The Rent-A-Groom (15 page)

Gina swung with a gasp to see Race—no, Rory—standing in the opening from the foyer. In tones that creaked with strain, she demanded, “How did you get in here?”

“Etta,” he answered, holding up a pass key. “I got restless and threw myself on her mercy. You were taking too long.”

“Come on, Corey,” Diane said to her son. “I think this is where we make ourselves scarce.”

“But I want to see them kiss and make up.”

“Later, young man, say when you’re about twenty years older.” As Diane hustled her son out, she smiled over her shoulder at Gina and her brother. “’Bye, guys.”

The silence became stifling the instant the door closed behind the pair. Gina compressed her lips. Ignoring Rory Donovan, she swung away, moving into the bedroom. She closed her suitcase and lifted it from the luggage rack, setting it beside the door. Her purse sat on a chair, and she picked it up, sliding the strap onto her shoulder. Walking into the bathroom, she made a last check then returned to the bedroom. She had everything. It was time to go.

Rory had come to stand in the bedroom doorway. His voice quietly implacable, he said, “You aren’t leaving.”

“No?” She barely glanced at him. “What makes you think so?”

“You have to go through me.”

“That can be arranged.”

“Fine. Try it.”

He was bigger, heavier, and stronger; it was clearly impossible and he knew it. Yet the urge to hit him swept over her with such force that she slowly curled the fingers of her right hand into a fist.

“Go ahead if it will make you feel better,” he said, straightening and moving toward her. “Who knows? It might even help my feelings.”

She watched his advance for a wary instant. The she whirled away from him and clasped her arms across her chest. “What do you want from me? You got what you needed; I’ve agreed to cooperate with the investigation against Bradley. Can’t we just leave it at that?”

“What I want, not to mention what I need, has nothing to do with Dillman.”

“Oh, certainly not.” The words carried a sharp edge of disbelief.

“Not by a long shot,” he answered distinctly. “I didn’t show up outside your door night before last to persuade you to anything, regardless of how it turned out. What I had in mind was making absolutely certain that you weren’t up to your pretty neck in turning bad money into good.”

“Thank you very much for your confidence!”

“You’re welcome, since I hardly knew you at the time. You were handling Dillman’s bookkeeping chores. You’ll have to admit it looked suspicious.”

She glared at him over her shoulder. “Everything I did was open and aboveboard. I can’t help it if my only information came from summaries of daily income and deposits that Bradley brought to the accounting office.”

“But something didn’t
compute for you, all the same. Am I right?”

“After Bradley and I started going out, I noticed there never seemed to be as many customers at his pizza franchise as I expected. When I asked about cash register tapes and supply invoices, he always put me off. Two weeks before the wedding, I paid a surprise visit.” She gave a jerky shrug. “The register tapes showed sales of eight or nine hundred dollars per day on average, but Bradley was making deposits of over five thousand.”

“So you dumped him because you wouldn’t put up with it. Which is the way you are. When I figured out that last part, I decided to stick around to be sure Dillman didn’t try anything funny when he realized you could convict him.”

She gave a short laugh. “You were protecting me from Bradley?”

“It was possible you might need it. The main reason Bradley planned a quick marriage and honeymoon here was because he found out you were still registered and saw it as a way to get to you in a place where no one knew you. I decided to be on hand to discourage any rough stuff, or maybe even a permanent solution.”

Would Bradley have harmed her? It was impossible to say. She didn’t like to think so, but she was glad, suddenly, that she had not been forced to find out. She didn’t, of course, have to tell Rory Donovan so.

“So that’s your excuse,” she said with a shake of her head meant to signal disbelief.

“But not the only one.” Rory’s voice took on a softer note. “There was also the small matter of being totally unable to drag myself away.”

“Yes, well, I'm sure it was a fascinating case.”

“With a fascinating star witness, a woman I wanted from the moment I first saw her laughing through her misery while she joked about renting a bridegroom. I figured if a husband was what you had in mind, it might as well be me.”

She refused to look at him. Voice raw, she said, “So you had the honeymoon without the bother of the wedding. Fine. Now you can have a separation without going to court. All you have to do is leave.”

Swearing under his breath, he shoved fingers through the ruffled waves of his hair, then balled them into a fist. “I’m not going anywhere until you listen to me. I swear I never meant to lay a hand on you. All I had in mind at the start was a pleasant evening ending with an apology for the deception once you were cleared. Then I saw other possibilities and—I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was this crazy honeymoon suite, maybe it was the idea of being your husband, maybe it was just—just you. What I do know is that I wouldn’t have missed a single thing about the past two days, up to and including last night. The only thing I would change is what took place before I set foot in this blessed love palace. And what I did this morning.”

