CHAPTER TWELVE
THE woman standing across the jam-packed room was not Sarah Griffin. Couldn’t be.
Caleb took a step forward, peering through the layer of fog created by fog machines hanging from the ceiling, trying to see past the hundreds of people packing the room, and watched as the woman descended the stairs and entered the nightclub. If he hadn’t sent her the dress and shoes himself, he’d never have believed that it was her wearing it because she had truly been transformed.
The silky red fabric skimmed her curves, hitching a little with each step. It grazed against her legs, stopping just above her knees. The scalloped neck dropped into a tantalizing curve across her cleavage. She’d pinned half her hair up onto the top of her head, leaving a cascade of curling tendrils to frame her face, drift along her shoulders, her back. She’d exchanged her glasses for a pair of contacts, which only made her eyes seem bigger, more luminous, particularly when paired with the dark red jewel tone of the dress.
And the shoes…they were amazing. They accentuated her legs and emphasized the definition of her calves. Caleb’s gaze traveled down her slender frame, then up, then down again.
Around him, he heard people murmuring about the dress. Calling it a showstopper. A gotta-have-it. He saw several women glancing over at Sarah’s shoes, and knew without a doubt he had a winner on his hands. But he didn’t care. The public would see the rest of the collection when Fashion Week started tomorrow, and the orders would surely pour in, revitalizing LL Designs.
He made his way through the crowd, ignoring the people who tried to get his attention. He couldn’t close the gap between himself and Sarah fast enough. The words he needed to say burned in his throat. He’d been so wrong, and he knew the dress and shoes were barely a beginning of an apology, but he hoped tonight he could make her see that he was sorry. When he reached her, though, his intentions stumbled with his nerves. “I see you got my gift.”
“I did. Thank you.”
“You look…amazing,” Caleb said. “Stunning.”
A smile curved across Sarah’s face. “Jeweled?”
He laughed. “That, too.”
Sarah waved toward the stilettos. “These are amazing. Even better than the Frederick K shoes.”
“They’re your design.”
She smiled. “But you picked the color. And this deep ruby red is just so…vibrant.”
“Like you. I couldn’t imagine a better color for you, Sarah Griffin.” He grinned, then put out a hand to her. “Let’s head to somewhere a little quieter. I want to talk to you.”
She went to put her hand into his, then drew back. “Before we do, let me ask you something. Do you still think I wrote that article about your mother?”
“That’s what I want to talk to you about. But not here. Let’s go—”
She shook her head, and everything inside him ached to touch her, but she was already backing away. He reached for her, but she slipped out of his grasp. “I can’t do this, Caleb. I’m sorry.”
“Sarah!”
Caleb started to follow her into the sea of people that had swallowed her up when he felt someone clap him on the shoulder. He turned back, about to tell whoever it was that he didn’t have time to talk. Then stopped.
“So, you ready to sell yet?” Frederick K’s voice boomed above the music, the conversations of those around them. “Because my offer is going down every day.”
“Stop wasting your breath, Frederick.”
“Come on, Caleb. Why are you hanging on to a sinking ship? Hell, the whole world knows that LL Designs is nothing without Lenora.”
“The company is fine.” Caleb scanned past Frederick K’s shoulder, searching for Sarah’s form in the crowd.
“Oh, yeah? That’s not what I hear the tabloids are going to be saying tomorrow.” A vicious grin slid across the burly designer’s face. He leaned in toward Caleb, as if he was going to share a secret. “Might want to check Behind the Scenes. I think they have a thing or two to say about your chances of success now that the company’s namesake is gone.”
Caleb’s fists clenched at his sides, but he held himself in check. Every part of him wanted to slap that grin right off Frederick K’s face. “What, it wasn’t enough for you to put the other article in there? Yeah, I know about that. Your friend Karl told me everything when I talked to him yesterday. Admitted you fed him all that information about my mother. I don’t know how or why you did that, and I don’t even care. It was low and mean.”
Frederick K laughed. “Come on, my boy, get real. It’s called doing business. I call in a few tips to Behind the Scenes and they do what they want with them. Someone had to let the world know Lenora wasn’t ever getting behind the wheel of the company again. Look at it this way—I did you a favor. Now you can sell to me and not have to worry about public perception. People will understand. You did your best, now let that albatross go. To me.”
“You’ll never own so much as a button from this company,” Caleb said, advancing on Frederick K and emphasizing his point with a finger in the other man’s ample chest. “Now get out of my face before I do something you regret.”
“Like what? Try to convince your little reporter friend to write something bad about me?” Frederick K leaned in toward Caleb.
“The media is good for more than just helping your star rise to the top,” Caleb said. “They’re also great at getting the truth out there. Like the truth about what a horrible human being you are. In fact, I’m not even sure you are a human.”
