Confidential: Expecting! by Jackie Braun Page A

occasion, she looked so open and uncalculating. No questions to be asked. No agenda.
    Would she ever be that way around him?
    “That’s my college roommate, Vicki.”
    Logan turned at the sound of Mallory’s voice and nearly fumbled his wine at the vision that greeted him. “Roommate?” he managed.
    “Yes. She lives in Chicago, too, and we’ve remained close since graduation. Once a year she talks me into going on some wild adventure. She claims it’s good for me.”
    “I think I like her already.”
    “Last year, it was working a cattle drive. That picture was taken before our first grueling day in the saddle. Hence our smiles.”
    She motioned toward the photograph, but Logan’s gaze was taking in the pale-gold cocktail dress she wore. Cap sleeves showed off a pair of toned arms and a short hem highlighted her killer legs. The flirty jeweled sandals on her feet caught the light and shot off sparks.
    Logan swore he felt some of them land on him.
    “You look amazing.”
    It was no empty compliment he paid. In the amount of time it took most of the women he knew to apply their makeup, Mallory had changed clothes, done something sexy with her hair and added a bit of drama to her eyes. She was pretty before, lovely. She was dangerously gorgeous now, and he wasn’t sure whether he should be grateful or nervous.
    “Thanks.”
    “I’ll be the envy of every man there.” He meant that, too. Her unconventional looks turned heads even when she wasn’t also wearing something sexy.
    Mallory brushed the compliment aside. “Let’s not get carried away.”
    Because he wasn’t a man given to hyperbole, Logan persisted. “You’re gorgeous.”
    “I’m not.” She expelled a breath, not so much exasperated as flustered, which he found interesting, endearing.
    “Who told you that?” he asked.
    Her brows beetled. “No one told me that. I’m notfishing for a compliment here. I’m not ugly. I’d even go so far as to say I’m attractive. But gorgeous? No.”
    “Why?” he countered.
    “I have a mirror.”
    Logan didn’t care for her explanation. Generally speaking, Mallory didn’t suffer from low self-esteem. Hell, he’d never met a more confident, self-possessed woman…when it came to her profession. But someone definitely had made her feel lacking when it came to her appearance. Who? Why? The answers would have to wait. But this couldn’t.
    “Then you must not look in it very often.” He took her by the shoulders and steered her to the foyer, where an oval-shaped one hung on the wall over a small table that was stacked with junk mail. “See?”
    Mallory studied herself for a moment, but then offered a dismissive shrug. “I’ll have to take your word for it.”
    “Will you?”
    This time it was his reflection she surveyed. Logan let his hands slide from her shoulders to her hands, releasing one so he could turn her around.
    “Well?”
    She leaned forward slightly before stepping away. “We’d better get going. We’re already late for your party.”
    “Fashionably so,” he assured her, even though generally speaking Logan was a stickler for punctuality. “A few more minutes won’t hurt.”
    But she shook her head. “I just need to go grab myhandbag and a shawl. You go on ahead. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
    Logan was still standing in the foyer when she returned from her bedroom. After taking the gauzy wrap from her hands and settling it around her shoulders, he took her arm and escorted her downstairs to his waiting car.
    The hotel’s ballroom was crowded with people—entrepreneurs, politicians, celebrities and members of Chicago’s social elite. Some had come out to support a worthy cause. Others had come out to be seen supporting a worthy cause. Mallory recognized many of them, including the alderman who was rumored to be taking bribes from a development firm. Another time she would have been tempted to corner him and ask a few questions to see what she could get him to say on the record.