For Richer or Poorer

by JoAnn Ross

  Wanting to protect Lily from further heartache, Blythe was seriously tempted. But, knowing what it would do to their friendship if Lily found out she’d had Mac investigated, she said, “We’d better not. But I’d appreciate you looking out for her. Since you’re living at Bachelor Arms.”

  “I’ll watch her like a big brother.”

  “Thank you.” His promise was enough. Blythe only hoped Lily wouldn’t need Gage’s expert intervention.

  There was another pregnant pause, as if they both were reluctant to hang up, though there was nothing left to say.

  “Well, have fun,” Gage said finally.

  Blythe watched the young couple walking arm in arm to their bungalow. It took not the slightest bit of imagination to determine how they planned to spend the rest of their afternoon.

  “Thanks.” She tamped down her envy. “I’ll see you when I get back.”

  “I’ll be waiting.”

  There was another brief pause. Then a click. Then he was gone.

  Sighing, Blythe pushed the button on the cordless phone, leaned back in the lounge and tried to return her attention to the novel she’d been staring at for the past two days.

  Unbidden, her rebellious mind conjured up scenes of her and Gage making mad, passionate love. For some inexplicable reason, instead of the glorious tropical Hawaiian landscape surrounding her, Blythe fantasized them surrounded by jagged mountain peaks and glistening, frosty white snow.

  * * *

  THAT NIGHT, in Los Angeles, Cait wandered idly around Sloan’s spacious office. The room, with its spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean took up several hundred square feet of his Pacific Palisades home. As she sipped a glass of wine and gazed out at the moon-gilded black satin waters, she wondered how anyone could get any work done when faced with such a dazzling view.

  It definitely said something about Sloan’s power of concentration, she decided, remembering how she’d once thought him to be yet another hedonistic Hollywood playboy. As it was, she’d arrived from headquarters nearly an hour ago, and except for a brief, almost husbandly kiss, every iota of his attention had been riveted on that damn computer screen.

  “That must be some scene,” she offered.

  “I think it’s going to be good,” he agreed without looking up. His fingers didn’t cease their tap, tap, tapping on the keys. “Gage unearthed some stuff about Alexandra and Patrick’s honeymoon from some old clippings that had been misfiled in the Xanadu archives.”

  “After they eloped to Arizona.” Between Blythe and Sloan, Cait figured she probably knew more about the couple than anyone in Hollywood. Everyone except Natasha Kuryan, she thought, unable to resist smiling at the thought of the senior citizen’s still unorthodox love life.

  “Yeah. I thought I’d play with the scene a bit while it was still fresh in my mind.”

  His dark hair had fallen over his forehead in a way that made her fingers literally itch to brush it away. “Good idea.”

  Tired of being ignored and deciding to test her fiancé’s powers of concentration, Cait unbuttoned the navy blue skirt she’d worn to headquarters today. She lowered the zipper, certain that the unmistakable sound would garner Sloan’s attention.

  Nothing.

  Undeterred by his seeming lack of interest, she stepped out of the skirt, leaving it on the rug.

  Her fingers moved to the pearl buttons of her ivory silk blouse. “So, where was this honeymoon?”

  “Colorado.”

  “Ah.” She unfastened each gleaming button one at a time. Sloan muttered a faint curse and began madly back spacing, erasing a line of dialogue. “I’ve always liked Colorado.” She shrugged her shoulders, allowing the blouse to fall unnoticed to the floor, where it lay in a creamy pool beside the skirt.

  “Of course it can get extremely cold.” She walked over to the oversize desk and perched on the corner. “But, I suppose, if they were on their honeymoon, that wouldn’t be a problem.” She crossed her long legs. “Seeing as how Patrick probably managed to keep Alexandra warm.”

  “I imagine so.” The sultry swish of silk on silk, combined with the lush sensuality of her tone, belatedly captured Sloan’s attention. He lifted his gaze from the screen. His whiskey brown eyes darkened as they took in her long legs, clad in ivory stockings held up by a lacy garter belt.

