Surrender to Temptation (Agent Lovers Series Book 1) (29 page)

Unfortunately for Chris, at that moment he was considerately bending towards his wife to help her, and the entire mess landed on him. On the upside, this prevented the disgusting load from landing in the pool, where it would spoil any swimming fun for days. Chris had to take his suit to the cleaners soon, anyway, so it really didn’t matter much that the contents of Jennifer’s sour stomach now trickled from his chin all the way down his fancy threads. Looking disgusted, he went inside the house and Jennifer staggered after him in a roundabout way, across the bumpy grass.

“Didja shower?” She looked at Chris in amazement, when he came out several minutes later, wrapped in a bath sheet.

“I would recommend you do the same, darling.”

“Lookz like you juz god up. Wanna sid outside a little? It’s fun today. There some nice people oud there.”

Gray shook his head at the pointless drinking binge and bent over to help his wife stand up, but this turned out to be more difficult than he thought. Liz kept collapsing, so he unceremoniously picked her up in his arms and carried her into the house.

***

Gray tried to hold his wife upright so he could help her out of her dress, but her legs kept giving way and he eventually had to hold on to her with both hands.

“You pig,” slurred Liz. “Don touch me! Who are you anyways?”

“I’m your husband, sweetheart.” Gray sighed softly and sat her on the bed.

He supported her upper body with one hand while he unfastened the delicate zipper of her bodice with the other. Then he pushed the silky, cream-colored material that showed off her tan from Liz’s shoulders and let her sink backwards onto the bed. She lay on the bed looking woozy and allowed him to pull the ankle-length dress over her hips, so that she lay before him wearing only her white lace underwear and silk-stockings.

“Gray?” she said.

“Yes, darling?” He bent down to her and leaned on the mattress so that he could get as close to her as possible. He swept a strand of hair out of Liz’s face with the other hand and smiled at her lovingly.

“Wanna sleep with me?”

“I’d love that, sweetheart. But in your condition I hardly think you’d get anything out of it. And
that
, in all honesty, isn’t what I had in mind.”

“It’s not so bad.” She waved one hand in a grandiose manner, tracing the shape of her body in the air. “Help yourself. It all belongs to you now!” Liz turned her head to the side and slowly closed her eyes. “Belongs…all…to…you….” The words came out sluggishly as her voice grew softer and softer.

Gray frowned at this remark, which was an admonition as much as it was an invitation, and sighed. His performance in the limousine had obviously been a convincing one. He straightened up again. Liz seemed to see herself as his possession, not as his equal partner—something that he’d have to correct in the near future. He carefully pulled the bedcovers out from under her body, moved the pillow under her head, and covered her up. As Gray straightened up, she looked at him through glassy eyes.

“Sleep now.” He brushed the tip of her nose with his lips.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t feel good!” she moaned softly and pressed a hand over her mouth. Swiftly Gray pulled the covers back off of Liz’s body, scooped her up and carried her into the connecting bathroom. He supported her cramping body while she retched violently. When she was finished he set her on the bathroom counter like a small child, so he could wash her clammy face. Already half-asleep, Liz endured his ministrations passively. She didn’t even notice when Gray gently pulled out her remaining hairpins and then removed her lacey underwear and stockings before carrying her back to bed.

With his arms crossed, he stood and watched his new wife sleep. Then he bent down and lovingly swept a strand of hair from her forehead. Wearily he stood up again. He was exhausted, too. After a trip to the bathroom, he joined Liz in bed. Cautiously he slipped in next to her, wrapped his arm around her narrow waist and curled up to her naked back.

This really wasn’t what he had imagined for his wedding night. Jeff had been right about that. At least he was able to hold his wife in his arms and didn’t have to share a room and bed with Chris, or even sleep on the couch in the living room, he thought with a happy chuckle.

This was followed by a soft, sad sigh as he realized that they would probably be fighting again soon enough. He believed that in the end, though, Liz would get used to the fact that she was married to him, and she’d forgive him, despite the means he’d used to force her into this marriage. She would learn to love him. He just had to give her enough time for that. Then he could finally admit to her how he felt toward her.

