Overnight Wife

by Mollie Molay

  She shivered again.

  “And this honeymoon you’re taking?” he asked, drawing her closer. He told himself he was merely trying to keep her warm, but he had a sinking feeling it was becoming more than that.

  In spite of his good intentions to leave well enough alone, her sweet scent filled his senses. Suddenly he wanted to taste her lips, the skin on her soft, velvety neck. The poor groom would never know what he’d missed. “Not many women would have what it takes to see a honeymoon through alone, or to cut all her ties the way you’ve done.”

  “I’m not alone!” Arden insisted. “John will be here eventually.”

  “Yeah, sure,” he answered, shifting to a more comfortable position. Thank goodness he knew who he was and where he was headed.

  Arden heard the doubt in his voice. But she’d got in so deep, she was beyond caring. She was going on a honeymoon, no matter what anyone thought. It was paid for, after all. She had the tour documents in her purse to prove it.

  “Actually, I never dreamed I’d end up like this,” she murmured, more to herself than him.

  “If it’s any comfort to you, neither did I,” Luke replied as her presence against his chest made itself felt. “Nor,” he said glancing over at the sleeping couple beside them, “did anyone else around here.”

  “I can hardly believe I’m doing this when I don’t know you,” she confessed wearily, glancing up at Luke. “You may not believe me, but before today, I never would have dreamed of doing anything like this.”

  “The reason for that’s easy,” Luke replied with a light laugh. “It hasn’t been a normal day for any of us. And as for winding up in my arms, it’s because you know you’ll never see me again after tonight”

  The thought of never seeing Arden Crandall after tonight bothered Luke more than he was willing to admit, even to himself. He was attracted by her gutsy determination to see herself through this so-called adventure of hers. But he had a feeling it was more than that; maybe it was her declaration of independence. Even so, her vulnerability was showing whether or not she realized it. Unless he missed his guess, nothing in her lifestyle had prepared her for the future she envisioned for herself. Not even with money, and especially in a foreign country. What would she do if she came face-to-face with a real adventure not to her liking? Who would she turn to if she got in trouble?

  His sympathy stirred before he brushed it away. He’d been trained not to be sympathetic. Still, if ever a woman needed a helping hand, she did.

  He didn’t intend to be that helping hand for long. The most he was prepared to do was keep an eye on her until they got safely to their destination. He had his own plans to consider. The last thing he needed was to be responsible for someone else, now that he was thinking about changing the direction of his own future.

  She represented an unwelcome tie to his present identity. An identity he planned to forget after tomorrow.

  His thoughts turned to the briefcase. Was his future already handcuffed to his wrist?

  He inhaled Arden’s bridal fragrance, the clean smell of her damp hair where a raindrop or two had found refuge. Her velvet wedding dress was soft and warm. She fit into the crook of his arm as naturally as if she was a part of him. And so was her silken flesh as she rested her forehead against the side of his neck under his chin. She was as lovely and refreshing as a spring flower and different from most of the women he’d known.

  He was actually prepared to enjoy the hours in her company before they went their separate ways. He’d never remained in one place long enough to connect with anyone he was willing to spend the rest of his life with, this one included. If he carried out his halfformed plans, he’d be home free without anyone to cramp his style.

  He shrugged his shoulders and settled back against the wall to wait until the runways were cleared.

  Arden shifted uncomfortably as something hard made its presence known against her cheek. Not to mention the something that kept bumping her in the ribs. “For Pete’s sake, what is that?”

  “What is what?” Luke straightened abruptly and looked around him. He relaxed when nothing more than sleeping honeymoon couples caught his eye. From the alarm in her voice, he’d figured maybe her fiancé had actually shown up.

  “Whatever it is you have under your left arm,” Arden answered. She sat back and stared at him suspiciously. “It feels like a rock!”

  “Oh, that,” he answered casually as his racing heart slowed down to its normal beat. “That’s my holster.”

  “As in gun?”

  “To be truthful with you, yes.”

  “Loaded?” Arden asked apprehensively.

  “I could hardly be carrying a gun in an airport, now could I? Besides, what would be the point of carrying a gun if it weren’t loaded?” Luke asked. How naive could a woman get?

  She did a double take, until she evidently decided he was joking.

  “Did you ever shoot anyone?”

  “Only when they deserved it,” he answered shortly. He’d had enough of her probing into his private life. He eyed her in a way calculated to shut her up. It didn’t.

  She moved another inch away from him and studied him thoughtfully.

  “Who are you, anyway?” she finally asked. Her eyes widened, her breath caught in her throat, as she must have realized she was a little late in asking.

  “No one you need to know,” he answered. “Why don’t you just relax and forget it’s there?”

  “I can’t. Especially with that briefcase banging into my…and that holster feeling like a rock against my cheek!”

  He was more sorry than ever that he’d invited her to share his overcoat. Damn, she was like a puppy worrying a bone.

  “Look, think of me as a harmless courier. Nothing more than that.”

  “Does that account for the briefcase you’re carrying?”

