‘Seatbelt would be good.’
He clicked on the belt, pretending to look out of the window.
Unfortunately for him at that moment he saw the reflection of Amy in the glass.
She was digging inside the bag on her knee with one hand, while the other stripped back the bandanna covering her hair. In one smooth movement her head dropped back, her eyes closed, and her fingers combed through her head of boy-short glossy brown layers.
It was the most sensual thing he had seen in a long time, and the fact that it was natural and completely relaxed made it even more remarkable.
The dark brown hair contrasted with Amy’s smooth clear skin, shining in the June sunlight streaming through the car window. She had been at university at the same time as Lucy, he thought, so she had to be late twenties…
Her head flicked up as she laughed about something with Frank, as though they had been mates for years.
Why did he find that so annoying? Frank was free to act as a chauffeur as and when he liked when Jared wasn’t in town—which was the usual case. He couldn’t have spent any more than a week in London in the last six months. Why shouldn’t he drive Lucy and her friends? That was what he had asked him to do, wasn’t it? But why hadn’t Frank mentioned Amy before? And what was the great secret they’d been talking about when she’d hugged him like that?
A police siren sounded to their right, and Jared turned as Amy flicked out her tongue to tantalisingly lick off the smudge of icing at the corner of her mouth.
She noticed him looking her way. Or had she noticed the sudden increase in temperature in the gap between them? Frank should take a look at the air conditioning in this car…
Time for him to take charge.
‘So, how do I get to see this famous wedding plan?’
Amy sighed out loud. ‘That is not going to be easy!’ She turned in her seat before going on. ‘Each of Clarissa’s clients has their own personal file. Everything and anything linked to that particular wedding is inside that pink box. Rule one is that the box should never leave her office, on pain of death. I’m hoping sweet treats will persuade Elspeth to change her mind about that, while she copes with the fall-out from Clarissa’s sudden exit.’
Jared pushed his full lower lip forward and gently inclined his head.
‘Devious. I like it. And I thought the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach!’
‘Oh, it works for ladies too! I suspect we may not be the only ones burning a path to that office to salvage wedding plans. The brides will burn me at the stake for bringing carbs, but their mothers will love it.’
‘Clearly. I can see now where I’ve been going wrong all these years. I should have been buttering up my girlfriends with sugar and cakes.’
‘Definitely.’
Amy glanced out of the window as Frank slowed to a stop. Cars were double and triple-parked down the narrow street outside the wedding planner’s office. Some more abandoned than parked.
‘Here we are. And it looks like I’m going to need that cake. Best stay in the car, boys. This is a dangerous assignment, but someone has to do it. I’m going in.’
Jared stared across Amy to see what could be so dangerous.
They had pulled up outside a row of Victorian terraced houses, once the homes of the middle classes, now used as businesses and hotels all over the city.
This particular house was distinguished from its neighbours by a tasteless pink plaque with the word “Clarissa” in black and gold six-inch-high letters.
And by the cluster of women around the entrance.
Sleek, shiny women. Of all ages. Jostling to get into the house.
The kind of women who were accustomed to the January sales and came supplied with sharp elbows and stiletto heels. And his shin pads were back in New York. This was more than dangerous—this could be lethal!
Jared instinctively touched Amy on the arm as she removed her seatbelt.
‘No way are you giving those ladies extra sugar. You’d never make it back alive.’
Amy collapsed back into the luxurious seat and glared at the increasingly noisy crowd. Several more cars had pulled up behind them, ready to discharge extra troops.
‘You may have a point. Frank? Any ideas?’
‘Retreat to a safe point and come back Monday, when these girls have gone home to complain to their hairdressers?’
‘Not possible.’ Jared interrupted before Amy could reply. ‘Lucy is due to be married in seven days? Monday will not do. You two stay here. I’ll see how far I can get.’
This time it was Amy who grabbed Jared’s arm, as he tugged on the cuffs of his shirt.
‘Hold on, macho hero. Those girls would eat you alive. You do know that it’s always the bloke’s fault, don’t you? This bridegroom who stole Clarissa from them is clearly to blame for the whole thing. You’d have to be pregnant and barefoot to get to the front of that queue!’
Jared sat back and pursed his lips together for a few seconds as he looked at Amy, from her flat comfortable shoes to the top of her head, before nodding slowly.
‘Pregnant and barefoot. Hmm. That’s not a bad idea. It might just work…’
Amy caught the tone in Jared’s voice, and watched as he patted the picnic blanket she was sitting on before speaking.
‘I’m almost frightened to ask,’ she said, watching him closely.
‘Frank? Do you have any cushions in the back?’ Jared asked, totally ignoring her comment.
‘Of course, mate.’
‘Excellent. Miss Edler—I do realise that we have only just met, but we are about to become proud expectant parents. Won’t that be nice?’
She stared at him with wide-eyed horror as she realised what his idea was.
‘You wouldn’t?’
The man sitting next to her simply turned towards her and gave a wide smile, raising his eyebrows.
It was the first time he had smiled since they’d met—and, oh, yes, she could see why any girl in a fifty metre radius would instantly agree to anything he suggested.
Amy closed her eyes. She had promised Lucy she would do everything she could to help with the wedding while her mother recovered from the ’flu.
And of course there was that other reason it had to be a huge success…
This might be the first wedding cake Amy had ever made, but it was not going to be the last. Clarissa had already contacted her about other weddings later in the year, and she knew Lucy had been telling all her London friends. She already had orders for eight more chocolate special cakes—but only if this wedding was the success she desperately wanted for Lucy and Mike.
She needed that business.
She needed her friends to have a wonderful day.
She needed that wedding plan.
Which was why she suddenly heard herself asking, ‘How many cushions? One or two?’
Jared took his time climbing out of one side of the car and making his way around the rear to open the passenger door for Amy, so that she could start her award winning performance.
He made a show of making a slight bow, so she accepted his hand as if she was stepping out in evening dress onto the red carpet at a film premiere. Only on this occasion she was wearing navy check trousers splattered with icing, and a stained extra-large navy T-shirt stretched over two pillows and a picnic blanket. But she was still determined to give the role her all.
It