She turned back to face him, her eyes shooting bolts of lightening at him. “You can stop creating scenes for them to photograph,” she said, exasperated with the man and the situation.
Gus smiled slightly before replying, “I hate to say this, for fear of your wrath, but you’re participating in the recent photos. It wasn’t just me.”
She didn’t want to hear that. She knew she’d participated but he didn’t need to point that out. If he wasn’t around, she’d never have lost control of the situation. Was he deliberately being obtuse? “You don’t get it, do you?”
“I get it. I’m just not sure what you’re getting,” he said, but she didn’t hear him.
She was still pacing around the patio, her hands clenching and unclenching in her frustration. “I’ll figure something out. We need to come up with a story as to what we were actually doing in the picture.”
Gus hid his smile behind the coffee cup. He liked the way she pushed her hand through her hair when she was frustrated. He really liked her hair. He’d always thought blonds were supposed to have thin hair. But Alana’s was thick and full of body. It curled gently just above her shoulders, framing her heart-shaped face and enhancing her sparkling blue eyes. He hadn’t had a chance to touch it yet since it had been piled up on top of her head on both occasions he’d gotten close enough. But soon, he promised himself. Soon, he’d touch her hair and find out if it was a soft and silky to the touch as it looked.
“Do you have any ideas?” she asked, biting her thumbnail delicately.
“I have several,” Gus replied, his eyes roaming her neckline.
“What?” she asked, turning to face him.
Alana noticed his look and her face instantly turned red. “You’re not thinking about a resolution to the picture, are you?” she demanded.
“Sure, I am,” he countered. He sighed heavily as he stood up, putting his coffee cup onto the table. He walked over to where she was standing and looked down at her lovely, furious face. “Unfortunately, my resolution to that kiss probably isn’t your resolution. What are we going to do about that?” he asked softly.
“Oh!” she said, and spun around on her heel. Alana rushed into the house, ignoring the masculine laughter that followed her.
Alana quickly entered the house and went directly to her room. She locked the door, feeling silly about that action but not willing to risk Gus walking into her room. She showered and changed into a suit, then reviewed her calendar for the day. She had to read the list twice before she could figure out what was actually written. She kept hearing his last words in her mind about how he had a different resolution to their kiss than she did. She knew what he’d meant, unfortunately. Now her mind was picturing the same thing, over and over again. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block the image, but that only made her imagination clearer.
Alana finished getting ready for her day. As soon as she was finished, she peeked her head out of her room, wondering if Gus was still in the house. That was one of the problems with walking away from someone in a huff. She didn’t immediately kick him out so she didn’t know where he was.
“Maria,” she stopped the housekeeper who was carrying some towels up the stairs, “Did that man leave?” she asked.
Maria’s eyes immediately started twinkling with her laughter. “Yes, he left. He has a great laugh.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, he left, but he was laughing the whole way out the door. He chuckled some of the way, but mostly all out laughing at whatever you’d said to him. Why did you run away from him like that? He seems to be very nice. And he obviously likes you,” she said, nodding for emphasis.
Alana sighed. Even her household staff was assuming the wrong ideas. “I don’t think he’s very nice,” she said and turned to hurry down the stairway.
Gus walked into the party and quickly scanned the room. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. He was searching out one individual. He hadn’t seen her all week but not for lack of trying. He’d been to so many functions in the hopes of running into her he was sick of parties and events. He’d even suffered through the opening night of the Opera earlier this week in his efforts to corner her for one more sparring match.
His eyes didn’t see her immediately but he had a good sense that she was here. He didn’t know how he knew it, but there was just a sixth sense that told him to keep his eyes peeled for her. He did another scan of the room, almost missing her since she was so much shorter than the group she was talking to. Once he found her, his shoulders relaxed and he moved to the side of the room so he could just enjoyed watching her for a while.
Alana was grace personified he thought. She moved from one group of guests to another without seeming to work the room. She mingled with the guests, laughing with them and making them feel comfortable. She seemed to have a knack for knowing when a conversation started to lag or when a guest started to feel left out. Whenever that happened, Alana arrived almost magically and regrouped people without them even knowing that she was doing it. She simply took the single person by the arm or engaged them in conversation herself, then pulled others into the discussion.
It was an art, he knew. He’d seen parties die quickly when the conversation wasn’t lively or entertaining or if the guest mix was too awkward. Most people floundered in large group settings. It was the rare hostess who invited the right mix of people and made sure that everyone had a good time.
Alana was a born hostess. He guessed that her father owed much of his business success to parties just like this where the guests were treated like royalty and made to feel as if they were part of a larger family. From experience he knew that more deals were initiated, investigated and finalized in these kinds of settings than at any conference room or office in the world.
Gus watched as several men tried to corner her but she easily sidestepped their efforts. He was about to move in on one man who tried to hold her arm when she started to walk away. But Alana knew exactly how to handle even that situation. She smiled smoothly, took his hand in hers and listened to the man for a few minutes. Then, without him knowing what she was about to do, Alana pulled the man’s hand through her arm and led him in the direction of another woman. Slowly, she got the two of them talking, then quietly slipped away.
It was all done with such finesse that no one was the wiser.