by Mollie Molay
Luke’s radar kicked in. Tom Andrews not only knew him, he probably knew what was in the briefcase! What was he doing here? Coincidence? Damn! Something else to worry about.
“Come on,” Luke said as he met up with Arden. “I think we have trouble.”
Her face paled as he grabbed her arm.
“What kind of trouble?”
“It looks as if Security isn’t all that satisfied with our story,” he told her as his peripheral vision took in their immediate surroundings.
What he wasn’t going to tell her was about his former associate lurking around the terminal…and that Airport Security was still checking on him. She had enough to worry about without that.
“Because of the briefcase?”
“That, and a few other things.”
“Like what other things?”
“Just things. If you count the plainclothes detective who’s been following us and the security guards who took our names, I’d say we’ve been under surveillance for a long time.”
“What plainclothes detective?” Arden took a quick look around her. “Everyone looks pretty normal to me.”
“That’s the idea. I’m talking about the guy over there trying to look as if he’s holding up that pillar.”
“How can you tell he’s a detective?” Arden asked anxiously. “Maybe you’re worrying for nothing.”
“Trust me, I know one when I see one.” He thought for a few moments. “Attracting attention by delivering the baby hasn’t helped one damn bit!” he added bitterly.
“What was wrong in helping Jenny Alcott give birth to little Noel?” Arden questioned. “It was just like the miracle in the story of Christmas.” She glanced around the waiting area with a fond smile. “This might not be a manger, but there is another similarity. We’re all travelers without accommodations, aren’t we?”
As if that was the only problem! Luke nodded absently. Let her believe in the miracle birth if she wanted to. Anything to make her happy and get her mind off hidden dangers.
He couldn’t tell her the things he’d done, the places he’d been, places he’d rather not remember. Nor could he tell her the type of work he’d done since he’d left the government service. Of tracking down wanted criminals and illegal drug traders and other unsavory characters. Of the hazardous and less-than-exotic places he’d traveled to find them. And of the assignments that had taken him into danger. All things that might or might not be on record and could be questioned.
If they were, sure as hell someone wasn’t going to take his going south with the briefcase lightly. And especially not after the word got out about what was in it.
“The bad thing is,” he went on to remind her, “they’re looking for a wanted criminal and his female accomplice. And we fit both descriptions.”
Arden’s nerves took a turn for the worse. Once again she realized that in less than twenty-four hours she’d gone from being the daughter of a respected minister to a wanted woman!
She may have wanted to prove her independence and to have some adventure in the bargain, but she’d never expected to find herself dodging the law with an unknown stranger, pretending to be his wife!
Not that she’d ever aspired to being a saint, but she hadn’t felt like a sinner before this, either.
“I’m sorry to have gotten you into this mess. I should have known better.” Luke gazed into her bleak and troubled eyes. She had her own uncertain future to contend with; she didn’t need to be involved in his. He should have considered who he was dealing with before he made his impulsive offer to keep her warm.
“Maybe the plane will be cleared to leave before anything else happens,” Arden commented hopefully. “The night is almost over.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, more to reassure her than himself. His life had been full of maybe’s, and not all of them had turned out as well as he would have liked.
“Let’s go back to the gate and find a place to turn in,” he told her. “And don’t worry. What’s done is done. Maybe we can see ourselves through the rest of the night without any further problems.”
He glanced at the colorful holiday gift bag he’d given her. Knowing how she felt about Christmas mornings, maybe its contents would bring a smile to her face.
“You still have Christmas presents to open, you know.”
“You mean you want me to open them now instead of waiting for morning?”
“Sure, why not?” Luke answered. “Might as well. There’s not much else to do.”
Arden wasn’t fooled. Luke might speak and act as if he was uninterested, but she sensed there was some part of him that looked forward to Christmas mornings as much as she did. Maybe it had been a time when he was young and before he’d become so cynical and hard. Touched and grateful for the gifts he’d given her, she noted the expectant expression on Luke’s face, and it brought a smile to her own.
Maybe opening the gifts would divert them both from their problems. For a little while, at least.
The corner they’d occupied before had been left vacant, almost as if everyone understood that the space belonged to him and Arden.
Agnes Chambers greeted them with a big smile. “You did a great job back there, Mr. McCauley. And you, Mrs. McCauley, I imagine you’re very proud of your new husband.”
“Yes, indeed,” Arden answered with a sidelong glance at Luke. “Very proud.” Even though she knew it was all a charade, for these few moments she actually felt like a proud new wife.
Luke acknowledged the congratulations that followed him with a philosophical grin. If he did go off to jail, at least he was going to go as a hero.
Arden settled herself, made room for Luke beside her and drew the first of the three boxes from the gift bag.
“Wait a minute,” Luke said, “I’d like to do something first. That is, if you don’t mind.” He took a pen from his breast pocket, unscrewed it and began numbering the corner of the boxes. “Here, open this one first After all, it is almost Christmas morning.”
Arden unwrapped the box. The little Christmas tree with its fake needles sat there against a backdrop of green wrapping paper. The shop clerk had sprinkled silver confetti over top of the tree and they looked like tiny stars. At its base, the clerk had tucked in white cotton balls to resemble snow.
