Anything She Wants Read online

  Anything She Wants

  Samantha Lucas

  Chapter One

  He’d seen her before. And it had nothing to do with the fact that he’d been watching her—feeling like a dirty old man in a trench coat—nearly every afternoon for two months.

  It was somewhere else. Some other time. He was sure of it, but he just couldn’t place the elusive memory. She was undoubtedly the most stunningly beautiful woman he’d ever seen, tall and elegant, her voluptuous body toned and fit. With that long wavy blonde hair, she was the type of woman who set every man in the room aflame and didn’t even realize it. You’d think once you’d seen a woman like that you’d never forget it, but still...

  No. He just couldn’t place her.

  Nick sat on the small plastic chair in the courtyard-style eating area, plucking pickles from his sub sandwich and flinging them onto the paper it had come wrapped in. He’d asked the sandwich girl not to put any on; he’d even been mildly aware when she had put them on, but he didn’t say a word. His mind and emotions were already fully engaged. His focus had run ahead a few minutes into the future when the woman he swore was the love of his life would park her silver Mercedes convertible and join her friends at the table near the fountain. A few minutes into the future when he would sit some distance away and simply watch, nearly pining.

  That was why he had said nothing about the pickles and was now forcefully pulling them off his sandwich, one eye on the pickles and one on the girl. He was being ridiculous, really. He knew that, but never had a woman had such an effect on him. Never had a woman so unaccountably drawn his attention and held it. He always had rotten luck with women. Not that enough weren’t interested in him, but he was very rarely interested in them.

  It seems so easy for everyone else, so basic. Boy meets girl.

  He smiled, supposing it could be that easy. He bit into the now pickle-less sandwich and hadn’t realized just how hungry he was. Manual labor—he’d found out recently—worked up an appetite. Then his mind started wandering the previous trail unsupervised.

  Boy and girl have sex. Boy and girl break up, leaving each horribly scarred for the next boy or girl to clean up the wounds. Only their own wounds are oozing so badly, they usually can’t see the wounds of their partner and therefore are not able to do a damn thing about them and the cycle just continues and continues.

  He shook his head and drew a long sip of potent caffeine through a straw, subconsciously blaming his friend West for getting him addicted to the stuff. Eating his sandwich without tasting it, he thought again about the women he knew. Due to the family he’d been born into, he never had to look far to find interested women . Many, however, were interested as much in his family name as in him and though they stirred his damnable protective side, rarely did he find a woman who could do more than that. Even more rare was to find a woman who could appreciate his innate sense of chivalry and not feel threatened by it.

  He was a white knight born two hundred years too late.

  Hell, five hundred years.

  Modern independent women—he’d been told often enough—didn’t need a prince charming riding to their rescue. Why couldn’t he ever seem to remember that? With distaste, he flung the renegade pickle he’d just discovered to the paper.

  He supposed it was his parents’ fault, really. They’d raised him to be honorable and good. Not that that was a bad thing, but it was damned irritating at times. Especially back in college, where he’d watched his friends do all manner of things he simply wouldn’t allow himself to partake in. Tossing his wadded napkin to the table, Nick wondered if he’d really missed all that much by being the good boy. It probably wouldn’t matter so much if he didn’t feel so incredibly lonely of late. Maybe that was the only reason he was fixating on her. He hadn’t been back at work two days the first time he saw her.

  His deductive reasoning being what it was, and the fact that the younger girl was wearing a uniform of the ice cream shop there in the plaza, he hoped by hanging out in the courtyard he’d see her again. It had taken him nearly a month to figure out the schedule, but now, four days a week at three in the afternoon the girl in the Mercedes showed up to have lunch with her two friends and Nick always made sure to take his lunch break precisely then so he could be there.

  As he ate lunch alone, none of the activity in the small courtyard registered. He only had eyes for her. He watched her lovingly stoke the dark hair of the other girl at the table. She always made such gestures towards the younger woman. If the younger woman hadn’t always been overtly hanging all over the young man at the table with them, he might have thought the women a couple.

