Lee shook his head. “No, we do things as they’ve always been done. You take care of the operations in Dubai, and Vegas is mine to handle. Gause and Woodman claim they’re going to have things under control at all times and I’m holding them to it.”
* * *
Upon hearing a car outside, Carly glanced out her living room window and saw Lee get out of his car. She stared at his masculine profile—the powerful set of his shoulders and his beautifully proportioned body—and her heart swelled with...
Love.
She closed her eyes, trying to shut out the emotion, but it was no use. Her heart was already there. She had fallen in love with a man who didn’t love her. A man who only wanted passion out of a marriage.
Opening her eyes, she headed for the door at the sound of the doorbell. She paused to pull herself together, and when she opened the door, he stood there. She tried to ignore the flutters in her stomach.
“I missed you,” he said throatily.
Carly had to draw in a deep breath when the truth of his words was reflected in the warmth of his smile.
“You saw me this morning,” she reminded him as she led him toward the living room. She had spent the night at his place but had left right after they’d shared breakfast.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “I still missed you.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.” He came to stand in front of her. “And do you know what it means when I miss you that much?”
She tilted her head to stare up at him. “No. Tell me.”
“Let me show you,” he said, reaching out to bring her body closer to his. “I want you this much.”
She felt the hard length of him pressed against her. “That much, huh?”
“Yes. That much and more.” Then he lowered his mouth and kissed her.
The moment his tongue slid between her lips, Carly knew this was what she needed. She loved the way he kissed, the way he made her feel—as if he wanted no one but her. Lee Madaris was a real man in the true sense of the word.
And she loved the taste of him.
He broke away to rain kisses down her throat and neck. “Mmm, you taste good,” he murmured.
“Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you.”
He lifted his head to gaze deep into her eyes. She knew the very moment he detected something was wrong. He frowned. “What’s the matter?”
She swallowed. “What makes you think something is wrong?”
“Your eyes look sad.”
Her brows drew together. Do they? “I don’t know why they would.”
But he continued to stare at her, as if he were looking deep within her soul. “What happened to make you sad, Carly? And please don’t tell me it was nothing. You’re dealing with a man who is so into you that I would know if your heart missed a beat.”
That, Carly thought, was deep. Could any man be that much into a woman?
“Tell me.”
She nibbled her bottom lip. “Gail called.”
“And?”
“And Shundra, Gail’s daughter, is missing. Gail thought that maybe she called me.”
He took that in. “Do you and Shundra keep in touch?”
“No. In fact, I haven’t seen her or talked to her since she was five. She’s nineteen now.”
He nodded. “Then why would Gail think Shundra would call you?”
Carly drew in a deep breath. “I’ll tell you everything over dinner.”
* * *
“Your mother actually said that to you?”
“Yes.”
So Carly wouldn’t see the anger in his gaze, Lee looked down at the food on his plate. He couldn’t imagine any mother saying such a thing to her child. She had clearly let Carly know she preferred one child over the other.
“Sorry I told you. Now I’ve ruined your dinner.”
He glanced up. “No, you haven’t ruined my dinner, but you do have me wanting to leave here and let Kevin fuel the plane for Minnesota to pay the Thrashers a visit. It wouldn’t be a nice one either.”
She touched his hand. “It doesn’t matter.”
He heard her words but knew they were untrue. He had seen the sadness in her eyes. He never wanted to see such a look in her eyes again.
“Just to be on the safe side, I called Aunt Ruthie to see if Shundra had perhaps contacted her and she hadn’t. I hope she goes back home. Like I told Gail, Shundra finding out about me isn’t that serious.”
Lee didn’t say anything as he continued eating, anger building inside of him. It should be serious, he thought.
“So how did your day go?” she asked, breaking into his thoughts.
He knew she was trying to change the subject. Switch it to something pleasant. If only she knew.
“Okay. The usual,” he said, when his day had been far from it. “Dinner is delicious, by the way.”
“Thanks. I tried a new recipe with the chicken.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“How did you prepare it?” He just wanted to hear her voice. He loved the sound of it.
“Now, you know I’m not going to give you my secret,” she said, smiling.
He smiled back at her. “Just what do you do with all these secret recipes?”
“I have them filed in my computer, and just in case it crashes I make hard copies as well.”
“And you keep them where?”
She pointed her fork at him, grinning. “You’re smooth, but not that smooth. I’m not telling.”
“I have ways to make you talk.” He watched her expression change. Her eyes darkened and her lips parted. “You look beautiful when you get aroused,” he said in an achingly raw tone.
She lifted a brow. “You think I’m aroused?”
“Baby, I know you are.”
She broke eye contact with him, and when her gaze returned to his, there was another expression on her face—this one he couldn’t read. “Lee?”
For some reason he felt the need to touch her. Reaching across the table, he captured her hand in his. “Yes, Carly? What is it?”
“I’ve made my decision about your proposal. Yes, I will marry you.”
