Undercover Christmas

by BJ Daniels

  “My memory’s coming back,” he assured her quickly. “I remember most everything. There’s just a few…holes.”

  Right. Marni studied him, unable to get past the selective part of his memory loss and the hole Elise and the baby had supposedly fallen in. “How do you know that…I’m not one of those holes?”

  “I know. I don’t have to prove it to you or anyone else.”

  Why did he sound so defensive if he was so positive? Because he isn’t sure, Marni thought. Maybe his memory loss was more severe than he wanted to admit. But that still didn’t explain why he wouldn’t even consider Elise might be part of those lost memories, did it?

  “This—” she had trouble even saying the word “—selective memory loss of yours, did the doctors say all of your memory will come back?” Marni thought about what she’d heard in the library. If Chase had really gotten a glimpse of the driver of that truck right before the accident, he might have seen the attempted murderer. Even knowing Chase for as short a time as she did, she knew trying to remember that must be driving him crazy. Possibly it explained why he was so angry at her, she’d added to his frustration by being another one of those holes in his memory.

  “It’s only a matter of time before I remember everything,” he said, the threat clear in his voice.

  She wanted to say something smart to wipe the smugness from his face. Wouldn’t he feel foolish when he remembered Elise? “What about the accident itself?” she asked instead. “Will you be able to remember it?”

  “The doctors say I won’t but they don’t know me.”

  Jabe was right about Chase’s stubbornness, she decided. But while Jabe saw the quality as a flaw in his son’s character, Marni saw it as a strength.

  But what if he never remembered the face of the truck driver? “If you’re right about the driver deliberately trying to run your father down, your life might be in danger, as well. The driver is probably worried you’ll remember.”

  Chase actually smiled. “Are you starting to believe me?”

  Was she? “It doesn’t matter what I believe,” Marni told him. “But I have to wonder, if you’re so positive we were never lovers, why are you so worried about me and the safety of my baby? Could you be afraid to remember?”

  He narrowed his gaze. “Afraid?”

  “Afraid of the feelings you might have for me or this baby.” She expected anger. Denial. Recriminations.

  She didn’t expect him to laugh.

  The sound filled the barn as he leaned toward her on his crutches and placed a large palm on either side of the wall beside her head.

  Chase was a little too close for comfort. Nor did she like the glint in his eyes. But he had her trapped, and he knew it. He pinned her to the wall with the intensity of his look. She held her breath as he let his gaze travel leisurely over her face, pausing at her lips, as predatory as a wanton kiss.

  “Were we passionate lovers?”

  “I don’t see how that has anything to do with this,” she replied primly, feeling her cheeks burn.

  “You don’t?” He seemed to be fighting back a smile. ‘As intimate as you say we’ve been, why look so shocked by my question?”

  “Because this has nothing to do with sex.”

  He lifted one dark eyebrow. “It looks to me like it has a great deal to do with sex.” He dropped his gaze to Sam.

  She assured herself she could hold her own with him. Even with the memory of last night’s kiss still fresh in her mind and on her lips. Even with her limited experience with men. And her total lack of experience with a man like Chase Calloway.

  “How long have we known each other?” he asked innocently enough.

  “Since June,” she said, surprised at how nervous he was making her.

  “How did we meet?” he inquired, not moving closer but making her intensely aware of the space he dominated.

  “In a fender bender. I ran into you.”

  “Then there should be a police report, insurance forms, some sort of record.”

  So proof was what he was looking for. She put a protective hand over Sam; how much more proof did the man need? “We didn’t call the police or our insurance companies because there wasn’t any real damage.”

  “If you’d run into a truck I was driving, I would have insisted we call the police, even if there wasn’t any visible damage.”

  “But for some reason you didn’t that day,” she said.

  He seemed to ignore that. “Nor can I remember the last time I drove one of the ranch trucks.”

  “You can’t remember a lot of things,” she said. “But you do drive the trucks as part of your job, right?”

