when they were all seated at the conference table. “I think we made really good progress yesterday and would like to pick up where we left off if everyone is in agreement.” She held her breath, almost certain that Rudolph Byers would step in and oppose. When he did not and sat there beside his wife with that silly smirk still on his face, she continued.
“Okay, then, yesterday we ended with you, Kerrie, telling us about the early years when you and Lori worked together. Kerrie, I believe you were sharing with me how things were that first year when the two of you finished college.”
Kerrie nodded, glanced over at Lori and smiled. Lori smiled back, which in Farrah’s book was still a good sign. “Lori came up with this idea of how we could raise money for our first batch of makeup by getting a group of friends of ours in a band to agree to do a concert…”
Farrah leaned back in her seat listening to what Kerrie was saying, while at the same time noticing there seemed to be a bit of tension between Lori and Rudolph. Being rude, he was doing annoying things to get his wife’s attention as if to remind her that he was there. At first he’d been rubbing his finger up and down the sleeve of her blouse, and now he was