She tossed her hair back from her face, and smiled up at her new husband.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Absolutely," she said.
She has guts, Kiel thought as they approached the throng waiting for them at the front door. She didn't know one damn person in the entire state but you'd never know that by looking at her. Shoulders back. Head high. A dazzling movie-star smile on her lovely face. If he didn't know better, he'd actually believe she was a blushing bride about to embark on a life of happiness and joy.
"Ain't you a pretty one." Old Mr. Packer from the filling station nodded his approval as he shook her hand. He winked broadly at Kiel. "And ain't you a sly dog for keepin' her a secret."
"Kiel's a very jealous husband," Lexi said, squeezing his forearm affectionately. "He wants to keep me all for himself."
He choked on his saliva.
"Are you all right?" she asked, all sweetness and solicitude.
"Fine," he managed after a moment.
Lexi turned back to the crowd. "I'm terrible with names," she said with all the natural elegance of someone born to the spotlight. "Please, everyone, don't be shy! Introduce yourselves."
They adored her instantly. In one hour she made friends with every one of the townspeople jammed into his log cabin. And she wasn't terrible with names. There must be a computer chip or two hidden away beneath that silky mane of blond hair because she seemed to find something unique about each individual she met, something that made him or her stand out above the crowd--and she remembered it.
He watched as she chatted with Agnes Lopez and Imelda Mulroney, two of the biggest gossips on the Nowhere grapevine. Agnes was blatantly checking out Lexi's blond hair, her blue eyes, her expensive clothes and slender figure while Imelda conducted a more subtle survey of the same attributes.
And Alexa Grace knew what they were about. He could tell by the way she made certain the two old biddies got a good look at the plain gold band PAX had had waiting for them at Judge Moreland's office. Agnes's eyes met Imelda's and their eyebrows lifted in perfect sync. Sensible, Agnes mouthed over Lexi's head. Real people, mouthed Imelda.
Laughing, he turned away. Lexi was about as sensible as a diamond-studded flea collar, but he no longer wondered what her value was to PAX. A potluck party in a log cabin in Alaska was about as alien to her as being happy was to him. But she did a hell of a lot better job at fooling people than he ever could. She laughed; she talked; she flirted with the old men and kept the younger ones at bay.
And it didn't take much effort to imagine her doing the same thing in some fancy drawing room in Paris or London or Rome. Or to imagine her gracing the arm of a powerful man, sharing his bed and stealing his secrets, all in the name of saving the world.
"Is something wrong?"
He looked down at Imelda Mulroney. "What makes you ask that?"
"The look on your face. You were about a thousand miles away."
"I guess I was." He glanced around. "Where's Kelsey?"
"Watchin' Beauty and the Beast with one of my grandbabies."
He nodded. "What about Lexi?"
The expression on Imelda's face shifted. "Don't really know. Last I saw she was shootin' the breeze with one of those trappers from over Pike's Leap way."
He scanned the room. "Where?"
Imelda's eyes held a twinkle. "Don't really remember. I think ol' Harry Blackburn's got himself a case on the little missus. Better stake your claim before he carts her off to his shack for the winter."
The last thing he had to do was stake his claim. Hell, there was no claim to be staked, except in the eyes of his neighbors. This has to look like the real thing, Ryder had said to him the other night when this ridiculous plan was first hatched. The point of this marriage is to keep your neighbors at bay.
Obviously no one at PAX had counted on those neighbors turning out to be more determined than General Patton during World War II. The whole thing amazed him. He was a virtual stranger. No one had even heard of Lexi until the day before she arrived. Yet the residents of Nowhere were treating them to a wedding celebration as if they'd lived their all their lives.
People were everywhere. Babies. Little kids. Parents of all ages. Trappers and loggers and women who'd made their living a long time ago keeping trappers and loggers warm through the endless Alaskan winters. He thanked whatever lucky stars he might have that all of his research papers and equipment were safely locked away in the bunker that served as his lab.
