Tender Deception by Heather Graham

Author:Heather Graham [Heather Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480408302
Publisher: Open Road
Published: 2013-02-20T20:07:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

IF SHE LIVED TO be one hundred, Vickie decided she would never understand Brant Wicker. After literally abducting her and holding her prisoner—if being swept into a Mercedes and held by a roadside for five minutes could be considered abduction and imprisonment—he spent the rest of the week practically ignoring her. He was polite and cordial, occasionally seeking her out, but no more so than any other cast member.

Confused, Vickie didn’t know what to think. She should be grateful, but she had finally decided to accept carefully whatever the summer had to offer. Mechanisms in her mind warned that she could never really have Brant Wicker for so many reasons that they made her head spin. But just as surely as she knew the limitations, she knew she wanted whatever she could have.

Which was nothing, she began to think as Saturday morning rolled around with no further word from Brant. Nothing but pure torture.

Edward appeared for Mark about a half hour before the scheduled time, grinning at her doorstep and demanding she sit down with him for a cup of coffee to fill him in on the latest at the theater. Grinning in return at her tall, gaunt brother, Vickie affectionately pulled him into the house by a large-boned hand. Edward was gray-eyed and raven-haired like his sister, but none of his mother’s—or more recently his wife’s—efforts had ever put meat on his frame. He was too thin to really be a handsome man, but his eyes were deep with expression and sincerity, and when he smiled, which he often did, his face was lit with the beauty of an innate intelligence and compassion. Life did have its wonderful aspects; a brother like Edward was one of them.

“So who is the star this summer?” Edward demanded as he stirred milk into his coffee and made himself at home at Vickie’s sunny yellow kitchen table.

Vickie glanced at her brother with some surprise and then quickly averted her eyes, pouring herself a cup of coffee. “Haven’t you read the papers?”

“Not in the last few days,” Edward answered regretfully. In the process of turning his hobby and love, tropical fish, into a full-scale business, Edward was often much busier than he would like to be. “So tell me, our man must be a biggie if he’s making all the papers.”

“Brant Wicker,” Vickie told him casually.

Edward let out a long whistle. “That is big stuff! Back to his humble beginnings, huh?”

Vickie shrugged and sipped at her coffee. “He is one man I’d like to meet,” Edward continued. “I’ve always been impressed by him. He had one hell of a service record, you know.”

“Did he?” Vickie inquired politely, wishing she could change the subject without being too obvious.

“Ummm…” Edward began to ramble on about Brant’s past and Vickie suddenly decided to wipe down already sparkling counters while pretending to listen with interest and praying something would happen to halt her brother’s adulation.

Something did happen. The doorbell started to ring.

“Probably Bobby, come to cajole breakfast

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