And as far as children were concerned, it really wouldn’t have been a problem for him if he’d already gotten her pregnant. He had never really thought about children much before, although it had been clear to him that in the future he did want to start his own family. Since he had admitted his love for Liz, though, and had realized she was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, the idea of children—
their
children—had popped into his mind regularly.

When Annie had charged up to him, beaming with joy, and had congratulated him on becoming a dad, he had hardly been able to believe his luck. He had used protection, that was true, but no protection was one hundred percent effective. The moment the disappointment hit him had been bitter. His wife wasn’t “in the family way” and couldn’t be.

He had to admit that Liz was right in what she’d said in the kitchen about a pregnancy. That would have been convenient for him because Townsend would then have removed her from the unit. Nothing better could have happened, in his mind. Even though he clearly would have been involved, the decision for her to leave her job wouldn’t have come as a result of him putting pressure on her. It was too bad she was using a long-acting contraceptive!

Once she was a mother, she might not get into as much mischief anymore, Gray reasoned, and he smiled at the thought. Motherhood would be the perfect way to distract her from her job. Gray closed his eyes wearily, and even as he drifted off to sleep, he was running this thought over in his mind.

It was already late morning before Gray opened his eyes. Liz hadn’t moved an inch during the night. The alcohol had delivered a primo knockout, he determined with a chuckle as he sat up halfway in bed.

Gray looked pensively at Liz’s relaxed facial features and then let his eyes roam over her body, which the blanket only covered to her hips. His gaze traveled over her back, her shoulders, and her arms, down to her hand, which lay relaxed on the pillow, and then to the ring on her finger. He smiled as he looked from her wedding ring back to Liz’s face. His woman. His wife. Pride made his chest swell. Liz was enchanting, gorgeous, and smart. And she belonged to him!

For a second his conscience told him that dragging her down the aisle hadn’t been the best way to go about things, but he suppressed the unpleasant feeling immediately. The only thing that mattered was the result. The temporary result. He still hadn’t reached his ultimate goal, but Gray was convinced that he was on the best path to get there.

Cautiously he slid backwards off the bed so as not to wake Liz and gently pulled the thin blanket over her shoulders.

After a refreshing shower, Gray left their bedroom wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt that stretched over his chest like a second skin. In the kitchen he ran into Jeff, who was just making coffee.

“How’s my sister-in-law doing?” he asked, grinning over his shoulder.

“She’s still sleeping. But when she wakes up, she should have a well-earned headache.” Gray filled a large glass with water and took it back upstairs. Quietly he put the glass on the nightstand and laid two aspirin next to it. He slipped out of the room just as noiselessly as he’d entered. Back in the kitchen, he ran into Chris, who was indulging in a cup of strong coffee.

“If Jennifer feels up to it, we’re going to pack our things. It’s time for her to get to know her new home. And Brutus too,” he added with a smile as the dog followed Furball into the kitchen. They sat next to each other in front of their bowls and dug into their breakfast.

“Of course. I’ll drive you,” Gray said.

“I think you’ll have your hands full taking care of
your
wife!”

“If Gray will loan me his BMW, I can take you,” said Jeff.

“Only if I get my car back in one piece.” The other men laughed at Gray’s dry comment. A completely logical concern, considering what the women had done to his Mercedes GL.

***

Liz opened her eyes sluggishly. Blinding bright sunlight suffused the room. Her head pounded. Moaning, she held one hand to her forehead and rolled laboriously from her side to her back.

Never again!
She swore to herself that she had touched her last drop of alcohol. Last night hitting the bottle had seemed like a great way to vent her frustration. It had also kept Gray at arm’s length. Then he’d looked at her with those bedroom eyes, and her resolve had disintegrated. But now it was back.

Liz sighed in resignation as she thought of her husband. What would Gray force her to do next? Pull out of the unit? Would he really go that far?

