Looking out at no one in particular, he quipped, “I’m afraid this one is censored for the time being.” Acting on pure instinct, he pulled Brit close and whispered in her ear, “I’ll tell you later.” Then, to everyone’s obvious delight, he gave her a resounding kiss on the mouth.
She blushed on cue and this produced the usual hoots and hollers from the crowd. His secrecy over the gift was a huge success so that everyone was grinning and speculating, making the usual groom innuendos.
Cal’s gift saved the day. An expired ski pass to Snowbird, which brought up the subject of his favorite sport. At that point everyone started talking about the Winter Olympics coming to Utah. Much later on, the party broke up.
But Brit hadn’t forgotten Eric’s gift. The second they were in his car for the ride home she said, “May I see the box?”
“I’m not sure where I put it.”
“It’s in your suit pocket.”
“It’s private.”
“I’m not a child.”
No, you’re not.
“Brit—t don’t like spoiling a wonderful evening. Your friends are very nice.”
“So are the P.I.s you invited.”
“Then let’s allow you to keep that opinion.”
“You mean what Eric gave you could change it?”
“Maybe.”
“I don’t like lies, Roman.”
His hands gripped the wheel so hard, his knuckles turned white.
Quicker than he would have believed, she leaned closer and reached inside his pocket. Since she was determined, Roman didn’t try to stop her.
“Is this some kind of indecent toy I’ve never heard of?” she asked in a playful tone.
She’s giving you a chance, Lufka.
“No. I wish it were,” he muttered gruffly.
Out of the periphery he saw her take off the lid. Then he heard the inevitable gasp.
CHAPTER FIVE
“...AND how I pronounce you husband and wife. Roman, you may kiss your bride.”
Though Phil, one of the P.I.s, had performed his part brilliantly as their minister, once again Roman had a hard time remembering the ceremony wasn’t for real when he covered her mouth with his own. After last night’s kiss, he wasn’t surprised he didn’t have to do all the work. She was learning to trust him. That’s why he felt her lips respond with surprising warmth.
Unlike that first night in front of Denise’s home, when he could have been forgiven for thinking he was kissing a piece of petrified wood, the bride he held in his arms was enticingly pliable.
He’d warned Brit that the wedding ceremony needed to look convincing, particularly when longtime friends of their family, people from her work and church were in attendance.
She hadn’t disappointed him. Pleased she was such a fast learner, he unconsciously found himself deepening their kiss as he’d been aching to do. But it was a mistake. He’d known it would be, but it was too late for regrets as a fresh jolt of desire quickened his body.
Angry with himself, he took a steadying breath to relax, then lifted his mouth from hers, noting the stain on her cheeks. He shouldn’t have enjoyed it so much with every eye on them. She wasn’t that inexperienced that she didn’t know what had just happened.
Cal’s shrewd gaze locked with Roman’s over her veil. He’d seen it, too. “May I be the first to congratulate the beautiful bride?” Roman heard his good friend murmur a second later, helping to diffuse an uncomfortable moment.
What made everything so much worse was that when Cal got him alone, he would never let Roman hear the end of it. Neither would Phil.
“You look radiant,” Diana enthused with a sincerity that didn’t sound in the least feigned. She clung to Cal.
Diana had spoken the truth. Brit glowed.
Again Roman experienced another stab of guilt. It was all his fault. The way this whole case was going was his fault. He never made mistakes. In this business he couldn’t afford to.
When he’d concocted this plan, he hadn’t realized he could be vulnerable, and now it was too late to change his strategy. To all intents and purposes, she was his wife for an indeterminate period. Everything had gone according to plan, except—
Fortunately their friends had crowded around, denying him any more moments of agonizing self-scrutiny. Brit’s parents, followed by Denise and Rod, then the guests, offered them their best wishes.
Rod, oblivious to the truth, reached the buffet table in the dining room first. His sister had to remind him to wait until the bride and groom had cut the wedding cake.
While Sid, one of the P.I.s, took pictures for their wedding album, Roman guided Brit’s trembling hand to slice the first piece. Caught off guard, he almost missed the mischievous smile and glint of blue eyes seconds before a large piece of white cake found its way into his mouth.
Along with the cake, Brit’s low, husky laughter, totally natural, managed to work its way past the barricades he’d erected, defeating him once more.
Entering into the spirit of the moment, he put a piece of cake in her mouth, noting inconsequentially her even, white teeth.
“You have to kiss her for the picture,” Rod shouted from the sidelines. Everyone beamed at them.
“Are you ready?” he whispered.
“Are you?” Brit fired back.
It was a wicked smile she bestowed before giving him the gooiest kiss of his existence. A payback for last night. The frosting went everywhere, producing clapping and laughter. Sid snapped away. Again, Roman had difficulty believing this was all part of an elaborate con.
“Just for that, you have to clean me off.”
“Yes, master.”
Their eyes held as she wiped the frosting off his cheeks and mouth with painstaking care.
