Aching to explore the shadows created against her fair skin, Alex heard himself moan.
The sound put an enlightened smile upon Stephanie’s lips, and she reached out to divest him of his clothes. Eagerly he assisted. A moment later his shirt and tie and pants lay in a heap at the foot of the bed. Alexander stepped out of them, a naked warrior. Rather than cowering in fear at the sight of him pausing to don protection, Stephanie silently thanked him for thinking beyond the moment and opened her arms to him.
Opened her heart to him.
And let him inside.
The feel of his skin against hers as he pushed her tenderly upon the bed and slid his body over hers was the touch of silk against silk. Before letting his hands go where they would of their own will, he ravaged her tenderly with his mouth. It was Stephanie’s turn to moan. She caught the sound in her throat an instant before it turned into a sob. She hadn’t imagined that the male body could be so incredibly beautiful. The poet in her urged her to linger over this moment and capture it forever with words, but the woman inside was too impatient and greedy to listen.
She set aside her worries about failing to please him and immersed herself in the pleasure of giving herself completely over to this man. To this tender, voracious lover who made her feel beautiful. Stephanie had read enough to know that her first time would involve a certain amount of pain.
The throbbing tempo of her pulse pushed her inhibitions aside. She gasped as Alex positioned himself between her legs. The size of his erection made her feel both powerful and vulnerable. Alex had proven himself a gentle man, but now Stephanie was impatient and arched her back in anticipation. Alex lowered his body to hers and murmured softly as he accepted the gift offered him. The sting and stain of blood were the sun rising on a dark, faraway horizon. Stephanie felt her body flood with light and warmth as she rose to meet him. To be so completely filled and so utterly aroused was something she had merely dreamed about.
Those dreams fell short of reality.
Alex never stopped kissing her until her own cries of ecstasy filled his ears and pushed him over the brink. Grabbing her by the waist, he reached for the pinnacle that she had ascended so quickly. He shuddered once and called out her name. A prayer upon his lips, it echoed the one reverberating in Stephanie’s heart.
She loved him. Loved him. Loved him. Loved…
It was all she could do to refrain from saying the words aloud. Fearing such an admission would send him racing back to the safety of a world in which sex played only a minor role between consenting adults, she wrapped her arms around him and matched the heart pressed against hers beat for beat.
No wonder Shakespeare’s Juliet chose death over life without her Romeo. Once one’s soul commingled with another’s body in such a sacred act, there was no turning back the clock to a time of innocence. Sex in itself did not have the power to turn a girl into a woman.
But love did.
Alex brushed away the tears streaming down Stephanie’s face with the palm of his hand. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he began.
Stephanie laid a finger upon his lips to shush him.
“You didn’t,” she assured him.
At least not yet…
Refusing to cultivate such a sad premonition in the midst of a joy hitherto unbeknownst to her, she hastened to set his mind at ease. She didn’t want him to regret this moment now or ever.
“They’re tears of happiness,” she explained.
Alex tried kissing them away. Despite her efforts to relieve his conscience, they tasted bitter and left the salt of guilt upon his lips.
“If you dare apologize to me, I’ll cry in earnest,” she told him.
Nothing was going to ruin this moment for Stephanie. After experiencing the most beautiful turning point in her life, she’d be damned if she was going to let him make her feel like some charity case. Come what may, she would never regret their time together. He had utterly ruined her modest fantasy of settling down with some inconspicuous man with a practical nature and a kind heart.
Stephanie would never be able to consider another man without comparing him to the one in her arms. She would no longer be content to accept any poor substitute for a husband. Nor to live life with less than an all out zeal usually reserved for players who strutted upon the stage and repeated the words written for them as opposed to those merely watching in the audience. No longer would she live life as if it were a dress rehearsal.
In the future, whenever Carrie’s face lit up as she talked about her husband, Stephanie would be able to relate to her sense of infatuation. And when she and Alex made their way to that phony adoption agency in the span of one more golden day, she would not have to pretend that she wanted to have this man’s children. Her fantasies were filled with images of an adoring family created by the love she felt for him. No acting would be required of her.
