McKnight in Shining Armor

by Tami Hoag

  Jeffrey answered the door wearing his Cub Scout uniform and a paper-maché hat shaped like a brontosaurus. “Hi, Alec. We’re making gingerbread men. Mine looks like Pee Wee Herman.”

  “That’s great, sport. Is your mom around?”

  “Sure.”

  Kelsie stepped into the open doorway, and Jeff ducked under her arm to return to the scout project in the kitchen. “Alec, what are you doing here?”

  “What’s going on?” he demanded, ignoring her question, annoyed that they obviously weren’t going to be alone.

  “The Cub Scouts’ Christmas party. Didn’t I tell you it was tonight?”

  “Who knows,” he grumbled. “I’d need to hire another secretary if I were going to keep track of every blessed meeting and party of yours.”

  Kelsie had just about had it with his little digs about her schedule. She’d warned him. She reached for the door as if she meant to close it in his face. “I’m busy right now, Alec. Maybe you could come back later to be rude and obnoxious.”

  Alec closed his eyes and forced a sigh. His attitude was getting him nowhere. He stuck an arm out to hold the door back. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day. Honey, if we can just talk for five minutes—”

  “Alec, I don’t have five minutes right now,” Kelsie said, wincing as a crash sounded behind her. “Mothers are outnumbered twelve to two in the kitchen.”

  “Please, sweetheart.” He tried to give her his best sincere look, but she was glancing over her shoulder at the little boys running around the dining room. “Kelsie, it’s important,” he said, exasperated by all the interruptions. “We need to talk.”

  “Will it still be important in three hours, when everyone is gone?” she asked, irritated by his impatience.

  Alec knew he was being unreasonable, but for some reason it was important to him that they talk now, right now. He wanted her to drop everything so he could beg her to run away with him for the weekend. Maybe he was losing his mind, he reflected as he pushed past her into the living room. He clamped a cold hand around her wrist and started leading her down the hallway away from the sounds of imminent disaster in the kitchen. Maybe he was having an early mid life crisis. Next he’d be dying his hair and taking hang gliding lessons.

  “Alec!” Kelsie protested, trying to dig her heels into the carpet. “I have guests.”

  “They can wait five minutes. I can’t.”

  He steered her into her bedroom. Without even letting go of Kelsie, he shut the door and backed her against it. Her eyes were as big as moons as she stared at the fierce, determined expression on his face.

  He looked a little wild, not at all like the cool-headed young executive. His usually neat hair spilled across his forehead. His dark, straight brows were lowered ominously over blazing blue eyes. Without the smile Kelsie had come to know and love, his finely chiseled mouth had an almost cynical twist to it. It struck her again what a contrast there was in Alec. He wasn’t always the easygoing charmer. He could be formidable.

  She had to wonder if he had finally realized she’d been right all along—that there just wasn’t any way for them to have a normal relationship. She’d been waiting for this moment, but she was hardly ready. Her heart ached so, she wanted to turn away from him, but the intensity of his stare held her in place.

  After a tense, itchy moment of silence, Alec took a deep breath and said, “Run away with me.”

  “What?” Kelsie laughed, relief leaving her so weak she couldn’t have moved away from the door because she would have folded up like an accordion.

  “I mean it, Kelsie. Run away with me this weekend. I’ve got a nice secluded little spot all picked out. It’s a place we can go to and relax. We need some time alone together, honey.”

  A whole weekend with no interruptions for them to get their relationship on firmer footing? Kelsie found the prospect dangerously inviting. They were in love. They deserved a little quality time with each other, but… But what, Kelsie, she asked herself as warning tremors ran through her. Something about it scared her.

  “I agree, we do need to get away,” she said, stalling for time. “But this weekend is the Christmas bazaar for the Humane Society.”

  “So?” he asked.

  “So I should be there. I’m the vice-president. I had to line up the horses for the sleigh rides and the animals for the live nativity scene—”

  “Which you’ve done,” Alec pointed out. “Your job is finished. There’s no reason you have to be there.”

