The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four (25 page)

“Mr. Yoder?” Shock and rage surged through
Tashi. Mr. Yoder had seemed so nice, always smiling at her when he
came by for the rent or to fix something in the building. He’d even
stayed and had a cup of coffee with her one frigid winter morning
when he’d come around to plow snow. She was the only tenant in the
building who was home, and she’d just wanted to thank him for
agreeing to their arrangement. Her uncle was right again. People
couldn’t be trusted. “How did he know I had money?”

Adam dropped to his knees and helped her
stuff the cash back into the bag. “Well, you were paying your rent
with cash. You didn’t have a job. You’d bought nice furniture, a
top-of-the-line laptop and camera. You wore nice clothes—not
extravagant, but nice. He figured you had to have money stashed
away somewhere. He was just waiting for the right time to get
inside your apartment and look for it. I’m just happy that you
weren’t home when he decided he’d waited long enough. It gives me
chills to think of what he might have done to you if you’d walked
in on him trying to steal from you, or worse, if he’d broken in
while you were sleeping and you’d awakened to find him in your
bedroom.

Adam’s last sentences sent panic rioting
inside Tashi. Her fingers shook as she zippered up the duffel bag.
“Where—where’s he now?”

“In jail, where he belongs.”

“He knows my name, Adam,” she said as her
mind began to race again. “All he has to do is tell somebody, the
police—suppose they want to question me about where I got the
money. What do I tell them?”

He placed a finger on her lips. “Shh. I took
care of it. I warned him to keep your name out of it. I told the
police that he stole the bag from my car while it was parked near
Mountainview Café. I go there all the time, so…” He shrugged and
pushed to his feet, taking the bag with him.

Mountainview Café,
where the story of
her and Adam’s lives began. “What about my cell phone?” she asked,
taking the hand Adam held out to help her up.

He reached into the vault again. “It’s here.
It’s locked, so he couldn’t sell it or use it since it’s
code-protected. It’s fully charged.”

Tashi snatched it from his hand and turned it
on, her heart pounding in her chest as she waited for it to go
through the loading process. She typed in her security code and
scanned the ‘Message’ and ‘Phone’ icons. Her shoulders slumped in
despair. There were no messages, no missed calls. Agent Dawson
hadn’t tried to contact her. Her river of hope of ever hearing from
him dwindled into a tiny trickle.

“Are you upset?” Adam asked. “I realize now
what the phone means to you, but I didn’t tell you about the money
because I was afraid you would leave. I’m sorry. I should have been
honest with you.”

Tashi threw her head back and stared up at
him. “Are you kidding me? Really? How shallow do you think I am,
Adam? I just told you that I committed murder. You didn’t judge
me,” she began, counting off on her fingers. “You didn’t condemn
me. You didn’t call the cops. You didn’t throw me out. And on top
of that you promised to marry me.” She flailed her hands in the
air, irritated that she even had to point out the obvious to him.
“How can I be mad at you for protecting me from myself? If you’d
given me the money, I would have been long gone. In fact,” she
continued, her voice dropping in volume and fervor, “I’d decided to
leave Granite Falls the day you took me back to my apartment.”

“I figured as much, but why?”

“Because you wouldn’t have left me alone and
I was starting to like you, and I didn’t want to like you.”

His eyes grew openly amused. “Was I that
bad?”

She pursed her lips and smiled at him. “You
were that good, Adam, and I knew your association with me would put
you in danger. But once again, fate took the decision out of my
hands. Leaving Granite Falls would have been the absolute worst
thing I could do because I wouldn’t have gotten to know you, and
I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be—where Agent Dawson sent me. If
you’d given me the money yesterday, I would have left. So in that
regard, you did the right thing in keeping the fact that you’d
found it from me.”

His chest rose and fell on a deep sigh. “Then
all’s well.” He held up the duffel bag. “What do you want to do
with this? I can return it to the vault and give you the
combination, or you can keep it in your bedroom. It will be as safe
there as anywhere in this house.”

Tashi stared at him, affection for him
swelling full and deep inside her at his trust in her. Was there
anything wrong with this man who was so compelling, whose magnetism
was so potent? Did he have any flaws she could point out and use as
a reason not to like him? “You can hold on to it.”
Until it’s
time for me to go
. “I’ll keep the phone in case Agent Dawson
calls.” She pushed the small device into the front pocket of her
shorts as she held on to her last glimmer of hope.

