Surrender to Temptation (Agent Lovers Series Book 1) (30 page)

“That’s what happens when you drink too much.”

“Can you do me a favor, Jeff?”

“Sure! What do you need?”

“Can you take care of Liz if she wakes up while I’m gone?”

“Where are you going?”

“Furball needs a new friend. He already misses Brutus.”

“I suggest a big sheep dog. Anything smaller, and that cat will finish it off in seconds.” It’s eyes blazing, the cat hissed at Jeff. Gray laughed.

“No wonder he can’t stand you. You constantly provoke him too.” Gingerly, he lifted the cat from his lap and put him on the floor next to his feet. Furball enjoyed a good stretch and flashed his green eyes at Jeff. His bushy, tangerine-colored tail stood up as straight as a candle. After one last disapproving glance at Jeff, the cat strutted past him with his head held up regally, then headed for the kitchen and his bowl.

Gray laughed at Jeff’s expression of amazement in the face of the cat’s aversion to him. Shaking his head, he stood up and wiped orange fur from his jeans.

“See you later. And no whiskey for Liz!” He gave Jeff a jaunty wink.

“Don’t worry, it’s all gone. Those two used it all to celebrate their weddings.” Jeff laughed and threw him the car keys.

***

When Liz woke up for the second time, she felt substantially better. She stretched languorously and sighed. Then she struggled her way out from under the covers and went into the bathroom. A refreshing shower was just what she needed.

She found Jeff a while later when she came into the yard. Everyone else seemed to have been swallowed up by the earth. Her brother-in-law was swimming laps in the pool and didn’t notice her right away.

“Where is everyone?” Liz looked around.

“I took Jennifer and Chris home a while ago and Gray is running an errand. How are you feeling?”

“Better. But why didn’t Jenny say goodbye? Did she forget?” Disappointment showed on her face.

“No. Chris didn’t want her to wake you. She chewed him out about it on the drive home—the whole hour and a half. My ears were still buzzing on the way back.”

“Good. They should have been.”

“If you want something to eat, the rest of yesterday’s buffet is in the frig. There’s fresh coffee too.”

“I actually am a little hungry. Would you like something?”

“Sure! I’ll be right out.” Jeff swam toward the ladder.

Liz went into the kitchen and rummaged around in the refrigerator. She pulled out several large platters and lined them up on the counter next to the stove. She piled up a variety of salads, chicken legs, small sandwiches and other treats on two plates until the two towers of food almost collapsed. Liz covered the platters with fresh foil and returned them to the refrigerator.

“Where’s Gray? Did the earth swallow him up? No, that can’t be possible. Even Hell would spit him back out again!” She placed one of the plates in front of Jeff. Jeff shrugged and acted clueless. Whatever Gray was cooking up now, he wasn’t about to take the rap for him.

“No idea. He just said he wanted to take care of something.”

Liz accepted this and dug into her late breakfast, lunch, and early dinner, all rolled into one.

After a while, she pushed her empty plate away, stood up and flopped down on a lounge chair. She swiped Jeff’s MP3 player from the side table and listened to what was cued up. She let out a soft chuckle when she recognized Dolly Parton’s voice. Liz had assumed that her brother-in-law would be interested in hard rock. But Dolly?

She smiled in amusement and began to plot how she might in the future find ways to yank his chain with this information. The revenge she’d sworn to take yesterday hadn’t been forgotten; it had just been postponed.

After Jeff had cleared the dishes and taken them into the kitchen, he settled on a lounge chair next to Liz. He crossed his arms behind his head and watched his sister-in-law furtively from behind dark sunglasses.

It was too bad, he thought, that Gray got to know her before he did. If things had been different, Jeff would have tried to end up with her, himself.

Jeff’s eyes wandered from her face and over her body, which was dressed in a tiny white shirt with red stitching and bright red hot pants. Liz’s long, tanned legs were crossed at the ankles and her feet tapped gently in time to the music. Every now and then she wiggled her toes.

