Three Marie Ferrarella Romances Box Set One (28 page)

She lay back against the pillow, her hair fanning out around her. “Nothing,” she lied, shaking her head from side to side. But tears shimmered, unshed, in her eyes.

“Don’t tell me ‘nothing.’ You’ve got a death grip on my neck and I don’t look like I’m going anywhere.” He brushed her hair back from her face, his fingers worshiping her smooth skin. “Tell me about it,” he coaxed softly.

No, not now
, she thought desperately. She didn’t dare tell him now. He’d probably tell her not to go through with her mission, but she had a responsibility, a job to perform. Or worse yet, he’d try to protect her and get himself into trouble. No, she couldn’t let any of that happen. “There’s nothing to tell, Reese,” she insisted. “I got a little carried away with the mood of the moment. You’re the world’s greatest lover, you know.” She ran her fingers lingeringly along his lips.

He pretended to be surprised. “You’ve seen the trophy?” he asked. The next instant, he was ducking a pillow as Charley pulled it out from behind her and tried to beat him with it.
 

“Oh, tough guy, eh?” he said, tackling her. The pillow flew out of her hands, and she landed flat on the bed. “I have a way of dealing with tough guys,” he warned her, stretching the length of his body over hers again.

And for a while the world and all its troubles were pushed away. This time Charley didn’t go home.

“But why can’t you move in with me?” Reese asked the next morning, raising his voice so he could be heard above the sound of running water. His gaze drifted toward the opaque shower door as he tried to catch a glimpse of Charley’s form. He nicked himself with his razor instead. “Damn,” he muttered as a tiny dot of blood appeared and grew, blending in with the shaving cream.

“I told you,” Charley called back. “Allison’s moved in with me. She can’t afford to stay somewhere on her own.”

The mention of Allison’s name brought an assault of guilt with it.
Some surveillance work
, she berated herself, and silently promised that she would do better. It wasn’t fair to put the entire burden of tailing Allison on the agent who was just supposed to be watching the apartment. Although nothing might be happening, she was the “man on the inside.”

In nearly a year of service she had had an exemplary record—until Reese. This had to stop.

Reese studied her shimmery outline through the shower door. She was fishing for excuses, he thought. Why? What was keeping her from him? What was she trying to hide from him?

“How about once we get to Boston?” he asked.

“I’ve already reserved a double room for her and me at the hotel. Reese, this is her first time out on her own, and, well, I’ve kind of taken it upon myself to look after her.” Well, that at least was true.

“Is it too soon?” he asked, cutting across her tissue of lies.

“Yes,” she answered, grabbing the excuse he offered. But was it really an excuse? Even now, was she using her job to get away from the truth, from her own shortcomings? If there had been no Allison to guard, would she move in with Reese or run away?

“Okay, I’ll accept that,” he said. “Always be honest with me, Charley. The only thing I can’t handle is lies.”

Oh, Lord. She groaned inwardly. She had already told so many lies, she would never be able to confess the truth.

“And as for Allison,” he went on, “from what I’ve seen, she’s quite a capable lady.” He calmly started to shave again. He could wait, he thought. The show could very well turn out to be a hit. That meant Charley would be around for some time. Plenty of opportunity to wear her down and get her to commit herself.

“Capable, huh?” she said, purposely turning off the hot-water faucet and letting icy water attack her body from all angles. “Is that the way you like them?”

“I like them with funny names, like ‘Charley,’ “ he said. “But, seriously, I don’t think you have to worry about Allison. She’s not quite the lost little country girl she appears to be.”

Why couldn’t the congressman have been as astute as Reese? Charley wondered. Then there wouldn’t be any mess to sort out. On the other hand, she wouldn’t have come to be in this play, wouldn’t have met Reese again. Tasted ecstasy again. Frozen to death in his shower, she added, suddenly realizing that the cold water was still pouring over her. She turned off the shower and stood still, water dripping down her body.

“What makes you say Allison can take care of herself?” she asked.

“Because she’s been flirting with me,” he said, guiding the razor along his Adam’s apple. “She knows what she wants, and she knows how to get it.”

Charley opened the shower stall a crack and pulled off the towel that she had wrapped around her head. Her hair fell around her shoulders like golden-brown sunbeams. “Well, is she going to get you?” she asked, not quite able to keep her jealousy out of her voice.