Tabletops were piled high with food, most of which he didn't recognize. Beer bits, something Imelda had called reindeer steaks, halibut cooked outside over a wooden fire. They'd opened their hearts and their larders to throw this party and he found himself embarrassed to be the recipient under false pretenses.
He made his way through the noisy crowd in search of his temporary bride.
"We want pictures of the happy couple!" a burly man in a green flannel shirt called out, clapping Kiel on the back as he moved past.
"It's almost time to cut the weddin' cake," Connie Alfonsi reminded Kiel as he stood in the doorway to the kitchen. "You find that pretty little gal of yours and we'll get on with the festivities."
Festivities, he thought, glancing around the kitchen. What the hell was he doing having festivities? He wasn't here for festivities. He was here to find a way to keep the world from blowing itself up. Who would have figured his own solitary existence would be the first thing to explode?
She wasn't in the living room or the dining room or the kitchen. He damn well better not find her in the bedroom with one of these local Lotharios. They might be married in name only but he'd gone through that kind of hell once in his life and he didn't intend to go through it again...not for PAX or anyone.
He was about to leave the kitchen and make the long march down the hallway toward the bedroom they were almost sharing when a movement beyond the window caught his eye. Lexi, minus her coat, stood near the door to his lab. Her arms were wrapped around her chest and even from this distance he could see she was shivering. What the hell was she doing out there? He'd told her his lab was off-limits. If PAX had any ideas about checking up on him he'd be more than happy to tell them what they could do with their half-assed suspicions.
Loaded for bear, he flung open the back door and was about to roar his displeasure when he realized she wasn't alone. A short, stocky man with a shock of wild black hair had her engaged in animated conversation.
Still fuming, Kiel stalked across the snow-crusted yard to her side.
Her smile was radiant but he recognized the tension at the corners of her mouth.
He put his arm around her shoulders in a proprietary gesture. She snuggled close to his side.
He met the man's eyes. "I don't think we've met," he said with false cheer. "Kiel Brown."
The man offered his hand. Kiel shook it.
"Harry Blackburn. Heard you got some specimens of the great horned trout in that lab of yours. Thought I'd take a look."
"My lab is off-limits."
Lexi's smile grew wider. "Even to me," she said, dimpling. "Can you imagine that."
"You're one of those environmental types," Blackburn said.
Kiel met the man's gaze straight on. "That's right."
"One of those tree-huggers."
"I've been called worse."
"Kiel is studying the migratory patterns of various local animals," Lexi said with a dazzling display of pearly white teeth. "I'll bet he knows just about every bird and bear within a hundred miles of here."
Thanks a lot, he thought.
Blackburn considered him thoughtfully. "So you know the name of every bird in these parts."
"I know the Latin names for three hundred forty-two species of bird seen in Alaska and the Yukon Territory. Most of those names you've never heard of." If you were going to lie, lie big.
"I got a good eye for birds." Blackburn pointed toward a small brown clump of feathers sitting in a spruce tree nearby, chirping his little socks off. "
What do you call that one?"
"Ornithalius Marcus Aurelius."
Blackburn remained unimpressed. "Around here we call it a brown tree hatch."
"That's why I'm a scientist and you're not." He flexed his biceps noticeably and Blackburn beat a hasty retreat.
"I can't believe you did that," Lexi remarked when Blackburn was out of earshot. "What were you going to call the next bird he pointed out: Julius Caesar?"
"Either that or Circus Maximus."
"Why didn't you just use their real names?"
Good question, Alexa Grace. "More fun this way."
"You're a wicked man," she said, turning her considerable charm in his direction. "Mr. Blackburn didn't know what hit him."
Kiel took a long look at the door to his lab. There were a few new scratches around the secondary lock that hadn't been there last night. "What was the bozo doing when you found him?"
"Pushing at the door, looking around for a window he could peek through."
"Exactly why I don't have windows."
