What must it be like to grow up in a place like this? She couldn’t begin to imagine. While the house was something out of a movie, she had a feeling it might not have felt very comfortable for a kid. Todd was an only child. This was the kind of house that screamed out for bunches of kids. Had he ever been lonely?

Todd returned with a tiny woman of indeterminate age. He was laden down with armfuls of books and portfolios. She had two baskets with dozens of flowers in them.

“Marina, this is Beatrice. Beatrice, Marina is the bride’s sister.”

“How lovely that the two of you are planning the wedding together,” the other woman said with a smile. She glanced around at the furniture and turned to Todd. “Perhaps some kind of dining room would be better suited?”

“Sure. Right this way.”

“Can I get you something to drink first?” Marina asked.

Beatrice glanced at the cart. “Water, please, dear. Bottled if you have it.”

Marina filled a second glass with ice, grabbed a bottle of water and trailed after them. As they moved from the family room to the dining room, she braced herself to be both impressed and intimidated.

Good thing, too, because the dining room could easily seat thirty, although the table was currently set with only a dozen chairs. Still, by the way it sat in the center of the room and the number of thick legs clustered together, she would guess there were about eight or ten leaves that fit into it.

Two hutches flanked leaded glass windows, while a long buffet sat in the center of the opposite wall. There were four chandeliers and a fireplace.

Todd set the books on the table, while Beatrice began to lay out dozens of flowers.

“I understand the bride and groom have chosen their colors,” she said as she clustered various blooms together. “That’s always helpful. Rose and green will be lovely. However, I have some ideas for something a little different. A twist on the ordinary. For example, here we have dusty-rose colored tulips with green gladiolus. Not traditional, but they look beautiful.”

Marina wasn’t into plants or flowers, but as she knew what tulips looked like, she could figure out the gladiolus by default. The green petals were amazingly lush and the color was perfect next to the deep pink of the tulips.

“They’re gorgeous,” she murmured, then looked at Todd. “What do you think?”

“Nice.”

She smiled. “Too much girly stuff?”

“I’m not into flowers. This seems fine.”

Beatrice pulled out a spiny looking display. “Here we have bromeliad, ginger and anthurium. Again, not traditional, but the colors are perfect and these arrangement could make a charming table.”

She handed Marina a ball of flowers in a yellowish shade of green. “Chrysanthemum balls. Very elegant. This sort of thing can be hung from the back of chairs.” She thrust a handful of green berries at Todd. “Hypericum berries. A perfect green.”

She brought out more and more flowers until Marina couldn’t hold anymore. Todd was equally laden down.

Then Beatrice turned to the books. “I have pictures from various weddings. We’ll look at them now.”

She flipped through dozens of photos, explaining the different flower possibilities.

“You said there would be a separate room for the ceremony?” she asked.

Marina nodded. “There’s a perfect room off the main ballroom. We’ll set it up with rows of seating, so that space will need flowers, as well.”

Beatrice began to talk about what they could do, but suddenly Marina found it difficult to listen. She felt hot and flushed, although at the same time, she felt a chill. Her stomach had taken a turn for the uncomfortable, as well. It seemed to flip over on itself in a way that made her want to gag.

Cautiously she put down the flowers. She’d never been allergic to anything before, but maybe the overdose of pollen was getting to her.

Todd looked at her. “Are you all right?”

Her stomach gave another lurch and she had a bad feeling she was about to throw up.

“Not really,” she said, interrupting Beatrice midex-planation. “Is there a bathroom nearby?”

“Sure.” He put down his armful of flowers. “I’ll be right back,” he told the florist and led Marina out of the room.

Down a very elegant hall she was in no shape to appreciate, was a spacious guest bath.

“It’s my stomach,” she said. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle Beatrice.”

Despite the suddenly twisting sensation in her stomach, she managed a smile. “I don’t think anyone can handle Beatrice, but you go ahead and try.”

“Come out when you feel better.”

“Sure. I’ll probably just be a minute.”

She closed the bathroom door behind her and two seconds later lunged for the toilet.

Marina had no idea how much time had passed. She’d already thrown up twice and had a bad feeling she wasn’t done. She felt shaky and weak, hot and cold, and a distinct longing to never feel this horrible ever again.

She sat on the marble floor, her eyes closed and wondered if she had the strength to drive herself home. The task seemed impossible on a couple of different levels. First, she doubted she could make the trip without vomiting again. Second, she couldn’t seem to focus on anything but how miserable she felt.

There was a knock on the bathroom door.

“Marina?”

She recognized Todd’s voice. Why had this had to happen here of all places? With him around?

“Yeah?”

“How’s your stomach?”

“Awful. I can’t figure out what’s wrong.”

“I can. Food poisoning. All those cream sauces.”

She remembered what they’d eaten and groaned. “You, too?”

“You bet. I got rid of Beatrice. Come on. I’ll take you upstairs to one of the guest rooms. The bathrooms are more comfortable and you can crawl into a bed between events.”

She hesitated for a second, then staggered to her feet. Stretching out on a bed sounded really good right now.

She opened the bathroom door and saw Todd looked about as bad as she felt. He was pale, slightly green and there were shadows under his eyes.

“Aren’t we an attractive couple,” she murmured as he took her hand and pulled her toward the stairs.

“We’ll take a picture. We have to hurry. I don’t know how long I have.”

Despite how sick she felt, she started to laugh. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”

“Tell me about it. At least it’s Friday. You don’t have classes on the weekend, do you?”

