Operation Babe-Magnet: Operation Babe-Magnet / Operation Beauty. Kristin Gabriel

until we’re all done. I want you to experience the full effect.”

      He looked around the living room. “Where’s Kylie?”

      “Still on the phone.” Amy walked over to the clothes rack, once again perusing the choices. “That girl never stops working.”

      He leaned back in his chair, forcing himself to relax. “I’m surprised she told you about the Harry Hanover masquerade. I thought it was supposed to be a big secret.”

      “It is, but Kylie was a little nervous about pulling it off and needed someone to talk to about it. She knows she can trust me.”

      Dexter wondered if there was anyone in his life he’d trust that much. He loved his brother, but Sam always seemed too laid back to take life’s problems seriously. There was always his grandfather, whom he trusted implicitly. But Dexter had always been so determined to prove he could handle any situation that he’d never allowed his grandfather see any of his fears or insecurities. Besides, the key to being an effective business owner was maintaining complete control at all times.

      “How do you feel about silk?” Amy asked, pulling out an orange shirt with long puffy sleeves and draping it over the dressmaker’s dummy standing in the corner.

      “I’ll sleep on silk, but I won’t wear it.”

      She frowned. “You know, you could be a little more cooperative. Kylie is paying for all of this and she could use a few breaks.”

      “She seems fine to me.”

      “Of course, she’s fine. Nothing can bring that girl down. And believe me, she has had plenty of reason to start popping anti-depressants.”

      “Like what?” he asked, surprised by this revelation. He would have guessed a woman with Kylie’s vivacity had lived a life full of sunshine and roses.

      “Well, for one thing, she gave up a great job in Hollywood a year ago so she could come home and take care of her brother.”

      “Was he sick?”

      Amy nodded. “Hodgkin’s disease. It looks like he’ll make a full recovery, but it was scary there for a while. And now that Kylie’s nursed her little brother back to health she’s determined to do the same for his business. Handy Press has been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for years. So instead of going back to work for her famous clients, she’s staying in Pittsburgh and working for peanuts until Handy Press is in the black.”

      “Famous clients?” Dexter asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

      “I’m not supposed to name names, but one of her clients was just chosen as People magazine’s Sexiest Man of the Year. And he thinks the world of Kylie.” She dropped her voice a notch. “Both professionally and personally, if you know what I mean.”

      He nodded. Dexter didn’t have time to read People magazine but he’d seen enough pictures of Hollywood hotshots to imagine the type of man who had hired Kylie. The kind of man who dazzled all the women. The kind of man who was the complete opposite of Dexter Dependable Kane.

      “Actually, Kylie and I met in Hollywood,” Amy continued. “I was doing makeup for a movie of the week and she was on the set to lend moral support to one of her clients. He was her high school sweetheart and she’d followed him to California and helped arrange his big break. He repaid her by breaking her heart. But he kept her on as his publicist.”

      “He sounds like a real winner.”

      Amy nodded. “She’s better off without him. She’s got good, midwestern integrity along with a wild imagination. That’s one reason she was such a hit with the glitterati. That, combined with her tendency to take risks.”

      “Such as?”

      “Such as volunteering to be the target when one of her clients performed a knife-throwing exhibition on ‘Circus of the Stars.’ Fortunately, Kylie only needed twelve stitches when it was over. Then there was the time she wagered a month’s salary to get her client a part on a television miniseries.”

      “What did she wager?”

      “That the guy would make it to work on time every day. She lost the bet, but her client was a big hit on the show.”

      “Did he ever reimburse her?”

      Amy smiled. “It doesn’t work that way in Hollywood. She’d probably still be there, trying to salvage her heart and her bank account, if her brother hadn’t gotten sick. Kylie would do anything for Evan.”

      At least now he knew why his successful portrayal of Harry Hanover was so important to her. “So that’s what this book tour is all about? Saving her brother’s business?”

      “That’s right,” Amy replied, studying the clothes on the rack.

      He tried to imagine giving up his dream of owning the Kane Corporation. “Sounds like she’s throwing away a great career opportunity for a hopeless cause.”

      “Yeah, you tell her that,” Amy said with a laugh. “Tell her not to breathe, too, while you’re at it.”

      He shrugged, then removed the plastic drape. “I just believe a person should have a good career strategy. Otherwise you end up drifting though life without any purpose.” Like his parents.

      Amy squealed. “I found it!” She pulled an outfit off the rack. “Put it on.”

      He stood up, frowning at the clothes she’d selected. “That’s not really me.”

      “It will be.” She snatched his glasses off his face, then pushed him toward the bathroom. “Change in there, then come out and show us the new Dexter Kane.”

      “Harry Hanover,” he reminded her.

      “Whatever.”

      Ten minutes later, Dexter stepped out of the bathroom, then walked down the hallway to the living room.

      Amy and Kylie sat chatting on the sofa. They both looked up at the same time.

      “Oh, boy,” Amy breathed.

      Kylie just stared up at him with her mouth open.

      Dexter shifted self-consciously on his feet. No doubt he looked ridiculous in this outfit. He’d tried to tell Kylie this makeover wouldn’t work.

      “Don’t move,” Amy said, jumping off the sofa and running toward her bedroom.

      He looked at Kylie, his heart pounding in his chest. “Well?”

      She swallowed. “I don’t know what to say.”

      Her brown eyes looked large and luminous as she stared up at him. He wondered if she ever resented the fact that she’d put her life and career on hold.

      Amy ran back into the living room, camera in hand. “Okay, I’ve got to have a shot of this for my portfolio.”

      The camera flashed, making Dexter blink. “You mean you like this look?”

      “Don’t you?” Kylie and Amy said in unison.

      He shrugged. “The bathroom mirror was too small for me to get a good luck. Besides, you’ve got my glasses, remember? Everything is a little blurry.”

      Amy picked up Dexter’s glasses off the coffee table and handed them to him. He put them on, then Kylie steered him toward the long wall mirror in the dining room.

      “Say hello to the new, improved you,” Amy said.

      Dexter stared in the mirror. His hair looked completely different. Slightly windblown and carefree, as if he’d just hopped off a motorcycle. The black muscle shirt Amy had picked out was just a tad too small, accentuating the broad build of his shoulders. The snug black denim jeans hung low on his narrow waist and hugged his hips, leaving very little to the imagination.

      “It’s amazing,” Kylie breathed, staring at Dexter