The Cinderella Deal - Jennifer Crusie [74]
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