Blind Attraction (26 page)

God, his brain was pounding. It was so much easier when he was blind and he thought he knew what
Victoria looked like. But that was hardly fair to her; she was an attractive girl without any of the conceits of superficiality. Her image had been haunting him throughout the last several days and he had the strong suspicion that she was going to once again be starring in his dreams when he crashed.

Bathroom first.

The phone rang and after yawning, popping his jaw, he answered, “’Lo?”

“James,”
that eerily familiar voice said. “It’s Taylor.”

“Taylor,” he repeated the name, trying to remember its importance.

“I had the most brilliant idea,” she said, her cheerful voice grating along his last sober nerve. “We can double!”

“Double?” Her voice far too bright for his brandy-soaked brain and he was having a hard time tracking the conversation and it had
only just begun.

“Yeah, with
Victoria and her date.” Taylor’s words floored James

“
Victoria has a date?” It couldn’t be true; he just realized he loved her, how could she be dating someone else? Jealousy reared its ugly head, devouring what remained of his reason, spiraling outwards, consuming any and all logic. He now knew that the brandy was not the wisest choice when dealing with life altering events or when dealing with Victoria, which was basically the same thing.

“Sort of,” Taylor answered evasively.

At the back of his brain, he was aware of something not being quite right but he couldn’t place it; instead he seethed. He had been thinking he knew Victoria so well, but if she was going to go out with another man so soon after claiming she loved him…. If that was the type of game Victoria wanted to play, then so be it. Two could play at this game. Gritting his teeth together, he bit out, “That would be great.”

“Fantastic,” Taylor laughed.

“Fine,” he bit out. “I’ll see you Friday.”

“Seven o’clock sharp, and wear something nice,” Taylor said.

His rational mind tried to sneak out, but the jealous beast raging inside of him was having none of it. He was going to wear an expensive suit and make sure he looked his absolute best; let Victoria see what she was missing out on. “Fine.”

He hung up before she could shred him any more with her words. What was he thinking? Believing that someone, that
Victoria, was different from any of the other girls he dated? Perhaps her innocence was just an act and if it was she was a damn fine actress. She obviously had a very short attention span if she was able to just move onto the next guy.

How dare she make him fall in love with her and have it all just be some sort of sick, twisted game.
Without thinking, he threw his cell phone against the wall, hearing the harsh splintering of plastic and electronics. He knew there was a reason he didn’t get involved with short pixies; they sucked you in with their innocence and warmth and then tore you up inside. At least with the women he dated in the past he knew where he stood; hell, they all knew where they stood. It was what he hated most about what his life had become.

That was why he had fallen hopelessly in love with
Victoria.

*****

Victoria walked out of the bathroom, her wet hair hanging down her back and soaking the cotton nightgown she was wearing. Sitting down, she asked, “Well? What did he say?”

“I didn’t give him a chance to say much of anything,” Taylor grinned, her eyes sparkling deviously. “It’s all set up.”

“Do you think he will mind if I show up on your, uh, date?” she asked, unsure if Taylor’s plan was going to work. If he was truly interested in Taylor, would he want Victoria to be tagging along? And would she really want to be there if that was the case?

“Not at all,” Taylor beamed.
With a squeal, she added, “This is so exciting!”

Having spent
the weekend with a hangover and the entire interminable week with his thoughts, James was already on edge. He was going to be seeing Victoria, up close for the first time, and he was no longer sure what he knew. If things had worked out the way he initially planned he knew he would have met Victoria at some point; would there have been that spark, that
zing
?

That thought kept bringing
him up short; what if he had gotten together with his dream girl and then met Victoria? What if that
zing
smacked him upside his head but he was already with someone else? If things had worked out differently, if he hadn’t lost his sight, would Taylor be sitting there waiting for him as his girlfriend right now? His fiancé? Would he be betrothed to one woman while lusting after another who was completely inappropriate for him?

Taking a deep, sustaining breath, he
walked into
Indulgence
and immediately spotted Taylor at a table for four. She was staring off into space and wasn’t aware of his presence so he took a moment to study her. Wearing a simple beige dress, her pale blond hair framing her heart-shaped face, her makeup flawlessly applied, she was simply breath-taking, the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen, and a few weeks ago she was the woman he thought he was getting to know.

Now, she looked cool and somehow apart from the world around her. She looked lonely and forlorn. Victoria had never been cold; she embraced life and indulged all of her senses, bringing zest into his life when he had so desperately needed it. Hell; he needed that zest long before he lost his sight.

Pulling up a chair, he sat down, startling Taylor out of whatever thoughts she was lost in. She smiled up at him and he had meant to be pleasant, polite, but the first words out of his mouth were, “Where’s Victoria?”

Her smile was a little too knowing as she said, “She had to close up
the shop; she’ll be along soon enough. Ah; her date has just arrived.”

James looked up to see…
Terrance Parker walking towards them. James ground his molars together; he was in the middle of a business deal with the man, a very lucrative business deal. He was going to have to strangle Terrance and tell his partners that they weren’t going to be able to do business with the bastard. As the other man sat down, James scowled, “You’re Victoria’s date?”

