Sleeping With The Enemy (A Stranger's Touch)

by Mary Eason

  A soft whimper caught against her throat when he kissed her again. His tongue slipped inside her mouth, matching the rhythm of his body moving within hers. With each thrust, he plunged deeper, harder. She tilted her hips to meet them. Alex groaned against her lips. He was close. She was closer. She arched closer to the thrusts. From deep inside of her, the pressure grew until she could no longer hold onto it any longer. The waves of pleasure exploded around her—within her. With another deep thrust—another harsh groan, he emptied himself deep inside of her.

  * * * *

  “That was incredible,” Alex said in an unsteady whisper.

  Somehow, Kate found her bearings again. The world around them at last stopped spinning enough to realize Alex’s body was still sheathed inside of hers. She didn’t want him to leave her again.

  He looked down at her in amazement. “Do you realize you eyes turn almost gold when you’re excited? I love that color.” He kissed her long and hard. Kate returned his kiss. She couldn’t get enough of tasting his lips. Soon, kissing wasn’t enough. His body responded once more to their closeness. Her muscles contracted around him.

  It was even more sensual than the last time. When he collapsed on top of her once more, she was crying. Actually crying with reaction to emotions she’d never felt before with another man.

  “That was amazing,” he whispered against her throat, kissing her there.

  Alex rolled over on his back and took her with him. He slid out of her then gathered her close.

  “I think we’d better play it safe for a little while. Otherwise, someone’s going to find our dead bodies in a very compromising position in a few days. And I can only imagine their reaction.”

  Kate didn’t answer. She didn’t think it was possible for her brain to actually form words.

  “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re crying again.”

  She tried to reassure him she was okay, but all she could do was cry harder.

  Alex held her close and whispered reassuring words against her ear until she had no more tears left.

  “I didn’t hurt you? Please tell me I didn’t hurt you?”

  “No, I’m okay. I guess—it was—” She shook her head. “I’ve never felt this way before.” She watched the concern in his eyes disappear. He smiled down at her.

  “Me either. A first for both of us.”

  “Yes.”

  “I knew it would be like this between us, Kate,” he told her, his hand cupping her face. “We both knew.”

  Kate didn’t answer. She didn’t need to. Alex saw her answer in the tears in her eyes.

  * * * *

  They spent the rest of their honeymoon never venturing too far from the lodge. It was a fairy tale from which Kate kept expecting to wake up and find her life was still the same as before Alex changed it.

  They caught the last possible flight out of Vegas on Sunday night, arriving in Austin well after midnight.

  Kate slept a little on the flight home, but Alex seemed restless. He told her he was worried about one of his clients, but she wondered if maybe he was still trying to figure out the best way to announce his sudden marriage to the team.

  Once they reached Alex’s home, Kate fell asleep almost immediately after she and Alex made love. He awakened her early the following morning, pulling her back against his body.

  “Back to reality, but first things first. I’ve thought of nothing but this since the last time I touched you.”

  Kate’s breath hitched in her throat as she recalled the numerous times they’d make love during the night.

  “Oh, you mean five minutes ago?” She heard Alex laugh softly in the darkness before kissing her bare shoulder. He touched her breast. Her heart pounded beneath his touch.

  “Is this because of me or is it fear?” His lips teased the words against her breast, before moving lower.

  “I’m not afraid of you, Alex.” Kate turned in his arms so that she could look at him. “I love you,” Kate whispered softly.

  He stopped for a second to look into her eyes. “Do you have any idea how much I love hearing you say those words.” Alex’s lips glided over her receptive body aware of every single one of her reactions.

  “Open your legs for me.” She did exactly as he asked. His lips moved along the soft skin of her thigh before his tongue parted her and slipped inside.