“He will. We have to hope.” He returned the
bag to the vault and closed it. “Now,” he said, placing his hand on
her shoulder as he walked her toward the door. “Let’s talk about
when and where we’ll tie the knot tomorrow while I prepare us a
late lunch to hold us over until dinner. Then after lunch, I do
have to spend some time setting up meetings and conferences for
next week, so I’m afraid you’ll be on your own for a few hours. I
can’t have my father showing up on my doorstep unannounced,
especially not immediately following our marriage.”

“No, we can’t have that,” Tashi agreed on a
tremor.

As they walked along the corridor toward the
kitchen, Tashi had to remember that their marriage was temporary,
and that whether or not they found Agent Dawson alive, it would
still come to an end. Even during their most intimate moments when
they danced over the waves of passion together, she would have to
remember that Adam had married her out of a sense of duty, not
love.

Fantasizing about him as a lover was one
thing, but as a permanent husband and father of her children was a
far cry from reality. Her heart ached within her. She didn’t want
to be alone in the world again. She wanted to belong to
somebody.

She wanted to be loved.

Was that asking too much of fate?

While Adam took a shower, Tashi measured out
the portions of polenta, butter, chopped garlic, freshly ground
black pepper, fresh sage leaves, prosciutto, grated Gruyère and
crumbled
torta di Dolcelatte
cheese, as she reflected on the
past few hours since they’d agreed to get married.

During lunch, Adam had suggested that they
exchange their vows in the garden, but Tashi, feeling that it was
too intimate and meaningful for a temporary arrangement, opted for
the first floor parlor.

Reverend Reuben Kelly, the pastor of Granite
Falls Community Church, where Adam worshipped, would officiate the
ceremony. He and his wife, Dr. Samantha Kelly, would make up the
wedding party. There would be no music or flowers, or bridal walk.
They would merely stand in front of the minister and pledge
themselves to each other.

That was the way Tashi wanted it. Her wedding
ceremony to Adam wasn’t an event she wished to remember with warmth
and happiness in the years to come. It would just be too
heart-wrenching. She had to remember it for what it was—a temporary
arrangement.

Satisfied that she had all the ingredients
Adam had asked her to prepare, Tashi sidestepped to the stove and
opened the lit to the pot of water she’d put on earlier.

“Good, the ingredients are ready.”

Tashi looked up as Adam walked into the
kitchen. “Well, it wasn’t that difficult,” she said. “I was good at
math in school.”

He chuckled. “I bet you were good at a lot of
things.” He moved behind her and placed the metal handle of a whisk
in her hand.

Tashi’s breath caught in her throat and heat
instantly and rapidly spread throughout her body—heat she knew had
nothing to do with the steam rising from the pot of boiling water
on the stove. The sparks that had been triggered when she’d
awakened in his arms hours ago were beginning to glow between them
again.

“Ready for the next stage?” he asked.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“You’re going to whisk gently as I pour the
polenta into the water. Okay? And you’ll continue whisking until it
begins to thicken.” His voice, low and steady and spiced with
seduction, sent a lurch of excitement through her.

As he reached for the cup of raw polenta on
the countertop, his bare knees brushed against the backs of her
thighs, just below the hem of the dress. The nimble caress, coupled
with the faint scent of sandalwood exuding from his recently
showered body alerted her senses, making her acutely aware of his
proximity, more so than she had been for the past weeks. He was
brushing against her on purpose, deliberately, yet subtly trying to
arouse her.

“Hold the handle of the pot with your other
hand so it doesn’t topple off the stove.”

Rendered speechless, Tashi followed his
instructions and began to whisk as he poured the polenta into the
water in a slow steady stream.
Polenta Elisa
was a simple
dish, and one of his favorites when he was a child he’d told her
while he’d helped her collect the ingredients from around the
kitchen. It came in second to
saffron risotto alla milanese
,
which he would have loved to cook for her, but he was fresh out of
carnaroli
rice. He was out of a lot of things, seeing he
hadn’t left the estate for two weeks.

“Easy. Not so hard,” he cautioned. “You don’t
want the polenta to thicken prematurely.”