Chapter 13
Lee stared at her for a long moment, unable to breathe. He hadn’t expected her decision today. In all honesty, he had stopped wondering when she would give it.
Now the one answer he had wanted to hear had his stomach in knots. For the next few months, at least until the federal government cracked their case on the East Coast Connection, his life would be at risk. Marrying him could place her in danger as well.
On the drive over he had thought about what Angelo had said. As long as the Connection assumed Lee was walking the Connection’s path, they would have no reason to retaliate or seek revenge. But what if something went wrong? What if—
“However, there is one stipulation,” Carly said, breaking into his thoughts.
Taking a deep, unsteady breath, he asked, “And what is the stipulation?”
“That our marriage remains a secret for a while.”
He lifted a brow. “Why?”
She hesitated, and he knew she was nervous. “I thought about it, and I’m not ready for all the speculation and gossip. No one is even aware that we’re seeing each other, so a marriage between us will come as a surprise. I figure, we’ll know the reason we married and we’ll be fine with it, but I don’t want to explain things to anyone else.”
He thought about what she’d said. Keeping their marriage a secret might be best all around. If no one knew they were married then the risk to her would be less. And it would still give him the one thing he wanted. Her.
As his wife, secret or otherwise, she would never be alone again. As long as he lived he would always be there for her. And if, heaven forbid, anything ever happened to him, she would have his family.
“I know secrecy isn’t how you wanted things, Lee,” she said. “But I figure I can give Chef Blanchard my notice around Thanksgiving and start con
centrating on building my own place. I want to work on my menu. I have plenty of those secret recipes to pull out. Some I haven’t cooked in a while. I might need to change an ingredient here or there.”
“Doing that will keep you pretty busy.”
She nodded and then said quickly, “Yes, but I’ll always have time for you.”
“There’s no doubt in my mind that you will,” he said, tightening his hold on her hand, thinking how good it felt in his. “What I was alluding to was that I agree—you’ll be too busy to continue working at the hotel.” He paused. “Keeping our marriage a secret might not be a bad idea. That way we can have the element of surprise on our side when I go home.”
“You’re sure you don’t have a problem with us keeping our marriage a secret until then?”
“No. I don’t have a problem with it. So how soon can we get married?”
She began nibbling her lip again. “How about next month?”
“How about this weekend?”
Her lashes flew up. “That soon?”
“Yes.”
“But I’m scheduled to work this weekend.”
“Then ask for the weekend off. Better yet, take a week off. Or two. I want to take you to the Grand MD in Dubai. You’re going to love it there.”
Another idea popped into his head. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to keep her sequestered in Dubai, where Angelo could keep an eye on her until the sting was over. If the operation lasted past Christmas, he’d deal with that when it came.
“Um, how would you like to move to Dubai for a while?” he asked her.
“Dubai?”
“Yes, I have a penthouse in the hotel there as well.”
“What on earth would I do in Dubai?”
“The same thing you would have done here. Update all those recipes. You’ll have access to your own private kitchen and willing volunteers to try the dishes. Besides, having you in Dubai instead of here might solve my problem.”
“What problem?”
Lee met her gaze. He couldn’t tell her the real reason he wanted her out of Vegas, so he would give her another that was just as truthful. “Knowing you are my wife will make me want to be with you that much more. Hell, I can barely concentrate on work as it is. Having you in Dubai will help me keep our secret a secret. And I can fly over there to see you as often as I want.”
She didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Can I think about Dubai? I enjoyed living in Paris but never fancied myself living out of the country again.”
“No problem. Think about it and let me know.”
He stood up. “In the meantime,” he said, gently pulling her up from her chair, “we have a Vegas wedding to plan.”
* * *
It was way past midnight. Carly tried to stretch and discovered she couldn’t do so. Lee, sleeping beside her, had her clutched tightly in his embrace and one of his legs was thrown over hers.
Smiling, she cuddled close, loving the feel of being securely wrapped in his strong arms. She even liked the feel of his heated breath on her neck as he slept. He didn’t snore. His breathing was calm and relaxed, a man at peace.
They had not gotten around to planning their Vegas wedding. All it had taken was one kiss. He’d swept her off her feet and into his arms and carried her upstairs to the bedroom, where they made love. Again and again. Her body felt pleasured in ways that only he could pleasure her.
She thought about their discussion over dinner. She was glad he wasn’t against the idea of keeping the marriage a secret, and she understood his suggestion that she stay in Dubai for a while. Their secret could only remain a secret as long as neither of them gave anything away. And she knew that would be hard to do with her still working in the hotel. All he had to do was look at her and she wanted him. Sooner or later one of them would let the cat out of the bag.
He shifted and came awake. “It’s not morning,” he said, his voice a rumble in his throat.
“No, but we left the kitchen in a mess. We didn’t even clear the table.”
“Oh. I know how you are about having a tidy kitchen. Are you going to make me get up and wash the dishes at this hour?” he asked her, rubbing the tip of his nose against her neck.
