by Gina Wilkins
She hadn’t realized Liam was awake until he spoke, his voice still huskier than usual. “Where are you going?”
She settled back against him. “I—Nowhere.”
She didn’t think he’d want to hear she’d been slipping from the bed to return to her studies. She could take another few minutes.
Opening his eyes, he turned on his side to face her, sliding a hand down her bare side from her shoulder to her hip. “You’ve lost weight.”
“And you have a new scar since I saw you before Christmas,” she commented, tracing a puckered line just beneath his rib cage on his left side. “Do I want to know how you got this?”
“Probably not.”
She looked at his face. He looked utterly relaxed, lazily content. His newly shorn dark hair was mussed into appealing spikes, showing hints of the curls he’d cut off. His clear, gray-blue eyes reflected his easy smile. Faint dimples creased his lean cheeks, bracketing the beautifully shaped mouth she so loved to kiss. She had always thought Liam was the most handsome man she’d ever met. That opinion had not changed with the passing years.
Propped on his elbow, he toyed with the ends of her hair, pushing it away from her face and arranging it around her bare shoulder. “I guess we can agree that we both need to take better care of ourselves.”
She conceded with a faint smile. “Probably.”
“How’s school going?” he asked, fully aware of the primary reason she hadn’t been taking the best care of herself lately.
She shrugged. “It’s pretty tough right now.”
“How many subjects did you say you’re taking this semester?”
“Seven. Microbiology, which includes immunology and parasitology. Pharmacology. Pathology. Ethics. Genetics. Behavioral science. And ICM—Introduction to Clinical Medicine 2.”
He shook his head in consternation. “How do you keep up with all of that?”
“It’s not easy. We have tests every two weeks, covering anywhere from fifty to eighty lectures per exam.”
“Damn, Annie.”
She could feel her throat tightening again. “I’ll be studying all weekend to make up for taking the time off for dinner with my family tonight.” Realizing what she’d just said, she blinked. “Um—how long were you planning to stay?”
His smile was just a little crooked. “Don’t worry, babe. I won’t interfere with your studying.”
Wincing guiltily, she reached out to touch his face. “I don’t want you to think I’m sorry you’re here. It’s always good to see you, Liam.”
Dragging her hand to his lips, he brushed a kiss across her knuckles. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” she admitted.
She had loved him almost from the moment she’d laid eyes on him more than five years earlier. She hadn’t stopped during the years that had passed after they’d broken up so painfully during her freshman year in college. She’d only fallen harder when they’d met up again accidentally in London. Which probably explained how he had charmed her into this impulsive marriage that still seemed to have an unlikely chance of long-term survival—something she didn’t want to think about just then.
He tangled one hand in her hair. “You didn’t really want to leave just yet, did you?” he asked, his breath warm on her lips as he spoke only an inch or so away from her mouth.
“No. Not just yet.” Wrapping a hand around the back of his head, her fingertips sliding into his short hair, she closed the short distance between them.
Studying could wait just a little longer.
Propped on one elbow, Liam watched Anne sleep. The bedroom was almost dark, but just enough light spilled in through the curtains and from the bathroom night-light to illuminate her pale face against the sage-green pillowcase. Her long, wavy, light blond hair tumbled around her in a rather decadent manner, falling across her bare shoulder and the upper curves of breasts visible above the sage sheet that covered the rest of her.
One strand of hair drooped over her left eye. He wanted to reach out and brush it away, but he was afraid of waking her. She needed her sleep. She looked exhausted, and he couldn’t claim full credit.
Though he’d tried to hide it, he’d been startled by her appearance when he’d entered the apartment. It had been only six weeks since she’d sneaked away to join him for their weekend in Memphis during her Christmas break. He had commented then that he could see the toll her hectic schedule was taking on her, but the evidence was even more visible now.
She was too thin. Her light blue eyes were shadowed by purplish hollows her careful makeup didn’t quite hide. She was still beautiful in his eyes; nothing could change that. But he worried about her.
He knew all too well the pressure her family placed on her. Almost as much as she placed on herself. That was most of the reason this marriage had been kept such a secret. Anne worried about her mother, who had been taken so ill very soon after they married. And she had said she couldn’t handle the burden of her family’s disapproval and disappointment on top of the stress of medical school. She needed her family’s support and encouragement during the long stretches when she and Liam were separated, she had said. Though he tended to believe her family’s support came with too many strings, he had agreed.
He’d had reasons of his own for going along with her request to keep their marriage to themselves. Yet he hadn’t realized at the time how burdensome this sneaking around would become. Nor quite how much he would miss her when they were apart, even though he had known from the beginning that their time together would be limited.
Seeing how wan and tired she looked, combined with the sad condition of her pantry, had convinced him he’d done the right thing by coming here now. She needed him. She just didn’t realize it yet.
He wondered a bit warily what she would say when he told her he had no immediate plans to leave.
Chapter Two
Liam wasn’t in the bed when Anne woke Saturday morning. She lay very still for a few moments after glancing at the clock and noting it was just after eight. Her instincts told her she was alone in the apartment.