That Alex had cracked her heart wide open was a gift—and a curse that she would have to live with the rest of her life.
“Thank you,” she murmured as she drifted off to sleep in his arms. Although Stephanie knew it was a most unladylike thing to say, that did not stop her from expressing the gratitude that enveloped her as surely as this man’s strong arms.
Alex choked on the bile that rose in his throat. That such a gentle, beautiful creature was actually moved to thank him for stealing a gift most precious from her made him despise himself. After all, this was not a woman who used men like him for money or fame. This was not a woman who would ever abandon her duties as a wife and mother. Among the women who had frequented Alex’s life from childhood until the present, Stephanie was a saint. And he a loathsome sinner who could offer nothing in exchange for the trust she had bestowed upon him but heartache.
It would not be easy for her to return to a lonely efficiency apartment and a library full of dusty volumes. Nor for him to resume a meaningless string of relationships with women far more interested in his money than in him.
When things had become too serious for his liking, Alex’s last paramour had flung priceless objets d’art at his head and demanded some kind of monetary recompense for wasting her time on him. He suspected Stephanie wouldn’t so much as ask for her heart back. The expression on her face when he had given her that outrageously expensive ring had been so touching that he could not imagine asking her for it back. When they eventually parted to resume life as they both knew it, he wanted her to keep it as a memento of their time together.
Such a grand gesture, he knew, was merely a way to assuage his guilt.
Alex lay awake long after Stephanie had fallen asleep beside him. As he studied her delicate features in repose, he struggled with the mess he had made of this mission. Never before had he violated his number-one rule of maintaining professional aloofness when working on a case. Adrift in blissful sleep, Stephanie did not hear the anguish in his voice as it rose in the darkness to ask, “What have I done?”
Nine
Stephanie dressed with care for her appointment. She knew how important it was for them to look affluent, and while that wouldn’t be a problem for Alexander, she knew that it would take more than clothes alone for her to pull this off. Prosperity, she was coming to realize, was more a way of thinking than simply spending money lavishly. Having been born into privileged circumstances, Alex understood this quite naturally. He carried himself with an air of confidence and gracious ease in his place in the universe that Stephanie herself had never felt.
Nor did Alex balk or haggle over the price of anything. He put quality before all else. Over and over again Stephanie visualized how she should act when outrageous sums of money came up in regard to the cost of “buying” an infant. It was crucial that she keep from showing any expression of horror that idea genuinely evoked. Just as it is almost impossible to convince a child that a potential kidnapper doesn’t necessarily fit the profile of a stereotypical “bad” man, Stephanie herself struggled with the idea that the malevolence she was about to encounter would not be weari
ng a devil’s mask.
Because she hoped to blend into the background and let Alex handle the intricacies of negotiating their illicit deal, she settled upon a beige skirt and matching cardigan that did more for her figure than she realized. Its classic lines and muted color made her feel a little more comfortable masquerading as Alexander Kent’s well-to-do wife. The simple white shell that she wore beneath provided a place to hide the wire that Alex helped her attach.
“Try not to draw any attention to it,” he warned, buttoning her sweater over the item in question.
Despite how small and unobtrusive the mike was, Stephanie couldn’t have been more self-conscious had he pinned a conspicuous scarlet letter A to her. Nevertheless the husbandly gesture of helping her dress melted her. She gazed into his eyes.
It hurt her to see those green orbs fill up with guilt. When he averted his gaze, she reached up to grab his freshly shaven chin in both hands. She had come to love the smell of his signature aftershave. Like him, it was subtle and intriguing. Her dignity already in shatters, she saw no reason to avoid discussing the elephant that had crowded into the room with them.
“Please don’t look away from me,” she admonished. “I’m a big girl, and I knew what I was getting into. I’ve done nothing I’m ashamed of, and it’s imperative to our mission, not to mention my pride, that you don’t act ashamed of having made love to me. Personal feelings aside, we have a job to do, one that includes you pretending to be as crazy about me as I am about you.”
