Best of Temptation Bundle Page 15

  “Here, take this in,” her mother said, pushing a platter of grilled pork chops into her hands.

  Eva stared at the meat, waiting for her stomach to churn, relieved when nothing but a growl materialized. Thank God. Her doctor had told her that her second trimester would be much easier than her first. She swallowed. She’d also told her that her sex drive would return tenfold. Eva eyed Adam and the way his shower-damp hair curled over his shirt collar, thinking that on both counts, she couldn’t find cause for argument.

  Stepping into the dining room, she placed the platter in the middle of the table. Adam’s gaze lingered on the many buttons up the front of her dress, then he looked up to her. She nodded her head in the direction of the living room, attempting to communicate that she needed to talk to him. Tolly slapped his hand on his arm to regain Adam’s attention.

  Eva wilted under the pressure as she glanced toward her father. Oh, God, what had she done?

  Within minutes everyone was settled around the table and, as Eva feared, her mother clanked her fork against her wineglass.

  “Everyone, I have an announcement to make,” Katina said.

  Eva cringed. Seeing as everyone but her father and brother already knew the news, this was hardly Herald material. She fastened a smile onto her face.

  “Adam and Eva are expecting their first child.”

  “Hear, hear,” her grandmother said next to her.

  Across the table her brother, Pete, looked briefly as if he’d lost his best friend, then sat back in his chair, a surprised smile on his handsome face.

  And Tolly was heartily slapping Adam on the back as if he’d just shot some prized deer.

  But all of that disappeared as Adam’s shocked gaze met with Eva’s across the table.

  I’m sorry, she tried to convey.

  Why didn’t you tell me they knew, his expression answered.

  Then something unexpected happened. Alight so affectionate, so wonderful, warmed the depths of Adam’s eyes. Eva’s heart did a funny little turn, a surreal cloud rushing to envelope her so that for one precious moment, she believed she was married to Adam. That the baby she carried was theirs. Her chest filled with hope, her cheeks flushed in shared intimacy, her body called out its need for the man across from her.

  Her father’s rough but gentle hand on her arm tugged her attention to his familiar, craggy face. “You have brought this family much happiness, Eva.”

  As rapidly as it gathered, the cloud vanished. Eva stared at the harsh truth even as she looked into her father’s proud face. It’s all a lie, Papa, she wanted to say. All of it. Adam’s not my husband. The child I carry was fathered by a man you don’t even know. And you never will because he wants nothing to do with the baby. She felt light-headed and leaned her head against her hand, wondering if she would go from morning sickness to fainting dead away.

  “Eva, are you all right?” She heard Adam’s voice above all others as her father moved his hand to her back to steady her.

  Taking the glass of water her grandmother offered, Eva lifted it to her lips. She took a long sip, then drew the cool glass across her hot forehead. The dizziness passed and she managed a small, shaky smile to everyone but her father. Him, she couldn’t face. She might never be able to face him again.

  “I’m fine. It must be the heat.”

  “And the excitement,” her mother added.

  How Eva managed to get through the remainder of the long meal she didn’t know. Talk was full of childhood milestones, Eva’s own misdeeds, and of course all the things that needed to be done before welcoming the latest addition to the family.

  In a small way, Eva was glad that some of her news was out. Sure, the priorities had switched—she had planned to tell them about her divorce first, then the baby. But she hadn’t reckoned on her mother and grandmother’s uncanny perception. And she certainly hadn’t foreseen the wild turn her once-safe relationship with Adam would take.

  Finally, everybody had eaten their fill. Her father and grandmother went upstairs for their naps, her brother left the house, and Eva and Adam helped clear the table, the unspoken tension between them nearly visible. Her mother shooed her out of the kitchen and told her to take a siesta with Adam. Eva turned around to see that he had overheard the command, an unspoken question in his eyes. Eva flushed, telling herself she was being ridiculous. Despite the heat that had flared between them the night before, ultimately he had pushed her away.

  Then why did he look as if he’d like nothing better than to peel her dress away from her hot skin and spend the rest of the afternoon making up for lost time? And why did she want him to do that more than anything?

  “Uh, I think I’d rather go for a walk,” Eva said quietly, tearing her gaze from Adam’s. “You know, to burn off some of those calories I put away.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Adam said.

  Eva held the screen door for him as he stepped out. Then she carefully closed the door so it didn’t give its usual slap against the frame. She crossed her arms over her chest and led the way across the grass. Only in passing did she realize this was the same path they’d taken the night before. But this time, her moon was nowhere to be seen. And hopefully she wouldn’t make the same mistakes she’d made last night.

  “You told them,” Adam said quietly, his presence a powerful one next to her.

  Eva nodded. “I thought maybe it would be best after what, you know, you said on the boat last night.”

  She looked at him to find his gaze heady and curious.

  “You know, about this baby not just belonging to me, but to them too. You were right.”

  He was silent for a long moment. The thick air magnified the vivid colors of the Spanish moss and magnolias, lending a magical quality to the day. Above them, clouds writhed and wrinkled and swirled continually, driven by the gentle gulf breezes. The atmosphere of calm was like that of Eden where time seemed to stop. But the calm was as deceptive as the serenity Eva tried to affect. At any moment, a wild storm could break loose. Just like the storm swirling in her.

