by Diana Palmer
She really blushed then. “Oh.”
“So I think as much of my reputation as I think of yours,” he added. “I was considering that we might get married in the probate judge’s office. Just for the trip,” he said emphatically. “I’m not in the market for a long-term wife or a new family. I can’t… I won’t risk that again. But we can be married long enough to do some investigating.”
She was gaping at him. “We’d get married so that you could ask a senator’s wife a few questions in the Bahamas?” she asked blankly.
He laughed. “It sounds bad, when you put it that way.”
“But it’s what you want to do.”
“No, it isn’t.” He gave her a considering look. “I won’t mention what I’d like to do. But it’s why I think we should get married. Just in case.”
Her eyebrows arched. Her eyes began to twinkle. “Just in case what?”
“In case I can’t resist the temptation to do what I’d like to do,” he said wryly. “In which case, it wouldn’t be an annulment, it would be a divorce.”
She cocked her head up at him. “You might like me.”
“I’m sure I would. But I’m not getting married again.”
“You just said you wanted to,” she pointed out.
“Temporarily,” he emphasized.
“You’re afraid I’d get temporarily pregnant if we went down there as an unmarried couple,” she mused.
He glared at her. “I don’t get women temporarily pregnant.”
“You sure wouldn’t get me that way, because I believe very strongly that if babies get made, they should get born,” she said firmly.
He sighed. “Winnie, I’ve had a traumatic seven years,” he said. “Right now, the only thing I want to do is find out who killed my wife and child. I’m not emotionally sound enough for a new relationship of any kind.”
She felt doors closing. He was brutal. But perhaps he felt he needed to be. He didn’t want to give her any false hope.
His silver eyes narrowed. “This is how you looked that morning when you found me and Sheriff Hayes in bed with your brother and Keely,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“You stopped playing with me,” he said somberly. “You stopped looking at me with those big, soft brown eyes as if you’d die to have me.”
“I never looked at you that way,” she defended herself. “I thought you were dishy. So have a lot of other women, I’ll bet.”
“I minded when other women did it,” he said surprisingly.
“You did?”
“You’re just a little violet, blooming under a stair,” he said softly, touching her face with the tips of his fingers as he looked down at her intently. “Twenty-two to my thirty-two, Winnie. That’s almost a generation.”
“It’s ten years and I’m old for my age.”
He pursed his lips. “Not old in the right way, kid,” he insinuated.
She glared at him. “Nobody learns things without somebody teaching them,” she said flatly. “My father and my big brother made sure nobody got close enough.”
“Good for them,” he repeated.
“Listen, I have the makings of a femme fatale if I could just learn the basics,” she told him. “Books don’t tell you anything. They assume you already know.”
“What sort of books have you been reading?” he asked in mock surprise.
“The same sort boys hide under their mattresses, I imagine, but I need more than just pictures! You’re changing the subject.” She pushed against his chest. “I’m not marrying you temporarily. You can find some other woman to go with you to the Bahamas and I’ll loan you our vacation home.”
“I’m not shacking up with a total stranger,” he said curtly.
“Well, you’re not shacking up with me, either, Kilraven,” she told him.
“That’s why I’m trying to get you to marry me!”
She pulled away and walked closer to the stream. She felt sick to her stomach. He wanted a no-strings marriage so that he could help solve the case. She was a means to an end for him. He didn’t feel anything for her, really. He never would. He lived with ghosts. She felt more chilled by that realization than from the cold weather. She wrapped her arms around her chest.
He watched her with growing irritation. It was just like a woman to start fishing for emotional involvement. All he needed was her company so that he could get to the senator’s wife. Why was she making it so hard? It was because she had feelings for him, he thought irritably. As if he could see a future with a woman only a few years out of high school. He didn’t want children, so there was no point in staying married.
“You’re making this complicated,” he said shortly, ramming his hands into his pockets. “Why can’t we just look on it as a lark? We get married, have a holiday on the beach, and build some memories that don’t require anything heavy.”
She turned and looked at him, horrified.
“We could enjoy each other,” he said, losing ground.
“We can have separate bedrooms and behave like unmarried people,” she said. “Or I’m not going.”
“What the hell sort of vacation is that?”
“The only sort you’re getting with me,” she returned, coloring. “You think you can have fun with me and just walk away. I’m not built like that. I can’t…damn it, I won’t!” She turned away. “You can take me back to the café, right now!” She started walking toward the car.
He just stared after her. “What the hell did I say?” he asked the tree beside him.
“That’s it, talk to the trees,” she muttered when she was out of earshot of him. “Look out. They may start answering you!”
7
Kilraven thought about her reactions. Maybe she was right. If they could go together to Nassau and just have a few days of sun and sand and ocean, and he didn’t pressure her into something she didn’t want, it might pay off in a better working relationship. Working, as in courting the senator’s wife. Because whatever he said, his only intent was to find out if there was a skeleton in the closet of the senator’s brother. He wanted the people who killed his family. That was more important than the future, or Winnie’s feelings or any other consideration. Maybe he was using her, but he didn’t care. It was an obsession, just as his brother had said. He was going to catch the killer, no matter who he had to hurt to do it.