  “Yep.” He was becoming more annoyed by the moment. Not necessarily only at Arden. But at the numskulls at Majestic who should have realized he was bound to attract unwanted attention. It was, after all, a time when computers could accomplish most of what he’d been hired to do. And with a lot less cost and embarrassment to him.

  After he’d realized the contents of the suitcase might be the opportunity he’d been waiting for, he couldn’t have said no. In hindsight, maybe he should have turned down this particular job and waited for another opportunity. And this time he would ignore anyone who triggered his curiosity.

  “What’s the matter, don’t your employers trust you?” Arden asked, gesturing to the handcuff and chain with distaste.

  “Sure they do,” he said wearily, shifting his aching back, “or they wouldn’t have hired me to deliver it. It’s the other guys they don’t trust”.

  “So what’s in the briefcase?” she inquired as she rubbed her right side.

  “It’s not important,” Luke answered. Of course he knew, but he wasn’t about to tell her.

  “Why don’t you just unlock the handcuff and put it and the briefcase aside until we leave?” she asked. “It would be a lot more comfortable for you, and for me, too.”

  “Can’t,” he replied cryptically.

  “Can’t or won’t?”

  “I don’t have the key,” he answered. “With that said, can we just drop the subject for now?”

  She was still eyeing that damn handcuff.

  “Come on back here,” he said gruffly. He opened his arms.

  “Not until I know what’s in the briefcase,” she announced. “I wouldn’t want to get involved in something shady.”

  Luke bit back the desire to swear.

  “Let’s just say it’s a jackpot and that I can’t let it out of my sight,” he said impatiently. Much more of this and he’d forget his burst of generosity and send her back to her cold stone bench. For sure, he told himself, it was the. last time he intended to get involved in someone else’s business.

  “It looks uncomfortable. I’ll bet it feels uncomfortable, too,” she added sourly.

  “I
intend to get rid of it soon,” he said for the last time. “So tell me, are you coming back or not?”

  “I suppose so, but I’d appreciate if you’d put that briefcase somewhere where I won’t bump into it. The way I feel, I’m going to be black-and-blue by moming.”

  “Just try not to move and you should be fine,” Luke reassured her as he stuffed the briefcase back under his thigh. “It’s just a question of mind over matter.” He glanced down at Arden as she tried to make herself comfortable. Too bad he couldn’t take his own advice. Not only was his mind refusing to function as directed, his physical matter was on full alert.

  “Comfortable?” he asked. Arden’s curls brushed across his chin as she nodded. He stifled a groan as her perfumed scent wafted past his nose.

  Moments after she came back into his arms, he began to regret inviting her. Her enticing scent and her warm breath brushing against his Adam’s apple were getting to him. The pressure of her thigh against his sent his more sensitive body parts on fire. He sensed trouble ahead.

  As soon as she realized how his body was instinctively reacting to hers, she was bound to figure he was breaking his promise.

  Chapter Three

  When Luke eased away from her, Arden intuitively sensed something was wrong. She glanced up at his face, where the early signs of a shadow were beginning to show. A frown crinkled his forehead, his lips tightened.

  Whatever was bothering him, she hoped it hadn’t been something she’d said or done.

  “’Luke? Is something wrong?” She moved closer, in time to hear a soft sound that sounded like a curse.

  She pushed the annoying briefcase away from her hip and reviewed their last verbal exchange.

  She’d questioned his identity.

  Demanded to know the contents of the briefcase.

  Asked if he’d ever killed anyone.

  As good as suggested he might be a disreputable character, or worse.

  No wonder he didn’t want to have anything more to do with her.

  But since she had already spent an hour or two in his arms, he should have known she hadn’t meant to deliberately hurt or insult him.

  Before tonight she’d never known a man like him whose mere appearance was enough to promise excitement. Naturally, she’d been a little anxious, but her anxiety hadn’t changed the way she continued to feel drawn to the mysterious aura that surrounded him.

  Without his overcoat covering her, she missed his warmth. And, in a way that might be sinful but was pleasurable all the same, she missed the pressure of his body against hers. He might be all the sins she’d been warned against rolled into one man, but for the first time in her life she didn’t care.

  If this was the road to hell, so far she was enjoying every mile.

  Another glance at Luke showed his dark eyelashes resting on bronze skin. His measured breathing told her he’d fallen asleep. Perhaps she was mistaken about his reasons for moving away and the frustration she’d seen reflected on his face. Maybe he’d been dreaming. And maybe her imagination was working overtime.

  She missed being enveloped by his firm arm, missed the male scent that clung to him and the sound of his measured breath against her hair. She moved closer. When her thigh touched his, Luke moved away again, dragging the briefcase with him. She eyed it with distaste, but nestled close.

  With a soft groan and a sigh, Luke finally lay still, his head turned away from her.

  She could have sworn he shrugged.

  Arden waited for him to say something in that full, low voice of his. Instead, his chest rose and fell as if he’d fallen deeper into sleep.

  Lucky man, she thought reflectively. There was no chance she would fall asleep tonight. And not only because of the hard concrete floor under her raincoat.

  Luke McCauley’s dark masculine presence drew her thoughts down paths she’d been tempted to explore but hadn’t until now. And, she thought with a dawning awareness of the growing attraction between them, he was the kind of man she would like to have with her on those paths.