  “I don’t suppose I have to ask if you told them about me.”

  “No,” she said, averting her gaze. “I couldn’t do that. Not…not yet.”

  His strong grip on her shoulders startled her into stopping. He pulled her to face him.

  “Eva, there’s nothing I’d like more than to be the father of that child you’re carrying. To claim him or her as mine. You as mine. But the facts are that neither of you are mine. You deserve to know that, too. I deserve that.”

  Eva’s gaze roamed from his dark gold eyebrows, down to the delectable dimple in his chin, finding a pained honesty on his face that twisted her gut. She hesitantly reached out to touch his cheek, but he pulled away.

  “Damn it, somewhere over these past couple of days, the line between what’s real and what’s not has disappeared. I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but I’ve even begun to wonder what it would be like if I was your husband. Imagining what the future would hold for us as a couple. Picturing what it would be like to be a father, a part of this family…a part of our family.” He took her hand. “I see myself waking up with you every morning, Eva, and it causes something I don’t know how to describe to grow in my chest. Something wonderful, magical, passionate. I dream of burying myself between your legs for long hours on end, making all your secret fantasies come true…indulging in my own.”

  He released her, restlessly paced away, then stalked back to her. “You know the fantasy I had when I first spotted you at the firm? In my mind, I saw you wearing nothing but a little bikini, stretched out on the deck of a boat I have moored in Delaware Bay, your skin glistening in the sun. A boat I bought three years ago and have never even taken out because buying it seemed like a good idea at the time, but it’s not important enough for me to make time for. And my image of you lying across the deck in that bikini was nothing but a stupid, adolescent fantasy.”

  Eva flinched. “Adam, I—”

  “Facts a
re facts, and the fact we have to face here is that there’s no ‘our’ anywhere in this equation. I’m playing a role for you, nothing more, nothing less. No matter how much I wish differently. There’s no going back now, Eva. We’ve charted this damn course for ourselves, and we’re just going to have to play it out on the calmest waters possible.”

  As abruptly as his tirade began, it ended. Eva didn’t know what to say. So she didn’t say anything. Instead, she did something she’d been doing a lot lately in the past two days: acted on impulse. And the one now clamoring for attention was that she desperately needed to kiss Adam.

  Clamping her hand around the back of his neck, she hauled his head down and roughly brought his mouth against hers. With wild, hungry, deep flicks of her tongue, she drank in the passion left by his words. Tasting the bittersweet remnants of wine. Telling him with her kiss that she felt as confused and needy and achy as he did…and telling him that right now, right this moment, it didn’t matter. Nothing did. Not as long as they could share their hunger. Not as long as she could feel the heat of his body, leaving her wistful and feminine and yearning. Not as long as he felt the same way she did.

  The sun on her hair was hot and penetrating as Eva stepped closer to him, welcoming his hands on her hips, gasping when he dragged her against his hard length, pressing his erection against the soft flesh of her stomach. Spontaneously, Eva rocked against him, relishing his almost inaudible groan.

  The slap of the screen door some fifty yards away was like a gunshot. Eva broke away from the kiss, her heart pounding erratically in her chest, her blood flowing thickly through her veins. A furtive glance toward the house found no one in sight, leaving her to think someone had just gone in. And had likely stood witness to her and Adam’s passionate display.

  When she turned back around, she found Adam striding purposefully toward the path in the trees.

  The urge to rush after him swept through her limbs. But instead she stood frozen, knowing deep down that he needed time to himself. Time to make sense out of what was happening to him, if there was any sense to be made.

  She pressed her fingertips to her temples. Could it work out between them? Was she willing to let him into her life all the way? Was he even willing to give her, or the two of them as a couple, a chance? Or did he feel as overwhelmed as she did, not knowing which way to go, and unclearer still about the emotions that might lead to the most exquisite love either of them had ever shared, or the most ripping heartbreak?

  By the time Eva made her way through the path and emerged from the trees, Adam was nowhere to be seen. She looked first to the boat, rocking slightly, but otherwise empty, then the open doors to the warehouse. Nothing.

  Pushing damp tendrils of hair back and holding them at her nape, she slowly made her way toward the warehouse.

  Once in the musty confines of the office, she pounded on her laptop keyboard, immersing herself in numbers and the way they neatly added up, reconciled. She divided them into separate spreadsheets, other accounting sheets, but still the result was the same: they added up. No emotions involved here, only a keen sense of ultimate simplicity. And she managed to do the work it normally would have taken her half a day to complete in one hour. But rather than the relief she usually felt, the sense of accomplishment, Eva felt drained, unsatisfied, unchallenged. The accounting was done. There were no other numbers to add. No other chores to perform. And the amounts that had so captured her attention transformed into nothing but sheets full of numbers, dull, lifeless and unattractive.

  For one numbing second, Eva caught a glimpse of what the rest of her life might hold.