“There, now you have your own Christmas tree.”
“How thoughtful,” she said with a wide smile that reminded him of his young sister and of a time when he and the world around him were still innocent. “You were listening to everything I told you, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” he agreed. And to some of the things you didn’t say, he thought silently. She may have wanted independence, but as far as he could see, not from the traditional parts of her life that had made her happy. “Go ahead, open the other presents,” Luke urged.
The music box was next.
When she unwrapped the red enamel music box, Arden smiled through a sudden blur of happy tears. “How did you know I had a collection of music boxes of my own?”
“I took a wild guess,” he answered, fighting back the impulse to wipe her tears away with his fingertips, to taste her smile, to cheer up the young girl that still remained just below the surface of the grown-up Arden. “Maybe you’ll be able to have them all back someday. In the meantime, why don’t you wind it up?”
“Now? It might disturb someone.”
“Now,” he said firmly. “It is Christmas, isn’t it? I’m sure anyone who hears it will enjoy it.”
“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” tinkled through the silence. A harmonica soon softly joined in. The little sleigh started to move across the enameled top. This time Santa raised his arm in a salute.
“How sweet,” Arden said, her eyes following the sleigh as it moved across miniature tracks. She gazed up at him with stars in her eyes. “It’s the nicest present I’ve ever been given.”
“Ever?” Luke echoed. “It’s only a simple little music box, after all. Are you sure you didn’t get something more valuable
than this somewhere along the line?”
“No, not really,” she whispered, holding the music box close to her chest. “This one is special because of the thought behind it.”
Luke had shown her a warm heart and a vulnerability behind his cynical facade. He might not want to be told, but he’d given her more than a music box. He’d given her a part of his true self.
She gazed up into his eyes and caught a glimpse of another Luke for a brief moment before it passed from his dark eyes. He might not have wanted her to see his other self, but she had. The profound expression caught at her heart and remained there to be taken out and examined when he was no longer with her. It would give her something to remember him by.
Luke’s conscience awakened with a loud bang. If Arden set such great store in a simple music box, would she interpret some special meaning behind the perfume? Perfume was an intimate gift, after all. Usually given by one lover to another. Maybe buying it hadn’t been such a good idea.
He wanted to stop her from opening the last box. But he was too late.
Arden was carefully unwrapping the last, small box. She gasped when the tastefully packaged bottle of the White Diamonds perfume came into view.
“Oh, my!” she said, in a voice filled with awe. “Are you sure this is for me?”
“Sure,” Luke answered solemnly. “Why not?”
“I’ve never had perfume before. My folks didn’t approve of such things.”
“Not even your fiancé?”
“No. It wouldn’t have occurred to John to buy some for me. But,” she grinned, “sometimes Margo let me use hers. That and a lot of other cosmetics, too. I’d wash them off before I went home.”
“So a minister’s daughter isn’t perfect?”
“Not at all.” She gazed down at the bottle of perfume, held it to her nose and turned a wicked grin on him. “I was just as normal as the rest of the girls my age, even if my parents weren’t aware of it,” she said, turning the elegant box of perfume over and over as if she couldn’t believe her eyes. “I’m afraid some of the things Margo talked me into would have sent Mom and Dad over the wall if they’d known what we were doing.” Arden grinned. “But, even for a minister’s daughter, sometimes it’s hard to resist temptation.”
Luke knew all about temptation and its various guises. Tonight, he was carrying it in his hand. “Go ahead and open it. After all, your parents aren’t here to object,” he said wryly. “Enjoy.”
“But you’ve given me so much already!”
“Not really. Let’s just say each gift was for a different Arden Crandall.”
He saw the questions forming in her eyes. “Maybe I should explain. Let’s see.” For fear she might misconstrue his intentions, he paused to choose his words carefully. He cared for Arden, perhaps more than he should. But he didn’t want her to read too much of a personal nature into the gift.
All he wanted was to put a smile on her face.
“The tree and the music box were for the child in you.” he told her.
“And the perfume?”
Their eyes locked. She held her breath.
“The perfume is for the woman.”
He couldn’t help himself. Not when she gazed at him with her heart in her eyes. He bent over and kissed her on the tip of her nose. Close to the lips he wanted to taste, but as close as he dared to come, considering he was already going too far.
Almost overwhelmed, Arden laid the gifts in her lap. Her heart was filled with gratitude, her mind with questions. Luke was the kind of man a woman dreamed of, but was he the kind, to be taken seriously? Or even to consider marrying? As she gazed at him, something in the look he returned told her the gifts were an unspoken goodbye.
Luke saw the questions form in Arden’s eyes. Maybe he’d carried things too far, after all. Maybe she read more into the presents than he actually intended. If so, he was as guilty of taking advantage of her innocence as the other men he worried about.
“I’ll remember tonight forever,” Arden told him as she started to rewrap her gifts.
