Celebrity Bachelor. Victoria Pade

and whisper to you now and then—”

      He demonstrated that as he said it, too, and the feel of his warm breath against her skin caused more of those sparks his finger had set off moments before.

      “Or I might touch you a little,” he continued. “Innocently. Like here…”

      He put a hand on her shoulder.

      “Or here…”

      He moved that hand to her arm.

      “Or here…”

      It went to the small of her back…

      And with each split second of contact Cassie found it more difficult to breathe.

      “Nothing big,” he finished. “Just enough to make us look friendly, explain why we’re together a lot, and let Alyssa be just one of the kids around here.”

      Air in, air out, Cassie told herself, consciously breathing and hoping he hadn’t noticed that she had been affected by the whisper and the mock caresses.

      He might have, though, because then he put that breath-stealing hand in his jean pocket and added, “But if it bothers you, we can stick with the status quo. It’s your call.”

      She didn’t want him to know she could be unnerved by anything so small—which was ordinarily not true. She didn’t understand why she had been unnerved by something so small when it had come from him. So without much delay, she said, “No, it’s okay. It’s probably a good idea, even,” she admitted, keeping her fingers crossed that when his pretend attentions didn’t come unexpectedly she would be impervious to them.

      “And actually,” she continued, “the story might help appease my family, too. We’re very close and I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain to them why I needed to concentrate on you this week when they know I planned to duck out of as many Parents’ Week activities as I could to unpack and set up the house.”

      “Great!” Joshua said without further ado, making her think he was accustomed to being granted his wishes and whims, no matter what they were. “Then I feel better about going out into the fray.”

      “So now you are ready to test the disguise?” she asked to be certain.

      “To test the disguise and the cover story, if we can work it in somewhere,” he reminded.

      He took a step backward and motioned with one arm for her to take the lead, clearly intending to stay as much in the background as possible right from the get-go.

      Even though she had no idea what he’d been referring to when he’d mentioned something rocking both Alyssa and himself, Cassie assumed it had left him serious about blending in. She accepted the role of decoy and left the auditorium with him following close behind.

      The lobby was considerably less spacious and with everyone there now, it made for cramped quarters. Still, Alyssa must have been watching for her brother because not long after Cassie and Joshua got there, his sister found them and urged them through the crowd to meet the students and parents she’d been sitting with.

      Cassie noted that Joshua was introduced as Joshua Johansen and she watched for signs of recognition in the faces of the other people. But there wasn’t a single indication that any of them doubted Joshua was who he’d been presented as.

      That proved to be the case through the entire meet-and-greet and Cassie hoped for his and Alyssa’s sake that that had set the course for the remainder of the week, as well.

      After about an hour and a half people began to drift out, ending the opening of Parents’ Week. Alyssa announced that she needed to read three chapters of biology for her next day’s class and when Joshua encouraged her to go back to the dorm to do that, she bid her brother good-night.

      Which once more left Cassie alone with Joshua Cantrell.

      It wasn’t quite nine o’clock by then—not late by big city standards but not early by Northbridge standards, either, so Cassie debated whether to simply usher Joshua to the chancellor’s cottage or offer to extend the evening.

      In the end, she decided to leave it to him.

      “Would you like to get back to the cottage or—”

      “Or,” he said, jumping at the option before she’d actually given him one.

      “Okay. Northbridge doesn’t have a bustling nightlife but we could take a walking tour of the town.” Which was the only thing she could come up with on the spur of the moment. It might also appease the mayor if he accused her of not doing the promotions he wanted. “How would that be?”

      “I’d like it,” he said. “It seems like a small-town thing to do. Unless I’d be keeping you from someone— I asked Alyssa if she knew if playing diplomatic envoy with me was driving a wedge between you and a husband or a fiancé or a boyfriend, but she didn’t know.”

      He’d asked his sister about her? Cassie thought, mentally stalling on that tidbit. Had he asked only to make sure he wasn’t interfering or because he wanted to know if there was a man in her life?

      Not that it mattered, Cassie told herself.

      And yet it did matter to her a little. Deep down. She couldn’t deny it.

      Was it really possible that he had tried to find out if she was single? That the illustrious Joshua Cantrell, man of the world, escort of ladies extraordinaire, was even curious about whether or not the playing field was open with Cassie?

      Even the possibility—slight though she was sure it was—boosted her ego.

      Still, she tried not to pay too much attention to it and said simply, “You’re not keeping me from anyone, no.”

      “I already know I’m keeping you from something—unpacking—but if I’m not going to have an angry man tracking me down to do me bodily harm, I’ll take you up on that walk.”

      “No, no one will track you down to do bodily harm,” she assured. “There’s no husband, fiancé or boyfriend.”

      Joshua Cantrell’s handsome face erupted into a wide grin that gave a second boost to her ego, because it looked nothing but pleased to hear that. “Then by all means, give me the grand tour.”

      “Tour maybe, I don’t know how grand it will be,” Cassie said, working as they left the building to contain what almost felt like a hint of glee at the lingering notion that this man—of all men—had wondered if she were free.

      And had been happy to learn that she was…

      Chapter Five

      When Cassie and Joshua left the campus, Cassie led them toward the town square that stood between the college to the west and, to the east, the school compound that educated Northbridge’s kindergartners to twelfth graders and offered the town’s only sports field.

      “Wrought-iron pole lamps that look like they came from Victorian England, and a gazebo. Huh,” Joshua mused as he glanced around at the town square’s lighting and the gazebo at its heart. “Do you have band concerts here in the summertime?”

      Was he making fun? She couldn’t be sure. She also couldn’t keep the defensiveness out of her voice when she answered.

      “As a matter of fact, we do. Along with a lot of other activities year-round. The square is one of my favorite parts of Northbridge. I love the big trees and the gazebo— I think it’s beautiful with its redbrick base and the railing and pillars painted white, and that pointy red roof with the cupola. It’s all part of what says home to me.”

      “I wasn’t criticizing,” he told her, apparently having picked up on her defensiveness. “I think your town square is great. I like it, too. It’s quaint.”

      Cassie wasn’t sure if quaint really was a good thing to someone like Joshua Cantrell, but she wasn’t going to take issue with him.

      Instead,