“No.”

“Good. Then you can crash here as long as you’d like. There’s a phone in your room if you need to call anyone. There are robes in the closet. I put a couple of my T-shirts on the bed, so you could sleep in something more comfortable than your clothes.”

They reached the second-floor landing. She glanced at him. He’d thought of all that while feeling as horrible as she did? Talk about a great guy. “Thanks. You’re going way beyond what’s expected.”

He put a hand to his stomach. “It’s going to be an ugly few hours. Basically we have to get all the bad food out of our system.”

She didn’t want to think about that. “We should—”

Todd cut her off with a shake of his head. “Third door on your right. T-shirts on the bed. Water on the nightstand.”

He turned and hurried in the opposite direction, ducking into a door at the far end of the hall.

Marina watched him go, then felt a faint rising in her own midsection. She didn’t have much time herself.

She ran into the guest room and found everything as he’d described. There were two clean T-shirts on the bed, three bottles of water on the nightstand and a robe in the closet. But before she could deal with any of that, she ran toward the bathroom and wondered if she could possibly survive the day.

Six

Marina woke up sometime around six Saturday morning. She’d spent quality time in the bathroom until about midnight, then had crawled into bed and slept like the dead. After brushing her teeth with a conveniently placed new toothbrush, she slipped into the fluffy robe and headed out into the vast expanse of Todd’s house to find the kitchen.

Passing through the dining room, still littered with flowers, she made her way toward the rear of the house and walked into a kitchen that could easily satisfy the pickiest chef known to man.

She also found Todd there. He wore sweats, a T-shirt and hadn’t shaved. There was a slight shifting in her stomach, but this one had nothing to do with the food she’d eaten and everything to do with how delicious the man in front of her looked.

“Morning,” she said, doing her best to act normal around the sudden fluttering in her chest. What was wrong with her? This was Todd. A guy she borderline despised. Except she couldn’t. Not really. He’d been just as sick as she had been yesterday, but he’d taken the time to get her settled before spending his evening in his own bathroom.

He looked up and smiled. “Hey. How you feeling?”

“Better. My stomach is so empty I can practically hear coyotes howling. You?”

“I wrapped things up about one in the morning, then crashed. I’m going to make an executive decision here and say no to the cream sauce caterer.”

She laughed. “I won’t fight you on that. I don’t think I’ve ever been that sick.”

He nodded at the kettle on the stove. “At the risk of sounding like a wuss, how about some tea and dry toast? I think that’s about all I can handle this morning.”

“Sounds great. We probably need to hydrate.”

He grinned. “That was a lot of fluids coming out.”

“Tell me about it.” She fingered the robe. “This is nice. Am I the first English speaking female to wear it?”

He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “You were going to let the model thing go.”

“I don’t remember saying that.”

“You should.” He looked her up and down. “It’s for company, not dates. I don’t usually bring women here, remember?”

“But your car is a little small for the wild thing.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You’re mighty curious about my personal life.”

“Men love to talk about themselves.”

“We usually go to her place.”

“I see. That makes it easier to escape when you feel the need and doesn’t push the money thing into their face.”

“Exactly.”

The kettle began to whistle. At the same time, bread popped out of the toaster.

“Dishes?” she asked.

He pointed to a row of cabinets. It only took her two tries to find small plates. She put the toast on a plate and popped in two more slices, while Todd poured water into a teapot. She glanced over his shoulder and saw fresh tea leaves in a little basket.

“Very fancy,” she said. “Yours?”

“Apparently. I e-mailed my housekeeper last night and asked her if I had any tea. She said I did and told me where to find everything.”

Imagine having so much stuff, you didn’t know what you owned or where it was. Different worlds, Marina thought. Very different worlds.

They sat at the round table by the large window. She nibbled on a piece of toast, then took the mug of tea he offered.

“Interesting house,” she said after she’d sipped the steaming liquid. “Kind of intimidating.”

“It does leave an impression.”

She looked at his face, at the dark stubble shadowing his cheeks and jaw. “How do you know it’s ever about you?” she asked. “Nothing about your life is normal. How can you be sure?”

“I’m not. Even you agreed to go out with me after your grandmother offered you a million dollars.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You know that’s just a joke. Although it is fascinating that she does think she has to pay someone to marry you. What does she know that I don’t?”

“I’m ignoring the question,” he told her.

Marina took another bite of toast and chewed slowly. So far her stomach was staying pretty settled, but she wasn’t ready to get wild for a few more hours.

“You have to have been sure sometime,” she said. “There have to be some women you trust.”

“You don’t want to talk about this.”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

His dark gaze settled on her face. “I went to an all-guys boarding school for high school. Ryan and I both did. My first serious girlfriend was a scholarship student at the all-girl school next door. We met at a dance and I fell for her in seconds. She was smart, funny and totally into me.”

Marina didn’t doubt that for a minute. She had a feeling he’d been the kind of guy a lot of girls would have been totally into.

“Her mother was barely making it, working in an office somewhere. Jenny told her about me. We were each other’s first time.” His face tightened. “Jenny’s mom went to my parents and said that either they would pay her two hundred and fifty thousand dollars or she would bring me up on rape charges. Jenny was only sixteen, so there was a chance the charges would stick.”

Marina felt sick again, although this time it had nothing to do with food poisoning. “I can’t believe that. How horrible. How old were you?”

“Sixteen. But that didn’t matter. My parents paid her off and I learned an important lesson.”