“I’m fond of you, too,” Alex said, choosing his words as carefully as a soldier considering each step through a minefield.
Stephanie’s laughter rocked him. It was usually this very moment in a relationship, the precise instant when he took one unmistakable emotional step backward, that he’d come to expect either fury or tears. Alex looked at Stephanie in confusion. Wasn’t she going to grab the nearest vase and hurl it at his head? Never had he met a more unpredictable woman in his entire life.
Disconcerted, he refrained from asking, “That’s it?”
Clearly Stephanie wasn’t going to fly apart like other women who threw their bodies at him in hopes of procuring a commitment. Alex admired the fact that she didn’t overreact to his studied detachment. The lady had enough class and respected herself too much to sink to groveling or patent manipulation. Could she really want to be with him for reasons other than money and prestige?
The thought loosened his heart from the steel encasement he’d built around it, causing it to rattle uncomfortably around inside his chest.
Hand in hand an hour later, they walked up the sidewalk to the front door of the small agency that Natalie Perez believed was connected with Dr. Birkenfeld’s stolen-baby ring. Even though Alex knew Stephanie had initiated the hand-holding to create the proper appearance of a couple in love, he allowed himself to enjoy the rare wholesome feeling that the simple gesture evoked. It was a beautiful spring day, and he was holding hands with the most enchanting, perplexing creature he’d ever met. He doubted whether Stephanie had yet come to accept how very beautiful she was. She seemed oblivious to any man’s approving glance in her direction—except his. And that made his own chest puff up like that of a young boy in love for the very first time.
As Alex held the door open for her, he prayed that he could keep her safe from the potential evil lurking behind it. The front office was adorned with the kind of chic furnishings designed to put wealthy clients at ease. A platinum-blond receptionist wearing lipstick a shade too bright gave Alex a predatory smile and looked right through the woman professing to be his wife. Stephanie wondered if the name pinned on her chest was anymore real than her bosom.
The woman took their names and asked them to take a seat in the waiting area. Her sharp eyes followed every step they took.
Settling into an expensive leather love seat only enhanced the picture they presented as a loving husband and wife. Alex put his arm around Stephanie and offered her one of the glossy magazines set out to distract them from a waiting period specifically designed to make them all the more susceptible to the sales pitch to come.
Refusing the proffered magazine, Stephanie instead laid her head upon Alex’s shoulder. That her hand felt suddenly cold in his was the only indication of just how nervous she was. They both rose to their feet when an attractive, middle-aged man with distinguished gray hair stepped into the lobby and introduced himself.
“I’m Larry Sutter.”
His handshake was as firm as the grip Alex maintained on Stephanie’s shoulder for support.
A suit jacket covered Larry’s spreading paunch. A heavy Black Hills gold ring flashed in the light as he bid them enter his office. Tastefully decorated, the room did not seem particularly overdone. Stephanie was surprised to see a family photograph displayed on his desk. She wondered if his wife and children knew he was a baby broker.
He waited until they sat down across from him to give them the bad news. “As your assigned caseworker, I have to be brutally honest with you. Although as a private agency our waiting time is substantially shorter than those of state-run institutions, you surely are aware that the availability of infants is in short supply everywhere.”
Stephanie’s face fell. It didn’t take any great leap of acting ability to imagine what it would feel like to hear such a dire newscast when one’s whole heart and soul was set on becoming a mother. Alex reached out to take her hand in his.
“My wife and I are desperate to start a family as soon as possible,” he said.
Averting her eyes, Stephanie spoke softly. “We’ve gone to a good many doctors, and they all say the same thing. It’s my fault that we can’t have children of our own, and my husband is being so, so very sweet about—”
Her voice broke, preventing her from finishing the thought.