  Kate groaned and arched closer to him. His touch was like heaven. She couldn’t get enough of it. Even when her body tightened and climaxed, he continued to taste her. His tongue slowing when she collapsed against him, spent. His fingers continued to stroke her. A tiny moan escaped when he slipped one, then two fingers inside. Alex rose above her and watched as her passion unfolded again in front of him. She climaxed beneath his stroking as another tear slid from her eyes.

  He gathered her close and held her until she was still again. Then his lips claimed hers. He parted her legs with his. His body filled hers again and everything ceased to be important for a little while.

  * * * *

  Alex rolled over on his back and brought her up close to him, still on top, their bodies joined still.

  “So, why don’t we go see your father after work tonight and tell him our good news together?” he asked and Kate burst out laughing.

  “That’s all you can say?” she asked in amazement.

  “Well, I was trying to be polite. What I really want to ask was do you think we’re going to survive each other long enough to tell your father anything. That was the most amazing sex I’ve ever experienced, read about, heard of, or seen on TV. But I’m not sure I’ll see my next birthday if it keeps up with this much intensity.”

  “I know. I think you may be killing me.”

  “Mmm. Well, my love, I can’t think of a better way to die. But now I’ve got my fill of you for the moment.” She pretended to be angry, but he brought her back against him. “Keep that up and we’ll have a repeat performance like the last time and I should remind you, we’ve just spent half the night making love already.”

  “Then maybe you’d better...” She pointed down and he eased his body from hers. Alex glanced at the alarm clock and cringed.

  “I have to go, baby, but you should try and get some rest. Why don’t you see if Brandy will cover for you?” He kissed the tip of her nose tenderly before releasing her.

  “I’m way ahead of you. I told her I wouldn’t be in until late today. I want to unpack and maybe pick up Earl and some of my things from the apartment.”

  “Sounds like a good plan you’ve got there, Mrs. Bradshaw. Okay, but promise me you won’t talk to your father until tonight?” Something in his eyes made her uneasy. Alex looked too serious.

  “I promise, but you don’t have to worry, Alex. Dad is going to love you,” she told him before kissing his mouth.

  He didn’t answer, but the expression in his eyes frightened her. Something was wrong. Was he having second thoughts?

  Please God, no.

  “Alex?” Kate asked when he didn’t say anything. “Are you okay?”

  He smiled and kissed her nose then got out of bed. It must be her imagination. All of her old insecurities were resurfacing. She heard him turn on the shower, but still couldn’t dispel the feeling that something was wrong between them.

  Somehow, she fell asleep before he returned. When she awoke again, the sun was streaming through the bedroom window.

  Kate showered and poured herself coffee from the pot Alex had made earlier. She retrieved her bag and noticed he’d managed to unpack his without waking her.

  In their bedroom, Kate hesitated, uncertain of which closet or drawers to use. There were still so many things she didn’t know about him. They’d fallen in love so quickly.

  She opened the first closet and found Alex’s clothes neatly hanging in a row. He’d left his suitcase sitting out.

  In the other, she saw he’d made room for her things. Kate smiled as she put away the items she’d taken on their honeymoon.

  Once everything was u
npacked, there was nothing to do but go get Earl from Brandy’s apartment.

  Before leaving for Vegas, she’d called Brandy and asked her to pick up Earl. Of course, Brandy was dying to ask where she was going. Kate promised to explain everything the minute she got back.

  She wanted to call her father. His health had been getting worse since the last heart attack. She hadn’t talked to him all weekend. Kate knew he’d be worried about her. They’d been all each other needed for so long.

  She picked up the phone in the bedroom and dialed his number, then took Alex’s suitcase from his closet and placed it on the upper shelf. Even though she’d promised Alex to wait, she knew her father would keep her secret. He’d just have to act surprised when she and Alex stopped by later tonight.

  Something fell off the top shelf to the floor. A small box filled with newspaper clippings.

  “Hello? Who is this? Is this...” Her father’s shocked tone came through the headset.

  “Dad, it’s okay, it’s just me.” She picked up the pages and started to place them back into the box when something caught her attention.