“Oh, you think can threaten me?” Frederick K snorted. “I have the media in my back pocket, my boy, right there with my wallet. Thanks to them, I’m the darling of the fashion world.”
“I know one reporter who wouldn’t find you darling at all.” Caleb grinned. “And I guarantee this is the perfect story for her to cover. And not for one of those tabloids, either. Oh, no, you and your meteoric, paid rise to the top, that’s one of those stories that deserves to be front and center in a news magazine.”
A shaky laugh escaped Frederick K. “Come on, Caleb. This was all about a little friendly competition. No harm, no foul.”
This time, Caleb was the one who grinned. He was going to love seeing this story, the one that exposed Frederick K as a fraud who had manipulated the media into creating his success. “Funny, it didn’t feel so friendly to me. And I’m going to make sure everyone knows what kind of person you are.”
Frederick K took several steps back, jostling the group of people behind him. “I’ll, ah, talk to you later. Maybe we can catch up after Fashion Week?”
“No. We can’t.”
The other man just pivoted away, blending into the crowd so fast, it was almost like he wasn’t there.
Martha came up beside him. “What was that all about?”
“A…life lesson.” He put a hand on Martha’s arm. “I’ll talk to you later. I have something to do right now. Someone I have to find.” Caleb scanned the crowd, searching for a crimson dress among all the black and blue and gold that filled the space.
“If you’re looking for the person I hope you are, try over there.” Martha gestured toward Sarah, who was sitting on a stool at the bar.
Caleb crossed the room in record time, navigating between the groups of people like a NASCAR driver. When he reached Sarah, he smiled at her, but she didn’t return the gesture. That didn’t bode well, but he was far from ready to give up.
“Do you want to dance?” he asked.
She stirred her drink and shook her head. “Caleb, no one’s dancing here.”
“There’s music. Space out there.” He thumbed back toward the center of the room. “I say that’s all we need. Besides, I set my own rules, remember?”
She arched a brow and nodded toward the reporters hanging on the periphery of the room. “Are you sure you want to give the tabloids more fodder for their issues?”
He put out a hand and waited for her to put her delicate palm in his. She hesitated, then after what seemed an eternity, slid off the stool and put her hand in his. As soon as they touched, a calmness drifted over Caleb, as if he’d been searching for something for weeks, months, years, and he had finally found it. “I don’t care what they write about me. I only care what you write, in your head.”
“I’m not writing anymore, at least not for Behind the Scenes. I quit.”
“Good. You deserve better than that.” He led her to the center of the room, then slipped a hand around her waist. She curved against him perfectly, fitting to the planes of his chest as if she’d been made for him. “I owe you an apology, Sarah. I should have trusted you about the article, and I should have listened when you tried to tell me the truth.”
“I understand why you would have believed I did it. I mean, my name was right there, in black and white.”
“But you were there in Technicolor, and I should have listened to the source, not the tabloid.”
She smiled up at him. “I think you’re learning the news business, Mr. Lewis.”
“As much as you’ve learned the fashion one. Speaking of which, I have a story for you. One that is guaranteed to get the editor of any respected publication—” He put extra emphasis on the word respected. “—drooling.”
“What is it?”
The bluesy music curled around them, and the rest of the people seemed to drop away. Caleb waltzed Sarah to the right, his hand lying easily against her back. “I’ll tell you later. Tonight is just about us.”
“And the five hundred other people here?”
He laughed. “Yeah.” He spun her in a tight, small circle, and she pressed into him on the turn. Desire raced through his veins, and Caleb leaned down to kiss her, but at the last second, Sarah drew back.
“Caleb, what are we doing?”
“Kissing, I hope.”
“I meant with us.”
“We’re dancing and I’m telling you again that I was wrong,” he said. “And you were right.”
“Meaning?”
They sashayed back and forth as the music shifted from the bluesy slow song to one with a little bit faster tempo. “I believed what I wanted to believe about that article because it was easier. Easier than dealing with the ramifications of the truth.”
“Ramifications?”
“If I admitted to myself that you weren’t that evil reporter I’ve always painted you to be, and that you were the wonderful woman that you are, I would have also had to admit that I was afraid to…” He paused, looked down at her sweet lips, and smiled. “…fall in love with you.”
She opened her mouth to respond, then shut it again. Her eyes widened in shock. He liked that he had surprised her into silence.
“And yes, Sarah, I fell in love with you.” He brushed a lock of hair off her face, then let his hand linger along her cheek. Her skin was like satin against his palm. “I think I fell in love with you the first time I talked to you.”
“You…you fell in love?”
He nodded and smiled. She returned the smile, and joy took root in his heart. “You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, Sarah. You’re strong, and independent and you have a way of bringing out the best in me.”
“Just the best?” A grin teased him. “Or the worst, too?”