  “Have I ever mentioned I love your undercover clothes?” Seduced by the lure of Cait’s sensual pose, he immediately forgot all about his screenplay.

  “I believe it’s come up.” Anticipation flowed through her as his long fingers began toying with the lacy elastic fastener. “It’s much nicer, of course, now that I’ve made detective. I don’t have to wear those ugly white uniform undershirts anymore.”

  “I liked you in white undershirts.” He bent his head, moistening the ivory lace covering her breasts with his tongue. “But, I’ll have to admit, I like you in lace and silk even better.”

  His hands continued their torment of her thighs as he unfastened the front clasp with his teeth. There were advantages, Cait admitted as his mouth fastened on a tingling breast, of falling in love with a man who knew his way around women’s lingerie.

  “But—” he unfastened one stocking and began rolling it slowly, seductively, down her leg “—I think I like you best when you’re not wearing anything at all.”

  How had the tables turned so quickly? Cait wondered as his stroking touch caused her head to spin and her blood to warm. She’d been the one with seduction on her mind. But, as she linked her arms around his neck and invited him to lower her to the gleaming desk, she pressed her mouth to Sloan’s and allowed herself to be thoroughly, gloriously seduced.

  * * *

  GAGE WAS ON his second Scotch when he thought he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. Turning around, he found himself staring straight into the elaborate mirror. All he could see was his own reflection glowering back at him.

  It was only his imagination, he told himself. He was, as always, after talking with Blythe, edgy. Edgy and hot.

  When his mind began conjuring up images of Patrick and Alexandra, engaged in passionate pursuits hotter than the waters of the natural hot spring boiling around them, Gage belatedly remembered that he’d forgotten to tell Blythe about having discovered that the ill-fated newlyweds had spent their honeymoon in the Colorado Rockies.

  11

  WONDERLAND. Two weeks after having made love to Mac, Lily was still living in Wonderland. She woke every morning in his strong, wonderful arms, went to bed every night the same way. During the day, while Mac was away from Bachelor Arms—at his new job at Xanadu—she managed to keep worries about the Van Cortlandts’ next move at bay by immersing herself in her work for Gage, which she found absolutely fascinating.

  Having always enjoyed research during her college days, she was never bored by the need to explore the nooks and crannies along paper trails that revealed all the complexities of human relationships. Some of the stories her computerized data bases uncovered had more love and betrayal, comedies and tragedies than a fat summer novel.

  On one memorable occasion, she’d been poring through Coles, a reverse telephone directory, searching out an address for a missing persons case when a man arrived at the office-apartment.

  “Where’s Gage?” he demanded without offering any greeting.

  She recognized the voice immediately. Harold Ames was the son of one of Gage’s former sergeants. An accountant by trade, he was paranoid by nature, calling almost daily with reports of new conspiracies which Gage always defused by ensuring him that he was on the case. During the time she’d worked for the detective, Lily had never typed a bill for this man.

  “He’s out of the office right now.” She offered her most calming, encouraging smile. “I’m Lily. May I help you?”

  His eyes, beneath the brim of a blue Dodgers cap, narrowed. “You sound familiar.”

  She nodded and slipped her fingers beneath the desk to the silent alarm Gage had installed. Just i
n case. “We’ve talked on the phone.”

  Another long look. Then, as if unable to keep this latest threat to himself any longer, he blurted out, “Gage has to protect me.”

  “From whom?”

  “The aliens who are bombarding my brain with their silent radio waves.”

  “I see.” Lily nodded again, revealing not a single bit of skepticism. “Can you tell what they’re saying?”

  “Of course! They want me to surrender when their ship arrives at the Santa Monica pier tomorrow. At midnight. A war on their planet, Janurous, has left a shortage of men. They need me to impregnate their women so the race won’t die out.”

  “Gracious. That is serious.” She eyed him with concern. “Do you want to go with them?”