  “Dad, guess what? I’m married! I got married in Vegas. I married Alex Bradshaw over the week...” Her voice died away as the words on those pages jumped out at her.

  Alcohol suspected in death of twenty-three-year-old wife...

  “Oh my God.” Kate barely registered her father’s disbelief.

  “Dad, I have to go. I have to.” She didn’t wait to hear Robert’s response. She disconnected the phone and let it fall to the floor at her feet.

  Marissa Bradshaw, twenty-three, wife of Alex Bradshaw was pronounced dead at the scene early Tuesday morning...

  Wife of Alex Bradshaw. Marissa Bradshaw—wife of Alex Bradshaw. Wife of the man who told her he’d never loved another. Alex had been married before.

  Suddenly everything around her shifted into slow motion. Even the words spilling out before her. Her thoughts. Her breathing. Time itself. Everything slowed to nothing.

  Alex Bradshaw—her Alex Bradshaw had been married! The man who told her he’d never loved another woman before her had lied about everything.

  Kate scanned the headlines again in disbelief and then began to read the story.

  “No,” That single word slipped out into the silent room.

  Alex Bradshaw, the man she loved with all her heart was nothing more than a cold, calculating liar.

  Chapter Four

  Everything Kate believed to be real about her marriage to Alex was slowly slipping away like the newspaper clippings that fell from her lifeless fingers to the floor.

  Her life, her marriage, even her husband’s love exposed for the reality of what they really were. Lies. A means to accomplish one thing. Alex’s revenge against the man he believed responsible for killing his wife. Kate’s father.

  Alex had known exactly who she was when he walked into the bookstore. He told her he loved her, but in truth, she was just part of his plan for revenge. He wanted her father to pay and he would stop at nothing to achieve it, including using her to get to Robert.

  And she had proven guidable enough to fall for every one of Alex’s lies.

  She’d actually believed everything he told her. Under the circumstances, he probably found all of her naivety extremely amusing.

  Looking back now with the truth scattered at her feet like a broken dream, Kate saw how ridiculous the whole thing was. Why should someone like Alex Bradshaw want to marry her? She wasn’t the type of person who attracted such men. In the past, Kate always considered herself boring, but Alex made her feel interesting.

  Right from their very first meeting, he’d flirted, listened, and seemed genuinely interested in everything she had to say.

  I’m such an idiot!

  Now she understood the real reason behind Alex’s rush to marry in the first place. Why he’d insisted Kate not mention their marriage to her father until they returned from their honeymoon.

  She thought he wanted them to break the news to her father, Robert Edwards, together carefully. After all, there was the age difference, Alex was thirty-four, and then of course they’d barely known each other.

  Lies...all lies.

  Kate gathered the clippings from the floor, stuffed them into her purse, and started throwing her clothes into the suitcase she’d just unpacked.

  She settled the heavy bag over her shoulder along with her purse and left the house she planned to share with Alex for the rest of their lives. She could never return there. Whatever she thought she felt for Alex would disappear in time.

  She needed to hear the truth from the one man she could trust to tell it to her. Her father.

  Robert Edward still lived in the small two-story house where Kate grew up. It was worlds apart from the opulent neighborhood Alex lived in.

  She parked her battered SUV in the drive next to Robert’s pickup and went inside.

  “Dad! Dad, are you here—it’s Kate!” She climbed the stairs to her father’s bedroom, dreading this moment more than ever when she would look into his eyes and see the truth.

  Her father had been ill for a long time. After the last heart attack, the doctor urged him to slow down. He’d retired less than a year ago.

  Kate pushed open the bedroom door and glanced around the room. Her father was standing near the window, looking out at the late fall morning.

  When he turned to look at her, even before he said a single word, the expression on his face told Kate everything she needed to know.