Reese watched in the bathroom mirror as she dried off and wrapped the towel around her. “A year ago this savvy young actress plunked her quarter down and put me on a layaway plan. Nobody else gets me until she comes back with the final payment.”

“A quarter?” Charley laughed. “Is that all it takes to hold you?”

“No,” he said, turning around. “It takes two arms—your two arms.” He moved to kiss her.

“You haven’t finished shaving yet,” she said.

“To hell with shaving. I might start a new trend.” He pulled her into his arms. The scent of his shaving cream surrounded her, and she felt its silky texture as he rubbed against her cheek.

“You’ll be late,” she warned. She might not be on call today, but he always was.

He lifted her off the floor. As he did, her towel fell off. She loved the look that came into his eyes at the sight of her naked body. “I’ll work quickly,” he promised.

“Not too quick,” she murmured, allowing her emotions to get the better of her again.

“Charley?” Reese whispered as they lay in bed, sated for the moment. The clock was ticking away, and he was going to be late for the first time in his life, but he didn’t care. He wanted to hold on to this moment as long as he could.

“Hmm?” She stirred against him, allowing herself to luxuriate in the warmth and feel of his body.

“Do you remember the beginning?”

“Yes. You carried me in from the bathroom, with shaving cream all over your face.” She was teasing him on purpose, trying to fight the look of tenderness she saw in his eyes.

“No,” he said gently, patiently. “Our beginning.”

“You’re going to be late, Reese.” Her tone was imploring.

A smile played over his lips. He didn’t hear her. For a moment he was living in the past. “We were at a casting call for the revival of Skin of Our Teeth. We were both scared and trying not to show it. But then I saw you and suddenly getting a part didn’t matter so much.” He curled a strand of her hair around his finger and pressed it to his lips.

“Love at first sight, huh?” She tried to make it a joke.

“Something like that,” he said, and the seriousness in his voice quelled any ideas on her part to keep this conversation light. “We got parts, all right,” he went on, “but not the ones we wanted. That was when you suggested that we treat ourselves to a consolation dinner.”

She remembered. She didn’t know what had possessed her to do that. She had been nervous, not because of the play, but because she was waiting to hear from the Bureau and they were taking so very long to answer. She hadn’t meant to get involved with Reese. But there was something about him that had drawn her to him the first moment she laid eyes on him.

“That was some dinner,” he added, lifting her chin so that she had to meet his eyes.

“Yes, it was,” she answered softly. Nothing had ever hit her so hard. The dinner had lasted for hours, and when they had gone back to his apartment for coffee, she had been tempted to stay. She hadn’t, but after a week of rehearsing with him every day, eating almost every meal with him, spending any free moment with him, she did stay. She had never experienced the feelings, the longings, the needs that she had known when she was with Reese. Each time she’d been with him, those feelings had grown stronger. It had frightened her. It had been too intense, too sudden. Maybe that was why she had run to the Bureau so quickly when she was finally accepted.

Reese ran his finger along her lower lip. “What are you thinking about?”

She blinked, trying to clear her mind. “That if you don’t stop this trip down memory lane, you’re not going to get to rehearsal until noon and Chalmers’ll fire you.”

He looked at her for a long moment. “I guess I’d better get ready.”

“Yes, you’d better,” she said quietly.

Reese insisted on walking Charley to her building before he hurried off to the rehearsal. She couldn’t shake the feeling that beneath his easy smile, he was worried about her. Worried without knowing why he was worried.
Was she being fair to him, to both of them
? she wondered as she took out her key. She was only putting off the inevitable. Sooner or later she was going to have to leave him. A lasting relationship between them just wasn’t possible. Besides the danger, she sensed a basic difference in their personalities. She craved excitement, but Reese needed stability. He had proved that by becoming a stage manager rather than an actor. Being an actor left too many things to chance—like eating. Reese appeared to have a level head on his gorgeous shoulders. Cloak-and-dagger work was not for him. She couldn’t even hope to make him understand what it meant to her.