  The summer air was laced with the scent of chlorine from the fountain and suntan lotion from all the SPF-protected bodies. His elbow propped on the table, he rested his chin on the back of his hand, watching the blonde with her friends, wondering if she would be different, could be different from all the others, or if he was cursed to live a life alone. Melodramatic, maybe, but he’d been in a mood for months it seemed, so he allowed the uncharacteristic thought pattern to take root.

  He released a long breath and retrieved a small toy that had just rolled against his shoe, handing it back to the little girl who stood waiting for it. Children were sweet, innocent. He smiled at her. She looked suspiciously at him before running back to her mother.

  Even the small ones don’t appreciate gallantry.

  So what was he supposed to do with all his instincts? That’s who he was, and there would be no changing it. He’d tried plenty, especially for Angie, but it never took. He wasn’t a modern man, he knew it. His grandmother called him old fashioned, Angie called him a cave man. Maybe he was, but he couldn’t help the fact that he loved the whole white-picket-fence-bare-foot-and-pregnant scenario, not to mention how enamored he was by the smell of fresh-baked bread.

  It wasn’t that he wanted to chain a woman down and strip her of any identity other than that of being Mrs. Nicholas Gabriel Chilton. He simply yearned for that old-fashioned, homey sort of life that had always been dangled before him since he was a child. He loved holiday traditions, little league games and quiet evenings that turned to passion. At least he thought he would, if he could ever be so fortunate as to stumble onto it.

  Looking again at the goddess perched effortlessly on the back of a metal chair, he laughed at himself. While the spray of the fountain made her skin glisten with its faint kisses, the Southern California sun drenched her with gold, as if to proclaim her royalty.

  This woman stirred up more than just his protective instincts, by far, and she was independence personified. She seemed far too cool, sophisticated and sure of herself to ever be happy in some little bungalow, baking bread. It was probably the reason he hadn’t made any kind of move on her. He was in California to find himself, not heartache.

  Her head tipped back at that moment, accentuating her long, graceful neck. She laughed heartily at something—a sexy, husky-sounding laugh that was honest and full of good humor. His sister was always reading poetry aloud that exalted a woman’s laugh, but he’d never found anything particularly alluring about it, until he heard this woman’s laugh.

  Pathetic as it was, at night—when he was alone in his apartment—he could hear that laugh and thought she must be the happiest person on the planet to be able to laugh with such abandon. She had passion. A passion he craved and could never find himself. How had she found it? What secrets did she know that he didn’t?

  He dropped his chin onto his palm, his elbow propped up on the table again, he wondered what it would feel like to have her stroke his hair with such obvious affection. Maybe as they lay on the sofa together watching TV.

  Idiot!

  He shook his head and took another bite of sa
ndwich trying to ignore her. Although he knew from previous efforts, this would ultimately prove futile, but such fantasies were really not productive either. He’d come to California months ago to find out who he was apart from his family and had been doing well, until he was invited to be the only witness at the secret Vegas nuptials one of his two best friends.

  The romance of the ceremony and the love Matthew and Sasha so obviously shared had been painful for him to watch and only brought to the surface again the deep longing to mate for life with someone the way West and Matthew had both managed to do with their ladies. The way even animals managed to do. Maybe that was the only reason he was fixating on her. He hadn’t been back at work two days the first time he saw her.

  She ran across the courtyard, her arms outstretched towards the younger girl. The younger girl squealed and screeched with delight as if they hadn’t seen one another in fifty years. It was a charming display, one he might not have thought anything of if his arms hadn’t broken out in goose bumps. Something that hadn’t happened to him in eleven years. Not since Freddie...

  • • •

  “I can’t work tomorrow.”

  Keely’s heart dropped. “What do you mean?” She hadn’t been paying a great deal of attention to the conversation anyway, she never really did. She only came in the hopes of seeing him. The dark haired light eyed dream with the muscles who seemed to be the only man on earth to be oblivious to her.

