Mad About Meg, Mari Carr [book recommendations for young adults txt] 📗

Thesound of a door opening behind him, as well as the shocked faces on the threepeople in front of him convinced him that time was up. Turning slowly, he felthis heart skip—despite his panic—at her lovely appearance. She’d donned asimple sundress, the same color as her cornflower blue eyes. Her hair was stilldamp, but she’d left her long, blonde curls loose the way he liked them best.Her face was more made-up then he was used to as she’d added light blue eyeshadow to her usual lipstick and mascara combination. He recognized the specialpains she’d taken and he’d never seen her look more beautiful.

Herfriendly smile kick-started his uneasiness as he could practically hear thewomen behind him sharpening their claws.

“Meg.”He walked quickly to meet her as she approached. “You look beautiful,” hemurmured in her ear as she graced him with a delighted grin. “Come and meetsome of my friends.”

Placinga protective arm around her waist, he turned to face the firing squad, prayingsilently for a reprieve.

“Thisis Seth Rhodes and his lovely wife, Shelly.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Meg shook their hands in herever-friendly, open way and he watched the subtle rising of Shelly’s eyebrowsas she took in every aspect of Meg’s appearance.

“Ofcourse it is.” Shelly’s words were chillingly cold and Meg looked inquisitivelyat him.

IgnoringShelly’s rudeness, he gestured to Tara. “Andthis is Shelly’s younger sister, Tara.” He smiled inwardly as Shelly hissed athis mention of her elder status. Shelly was extremely sensitive to any mentionof age and Rob was pleased to manage his own revenge through the introduction.

“Nice to meet you.” Meg repeated the words warily,obviously wondering what response she would receive from this sister.

“Yes.”Tara looked down her nose at Meg. “Indeed.”Moving closer, Tara managed to insinuateherself between them with an ease that caught him unaware.

“Whata surprise to meet one of Rob’s little—” she paused for effect, before rudelyadding the word, “friends.” She placed a proprietary arm on his and he startedto look at Tara with new eyes. In onesentence, she’d made it perfectly clear she considered Meg to be nothing morethan a whore, insinuating she wasn’t the first and—most likely—wouldn’t be thelast. In the past, he’d felt Tara was as mucha pawn of Shelly’s machinations as he was, but now he wondered who was trulypulling the strings.

Managingto shake off Tara’s possessive hand, he movedback toward Meg, anxious to shield her from the wolves he’d unleashed on her.He was shocked when she took the initiative to grasp his hand in her own. Sheglanced into his eyes with an enigmatic look he couldn’t even begin tointerpret.

“Shame on you, Rob. You should have told me we wereexpecting company. I would have dressed up.”

Robnearly burst into laugher at her imitation of Shelly and Tara’s snottyimperiousness. Winking at her sheer nerve, he replied with as much remorse ashe could muster. “I’m sorry, my dear, but their visit is a complete surprise tome.”

“Yes.”Shelly–obviously miffed at being excluded from their banter–attempted to entertheir conversation. “We knew Robert would be pleased by our unexpected arrival.You see, he is so terribly fond of Tara. Wegrew up together and Robert is forever inviting her to visit.”

Robhad to physically stop himself from growling at Shelly’s bold faced lie, butMeg beat him to the punch. “Oh, I’m not surprised. Of course Robert would havea soft spot for a young woman he must think of as a sister.” Her southernaccent drawled his name in pure country club style and shocked him to his core.

Studyingher face, he suspected he was seeing a truly angry Meg for the first time sinceher run in with George the night of the storm. Her face was flushed and hereyes were shooting sparks all over the room.

Determinedto bring this painful interlude to an end, he turned to face his unwantedguests. “I do hate to cut this reunion short, but as I said earlier—.”

“Ohyes,” Shelly interrupted, “your business meeting. You know, Seth, I’ve just hada thought. It would be terribly impolite of us to leave this lovely young womanalone.” She gestured to Meg and Rob felt his stomach drop to the floor.“Especially not while Robert’s out amassing another fortune. Meg, darling, yousimply must join us for dinner tonight.”

Robstepped forward rapidly. “Actually, Meg and I have dinner plans after mymeeting.”

“Thenfor drinks.” Shelly was as undaunted as ever. “I insist, Robert. You know Iconsider you a brother as well and I’m very interested in getting to know your new—” Shelly also added the insulting pause beforecalling Meg his “friend.”

“Iwould love to join you for drinks.” Meg answered before he could offer asuitable excuse.

“Meg.”He was desperate to stop the disaster unraveling before his eyes.

“Rob,”she said softly. “They’re your friends. And apparently, you have a fortune tomake?”

Hearingthe confused question, he cursed. “Meg.” He pulled her aside, despite therudeness of the gesture. “We need to talk. Please don’t go out with them.” Hecould feel the walls of his lies closing in on him.

“Robert,”Shelly spoke loudly, no longer masking her anger. “I thought you were in ahurry. You must know we’ll take very good care of your friend.”

“I’ma big girl, Rob, and it’s just a drink. I didn’t realize you had a meeting.”

“I–”don’t, he started to say, but the word caught in his throat. “I wish you wouldstay here.”

“Rob,are you embarrassed by me?” As soon as she whispered the question, heunderstood how much Shelly and Tara’s insultshad hurt her.

“Don’tbe silly.”

Tara’s voice came from across the roomand stopped him from adding any other assurances.

“Honestly,Rob. You would think we were a school of piranhas circling around your littlegoldfish. It’s just a drink. We won’t even leave the hotel. We’ll go to the bardownstairs. Come on Meg.” Tara added a twingeof a dare to her words. “We’re all friends here, aren’t we?”

Megpasted on a fake smile and stiffened her spine. “Of course, we are.”

Chapter Ten

Robwatched as Meg followed his oldest friends out of the hotel. The sound of thedoor closing behind them sounded ominously like the last nail being driven intohis coffin. He’d been a fool to let her meet Shelly’s entourage, let aloneleave with them.