That was the rule that he’d come up with. Whoever cooked, the other person did the dishes. “No, if I recall, you helped with dishes the last time, so I owe you one.”
“You don’t owe me,” Lee said, tightening his arms around her. “And we never did make the plans for our Vegas wedding.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” she said.
He eased up in bed and pulled her up with him. “Okay, since we’re both awake...are we in agreement that it will be this weekend? And afterwards we’ll fly to Dubai for a week?”
“I’ll have to check with Chef Blanchard to make sure I can get the time off, Lee. I just started working for the hotel a few months ago and haven’t built up any vacation time.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, Chef Blanchard’s boss says you can have the time off.”
She shook her head. “No, that doesn’t make me feel better because that’s not how it’s supposed to work. I’d hate for anyone to think I’m getting preferential treatment.”
“Any preferential treatment you get, you deserve.”
He eased his legs over the side of the bed. “You go back to sleep while I do the kitchen. If I didn’t say it before, dinner was fantastic.”
“Thanks. You did say it before. We never made it through dessert. I prepared this mouth-watering peach cobbler that we were going to eat with ice cream.”
“We still can. It’s not too late.”
“Lee, it’s after midnight.”
“That doesn’t matter.” He leaned down and brushed a kiss across her lips. “Stay in bed. I’ll be back later.”
She watched as he slid into his pants and left the room. No matter what he’d said, there was no way she would let him clean up the kitchen by himself. Easing out of bed, she belted a robe around her waist and walked downstairs. When she rounded the corner to the kitchen, he was clearing the table.
He glanced over at her. “I thought I told you to stay in bed.”
“I don’t follow orders well.”
“I plan on changing that.”
“You can certainly try.”
Smiling, he gathered the dishes and headed to the kitchen; she followed after collecting the place mats and glasses. He was at the sink, making dishwater. Like her, he preferred washing dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher. Although she would be the first to call him out on being a little heavy-handed with the dish detergent, she loved seeing him standing at her sink, shirtless, with his pants unsnapped and his feet bare. She busied herself with wiping off the place mats so she wouldn’t get caught staring.
Her mind drifted to Shundra and she wondered if her sister had made it back home. She certainly hoped so. Gail was wrong about her not caring. She did care.
“Will you tell your aunt when we marry?”
She glanced back over at him. “I’m thinking that I won’t. Usually I can hold her to a secret, but she’ll be so happy that she’ll be tempted to tell her friends. So maybe it will be best if I keep quiet. But I’ll tell Heather.”
He nodded as he placed dishes in the sudsy water. “I’m glad you have a friend like Heather. Sounds like the two of you share a special friendship.”
“We do. Sometimes I believe people are placed in your life for a reason.” She believed he was one of those people. What were the odds that she would meet someone on her birthday—a birthday she was sharing alone—and that he’d become the man she fell in love with?
“What about your cousins? The ones you’re super close with. Will you tell them?”
He shrugged. “Not sure yet. I’ve never been worried about any of them keeping a secret before, but a couple of them are married now. They might feel compelled to confide in their wives. Like the situation with your aunt, I don’t want to do that to them.”
He washed dishes and she dried, and while they cleaned up the kitchen, they talked. He told her more about the hotel he wanted to build in Paris and how that project would consume his time for a while. She told him about several new recipes she’d come up with, and no matter how he tried to get the goods on the ingredients, she kept them to herself. And she told him how concerned she was about Shundra.
A short while later, he took her hand in his. “We’re finished in here. Let’s go to bed and get some sleep.”
They walked hand in hand up the stairs to the bedroom, and she was certain when they got there, they wouldn’t be getting any sleep.
* * *
“So what have you found out, Weber?” Bracey asked.
Weber sat down in a chair and studied Bracey. Even a fool would know the man had an agenda. He wanted to be the big man’s second-in-command and probably would succeed. He had been sent in last year by those at the top to make sure the big man did what he was supposed to do. Weber knew Bracey and Nash didn’t get along. Nash didn’t trust him, and Bracey was sharp, where Nash was beginning to get sloppy. Weber intended to be on the side of the winner and he had his money on Bracey.
“Nash has been asking around,” Weber said. “He’s thinking the tipster might have called from the restaurant next to the alley.”
Bracey nodded. “And Harrison’s body? Did you find out what Nash did with it?”
“Not yet, but I will soon. I think Nash’s man Grassley knows something. He and I have been hanging out. It won’t be long before I get him to talk.”
Bracey nodded. Grassley was Nash’s right-hand man. “See that you do. Nash thinks he has a cushy position in the cartel and I want to prove him wrong.”
Chapter 14
“Are you sure you didn’t pull any strings with Chef Blanchard?”
Lee smiled at Carly’s question. He leaned back in his desk chair as he talked to her on his cell phone. “No. Why would you think that?”
“Because he gave me the time off without any hassles.”
A Madaris Bride for Christmas Page 16