Seduced by Moonlight by Janice Sims Page A

with his dress this evening, as well. He appeared to be so confident that he would probably feel comfortable in anything. Although, to be honest, every time she had seen him he had been beautifully dressed. But did he agonize over what to wear? She doubted it.
    A continuous beep, denoting that Danielle had a text message, resounded in the bedroom. Danielle quickly picked up the phone and began reading. “What’s so fabulous about it?” Of course she was translating the shortened version of the English language that text aficionados used.
    Soon, she and Echo were furiously text-messaging each other, her thumbs flying over the tiny keyboard.
    Smiling, Cherisse left her daughter alone in the bedroom while she went into the living room of the suite to await Harry’s arrival.
    She wondered if years from now millions of teenagers would have deformed thumbs from all the wear and tear on them due to text-messaging.
    Cherisse walked over to the big picture window and looked out at the lit-up resort. Even at night the resort was beautiful, an architectural dream with its turrets and other decorative flourishes reminiscent of a Swiss palace.
    On her walk with Harry today she had noticed his gardeners had landscaped the resort’s many gardens with plants and flowers native to this area, hardy varieties that thrived in cold weather. Cherisse was sure if her mother were here she would be able to tell her every name of every species of plant, but Cherisse was ignorant of such things. Like Danielle, her mother was going to love it here when she got the chance to visit.
    A twinge of doubt suddenly wormed its way into her thoughts. She had never been happy to accept extravagant gifts from anyone. What Harry was offering to do for Danielle would cost him a lot of money. Letting her stay here and practice her skiing whenever she wanted to. Paying her travel expenses and for her ski gear: clothing and equipment. And all Danielle would have to do to repay his generosity was to wear his company’s logo on the back of her jacket.
    Stop it, Cherisse, she told herself. This is how the sports world works and Danielle is lucky to have somebody like Harry Payne backing her. Her logical mind told her she was right. Still, she hated being beholden to anybody.
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    Danielle entered, laughing. “Ma, you were right!”
    Cherisse turned to face her daughter. Danielle was wearing the forest-green empire waist dress with a pair of black ankle boots. She looked as if she’d stepped off the cover of Vibe! The dress was modest, its bodice revealing no cleavage at all, and because of the manner in which it was designed it hung straight on her curvaceous body, but didn’t display any of those curves. That was the dress’s best feature as far as her mother was concerned.
    It revealed her shapely legs to all and sundry, though. And because she was five-nine, her legs went on and on.
    Looking her lovely daughter over, Cherisse sighed. She was already a woman. As her mother, she had to face up to that fact, but she was going to hang on to the illusion of Danielle still being her little girl for as long as she could.
    â€œWhat did he say when you told him you’d met someone?”
    â€œHe wanted to know everything about him,” Danielle said, smiling. “So I sent him the photo I showed you. After that, he said Dante looks older than he said he was. I should be careful. He might be one of those perverts who pose as younger guys to get close to teenaged girls. I told him I was pretty confident that Dante was eighteen like he said he was. Echo wrote back that if I couldn’t be trusted to use common sense he would have to come up here and run interference. He made me promise not to be alone with Dante! Ma, Echo’s not gay!”
    Cherisse gave her daughter a confused look.
    â€œYou thought he was gay?”
    â€œWell, didn’t you?”
    â€œYeah, but I thought you never suspected.”
    â€œCome