Seducing the Wolf (41 page)

Taylor gasped. “
What?
No one says no to Boyd Vaughn!”

“Tell that to Kissinger,” Hayden grumbled.

Taylor laughed. “Well, working for the State Department definitely gave Aidan some leverage. When I spoke to him last night, he told me that Condoleezza Rice put in a good word for him. Fortunately, Kissinger remembered meeting Aidan before. He’d also read his previous book, where Aidan gave props to Kissinger for negotiating the Paris Peace Accords during the Vietnam War. So Aidan had all those things working in his favor.”

Hayden sighed. “I’ll definitely have to ask him to hook me up. And speaking of hookups,” she drawled, staring across the room, “what’s up with your brother and Simona? They’re looking
real
cozy together.”

Taylor followed the direction of Hayden’s gaze to where Tru was conversing with their mother’s senior legislative assistant. Simona was a beautiful thirtysomething woman with a stylish pixie cut, rich brown skin and curves galore.

She and Tru stood close together as they laughed and talked quietly. They were completely absorbed in each other, oblivious to everyone around them.

“Is something developing between those two?” Hayden speculated.

“Certainly looks that way.” Taylor smiled. “I can’t remember the last time I saw my brother so into someone.”

“Too bad,” Hayden lamented with a wistful sigh.

Taylor eyed her curiously. “Why?”

Hayden hesitated, biting her lip. “Well…I’ve always had sort of a thing for Tru.”

“
You have?
”

Hayden nodded, blue eyes twinkling. “I think he’s sexy as hell. Is that totally incestuous of me, lusting after my stepbrother?”

Taylor wrinkled her nose. “Incestuous? Not really. Kinda gross? Definitely.”

Hayden laughed.

As she and Taylor watched, Tru leaned down to murmur something in Simona’s ear. When she threw back her head and laughed, Tru eyed her appreciatively, looking like he wanted to press his mouth to her neck and feed on her.

“God, I’d
kill
to have him look at me like that,” Hayden murmured enviously. “Simona is one lucky girl.”

Before Taylor could respond, her father came up beside her. “Can I have a word with you?” he said brusquely.

Hayden divided a wary glance between them. “I think I’ll, ah, go say hello to Nancy Pelosi.”

Taylor nodded stiffly.

Once Hayden was gone, Turner frowned at Taylor. “You’ve been ignoring me all evening.”

She glared at him.

“I don’t know what lies your mother has been telling you—”

Taylor sneered. “How does it feel to hate the sight of your own child so much that you had to send her away?”

The blood drained from her father’s face. He stared at her. “Taylor—”

She shoved past him and started from the parlor. She needed to compose herself, get some fresh air.

Just as she reached the arched doorway, she ran into someone entering the room.

It was Aidan.

“Whoa,” he said with a startled laugh, gripping her arms to steady her. “Where’s the fire?”

“Aidan.” Taylor forced a smile. “You made it.”

“Of course I made it.” He leaned down to kiss her. His lips felt foreign against hers. How long had it been since they’d kissed? A week?

It felt like two lifetimes.

Lifting his head, he smiled down at her, his gray eyes glinting behind his glasses. “Where were you rushing off to?”

“Just getting some fresh air.”

He nodded. “I know how much you hate crowds. Good turnout though, isn’t it?”

“Of course. No one turns down invitations to Elyse Vaughn’s dinner parties.” Taylor smiled wanly. “How’d everything go with Kissinger?”

“Fantastic. I’ll tell you all about it later. But first I’ve got some great news to share.”

“What?”

Aidan beamed, puffing his chest out. “You’re looking at the new ambassador to France.”

Taylor’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

“I’m very serious. Bush just nominated the current ambassador to become assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs. So I’ve been tapped to replace him.”

“Wow!” Taylor exclaimed warmly. “That’s wonderful, Aidan. Congratulations.”

“Thanks, sweetheart. We’ve definitely got some celebrating to do. But first let me go greet your mom and Boyd.” He smoothed down his silk tie, his eyes scanning the crowd. “There they are. Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay,” Taylor murmured.

