Page 31 of One Hot Deal

She's uncomfortable riding in this car with me.

I swig a mouthful of champagne.The fizz burns down my throat, and I barely notice the flavor of the expensive beverage.I could buy a small car for the same cost as the champagne I'm currently drinking.Avery will become a wealthy woman in a matter of days, and though I shouldn't care about that, I can't help feeling like my sister won't have time for me anymore once she's married.I won't fit in with her new family.The Parrishes are nice people, but I'm not one of them.

Hugh and Avery seem to realize there's tension between me and Diana, and they do their best to lighten the mood with jokes and funny stories.I've already heard the tale of how Hugh and his best friend Callum nearly ruined their friendship by fighting over a woman, but I let him tell me all over again.Lord Sticky lost that battle.Callum got the girl, and Hugh got himself into major trouble in the aftermath.

Avery recounts how she met Hugh, but I've heard that story too.Diana also knows about that.Hugh slept with a woman who turned out to be a duke's wife and almost lost everything because of that one mistake.Rosalyn Parrish, Hugh's mother, stepped in to help her son by hiring my sister to refurbish Hugh's tarnished reputation.Avery succeeded, of course.She's the best image consultant anyone could hope to hire.

Now Hugh and Avery are getting married.On Saturday.

I sneak a surreptitious peek at Diana.She's smiling at a joke Hugh just told us, though I didn't pay attention to what he said.One thought keeps bouncing around in my brain.Do I have even a snowball's chance in hell of convincing Diana we could be a couple?

We pull over at a gas station, and the happy couple hops out of the limo to go "grab some goodies," as my sister says.Diana and I stay inside the car.

She looks at me.

I look at her.

Then she thrusts the door open and jumps out, racing into the gas station's store.

Do I have a snowball's chance?As Hugh would say, not bloody likely.

Chapter Twelve

Diana

A limousine ride through the countryside should be a relaxing experience, especially when we're drinking champagne during the trip.But sitting so close to Derek erases any relaxation I might have felt.This morning, we had sex in a janitorial closet in the building where we both work.Someone almost caught us.And heaven help me, that incident made me want us to get caught while still in the throes.

Have I become an exhibitionist?Perhaps I've simply been gagging for it after a long dry spell.Yes, that must be the reason I behaved like such a wanton.I still have my ruined knickers in my purse because I hadn't left the building since I arrived to work this morning.

The loo at the petrol station is far from luxurious, but I would've settled for a clean bathroom without amenities.This one is not shiny and clean.I make do, though, and relieve my immediate needs before browsing the snack offerings in the store.I've been ravenous all day, ever since the closet incident, and I crave the sort of foods that I rarely ever eat.But today, I grab every variety of junk food I can find, which requires the clerk behind the counter to fill up three plastic sacks.

By the time I return to the limo, Hugh and Avery are back inside the vehicle.Derek seems to have stayed put while the rest of us took care of whatever we needed to do.I doubt I'd want to know what the randy couple might have gotten up to in the store.

When I start to climb into the vehicle, Derek slides over to the other end of our bench so I won't need to crawl over him in order to sit down.He is a gentleman.And very considerate.An incredible lover too.No, not a lover.He's my donor and only my donor.

I'm getting bloody sick of reminding myself of that fact.

As I lay a hand on the seat, preparing to sit down, my foot slips and I stumble onto the bench, dropping my purse.Its flap falls open, exposing the lacy fabric of my ruined underwear.I snatch it up and awkwardly get in the correct position on the seat while managing to tug my dress back down from where it had ridden up my thigh.

Hugh and Avery are too engrossed in each other to have noticed.

I still have my sacks of snacks hung over my arm.As I set them on the bench beside me, I notice Derek watching me.His amused expression annoys me for some reason.So I hiss under my breath, "What are you smiling about?"

He speaks just as softly."Kept a memento, hey?"

The blasted man thinks it's funny that I have my knickers in my purse.I couldn't very well toss them into the rubbish bin in my office.

"Memento of what?"Avery asks.

Her question stops me for one second too long.

Derek responds first."Diana wanted to keep the champagne cork that you guys let fall onto the floor.It just fell out of her purse."He hands me the cork, though I have no idea why he'd been holding onto it."Here you go.Something to remember today by."

I take the cork.But I know he was referring to when we had sex this morning, not the drive to Sommerleigh.I pray Avery and Hugh believe that story.

By the time we arrive at Sommerleigh House, I've eaten enough junk food to make an elephant nauseous, though it doesn't affect me that way.I love all that fattening, unhealthy, sinfully delicious rubbish.Only Pippa knew about my love for prepackaged snacks—until Derek came into my life.And now Hugh and Avery will learn my secret too.

But my biggest secret is the man sitting at the other end of the car bench.

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