“It’s nobody’s fault,” Alex corrected. “As you can see, Larry, this is an extremely difficult subject for my wife to discuss. I can’t stand seeing her like this. Whatever it takes to speed this process up I can pay. If it makes things any easier for you, we don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl. I simply want you to do whatever it takes to put us at the top of your list for the next available infant. The couple who recommended this agency led us to believe that there was a possibility that we could return home with a baby.”
The expression on Larry’s face wasn’t encouraging. “I don’t know how I could possibly manage that.”
“Get creative,” Alex suggested in a tone of voice that left no doubt he was ready to do business. “As I said on the phone, money is no object. My wife’s happiness is everything to me.”
Stephanie didn’t know how he could be any more blunt. Pulled into this drama on a visceral level, she could almost hear her own biological clock ticking. Images that she herself repressed on a daily basis because they were too painful to bear flooded her mind. She saw herself in a rocking chair, cuddling an infant and singing lullabies. A chubby fist clutched her finger. Eyes the color of Alexander’s gazed up at her from behind long, dark lashes.
Lost in her thoughts, Stephanie imagined a sports decor for a boy and ballerina wallpaper for a girl. Children’s books lined the shelves. Their two-story Victorian home would have a huge backyard, complete with a swing set, a fort and a trampoline. Laughter would echo throughout such a home. In each and every mental depiction, Alexander was at her side.
Time slipped by as silently as the tears rolling down her face.
When she’d first accepted this assignment, Stephanie’s sympathies lay entirely with the women who lost their babies to such a monster as the one sitting across from her so coldly negotiating a deal. He reminded her of a snake all coiled up waiting to strike its next unsuspecting victim.
Sitting here, however, so immersed in her role as a potential mother-to-be, Stephanie felt a stab of empathy for any woman so desperate she would stoop to whatever means available to make her dreams a reality. Who was she to judge another when her own frustrated desire to someday have a family h
ad the power to evoke tears on demand?
“Please don’t cry, ma’am,” Mr. Sutter entreated. “We’ll get started processing your application right away. Once we get the paperwork in order, I promise I’ll do everything in my power to try to make things happen as fast as humanly possible.”
Shaken from her reverie, Stephanie watched the man slide some paperwork across the desk.
“Our normal fee is a hundred thousand dollars,” he said, crossing that amount out and leaving it open. “But since you seem so anxious to speed the process up, additional fees would have to be added in later.”
“I understand,” Alex said indifferently.
So deep was Stephanie in her role that she blurted out an unthinkable question. “How much of this money will go to the young mother who gave her baby up?”
Alex could barely contain his scowl, but Mr. Sutter smiled at her benevolently.
“Almost all of it. Our agency isn’t here to make a big profit. What we’re really all about is making sure everyone comes out happy, including the mother who finds it in her best interest to give a baby up for adoption.”
Alex wished the man hadn’t said that. Not being as good an actor as Stephanie, it was all he could do to keep from reaching over the desk and choking the life out of that sleazebag. He’d been in the Royal Diner when Natalie Perez first came to Royal, clutching her baby in one arm and a diaper bag in the other. And ever since that day, he’d been unable to erase from his mind the fear and despair that he’d seen in her eyes. The only money Natalie received for the infant that someone had tried to steal from her was what she’d single-handedly made off with when she lit out of town with both her baby and the crook’s ill-gotten gains.
By the looks of the paperwork Alex was in the process of filling out, they were mighty anxious to put some money back in the coffers, specifically in their own back pocket. The required paperwork resembled little more than a credit application guaranteeing the bogus company that a potential client had the money available to buy a baby on demand. Of course, this was one credit app that was never going to be checked out. All these sophisticated criminals wanted to know was where to send the paperwork to finalize the adoption after they had their money in hand. There was more than enough ready cash in the checking account that the Texas Cattleman’s Club had set up in Alexander’s and Stephanie’s name to put any doubts at ease. These thieves obviously had no qualms about what they were doing and were more than willing and eager to accept the money Alex offered. He couldn’t help but smile at the thought that it was the very money Natalie had taken from them that he was using to set up this sting operation.
Pretending with the Playboy Page 9