She considered him for a moment. "I was wondering about that. How on earth can you stand not having windows?"
"Occupational hazard," he said, struggling to stay one step ahead of her. "My lab is climate and light controlled for optimum working conditions."
"Now I'm really confused," said Alexa Grace. There was a lot more going on behind those china-blue eyes than she liked to let on. "I thought environmentalists did their thing in the great outdoors, not cooped up in some stuffy concrete box."
"Depends on the environmentalist." It occurred to him that he still had his arm around her shoulders. It also occurred to him that he liked it.
"Come on, you two!" Agnes Lopez, hands on her ample hips, appeared in the back door. "Everyone's ready for the cake-cutting ceremony except the bride and groom."
"I guess that's us," said Lexi.
"Like it or not."
She draped her arm about his waist. "I can put up with it if you can."
"Hell," he said. "I got through six years at M.I.T. I can get through anything."
What on earth was wrong with her? Ever since she'd arrived in Nowhere, she'd been acting like a sentimental idiot.
When she and Kiel walked into the living room and she saw all of those eager faces looking at them with such happiness, so much hope, she felt like the worst kind of fraud. Tears stung her eyes and she prayed they would mistake them for tears of joy. These people believed in true love, in happily ever after. A marriage of convenience would break their romantic hearts.
"Now both of you hold the knife," the woman named Agnes instructed Lexi and Kiel while Kelsey leaped about in excitement. "We have to take some pictures."
"Smile," she murmured to Kiel. "You're supposed to be a happy bridegroom."
"I'm doing the best I can," he murmured back.
It must be hard on you, she thought in a rare burst of understanding. They guided the knife through the layers of wedding cake. He'd been through all of this once before with a woman he loved. A woman he'd intended to spend the rest of his life with. A woman who'd given him a child.
"Oh, look at that!" someone trilled. "She's so happy she's crying."
"You're overdoing it," Kiel said so only she could hear. "You're making us look like the love affair of the century."
"Oh, be quiet," she said, sniffling. "Let's give them a good show."
Each time he thought he had her figured out, Lexi Marsden--Lexi Brown--threw him another curveball.
He'd had her pegged as a stuck-up dame who didn't give a rat's butt about other people's feelings yet here she was sniveling over a group of strangers. He found it easier to think of her as a stuck-up dame. And a hell of a lot less dangerous.
"Now you feed each other some cake," Agnes instructed in her most schoolteacher-ish voice. She motioned toward her husband, a big burly man in an out-of-style corduroy suit with denim patches on the elbows. "You get that camcorder ready, Vern. We don't want to miss this."
He broke off a piece of cake with his hand and held it out to Lexi. She stared at it dubiously.
"A plate and fork might be nice," she said, backing away.
"Not this time, Alexa Grace." And with that he popped the gooey cake into her mouth, making sure he smeared her pretty face with white frosting.
Their neighbors roared with laughter and applause.
His bride's eyes flashed with fire but he had to hand it to her. She laughed along with the rest of them even if he knew she wanted to wring his neck.
"Turnabout's fair play!" called Angie Greene. "You ain't gonna let him get away with it, are you?"
Of course she wasn't.
Lexi grabbed a big hunk of cake. "Open wide," she said with a wicked, frosting-smeared grin.
He didn't have a chance. She found her target. He gulped down a mouthful of cake and grinned as Kelsey laughed at the sight of her old man covered in frosting and crumbs.
"Now you kiss each other," said Imelda, Nowhere's resident romantic.
They looked at each other.
"Why not?" he said, giving into the inevitable.
"Why not indeed," said his bride.
He bent down.
She lifted her chin.
Their lips met.
Briefly.
Chastely.
Very sweetly.
And it wasn't the cake that sweetened the kiss.
It had something to do with the moment and the company and the fact that he found himself feeling an emotion other than pain and loneliness for the first time in longer than he cared to remember.
