I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride.
This case had thrown a lot of unexpected moments at Lee, but the most surprising one of all came when he lifted Amanda’s veil. They were just playing roles. Both of them knew that. But when he looked down at her, the tropical lushness around them faded away. All he could see was the rich brown of her eyes, wide open and full of emotion. She was scared, but determined, and she trusted him to bring them through.
That last part, the trust, was absolute. Perhaps that was why his heart skipped several beats.
It’s going to be all right, Amanda, he vowed silently. I’ll get us through the case and safely home. No matter what it takes.
He’d meant for the kiss to be just a quick brush of lips, but the unexpected jolt of realization had unsettled him enough that he let it linger. The second press of his lips was his unspoken promise, and the smile on her face when she wiped the lipstick off his mouth was her understanding. All three touches were electrifying, sending sparks flaring through his body. It took him a couple more breaths to recover his aplomb.
Which, as it turned out, was a good thing. It meant he was able to keep up when the lighthearted, meaningless banter they’d started at the champagne table led to the clue they’d been missing the whole time. Any qualms he’d had about his promise fell away as they clicked into that odd synergy that seemed to be happening more and more often. Now, the goal was simple and clear: find the gold and bring down those who were smuggling it.
Forty-five minutes later, they were in a runaway car as it careened down a steep road, picking up speed. Lee didn’t know how he was managing to hold on to the little control he had. But he did know there was no way that control would last.
“All right,” he said, sounding more confident than he felt. “Get ready to jump.”
“Jump?” Amanda’s voice had gone up.
“Yes,” he answered. “There’s only one way this thing’s going to stop.”
She nodded. “Say when.”
That trust. That absolute, unquestioned trust.
“Now!” he cried. She complied immediately. He hung on for only a few moments longer, making sure the car actually was aimed at the van on the beach, before jumping out himself.
The next few minutes passed in a blur, but at the end of them, they had achieved their goal: Orlando was safe; the smuggled gold had been recovered; and they’d put the smugglers themselves out of business. Lee couldn’t resist a verbal pot-shot — looks like the honeymoon’s over — but the primary emotion surging through him was relief. They were going to be fine. Everything was going to work out.
And Amanda was safe by his side. She and her short length of smuggled pipe had played a critical role in overpowering Miles and Jillian, proving again that the two of them together were a force to be reckoned with. Still, he could feel her shaking as she buried her face against his shoulder.
“Hang on,” he told her quietly. “Just a little bit longer and then we can get out of here.”
Her voice was muffled against his jacket. “I know. And then we get our things and go home.” After another long, shuddering breath, she stood up straight. “Which is a shame, in a way. I’d hoped to have a little longer with warm nights and tropical sunshine.”
Lee couldn’t help it. He laughed out loud. “I think we can do something about that.”
It was late when they got back to their cabins. They’d given statements to the local police, called Billy with an update, and gotten Emiliano and Orlando on their way back to Puerto Faro. The Princess Martha was going to lay over an extra day at San Angelo, so as to allow a partial replacement crew to fly in and finish the cruise. They wouldn’t be leaving the island with it, however. Lee had booked their flight back to Washington, via Miami, for the morning after it departed.
“I’m still on personal leave,” he’d explained to Amanda. “There’s a decent hotel next to the airport. We’ll stay here tonight because it’s too late to get a room there, but we’ll go over tomorrow. That’ll give us a day or so to explore.”
“That would be fun. I’ve never been here before. Have you?”
“No,” he admitted, only then realizing that he was looking forward to not just a chance to explore a new place — something he always loved — but to go exploring with her. They so rarely had any chance to just do something fun together, without the pressure of a case underneath.
Which was the way it was supposed to be, Lee told himself as he kicked off his shoes, undid his tie and shrugged out of his jacket. They were only colleagues. They didn’t spend time together outside of work, except for the occasional lunch or dinner. They weren’t even friends, and he was fine with that. It was all they could ever be anyway.
“Lee?”
He twitched, surprised. Amanda had opened the door between their cabins. She’d taken off the veil but was still wearing the white dress.