Taylor answered for
the traitor, “Yep; It’s sort of a funny story; in school she had the biggest crush on him. She mentioned seeing him a few weeks ago and I thought it would be fun to… re-connect.”

James’s teeth were going to be ground to dust as Taylor made the whole thing sound so damn romantic it made James want to puke
and then go out and beat Terrance to a bloody pulp. But then he remembered Victoria’s hesitation when he wanted to introduce her to Terrance at the party and it all made sense; she was still in love with the idiot. He frowned; she couldn’t still love the punk because she had kissed him, had kissed James, in front of Mr. Sunshine.

That night he had lost himself in those kisses. The memory of her soft lips against his had the chaos raging inside of his soul come to a standstill; she had loved him, even then.

“Of course, Victoria never forgave him for choosing me over her,” Taylor continued, not so subtly.

“Are we still arguing about high school?” Te
rrance asked with an easy grin though his expression was bemused. “That was a lifetime ago; I’m sure she’s gotten over it by now.”

“Of course she has or you wouldn’t be here,
Ter,” Taylor said with a tight smile, nodding her head as if speaking telepathically to the other man.

“Right,”
Terrance said slowly, nodding his head. Glancing at James, he had the sudden feeling that he was going to lose the business contract he was drawing up with TRK Design*Nation. That would be catastrophic. Swallowing past the lump of dread, he asked the seething man, “So, how long have you and Vi been going out?”

Before James could answer that, trying not to slam his fist in the other man’s face for saying
Victoria’s name, the waitress appeared with menus in hand. Taylor held up her hand to stop her from setting them down. “Two Chocolate Orgasms, please; two spoons each.”

James scowled; why did she have to order that particular dessert? Did
Victoria tell her to do that, to let him know that their time together didn’t mean anything? And why the hell was Victoria going out with Terrance Parker? Maybe that was why she had danced so close to him at the party, had kissed him so passionately: to make this clown jealous.

“You have such a cross expression,” Taylor whispered, rubbing her thumb between James’s eyebrows to smooth his forehead. “Whatever are you thinking about?”

“I was just wondering if there was ever a way to truly know someone,” he murmured tersely. Toying with the silverware, he sat in silent contemplation. What if Victoria made him look a fool by acting as if they meant nothing to each other? What if she were truly in love with Terrance Parker? Would he be able to just let her go?

That whole thing about loving someone and letting them go really sucked. It was so much easier to love an idea because there was no real risk involved; it always got so messy, so complicated, when another person was entered into the equation. He stilled; was that his problem?

“With everything that has happened are you worried about seeing Victoria again?” Taylor asked, eerily tapping into his thoughts. He simply looked at her, her exotic eyes taking him in and measuring his worth and finding him on the verge of lacking something very important.

*****

Victoria walked into the restaurant and wordlessly stared at James, a thousand pinpricks of agony coursing through her body. It was harder than she expected to see him with Taylor; they made such a striking couple. They were both so damn beautiful that it almost hurt to look at them. He was just staring at Taylor, completely unaware that Victoria was even there. Silently, she weaved her way through the tables and chairs and sat down in the empty seat between Taylor and Terrance; right across from James.

“
Victoria,” Taylor beamed, leaning over and giving her a hug. “I hope you don’t mind but we already ordered; Chocolate Orgasms all around.”

Victoria
inwardly winced; the dessert she shared with him on their first date. Did he do that on purpose, to prove that Taylor was who he wanted? James so wasn’t the guy she thought he was. Unfortunately, that
zing
was still there, louder and more powerful than ever before. Probably because it was one-sided so it just doubled back in on itself. Forcing herself to act, she put on a plastic smile and murmured, “That’s fine.”

She took her napkin, unfold
ed it and put it on her lap. It was the only thing she could think of that would buy her some time to collect her scattered thoughts. What was James doing? He didn’t even notice her! Why did he have to shove it in her face the fact that he preferred Taylor with her perfect beauty and elegant sophistication? Well, if that was the way he was going to be, then maybe it was just a case of temporary insanity that made her fall in love with him and in a few years, she’d be able to look back on all of this and laugh.

In a few years she and Taylor would get together for drinks and Taylor could tell her all about the life she had with James and Victoria would pretend that she was deliriously happy for her
sister while inside she would grow cold and bitter and resentful until she finally snapped and ran away to a tropical island where she would have a mad, passionate fling with some cabana boy ten years her junior.

“
Victoria,” a warm, familiar voice murmured, snapping her out of her dark and twisted fantasy of a dark and dreadful future.

When she looked up, she was staring at Terrance. How had she forgotten he was there? She just saw him not two seconds before! A
genuine smile cracked her face as she leaned forward from her seat and gave him a hug, “Terrance; what on earth are you doing here?”

“Apparently I’m your date,” Terrance said with a lopsided grin.

“Really? I thought I told Taylor….” She let the sentence trail off; there was no way she was going to admit to James that she wasn’t ready to be dating anyone, especially with him sitting there next to Taylor looking perfectly at ease. But why did Taylor ask Terrance to be her date?