  “Are you kidding?” He shot her a look of blatant disbelief. “Have you ever seen a Janurian female?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  He shuddered. “You’re lucky. I have. The last time they took me hostage.” His eyes turned wild. “I don’t have any will when they bombard my mind this way. Gage has to do something!”

  “You know,” Lily said slowly, thoughtfully, “I recently read something about alien mind bombardment.”

  “You did?” He looked surprised.

  “Yes. And it seems that the only thing that can stop the ultrasound waves from penetrating the brain’s cortex is aluminum foil.”

  “Reynolds Wrap?”

  “Exactly. The article said that a layer of foil lining a hat effectively bounces the rays back into the ozone, where they safely dissipate.”

  He seemed to be considering that. “Regular tin foil? Or extrastrength broiler?”

  “Broiler,” she answered promptly. “They are, after all, very strong rays.”

  “Tell me about it,” he muttered. His expression cleared. As she watched, the beleaguered accountant visibly relaxed. “Thank you.”

  Her smile was as sincere as it was warm. “I was just doing my job.”

  With that extraterrestrial crisis temporarily solved, Lily returned to work.

  “That was great work,” Gage told her the next day after she’d managed to locate a deadbeat dad working as a roofer in Fargo, North Dakota.

  “I just did what you told me to do.” Last night, while Mac had made his mother’s recipe for chicken curry, she’d sat at the kitchen table with a dry eraser board and a blue marker, trying out every possible combination of the father of five’s names. Gage had taught her that most people, when they seek a new identity, stick with familiar names.

  “True. But putting his father’s middle name together with his wife’s maiden name was a stroke of genius.”

  Lily flushed with pride and pleasure. “Thank you.”

  “It’s me who should be thanking you. You’ve made a real difference, Lily.” He paused, eyeing her thoughtfully as he rubbed his chin. “I realize that after the baby’s born, you’re going to be busy. But have you made any plans for after that?”

  “Not really.” In the beginning, after Junior’s death, Lily had been too busy trying to pay off all the debts and remain financially afloat to think about a future. Then dealing with the treacherous Van Cortlandts took all her mental energy.

  These days, content to drift along, basking in Mac’s love, she’d been putting off making any decisions regarding her future. “Cait suggested I go back to law school.”

  “What do you think about that?”

  “I don’t know.” Lily shrugged as she began arranging a stack of motor vehicle reports. “Law school is terribly demanding. Even if I could swing it financially, I’d have to leave my baby in day care more hours than I’d like.” Deciding it was time for one of them to bring it up, she looked at Gage and said, “Actually, I was hoping I could keep working here for you.”

  “Actually, I was kind of thinking along those same lines.”

  His warm smile reached his eyes, reminding her yet again what a very nice man Gage Remington was. She wondered what was going to happen when Blythe returned from Hawaii tomorrow and then reminded herself that her friend’s love life was none of her business.

  The problem was, having falling in love with Mac had made such a dazzling difference in her life, Lily wanted all her friends to be as happy as she was.

  Her mind having momentarily wandered, Lily suddenly realized she’d missed a vital part of the conversation. “Excuse me?”

  “I asked if you’d be willing to consider becoming a partner.”

  “A partner? Like a business partner? With you?”

  “That was the idea.” He folded his arms across his broad chest, leaned against the edge of the desk and smiled down at her. “But if you’ve made other plans—”

  “No!” She rubbed at her temple, trying to take it all in. “It’s just such a surprise. I mean, I thought I was doing a pretty good job, but...” Nonplussed, her voice drifted off as she stared up at him.

  “I think we make a good team, Lily. Having you here has freed me up to do outside work. You run the office with all the efficiency of NASA Control, while at the same time making all the clients feel important, even crazy ones like Harold.

  “You’re already one of the best skip tracers I’ve ever seen, and unless all my instincts have gone on the blink, I’d say we get along pretty well.”

  “Better than well,” Lily agreed. Gage was, she’d considered on more than one occasion, the big brother she’d always wished she had.

  “So, what do you say?”

  “What about money?”