  “But someone should be there to make sure everything goes all right—”

  “Call the chairperson and delegate it.”

  “But—”

  “Kelsie, why are you trying so damn hard to find an excuse? If you’d rather spend the weekend with the Humane Society than with me, then maybe we don’t need to discuss our relationship any further. I was under the mistaken impression that we were both in love—”

  “We are!” she insisted, flustered. “I mean, I am—I mean, I do love you, Alec. It’s just that this weekend is a bad time—”

  He had a very explicit opinion of the Humane Society’s claim on their weekend, which he muttered half under his breath.

  “What about you?” she questioned, trying to turn the tables. “You’ve been swamped trying to get everything lined up for next week. How can you get away?”

  “I delegated. They gave a great class on it at college—Delegating 101. Maybe you could audit it next semester, if you can handle the idea that the world can run without you being in charge of every blasted committee.”

  “What kind of crack is that?” she asked, planting her hands on her hips.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” he said sarcastically as his shoulders moved in an exaggerated shrug. “I guess it’s the kind I usually make when the woman I love is doing everything she can to sabotage our relationship.”

  “I am not!” Kelsie denied vehemently, wondering in the back of her mind why she felt she should have crossed her fingers before saying that.

  “Then tell the Humane Society to take a flying leap, and say you’ll come away with me this weekend.” Both his tone and his look softened as he gazed down at her. He raised a hand to her cheek, stroking the downy softness with the backs of his fingers. “Please, honey. We have to make time for what’s important. The Humane Society is a worthy cause, but so are we—you and I. We deserve this. We need it. I need you.”

  He was vulnerable. She could see it. He made no attempt to hide it. Way down deep in those ocean-blue eyes he looked as scared as she felt. It made her love him even more than she already did.

  She needed him, too, but she couldn’t say it. When her marriage had ended, Kelsie had vowed she would never let herself fall into the trap of being dependent on a man again. She couldn’t need Alec, but she did, and part of her wanted to. She loved him. Could need and dependence be separated from love?

  “We do need this, don’t we?” she said, looking down at her feet. Maybe she could sort out some of her own feelings while they were away. “What about the kids? I’m not sure I can find someone to stay with them for a whole weekend.”

  “I’ve already talked to my cousin Natalie. She’s got no problem with staying the whole weekend. Her husband is an intern; he’s going to be at the hospital.”

  “She’s a law student and he’s a doctor? That must be a rough schedule.”

  “Yeah,” Alec agreed, his gaze holding hers. “And they’re making it.” He watched Kelsie shift uncomfortably, and swiftly lightened his mood. He was lucky his strong-arm tactics hadn’t gotten him tossed out in the snow on his keister. He gave her a wily, bedimpled grin. “I can’t wait to get you all to myself for a whole weekend.”

  It was remarkable. She was a grown woman with two children, she was this man’s lover, for heaven’s sake, and still he could make her blush. Hollywood would have laid the world at his feet for the chance to put his brand of sexual magnetism on the silver screen. There was no getting around it, Alec McKnight had a reservoir
of charm as deep as Lake Superior, and eyes as blue, and Kelsie could scarcely look at him without feeling as if she were drowning.

  She smiled at him and shook her head in disbelief at her body’s response to him. “Where are we going?” she asked, resigning herself to the fact that Alec almost always managed to get his own way.

  “La Croix House—a very special, very private inn that overlooks the Ste. Croix river. You’ll love it.”

  “What should I pack? Ski clothes?”

  “No.” He smiled secretively.

  “Evening clothes?”

  “No.” His smile widened. By rights, Kelsie thought, there should have been canary feathers sticking to his chin.

  “What, then?”

  “Remember that briefcase you brought to my office the day we met?” He bobbed his eyebrows at her as she blushed in remembrance of the lacy underthings in the attaché. “Bring that.”

  “What else?” she asked, fighting a losing battle against embarrassment.

  Alec went right on grinning. “Your toothbrush.”

