Not anymore.

Chapter Thirteen.

Lainie gripped her blouse closed. "I don't know if this is a good idea."

"It's a great idea." Olivia nodded. "Even if I do say so myself."

"But-"

"There is no but." Olivia pushed her hands aside. "You want to attract Everett Parker, and this is the only way to make it happen. I explained it to you before. You need to pique his curiosity. If he thinks he can't figure you out, it'll drive him crazy."

"Or cost me my job," Lainie mumbled, but she let Olivia unb.u.t.ton the rest of her blouse.

"Now put this on." Olivia shoved a bra into her hand and walked out of the dressing room.

Lainie looked at it and sighed. It was very pretty. And white-she could handle white, even if the lace was barely there.

She wondered why Olivia didn't make her put on that red bra from the first time she walked into Romantic Notions. Olivia probably knew red would have been too intimidating.

She took off the practical cotton she always wore, folded it, and placed it on top of her blouse on the chair. With a shake of her head, she hooked the bra up behind her and snaked her arms through the straps.

"Are you decent?"

Before she could answer, Olivia burst into the room. She froze in the doorway, her eyes wide. "You're gorgeous. I can't believe you hide yourself under those boring clothes."

"They're serviceable, not boring."

"You could have any man you want. Why you want Parker, G.o.d knows." Olivia shook her head, her long hair swishing around her shoulders.

Lainie scowled. "Don't talk about your father that way."

Olivia grinned. "You sound like a stepmother already. I draw the line at sweeping out the chimney though."

She felt a violent blush creep up her chest to her ears. "Olivia, I-"

"I'm just teasing, Lainie." Olivia took her hand and turned her around to face the mirror. "Now, let's give your confidence a boost."

Lainie said the first thing that came to her mind. "What have you done to me?"

The smile dissolved from Olivia's lips. "You don't like it?"

She stepped closer to the mirror. It was too much to hope for that she looked like that. The woman in the mirror looked luscious.

"Listen, this was just an idea. If you don't like it-"

"Not like it?" Lainie touched the pink bow between the lacy cups. "What are you taking about?"

"You do like it." Olivia frowned. So much it frightens you. That's the problem, isn't it? That you're scared?"

"I love my job. This is a gamble. A big one. If I make a move and fail, I'll lose the one thing the gives my life meaning. But if I don't try, I'll be alone forever. Of course I'm scared."

Olivia took her hand and held it tightly. "If he can't see how wonderful you are, he doesn't deserve you, you know."

Lainie looked up at Olivia. "You think so?"

"I may not have known you long, but I'm never wrong about these things." She patted Lainie's shoulder. "Now, stop worrying. We have a seduction to plot."

Lainie smiled. "I don't know what I did to earn your friendship but, no matter what happens, you can count on me forever."

She looked away, her eyes suspiciously bright. Then she cleared her throat and held the blouse out. "So we want to be subtle, remember? A sudden metamorphosis will be too blatant to attract a man like Everett Parker. So we need to take small steps-a change here, a change there." Olivia gave her a Machiavellian grin. "It'll drive him crazy. He'll wonder if he never noticed you before, and that'll drive him even more insane, because my father doesn't miss anything."

Lainie nodded as she slipped back into her blouse. "I don't understand how new underwear is going to make a difference if he's not going to see it."

"Oh, but he is going to see it."

"I don't understand. You just said I had to be subtle. Undressing for him hardly seems subtle."

"Let me explain." Olivia pushed away her hands and b.u.t.toned up the blouse herself. She turned Lainie around to face the mirror again. "There."

Lainie blushed. "I look-"

"Like a s.e.x kitten librarian." Olivia grinned. "Men love that."

Olivia was right. Lainie usually b.u.t.toned her blouses all the way to the top, but now the collar fell open, but not revealing but hinting at a whole lot. She could see the lace of the bra through the white silk of the shirt. She squinted. Was that a hint of nipple?

"This is the first stage of the plan," Olivia said. "You'll tease him for a few days like this. Wear your little suit coats, but leave them unb.u.t.toned. In a few days, we'll tackle your makeup, and then later we'll soften your hairstyle a little. If you don't have him on his knees in a couple weeks, the man is more machine than flesh."

"You really think this will work?" Lainie asked, staring at herself in the mirror.