Forever echoed in Luke’s mind. Who knew better than he that there was no such thing as forever. That forever lasted only as long as time and circumstance allowed. And that sometimes it wasn’t as long as the heart wished for.
“Arden,” he said reluctantly, “maybe we ought to talk.”
Her bright smile as she gave him her full attention almost undid him. But he had to make his intentions clear. She deserved better than to tie up with a man like him.
“Of course,” she answered, slowly rewrapping the Christmas tree and the music box. She lingered over the bottle of exotic perfume.
“I’m going to have to trust you to forget everything I told you before and everything I’m going to tell you now. Think you can do that?”
“Yes.” Arden dropped her hands in her lap and gave him her full attention.
He took a deep breath. “To start with, tying up with me wasn’t the smartest thing you could have done.”
“Why not?” Arden’s smile disappeared. The troubled look reappeared. “I’m afraid I don’t understand. You did tell me you weren’t a wanted man. Or are you?”
He wanted to take her hands. To shield her from the truth, but he didn’t dare.
He hated himself for what he was about to do.
“No, I’m not. Not in the way you think. What I’m trying to tell you…” His voice dropped. He couldn’t bring himself to tell her the whole truth about himself, but he had to tell her just enough to make her forget him. “I don’t know how else to say it—but I’m not exactly the type of man you met at church.”
Arden’s eyes lightened. “I knew that right away,” she confessed with a smile. “To tell you the truth, I’d had enough of saintly men.” A wicked grin came over her face. “I don’t think I would have taken you up on your offer if you had been.”
Luke shook his head. He didn’t wanted her to take his confession lightly. On the other hand, he didn’t want to frighten her, either. Maybe somewhere in between.
“I haven’t been the kind of a guy you should want to know. No,” he said over her protests, “it’s true. In fact,” he said with a wry grin, “you might say I’ve been the kind of man your father warned you against.”
“My father has nothing to do with this,” Arden answered. “He doesn’t know you. For that matter, maybe I don’t know too much about you, either. But what I do know tells me you aren’t the man you seem to be on the surface.”
She knew better than he what her eyes had seen and what her heart was telling her.
“I’m afraid you haven’t been around me enough to recognize what’s beneath the surface,” he said adamantly. “Frankly, I’m a man who’s seen and done too much. Things you wouldn’t dream of. Out of a sense of duty to my country, sure. But, I have to admit, it was also the danger that drew me.” He grimaced. “Maybe I just wasn’t smart enough to stay out of trouble. And the few times I tried, it caught up with me, anyway.”
“Me, too,” Arden replied. “Take my meeting up with my aunt and uncle, for instance.”
Luke had to smile. “It’s not exactly the same thing, Arden.”
Her eyes seemed to take on a shine as she listened to him. With a sinking heart, he knew that although he’d been trying to discourage her fantasies, he’d actually encouraged them!
He took her hands in his. “Now, look, Arden. I’m trying to tell you I’ve had enough danger and excitement to last me for the rest of my life. I want out. Maybe that’s what you’re looking for, I don’t know. And if you’re looking for freedom and independence, so am I. Even if it’s for different reasons and not in the same way.”
“So far you haven’t said anything I can’t live with,” she answered.
“That’s the point,” he answered gently. “I don’t want you to have to live with it.”
He couldn’t afford to fall in love. Not with any woman and definitely not with Arden. Not without giving up the plans he’d made to take him into hi
s future. He was being honest. At least, about that. And he didn’t want to be the cause of turning Arden into a dishonest woman.
For Arden’s sake, and his own, he hardened his heart.
“This whole thing between us started as an impulse on my part. It’s time to stop before it goes too far.”
Actually, under different circumstances, Luke would have felt perhaps that things hadn’t gone far enough. But he had to live with himself.
Arden felt herself color as she considered what Luke was telling her. He sounded as if he thought she’d wanted an affair when they reached Cancún! Had she been so naive about the way she was beginning to feel about him? Was she so transparent? Had she actually shown the attraction she’d felt and still felt for him?
Nothing in her upbringing had prepared her for even the thought of an affair. And nothing had actually been farther from her mind. But she had been attracted to him. At this point she wasn’t sure just what it was she did want.
To her, Luke had been a decent, warm and caring man who had treated her as a grown man treats a grown woman. And she felt she’d responded to him the same way.
A small inner voice sounded, chiding her, reminding her of the truth. She was calling the feeling between them attraction, but was the attraction actually the first stages of romantic love?
Impossible! It wasn’t as if they’d shared a lifetime of common experiences; they’d actually met less than twelve hours ago. No matter how she felt about him, they were strangers.
He wanted his independence, his freedom to go his own way. To live a dream. So did she.
How could she have fallen in love with Luke without giving up the small measure of independence it had taken her twenty-two years to get up enough courage to carve out for herself?
Chapter Nine
Luke was right. It was time to say goodbye.
They’d been strangers when they met and would be strangers when they parted in the morning. There was no point in indulging in her fantasy that he could be Mr. Right when he was so obviously Mr. Wrong. He had his reasons for wanting to go his own way, but then didn’t she? Or had she forgotten her desire for independence so soon?