“What’s going on?” At least she’d interrupted before he was down to his skivvies.
There was a faint pink tinge to her cheeks. “Um, I know this is going to sound awful and let me tell you, I’m usually pretty good at this and there lots of different ways to do it, but I didn’t realize when they were getting me into this dress that it’s one of those, which I told them not to do the first but I didn’t really have a lot of choice this time. The top loop’s right between my shoulder blades and —”
“Amanda,” he interrupted. “What do you need?”
The pink on her cheeks darkened. “My dress. I can’t untie the ribbons at the back which means I can’t get to the zipper.”
He waved her in, wondering why she was so embarrassed. “Come here and turn around.”
“Thank you.” She held her hair up out of the way as he examined the back of the dress. What had initially looked like a complicated lacing pattern turned out to be similar to the way one might do shoes, with the tie in a spot she couldn’t ever have reached. From where he was, though, the bow came untied quickly and easily.
“Why would anyone tie that there?” he asked as he began loosening the ribbon.
The pink flush made its way to her neck. “Because it’s a wedding dress.”
“What’s that got to do with it?”
She sighed. “It’s designed for someone else to take it off of me.”
“Why would — oh,” he stuttered as understanding kicked in. “Oh. Ah. Yeah, okay, yeah, I guess that might be the case —” His hands fumbled with the ribbon, shaking, as he pulled it completely free. There was a zipper underneath, just as she’d mentioned, with the pull tab in a similarly awkward location. He reached for it without thinking.
She stiffened. “I’ll be fine from here.”
“Amanda, don’t be ridiculous. You’re already standing in front of me. Just be still a minute longer —”
“No, it’s all right.” She started to twist away. “I do back zippers all the time —”
Just then, her motion twisted the zipper against his hands in a way that caused them to slip the rest of the way down, all the way to her waist. She wore a satiny slip underneath, but there was no bra strap. Lee’s breath caught. She wasn’t wearing a bra at all. As the dress fell away from her chest, he saw sewn-in cups instead.
She caught the dress quickly, pulling it back up toward her, but not before his hands slipped in to rest on her hips. Time seemed to come to a standstill as they stood there, frozen in their positions.
She’s a colleague. Nothing more, Lee told himself. She’s off-limits. Besides, you’ve touched her before. You know she feels like this. Pull your hands away, Stetson.
His hands didn’t move away. Instead, they slipped forward, all the way around to the front of her abdomen.
“Lee,” she squeaked, except that there was so little air behind it that the word came out as a breathy whisper.
He wasn’t sure exactly how, but somehow the dress ended up on the floor and his mouth landed on her neck as they tumbled together onto the bed. The slip came off easily, revealing lace panties over a garter belt, and Lee’s body tightened at the sight. She whimpered as his lips moved over hers, her hands sliding into his hair and her lips parting as his thumb found one of her nipples, the ones he hadn’t want to admit to having fantasized about since the other night in the lounge.
She arched against him when he bent down to flick the other nipple with his tongue. Her hands tightened in his hair, and when he pushed back up his eyes found hers. They were open, dark and passionate, and full of the same trust he’d seen at the wedding.
That trust. That absolute trust that he would take care of her, would keep her safe until they were back home.
Gasping, shaking, he stood up, stumbling backward. “No. No, Amanda. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have — I’m the agent, I should’ve stayed in control —”
“It’s all right,” she replied softly, her expression a bit dazed as she reached up toward him. “We are married, after all. At least for a few days.”
Now that he wasn’t touching her, it was easier to turn away. “No. No, it’s not all right. I promised to keep you safe.” Even if it meant keeping her safe from him.
Amanda sat up slowly, and he heard the swish as she pulled the slip back on. “Right. Okay. I guess — Lee, I don’t know what came over me. I’m not usually like that.”
“I know.” He kept his eyes fixed on the cabin’s hallway door.
After a deep breath, she stood up. The dress rustled as she picked it up from where it had fallen. “I’m sorry, too.”
He shook his head, not trusting himself to speak or even to move until he heard the adjoining door click shut behind her.