He glanced back at her. “If you happen to see one of those waiters floating around, grab us both a flute of champagne, will you?”

“Sure.”

Taylor watched as he strode across the room to reach her mother and Boyd, who’d been conversing with Nancy Pelosi and her husband. Aidan joined the group, and spent a few minutes laughing and yukking it up before he pulled Elyse aside for a private word.

Taylor didn’t know how to interpret the furtive look her mother sent her before she nodded and smiled approvingly at Aidan.

As he strutted back across the room, his steps were jaunty and self-assured, his arms swinging at his sides. Watching him, Taylor felt a whisper of foreboding trickle down her spine. When he exchanged a triumphant glance with her father, she had a sudden urge to turn and flee.

When he reached her, she gave him a searching look. “What’s going—”

“May I please have everyone’s attention?” Elyse’s warm, cultured voice rose above the hum of conversation and laughter. When the room grew silent, she smiled beatifically. “I want to thank all of you for coming tonight. I hope everyone is enjoying themselves. I’m pleased to announce that after dinner, my lovely daughter Taylor has graciously agreed to regale us with a few selections from her upcoming album, which is already a resounding hit with critics.”

As the crowd reacted with excited exclamations and applause, Elyse beamed with pleasure. “Before we sit down to dinner, someone here has something special he’d like to ask.” She looked at Aidan. “Floor’s all yours.”

“Thank you, Elyse.”

Taylor’s mouth went dry as she watched Aidan reach into the pocket of his dark gabardine trousers and pull out a small velvet box. As he sank to one knee, a collective gasp went around the room.

He grinned broadly at Taylor. “We’ve been together for over three years. So I’ve been thinking it’s time to make it official.” He opened the box to reveal an elegantly modest diamond ring. “Will you marry me?”

Taylor froze as every eye in the crowd zeroed in on her. Her face burned, and her chest grew so tight she feared she was having one of her old panic attacks.

She looked around at all these people—these elite power brokers who knew nothing about her beyond whose daughter she was. As their faces began to blur together, she managed to isolate the ones whose reactions mattered to her.

Boyd and Hayden were visibly pleased, their eyes twinkling with encouragement.

Tru wore a grim expression, his jaw rigid as stone.

Her mother looked apprehensive.

Her father looked proud and hopeful.

“Taylor?” Aidan was staring expectantly at her. His confident smile was now edged with nervous uncertainty.

“I-I’m sorry.” Taylor’s voice was a choked whisper. “I can’t…I can’t marry you.”

As a ripple of shock swept through the crowd, she turned and hurried down the hall and out the front door.

Aidan found her sitting on a bench at the small park across the street from the brownstone.

She watched as he charged up to her, his face mottled with fury. “Do you mind telling me what the
hell
that was about?”

She flinched. “I’m sorry—”

“You said that already,” he snapped.

She swallowed hard. “I had no idea you were going to propose—”

“
That was the whole fucking point!
To surprise you!
”

“Mission accomplished,” she mumbled.

He paced in front of her, an angry vein throbbing in his temple. “Goddamn it, Taylor. You’ve made me a complete laughingstock!”

She frowned. “Is that all you’re worried about?”

“Of course not!” he roared, rounding so suddenly on her that she jumped.

As she stared up at him, it occurred to her, for the first time in their relationship, that he might actually hit her.

She waited tensely as he glared at her. “Aidan—”

He moved forward, sitting down so hard the bench vibrated beneath them.

“I did this the right way,” he railed bitterly. “I went to your father and asked for his blessing. He assured me that you were ready for marriage. He
promised
me that you’d say yes.”

Taylor bristled. “He had no right to promise you anything.”

Aidan clenched his jaw. “Apparently he doesn’t know his damn daughter as well as he thinks he does,” he grumbled.

“And what about you?” Taylor challenged. “How well do
you
know me?”

He scowled at her. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Taylor shook her head at him. “Did you even hear yourself when you proposed? You didn’t say you loved me. You didn’t say you needed me. You didn’t profess how much you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me. You talked about how long we’d been together as a couple. You made it sound as though getting married was only a matter of course, the next logical step in our relationship.”

