The Contract: Sunshine (5 page)

However, wasn’t she a contradiction?  If she didn’t mind giving men favors for gifts, then why did she spurn her date tonight leaving her in this predicament?  Or did she just have some misguided honor about
bonking
preachers?

He put his hand over his mouth rubbing it back and forth catching the warm and sensual scent of
neroli
and
sandlewood
.   It was her scent.  She must have perfumed her wrist as she prepared for her date tonight.  Yoon wondered if the preacher would have gotten lucky and talked her into sex if he had taken the time to seduce her instead of asking outright for it as soon as they finished their meal.

“Wasted time is a luxury for me,” he sighed.  “If you tell me what you really want we can settle this matter; but frankly I would think anything beats the alternative option of you spending the night in jail.”

“It might be better than spending a night with you.”

“Let’s get it straight,” his voice hardened.  “You’re the one that was curious.”

To his delight, her brown face grew flush again.

“It’s bad enough you approached me...” she seemed to flounder for the right words.  “Ah...a woman you don’t know and this late in the evening scaring me half to death--”

Yoon rudely snorted as he tried not to laugh at that one.  Scared my ass he thought.

“You put your hands on me, forcing me to stand here and listen to your threats or risk getting arrested,” she sounded off his list of perceived crimes. 

So far she wasn’t incorrect so he didn’t interrupt.

“When that doesn’t work, you ask for sex and offer a ridiculous amount of money--”

“I did no such thing, Lady!”  He interjected in her tirade because now she was outright lying.  “
You
asked for it; for both and I simply complied with your request.”

“Yet...you didn’t say no,” she reminded, shaking her finger in his face. “You bargain with your money and that sexy...err...that...that body of yours!”

“You think my body is sexy?”

“I didn’t say that,” she dropped her finger from his face and gave him her profile. 

He smiled.  “You did too.”

“Did not,” she huffed.

“Did so.”

“I didn’t mean it.”

“Yeah!  Right!”

“Okay call the cops.”  She stomped her foot and quickly lifted her foot to make sure she hadn’t done any damage to the back of her shoe heel against the stone sidewalk.  “Damn, now you owe me a pair of shoes.    Look at that scratch on my heel.”

“You can throw that in as a tip for me after we have all-night sex and I leave a million dollar check on the bedside table,” his lips turned up at the corners as he crossed his arms across his chest.  “Didn’t I tell you I was worth every dollar?”

It had been awhile since he had so much fun with a woman.

“Ass,” she hissed at him.

Yoon leaned closer as the valets at the stand they were near returned to their post.  For anyone that might take notice of them, the appearance was intimate, but there was nothing intimate about his tone.

“Help me and I will help you,” he necessitated.  “I bet you don’t even have enough money on you to catch a taxi ride home.”

“At this point I will just go back inside the restaurant and explain my situation to the manager.  I will tell him who I am and give him a copy of my driver’s license.  I assure you once he finds out exactly who I am he will allow me to return tomorrow with the money,” the woman replied.

“Really?  Who are you exactly?”

“Sunshine Dupree.”  Her chin lifted a notch and he would have sworn she just declared herself the Queen of Egypt.

“Should that mean something to me?”

“
Dupree
?”  She emphasized, staring at him as if he didn’t have any working brain cells in his head.

He just stared at her.

“
Dupree Foods
?  You know the grocery stores.  There are
six
locations in Washington alone,” she said, holding up six fingers in his face.  She dropped her hands.  “There is even one in Annandale, Virginia in
Korea town
...just ten minutes from here.”

“You’re assuming I frequent Korea town,” he lifted an eyebrow in question.

“I’m
assuming
you at least heard of the place.”  She had the nerve to roll her eyes at him.  “You do live here, don’t you?”

Yoon frowned.  “Yes, to both.”

“Jeez, don’t be so sensitive.”

He let out a hiss of frustration at the time she was wasting.  But he had to ask.  “You’re claiming to be one of the heiresses to the
Dupree Foods
fortune?”  He asked with his deep voice full of disbelief.

“Not
one
of them, but the
only one,
” Sunshine said smugly.

He shook his head as if she were a quack.

If you’re insane, then I’m just plain ole’ crazy...

Yoon laughed.  “You almost had me.”

Sunshine exhaled with exasperation.  “What is with this idiot?”  She muttered, uncaring that he still could hear her.  “I have my driver license to prove it.”

Yoon’s eyes twinkled.  “Your driver license says ‘Sunshine Dupree, Princess...err...Heiress of
Dupree Foods
on it?”

She narrowed her eyes at him.  “Forget it.  You can go and marry that woman you’re trying to ditch for all I care.  I’m going to go and talk to the manager and get this cleared up right away.”  Sunshine marched past him.

“Uh...Sunshine
—
what kind of name is that for a
grocery store
heiress anyway?  Maybe you should change it to
Sunshine Foods
.  That has a
sunny
ring to it.  Oh wait.”  His gaze looked upward as if he was really thinking about it. 

“There is already a
Sunshine Food Store
,” he continued.  “Your family’s competition maybe?  Hmm...did I mention that I am a member of the board of directors at this fine restaurant here?  I bet if I check my holdings, I might have investments in either your alleged grocery stores or your competitors.  You see, that is what I do.  I invest in people, places and things.”

She halted and turned to look at him.  There was a look of incredulous disbelief on her face.  “Are you kidding me?”