  He stared at her. “You think I work for my father?” he asked incredulously.

  “I just assumed—-”

  “How could we have been lovers and you not know what I do for a living?” Chase interrupted.

  Good question. “You led me to believe you worked for Calloway Ranches.”

  “You’re saying I lied to you?” he demanded, obviously not happy with the prospect of being called a liar.

  “Misled me, possibly?” she suggested carefully. How could Elise have gotten things so messed up? “So there isn’t any way you could have been driving the ranch’s white truck last June?”

  He frowned. “I didn’t say my father doesn’t try to involve me in the family business every chance he gets.”

  “So that proves nothing,” she said, discouraged.

  He rummaged a hand through his hair. “How long did we date?”

  She was at a loss for words to describe Elise’s four-day love affair. Marni couldn’t imagine falling that hard in four months, let alone four days. “It was love at first sight”

  Chase laughed. “You have to be kidding.”

  “It was magical,” Marni said defensively.

  He arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “Something that only happens once in a lifetime,” she added and stopped, having run out of cliches.

  “How long?” he demanded.

  She swallowed. “Four days.”

  “Four days!” Disbelief. Shock. Incredulity. He shook his head and laughed. “Four days?”

  “It happened very fast.”

  “I’d say.” He reached out and traced his thumb across her lower lip. His thumb pad felt disarmingly rough. “That must have been some four days. I must have kissed these lips often during those magical, fun-filled four days.”

  It was clear in his eyes what kind of woman he thought her to be. She turned her head and he pulled back his hand, the smile dissolving into a piqued frown. He thought her a liar and a fraud. Among other things. She wanted to knee him, but taking down a man on crutches seemed lower than even the way he was behaving.

  “I see that you don’t believe two people can fall in love…quickly,” she said.

  “You’re wrong.” He speared her with those pale blue eyes. “I believe two people can fall in love instantly. Just not me.”

  “You’re immune to love?” she asked, adopting his dis-believing tone.

  “I don’t have time for it, and since I never plan to marry—”

  “No children or marriage?” she interrupted in surprise.

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I don’t get involved.”

  “But what if you did this time? What if you…” She swallowed. “Couldn’t help yourself?” Her cheeks flamed red hot. She wanted desperately to explain to him that she wasn’t referring to herself but Elise. Elise had a way with men that caused them to do things they would never do with any other woman.

  He leaned back and lazily let his gaze explore the curves beneath her open coat. “I can see where I’d definitely be tempted, I’ll give you that.” He seemed to be enjoying this a lot more than she was.

  “Maybe,” he said softly, “it’s just a matter of…jogging…my memory.”

  Marni didn’t like the sound of this or the predatory look in his eyes. “I came here to discuss what we were going to
do about the baby,” she said quickly, realizing Sam was the only thing keeping them apart right now. “Not to—”

  “To what?” he asked with wide-eyed innocence.

  CHASE MADE a dozen excuses for what he was about to do. All of them were honorable and made perfect sense. Especially in his current state of mind. Was this woman part of some memory loss? Or was she simply taking advantage of the situation? He had a right to prove that she wasn’t his lover, that the baby she carried wasn’t his and that she was the conniver he suspected she was. She wasn’t the first woman who’d tried to wrangle the Calloway name with a baby that wasn’t his.

  Except this woman was different. That he wanted to kiss her again was the least of it. He needed to kiss her to prove to himself that he was right. He couldn’t have forgotten her, memory loss or not. Last night he’d been so sure that once he kissed her he’d know the truth. But kissing her had only left him more confused. The attraction had been explosive. More than he wanted to admit. Maybe he did have a four-day affair with her, his traitorous mind tempted. Or maybe he just wanted to kiss her again for purely prurient reasons.

  “I think we should talk about this,” she said, her voice cracking.

  “About what?”

  She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. There was something about her mouth…The provocative way her lips parted. The soft moan that escaped her throat last night when he’d pulled her into his kiss. The powerful seductive feel of her. It had been so…magical?