He wouldn’t take off again without telling her goodbye. He’d probably gone out to pick up breakfast, considering there was no food in her kitchen.
She stumbled toward the shower, deliciously sore and loose-jointed after the night’s activities. Running the water as hot as she could stand it, she scrubbed her skin until it glowed and washed her hair with a peach-scented shampoo she knew he liked. Rather than take the time to blow-dry the long waves, she pulled her hair back into a loose braid. She applied makeup carefully, accenting her eyes and brushing blusher over her cheeks in an attempt to look less pale and tired.
She’d just finished dressing in a bright green sweater and slim-fitting dark jeans when she heard Liam’s key in the door.
He entered with his arms loaded with grocery bags. He hadn’t just bought breakfast; it looked as though he had enough food to make a month’s worth of meals.
She hurried to help him with the heavy bags. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“You said you have to study this weekend. When would you have gone for yourself?”
“I’d have managed. Eventually.”
“Now you don’t have to.” Smiling over his shoulder, he moved toward the kitchen.
He wasn’t wearing his contacts again this morning. She’d always teased him about looking like Clark Kent when he wore his glasses. Deceptively mild-mannered and average. All it would take was a quick whip of his hand to remove both the glasses and the ordinary persona, turning him back into the daring, reckless superhero who had captured plenty of female hearts from the covers of travel magazines. He’d always laughed, but she could tell the comparison secretly pleased him.
They worked together to unload and put away the groceries he’d purchased. Now her pantry and fridge were better stocked than they had been in almost longer than she could remember. It amused her to think of Liam pushing a cart down the aisles of the g
rocery store, tossing items haphazardly into the cart. Still, his choices had been good ones, giving her plenty of options for quick, nutritious meals.
While they ate breakfast, he entertained her with stories about his most recent excursion to a politically unstable country in Africa, about some of the people he had met there, some of the adventures he’d had. She knew he didn’t tell her everything; he was careful not to worry her about how dangerous his life could be, even though she was all too aware of the risks he took in pursuit of a story.
Liam had become moderately famous as a human interest reporter during the five years since they’d broken up in college. He was even the host of a weekly adventure-travel show on a popular cable channel, journeying all over the world to show settled-in-place couch potatoes what lay beyond their own familiar boundaries. The program had been renewed for another season, but as of the middle of December, he was on a three-month hiatus from filming during which he was concentrating on other work projects.
He was known as a daredevil and an adventurer, one who had the inside scoop on worldwide politics and cultures because he wasn’t afraid to immerse himself in those foreign lands. She’d seen him eat fried scorpions in Beijing, ride a camel through the Gobi desert, dance with Aborigines in Australia, tramp through South American rain forests and dive from a cliff in Hawaii. He’d accompanied African game wardens in their never-ending battles against wildlife poachers, interviewed extremists who would have killed him without hesitation if they’d thought they had anything to gain and covered a deadly raid on a Mexican drug cartel.
He’d been named by a popular gossip magazine as one of their most beautiful people, and was considered one of the country’s most eligible bachelors. Refusing to answer questions about his personal life had only added to his mystique and popularity.
It had been suggested frequently that Liam led a charmed life. Anne couldn’t help dreading the day when his luck ran out—another one of those things she tried not to think about too much. She was getting pretty good at sticking her head in the sand.
“You still haven’t told me why you’re here,” she said as they cleared away the dishes after their meal.
“Yes, I did. I said I missed my wife.”
She looked at him over her shoulder. “Now, how about telling me the whole truth?”
He laughed and shook his head. “I never could pull the wool over your eyes.”
He leaned against the laminate countertop in the small, white-on-white kitchen, and she saw the glint of excitement in his eyes. Something big was up, she realized, slowly closing the dishwasher door. She braced herself.
“I have a book deal, Annie. That idea I pitched about a book of the stories I’ve been told by people I’ve met during my travels? I sold it.”
Her eyes went wide. “Liam, that’s wonderful!”
She stood and rounded the table to throw her arms around his neck. “Congratulations.”
Returning the hug, he grinned. “The publisher is really enthused about the sample chapters I sent in. They like the angle I’ve given it—the way I interviewed senior members of so many different cultures and societies to get their take on world history as they saw it unfold. They think it’s a sure bet to hit the nonfiction bestseller lists, and they think I’m a strong enough pitchman to make the publicity circuits and pitch both the book and my future projects.”
She took his face between her hands and planted a kiss on his smiling mouth, her nose bumping his glasses. Laughing, he reached up to adjust them.
“I’m so proud of you. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“I had other things on my mind last night,” he said, stroking a hand down her back and making her shiver in remembrance.
“This is so exciting. Is the book finished?”
“Mostly. I have to do some revisions. Quite a few, actually. First book mistakes, I guess. There will probably be more revisions to come.”
“But still, they liked what they saw enough to buy it.”
“Yeah.” He looked a little dazed. “They did.”
She kissed him again. “It’s going to be a blockbuster. I just know it.”