"Yes."

Lainie turned and grinned. "I think you may be right."

His stare was hot and heavy, and it took all her willpower not to fidget under it. Lainie kept her head lowered to the laptop in front of her, but her attention was completely on the man sitting across the table.

She asked Everett to meet at Grounds for Thought today, Eve's cafe, partly because she loved Eve's cafe and wanted to support her and partly because the thought of being alone with him unnerved her. If she was a wreck, she'd never pull this scheme off.

She sighed silently and nudged her gla.s.ses up. She didn't have to look up to know Everett's gaze on her sharpened. She could feel it piercing through her.

Why wasn't he talking?

Panic clawed at her. What if Olivia's subtle makeover didn't work? What if she was just making a fool of herself? How would she ever be able to face him again if she threw herself at him and he politely declined. Or worse-laughed.

Of all the people she had to fall in love with, why did it have to be her boss? She was such a cliche. She could have been original and fallen for a gaffer.

"For G.o.d's sake, Elaine. What's the matter?"

"Excuse me?"

He gestured in her general direction. "You can barely keep still."

"I'm perfectly fine," she said in her cool, work voice.

"Hmm."

"I was going over the budget and it seems like we're overspending in a couple areas."

"Hmm." His pale green eyes never wavered. One long hand curled around the handle of a coffee mug, the other tapped the tabletop in an insistent, almost impatient rhythm.

Impatient? Everett was never impatient. He could be thinking about any number of things. Just because he was restless didn't mean it had anything to do with her presence. For all she knew, it was the movie, not her choice in underwear.

She needed a test.

Taking a deep breath, she shrugged out of her coat as casually as she could. Draping it on the bench next to her, she pretended to resume working but really peeked at him through her lashes.

He scowled at her.

This had been a bad idea. She reached for her coat to put it back on, but something made her stop and actually look at him.

His eyes were trained on her-right at chest level. Under his tan, he was flushed.

Which made her flushed. The more he stared, the more she swore it felt like a large, tapered hand caressed her. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s grew heavy and taut, which made her more conscious of the unfamiliar feel of lace rubbing her sensitive skin.

Everett mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like a curse.

"What was that?" Lainie asked.

He pushed away from the table. "Pick up a bottle of scotch for me."

"Yes, sir." She opened the Tasks feature on her laptop and typed in Macallan fifty year. "Anything else?"

He looked as if he was about to say something, but he just shook his head. She admired his powerful gait as he left the cafe.

The second door swung shut behind him, Lainie smiled slowly. Maybe Olivia was right. She couldn't wait to launch the next attack.

Chapter Fourteen.

"Remind me again when you're going to give me grandchildren."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "I'm your grandchild, Gran."

Gran glanced up from the potato she was cutting and gave her a look.

Well, it was true. "I don't understand this crusade you've been on for the past six months."

"No crusade." She swept the carrots into the stew pot. "It's just time."

What it was time for was a change in subject. "I don't understand why you have to feed them every night. How much are they paying you to stay here?" She opened the fridge and pulled out salad ingredients.

"It's not work if you're doing it for family."

"Lainie's not family," she pointed out.

"Then why're you helping her?"

Hands on hips, she faced her grandmother. "How do you know about that?"

Gran shot her a disbelieving look.

"Silly me." Olivia wisely shut up and peeled a cuc.u.mber.

"It's a good thing you're doing."

Olivia looked up from the cuc.u.mber. "What?"

"For Lainie." Gran took a small sheath of dried herbs hanging above the counter, sniffed it, and put it back, shaking her head. She picked another one. That one must have been right, because she plucked some leaves and crumbled them into her pot. "Not every daughter would be so understanding to want to see her daddy happy."

"This had nothing to do with him and whether he's happy. Lainie asked for help, and I took pity on her."

Gran harrumphed.

"It's true." She set a carrot on the cutting board and whacked the knife down on it so hard the ends flew off the counter.

"You're more like him than you like to admit. You'll see," Gran predicted. "One day soon, you'll see."

Olivia picked up a head of lettuce. "Okay. Next topic please."

"You've been seeing an awful lot of Michael."

"I have not." She tore the leaves off the lettuce so savagely she could almost hear them scream.

"Not what I've heard."