She let herself into her apartment and saw that Allison was still sleeping on the sofa. Morning person, huh? Charley thought, recalling Allison’s claim that she liked mornings best. Charley was willing to bet that given half a chance, the woman’s only acquaintance with the early hours of the morning would be from the other side of the evening.

Making a deliberate effort to be quiet, Charley walked into her bedroom. Very softly she closed the door behind her, then took a long look around. Unlike the day before, this morning she wasn’t in a hurry. She had time to take a thorough visual inventory. Nothing appeared to have been moved. Nothing noticeable, at any rate. She opened the bottom drawer of the bureau. A rainbow of pastel underwear met her eye, all neatly arranged. Charley took the poetry book she had left on top of the bureau and placed it in the drawer. When she had arranged her underwear, the stack was easily covered by the book. Now bits of nylon and lace were visible on both sides of the cover. Allison had searched the place, all right.

A smile curved Charley’s lips. Well, Allison’s meticulous search had been for nothing. Charley had made sure that everything identifying her as a special agent had been left with Max. Charley didn’t like to take chances.

So what was she doing with Reese? she asked herself sternly.

She didn’t have time to sink into another internal argument, for Allison called out, “Who’s there?” in a sleepy voice.

Charley turned, quickly replacing the book and shutting the drawer. “It’s only me, Allison. C’mon in.”

The door swung open and Allison walked in. Her golden hair was disarrayed, and Charley couldn’t help thinking that she was the embodiment of every man’s fantasy. Some women had all the luck. Well, not all, she amended. These enemy agents were a pretty cutthroat lot to have gotten mixed up with. Allison would have been better off trying to rely on her beauty to get her somewhere in the acting world. But then, ambition was not always coupled with common sense.

“I was worried about you,” Allison said, sitting down on the bed. “I’ve been reading some horrible things in the papers. I thought maybe somebody kidnapped you or something.” She rubbed her eyes. “What time is it?”

“A little after nine,” Charley said. “Did you have a nice time last night with Peter?” she asked, hoping to draw Allison out about her date.

Allison shrugged. “It was okay. Actually, the evening ended rather early. So I came home to study my lines.” And look around, Charley added silently. “And call my boyfriend.” Allison said.

Charley began to riffle through her closet for a change of clothes. “You have a boyfriend?” Was that innocent-sounding enough? she wondered. She peered out of the closet for a moment. To her relief, there wasn’t a hint of suspicion on the other woman’s face.

Allison’s blond head bobbed up and down. “His name’s Ethan,” she said.

“Is he from back home?” Charley asked, shedding her clothes and pulling on a fresh pair of jeans and a sweater.

“Yes. I’m not lucky enough to have one right under my nose.”

Time to nip this in the bud, Charley thought. “Neither am I,” she said firmly, walking past Allison to the bureau. She took some makeup from the top drawer.

Allison cocked her head as if she were confused. “What about the stage manager?”

“Reese?” Charley laughed and shook her head. “He’s just a good time, that’s all. No strings, no commitments ...” She let her voice trail off as she applied her eye shadow. She could see Allison watching her in the mirror. Charley pretended to be preoccupied with her makeup and fervently hoped that she had thrown Allison off the scent. She didn’t want anyone, least of all Allison, to suspect that she was emotionally involved with Reese.

“Then you wouldn’t mind if I went out with him?” Allison asked innocently.

Charley almost dropped the eye-shadow pencil, but managed to recover without missing a beat. “Why should I mind?” she asked. “But what about your boyfriend, what’s-his-name?”

“Ethan. To tell you the truth, he’s kind of, well, you know—dull. Now, Reese,” she went on, her voice sounding dreamy, “really looks like he’s something else.”

Good-bye Mary Poppins
, Charley thought, applying her blush with a heavy hand. She realized what she was doing and pulled out a tissue to whisk away some of the pink dust. “Yes,” she said, trying to keep her inner turmoil from surfacing. “You might say that.”

She attempted to tell herself that Allison’s interest in Reese was all for the best. It would keep the blonde off track. So why did she feel so miserable about it? One look at Allison in her baby-doll pajamas answered that question.

“Well, as long as you don’t mind,” Allison said brightly, hopping off Charley’s bed. “I think I’ll drop by rehearsal this afternoon. Maybe I’ll have him help me with my lines.” She unconsciously stroked her hips and smiled.