.
hour after they’d left, Jenna sat alone in her ransacked apartment, nervous and depressed. Her laptop and all her files had indeed been stolen. She didn’t allow herself to think about the years of work that were now gone. Instead, she focused on the mess. She wandered around and around the small space surveying her once orderly surroundings.
And strangely, her thoughts kept going back to Travis Roth. His offer wasn’t sounding so outrageous, now that her normal life had suddenly turned into a bad dream she wanted to wake from. As if she hadn’t been scared enough before, now she knew for absolute sure that someone didn’t want her writing the beauty-pageant exposé.
Jenna twirled a strand of hair between her fingers in a nervous habit she’d engaged in since childhood. Any minute now, she figured her eye would start twitching, and then some outrageous behavior wouldn’t be far behind.
Her entire life, she’d always relieved tension by doing something wild. In elementary school, there’d been that incident with Mrs. Joliet’s desk chair right before the big Little Miss Twin America finals. In junior high, there had been the liberation of the science-class rats after her mother had filed for divorce from her father. In high school, there’d been the time she’d cut class and gone cruising with the biggest badass hunk in school, right before refusing to ever do another beauty pageant.
Later, she’d discovered a little fun in bed had the same effect. Preferably, outrageous fun in bed. And here she was with the greatest need for a tension reliever she’d ever had, and no boyfriend or even the prospect of one in sight.
Jenna sank onto her bed, fighting back the big melodramatic sob that threatened to escape her throat.
Not now, not when she had to think.
Two weeks and twenty-five thousand dollars. She’d get to leave town, forget about her own mess of a life for a little while. Maybe that would give the police enough time to catch the scumbag who’d just trashed her apartment. Or maybe not.
But she’d get to leave town. Even if it meant impersonating her sister, perpetrating a fraud, it was an offer she couldn’t turn down now.
And maybe the offer had advantages she hadn’t even considered yet. She envisioned Travis Roth in all his tall, blond, broad-shouldered, suntanned glory. Maybe a few weeks in close proximity to him was just what she needed…and maybe a little negotiating was called for.
She smiled, and an outrageous impulse came bubbling up from her subconscious.
Negotiations, yes.
Something to take her mind off her worries. Something to remind her that she was still Jenna, still in control of her own destiny.
Something wild.
Yes.
A calm settled over her for the first time since she’d laid eyes on her ransacked apartment, and an idea formed in her head. An outrageous idea, guaranteed to make her forget her problems, sure to dwarf all the other outrageous stunts she’d pulled over the years.
She withdrew Travis’s business card from her pocket and stared at it. After a few moments and a silent prayer, Jenna dialed his number.
TRAVIS HAD DECIDED to drop in on an old college friend at his office downtown before leaving the city. He was just starting the car, wondering what his next step with regard to Jenna should be, when his cell phone rang.
“Travis Roth,” he answered.
“It’s Jenna Calvert. I’ve been thinking about your offer, and I may have changed my mind.”
“So you’re willing to help?”
“Maybe. I have a condition of my own I’d like to discuss, in person.”
“Of course. I’m open to negotiating.”
“I’d like you to come here to my apartment and pick me up, if you don’t mind.” She sounded almost…scared. And far less sure of herself than she had a few hours earlier.
“Is something wrong? You sound upset.”
She expelled a strained laugh. “You’ll see when you get here.”
“I’m just leaving downtown, so I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes if traffic is light.”
Travis pressed the end call button on his phone with no small sense of satisfaction. Mission accomplished. Now there was some hope of saving the wedding from ruin, once they’d overcome the next big obstacle—transforming Jenna into an exact copy of her polished, elegant sister.
No matter how daunting the task, it had to be done, and quickly—without any more getting distracted by sexual attraction. Travis drove back to Jenna’s apartment reviewing the necessary steps in his head and trying damn hard not to be thrilled at the thought of a weekend alone with the redheaded vixen.
Before they returned to Carmel, he’d be taking her to a house among the vineyards of Napa Valley, where he’d have the privacy to school Jenna on Kathryn’s life without raising any eyebrows. But for the life of him, he couldn’t stop the images of other things they might do alone at the country estate from invading his thoughts.
There was the matter of the condition Jenna mentioned placing on helping him, but whatever it was, he couldn’t imagine it being much of a problem. More money? He’d pay it. A new car? Consider it done. A nicer apartment? She clearly had the need for one.
The central San Francisco neighborhood where Jenna lived was an urban jungle of decrepit Victorians, tenement apartment buildings and seedy business fronts. The people who walked the streets weren’t the sort who hung out at wine-tasting parties or attended charity art auctions. Rather, many looked as though their favorite forms of entertainment might get them arrested.
Travis questioned his own sanity when he found a spot on the street for the second time that day and maneuvered his Mercedes into it. His car had gathered plenty of looks as he’d driven along, and now he’d be lucky if it were still here when he returned. He activated the security system and hoped there weren’t any smart car thieves around.
The door of Jenna’s building was propped open with a brick, so he went inside and climbed the stairs to her apartment. After knocking on the door, he took time to note the peeling paint on the door frame, the worn hardwood floors, the dingy walls. Jenna’s landlord needed to do some building maintenance, that was for sure.
After several minutes, there was still no answer, and Travis fought the sneaking feeling of panic in his gut that Jenna had changed her mind. He knocked again and waited some more. No one came.
He tried knocking harder, then heard a door open on the floor above.
“You trying to get in to see that red-haired girl?” A woman’s voice called down.
Travis looked up the stairs toward the source of that voice, but all he could see was the landing, lit by what must have been a twenty-five-watt bulb.
“Um, yes,” he said.
Then came the sound of footsteps, and the sight of fuzzy pink house slippers descending the stairs. Next came a red satin robe, and finally he had a full view of a small elderly woman with green curlers in her hair.
“She told me to let you in,” she said, eyeing him with interest. “I’m supposed to ask what your name is.”
“Travis Roth.”
“Yep, you fit the description.”
“Did she have somewhere to go?”
“Don’t ask me what that crazy girl’s up to.” She put a key in the door, unlocked it, then presented the key to him.
“I’m supposed to give this to you so’s you can return it to her.”
Travis took the key, then stared at it in his palm, dumbfounded.
“You get finished with her,” the woman said, “and I’m available right upstairs.” She waggled her eyebrows at him and flashed