  The clang of something metallic outside the office sounded. She glanced absently in the direction of the door window. Is that what her life had been? An emotionless void in which she functioned in no more an important manner than a machine? Afraid to explore other horizons? Scared she might find out she’d made a mistake so many years ago when she left Belle Rivage and the overbearing presence of her father? Trading it instead for a life without emotion, without love?

  Getting up from the chair, she opened the office door. She could see nothing in the shadowy darkness of the warehouse. The sound must have come from outside. Moving toward the open doors—the wide portal made unusually bright by the hazy afternoon sunshine—she wondered if Adam had come to seek her out. The anticipation that coursed through her as she stepped outside only proved even more how empty her life had become.

  Eva caught a glimpse of Adam near the boat, but he wasn’t alone. She recognized the slightly bowed posture of her brother standing awkwardly next to Adam. Her heart gave a gentle squeeze. In all her planning, Eva hadn’t taken a moment to consider the effect her return with Adam would have on Pete. That he might feel threatened by the presence of another man in their father’s life. A man who could challenge him for his already tenuous position of being the next head of the household. Someone who could definitely rival him for the affections of their father, a man who gave his love so sparingly already.

  Or maybe she was way off and that’s not what had been bothering her brother. While she and Pete were close, she had always suspected there were some things he couldn’t share with her. Was he sharing those thoughts with Adam now?

  Eva leaned against the warm metal of the warehouse and watched the two men on the dock. They made a striking contrast against the backdrop of the bayou, both of them in their dinner clothes, Adam a tall, solid and yes, athletic figure, Pete slightly shorter, stockier, a younger version of Tolly. In the three days they’d been there, Eva couldn’t recall Adam talking to her brother at all, aside from obligatory, friendly exchanges. But he did so now with a quiet urgency she could sense even from there. And when Adam put his hand on Pete’s shoulder and pulled him to his side, Eva realized that he must be telling her brother he had nothing to fear from his presence. That his addition—no matter how temporary Eva knew it to be—wouldn’t affect Pete’s relationship with their father.

  For the second time that day, Eva blinked back hot tears.

  Another metallic sound echoed through the warehouse and she jumped. Had Jimmy been inside without her knowing? She turned back toward the doors, but could see little in the inky blackness. The slam of the door against the metal wall in the office clattered through the warehouse, then a figure raced past her, nearly knocking her down. Eva stood speechless as a man wearing a beige fishing hat and hunting vest cut a path through the gravel leading to the road, then disappeared into a thicket of trees…her laptop computer tucked under one arm.

  “Adam.” His name caught in her throat.

  10

  ADAM HAD SEEN the unfamiliar figure dash across the warehouse lot clutching Eva’s laptop computer but had been too far away to have any hope of catching him. This time his image as a nerd had nothing to do with his decision. The gig was up. It was simple as that. If his mind had been working correctly, he would have realized the whole operation was compromised the day before with the ransacking of Eva’s bedroom.

  On the way back to the house, he’d spotted the two backup agents standing near the path and waved them off. Evidently they hadn’t caught the thief either. And what Adam had to do now, he had to do alone. This went far deeper than the simple theft of Eva’s laptop.

  In the house, he ushered Eva up to her bedroom, where he carefully explained to her his true identity as a forensic accountant for the FBI’s Financial Crimes Unit. And his motivations for accepting her bizarre request that he play the role of her husband. He wasn’t sure what her reaction would be. A part of him hoped it would be anger at having been betrayed by another male…the same way her ex-husband had betrayed her. And when he wound his explanation down, purposely leaving out all the acute, personal revelations being with her had forced on him, he searched her impassive face. Trying to read her thoughts. Wanting her to hate him so it would make everything that happened from there on easier for them both.

  “So ultimately I didn’t agree to be your husband because you might give
me a good recommendation on my next job review. Because I’m not going to be at Sheffert, Logan and Brace long enough to make that date. I’m here because I needed to see if you knew anything about Sheffert’s dirty dealings. And to determine if you are involved.” He dragged in a breath. “That’s about the brunt of it,” he said with deliberate harshness, striving to achieve the objectivity he so needed to see this case through to its conclusion.

  Eva said nothing for a long minute. Instead, she just stood staring at him silently, maddeningly calm, and altogether too appealing.

  “I know,” was all she said.

  Adam eyed her, wondering if she had heard a single word he’d said. Hadn’t he just coldly told her she was nothing more than a means to an end in his investigation of Norman Sheffert? Hadn’t he implied with his pokerfaced expression that whatever had happened between them had occurred within the confines of his case, and therefore didn’t matter?

  Yes. So then why was she looking at him as if she wanted him, yearned for him, all the more?

  “What?” he asked, the word coming out more of a murmur.

  “I said I know.” She finally tugged that poignant gaze from his and stepped over to the dresser. “At least about your not being who you pretended to be. After our first kiss, well, I suspected you couldn’t be the man I thought I knew. At least not the geek I met. And after the night at the table when you…and on the boat afterward…” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “I didn’t know you were an FBI field agent, but I knew you had to be something other than what you were pretending to be.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “There were too many pieces that didn’t fit. Too many inconsistencies in your behavior…in your sharing of your background.”