He laughed. “You are jealous.”
Denials were useless. She sighed. “Would anyone like a free key chain?” she asked the small crowd. “When you squeeze the dolphin his eyes light up.” All of the women with small children jumped at the dolphin key chains. Cooper, still smiling, took his own stack of brochures and went to work on the convention floor. Shortly after, a small flurry of women approached the booth. Wouldn’t they be surprised if they booked cruises for a few weeks later in the season and arrived to find no sign of Cooper?
They stayed busy the rest of the day with a constant stream of potential customers, some of them seriously interested. By the end of the day Allie’s feet were killing her, her throat was sore and her hair was coming loose from its moorings. But the fishing basket was stuffed with entries, which meant lots of names to add to their mailing list, and they’d booked seven reservations for future cruises with deposits paid.
Allie’s cell phone had started ringing, too. Apparently some people who hadn’t actually made it to the booth had looked at the brochure later and had been intrigued enough to ask questions.
When the last of the convention attendees were shuttled out of the building, Allie collapsed into a chair. “Just shoot me now. That was the hardest work I’ve ever done.”
Cooper looked exceedingly pleased with himself. “And just think, tomorrow we get to do it all again.”
“Do you think someone could bring a stretcher to carry me back to the hotel? My shoes are rubbing blisters.”
“I just bought you a whole box of Band-Aids.”
“They’re back at the hotel.”
Cooper, still seemingly full of energy, was packing and straightening up the booth. “I’ll get the car and pick you up at the exit so you don’t have to walk so far.”
“I’d appreciate it.”
“You’ll have a couple of hours to rest and put your feet up before the party.”
Allie sat up straighter. “Party? What party?”
“We’ve been invited to a cocktail party hosted by the Gulf Coast Yacht Club.”
Allie yawned. “You’ll have to go without me. The only thing on my agenda this evening is a long, hot bath and an early bedtime.” She didn’t want to elaborate on exactly why she hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night, because she was kind of hoping Cooper had forgotten about it.
“You have to go,” he said. “The members of this club are exactly the sort of customers we want-very wealthy and already into boats.”
“If they already own boats, why would they want to charter ours? I mean, mine.” She couldn’t believe she’d slipped like that.
“Because we don’t just offer a boat. We provide them with the whole package-the equipment, the bait, the fish-cleaning.”
“So what do you need me for? Clearly you can talk up Remington Charters without my help.”
“Trust me, you need to be there. You’re part of the package.”
“Oh, so you want the men to ogle my breasts while you sell them on the business? Is that it?”
Cooper’s face clouded. “No, Allie, that is not it. You are the best fishing guide in Port Clara, and possibly the whole Texas Gulf Coast. Everybody agrees you can find the fish, you know what bait to use. Yeah, the men like to look at you. But the moment you open your mouth and start talking fishing, they’re mesmerized.
“Maybe it escaped your attention,” he concluded, “but we work well as a team.”
She forced herself to relax. Yes, she had noticed it. He was strong in areas where she was weak, and vice versa. “I’m sure the party would be loads of fun and good for business, but I don’t have anything appropriate to wear to a cocktail party.”
“What about the dress?” His voice went slightly husky, and his eyes grew bright and hot.
“I didn’t bring it.”
“Sure, you did. Go look in your suitcase.”
Chapter Eleven
Cooper had just managed to extricate himself from another uncomfortable phone call from his mother when Allie emerged from her room wearing the halter dress, and he nearly swallowed his tongue. She’d swept her hair up on top of her head, secured with a gold clip, and her makeup was more dramatic than it had been during the day.
“Wow. You look like a dream.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, thanks.”
Okay, so she wasn’t happy that he’d bought the dress despite her veto. She’d get over it. “Has no one ever taught you how to take a compliment? The correct response is, ‘Thank you.’ Perhaps adding, ‘You look nice, too.’”
She seemed to see him for the first time, eyeing him up and down. She cocked her head to one side. “You do look nice. No, nice isn’t the right word. Fantastic. Movie starish. Godlike. But you must be used to hearing that about yourself. I’m not. I know I’m not beautiful, so when you say that I am, it makes me suspicious, that’s all.”
“Suspicious that I want something from you?”
“Exactly.”
He walked slowly toward her, his gaze focused on her full lips. “I do want something from you. But I don’t need to resort to false flattery. You are beautiful, and I refuse to believe no one has told you that before.”
As he drew even closer, her eyes got that deer-in-head-lights look about them. “N-no one I’d trust.”
He pushed her gently against the wall. She tried to evade his kiss, but he held her chin between his fingers and found his mark, kissing her sweet-glossed lips until he had her full attention. She smelled like the hotel bubble bath, which didn’t surprise him since she’d soaked for a good hour after they returned to their suite. The skin of her bare shoulders was smooth as a river stone but a lot softer and warmer.
Allie made a small noise of protest in the back of her throat, and he reluctantly dragged his mouth from hers. “You’re beautiful.”
“I’m not-”
He cut her off with another kiss, this time cupping one breast in his hand. She had the most incredible breasts in the universe. “You’re beautiful,” he said again. “Are you questioning my judgment and taste?”
“But you just-”
“Yes, I want to take you to bed. Do you think I take ugly women to bed?”
That made her laugh. “Probably not as a rule.”
“Okay, then.”
“So looks are the only criteria?” she asked.
“That is another argument entirely, and I’m not prepared to educate you on my dating and bedding criteria. Suffice it to say I want to take you to bed, and not only because you’re beautiful.”
“What other reason is there?” she asked as he kissed her neck.
“It might surprise you to know that I’m attracted to women who have both beauty and brains. And passion. And a sense of humor. If all I cared about was looks, I could have had Candy.”
Allie stiffened in his arms. “It’s not too late.”
“You’re being deliberately obtuse. I want you. Not Candy.”
She put her arm around his neck and stared into his eyes, her moist lips slightly parted, her gaze heavy-lidded. “Then let’s ditch the party.”
“Duty before pleasure, my lovely. But now we have something to look forward to, yes?”
He kissed her one more time, for good measure, and this time she gave as good as she got. He released her only reluctantly. “You might want to touch up your lipstick.”
“You might also.”
THE YACHT CLUB PARTY was on the top floor of one of Houston’s most elegant hotels, complete with crystal chandeliers and roaming, tuxedoed wait staff bearing trays of champagne and caviar hors d’oeuvres. Such events were old hat to Cooper, but not Allie. He enjoyed watching her face as she took it all in, her eyes as wide as a child’s on Christmas morning.
“You might want to close your mouth before the flies get in,” he whispered in her ear. He’d slid an arm around her waist the moment they’d stepped off the elevator and he intended to keep her by his side. If any predatory men at this party thought they could make a meal of Allie, he would be sure they knew she was his.