Working on a Full House (28 page)

Roy's smile widened. Because she was being comical? Or because he was relieved she'd said yes?

She had no idea. None at all. Ever since Roy had gone into this strange, almost diffident, thing, she couldn't figure out what was going on.

For example, now he deliberately tempered his smile, made himself look like the cool cucumber again.
Why
? "Fine," he said. "Shall I wait here until you're finished with work?"

"I'm done." Valerie gestured toward the hall. "I just saw my last patient."

"Oh. Then we can go?"

Valerie shrugged out of her lab coat. "We can go." Her heart was pounding again. They were going out on a date...sort of... Maybe. Oh, who knew? She tried to still the shaking in her hands as she hung her lab coat on the coat tree in the corner. This was ridiculous. She'd slept with this man. She was carrying his baby. And now she was nervous because they were going to have dinner together?

Roy opened the door to the hall and Valerie walked through.

The hall was empty, except for Cherise, idly sifting through some charts at the nurse's station. "So," she said, looking up. Her eyebrows rose as she peered past Valerie's shoulder. "I suppose now you intend to bring him along."

Valerie's stomach sank. That's right, she'd promised to have dinner tonight with Cherise. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Cherise — "

"No." Cherise waved a hand. "No apology necessary. Like I said, it's okay if you bring him along for our night out. Fact is, I wouldn't mind a chance to get acquainted with your husband."

Oh, boy
. Valerie's stomach sank further.

Meanwhile, behind her, Roy tensed. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure," he rumbled.

"Cherise Winter," Valerie said. From their many phone conversations, he ought to know who that was.

"And you're Roy Beaujovais." Cherise gave him an evil smile. "Horning in on my night out with Valerie, but like I said, it's okay. I have a few things I'd like to say to you."

"Is that right?" Roy nearly purred, a sound that sent warning signals up Valerie's back. "Then by all means, why don't you join us?"

Cherise's evil smile did something strange. If Valerie wasn't completely crazy, it jumped into something very nearly pleased. By Roy's threatening tone? "Shall we meet at Cowboy John's?" she asked.

Roy looked at Valerie. His eyes were pools of pure wolf-ness.

"I — " Valerie rolled her eyes and lifted her hands. "Whatever."

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Roy shouldn't have come back, or at least not so soon. Because it was happening again. From the minute he'd walked into her office with all her things, simply waiting for her, he'd started to go all wiggy again. Soft inside. Mushy.

He should have kept a safe distance for a while, but no, here he was. A moth to a flame. Valerie had walked in and he'd felt the strongest urge to go up to her, to hold her, to...just be close to her. Weird. Not quite platonic, but not totally sexual, either. Big, however. Whatever he felt, it was very big.

Fortunately, distraction had come in the form of Valerie's bossy friend, Cherise. She seemed to think she had a claim on Valerie. All Roy's competitive instincts had jumped happily to the fore, eclipsing for the moment those less definable, less familiar emotions.

Now they were sitting in a corner booth of a rambling restaurant with a heavy cowboy theme. Longhorn steer horns adorned the walls, along with cowboy hats and various implements of the old West range. Amid all this celebration of rural outdoorsmanship, Valerie's friend, Cherise, looked both distinctly out of place and regally superior. She also looked like she meant to chew Roy to bits.

Roy didn't mind. Valerie, however, appeared to want to sink into the fake leather upholstery next to him. He longed to put an arm around her, to comfort her, to protect her — hell, just to touch her. But Valerie would think the gesture possessive, Cherise would think it an act, and Roy — well, Roy was actually too scared to touch her.

Scared. Yeah, unfortunately, that was the correct word.

"So," Cherise said, once the waitress had set a brace of iced teas in front of them. She smiled at Roy without showing any teeth. "So, you're the man who knocked Valerie up on a one-night stand in Las Vegas."

Roy choked on the swallow of iced tea he'd taken. He wiped his mouth with the back of a hand and lowered on Cherise the sort of glare he'd give a sucker who was daring to raise on his pot-killing bet. "That's not exactly how I'd describe myself."

"No?" Valerie's friend raised her queenly eyebrows. "Then how would you?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Valerie muttered.

