Undercover Bachelor

by Rebecca Winters

  “What’s wrong, Whitney? You look ill.” The concern in his eyes and voice seemed real enough. He was a master con artist, a monster disguised in breathtaking male form.

  Fortunately she was on to Hank.

  Before this tour was over, she would have enough documented evidence on both men to go to the district attorney with her findings.

  Putting on the greatest acting performance of her life, she looked at him through misty eyes. “I feel ill because you don’t believe me,” she purposely put a wobble in her voice. “You see, I’ve fallen in love with you, too, Hank.”

  She made fists at her sides to convince him of her agony. “I—I can’t bear it that you would think I would lie to you, let alone be interested in Mr. Bowen. If you want proof, I think I still have the ticket stub from the museum.”

  After rummaging in her pocket, she found it. “Yes—here it is. I can also show you the toy I bought for my nephew.” She extended the half ticket to him but he didn’t take it. Instead, he let out a deep sigh, raking his hands through his dark blond hair.

  “Put it away, Whitney. I believe you. I guess I overreacted because I’m jealous of the time you’ve spent with Mr. Bowen. The fact of the matter is, you make me feel young again. Younger men tend to love rather possessively. That’s how I feel about you. Very territorial.”

  “You do?” She feigned an ingenuous tone. He was so good at what he did, it was frightening.

  He nodded. “I’m afraid I’ve gotten to the point where I want your exclusive attention.”

  “But you told me you were going to give Roger and Jeff more of your time so no one would notice how we felt about each other.”

  He grimaced. “I did say that.”

  “Then have you changed your mind? Have you decided that you don’t want to keep your distance from me when we’re around the others?”

  “No. I still think we need to be careful in public. I’m talking about tonight. I don’t want you to leave this room,” he confessed in a low whisper. “The truth is, I’m not sure I can wait until Switzerland.”

  Before she knew what was happening, he reached for her and picked her up in his arms. She started to tremble because his eyes smoldered with raw desire.

  “I want you, Whitney,” he murmured against her mouth. “I want you so much it’s agony.”

  She closed her eyes. This was it. He’d picked the time to make love to her and it was now.

  He carried her to the twin bed and laid her down before sliding next to her. The next thing she knew he was kissing her like a man who was starving.

  Keep your wits, Whitney. The recorder is picking up everything. When he starts to undress you, you’ll have enough documentation to incriminate him. Then you can make an excuse why you have to go back to your room. Until you catch Mr. Bowen red-handed, you can’t reveal what you’re doing.

  Whitney was so pliable and accommodating, it would be easy to forget they were anything but a man and woman enjoying each other for the sheer pleasure of it In fact, Gerard was in danger of forgetting everything in the excitement of making love to her again.

  Enticed by her warmth and softness, his lips ached to explore more beneath the collar of her blouse. That’s when he came up against a small metal object which felt suspiciously like a mini microrecorder, the kind he wore when he was on assignment.

  More curious than ever to know why she’d chosen him as her target, he decided now was as good a time as any to expose her and listen to her explanation. Slowly he slid his hands up her back and encircled her lovely neck.

  His fingers made forays inside the rim of her collar. She must have sensed the gesture was more probing than wayward because she suddenly shifted in his arms, then pulled away from him. But she’d moved too late, giving him enough time to steal the device from its hiding place.

  On his feet, he held it in the palm of his hand. She rolled off the bed to face him, her stare defiant.

  “All right, Ms. Lawrence. I’ve been on to you for quite some time, and this little recorder is the additional proof I’ve needed before demanding an explanation. Do you want to start, or shall I?”

  “Go ahead, Mr. Smith.” Her icy smile was something to behold. “I’ve been waiting much longer than you for this day to come, and would love to watch you squirm your way out of it. Just remember, I’ve been wearing a recorder since we boarded the plane, and I have more than enough incriminating evidence to go to the authorities over your despicable conduct.”

  She was totally serious and he had no doubts she meant what she said.

  “Who do you think I am?”

  A caustic laugh escaped. “I know exactly who you are and what you’ve been doing for years and years, but you made a big mistake when you decided I would be your conquest for this particular trip.”

  One well-defined brow quirked. “This trip? Just how many trips do you think I’ve taken?”

  “One too many.”

  He folded his arms and smiled at her. “It may interest you to know that this is my first tour with STI. Phone them right now if you like. They’ll tell you I’ve never been on one of their tours before.”

  The silence started to stretch while she appeared to digest the veracity of his words. “Even if that were true,” she came back hotly, “what you’ve been attempting to do to me is unconscionable. You’re a criminal for taking advantage of a teenage girl while you’re supposed to be chaperoning her throughout Europe!”

  “But you’re not a teenager, so that puts what we’ve both been doing to each other on another footing altogether. Wouldn’t you say?”

  The light began to dawn. He could see a flash of intelligence in her eyes. “Did that gendarme show you my passport?”

  “He did. Technically I’m in charge of your welfare and he wanted to discuss you with me since you were one student who chose to stay in the hotel when the theft occurred. Luckily the police found the culprit, so you’re no longer their chief suspect.”