“It really would have been all right, you know,” she told him after they’d gotten to the hotel the next day. Fortunately, there had been adjoining rooms available here, as well, although there was no connecting door. She’d come over to his after dropping her bags, sitting down in a chair that was probably supposed to be an easy chair. To him, it looked like a nightmare made of wicker and plastic.
Lee didn’t bother asking what she was talking about. “Amanda, don’t.”
“Like I said, we are married at the moment, even if we’re getting an annulment as soon as we’re back home.”
With a sigh, he sat down on the edge of the bed. Should he tell her about falsifying the license now? Would she be as angry as she’d been when she’d found out they were on a honeymoon cruise in the first place? No, better to wait until they were back, he decided. That way, if she wanted to storm out and go home, she could.
“Look,” he said instead. “I’m not the marrying kind. You know that. Besides, if the marriage is consummated —” he forced himself to ignore the images that word brought — “then we’d have to get a divorce instead of an annulment. I know how you feel about that.”
“I see,” she replied carefully. “And we’re not involved, anyway. Just co-workers.”
“Co-workers,” he agreed.
“So you really aren’t interested in me. Not really. It was just…just one of those things. The heat of the moment.”
This conversation needed to end right now. “Look, why don’t we go out to the waterfront? I’m sure it’ll be interesting. San Angelo’s a popular tourist destination.”
She stood up. “I already brought my purse.”
The weather was startlingly good, and the waterfront turned out to have a boardwalk full of kiosks, visitors from another cruise ship, and colorful displays from the locals. Amanda bought a couple of souvenirs, tucking them away in her bag while she explained they were for the boys. Despite their earlier discomfort, Lee discovered he enjoyed watching her browse. She smiled at the antics of a child and his dog, speculated about the various watercraft anchored in the harbor, and made amusing observations about the various birds that hovered around, hoping for a morsel or two of food.
After a light lunch, they wandered back onto the beach itself. This was a different one from the one they’d been on earlier, when they’d apprehended Miles and Jillian.
“I wonder when the tide comes in,” she mused as they made their way barefoot through the sand.
“Probably late afternoon,” he answered, “based on where we are.”
It was so comfortable to hold her hand as they walked along the beach, to laugh alongside her when a stray wave caught her feet. Even in the tropics, water could be cool in the winter, but it wasn’t so cold as to be painful. At one point, she even lifted her face to the sun and closed her eyes. “This feels so good after the snow and cold at home.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. He didn’t mention how gorgeous she was in the golden light. Because he wasn’t supposed to notice that sort of thing, damn it! This was Amanda!
They were standing face-to-face now, and he didn’t manage to resist the urge to brush his fingers against her cheek. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “You’ve made the case so much easier and the trip that much more pleasant.”
Her smile was as brilliant as the sun they were enjoying. “Thank you. It means a lot to hear you say that.”
His fingers were still tracing her jawline, and the next wave caught both their feet. Her eyes crinkled with amusement, seeming to light up from the inside. Lee leaned forward before realizing what he was doing. This time, the kiss was gentle, slow, and sweet. His hands slipped to the back of her neck. Her arms slid around his waist, and that brought him back to reality with a bump. What was he doing? He was supposed to be taking care of her, not — his mind refused to finish the thought.
Breaking the kiss, he moved back to arm’s length. “I’m sorry. That was out of line. I shouldn’t have —”
“Lee,” she interrupted. “I know it didn’t mean anything. It’s just the environment and leftover emotions from the case.” She tapped her fingertip against his lips. “I enjoyed that. Thank you.”
“We should probably, ah, we should get back to the hotel.”
Amanda glanced at her watch. “Let’s wash our feet in the tide first. That’s always a special treat.”
The water swirled around their feet, and they had to lean against each other to put their shoes back on. Their hands clasped again on the way back to the boardwalk and their hotel, but this time, Lee wasn’t worried about it. She’d understood. They were on the same page: they were co-workers who’d gotten caught up in the moment. Nothing more, with no repercussions.
It was going to be all right after all.
END