Roy ignored her attempt to pooh-pooh the battle at hand. He leaned his forearms on the table and eyed Cherise like a guy who was holding the nuts. "I'm the man who married Valerie, and who's going to take care of her and our baby."

Cherise continued the haughty look, but Roy wasn't a millionaire poker player for nothing. He could see she was shaken. For some reason, she hadn't expected this much integrity from him. It made him wonder exactly how Valerie had been painting him, or if she'd painted him in any colors at all. Didn't she talk about him to her best friend?

"Well," Cherise said, and looked like she was gearing up for another round, but Valerie interrupted.

"There's no need for you to protect me, Cherise." Valerie sounded both disgusted and embarrassed. "I'm perfectly capable of making my own judgments about people."

Cherise snorted. "I wouldn't be so sure about
that
."

"If you're referring to the man who doesn't need to be named — "

"Peter," Roy supplied.

Valerie shot him a slit-eyed look and continued. "If you're referring to that man, well that was a completely different situation."

"I'll say," Cherise retorted. "You weren't married to him, or pregnant with his child."

Valerie flushed.

Roy took one look at her distress and turned on Cherise. "I thought this session was supposed to be about grilling me."

Cherise looked surprised. "You want me to grill you?"

"If it'll get you to leave Valerie alone."

"Well," Cherise said, leaning back and crossing her arms over her chest. "Well, well, well."

Roy lifted his chin. "So. What do you want to know?"

"Frankly," Valerie said, interrupting once again. "I don't see how anybody rates a grilling, except maybe a steak or something, which reminds me that I'm actually hungry. Could somebody pass a menu?"

"I want to know this guy's intentions," Cherise said.

"
I
know his intentions," Valerie replied, "and that's all that matters."

"Do you?" Cherise retorted. "Do you really?"

At that, Roy couldn't help looking at Valerie, too. Did she know his intentions? Did
he
even know what they were any more?

Valerie kept her gaze, pointedly, on Cherise. "I know enough," she claimed. But Roy thought she turned a slightly dusky hue. "Now can we please eat? Maybe if Roy is in a forgiving mood we can still have a nice dinner here." And then, as if she couldn't help herself, she glanced toward Roy.

It was like a punch — her eyes, warily apologetic, her mouth unconsciously ripe, the whole appealing essence of her. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and carry her far, far away. He wanted to make her his in some powerful, but ill-defined way.

Most of all, though, he wanted to be absolutely sure she had no idea of his present weakness.

"Oh, all right." It was Cherise's voice, long-suffering, and oddly defeated. "It's not as if I've been acting with perfect rationality, myself, lately." Roy saw an almost frightened expression cross her face before she gestured. "Why don't you hand me a menu, too?"

Roy frowned. For a moment Cherise had looked the way he
felt
, whatever that was. His face, however, was poker bland as he handed Cherise one of the oversize menus sitting in a pile in front of him. "Here you go."

"Thank you," Cherise said.

"You're welcome," Roy replied.