Her heart fluttered wildly. Why did it sound
like they were making love, and he was giving her instructions on
how to please him? Her mind immediately rewound to their first day
in the garden and how she’d been fascinated by the way Adam’s penis
had thickened and lengthened before her eyes. She could still feel
the heat and strength of it pulsing in her hand as they’d stood in
the shade of the willow tree. She tightened her grip on the whisk
and kept her gaze riveted on the pot as the flutters in her heart
turned into a heavy thumping against her chest.

“Slow down, Tashi.”

She swallowed a gasp as Adam set the empty
measuring cup on the countertop and reaching around her, placed his
hands over both of hers. “Relax your grip,” he murmured, edging
closer to her. “Gently, like this,” he instructed in a husky voice
as he began to guide her motions into a gentler, slower pace.

Tight knots formed in Tashi’s stomach as she
felt the pressure of Adam’s flexing muscles and the heat from his
skin burning through the barrier of their clothes to fuse with
hers. If she’d known that cooking with him could be even more
intimate than sharing a meal, or engaging in naked couples’ yoga,
she might have asked to help him before.
No
, she argued the
thought away. Even though she’d been thinking about it, she knew
she hadn’t been ready to go all the way with Adam until today—until
she’d told him about her past.

Tashi had a feeling that if Adam’s friends
hadn’t called when they did, they wouldn’t be in his kitchen making
Polenta Elisa
. They would still be in his office or across
the hall in his big white bed, making love.

Somehow, Tashi found the strength to bring
her focus back to the polenta and her whisking until the motion of
her hand and the depths of her strokes were in perfect rhythm with
Adam’s. Even that innocent chore seemed like foreplay, a prelude to
lovemaking.

“
Sì, meglio
. You’ve got it,
bella
.” He released her hands and stepped back.

Tashi’s body yearned for the return of his,
but she breathed a sigh of relief, nonetheless. It was getting too
hot in the kitchen. It probably wasn’t a good idea to be caught up
in erotic visions of Adam and her together while she was standing
in front of an open flame.

“How long do I have to keep whisking?” she
asked, as Adam opened up a cupboard and took out a large
saucepan.

“Until it’s thick enough so it doesn’t settle
back on the bottom of the pot when you stop whisking. A few more
minutes perhaps.” He moved to the left of her and placed the
saucepan on the front burner of the eight-burner stove.

“Then what?”

“Then you’ll turn the heat down to low, cover
it, and let it cook for about fifteen minutes. Are you having fun?”
he asked, pouring milk and water into the saucepan.

She actually was. “Yes. I’ve never cooked
anything this complicated before. It’s usually simple stuff, like
baked chicken, boxed macaroni and cheese—those kinds of things, and
sometimes I mess them up.” She chuckled. “My uncle used to grill
hamburgers and hot dogs on the back porch in the summers, and when
we ate out—which was a lot—it was mostly fast food.”

“Well, there’s nothing quick and fast in my
kitchen. Stick with me kiddo, and I’ll teach you the benefits of
enjoying your own slowly cooked meals. Before long, you’ll be
making
Polenta Elisa
better than my mother, which isn’t an
easy feat. She makes the best in all of Como,” he said, smiling
with obvious pleasant memories. “I can teach you a lot about the
joys of cooking.”

He could teach her the joys of lots of
things, Tashi thought. Since her self-discovery and sexual
awakening, she’d been spending a lot of time in the library with
some of Adam’s books about Tantric and Taoist secrets of
lovemaking. Tashi had been shocked at the numerous erotic positions
of couples making love in the sultry pages of the Kama Sutra and
other similar books.

She’d had no idea that different and specific
positions could increase and prolong the level and depth of one’s
passion, and that a woman could have multiple orgasms that went on
for minutes. She’d been sensuously amused at the Taoist terms for
sexual organs. She had to say that
Hidden and Celestial
Palace
,
Valley of Solitude
,
Jade Terrace
,
Precious Pearls
,
Yin Bean
for the female, and
Jade
Stalk
,
Ambassador
,
Yang Peak
, and
Dragon
Pearls
for the male sounded a lot more sensual and erotic than
vagina, clitoris, penis, cock, and the other terms Westerners used
to describe private parts of the anatomy.