He’d already written several well-received magazine articles about his adventures during the past five years, but she knew he had always wanted to publish a book. She was thrilled for him that his dream was coming true. She was glad he’d told her in person rather than over the telephone.
She caught his hand as it sneaked under her top and placed it firmly back on her thigh. “So, what’s the plan now? You’ll hole up in your apartment in New York and work on your revisions until you start filming your show again?”
“Um.” What might have been a nervous expression briefly crossed his face.
Her eyebrows rose as she sensed there was something he was hesitant to tell her. “What?”
“I can’t get anything accomplished in my apartment. Everyone knows how to find me there. I thought if I crashed somewhere no one would ever expect, keep my head down for a few weeks, I’d get a lot more done.”
“Where did you have in mind?” she asked, growing nervous herself now.
“I thought I could stay here. With you.”
Her heart gave a hard thump in her chest.
“Think about it before you answer,” he urged quickly, even as she slowly disentangled herself from his arms. “No one would have to know I’m here. You’ve said your parents never come here to you, that you always go to them when you want to see them. I can make myself scarce when you have your study group over, maybe go to a coffee shop or a library to work.”
She laced her fingers together in her lap, her knuckles white from the pressure she exerted on them. “I would love to have you here, of course, but I’m so snowed under with classes and tests…”
“I could help you. Do the shopping, the errands, the housework, the laundry. You wouldn’t have to worry about a thing around the house. That would free up even more time for studying, wouldn’t it?”
She thought about her study friend Connor Hayes, who had married during the past summer. Connor seemed somewhat less stressed now that he had Mia to share the load around his house, especially when it came to his seven-year-old daughter, Alexis. He was still as inundated with schoolwork as the rest of them, of course, but he’d confessed rather sheepishly that he liked having a wife to keep his household running smoothly. She remembered Haley had groaned and retorted that she wouldn’t mind having a hunky guy to do all her chores while she concentrated on nothing but med school.
Now a hunky guy was volunteering to do that very thing for Anne. And she wasn’t at all sure it would go as smoothly as he promised.
“I don’t know, Liam. This has so much potential to blow up in our faces.”
He leaned slightly toward her, sincerity etched on his handsome features. “We could try it for, say, a week or so. It shouldn’t take me much longer than that to finish the revisions. If there’s any hint during that time that I’m interfering with your studying, I’ll clear out. You know I’d never do anything to cause you problems.”
“Well—”
“Just consider it,” he added with a smile that arrowed straight into her heart. “This could be the perfect time for us to be together. I don’t have any other assignments for now, and you need some help around here. It would be the first time since we exchanged vows that we can actually live together like a normal married couple.”
“A normal couple who have to keep their marriage a secret,” she reminded him nervously, thinking of their quarrel at Christmas. Liam had been annoyed with her then for refusing to go to a popular Memphis nightspot with him. She’d declined for fear he would be recognized and too many questions would be asked, which had led to a heated argument about how committed she really was to their marriage. How much worse would it be if he had to hide in her apartment around the clock?
If he shared her memories, he kept his thoughts well hidden when he nodded cooperatively. “That won’t be a problem. I’ve left w
ord I’m holing up to work and won’t be available for a couple of weeks. No one’s going to be looking for me, and I certainly won’t draw attention to myself here.”
The very thought of dealing with her family’s shock and outrage if the truth came out, on top of her hectic class-and-tests schedule, made panic rise up from somewhere deep inside her that threatened to choke her. Her reaction must have been visible on her face, because Liam immediately reassured her again, “No one will know.”
Though she felt a bit cowardly, she nodded. “That would be best.”
He reached out to take her hands in his, his gaze holding hers captive as he spoke in a low voice. “I think we need this, Anne. You have to admit that we’ve been drifting apart the past few months. We need to do something about that.”
Thinking of the tears she’d shed after their increasingly more uncomfortable phone calls, she swallowed painfully. Would Liam’s visit repair the rift between them—or widen it? She was almost afraid to find out. And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to ask him to leave. “I guess you’re right.”
He searched her face. “So I can stay?”
She moistened her dry lips. “We can try it. You said it would just be a couple of weeks?”
“Yeah, sure. Piece of cake to keep my presence quiet for that long, right?”
Uneasy with his too-optimistic attitude, she frowned. “I guess we’ll see. But we’ll have to be very careful. I just couldn’t deal with my family right now if the truth got out. Not to mention the media attention you would probably draw if they found out you’ve been secretly married for a year and a half.”
“I doubt I’m as much a celebrity as you seem to believe. With this haircut and my glasses and a baseball cap pulled low, I wasn’t given a second look at the market this morning. But we’ll be careful, anyway.”
“Okay, then.” She drew a deep breath, wondering if she were making an enormous mistake. “You’re welcome to clear out a drawer and closet space for your things. You can use the small bedroom for your office. I set it up to serve that purpose for me, but I’m hardly ever in there. I usually spread out here on the kitchen table or on the couch in the living room when I’m not studying somewhere with my group.”