  “You’d receive an equal percent of the monthly profits,” he said. “Which should triple your salary—especially since the way you’ve made things so efficient has allowed me to take on more cases.”

  Lily’s first thought was the raise would definitely allow her to do some long-overdue shopping for baby clothes and furniture.

  Her second thought was that unfortunately, the offer was too generous.

  “There’s only one problem,” she said.

  “What problem is that?”

  “It wouldn’t be fair for me to take half the profits, when I hadn’t made half the investment.”

  “That’s not true. The difference you’ve made—”

  “It’s not the same,” she insisted. “You started this firm with your own money, Gage. Cait told me how you cashed out your savings and took a tax penalty by using your IRA funds just to keep going the first quarter.”

  “That’s true. Did she also tell you that I borrowed a significant amount of money from a Beverly Hills restaurateur who was grateful for me having interrupted a robbery in progress at his upscale pizza place?”

  “No, but—”

  “The point I’m trying to make,” Gage said, effectively overriding her planned protest, “is that we all need a little help from time to time, Lily. If it’d make you feel better, you can put a portion of your salary back into the firm for a few months to even up the investment. Even though it isn’t necessary.”

  She lifted her chin. “It is to me.”

  “Lord.” He raked his hands through his thick black hair. “No wonder you and Cait are friends. You’re every bit as stubborn as she is.” His smile took the sting out of the frustrated accusation.

  “I know.” Lily flashed him a smile of her own.

  Her eyes turned sober. She had an important decision to make. One that would impact on her and her child. It also crossed her mind that with the jump in salary a partnership would bring, she and Mac would be able to buy a house.

  The idea of a small white house in a nice neighborhood, with a fenced back yard big enough for a sandbox and swing set, made her smile. Perhaps, she considered, they could even get a dog. She’d always liked cocker spaniels. And they were supposed to be good with children.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Gage suggested. “Why don’t you think about it over the weekend? Talk it over with Mac? We can discuss it some more on Monday.”

  “Thank you.” Lily nodded. “I’d like that.” The phone rang. “Remin
gton Investigations,” she answered with a brisk yet friendly tone. “Yes, Mr. Potter, Mr. Remington is in his office. I’ll transfer you.”

  As Gage took the call, Lily considered that Remington and Sullivan had a very nice ring.

  “It sounds like a great offer,” Connor agreed that evening as they took a drive down the California coast. “If you’re asking for advice, I’d say, take it.”

  “I feel guilty about not having any money to put up.”

  “Gage’s plan sounds more than fair. And besides, he’s right about you having already made a contribution by freeing him up for more field work.”

  “True.” Although Mac hadn’t brought up marriage yet, Lily had to know. She looked over at him. “What do you think about working mothers?”

  Connor knew why she was asking, knew he’d been remiss in not having popped the question sooner, but didn’t quite know how to explain that she’d be agreeing to be Mrs. Connor Mackay. That was what this weekend trip was about. They needed to be away from Bachelor Arms, away from everyone they knew, so he could finally tell her the truth.

  And then, if Lily was still speaking to him—and Connor could not permit himself to think that she might not be—he intended to propose.

  “I think,” he said slowly, carefully, “that mothers, like everyone else, should try to do what makes them happiest. Because if they’re happy, it follows that their children will be happy, too.”

  It was exactly the answer she’d been hoping for. Lily told herself yet again how very lucky she was to have Mac in her life.

  “Where are we going?” All she knew was that when she’d returned to her own apartment, Gage had met her at the door with her suitcase packed and the news that he was taking her away for the weekend.

  “It’s a surprise.”

  His lips were curved in their trademark grin, but Lily thought she viewed little seeds of worry in his eyes. Telling herself she was imagining it, she leaned back against the seat and allowed herself to relax.

  The sky blue arch sweeping across San Diego Bay was the most graceful bridge Lily had ever seen. She was further entranced by the quaint village environment of Coronado Island itself, with its quiet tree-lined streets of Victorian and Edwardian homes and California bungalows.