She looked kind of cute
, he thought. And then he corrected himself.
Cute?
Liz wasn’t just cute. She was amazing. Everything about her was just right. He envied Gray’s luck at having found her. Although Jeff had felt a twinge of conscience when he saw the forlorn look on her face at the Justice of the Peace’s office, he felt absolutely certain that Liz and Gray belonged together. The two complimented each other perfectly.
It was going to be interesting to watch how their relationship developed
, Jeff thought with a chuckle.

He sighed and stared at the cloudless sky as his thoughts wandered. At some point, he would find a woman who would drive him just as crazy as Liz drove his brother. That thought should have frightened him, but it didn’t. Not in the least.

Had he reached the point where he’d become tired of living a casual kind of life? Was he looking for something more permanent? Jeff wasn’t sure, and he decided to just let himself be surprised by whatever life brought him. Still, he’d be damned if he wouldn’t at some point find a woman who meant the world to him, just like Liz meant to Gray.

He heard the front door close. Apparently Gray was back from his errands.

Jeff looked over at Liz. Her feet weren’t tapping in time to the music anymore. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was deep and regular. He got up and went to meet his brother. He found him in the kitchen.

“Hey, what’s that? I thought you were getting
a
friend for Furball.” Jeff looked at the two well-behaved dogs that sat on either side of Gray, his eyebrows raised so high they nearly touched his hairline.

“I wanted to. But the animal shelter wanted to place these two together, so I took both. I’ve got more than enough room. I’m sure the cat will get along with both of them.”

“Well, at least you took my advice and got a sheep dog. What’s the other one?”

“Who knows. A mutt.”

Jeff squatted down and petted both dogs at the same time, not wanting either one to feel left out.

“What are their names?”

“The small, sassy one with the dark brown fur is Lucky, and the sheep dog is Nero.” Gray looked around. “Is Liz still sleeping?”

“She’s sleeping
again
. This time outside on the patio. We ate something earlier, and then she fell back asleep. Did you at least get the dogs some food?”

“Of course. It’s out in the car. Can you help me bring it in? I got enough for the next two months.”

When they got out to the car, Jeff marveled at the quantity of meat packages and dog food, canned and dry, that was piled up in the trunk. “You must have meant you got enough to last until next winter!” That was just like his brother. When he tackled something, he did it right. Together they hauled the food supplies into the kitchen. When they heard Liz’s shocked scream, they dropped the bags on the counter and ran to her.

Liz sat on the terracotta patio tile, looking in disbelief from one dog to the other. She had toppled right off the lounge chair in shock. Panting happily, Lucky had enthroned himself on her lap and Nero sat right next to Liz, nudging her upper arm with his nose.

“Is this what Gray had to take care of, Jeff?” she asked after she’d recovered from the initial shock.

“Looks like it.” He laughed softly.

“Did you forget, Gray, that I have a cat? He doesn’t get along with every dog like he does with Brutus. Furball isn’t going to be happy to be confronted by two strange dogs.”

“I got them for him, so he’d have someone to play with.”

“A
sheep dog
? He’ll turn my poor Furbi into shish kebabs in seconds.”

“I doubt that. The staff at the shelter assured me that Nero and Lucky are cat-friendly dogs.” Gray decided not to mention that he’d made sure to choose pets who were fond of children too.

As if on cue, the cat arrived on the scene and paraded toward his mistress with his tail raised high. He didn’t even glance at the dogs. It wasn’t until Lucky failed to evacuate Liz’s lap that he threw the dog a poisonous glance and growled softly. Quickly the mutt jumped up and obediently took his place next to Nero. Furball settled down in the spot Lucky had vacated, claiming his prior rights.

“Looks like the animal shelter was right.” Jeff laughed. He could hardly believe what he’d just seen. When Nero began to lick the cat’s fur in a devoted fashion, he almost cracked up with laughter. There was no way that was a real sheep dog. That was more like a sheep, disguised in dog fur! Out of the three four-legged creatures in this house, the cat clearly was the one in charge.

Gray crouched down next to Liz, scratched Lucky and then Nero behind the ears and then devoted his attention to Furball. “He missed Brutus so much that I wanted to get a friend for him. He deserves to be happy here.”

“Furball? Why does he need to be happy here? And what about me? Does anyone here even care what I want? You bossy types are so infuriating!”

Gray looked at Liz contritely. “I should have asked you before I bought Furball playmates, shouldn’t I?”