“Only the best. You expect more out of me,” Caleb said. Another couple stepped out onto the floor beside them, apparently with the same idea of dancing, but he ignored them. He was only aware of Sarah, and the intensity of her eyes when they looked at him. “More than I ever thought I could give. You were right, I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t taking chances. I guess that’s because everything always came easy to me. I breezed through college, got the first job I applied for, never had to worry about money. Never faced anything that I couldn’t tackle.”
“Until you took over LL Designs.”
“Yeah. That shook me. I mean, here I was, this success at everything else I tried and I couldn’t make this work. The one thing that mattered. To me, to my mother, to the employees.”
“You were a fish out of water, that’s all.”
“No, I was a fish who wasn’t being smart about my job. It wasn’t until I looked outside the tank, so to speak, that I found what I needed.”
“What was that?”
“You.” He grinned. “You gave me not just the insight I needed to change the way I thought about the company’s designs, but also exactly the right design for the launch of the shoe line.”
“I did all that?” Her face brightened, and he drew her close again as they turned and dipped. She felt so right in his arms that he couldn’t imagine ever letting her go.
He nodded. “And more. Maybe you should consider working for me.”
“Working for you?” A smile whisked across her features, one that held a tease. “That could get dangerous.”
He trailed a finger along her lips. “That’s what I was hoping.”
“Being together like that, every day, well, some people would call that a relationship. And if I remember right, you were very busy perfecting your bachelor-playboy image.”
“Not anymore. I’m done with that life.” He let out a sigh, and his tone shifted from playful to serious. “For a long time, I used those places to escape. To forget how I was screwing up the one thing that mattered to my mother. I was caught in this limbo, unable to make the right decision where she was concerned, unable to save the business. How could I possibly think I could handle a relationship?” He swung her around the other couple who had started dancing beside them. Sarah was light in his arms, her steps easily matching his, as if she were reading his mind. “So I dated people that required nothing out of me. And I got the same in return.”
“Nothing.”
He nodded, then smiled down at her. “Until I met you. You gave me so much, Sarah, not just in the last two weeks, but in the moment when I needed you most. You were there, and it meant so much more than I can tell you. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She leaned against him, her head resting on his chest. He inhaled the light floral scent of her shampoo and knew he would never forget this moment. This dance. “You did the same for me. You forced me to realize that I could talk all I wanted to about living my own life, but until I actually put on the shoes and walked the walk, I wasn’t leaving that rut.”
“And you do wear those shoes well.”
A flush filled her cheeks and she looked up, shooting him a coy smile. “Why thank you, Mr. Lewis.”
“Oh, we’re back to that, are we?” He leaned in closer to her. “Well, if that’s the case, then I think I’d better remind you of my name.” He kissed her, deeply, thoroughly, not caring if the entire room was watching them. From far off, he heard the click of cameras. Didn’t matter. Nothing was keeping him from this woman, not anymore.
When he drew back, she exhaled a long breath. Desire shimmered in her eyes, and beneath his palm, he felt her pulse race. “Wow. That was amazing, Caleb.”
He grinned. “See? I knew I’d be able to refresh your memory.”
“Oh, you did, and you did a lot more than that.”
“Like what?”
Her smile returned, and reached into her eyes. “You aren’t the only one who fell in love.”
Joy burst in his heart like fireworks. Had she really said that? He felt like a teenager again, with the same rush of a first love. Maybe, after all, Sarah was his first true love. Because he couldn’t remember ever feeling this way about anyone else. “You love me?”
She nodded, the smile he knew as well as his own filling her face. “I do.”
“Oh, God, Sarah, I love you, too.” He drew her against him and stopped dancing. Instead, just holding her. Long and tight. Drawing in the scent of her, the feel of her body against his, wanting to preserve this moment forever. “And I don’t want to spend another day without you. Marry me, Sarah.”
She drew back, her eyes wide. “Marry you? But…but we barely know each other.”
“True. We have worked together a lot over the last couple of weeks, but this is our first official date, after all.”
“And we should date a lot before we do something like get engaged.”
“We should.” He grinned. “So, what are you doing in an hour?”
She laughed. “Nothing.”
“Great. Then let’s go on our second date in an hour. And another hour later, our third. And keep going like that until we end up in a church.” He tipped her chin until her mouth was just below his. Heat filled the space between them, and desire coiled tight in his gut. “Because I am never letting you go, Sarah Griffin. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me and all I want to do is marry you.”
“That’s crazy. It’s—”
“A total step out of our comfort zones.” He waved down at the floor, at his shiny dress shoes and her brand-new, designed-entirely-by-her stilettos. “At least we’re wearing the right shoes for doing that.”
She laughed, then pressed herself against him. She curved into his arms as if she had been made for just that spot, and held him tight. “Oh, Caleb, we don’t need the shoes at all,” she said softly, “we just need each other.”