“Ready?” she breathed.
He tried to say that he was, but her face tipped up then, and her lips grazed his, and words were no longer an option. Action, on the other hand...that was a different story.
Anderson lifted one of his hands up and placed it on the small of Nadine’s back. The other he brought to the back of her neck in a caress. Her hair brushed his knuckles, and as short as it was cut, it was still softer than silk. Her mouth was softer still. Warm, too, and not just yielding. Eager and willing. Her lips pressed to his firmly, then pulled away, then pressed again. She tasted so good—felt so good—that he wanted to keep it going. True regret filled him when the check-in girl’s voice interrupted the kiss.
“That’s perfect!” she crowed. “And I think I got it all.”
Anderson dragged his eyes open and stared down into Nadine’s chocolate gaze for another second before releasing her. As heavy as her lids looked, she didn’t blink. It was impossible to look away, and he couldn’t quite resist the need to drag his thumb over her lower lip.
“Nothing the kids wouldn’t want to see,” he murmured.
“Yes,” she agreed.
“All right!” The ponytailed girl pushed in between them, shoving the phone at Anderson. “Promise her you’ll get her a proper ring. No. Not just a proper one. The perfect one. To go with the perfect proposal and the perfect kiss. Did you hear that? He’s going to get you something absolutely perfect.”
“I heard it,” Nadine said.
Anderson couldn’t help but shoot her a surprised look. “You did?”
“Didn’t you?” She lifted an eyebrow, undisguised mirth evident in her eyes.
“I guess I did.”
“Oh, my gosh!” interjected the girl. “I can’t wait to see it! But you better get going because those strawberries and champagne you just have to order will be up soon.”
Then she flounced off in the other direction. Anderson shook his head in disbelief, then dragged his wallet out to free his key card, apologizing as he opened the door to the suite.
“That was...interesting. I’m sorry if—” He cut himself off as Nadine pushed by him, bent over and let out a strangled gasp, then collapsed to the edge of the couch.
He took a step closer, but she waved him off. Her shoulders shook, and for a second Anderson thought she was crying. He moved closer again, concern flowing in. When she lifted her head, though, he saw that tears weren’t the case at all. She was laughing.
He frowned. “What’s funny?”
She gasped out a sentence between laughs. “That—girl’s—poor—fiancé.”
“What?”
“She must just steamroll him. Can you imagine? Do you think he even meant to start dating her, let alone get engaged to her?”
He felt his lips twitch; it was good to see Nadine so relaxed. “Hard to say.”
“Or maybe he’s just like she is. Scripting his life aloud like that, too. I wonder what happens if their stories conflict?”
“God knows.” He stepped past the couch and sank into the enormous chair on the other side of coffee table. “I really am sorry we had to go through all that.”
“Which part?” she replied. “The running, the sneaking, the lying...or the kissing?”
“Yep.”
“That’s not really an answer.”
“I know.”
Nadine laughed again and leaned back, her gaze sweeping over the room. “It really is pretty swanky. Everything I imagined as a kid. We were supposed to take a tour not long after Whispering Woods opened, but I got the flu, and we never found the time to reschedule. I guess I never had a reason to come back. You don’t really visit hotels in your own town, do you?”
“No, not so much.”
“I used to dream about coming in here, though.” Her eyes flicked around again. “I’m not sure if I wish I’d seen it before, or if I’m glad I’m seeing it like this for the first time.”
Anderson surveyed the space himself. Aside from tossing his suitcase to the ground when he’d first arrived, he hadn’t spent much time inside at all. He really hadn’t taken the time to look around at all. Now he could see that it was tastefully decorated with boldly romantic coloring. Not rustically styled like the exterior of the lodge. Instead, the suite was...soft. Cream walls and cream carpet with pops of burgundy that added a touch of sexiness. He wondered absently what the bedroom looked like. Then his eye caught Nadine, and the wondering became a little less absent.
He cleared his throat and made himself ask in a teasing voice, “The honeymoon suite, specifically?”
Nadine shot him a dirty look. “No. Being a bride wasn’t high on my list of fantasies.”
“Not one of those little girls, huh?”
“My dad’s driving job made him keep weird hours. His secret, second family took him away even more.” She made a face and then went on. “When I was little, I thought all fathers and husbands spent that much time apart from their families. I didn’t like it much and didn’t want a life like that. But then I found out the truth, and it was even worse, so... Sorry. You probably don’t want to hear all that.”
Anderson shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. I like to listen to stories about other people’s abnormal upbringings. They make my own seem that much saner.”
“Ha-ha.”
“I’m serious. My parents were high school sweethearts who dropped out of school when they found out they were expecting me. They used to do what they called high-five parenting. My dad would work all night at the gas station while my mom and I slept. Then he’d come home, and she’d go to work at the grocery store. We moved around a lot because they could rarely keep up with rent.”