  “Oh don't pout so. I just have a doctor’s appointment. I’ll be back at work the day after.” Clarissa made an exaggerated face at her older sister, then smiled at her. “Your concern for my health is underwhelming.”

  Keely drew her attention back to her sister, “What? Oh! Sorry, honey. Really. So why are you seeing the doctor?”

  Clarissa’s expression beamed. “I’m pregnant!”

  Keely lost her ability to speak. On the one hand she was ecstatic for Clarissa, but on the other hand, the news that her baby sister was going to have a baby, hurt unimaginably. She was twenty-six and wanted a baby more than she wanted her next breath. Clarissa was all of nineteen and though she thought her relationship with Guy was pretty stable—they’d been seeing each other since high school and adored one another—somehow in the grand scheme of things, this just didn’t seem fair.

  “Wow. Mom’s gonna be...”

  Clarissa gave a big smile. “Pissed.”

  Keely, still feeling overwhelmed by the news, stumbled over the word, “Yeah.” Then hugged her baby sister for all she was worth.

  “Well, it’s not like she’s speaking to you anyway, huh?”

  She smiled and looked her sister over, trying to see if she looked different somehow, but she still seemed the same old Rissa.

  She sunk down into the metal chair she’d been perched on the back of in an obvious ploy to be seen, suddenly none of that mattered.

  “I’m going to be an aunt.” She stared without seeing. Another young life looking up to her. She scratched a spot below her left eye with one perfectly manicured finger then turned her attention on Guy. “Wow, you’re gonna be a dad!”

  Guy wrapped his arm around Clarissa’s and the two rested their heads on one another. “Yeah, I know!”

  “Congratulations.”

  She snuck a look out of the corner of her eye at Nick, moping some that she wouldn’t get to see him tomorrow. Clarissa put her hand on her sister’s arm.

  “Don't worry. Day after tomorrow we go back to same as always—we have lunch, you ogle the beefcake.”

  “I don't ogle!”

  Full of resentment, she had a good mind to walk away right then, but first he got up, taking his trash to the receptacle. It was ludicrous of her to spend time nurturing silly fantasies of a life that could never be, but she’d secretly been in love with Nick Chilton for nearly ten years, from the moment she’d first seen him. She didn’t seem to be able to help herself. He did something to her that she’d never felt before. A pull she couldn’t seem to stop and earlier when he’d rescued that child’s toy like a gallant knight, she wanted to swoon.

  God, Keely, how ridiculous is that?

  She wanted to hide her face in shame. No guy wanted to be a woman’s knight these days and she was certain most especially not Nick, not after what Angie had done to him. Her heart seized again at the memory. The look on Nick’s face when he realized his bride wasn’t showing up was permanently etched into her memory.

  “Riiiight. We just sit here every afternoon at three for the cancer rays.” Clarissa raised her palm gesturing towards the sky, then dropped it back on her sister’s arm. “Why don't you just go say hi?”

  Keely felt as if she’d been slapped. Clarissa of all people knew the answer to that. Why would she be so cruel as to suggest it?

  “He works in the Wal-Mart, you know. I could always get his name and number for you.”

  “Clarissa.” She felt the sting of tears welling in her eyes and blinked them away before she stood and removed her keys from her pocket. “I have a fund raiser tonight. You have no idea how time-consuming they are.” She gave her sister’s cheek a kiss and ran her hand over Guy’s head. “Congratulations, you two, and good luck tomorrow.”

  She walked away before the tears could fall without waiting for good-byes from either of them. He’d already gone back to work she supposed, as he had disappeared. She looked towards the doors of the Wal-Mart, just in case, but there was no sign. She climbed into the expensive luxury car, tears now carefully in check, and drove away.

  Chapter Two

  Nick wasn’t sure what he was looking for. That had become the sum of his life recently, but today, more specifically, he wasn’t certain why he’d come to the lavish shopping center.