  Her eyes burned. As tired as she was, she couldn’t sleep. Every time her eyes began to close, she was standing in the vestibule of the church, lifting her skirt with one hand, ready to take the first step down the aisle, and listening to her heart speak the truth.

  She gazed at the honeymoon couple asleep next to her. The bridal nosegay had fallen from the bride’s hands and was lying on the cold floor between them. A bottle of champagne lay alongside the flowers. Two plastic champagne glasses and a spray of live lilies of the valley were tied to the bottle with festive white ribbons. A small white plastic foam carton had fallen from the bride’s lap. Wedding cake, Arden wondered hungrily as she glanced at the carton. Wedding cake to share for good luck on the couple’s wedding night?

  Awash in nostalgia, she inched her arm from beneath the overcoat and cautiously picked up the bridal bouquet. With a glance at the bride who appeared to be asleep, she buried herself in its fragrance.

  The small nosegay was an exquisite study of baby pink and white roses surrounded by delicate maidenhair fern and nestled in a cocoon of a white lace doily. In the center there was a single sweet-smelling gardenia.

  Arden sighed into the flower and, for the first time, felt a pang of regret over the day’s events. She fingered the open spaces in the white lace doily that framed the tiny roses. Saying the words softly, she recited, “I did the right thing by running away…. Maybe I shouldn’t have run away,” over and over again. Just as she had chanted as a young girl when she’d played “he loves me, he loves me not” with the petals of daisies.

  Luke’s voice broke into her litany. “Sorry you walked out on what’s-his-name?”

  She felt herself blush. He hadn’t been asleep, after all. She’d given herself away by her childish game.

  “No, not really,” she answered truthfully.

  They exchanged glances. His steady gaze prompted her to tell him the whole truth. The truth he probably had guessed by now.

  “Now that I’ve given myself away, you might as well know the whole story,” she said. “I left because it wouldn’t have been fair to go through with the wedding the way I felt about my fiancé.”

  “Why don’t you look at it this way.” Luke sighed and straightened up. “Maybe you weren’t really in love with the guy.”

  “You’re right. I know that now,” Arden replied.

  “So how come you were ready to marry him?”

  “Actually, I’ve known John most of my life, and although he’s older than I am, we were good friends. My Dad was all for the marriage, and I guess I was trying to please him. It seemed as though it was time for me to get married.”

  “Time to get married?” Luke shuddered. Marriage wasn’t in the cards for him, nor a long-term relationship, either. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed one or two along the way. But if there were a timetable for getting married, he was long overdue. And what’s more, he intended to keep it that way.

  He stole another glance at Arden, the bridal bouquet in her hands and the bottle of champagne on the floor beside her. There were rose petals in her hair, their faint scent lending her an air of romantic innocence. All things that added up to double trouble. For sure, he was going to have to get out of harm’s way pretty soon.

  Women today had many choices, he knew, including staying home and raising a family. Just as her fiancé had evidently wanted her to do. His own sister had chosen home, hearth and family and appeared to be very happy. But from what Arden had told him, she hadn’t been raised to have many of those other choices. She was no different than he’d been twelve years ago when he’d recognized the smothering existence he was headed for.

  Visions of himself as a third generation pharmacist in a small town had been too much for him. He’d opted for a more exciting life, had plunged headlong into danger and been there ever since. But hopefully most of it was behind him. He’d had enough. If only the other players in the games felt the same way.

  The question facing Ar
den, whether she’d stopped to think of it or not, was what was she going to do with the rest of her life after she’d had her own taste of adventure?

  Before he had a chance to ask, his attention was diverted.

  A jovial voice jolted Luke out of his reverie. “Arden Crandall! What a coincidence to find you here! We thought surely you would be well on your honeymoon by now!”

  Arden came to with a start. Dazed, she straightened and looked up at the tall, spare woman with inquisitive eyes who stood there looking down at her. “Aunt Jane?”

  “Of course, darling. And here’s your Uncle Arthur. Say hello, Arthur!”

  Arden drew a ragged breath. All her life she’d been staid and conventional. Out of respect for her parents, she’d kept her dreams to herself. Now, the first time she’d flaunted convention, she’d been caught!

  Without waiting for her husband to speak up or for Arden to reply, Jane bubbled on. “I’m sorry we couldn’t make it to the wedding ceremony, but the weather held us up. Besides, there were no taxis available and the commuter trains are only running intermittently. So we decided to wait here at the airport until we could take a plane to Florida. We’d planned on going there, anyway. I hear it’s nice and warm down there at this time of the year. Well, what’s a Christmas without snow? I’ve tried calling your home for the past few hours, but the line has been busy…”

  The speaker’s voice trailed off as she finally noticed Arden was cradled in a stranger’s arms.

  Jane fixed Luke with a cold stare. “And who are you, may I ask? And what are you doing with my niece?”

  Luke swallowed his retort and glanced at Arden for help. She rolled her eyes, pushed his overcoat aside and scrambled to her feet. He smothered a groan and joined her.