Love at First Sight - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,43

love—and desire—as she pulled back to look at him.

He swallowed, feeling like the lowest form of animal life. Wasn’t he the one who was always telling Denny that one lie led to another until you were caught up in them like a net?

Well, Jack was caught. And badly. But what other option did he have? Return her to Baxter and let him put her in another safe house? Not after the last one had blown up. Not after someone had tried to kill her a third time at the phone booth.

No, the only way Jack could protect her was to keep her with him and keep up the pretense a little longer. He’d done the chivalrous thing. Right?

“The doctor said we should wait because of your head injury,” Jack told her.

Disappointment clouded her expressive eyes. “I’m sorry. You must be as disappointed as I am.”

She had no idea. Just the mere thought of making love to her… Disappointment didn’t even cover what he was feeling.

Then she smiled. “But I suppose we have the rest of our lives.”

He saw her glance down at her ring finger on her left hand as if a little surprised and…disappointed to find it bare. She probably thought she didn’t have a very caring or romantic husband.

“You’re probably hungry,” he said, feeling like an even worse heel.

“Actually, I’m not,” she said, right behind him.

He glanced back at her. “I picked up some doughnuts. Lemon-filled.”

She shook her head. “We must have a very passionate relationship,” she persisted.

He felt his heart skip a beat at the thought. “What makes you think that?” he asked with a nervous laugh.

She laughed, too, hers more natural, though. “When I’m around you I feel…sparks.” She shrugged. “I’ve never felt like this around anyone else.”

He definitely knew what she meant.

“And when I look at you, it’s like the rest of the world doesn’t exist.” She shrugged, her smile bright as any summer day he’d ever seen. “You probably think that’s silly.”

“Not at all,” he said, his voice cracking.

“And when I touch you—” She placed the flat of her hand against his chest, directly over his heart.

Oh, God. He closed his eyes, his heart a sledgehammer. Oh, yeah. He opened his eyes to find her gaze on his.

“Good,” she said laughing, sounding relieved. “I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels this way. It certainly explains why we got married the way we did, huh?” She slid her hand up his chest and along his shoulder to his arm, then pulled back slowly as if reluctant to break the connection. “But there is something I was wondering about.”

He held his breath.

“It’s such an old-fashioned thing for us to do, getting married instead of just living together first,” she said. “I have a feeling you’re the one who insisted on marriage. Such a gallant kind of thing to do.”

Yeah, gallant. Really heroic. But he was relieved that was the only thing bothering her. “When I met you,” he said honestly, “you just reminded me of my image of the Girl Next Door. I wanted you almost the first time I saw you.” It shocked him how true that was.

“Oh, Jack, that’s so romantic,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck.

He circled her slim waist with his arms and hugged her to him, the feel of her an intoxicant that made him light-headed—and aroused.

She pulled back to look into his eyes. “I can’t wait until I can remember every minute of it.”

Yeah, he couldn’t either. The doctor had said her memory loss would be short-term. The question was, how short-term? When she remembered maybe she’d be able to tell him who the killer was. But she would also remember that they weren’t married. Not even close. That she didn’t need him. And would know that he had lied and couldn’t be trusted. The thought made him sick inside.

“In the meantime, you have time to take a nice hot bath before dinner,” he suggested.

She smiled, her eyes an inviting blue. He knew better than to go there. “I wish you could join me in the tub,” she said suggestively. Nor there, especially.

His Girl Next Door was turning out to be quite the woman. More of a woman than he’d imagined, that was for sure.

“Yeah, I wish I could, too,” he said, meaning every word of it.

He waited until he heard the water running in the tub, before he called Denny from his cell phone.

“What the hell happened at the safe house?” he demanded when Denny