  La Croix House was everything Alec had told her and then some, Kelsie thought as they turned in at the gate and started up the long, winding drive way. The early dusk of Minnesota winter was falling on the snow-blanketed fields, but amber lights cast a welcoming glow in the tall windows of the inn. The house was an enormous Greek revival style mansion, white with neat black shutters. Four Dorian columns rose gracefully to the top of the second story to support the wide roof of the portico. The main entrance boasted oak double doors with a wreath on each and a huge fanlight above them. In the spirit of the season, red ribbon and evergreen roping adorned the post where the sign hung welcoming them to La Croix House. Behind the house the land rose sharply into wooded hills that were black now in the gloom of twilight. The lawn in front of the house gradually sloped downhill. The frozen expanse of the Ste. Croix River lay below.

  Alec parked the car, shut off the engine, and turned to give Kelsie an expectant smile. “Well?”

  “It’s beautiful, Alec,” she murmured, feeling suddenly choked up because no one had ever taken her to such a special place. She tried humor to keep her tears at bay. “What can I say except you’d better not be considered a regular here.”

  He chuckled, not missing the sparkle of tears Kelsie had hastily blinked away. Reaching out to tuck a stray strand of blond hair behind her ear, he said, “I have been here exactly once. Post-divorce R and R,” he explained. “It was just me, my skis, and a stack of Agatha Christie novels.”

  Kelsie leaned over and kissed him. “Let’s go in before we freeze.”

  “I can think of several ways for us to stay warm,” Alec said, his voice eager with suggestion.

  “Hold those thoughts until we get to our room, will you?”

  They were greeted in the foyer by a woman who was short and plump and had a smile that lit up her whole face.

  “Hi! Welcome back, Alec.” She laughed at the look of astonishment he gave her. “I never forget a name or a recipe for fattening food. The one trait comes in handy, the other goes straight to my hips,” she said with a rueful smile. Reaching out to shake Kelsie’s hand, she said, “You must be Kelsie. I’m Ann Lancaster. Welcome to La Croix House.”

  “Thank you,” Kelsie said, liking the woman instantly. “The house is beautiful.”

  “Thank you. We’re very proud of it. My husband and son and I have done most of the restoration work ourselves. I’ll give you a mini tour, then take you up to your room.”

  The tour of the house would have been worth paying admission for. Each room had been lovingly restored, from the polished wood floors to the ornate moldings and plasterwork on the high ceilings. Oriental rugs graced the floors. The furnishings were antiques. All of the first floor rooms that were open to guests—the two parlors, library, and large dining room—had been decorated for Christmas with evergreen bows and sprigs of holly, wreaths, baskets of pine cones, and velvet and taffeta ribbons.

  The seven guest rooms, Mrs. Lancaster explained as they climbed the curving staircase, had been decorated with luxury in mind ahead of historical accuracy. The furnishings were still antiques, but the floors were covered with lush carpeting and each room had its own Jacuzzi.

  On the door to the room Alec had reserved for them, a small hand-lettered sign read:

  Alec and Kelsie

  Peace and Quiet for a Whole Weekend!

  Enjoy!

  When the door closed behind them, Alec set the suitcases down, sighed, and stretched his arms and shoulders, ready to relax. Conversely, Kelsie seemed to tense up. Not that she’d been overly relaxed on the drive. She had fidgeted and chewed her lip the whole way. She hadn’t said a word about it, but Alec knew something about this weekend was bothering her. She was as easy to read as a billboard.

  “Would you care to discuss it?” he asked, watching her prowl around the room.

  Her head jerked around in his direction. “What?”

  Alec gave her a tiny smile. “Whatever it is that’s making you so nervous when you’re supposed to be unwinding.”