  He wasn’t sure what decided him or if it had been an actual decision at all. Suddenly be had a need to feel her skin as strongly as the need to remember her. He needed to explore the dark recesses of his mind to find if she was lodged there, the same way he needed to explore her body. Purely to get at the truth, of course. If he felt her skin against his, he would remember, his mind assured him. And oh how he wanted to feel her naked against him. He couldn’t remember ever wanting a woman the way he wanted this one right now. What was it about her?

  His fingers slid down the soft, silken column of her neck. At the hollow of her throat, he could feel the thunder of her heart beneath his fingertips. What he saw in her golden brown eyes startled him, but not half as much as the intensity of his body’s reaction to her. Desire fired her gaze the way it blazed in his loins. My God, was it possible? Had they really been lovers?

  “Elise.” His voice came out a hoarse whisper. His hand dropped to the round curve of her breast.

  She jumped as if she’d been scalded with boiling water.

  Chase frowned at her reaction, all his suspicions coming back in an instant. Why did she seem as startled as he was by the strength of the chemistry between them? And as unsure about him as he was about her? “Do I make you nervous?”

  “No,” she croaked.

  “I would think you’d be used to my touch,” he said quietly, watching her face. Who was this woman? Certainly not one he’d ever spent four amorous days and nights with, he thought with no small regret. He told himself he’d known it hadn’t been true all along. What was it about her that had made him doubt that?

  Whoever she was, he was now more determined than ever to find out what she was up to.

  MARNI FELT HER BODY begin to vibrate, a fine high vibration that raced along in her blood. She leaned against the wall, trying to get her feet back under her. This wasn’t going the way she’d planned. She had to get out of here before she betrayed her twin. Out of this barn. Away from Chase Calloway. She just didn’t know how to do it gracefully. She’d already stirred up his suspicions again. She could see it in those pale blue eyes of his.

  If she were really his lover—She couldn’t keep deluding herself that another kiss might unlock his lost memories. If that were true, it would take Elise’s kiss—not her own. And this time, Chase had a lot more than a kiss in mind. It was put-up or shut-up time and Marni was in over her head.

  He looked at her, his gaze challenging her. “What’s wrong?”

  “We can’t do this.”

  His smile was merciless. “We’ve already done this. As they say, it’s too late to close the barn door after the cow has gotten away.”

  Her hands went to his chest to push him away. She felt the heat of his skin through his shirt, felt his heart race beneath her palms, and her own instantly match that treacherous beat as his lips descended on hers.

  A door banged open. “Chase?” Dayton sounded peeved.

  Chase swore softly as his gaze met Marni’s, his lips lingered for a moment, hovering over hers, then he smiled, his message clear: This was only a temporary reprieve. “We’ll finish this later.”

  “Chase?” Dayton snapped. Over Chase’s shoulder, Marni could see Dayton squinting into the darkness of the stable area, trying to find them. “You’re holding up breakfast and you know how Mother hates—” He faltered as his gaze fell on them. Annoyance turned to curiosity. “Everything all right?”

  “Everything’s just fine,” Chase said without turning around. “Isn’t it?” he asked Marni softly and then faced his half brother.

  Marni leaned against the wall, her heart hammering, her very breath trapped in her throat, her body quaking like an aspen in the wind. She wasn’t sure what shocked her more. Chase’s behavior. Or her own. She’d wanted to kiss him again!

  Worse than that. She actually felt regret that Dayton had rescued her when he did. What was happening to her? This wasn’t like her at all.

  Inwardly she groaned as a thought struck her. If Chase had this effect on every woman, no wonder Elise had fallen so madly in love with him. But Marni couldn’t help wondering how many other women were lost in the man’s selective memory loss.

  “Vanessa’s going to be fit to be tied,” Dayton said, sounding as if he looked forward to it since it would be Chase’s fault and not his own.

