LITMIR.BIZ

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tonight she’d have Ty at her side. Perhaps for that she should thank her father because she couldn’t have made it through the ribbon-cutting without him.

      Ty’s lips twisted with displeasure. “For future reference, I need to let your father know that I prefer to pick up my own dates.”

      Future dates? As in dates her father arranged between them? Or real dates? As in dates that he asked her to go on with him because he wanted to be with her? Better yet, why did she desperately wish tonight was a real date?

      Ty supposed there were advantages to arriving to pick Eleanor up from her apartment in the Aston limo. For instance, he didn’t have to find parking while he ran inside to collect her.

      Although a nice apartment complex, Eleanor didn’t live in the grandiose style of the Aston penthouse. Not that he actually saw the inside of her apartment. The doorman buzzed her and she insisted on meeting him in the lobby. Fine, nothing was going according to how he’d pictured it in his mind.

      He’d look a dork for bringing flowers and handing them to her in the lobby, but so be it because he’d wanted to do this right. Whatever right was.

      The moment his gaze landed on her stepping out of the elevator he felt like a country hick come to the big city and about to meet a glamorous star.

      “Hello, Ellie,” he greeted her in a worshipful whisper.

      Her forehead creased. “I told you not to call me that.”

      “And I agreed to only do so when you stole my breath, darlin’.”

      She reached out, placed her palm near his nostrils. “Still breathing, so don’t let it happen again.”

      But her demand was tempered by the way her eyes had lit up when he’d reminded her of their deal.

      “You are beautiful, by the way,” he added, thinking truer words had never been spoken. She’d clipped her hair up, but much looser than she wore for work. Although her dress was much more demure than the red number she’d worn for the ribbon-cutting, she still looked supersexy in the silky black number clinging to her body.

      “So are you.”

      At her response, Ty glanced down at his tuxedo. A black-and-white penguin suit when he was more comfortable in scrubs or a pair of well-worn jeans. Nothing beautiful about him. But Eleanor was truly gorgeous. She looked as if she should be gracing an ad for a classic movie much as Audrey Hepburn would have or Grace Kelly. Eleanor shamed them both.

      “Nice flowers.” She smiled softly at him when he just stood staring at her.

      Wondering at how his chest tightened at her shy smile, Ty grinned back. “Yeah, darlin’, I think your doorman has a thing for me. He insisted I take these …” he held up the bouquet “… although I’m pretty sure he stole them out of one of the floral arrangements in here.” He held them out toward her. “You better stash them in your apartment to save me from getting in trouble, just in case.”

      She took the flowers, closed her eyes and breathed in their fragrance, then smiled in a way that really put his chest into lockdown. “Thank you, Ty, but you didn’t have to bring me flowers. It’s not as if this is a real date.”

      Not a real date? Hadn’t they already been through this the night they’d gone to dinner?

      “What is it, then?”

      Cheeks pink, her gaze averted. “A deal you and my father arranged.”

      Was that how she saw tonight? As something he and her father had arranged? Did she not want to be with him? He’d thought … Never mind what he’d thought.

      “I still think you should have just asked one of your women to go with you to Texas. You’d have saved yourself a lot of trouble.” She walked over to the front desk, gave the flowers to the smiling older man there, leaned over and kissed his cheek.

      When she returned to where he stood watching, Ty scratched his head. “My women?”

      “One of the women you’ve taken out for real.”

      Enough was enough. “This is real.”

      Not responding, she just smiled as if she was humoring him. She probably was.

      “Come on, darlin’,” he said, not liking the frustration moving through him. He took her hand. “Let’s go get the party started. For real.”

      Eleanor laughed at Ty’s latest corny joke. He’d been telling her silly little jokes all night. If she found herself feeling panicky or uptight, he’d lean over and whisper something totally outlandish in her ear just for her to hear.

      “You’re beautiful.

      “You’re one sexy woman, darlin’.

      “I’m the luckiest man at the fund-raiser because I’m with you.

      “Just in case there’s any doubt, let me remind you. This is a real date.”

      Champagne had been flowing freely at her father’s announcement that he planned to run for another senate term. As if anyone had thought otherwise. Eleanor needed to have stopped drinking prior to her last glass of bubbly because her insides felt a little too warm and cozy. Because Ty’s whispered words were starting to get to her, were starting to make her want to do some whispering back into his ear.

      Things like, “You’re gorgeous, Ty,” and “You’re one sexy man, darling,” and “I’m the luckiest woman at the fund-raiser because I’m with you.” And “I’m so glad this is a real date, because I’d really like you to kiss me before the night is over.”

      “Wow!” he exclaimed, drawing her attention away from her daydreaming. “That’s your sister? The papers don’t do her justice.”

      Ty’s words pulled Eleanor right out of her dreamy euphoria. Here they went. How many times throughout her life had she been interested in someone only to have them meet Brooke and forget she even existed? How many times had she been used as a means to get an introduction to glorious, glamorous Brooke?

      “You want me to introduce you?”

      Her words must have tipped him off, because he shifted, dragged his eyes away from Brooke and looked fully at Eleanor, searching her eyes.

      She didn’t look away, didn’t back down.

      For once she wasn’t going to be all nice about a man who was with her but wanted Brooke instead.

      “Only if you want to, Ellie. Only if you want to.”

      She gritted her teeth. The nickname only served to remind her of the contrast between her and her sister.

      Forever she’d be Jelly Ellie when put next to beauty-queen Brooke.

      “Oh, yes, I want to. Let’s go.” Might as well get it over with. Probably, if the truth be told, an introduction to Brooke had been on his agenda all along. Didn’t he realize all he’d have had to do was mention to the senator that he preferred slender blondes and Cole would have had him taking Brooke to Texas instead?

      Brooke held court in the midst of about twenty people, mostly besotted men. She barely paid any heed to Eleanor joining her. Until her gaze landed on Ty.

      “You brought Dr. Yummy to meet me.” Brooke’s gaze ran suggestively over Ty. “Goody.”

      Goody, indeed. Eleanor wanted to gag. Why was she doing this? She liked Ty. Really liked him. Why was she serving him on a silver platter to her silly, immature sister?

      Better to get it over with now than to get her emotions more entangled and then discover she had just been a means to get to her sister.

      She already knew how that felt.

      “Actually, it’s Dr. Donaldson,” Ty smoothly corrected with an easy smile. He slid his arm around Eleanor’s waist, his hand resting possessively at her lower back. “But as I’m your sister’s date

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