She turned slowly to face him. Moistening her dry lips, she said, “This morning, you left.”

“This morning I ran out on you,” he said flatly. “I ran because I was scared to death of what you were going to say when you woke up and found out I had lied to you. I didn’t want to see your face when you knew I was a fake. And you would find out, had to because I had given the go-ahead to arrest Dillman. Everything was bound to snowball from there.”

A soft sound of wonder left her. “You couldn’t accept the risk.”

“I didn’t dare,” he agreed, his eyes dark. “I found out about all those principles you live by, and also how much you despise being given the runaround. I admire and respect that about you, but I knew too well that you had dumped one guy already because of it.”

“A different guy, on different principles.”

“Yes, but I wasn’t much better. So I did what any sane man does when faced with overwhelming odds.”

“Which would be?”

“I called in reinforcements.”

“Diane.”

“And my good buddy, Corey.”

She stared at him in disbelief. “You coached that child!”

There was warm affection in Rory’s smile even as he shook his head. “He did it all himself. But I owe the little guy, all the same.”

She could not stop the smile that tugged at her lips. Then, taking her courage in both hands, living dangerously one last time for the sake of the chance she saw glimmering somewhere between them, she said, “But you were saying—you said there was something that took place before you first got to the suite that you would change?”

“There was indeed.” His smile was whimsical, yet shadowed with regret, with censure, and yes, with longing. “I’d much rather have been showing up for my honeymoon. I wish I had been married to you.”

She drew a sharp breath. “But you can’t. I mean, you don't want—”

“I can, and I do. Or would—will, if you can ever forgive me. What I mean to say is,” he continued after dragging in a deep breath, “I’d like to start over. I want to take it slow and easy, make all the stops, all the right moves to get to know you and let you know me. But I’d hope to wind up in the same place: fresh from the biggest, fanciest wedding you’ve ever seen, one with a dozen bridesmaids, groomsmen galore, a flower girl in one of those little white dresses, Corey as ring bearer, the whole works. There would have been a champagne reception with a cake ten feet tall, lots of food, maybe a twelve-piece orchestra, and enough confetti and bird seed to fill a washtub. You’d have thrown your bouquet, and we’d have made our getaway in a white limousine.”

He moved closer and reached to touch her cheek with his fingertips before he went on. “We’d come back here to this suite. This time we would enjoy a grand candlelight dinner on the balcony. Afterward, you’d slip into that white nightgown with all the lace and thousands of buttons. And then—”

 He stopped abruptly, as if afraid he had said too much.

Gina, watching the rich light in the depths of his eyes, thought of Etta. What was it the maid had said?
The golden rule of loving is to always believe that the one you love has your best interests at heart.

She did believe it, beyond all reason.

Rory compressed his lips in a straight line before throwing up his hands. “All right, all right, forget it. I can see the whole idea has you about ready to attack me again. Just forget I said anything. Forget any of this ever—”

“You think I want to attack you?” she asked on a soft laugh that was not quite even. “It’s an idea, all right. Especially when I let myself think of just what you might be wearing when I put on my nightgown.”

His face went blank. He studied the sweet yet faintly wicked curves of her lips with suspicion and a definite darkening of his bronzed skin.

When he made no reply, she stepped closer to place her hands on his chest, smoothing her palms along the bands of muscles covered by his soft, pima cotton shirt, seeking the throb of his heart. “Etta told me you sleep in your briefs, but somehow that doesn’t seem very romantic. Is that what you always wear?”

He shook his head, a slow gesture. Voice husky, he said, “Not always.”

“Then just what were you thinking of packing for your wedding night?” she prompted, veiling her gaze with her lashes.

“Nothing?” The word was hoarse with its mix of hope and despair.

“Perfect,” she said with soft satisfaction as she slid her arms around his neck.

He dragged her hard against him, lifting her from her feet to swing her around in a slow circle. With his face buried in the shining swath of her hair, he whispered, “God, you had me going. I love you, love you, and will never, ever lie to you again so long as I have breath in my body.”

“You can if you have good reason,” she said in shaken tones. “Just as long as you don’t ever leave me again.”

“Never. Not for anything, ever. I promise.”

His grasp tightened until she was breathless. Gina didn’t mind. Murmuring softly of her own love, she pressed into him as if flesh and blood could be blended by desire alone.

It was sometime later that she lifted her head. With love and laughter bright in her eyes, she said, “About this honeymoon you were planning?”

“What about it?” The words were thick and a little rough.

“I think you were going to tell me what will happen after the bit about my buttons? I should wait to find out, but I’m not sure I can. You know the part I mean. It began, ‘And then…’”

Rory gave a laugh of gladness and triumph that echoed around the room. Gina joined him even as she buried her face in his throat.

And then.

He demonstrated.

::

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