Nadine winced. “That must’ve been hard for you. And them.”
Out of habit, he shrugged off the sympathy. “It was just life. It wasn’t until I started school that I realized ramen noodles and frozen vegetables and boxed cereal weren’t the only things on the menu. A weird little light bulb went off in my five-year-old brain. I kept my mouth shut about it until third grade. Then I vividly remember coming home and telling my mom about some of the things the kids brought in their lunch boxes and how I wanted them. I’d worked out a whole plan on how unfair it was that they made me so different. She cried. That same night, we moved again. This time from our apartment to my grandparents’ place. I thought it was my fault for wanting some packaged fruit snacks.”
“But it wasn’t. Of course.”
“No.”
Anderson looked down at his hands, recalling the confusion and misguided guilt. It wasn’t a memory he normally shared. Or one he even liked to think about. He got the feeling, though, that it was doing Nadine good to hear it. Her face was open and interested, her body leaning forward. She’d been through a hell of a lot over the last little while. Anderson might not have been there when her brother was killed, but he was more than happy to try to make things a little easier for her now.
And it feels good to get it off my chest, too, he admitted to himself.
That was a surprise. One he didn’t want to reason through right that second. Or even have time to think about. He had a case to concern himself with. A bad guy he needed to keep away from Nadine, a worse guy he needed to connect their current predicament to and fifteen years’ worth of justice to serve out.
He brought his gaze up again with the intention of saying as much. But his mouth had different ideas.
“My mom never told me directly,” he said, “but there were lots of whispers, and I heard them all. The day I came home and complained was the same day my dad left her a Dear John letter.”
“Your dad left the two of you behind?”
“For about six months. My grandparents only took us in on the condition that my mom never have contact with him again. I learned that from the whispers, too. They hated him. Thought he wasn’t good enough for he
r. So they weren’t very happy when he turned up on their doorstep.”
“But your mom took him back, just like that?”
Anderson laughed. “Not even close. It took my dad a month just to get her to talk to him again. He showed up every morning with a cup of coffee and a single rose.”
“Persistent,” Nadine stated.
“And apologetic. A lot.”
“So what was his excuse for leaving in the first place?”
“Turns out his opinion of himself coincided with the one my grandparents had.”
“He thought you and your mom would be better off without him.”
“Exactly. But it turned out he was more selfish than he thought.”
Nadine’s brows knit together. “What do you mean?”
Anderson smiled. “He hated being away from us more than he wanted to make things better for us, apparently. So he came up with a plan—become a cop.”
“I guess it would be hard for your grandparents to argue with that.”
“Yep. My mom, too. She loved him, and when he told her he’d enrolled in the training program already...”
“What? She was powerless to say no?” Her smile softened the question.
He met her eyes. “Isn’t that what true love is all about?”
“Powerlessness?”
“Yep.”
“I hope not.”
“You sure about that?”
“Why would anyone want to be powerless to say no?”
He leaned forward. “Because it’s two sides of the same coin when you’re really in love. All powerful and completely powerless at the same time.”
“Do you know that firsthand?”
Nadine’s face didn’t change as she spoke, but the air in the room was another story. It shifted. Warmed. And Anderson couldn’t help but wonder if the question held more meaning than a simple addition to the conversation.
Chapter 5
As soon as the words were out of Nadine’s mouth, she knew how they sounded. But she couldn’t make herself take them back. Not even as the silent seconds ticked by. After all...was there anything wrong with wanting to know a little bit about the man she’d just kissed? About the man with whom she was—at least temporarily—sharing a hotel room?
Sure, said a voice in her head. Nothing wrong with knowing a little about him. But the details of his love life? Whole different story.
Clearly she was letting the fake engagement and the honeymoon suite go to her head. She hadn’t even thought about Garibaldi or his masked henchman since the second Anderson’s lips had met hers. Every ounce of worry had slipped away in those few seconds. So had any sense of reason. She shivered a little at the recent memory. Unconsciously, her tongue came out to touch her lower lip—the last spot his mouth had made contact with hers.
She noticed that his gaze dropped, following the motion. And she was suddenly sure that if she didn’t speak, Anderson might dive over the hand-carved table in front of them and bury her mouth in another kiss. And there was no chance she’d stop him. Not after the way her toes had curled out there in the hallway.
She drew in a breath and, in a carefully detached voice, said, “You haven’t answered.”
“About whether or not I’ve been in love?” Anderson replied. “No.”
“Not once?”
“I’d know, wouldn’t I?”
“I guess so.”
“What about you?” he wanted to know.
“Mmm,” she responded.
After the briefest consideration, she decided there wasn’t much point in lying. “I loved a man. But it turned out that he didn’t love me back.”
Anderson’s expression went from curious to stiff. “Want to elaborate?”