“It’s your house. You can buy as many animals as you want. A whole zoo, for all I care. But I want to be consulted about other matters,” she said. “Especially anything that involves me!”

As she looked at the pets, Liz finally allowed herself to chuckle. “Anyway, it doesn’t look like you got him one playmate, but two.” There was no point in arguing further. Liz loved animals and Nero and Lucky were too cuddly for her to push them away again.

“They would only give me the two together,” Gray said. Liz set the cat next to her on the tile and allowed Gray to pick her up. She smiled at the dogs who were now exploring their new yard curiously.

“You
married
her, Blackwood?” The man on the other end of the line sounded anything but delighted.

“Yes, Sir. Feelings can’t be helped.”

“Does this mean I should plan on Mrs. Blackwood and Mrs. Robbins submitting their resignations?”

“No, Sir. For now they’re still at your disposal. But I have a request.”

“You and your partner have married two of my best agents and—if I judge you correctly—it’s only a matter of time, before they’ll be sidelined. And you want me to do you a favor?” Townsend’s tone was incredulous. Gray was undaunted by the reproach.

“With your permission, I’d like to monitor and manage their assignments. That’s all I ask.”

“You want to keep an eye on them, huh? What about your colleague? Robbins is going to want in on this too?”

“Yes.”

“I doubt you’ll be satisfied with an objection, so I might as well agree.”

“Thank you, Sir!” Gray couldn’t hide his relief.

“You’d
better
thank me.” Gray’s boss slammed down the phone.

So that was that. Gray had stayed right next to the telephone after he’d faxed Townsend a copy of the marriage certificate, and Townsend’s call had followed within seconds, as he’d expected.

He wasn’t exactly earning points with his boss over this marriage. Chris’s and Jennifer’s marriage didn’t help. Gray had watched the women’s last assignment live on the monitor and he knew that when they resigned from active duty, it would be a huge loss for Townsend.

Now that he and Chris were in the picture, Townsend had to expect that’s what would happen next. Women in committed relationships could quickly be struck with the desire to have children, a life change that made them unfit for deployment with the elite unit. Townsend was right on the mark with his assumption that he and Chris would want exactly this to happen in the near future. Once their spouses were sidelined by motherhood, they wouldn’t need to worry about the women’s safety anymore. That might be an old fashioned way of thinking, he admitted, but it drove him almost out of his mind to think about what could happen to Liz during her assignments.

Gray rubbed his neck and sighed. He had put off calling his boss for three days in order to steal a little time with Liz before her next assignment. Now that Townsend knew about the situation, Gray figured it wouldn’t be long before he gave Liz and Jennifer a new assignment, while he still could.

Fortunately, Liz didn’t reproach Gray at every opportunity for forcing her into marrying him. She didn’t ban him from her bedroom at night either, as Jeff had predicted. A smile flitted across Gray’s face as he thought about what had taken place between the two of them the night before. Each time they made love, he fell for her a little more, and he couldn’t imagine losing her. It hit him harder each time he thought about what could happen to her during her missions, but sooner or later he would eliminate these problems too. One step at a time.

The next point in his mission to conquer Liz’s heart was the clearing out of her apartment, which he would tackle today. Once this was done, she’d no longer have any reason to spend every day there and not reappear until late in the evening.

Gray knew exactly why she did that. Liz was trying to keep a certain amount of distance between them, but he couldn’t let that go on any longer. Admittedly her apartment was only one of several spots she could retreat to, but it was the most important one. The time she spent at the training center and at the shooting range was of no consequence. After all, the training was essential for her job. But if he wanted Liz to commit to him emotionally, he needed to cut the ties to her old, familiar life as a single woman, which included her ties to her apartment. It might be selfish of him to feel this way, but Gray thought Liz shouldn’t be able to bolt back into her past anymore. He needed her to concentrate on her marriage, on their future together, and above all, on him.

Gray walked out of his study and went looking for his wife. He found her in the yard where she was playing wildly with the dogs as Jeff watched her with smile. He looked at his brother over his sunglasses. “She misses her job, Gray,” he said quietly. “She’s listened to her voicemail at least three times in the last hour.”