  “It’s true, isn’t it, Dad? All of it’s true?” she asked still holding onto hope.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about this, Dad? How could you?” She didn’t finish. Kate wanted to blame her father, but it wasn’t his fault. It was hers. She hadn’t listened to her conscience. She’d rushed into sleeping with Alex. Given away too much of herself too soon.

  “Katie.” Her father took a step closer, holding out his arms to his only child. She went willing into them. “I would have told you about him one day. I guess I never thought you’d meet, and there never seemed to be the right time to tell you. I guess I wanted to spare you—and myself the embarrassment of having to relive that nightmare again. I’m so sorry, my baby. I’m so very sorry.”

  Kate couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Somehow, through all the moments spent replaying everything in her head as she read those terrible things about Alex, she’d always believed once she stood before her father he might tell her it was all just a terrible misunderstanding.

  “Daddy…” Kate tried to speak, but the words just wouldn’t come over that shattering realization.

  “What are you going to do, child?” Robert watched his daughter’s pain with the helplessness of a man who was powerless to ease her suffering.

  “What can I do? I can’t believe I’m such a fool. I actually believed he loved me. I gave away everything to him, Daddy. I believed Alex’s lies.” Her father’s reaction was hard to take. She was going to cry and she couldn’t let her father see her tears.

  “I need to get away.” She started pacing around the tiny room. “Just for a little while. Until I can figure out what to do. I’m so confused; I can’t think clearly anymore. I’ll have to get the marriage annulled as soon as possible,” she said with a strangled gulp. She was crying and she couldn’t seem to stop the tears. “I want to forget I ever met Alex Bradshaw.” Kate didn’t believe there was anything Alex could do to her or her father that would hurt as much as his deception.

  “Katie, maybe you should talk to him first before you do anything. I can’t imagine Alex going to such an extreme over something that happened years ago. Maybe this is all just a misunderstanding.”

  “It’s not, Dad—you know it’s not. And I won’t let him lie to me anymore. I can never trust him again. I’m just so stupid.” She brushed away the last of her tears. “How could I actually believe he loved me? I’m Me—of all the women in the world Alex might love. I can’t accept all of this is just some strange coincidenc
e, Dad. It isn’t! It can’t be! I’m going back to my old apartment to pack and then I’m leaving. I’ll make all the necessary arrangements to have the marriage annulled as soon as I return.”

  “Katie, stop! Wait. I know you’re hurting, but you’re not thinking this through either. Take some time before you do something you might regret.” Kate couldn’t hold back the bitter laughter bubbling up inside of her at how many things she’d done since meeting Alex that she would live to regret for the rest of her life.

  “At least speak to him. Come stay with me for a while. I love having you here. Don’t run away like this. What about the bookstore? You love the store. You can’t just leave it.”

  “Dad, I have to go away. I need to sort all of this out in my head. Brandy can watch the store for a little while longer. She’s been doing fine without me anyway. Dad, I think you should come with me.” Her father’s reaction to this was clear. “Daddy, we don’t know what Alex is capable of. What if he tries to hurt you? Please, Dad, just for a little while.”

  “Baby, I’m not going anywhere. I won’t run away from this. Alex Bradshaw made those accusations against me years ago. He couldn’t make them stick then and he won’t do it now.

  “Don’t you see, Katie, none of this adds up. It’s been ten years. Why hasn’t he tried to get revenge before now? Why now after all these years? What does he hope to gain now? He knows the accident wasn’t because...”

  “Because of what, Daddy? The first report said the accident was due to you being drunk. What happened that night, Dad? Did you…” Even though Kate couldn’t say the words, he seemed to understand.

  “No, baby, I wasn’t drunk. I tried to swerve out of her way, but I couldn’t.” Her father shook his head and turned away. “That poor woman. She was dead before I got to her. By the time I reached her, there was nothing I could do. She was gone.”

  “The report said it was your car that drifted into the oncoming lane on a deserted stretch of highway. Why were you out there, Dad?”