"Thank God," Valerie muttered.

~~~

Well. If
that
hadn't been weird. Valerie drove into her garage thinking the dinner she'd just shared with Cherise and Roy had been strange and disorienting. For one thing, Cherise had gone from Roy-hating banshee to...almost cordial. For another, Roy had barely exchanged glances with Valerie, and yet she'd felt his presence hugely beside her, protective, claiming...maybe even tender. It had been as if — strange to think — but as if he'd been too
shy
to look Valerie in the eye.

"Weird," Valerie muttered, as she turned off her car's motor. "Too weird to understand." Although a part of her
could
make sense of Roy's behavior, a crazy part of her. "No," Valerie said, with a curt shake of her head. "It is too weird to understand."

A large masculine shape materialized out of the darkness beyond the open garage door. Roy.

Valerie was careful to keep her smile bland as she closed the door of her car and faced him. "You made good time."

He lifted a shoulder. His expression was the Roy special: impenetrable.

For the first time Valerie thought to question that. Why did he so often hide his thoughts and feelings?

"I'll, uh, just open the door." She turned and made a determined effort to slow her heart rate as she unlocked the door from the garage to the kitchen. She could feel him, though, like a prickling in the air.

Valerie flipped on the lights in the kitchen and walked over to set her purse and jacket on the counter near the phone. She was trying her damnedest to ignore the prickling and act normal, as if they were still merely the friends they'd become over the telephone, as if nothing had happened in between: Roy's declaration he wanted to sleep with her, her refusal, or his utterly incomprehensible behavior since.

Although it might be comprehensible, if Valerie allowed herself to fantasize...

She turned with another bland smile. "Well! That didn't go so bad, did it?"

"No." Roy's tone matched his face: unreadable.

"So." Valerie tried to halt her wayward thoughts, but they wouldn't halt. Maybe Roy's gaze wasn't so unreadable. Maybe Valerie
could
read through him...if she let herself.

"You hadn't told Cherise very much about me," Roy remarked.

"Well...no." Valerie bit her lower lip. "Cherise has a way of — Well, she likes to tell me what to do."

"And she would have told you to have me take a hike."

"Uh...probably."

Roy's impassive expression broke long enough for something unexpected: a smile. Valerie blinked at that, and thought she heard him mutter, "Well, that's something, anyway."

What was something?
she longed to ask.
That I wouldn't have told you to take a hike? You cared?
But she didn't dare say anything like that.

"Ahem. I should check your refrigerator." Roy turned aside. "See what I need to get you tomorrow."

"You know, you don't have to do that. I can buy my own groceries."

"We've been over this before." Roy opened Valerie's refrigerator. He frowned as he looked inside. "Gee, you used up a lot of stuff since I was last here."

"Well, like I said, I have been getting hungry." Valerie could feel her face turn red. The truth was, she hadn't been able to button the top of her pants that morning. She'd noted the fact with a combination of dismay and wonder.

"That's good." Roy looked over the open refrigerator door toward her. "I'd feel better if you started to gain weight."

"Don't worry, I will." She suspected she already had, but wasn't up to sharing such an unflattering detail with him.

Roy seemed to guess anyway, his lips quirking as he closed the refrigerator door. "You'd better make a list for me. Now that you don't have morning sickness, I have no idea what you want."

The words, completely innocent and coming out of a moment that had turned almost easy, nevertheless hung in the air.
What did she want
?

Roy turned and their eyes met. The answer to his question zinged through Valerie like an arrow from a bow.

Him. That's what she wanted.

In that moment she wanted Roy so much it made her throat ache.

Roy's lashes lowered an infinitesimal amount. It was a tiny movement, but Valerie felt it like a thunderclap.

He wanted her, too.

The air seemed supercharged between them. Thick. Hot. Heavy.

"I..." He swallowed visibly. "I should probably go, uh, leave you alone now."

He should? Valerie thought he should probably grab her and tell her how much he loved her so they could resolve this thing. Or at least, that's what she wished he would do.

"Ahem." He shifted weight. But instead of stepping away, toward the guest suite, he stepped forward, toward her.

Valerie's heart took flight. She stepped toward him. They met somewhere near the stove.

"Oh, boy." He released a gusty breath as his palms cupped her shoulders. "I promised I wasn't going to do this, didn't I?"

"All — all you're doing is holding me. I don't remember any promise about that."

"Right." His jaw tightened. "I didn't make any promise about that. Or...about this." He lowered his mouth to hers.

Rich heat slid through her. This, oh this at last, she thought, winding her arms about his neck. With his lips moving eagerly on hers and his body pressed close it was a luxury of relief.

"Roy, Roy, Roy." Her mouth moved from his to caress his cheek, the edge of his jaw. Her tongue flicked out to taste the salty stubble of his beard.

His breath came out on a hiss. "You have no idea..."

"I do. Oh, I do."

"No, you
don't
." He took her mouth again, deeply, passionately, as if to prove his point. Valerie moaned as his tongue swept vigorously into her mouth.

Feeling like she was in a free-fall, she clung to him.

"We
really
shouldn't be doing this," Roy said, lifting his lips from her mouth. Nevertheless, he put a big warm hand over her left breast.