“It
is
the next logical step!”

When Taylor gave him a pointed look, an embarrassed flush crawled over his face.

“Okay,” he sullenly conceded. “So maybe it wasn’t the most romantic proposal.”

Taylor sighed. “It was fine, Aidan. It was practical. Perfectly reasonable.”
Like our relationship.

He flapped his arm in a gesture of frustration. “Is that what you want? A romantic proposal with flowers, candlelight and a damn orchestra? A dramatic proposal on top of the Eiffel Tower?”

“That’s not what I’m saying, Aidan. But what would have been so terrible about that?” She paused for a long moment, struck by an old memory. “Do you know what I fantasized about when I was thirteen? When I was a social outcast—a shy nerd with few friends and zero boyfriend prospects? I fantasized about being asked out on a date at the end of a recital. Playing my violin before an audience was the only time I felt truly accepted…admired. It was the only time I felt
special
. So what better way to cap off one of my performances than to have some cute boy strut onto the stage, take my hand and ask me to be his girlfriend?” She gave a soft, self-deprecating laugh and shook her head. “I know it sounds silly. But it made me feel good, got me through many bouts of loneliness.”

Aidan frowned at her. “How the hell was I supposed to know something like that? You’ve never told me that story.”

Her smile was wistful. “You never asked.”

Aidan held her gaze another moment, then scrubbed his hands over his face and pushed out a heavy breath. She could see his mind working, meticulously mapping out next steps as if he were outlining chapters for one of his books.

“We don’t have to get married right away,” he said decisively. “We can have a long engagement. Truth be told, it’s probably best that we postpone the wedding while I transition into my new role as—”

When Taylor gently touched his arm, he looked at her as if he’d temporarily forgotten she was there.

“I don’t want a long engagement,” she whispered.

He frowned. “What are you saying?”

She swallowed tightly. It pained her to hurt him any more than she already had. But she couldn’t continue living a lie. It wasn’t fair to either one of them.

“When I said I couldn’t marry you, I didn’t mean
not now
. I meant
period
.”

Aidan stared at her. “Are you…are you trying to break up with me?”

The word
trying
sent a frisson of unease through her. “This isn’t working anymore, Aidan,” she said very gently.

His gray eyes turned as hard as cold steel. “What isn’t working?”

“Us…our relationship.”

“Really? That’s funny. I thought our relationship was working just fine before I left you in Atlanta.” His eyes narrowed with accusation. “This is about Manning Wolf, isn’t it?”

Heat suffused Taylor’s face, and she glanced away.

“I
knew
it!” Aidan shouted. “I knew I had every reason to be worried about leaving you there. That bastard probably showed up at the hotel the
second
I left!”

A stab of guilt pricked Taylor’s heart. She couldn’t deny a word he’d said. “I’m sorry, Aidan—”

“Stop saying that! You’re not sorry!”

“I am,” she insisted. “I never meant to hurt you. No matter how angry you are right now, you have to know I never set out to hurt or deceive you.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better? Is that supposed to make everything okay?”

She swallowed. “No, but—”

“Did you fuck him?” he spat harshly.

She winced. Lowering her gaze to her lap, she nodded slowly.

“Unbelievable! I was barely even gone a week!” He raked her with a look of scathing contempt. “
Fucking whore!
”

Her head snapped up. “Wait a min—”

“Do you love him?” Aidan demanded.

She stared into his flashing eyes for a prolonged moment.

“Yes,” she finally whispered. “I do love him…I never stopped.”

Aidan’s face contorted with pain and fury. He glared at her until her cheeks burned from the ferocity of his rage. When she opened her mouth to speak, he lunged to his feet as if he needed to put some distance between them before he did something he might later regret.

She watched as he began pacing back and forth in front of the bench. This wasn’t the calm, dignified man she’d been dating for the past three years, the man who rarely lost his temper or raised his voice. This was a wounded animal, a scorned lover.

“I can’t believe this shit is happening,” he ranted. “I just returned from meeting with one of the most powerful political figures in modern history. I’m going to be the next ambassador to France. Do you know how many women would
kill
to be with someone as successful as me?”