He walked behind her to the car. “Okay,” he said as he unlocked the car and helped her inside. “We’ll do it your way. But if I jump off the roof of your summer home in frustration and die, it will be on your conscience.”
“It won’t,” she returned.
“Heartless girl.”
She glanced at him. “And I’m not wearing anything provocative the whole time.”
“Amazing willpower,” he murmured. “Good for you.”
She sighed. “And I’m not telling Boone. You’ll have to.”
His face froze. That was not a prospect he was looking forward to. He knew Boone, and that Boone had been in the military. It was going to be tricky telling him why he was marrying his baby sister. He didn’t need to be told that Boone was going to be angry.
“Surely, you’re not afraid of him,” she said with faint malice.
He drew in a breath. “No, not afraid,” he replied.
“You can tell him how you want to marry me so that we can frolic from bedroom to bedroom in the Bahamas and you can use me to dig information out of the senator’s wife,” she continued.
He glared at her. “You’re twisting it,” he muttered.
“I’m twisting it?” she exclaimed. “You want me to marry you for a few days so that you can get information that will lead you to whoever killed your family.” She sobered. “I don’t blame you. If it were me, I’d do anything to find out, too. But I’m the one being used. It feels dirty.”
He really glared now. “Dirty.”
She grimaced. “That was a poor choice of words,” she said slowly.
He closed the passenger
door without another word. He went around, got in under the wheel and shot the car out onto the highway. His face might have been carved from stone.
Winnie felt tears threatening. She wasn’t used to confrontations since the death of her father. She didn’t fight with her brothers. She was a little afraid of Boone, but she didn’t advertise it. Men were frightening in a temper. She glanced at Kilraven and thought of glaciers. She knew so little about him. Most of what she’d learned was from other people, although he’d been forthcoming with her on some level. But he kept his true feelings to himself. He seemed happy to be a loner.
She looked out the window uncomfortably as he sped down the road toward Barbara’s Café, where her car was parked. She was already regretting her hasty words. What would it hurt to marry him, even if it was temporary? She was crazy about him. Maybe she could store up enough memories to get her through the rest of her life, because she knew she’d never love another man like this.
But he didn’t look like he was contemplating a second proposal. In fact, he looked as if he wished he’d never met her.
She wanted to apologize. She knew it was useless. She’d offended him. Not that he hadn’t offended her first. What sort of woman did he think she was?
Her lips made a thin line. She knew that he’d never have mentioned a holiday with her if it hadn’t been for the senator’s wife living near the Sinclair beach house. She was a means to an end, and it was impersonal. He liked her. Maybe he liked kissing her. But there was no feeling behind it, except maybe a physical one. The chemistry was definitely there. He felt it, as surely as she did. But he didn’t love her. Perhaps he couldn’t love anyone again. The trauma of his loss had turned him cold, made him afraid to try again. He didn’t want another child. He didn’t want another wife, either. Winnie was a tool. He’d use her to get the information he needed, then he’d put her back on the shelf and forget her very existence. It hurt, knowing that.
He pulled up in front of Barbara’s Café where she’d left her car and sat with the engine idling.
She wanted to say something. She couldn’t think of anything that would express her confused emotions.
He wanted to say something, too, but he was angry. Anything he said would be too much.
Her hand went to the car door. “Thanks for the ride,” she said tautly. “Sure.”
She waited for a minute, but he didn’t say another word. He didn’t even look at her. She opened the door, got out and closed it behind her. She walked to her own car without looking back. She could barely see it through her tears when she heard him drive away.
“YOU LOOK LIKE DEATH warmed over,” Keely said gently later, when they were fixing supper.
Winnie managed a smile as she made a pasta salad. “That’s how I feel.”
“Want to talk about it?”
Winnie put the finishing touches on the salad and covered the bowl before she put it in the refrigerator to chill. “It wouldn’t help,” she said finally.
“Well, if you do want to talk, you know where I am,” Keely said.
“You’re the best friend I’ve ever had,” Winnie told her. “It was the best day of my life when Boone married you.” She hugged her warmly.
“I could return the compliment. You saved my life when the rattler bit me. I thought I was a goner.”
Winnie laughed. “Poor old snake,” she said, fighting back the tears that the hug had provoked.
“He never should have bitten me in the first place.”
“He wouldn’t have, if you hadn’t sat on him,” Winnie said.
“I guess so.”
“You won’t tell Boone, if I tell you?” she asked.
Keely’s green eyes twinkled. She crossed her heart.
“Kilraven wants me to marry him.”
“Winnie! That’s great news…!” Keely began.
She held up a hand. “It’s not. He wants me to marry him and spend a few days at our summer house in Nassau so that he can have me pump Senator Sanders’s wife for information about her crooked brother-in-law. Then he wants an annulment when we get back. Unless I’m willing to, how did he put it, enjoy our time together, in which case we can get a divorce when we come home.”
Keely just stared at her. “That silver-eyed devil,” she exclaimed. “I hope you told him where to go!”