No words were necessary as Roman reached for another napkin and began a similar process, marveling over the subtle cleft in her chin, the pure mold of her facial structure. His beautiful madonna. That’s what he’d secretly named her after first seeing her in her wedding dress.
Recognizing he was in trouble, he removed a dab of frosting from the corner of her mouth, then quickly turned away, muttering an oath to himself that the intimacy he’d enjoyed would go no further than the wedding festivities.
When they left this house in a few minutes, she’d be the client he’d sworn to protect, nothing else!
Brit had to hide her disappointment when Roman announced that he was going out for a while. It was ridiculous to have any feelings one way or the other. He was a private investigator, for heaven’s sake!
This was not their wedding night.
They’d both been playing a part for days now. That was all.
With the supposed legalities behind them, Roman could get down to the job he’d pledged to do. She could sense his impatience to be gone.
“Lyle’s on duty outside, so you don’t have to worry about anything.”
“I’m not,” she said a little too brightly. “It’s after ten and I’m awfully tired. I think I’ll turn in.”
“You do that. I’ll see you in the morning. Sleep in as late as you want. You’re on your honeymoon until next Monday morning when you show up for work.”
Work.
The monumental events of this day had crowded every other thought from her mind. Even Glen Baird’s horrifying image had receded for those few seconds when Roman’s kiss had caused an explosion of feeling deep inside her body. Without knowing how, he’d brought her to an awareness of her femininity. She felt alive in a brand new way.
Every time she closed her eyes, she relived the passion of that magical moment until she could hardly breathe.
What she was experiencing now explained as nothing else could why she hadn’t accepted Scott’s proposal two years ago.
Logically, she realized this had less to do with Roman, and more to do with pure physical attraction and chemistry. Nevertheless it was the necessary ingredient lacking in her relationship with Scott.
No doubt Roman had kissed ot
her women with just as much passion in the line of duty. He’d said he’d never played the part of a husband before, and she believed him. But she imagined his various personas occasionally required the kind of thing which they’d shared today. Of course he would never give any thought to it. Why should he?
There had to be a special woman in his life. Someone important to him when he took a night off the job to relax. The thought that he could be interested in another woman had nothing to do with Brit. She shouldn’t even be curious about what he did after hours.
But she couldn’t pretend disinterest, not when she recognized him as an exceptional human being.
Brit had always assumed an obstetrician or pediatrician worked harder, longer hours around the clock than anyone else. But only four days with Roman and she was having to change her opinions about a lot of things. Particularly about herself.
To think she’d ever wanted to be a boy.
Such naïveté was embarrassing to admit. She threw back her head impatiently. How was she going to sleep? Telling Roman she was tired was a colossal lie. She needed to talk. She needed Denise.
While she punched in the numbers, she made the decision that if Rod answered, she’d tell him she wanted to thank him for helping make her wedding special. Then she’d tell him to put his sister on the phone for a minute.
While she waited, she chastised herself and ran a trembling hand through her hair. When was she going to get it through her head that it wasn’t a real wedding?
“Hello?” Denise answered on the first ring, sounding a trifle intense for her.
“Denise?”
“Brit! You don’t know how much I’ve wanted to call you. I’ve been dying for this day to end so we could talk.”
“You don’t know the half of it, Denise.”
“I think you’ve got a problem, dear friend, and I’m not talking about the psycho who’s after you.”
Brit couldn’t speak for a minute. “You notice too much.”
“Roman Lufka is kind of hard not to notice. When a man like that comes into your life, he redefines everything you thought you knew about the relationship between a man and a woman. All I can say is, be careful. His charms have even affected me.”
There was no point in trying to lie to Denise. “He’s just doing his job. All I can do is pray he never senses what I’m feeling.” Her voice shook.
“That’s going to be pretty hard to hide.”
“I know,” she moaned. “How could something like this happen? Especially now?”
“I don’t know. Some men don’t ask permission. They just are.”
Brit reeled from the profundity of her friend’s remark.
“Denise? On the way home from Mom and Dad’s, Roman told me that if things look bad, he wants you and Rod to go stay with your grandparents in California while your parents are away.”
“What a remarkable man, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Oh, Brit—whoever dreamed our trip would turn into this nightmare.”
“Without Roman, I don’t honestly know what I would have done.”
“Well I’ll say this much. He’s in a class all by himself. If he can’t nail Glen and put him away forever, no one can. From my point of view, he’s the best of the best. You couldn’t ask for more than that.”
“I know. Believe me. I know. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Ciao,” they both said at the same time.
One more phone call to her folks, then Brit went to bed. But she spent a restless night because of the haunting male who slept a wall away.
The next morning, not long after Roman had left for work, she started acquainting herself with his house and decided to dust and vacuum to justify her existence. Up until now they’d both been preoccupied with wedding plans.
While she kept busy, her mind kept going over her conversation with Denise. So deep was her turmoil, she didn’t realize the phone had been ringing.
Earlier, Roman had explained that only a handful of people knew his home phone number. All other calls were routed directly to his office and dealt with by Diana.