“I will make sure the manager does his job by handling this situation in the proper manner that the law affords him.”  A half smile appeared on his lips.  “Even if you are in fact an
heiress
as you claim, you wouldn’t want us to make a difference between the people who have and the people that have not, do you?  I mean, even
I
don’t get a free ride on a meal here.”

“Oh my God!”  She looked heavenward as if she was actually speaking to a higher power.  “What have I done to deserve a day like this one?”

“Just help me and
poof
all of this will go away as if by magic.”

“God, I mean really?  Did you want me to sleep with the preacher?  Is that what this is all about?” Sunshine looked up again.  “Okay I will, just make
this man
go away.”

“Please tell me you’re not hearing an answer,” Yoon commented sarcastically.  His dark head tilted to look up at the Capital’s sky.  He wasn’t quite sure if he was seeing city lights and dark smog blotting out the stars or if the God she was speaking to was about to strike him for the devious misbehavior he has expressed this night.

“God, I’m sorry.  But I’m desperate,” Yoon yelled up to the night sky.

“Young Yoon Min!  What are you doing out here?”  Leslie demanded as she marched over to stand in front of him.  Her sensible low heel pumps clicked klickety and loudly against the brick walk with a resounding echo off the restaurant’s flagstone sidewalk. 

Several of the valet attendants’ heads turned to look at her.   He noticed so did Sunshine Dupree as Leslie sailed pass her as if she wasn’t standing there.

“Go back inside Leslie.  I will be there in a minute,” Yoon said gruffly.  He could feel tension that had eased in his body building again in his shoulders.

Leslie ignored his request and looked up at the sky.  “Who are you speaking to?”  Her pale face flushed with anger.  “Have you gone completely insane?  I have been waiting in there almost twenty minutes for you to return.  They will be closing soon.”

“Please, go back inside.”  He shoved his hands in his trouser pockets to keep hidden the “tell sign” of cracking his thumb knuckles against his forefingers. 

Yoon saw Sunshine’s eyes gaze from one bulging pocket to the other.  Her eyebrows lifting in awareness and he figured she guessed his secret.  No matter how many times he tried to prevent expressing agitation, his was a reflex action that haunted him since his boyhood.

Where is she, Young Yoon?  It’s a lie, isn’t it?  Are you ready to tell me the truth?  You fabricated this fiancée didn’t you?”  Leslie continued in a loud shrilled voice.  “I’m calling your mother right now and confirming one of the wedding dates she gave me.”  She stuck her hand in her walnut Coach Ashley Leather satchel handbag rustling around for her cell phone.  “Damn,” she cursed softly.  “I must have left it on the table in the restaurant.”

“Enough already!”  Yoon’s face was one of open disbelief as he stared at Leslie.  “How many times do I have to tell you I’m marrying someone else?  If you call my mother now, you will make a fool out of yourself when I deny it later!”   

“Do you work here?”  Leslie turned and looked at Sunshine, acknowledging her presence for the first time.  “Go and get my phone from the fourth booth down on the right as you walk through the main entrance.”  She offered up ten dollar bill.  “Make it quick, please.”

Shit
.   Yoon cursed under his breath.

“And leave you here alone with my fiancé to discuss wedding plans?  I...don’t...think...so.”  Sunshine stepped closer to Yoon and slid her arm through the loop of his.

POP!
Went his knuckle. 

Sunshine tugged on his arm until it lifted out of his pocket and as if she had done it a hundred times before, her hand slid along the bottom of his jacket sleeve until he felt her dry cool palm pressed into the sweaty heat of his own palm. 

Easily her soft long fingers with small oval shaped tipped fingernails painted black with exceptions of artfully applied white tips linked between the spaces of his fingers as if they were shaped to just accommodate the shape of her fingers grasped his hand.  It felt oddly surreal.  Yoon wouldn’t dare try to question it or explain it.

The corners of his lips tugged up into a grateful smile as he looked down into her brown eyes.

Leslie’s body stiffened in shock.  “
You
are his fiancée?”

“Honey, this is Leslie Lee,” Yoon interrupted with an introduction.  “Her father and my father were close childhood friends.”

Leslie tilted her head studying Sunshine as if she were something alien.  “You
cannot
possibly be thinking of marrying this woman, Young Yoon,” Leslie finally said after a moment of complete silence.

“Mmm, I have a feeling we aren’t going to be friends, Miss Lee,” Sunshine shook her head.  “Her round tipped short nose was so high in the air with such marked snobbery he was almost starting to believe her story about being an heiress
—
almost
but not quite.

“Actually I imagine us as...friends, Miss Dupree,” Leslie smiled, her tone softened.

He saw Sunshine’s nose drop a notch.  She was as stunned by this sudden about face as he was.

“You do?”  Sunshine asked.

“Of course,” Leslie’s grin grew wider.

“Um,” Sunshine licked her lips.  She glanced up briefly at Yoon as if she was hoping to draw some idea of how to respond.

With his face remaining passive, he felt her nails bite into the back of his hand.  He chomped down on his back teeth to ward off the stinging sensation crawling up his arm.

“That...that would be nice,” Sunshine was saying and returned her smile.  “I guess.”  Her nails eased from his hand.

“We can be friends as long as you give your word that you will stay away from Yoon.”  Leslie crossed her arms over her chest, bracing most her weight on one hip.

“Leslie,” Yoon scowled.  “You have no right to tell Sunshine or any other woman to stay away from me,” he spoke briskly.

“I do have a right,” Leslie countered.  “You are already promised to me and you have been for as long as I can remember.”