  Again that very fascinating, clever brain of hers was working overtime. “I don’t believe there was a hotel theft. I think you made that up just to get a look.”

  He fought hard to suppress a smile. “You’re free to think what you like. However, as it turns out, my office gave me all the background on you I needed. The newest junior attorney at Sharp and Rowe law firm in Salt Lake couldn’t possibly be eighteen.”

  Her body stiffened in reaction. “Who are you?” she demanded in a low, barely controlled voice. “If you refuse to tell me, I can always have my colleague phone St. George to find out if a Hank Smith actually teaches there.”

  “You can do that, but you’ll be told that I am employed there, so it would be a waste of energy to bother phoning. However, you’re welcome to try.”

  She eyed the receiver, obviously debating whether to call his bluff or not. “Don’t tell me. You’re on this trip undercover for some reason.”

  “Let’s just say that like you, I have an urgent reason to find out what is going on.”

  She had the grace to avert her eyes for a moment.

  “Why don’t we start over again. It’s apparent you’ve been pretending to be a teenager to catch me in the act of compromising you. Why did you pick on me rather than Mr. Bowen?” At the mention of the other man’s name, her head came up abruptly.

  “You did want to be in his group. I distinctly remember your disappointment. What changed your mind? When he gave you the opportunity to switch groups, why did you decide to stay with me? I want an answer. You can either tell me here, in private, or we can go to the French authorities and you can be interrogated by them. It’s your choice.”

  Her amazing violet eyes searched his for a long time. “Last year, my sister, Christine, came on this tour. A month after she got home, she told the family she was pregnant, but she refused to name the father. A couple of months ago she admitted that a man on her tour bus was the culprit. I figured it had to be her French teacher, or the tour guide or driver. So I signed up for the same tour to find
out what I could.”

  Her explanation made perfect sense. “What caused you to think that I, rather than any of the other men, was the father of your nephew?”

  To her credit, she didn’t shy away from the question, or him. Eyeing him levelly she said, “Christine admitted he was a wonderful man who didn’t force her. She also said he was very good-looking and she couldn’t help falling in love. The only man on the tour with the kind of looks she was talking about had to be you.”

  Gerard supposed it was a compliment of sorts.

  “I compared you to the other male teachers on the bus. For sheer masculine appeal, you won the contest hands down. Fran Ashton’s interest in you convinced me you were the man I needed to nail. Such a monster deserves to be caught and prosecuted for what he did to my sister. He fathered her child and should be responsible for it!”

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  She took what looked like a fortifying breath. “Christine always talked about Mr. Bowen, but your name never came up. I decided she’d purposely kept quiet about your existence so no one would ever suspect you were the father of her baby.”

  His brows drew together. “So you decided to come on to me and catch me in the act, so to speak.”

  The flush on her cheeks intensified, but she held her ground “Yes. But something you said tonight, coupled with what happened to me today, made me realize I’ve been pursuing the wrong man. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you’re not Christine’s lover.”

  “Then that means you’ll no longer be trying to seduce me?”

  “That’s right.” She didn’t bat an eye. Gerard felt his spirits plummet

  “Do you have an idea who the father is?”

  “I know exactly who he is. By the time this tour is over, I’m going to have his head.”

  “Since you were with Mr. Bowen earlier today, I’m assuming he’s your target.”

  “Whether he is or not, it’s none of your business. From here on out, you do your thing and I’ll do mine.”

  Lord Everything had been pretense on her part.

  Until now he’d felt mildly amused because he’d been so sure their attraction was a deeply mutual and satisfying thing. Hell.

  “May I suggest we pool our resources and work together?”

  She scowled at him. “Why would we do that? I can’t very well seduce him with you about.”

  “That’s true,” he murmured testily. “But since I’ve come on this tour for the exclusive purpose of surveilling Mr. Bowen’s activities, I thought we might be able to help each other.”

  “You’ve been spying on him?”

  “That’s right. Because of his flagrant interest in you, it has made my job easier. Since you and I have managed to communicate rather well up to this point, I don’t see what would prevent us from continuing as we have been.” A dull red blush stained the rest of her face and neck, but she didn’t look away. “After all,” he said dryly, “we both want the same thing in the end.”

  “Did some parent hire you to make sure Mr. Bowen didn’t seduce his daughter, too?” she fired back, ignoring his innuendos. Her question gave him the out he’d been looking for.

  “Let’s just say that there have been questions about him.”

  “Then that means my sister isn’t the only teen to have been compromised by that sex-driven maniac.” She sent him a withering glance. “If you were so busy tailing Mr. Bowen, how come you came on to me like an unscrupulous lothario?”

  Her question stung. “Like you, Ms. Lawrence, I took one look at all the females on the tour and decided that if Bowen had seduction in mind, it would be with you rather than any of his girl students. Sure enough, before the film at the library was over, he tried to get me to trade you for one of his male students.”

  “He did?”

  “That’s right. Surely it’s no surprise. You are very beautiful, you know.”

  She swallowed hard—the first sign that maybe she was more vulnerable to him than she’d been letting on.