If that was true, then it was probably Roman calling on the cellular phone about something vital. Had the police caught up with Glen? Please, please let it be true.
She reached for the nearest phone in the study and picked up the receiver. “Hello?”
“Hello, Brittany.”
The intimate way the man greeted her, using her full name with his distinctly unwestern accent, made her blood congeal.
Sick to the pit of her stomach, she quietly put the phone back on the hook, then paged Lyle on his beeper with the cellular phone. Her hands shook so hard, it dropped on the hardwood floor.
“Brit?” he answered immediately.
“Oh, Lyle—Come inside quick. I—I think Glen Baird just tried to phone me. I was so terrified, I hung up.”
“Calm down, Brit. I’m going to need backup and have to stay at my post. Here’s what you do. If he’s the one, he’ll probably call back. I want you to keep him on the phone. It’s being recorded. Get him to talk as long as you can. He may give away a few vital clues. Someone from the office will be with you shortly.”
Her mouth had gone so dry, she couldn’t form words.
“Brit? Can you hear me?”
“Y-yes.”
“You’re going to be all right. This may be the break we’ve been waiting for. No matter what, just keep him talking.”
“All right.”
She clicked off and stared at the other phone.
How could Glen have gotten Roman’s private phone number? How could he do something like that?
She started to shiver and couldn’t stop. When the regular phone rang again, she knew she was going to be ill. But she had to get it. Lyle said it might be their only lead.
Holding her breath, she gingerly lifted the receiver from the hook.
“Hello?”
“Brittany? Where did you go?”
Through wooden lips she said, “The phone dropped, and we g-got disconnected.”
“Can you guess who this is?”
He was a fiend!
“I already know.”
“You’re too intelligent for your own good.” His laughter chilled her. “I thought maybe you were scared of me, and that’s why you hung up on me. Your husband knows too much, and has probably told you tales about me out of school.”
She moaned. “No! I—T-that’s not true. Of course I’m n-not scared of you.”
“Okay. I’ll forgive you, but I have to be honest. I thought you were lying about your wedding. How come I haven’t heard about your plans?”
One minute had passed. If she could detain him a little longer...
“I-it’s been a private affair.”
“Well the cat’s out of the bag now. I suppose you know you’re both in serious trouble.”
Her hand held the receiver in a death grip. “I was h-hoping you’d be happy for us.”
“I would have been happier if you hadn’t sprung it on me as a surprise. What are your favorite flowers, Brittany?”
Her body started to grow cold.
“I don’t have a favorite.”
“Well, you’re getting some anyway. Yellow roses for besotted love? No. Red roses I think, for true love. It must be true love to have done what you’ve done. Besides, it’s the least I can do without being there, even if they’re belated.”
Roses. Paralyzed with fear, Brit couldn’t utter a sound.
“Is there something wrong, Brittany?”
She stifled her gasp. “What do you mean?”
“You sound upset. I’m sorry if my call has disturbed you.”
“No. I-it hasn’t.”
“You’re lying, Brittany, but I’ll take that up with your husband. Say hello to him for me. Tell him I’ll coming.”
A new fear for Roman clutched her heart.
“Goodbye for now, Brittany.”
“No!” she cried in panic. “Don’t go!” But a definite
click resounded in her ear.
As she put the receiver back on the hook, she heard the sound of the front door opening.
“Lyle?” she shouted hysterically.
“No. It’s Roman.”
“Roman!”
In the next breath, she was running down the hall straight into his arms.
With her head burrowed into his shoulder, her body clinging to him like a second skin, Roman had little choice except to comfort her. He nodded to Deke to go on in the study and take care of business.
Baird might be cunning. Still, Roman couldn’t imagine how in the hell that maniac had traced Brit to the house, let alone come up with Roman’s private phone number when only his family and the people who worked for him had access to it. Roman had covered every base. Or so he’d thought.
Little wonder that Brit, who up until now had been handling things with a maturity and rationality Roman could only praise, had fallen apart.
“H-he said you were in s-serious trouble, Roman.” She tried to prevent the sobs racking her body. “I should never have called your company. Now he’s after you. I—I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you because of me.”
Over and above everything else, her fears for his safety touched him deeply. Without conscious thought he held her tighter, molding the back of her head with his hand as he attempted to reassure her.
Mistake number one hundred...
Now there’d be more things about her he wouldn’t be able to erase from his mind, like the exquisite feel of her womanly body driving against his, the flowery fragrance of her silken hair and skin. He was so intent on assuaging her fear, he almost didn’t realize Deke had come down the hall and was ready to exit the front door.
“It wasn’t Baird, so you can relax,” he murmured in an aside to Roman, a curious smile curving his mouth before he slipped out.
Relieved and satisfied that Baird hadn’t traced them to his lair, Roman now felt free to indulge his curiosity.
“Brit?” He slowly eased her away from him, his hands on her slender shoulders. “Deke said it wasn’t Baird.”
“What?” came the cry of joy while those deep blue orbs, shimmering with moisture, regarded him in shock.
Undercover Husband Page 7