"You can do better than that," Imelda's husband urged. "When an Alaskan man kisses a woman, she stays kissed."
They were rowdy, raucous and downright bawdy. Anything less than a three-dimensional, Technicolor kiss wasn't going to satisfy them.
Besides, there was the matter of male pride to consider. Something that had taken one hell of a beating when Helena left him for another man. Left him, left his daughter, left the life they'd shared, their dreams for the future.
He pulled Alexa Grace close. She melted against him like warm silk. He wondered how many men she'd melted against just like that, all in the name of duty.
"Come on!" someone shouted. "We don't got all day."
She said nothing. Just looked up at him with the bluest eyes he'd ever seen.
"Hell," Kiel said gruffly. "Let's do it."
He heard the low rush of breath as he claimed her mouth. Her lips were soft, softer even than yesterday. Softer than a dream. The scent of lilacs filled his head as her arms slipped around his waist. He deepened the kiss. He couldn't help himself. She tasted of sugar and the sharp edge of danger. He'd forgotten how much he liked danger.
Lexi felt as if she were standing at the edge of the world, ready to spin out into the blackness of space. She'd been kissed before by other men. Men who knew their way around a woman. But not one of those kisses had stolen her breath. Not one of those kisses had made her feel that all things were possible, that the world was a magical place and she had only begun to discover its secrets.
His tongue slid across the place where her lips met.
Questing.
Demanding.
She forgot where she was. She forgot who she was. Her lips parted and she gave herself up to sensation.
The kiss they'd shared yesterday in front of MacDougal had been powerful, but it hadn't prepared her for this sensual onslaught. And he felt it too. With their bodies melting together in an embrace, she could feel him growing hard against her and she felt a deeply female sense of both excitement and satisfaction.
Dimly she was aware of cheering, of the sounds of celebration, of a little girl's voice and the laughter of adults.
It didn't matter. Nothing mattered but that kiss and her wish that it would never end.
Seconds or hours passed...she didn't know. Then suddenly the world came rushing back at her in the form of a little girl tugging at her skirt.
"That's all!" said
Kelsey sternly. "Enough kissing."
No, thought Lexi even as she laughed with the rest of the crowd. Not nearly enough.
Chapter 7
They left behind homemade breads and home-brewed beer, enough cakes and cookies and stews to last the newlyweds until spring. And they left wedding gifts, as well. Hand-crocheted doilies, bright-colored mittens, blankets and quilts and potpourris made to sweetly scent a lingerie drawer. Both she and Kiel studiously avoiding mentioning the shiny red box of condoms some thoughtful joker had provided.
Imelda Mulroney had taken it upon herself to turn down the covers on the king-size bed and sprinkle rose petals on the pillows.
"It's a custom in these parts," the woman said when Lexi caught her in the act. "We're not long on sentiment but we got a soft spot for newlyweds and babies."
Fertility, Imelda went on to explain. Fertility and happiness and long life.
Which just about covered the spectrum of human existence and eliminated Imelda as the donor of the condoms.
Kelsey, with a great deal of grumbling, was down for a nap. She'd been operating at full-speed since she woke up this morning and when Kiel found her asleep over her slice of wedding cake, he and Lexi agreed a nap was a good idea.
Lexi wasn't so sure about that when she and Kiel found themselves alone in the quiet house.
They'd been alone last night but it hadn't felt anything like this. Last night there had been electricity between them, but that electricity had been more the product of conflict rather than chemistry.
The kiss they'd shared over the wedding cake had changed everything.
Or had it?
She looked at Kiel. His dark hair fell across his forehead in shaggy disarray. The faintest hint of five o'clock shadow was visible along the strong curve of his jaw. The expression in his eyes gave away nothing.
She gestured toward the stacks of food piled high on the kitchen counter. "What are we going to do with all of this?" she asked. The last time she'd seen so much food in one place it had been in a supermarket in East Hampton.
The Bride Came C.O.D. (Bachelor Fathers) Page 7