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painted by her, Conner found Victoria at last and giving her a peck on the cheek and putting his arm
possessively around her waist he said,
 There you are, dear. I ve been looking everywhere. I want to dance with my gorgeous fiancé.
Victoria, again, resisted rolling her eyes and sighing. Conner was good at this pretending thing. It was
no wonder that he had a different woman on his arm each week with his ability to issue a compliment
to anyone with complete sincerity. Victoria knew this from watching him all night, and in his next
breath he proved her right by looking at the artist Victoria was speaking to and saying,
 Clarissa Wright? Is that you? I didn t recognize you tonight. You look stunning.
The girl giggled and blushed and as annoyed as Victoria had been with him all night she was actually
proud of him at that moment. Clarissa Wright weighed about three hundred pounds. Her hair was
literally chopped into little spikes that stuck out all over her head, and were dyed a bright orange. She
had chosen, for whatever reason, to wear a form-fitting, bright orange dress and not the slightest bit of
make-up on her face, which was unfortunately covered with angry red blemishes. She was a nice girl,
however, and Victoria was sure that from what she knew about how the world worked, she didn t
receive many compliments on her appearance. Conner had just delivered one as sincerely as he
would have to a movie star. From the look on Clarissa s face, it had made her day.
 Will you excuse us, Clarissa? He asked the young girl.  I d like to have this dance with Victoria,
and then I ll be back for the one that I hope you re saving for me?
The young girl giggled again and Conner led Victoria out to the dance floor. He pulled her in close as
they danced, and as she had suspected, he danced like he did everything else, perfectly. It made her
mad. She was once again thinking about the way the world was just automatically swayed towards
certain people for whatever reason. Some people were good looking, some were rich, and some were
talented. In Conner s case, he was everything rolled into one. His talent lay in his ability to make
people believe whatever he wanted them to, especially if that person is female. Victoria promised
herself as he held her against his chest and they glided across the floor that she wasn t going to fall
for any of it. Tonight was a business deal, sort of, and she planned on walking away without any of
the scars that she was sure women who let Conner under their skin ended up with. She glanced up at
his face and he smiled at her. His dark blue eyes sparkled when he smiled, and his lips were so full.
She had a flash back to the other evening when she had visualized him with his lips dark red and
swollen from kissing. She shuddered and told herself to stop it.
 Are you cold? he asked.
 No, why?
 You shivered and look, he said holding out her arm,  You have goose bumps.
Victoria cleared her throat and continued to concentrate on clearing that image from her head. She
was mad at herself, and it made her mad at him too.
 I m fine. She snapped. Conner grinned at her. That made her even angrier.
As the night came to an end, Victoria and Conner circulated the room and said their  Thank you and
 Goodbye s to everyone. Victoria was overwhelmed at how nice people had been to her. She got the
feeling that Clark and Maggie McAlpine had been so revered that the people who loved them had
been disappointed in the way Connor had turned out. Tonight had proved to them somewhat that he
was at least trying to grow up and get serious about things that had mattered deeply to his parents and
things that still mattered to these people. Victoria knew that she had helped with that, and she herself
had a collection of business card from people that she may never have met otherwise.
It had been fun dressing up too. Victoria was so wrapped up in her studio back home that she didn t
get out often, and when she did it certainly wasn t on the arm of a billionaire. Conner most definitely
had his faults, and Victoria had a good time in her head listing them, but she had to hand it to him that
tonight had been a success for them both.
Conner was feeling almost euphoric. He was nervous at first about getting Victoria to go along with
all of this, but she had done great. Their mutual mistrust and dislike of each other had actually played
well for them all evening. Conner had several people ask him how their relationship worked,
considering the fact that they seemed to have a different opinion on just about everything, but most
especially art. He had laughed it off, and Victoria had gone right along with him, saying that was what
added the spark or the passion to their relationship. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]