Blake Garfield

Bridal shower

CHAPTER ONE

He was staring at her again, the way he had all morning, making her nervous. Donna was beginning to think that he wanted to make her squirm. If it wasn't for the fact that Tom Reynolds was her fiance's best friend, she would have confronted him with what he was doing.

Donna just wished he would stop staring at her. There was something in his long, lingering looks that made her more nervous than she could ever remember being. After all, she was Donna Anderson, the most beautiful and popular girl in her whole graduating class. She was supposed to make men nervous, not the other way around. Obviously this self-centered friend of her husband-to-be hadn't taken a good look at her yet.

Tom didn't seem nervous about her at all, though. If anything, there was something that seemed vaguely mocking about the way he looked at her and talked to her as though she were some kind of child. Her fiance, Ryan Irving, had told her Tom was one of the most successful young executives in the country, that they'd been friends since they were children, and that she should do her best to make a good impression. Donna had tried, but the truth was that she didn't like the tall, dark-eyed man.

Donna wasn't used to things not going well. Her father had been a reasonably successful businessman, so she'd always had enough money for the things she wanted, and, as she grew up, her good looks had opened any door she wanted to go through. People always liked her, and certainly no one made fun of her. Now this cold, smiling man was doing both, and Donna just didn't know what to do.

While Ryan was busy taking care of some last-minute details for the wedding tomorrow, Tom was supposed to take her to the shop that was doing her wedding dress. She'd had some problems with them earlier and Ryan had assured her that Tom could get them to do the job right for her.

Donna had already seen enough of Tom Reynolds to last her a lifetime. He was snide and superior, and he seemed to revel in his rudeness. His first words to her had been to complain about what he called the "fucking frumpy way" she dressed, and he'd been at her ever since, turning everything she said or did against her. She wished she didn't have to go to the dress shop with him.

Tom walked over to her from across the room where he'd been looking at some books. Donna almost cringed at his approach, because she knew it couldn't mean anything good. She was only five-foot-four and he was well over six feet tall, which didn't help the way she felt either. She looked down at the floor as he strode up to stand in front of her.

"Do you know what kind of woman you are?"

Donna looked up at him, startled, not even certain she had heard him correctly. What kind of woman was she? She felt certain that this was some new insult, but she didn't understand what it was supposed to mean.

"What kind of woman am I?" She was aware of a slight trembling in her voice, but she tried to overcome it. If there was one thing that men like Tom Reynolds understood, it was firmness. "I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about, Tom. I know you're a good friend of Ryan's, but, honestly, you've acted very strangely since I've gotten here."