“I don’t know,” she said honestly.
For a second, he looked surprised. “You don’t know?”
“It all fell apart about six months ago. I haven’t really talked about it since.”
“At all?”
“No.”
“Not to a friend? A colleague?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s embarrassing, Anderson. I dated a man for two years. I lived with him for six months, and I trusted him. I thought we had a life together. Then I found out the jerk was having an affair. Multiple affairs over the years. And you know what he said when I caught him?” She couldn’t help but lift her chin in a challenge, daring him to make a guess.
But he just shook his head, his eyes stormy, and said, “Whatever his excuse was, it wasn’t good enough.”
The vehemence in Anderson’s voice rendered Nadine momentarily speechless. She wasn’t sure what to make of the unexpected fierceness in his eyes. Was the flash of protectiveness mere chivalry? Or was it something to do with her specifically?
And why do I hope it’s the latter?
Taking a breath, she forced off the unnerving feelings tumbling through her chest. “It’s not as bad as it seems.”
He lifted a solitary brow. “You’re defending him?”
“No. I—Well, not exactly.” She shook her head, realizing how wishy-washy she sounded. “No.”
“You sure about that?”
“I’m sure.”
He studied her face like he was trying to be certain she was telling the truth, then issued a short nod. “All right. What was his excuse?”
“That he didn’t realize we were exclusive.”
“But you lived with him?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t buy it.”
“Neither did I. Not when he first said it, anyway. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. There had to be something else.”
She didn’t realize she’d lifted her hand to her scarred cheek until Anderson leaned forward and his palm came up over top of hers. He slid his fingers over her knuckles and pressed the tips into the sensitive skin there. Nadine let him tug their clasped hands to her knee.
“You mean something about you?” Anderson asked gently.
“Something about me,” she agreed. “Or something he could make be about me. I knew it wasn’t my fault that he slept around.”
“Of course it wasn’t.”
“But I thought Grant would make it that way. That he’d say I’d been cold or distant or too focused on my job or too...something else. Except he never did. And the more I thought about, the more I realized he was right.” It felt good to make the admission aloud.
But Anderson looked unconvinced, and his words echoed his expression. “How do you figure?”
“We never said it.”
“That you were exclusive? Seems like kind of a given, considering your living arrangement.”
“No. We never said the other stuff.” Her face warmed.
Anderson’s frown only took a second to clear. “Ah. No great professions of love.”
“Exactly. And I guess it was kind of weird to go that long without exchanging the actual words. I mean, why hadn’t we? Why didn’t it ever come up? If someone had asked me directly if I loved Grant, I would’ve said yes, unequivocally. But when I really stopped to think about it—which I only did because of his claim that we weren’t exclusive—it was pretty strange that I’d never told him. Not at the end of a phone conversation, not when he left for work in the morning...” She trailed off and shrugged helplessly.
“Is it what you wanted?”
“It’s what I thought I had.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I know.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it like he’d changed his mind about whatever he was going to say, then squeezed her hand and asked, “So what happened after you found out?”
“I shoved everything I could into a suitcase, rented a hotel room—far less swanky than this one—took a week off work
and sulked.”
“And your ex?”
“Was clueless. He sent me a text suggesting that we convert the office to a second bedroom and keep living together.”
Anderson studied her for a second. “Can I make an observation?”
“Sure,” Nadine said. “It’s not like I haven’t already totally embarrassed myself.”
He shot her a look. “It’s not embarrassing to have a relationship not work out.”
“No. But it’s pretty embarrassing to admit that your relationship wasn’t a relationship at all.”
“It just means it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Do you seriously want me to believe that’s what you think?”
“What’s not to believe? Too cheesy?”
“By far.”
“That just means you weren’t listening.”
“What? When?”
“When I told you about my parents.”
“I was so. I just—” Nadine cut herself off, midprotest.
Anderson jumped in right away. “You just what? Heard what I said, but then remembered how it ended? The part where my dad died?”
He didn’t sound bitter, just matter-of-fact, but that didn’t make Nadine feel any better. Because it was exactly where her mind had gone. And that actually made it so much worse.
She made herself nod, just once. “I really am sorry that your parents didn’t get the long, happy ending they deserved.”
He released her hand and folded one leg up and put his foot onto his knee. “It may not have been all that long, but it was happy. They were young when they met, and aside from that little blip where my dad left, things were good for them. Nearly fifteen years. Hell of a lot more time than people put in nowadays. And when my dad was killed, my mom tried hard to make sure I remembered the happy stuff.”
“Did it work?”
“In some ways. It worked for me in that I remember my dad as being a great man. It worked for her in that when she met another great man three years later, she was able to remarry and give me a couple of awesome little sisters.” His mouth tipped up, and his eyes shone fondly.
Undercover Protector Page 5