  “I thought that if I could get you to be interested in me, I could watch out for you and still force his hand.”

  “So you pretended to be interested in me in order to protect me.”

  “That’s right. What I didn’t count on was so much cooperation from you.”

  “Now you know why,” she bit out.

  He nodded, not liking her unspoken implication that there’d been no personal involvement on her part, that her breathtaking response to their lovemaking had been for business only. He couldn’t accept that. He wouldn’t.

  “Since we understand each other completely, why don’t we combine our efforts to bring him down. You tell me what you know about him, and I’ll fill you in on what I’ve learned. Together we ought to be able to come up with a fairly foolproof plan.”

  She cocked her head. “What information do you have on him?”

  “Not a great deal I’m afraid.” He shifted his weight. “He’s been taking these tours for the last six or seven years, and he always brings a mixture of teenage boys and girls along. His has a wife and child who never accompany him, and he only travels to France and Switzerland, which I find rather odd.”

  “I agree. You’d think that once in a while he would change the itinerary, but if it’s seduction he has in mind every time, then he probably has certain haunts he can count on.”

  “Like the store he took you to this afternoon?” Gerard inserted. “Did you happen to notice if there was a hotel above the shop?”

  She shook her head negatively. “I would assume they were apartments. Christine said he made love to her twice in his hotel room in Paris, both before and after she’d gone to pick up a package for him.”

  “What kind of package?”

  “A toy for his daughter.”

  So the Moroccan souk was the contact point. “Whitney—why do you think he didn’t go himself?”

  “Christine said he was too sick to leave the room. Obviously he has a pattern of pretending to be ill to win his victim’s sympathy. He certainly had her wrapped around his little finger. She was willing to do anything for him and said she’d go in his place. For a reward, he made love to her again. I can’t help but wonder how many teenage girls this has happened to.”

  “Even more astounding is the fact that none of his victims tell on him.”

  “If they’re anything like Christine, then they’re too ashamed to admit what they’ve done. They know he’s married with a child, so they are further intimidated. He told Christine he would contact her after the tour, but of course he never did.”

  “The man has no conscience,” Gerard murmured, his thoughts leaping ahead. “What happened at the shop today? Did he buy anything?”

  “No. He put a deposit down on a puppet he’s going to pick up at the end of the tour.”

  “Did he pay in American or French money?”

  She darted him another perplexed glance. “I have no idea. He handed the sales person a white envelope. Why do you want to know that?”

  “I’m trying to figure out how the man operates to cover his tracks. If he’s been doing this for six or seven years and hasn’t been caught, then it means he’s been very clever and devious. No doubt he’s softening you up before he lures you to his hotel room and his bed.”

  She nodded. “I’m positive that’s what he has planned. He mentioned showing me some special places in Switzerland he’s certain I’ll appreciate.”

  “Then we’ll have to make sure he gets his way with you.”

  “Thank heaven I’m down to seducing one man instead of two.”

  Gerard grimaced, not liking the sound of that at all. She couldn’t have forgotten what it felt like when they got into each other’s arms.

  “For the rest of the trip I’ll give him enough rope to almost hang himself. When we reach Paris, I’ll set the trap and get everything on tape before I tell him who I am, that the game is up.”

  “I’ll be right there to help you tighten the noose,” Ge
rard assured her. I’ll be right there to do a lot more than that, Ms. Lawrence.

  “First off, I think that after the bus leaves Versailles for Dijon tomorrow, I’ll arrange things so that you end up sitting next to him. That way he’ll feel free to make further plans with you. From here on out, we want to stay a couple of steps ahead of him in case he tries to do something unexpected.”

  “Don’t worry. Whatever that man pulls, I’ll be ready for him. By the way, what’s your real name?”

  He followed her to the door, but it was all he could do not to pull her back into his arms. “Eric-Gerard,” he whispered, “but forget you heard it or you’ll ruin my cover. Dors bien.”

  Sleep well.

  His husky voice permeated to her very insides as she crept to her room on shaky legs and fell back against the closed door.

  She’d had to pretend so many things in front of him. Now that she was alone, her body and emotions were reacting to the shocking revelation that Hank Smith’s real name was Eric-Gerard. It was humiliating to realize how impulsive she’d been in her decision to throw herself at him.

  Because of the way he operated, the speed with which he’d learned about her background, she assumed he had to be some kind of undercover officer masquerading as a French teacher. Obviously Whitney wasn’t the only person who suspected Mr. Bowen was taking advantage of the female students, and wanted him caught She should be relieved there was someone else working on her side.

  But since that first night at the library, she’d been flirting shamelessly with him, never realizing he knew who she really was. He’d lead her on the entire time. Had he run a background check on her before they ever left Salt Lake?

  It humiliated her to realize she was the only one who had become emotionally involved. A man could make love to a woman without it meaning much more than a pleasurable interlude which was soon forgotten. While Eric-Gerard alias Hank Smith had been doing what he perceived needed doing to keep an eye on Mr. Bowen—mainly responding to Whitney’s physical overtures—Whitney had made the fatal mistake of falling in love with him.