  Homesick, maybe.

  South Coast Plaza was one of the few places around here that reminded him of home, in a very loose way, but as he roamed the shops, took in the concert in center court put on by local school for the arts, and essentially people watched, he still felt that strange sensation that he’d come here for a purpose.

  He stood, staring into an indoor stream until the water blurred before his eyes. The laughter of children surrounded him as they threw in coins or defied their parents and ran their hands through the crystal clear water. He had to smile at a boy of about ten who was very adept at avoiding the few glances his mother threw over her shoulder at him while she stood talking with another woman.

  Restless.

  That’s what he’d been feeling he guessed. Lost, maybe. Disconnected? He wasn’t sure, but ever since Angie left him standing at the altar, his life didn’t seem to fit anymore. Almost two years later, he had to admit he was glad she had the courage to pull out, but he still felt adrift.

  He told his parents he wanted six months to straighten out his head. He hadn’t told them where he was going, though. They probably assumed he was off sailing somewhere. Instead he’d come across the country to live like normal people. He’d gotten a job, a small apartment, even a dusty old Datsun that sputtered and spewed things from its tailpipe every morning when he started her up, of which his mother and her environmental group would lynch him for if they knew, but the surprise of it all was that he was enjoying himself. His six months were almost up, though, and he didn’t feel any more settled in his own head than he had when he left.

  He had to admit he was enjoying himself, the ocean, the sun, the different buzz that made Southern California, Southern California, he guessed. He’d made a few acquaintances, but nothing more. He uncomfortably rubbed his jaw. No friends. And his two best friends were married now, with babies and that made him an unmistakable third wheel. Or ninth wheel if you counted the kids.

  He dropped his head to an angle, watching a piece of paper float, then sink, under the force of a small waterfall. Maybe it was the lies and secrets he was forced to keep in this new life that made him keep his distance from ordinary people, he wasn’t sure. He’d never been good with lies. It was the main reason he hadn’t followed his father and older b
rothers into politics.

  He loved the helping aspect, the service to one’s community, but hated the... political aspect. The lies, back-stabbing and double-dealing. He’d seen it all and though there was good and bad, the bad bothered him too much to even consider that particular career as a life choice.

  He smiled down at a little girl and handed her two quarters. Her eyes lit up as she threw first one then the other into the streaming water. Here it somehow seemed easy. He drew in a deep breath of recycled air and moved on, stopping to stare in the window of a shop that was displaying crystal and silver wedding gifts.

  Matthew and Sasha were having another ceremony for their families, none of whom knew they’d already been married a couple of months. Maybe he should pop in and look for a gift. He had half a mind to get them a dog and start them on that zoo they were always talking about having. He smiled as he thought of the biggest dog he could and waltzing it up the aisle at their wedding. The smile quickly became full-blown laughter.

  Then he saw her. He was sure it was her, though she looked nothing like he was used to seeing her, but she was the only woman who gave him goose bumps. The woman he saw advancing across the promenade was elegance defined. She wore her long blonde hair tied in a loose knot at her nape. She wore and elegant and obviously expensive sleeveless dress in a rich champagne color that hung straight on her, gliding over her curves and ending just above her knees. She had a strand of pearls on and matching drops in each ear. She looked like one of his sisters or their friends.

  He did a double take and looked closer. Gone were the shredded jeans and the tanks she so often wore and her hair, which usually seemed windblown and wavy to the point of curls, was now stick-straight and utterly confined.

  Who is this woman?

  He was in great fear that his mouth was hanging open and consciously checked it. She disappeared into the Nature Company and he was compelled to follow her. The second he walked over the threshold he could feel all his senses dissolving into warm scented water. The store smelled of sandalwood and jasmine and the sound of running water drew his attention to a display of table fountains by the front door. He guessed that explained the sensation well enough. It was all very soothing despite the crush in the store itself.