The Bridal Chronicles. Lissa Manley

of the reasons Sonya had dumped him.

      He crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you mean, ‘like me’?”

      “You know.” She waved a hand in the air. “Good-looking. Dimpled. Don’t make me go on.”

      His hackles relaxed and her compliment filled him with a sense of pleasure. “Oh, so you’d rather spend time with an unappealing man without dimples?”

      “Quite frankly, yes.” She ran her hands through her heavily styled, dark red hair, loosening the stiff strands. “I’ve found that most really charismatic men are selfish, manipulative, and—” she shrugged “—hurtful.”

      Ryan instantly wanted to know what selfish jerk had hurt her. But he was pretty sure she wouldn’t share that sort of information with him. She barely knew him. “How about if I promise to behave? Then will you go? Quite frankly, I’m starving.” And he hated that feeling. It reminded him how often he hadn’t had enough to eat during his childhood. Now, eating was his favorite pastime.

      She sighed heavily and crossed her arms over her chest.

      “Look,” he said, taking another tack to convince her to go. “What’s the harm in an innocent lunch? You have to eat, right?”

      She looked at him, an odd worry clearly reflected in her brown eyes. She chewed on her lip, glanced away, then looked back. She then rummaged around in her tote bag. “Can we go somewhere vegetarian?”

      He cringed. He’d been a meat and potatoes man, and whatever else he could get his hands on, after he’d spent his childhood living off nothing but his mom’s stale sandwiches made with a layer of peanut butter so thin he could barely taste it. “How about a compromise?” he suggested. “I know a place where you can go veggie and I can get a thick steak.”

      She drew out a large pair of dark sunglasses and put them on. “You eat steak? For lunch? That sounds wonderful.”

      He stared quizzically at the shades for a moment. Why was she wearing such big, ugly sunglasses? He then cupped her elbow with his hand, appreciating the softness of her skin. “You don’t look like you need to diet.” Not with a body like that. And it surprised him that she liked the sound of steak. He figured her for a genuine legumes-for-lunch kind of gal.

      “I don’t, but in the interest of keeping my body healthy, I make myself stay away from fatty food,” she said. She pierced him with her dark eyes. “Okay. You’ve talked me into it. Lead the way.”

      “Let me change and we’ll go.” He headed toward the tent where he’d left his street clothes, inordinately happy she’d agreed to go considering this lunch was nothing but an opportunity to convince her to sign the release.

      As he changed out of his tux, a vision of Sonya rose in his brain like a bad dream. Maybe he shouldn’t spend any time with Anna, who he was obviously attracted to.

      He willed away the tiny lump of anxiety taking up residence in his gut. Relax. Lunch with Anna was no big deal. It was for his image and his pet charity, an organization that helped underprivileged kids. Two very good causes he was committed to. Yes, lunch with the delectable Anna was simply a casual meal designed to garner her cooperation.

      Nothing more than that, right?

      Anna followed the waiter through the posh restaurant to their table. She tried to calm her still fluttering nerves. What had possessed her to agree to this lunch?

      Aside from her unacceptable fascination with the handsome man following behind her, his hand burning a hole in the small of her back, of course.

      Actually, she’d agreed to appease her guilt, hoping she could help Ryan come up with another way to acquire the publicity he wanted for his charity. She’d had quite a bit of experience, through her mother, with charitable organizations and fund-raising.

      And it certainly wasn’t a crime to enjoy a necessary meal with an attractive, charming male, something she hadn’t experienced since Giorgio had swept her off her feet.

      A cold shiver slid up her spine. Giorgio had been oh-so-attractive and charming at first, blinding her to his true nature and intentions. Like a total ninny, she’d forgotten all of the other men who’d burned her and she’d fallen for him faster than a bear stock market. She couldn’t let down her guard and make that mistake again.

      Thankfully, this was a simple lunch to discuss Ryan’s charity, not a date. Forcing her thoughts away from Giorgio, she swallowed and tried to focus on her goal—to find another way to help Ryan so he would leave her alone, ensuring her secret identity would be safe.

      She pressed her large straw hat lower on her head and adjusted her sunglasses when every woman they passed turned to watch Ryan walk by. At what she guessed to be well over six feet two inches, he was hard to miss. Especially since his tall, broad body was impeccably presented by the well-cut designer business suit he’d changed into. He moved with an easy, loose-limbed male grace that all women probably found hard to ignore.

      Anna vowed to fly in the face of tradition.

      Ryan was just a guy who had offered to buy her lunch.

      No problem.

      She would simply eat lunch, brainstorm about fund-raising, and that would be the end of their brief association.

      The waiter seated them in a secluded booth at a table draped in white linen, set with lots of crystal and silver gleaming in the muted afternoon sunlight. People dressed in business attire talked in subdued tones and muted strains of Vivaldi floated to her ears.

      The pleasant, earthy scent of cooking meat laced the air. Her mouth watered but she tried to ignore the feeling in favor of maintaining a healthy diet.

      Did Ryan eat at such elegant places often? She usually avoided swanky restaurants because she’d spent too many hours of her youth stuck with the pretensions and dictates of society her father had drilled into her head.

      She could make her own choices now, thank goodness.

      Anna took the menu and opened it, pleased and surprised by the vegetarian selections, then glanced at Ryan. “Aren’t you going to look at the menu?”

      “I already know what I’m having.”

      “Oh. So you come here often?”

      “All the time. Their steaks are the best in town.”

      “You like to eat, don’t you?” she asked, smiling.

      A shadow appeared in his eyes. “Yeah, I do,” he said curtly.

      She drew her brows together, puzzled by his clipped answer, then turned her attention back to the menu. Even though her mouth was still watering over the smell of steak in the air, she suppressed a shudder at what his arteries must look like if he ate red meat all the time.

      She then decided on a pasta and vegetable dish, and looked back at Ryan, who gazed at her with undisguised interest. “What?” she asked, ignoring the thrill that raced through her when he looked at her with his piercing blue eyes.

      He kicked up the corner of his mouth. “I was just wondering why you’re wearing that hat and glasses. They don’t look like your style.”

      She glanced away, then pushed her hair behind her ear beneath her hat. How could she possibly explain her outlandish disguise? The truth was, she couldn’t without giving away her real identity.

      But Ryan had already seen her face, and hadn’t recognized her. Maybe her auburn dye job had thrown him off track. Since their booth was fairly well hidden, perhaps she could dispense with the hat and glasses during lunch to shove Ryan off the subject. “I…uh, well…” She removed her hat and glasses and put them in her straw tote bag. “No reason.” She gave him a brilliant smile.

      He stared at her appreciatively and smiled back, shaking his head as if so say, “Yeah, right.” “Okay, you have your reasons, which you obviously aren’t going to share with me. What I want to know is why you agreed to