Liz massaged her temples with the tips of her fingers, but this only made things worse. She lowered her hands to the mattress and relaxed as best she could, trying to still the chaos in her head and distract herself from the pain.

Gray wouldn’t force her to give up her job. Liz didn’t know how she suddenly knew that, but she did. After all, he could have insisted on that at the same time he’d “persuaded” her to get married, couldn’t he? But he hadn’t. And that confirmed her belief that he wouldn’t demand she do so in the future either.

Surviving her missions gave her the feeling of being of use and of being needed. To do something else instead? Unimaginable! Maybe in a couple of years, but not now.

Of course, the assignments were never risk-free, admitted Liz to herself. But that’s what made this job so appealing to her. She needed the excitement in her life to distract her from other things. Like Gray, whom she simply couldn’t banish from her thoughts. Liz wanted to swear aloud when she realized she was already thinking of him again, but for the sake of her head, she didn’t.

Why did Gray have to get his way like this? She snorted in anger. Would she have let herself be talked into marriage? No. Pressured? Again, no. Only total blackmail would have worked.

The heroines in tearjerker novels might get themselves into such crazy situations, but the odds of something like this happening in real life—especially to her—were about the same as the chance of winning the lottery. It was unbelievable how completely this guy had ruined her life. Worst of all, there was no escape.

Weren’t people responsible for their own fate? What else could she have done but give in to Gray’s wishes? If she had refused him, her family would now know her well-guarded secret.

But would that have been so bad? What if he hadn’t even told them? What if it had been no more than a threat? Of course! And she had been fallen for it out for fear of the truth! What a bummer!

Never before had Liz felt as helpless as she did at the moment she read that one sentence on the computer screen:
Would you like to know how your daughter really earns a living?

She had felt miserable over Gray’s betrayal. How could he do something like that to her? Of course, he’d felt hurt because she had been so reluctant to continue the relationship with him, but she never would have expected he’d have such an extreme reaction.

Jennifer had been right: Gray was the type of man who would use any means available to get what he wanted. He knew exactly what her weak point was—her family—and he’d used this knowledge against her mercilessly.

She would do anything to protect her family—and obviously, she
had
. She had married Gray. She had barely gotten rid of the silly monitoring bracelet when he replaced it with another—if substantially nicer—shackle. This marriage couldn’t last; they were simply too different. Sooner or later they’d be at each other’s throats. It could only end in disaster.

But that’s not my fault.
She nodded at the thought and instantly regretted it, as horrible pain streaked through her temples. She moaned and opened her lids a fraction. She spied the glass of water on the table and, next to it, the aspirin.

Carefully she sat up, held her head with one hand and reached for the pills with the other. She put them in her mouth and washed them down with water. Just as carefully as she’d sat up, she lay back down again and waited with eyes closed for the throbbing pain in her head to finally subside.

***

Gray poked his head through the crack in the open bedroom door and looked at Liz. The pills had disappeared from the nightstand and the glass was empty. He drew back with a chuckle, closed the door softly and went down to the patio. When he sat down on a chair, Furball bounded into his lap and meowed pitifully. Gray stroked the cat soothingly. “You miss Brutus already, huh?” Furball meowed. “Should I get a new friend for you? A pug, or would you rather get something larger so you have more to snuggle up to?”

As if the cat had understood completely, he purred like a well-oiled engine, rubbed his head against Gray’s hand and curled up in his lap. Gray gave a soft laugh. Now he was talking to cats!

The sound of the front door closing in the distance heralded Jeff’s return. Without turning around, Gray called out, “Did you get them all settled in?”

“Of course. Jennifer was still a little blue around the gills, but she was feeling well enough to fight with Chris.” Jeff dropped into a chair and stretched out his long legs in front of him.

“About what?”

“She was mad that she didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Liz. How is she anyway? It’s already afternoon. I assume she hasn’t risen from the dead yet.”

“I just checked on her. It looks like she has a pretty bad headache.”