“Not in so many words, no,” Winnie replied quietly. “But I did tell him no.”
“Good for you. I can’t believe he asked you to do such a thing!”
“Neither can I.”
“You poor thing,” Keely said. “I know how you feel about him.”
“So does he.” She sighed. “That’s part of the problem. I shouldn’t have been so obvious.”
“It’s not as if you could help it.”
“Well, that’s true.”
“Men are a lot of trouble. Even the best of them.”
Winnie leaned back against the counter with her arms folded over her chest. “I really thought he was beginning to like me. He seemed to. Then he came up with this cockeyed plan.” She glanced at her friend. “I do understand how he feels. He loved his little girl…”
“Little girl?” Keely exclaimed. “He’s already married?”
Winnie’s eyes were sad. “He was. Someone killed his daughter and his wife. The little girl was just three years old. She drew him a picture. It looked just like the painting I did for him, as a Christmas gift.”
Keely went quiet. “You really do have something extra in your brain, Winnie.”
“I must.” She laughed softly. “It made him furious. That’s why he took me to his house that time, to find out why I painted a raven. I didn’t even know myself. When he showed me the finger painting, I almost passed out.”
“It wasn’t the first time you’ve had odd connections. You knew Kilraven was in danger and sent backup long before he asked for it.”
“Eerie, isn’t it?”
“Not eerie,” Keely said gently. “It’s a gift. You probably saved Kilraven’s life when you sent another squad car to assist him.”
“He gave me strange looks after that.”
“I think he’s conflicted about how he feels,” Keely said. “A man who’s gone through a trauma like that has to work through it.”
“He’s had seven years.”
“Yes, but he hasn’t really faced it, has he?” Keely asked. “He wants revenge. It’s all he lives for. But revenge is a hollow thing.”
“He’ll find that out.”
“Yes, he will.” Keely hugged her. “But it doesn’t help you, does it?”
Winnie hugged her back. “Not a lot.”
“Give him time,” Keely advised. “Just be there when he needs someone to talk to. He seems to have told you things that he hasn’t shared with anyone else. He really is a loner.”
“Yes.”
“Why did he want to marry you to go to the Bahamas?” Keely wondered.
“We’d have to stay in the house together. He was worried about his reputation,” she added facetiously.
“His?”
Winnie flushed, when she recalled what he’d told her. “Well, his and mine,” she amended without elaborating. “He said it wouldn’t look right for us to be staying together, alone, when we’re not married.”
“Talk about a throwback to an earlier generation,” Keely exclaimed.
“So says the woman who offered to send my brother packing because she thought he was looking for a good time,” Winnie said and grinned.
Keely grimaced. “Touché. I guess Kilraven’s like us. He doesn’t move with the times. That’s not a bad thing. I don’t like promiscuous men any more than I like promiscuous women, and I don’t care if it’s supposed to be acceptable behavior to the whole world.”
“Want me to get you a soapbox and a placard?” Winnie mused.
Keely laughed. “I sound like a crusader, don’t I? I don’t preach to people about my personal beliefs, I don’t tell people what I think they should do. But I never was one
to go with the crowd. Neither are you.”
“We live in a whole community of dinosaurs,” Winnie pointed out. “Including Kilraven.”
Keely smiled. “He’ll come around.”
“Do you think so?” she asked miserably. “He didn’t even look at me when he let me out at Barbara’s. He just drove away.”
“He’ll think about it and then he’ll call you.”
“Not a chance in the world.”
Keely pursed her lips. “I’ll bet you some homemade rolls.”
“You can’t make homemade bread,” Winnie pointed out.
“That’s how sure I am that Kilraven will be back,” she returned. “Wait and see.”
Winnie only smiled. But she didn’t believe it.
KILRAVEN WENT TO SEE JON. He was fuming about Winnie’s refusal and at a loss as to how to change her mind. Maybe Jon had some ideas.
But Jon didn’t. Worse, he kept grinning, as if the whole thing was a joke.
“It’s not funny!” Kilraven growled.
Jon glanced at him from his lounging position on his sofa. “Yes, it is.”
Kilraven sat down in the easy chair. There was a soccer game on, two European teams slugging it out with feet, heads and shoulders on the huge green field.
“You have to see it from her point of view,” Jon said gently. “She’s lived a sheltered life. She doesn’t really know much about men. If you know her brother, Boone, you’ve already figured that out. I imagine that protective attitude of his kept a lot of men away from Winnie when she first started dating. Most grown men are afraid to stand up to him. From what you’ve told me about her, I can guarantee you that Winnie won’t even try.”
Kilraven sat back in the chair and crossed his long legs. He let out a frustrated sigh. “This is the best chance I’m going to get to see if the senator’s wife knows something,” he said. “All I want Winnie to do is go down to Nassau with me for a few days.”
“No, you want her to move in with you and do what comes naturally for a few days. She isn’t buying it. She’s the sort of woman who won’t settle for anything less than marriage, but a permanent marriage, not a pretend one. She sees right through you. That’s what you can’t take.”