  “Oh,” she said in a small voice. Why did she have to be as transparent as plastic wrap, she wondered. At least she didn’t have to lie to him. There were a dozen things making her nervous; all she had to do was pick one that didn’t involve him. She shrugged, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “It’s just that… I’ve never left the kids for a whole weekend before, and…” As she dodged Alec’s penetrating gaze, her eyes landed on the telephone sitting beside a thriving Boston fern on a pine dry sink. “Maybe I should call to make sure—”

  Alec shook his head, smiling indulgently. He came forward to gently brush her hair back from her face and press a sweet kiss to her lips. “Natalie has this number. She’ll call if anything really important happens, such as terrorists taking them hostage or a nuclear bomb hitting your house.”

  “I know. But Elizabeth had a dentist appointment today.”

  Alec frowned. “Drilling? Filling? Pulling?”

  “Just a checkup,” she said, feeling ridiculous.

  To his credit, Alec didn’t laugh, but he tried to get Kelsie to. “That ranks somewhere below a neo-Nazi uprising. Close, mind you, but not quite as bad.”

  She cracked a pathetic excuse for a smile.

  “Honey, they’ll be fine,” he assured her, taking her in his arms.

  Kelsie’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Yeah.” She sighed, giving in to the urge to put her arms around Alec’s lean waist and snuggle against him.

  It helped to be closer to him, but it didn’t chase away the hollow sense of panic inside her. She shouldn’t have come here with him. She should never have let him talk her into it. Of course, it would have been easier to walk to the moon than resist Alec’s powers of persuasion. All her hard-won independence became as soft as Silly Putty when she went up against Alec’s granite-willed, velvet-cloaked determination.

  She was becoming dependent on him. That was the bottom line. That was what really scared her. He had worked his way into her life and made himself indispensable. He was always there for her in times of crisis, her knight in shining armor, inviting her to lean on him. How could she deny him anything?

  Why did love have to be so complicated? She couldn’t give in to the temptation of becoming emotionally dependent on him. She had been totally dependent on Jack and it had nearly destroyed her. She would never forget the raw terror that had permeated ever fiber of her being when she had realized Jack was never going to be there for her again, that she was essentially alone. No one would ever know the struggle she had gone through to become self-sufficient, to take charge of her life. If she had to go through it again, she wasn’t so sure she would survive.

  Why did love have to be so complicated? She loved Alec, but could she make him understand she had to have a life outside their relationship? He’d been doing everything he could to invade every corner of her existence. How was he going to react when she asked him to back o
ff? She knew he wouldn’t take it well. She didn’t want to lose him, she just needed some space.

  Why did love have to be so complicated?

  “Come here,” he said, stepping out of her embrace and drawing her with him toward the tall window, where a plump lavender velvet cushion beckoned them to make use of the window seat.

  “We should get ready for dinner,” Kelsie protested.

  “It can wait,” he said softly, sitting with his back against the wall of the alcove, one leg drawn up on the seat, the other foot on the floor. He pulled her down to sit in the vee of his legs with her back to his chest, and wrapped his arms around her. “Isn’t this nice?”

  She nodded automatically, not bothering to ask if he was referring to the room or the view or the quiet or them sitting together. Letting her gaze take in the details of their surroundings, she said, “This is like my all-time fantasy bedroom. Have you been reading my mind, Alec McKnight?”

  He chuckled devilishly. “I’ll never tell.”

  The room was light and larger than any two bedrooms in Kelsie’s house. Dainty violet flowers and green vines entwined on the white background of the wallpaper. The carpet and drapes were silver-gray. There were actually two levels to the room. On the lower level, thick lavender towels sat in a wicker basket beside the gray marble Jacuzzi. Two delicate rosewood chairs and a small table covered in white lace sat not far from the window seat, where the morning sun and the view of the river would provide a lovely setting for an intimate breakfast. Several carpeted steps led up to a specious loft, where an ornate brass bed situated beneath a skylight was the main attraction and two comfortable-looking overstuffed chairs flanked a brass floor lamp.

  Special touches added warmth and homeyness to both levels: dishes of sweet-smelling potpourri, lush green plants in hand-thrown pottery, satin and lace pillows, framed needlework, and wreaths made of baby’s breath and grapevine adorning the walls.