  The two brothers exchanged a look. Marni could feel the tension stretch dangerously between them.

  Dayton looked away first. “Hey, don’t kill the messenger. She just sent me out to get you both into breakfast. Also you have a phone call, Chase.”

  “Took you long enough to tell me.” He shot Marni a look over his shoulder that held both promise and threat, then he turned and hobbled out the side entrance Dayton had come in, the door closing behind him in a gush of cold air and snow.

  The spell broken, Marni took a breath to steady herself. Always sensible. Always confident. Always in control. What had happened to that Marni McCumber? Chase Calloway. That’s what had happened. Chase and this stupid pretense. She wasn’t just pretending to be pregnant. She was trying to be another woman, a woman Marni McCumber couldn’t even pretend to be.

  What was it about Chase Calloway that could be so irritating and at the same time so…tempting? She took a ragged breath and realized Dayton hadn’t moved. He leaned against the barn wall, studying her in a way that instantly made her uncomfortable at being alone with him.

  She started past him but he stepped in front of her to block her exit.

  “So you’re having Chase’s baby?” he asked, something dark and intimidating in his blue eyes.

  “It’s really none of your concern,” she said, realizing he wasn’t going to let her past until he had his say.

  “Do you know anything about breeding…horses?”

  Marni wanted to wipe that smug, self-satisfied look off his face. The last thing she’d do was let him see that he frightened her. “No, do you know anything about interior design?”

  He looked confused, some of the smugness gone.

  “I was just curious who decorated the house,” Marni said. “Your mother?”

  Dayton looked wary. “Yes, she wanted it to reflect my father and his position.”

  Marni wondered what position of Jabe’s the house reflected. Overbearing, domineering and pompous came to mind. “Then Vanessa was an interior decorator before she married Jabe?”

  Dayton’s horrified expression confirmed that she’d scored a bull’s-eye. “My mother has never…worked
. She was a Landers of Boston before she became a Calloway.”

  A Landers of Boston? He made it sound like royalty, the same way he made “work” sound like a dirty word.

  She had to bite her tongue not to share her thoughts on the work ethic with him. A job might be just what Vanessa Calloway needed.

  “Where are the McCumbers from?” Dayton asked, his nose lifting into the air.

  “Montana,” she said proudly. “I’m fifth-generation.”

  “How nice,” he said, not even pretending to mean it. ‘That would make this child you’re carrying…?”

  “A sixth-generation Montanan,” she said.

  He gave her a weak smile. “If you knew anything about breeding…horses, you’d know the value of the foal is based on its lineage. That’s why you’d never breed a Thoroughbred with a nag.”

  Marni felt as if she’d been slapped. “I don’t know much about breeding horses,” she said, surprised at how calm and restrained she sounded, “but I do know a jackass when I see one.” She shoved past him but not before she’d seen the look on his face. Pure hate.

  She felt a shiver as she hurried toward the house.

  Chapter Six

  Marni rushed through the back door and nearly collided with Vanessa.

  “Breakfast is going to be late,” Vanessa announced angrily, then turned on her high heels and stalked back down the hall to the dining room.

  Marni mugged a face at her back, wishing the storm would stop and she could get out of this place.

  “I wouldn’t keep my mother waiting,” Dayton warned as he came in the back door and swept past her.

  “I’m sure you wouldn’t,” Marni mumbled as she removed her coat. She wanted to tell Vanessa what she could do with her breakfast and Dayton what he could do with his so-called breeding and Chase what he could do with his—

  Come on, Marni, who are you really angry with? She took a deep breath and reluctantly admitted none of those people were really to blame for the way she was feeling.

  Dayton, the blizzard, the cold, snowy hike from the barn and even Vanessa couldn’t distract her thoughts from her recent encounter with Chase. She made several attempts to downplay her reaction to his touch and finally gave up. The bottom line: She wasn’t equipped for this. Pretending to be Elise was too much for her.