Undercover Christmas

“Admittedly,” Marni said shakily as she sidestepped away from him, “there is a lot I don’t know about you and your family.” Practically nothing. “All I can tell you is the…truth.” She almost choked on the word.

“The truth?” Chase asked, sounding skeptical.

She nodded as she turned to face him, suddenly reminded of the disastrous results the other times she’d pretended to be her twin. “The truth is…” She tried for that slight catch in her throat El had when she talked about Chase. It came out more like a croak. “I’m in…in love with you.”

For a moment, she thought he’d laugh in her face. Instead, he let out an animal growl and thumped over to her, slamming any and everything in his path out of the way with his crutches. He stopped, towering over her, his eyes hard as ice chips.

“Don’t you see how dangerous this game is you’re playing?” he demanded, his voice reverberating through her.

She commanded her feet to stand their ground. He couldn’t scare her, she assured herself with only a slight tremble.

“Cut your losses and give up this charade,” he said, dropping his voice to a menacing softness as he leaned closer. “You are no more pregnant with my child than you are in love with me.”

She couldn’t argue that. Not that he gave her a chance.

Before she could move, he took her face in his hands. She felt his calloused hands, warm and strong, on her cheeks. The hands of a man who did an honest day’s work. That picture didn’t quite fit with the one she’d already painted of him. But she didn’t have time to worry about that now. In the depths of his gaze, she saw what he planned to do. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to react before he took her mouth as he’d probably no doubt taken her sister’s body, with an intensity that stunned her. And for those few moments, she was El. And she knew the power this man had over her twin.

Abruptly he broke off the kiss and shoved himself away from her. “You and I have never kissed before,” he said, his voice as rough as his hands. “Believe me, if we had, I would have remembered.” He limped a few feet away on his crutches and turned to glare at her.

Marni fought the urge to cry out. In frustration. Her body ached, reminding her how long it had been since a man had kissed her. Had one ever kissed her like that?

Worse yet, he’d been testing her and she’d failed miserably. Failed to pull off her fraud. And failed El. She already felt like a traitor to her sister for just letting the man kiss her.

“Let me give you some advice, Miss McCumber,” he said, his voice sending a shiver through her. “You picked the wrong man to fool with. I don’t know who you are or what you want, but if you’re smart, you’ll get away from here as fast as you can. You and your baby aren’t safe in this house.”

He left, the threat hanging in the air as he slammed the door between their rooms.

Chapter Four (#ulink_8910943b-84e6-57a8-b648-f90f78ab3a50)

Long after Chase left, Marni lay on the big log bed, her arm protectively around Sam as she stared up at the ceiling and mentally kicked herself. What had she hoped to accomplish by coming here? When was she going to learn that she couldn’t solve everyone’s problems?

As for the kiss…

She tried to excuse it. It was only a test and a test kiss didn’t amount to anything. She shouldn’t feel guilty. Really, if she was going to pretend to be Elise, these things were bound to happen. Men kissed El unexpectedly, passionately, soundly.

Not that Marni would let it happen again. One test kiss per sister’s boyfriend, thank you. But if it should—

Marni groaned. Why was she agonizing over one silly little kiss? Instead she should be worrying about how El was going to take the bad news. She’d tried to call her sister before climbing into bed but the phone line was dead. Probably the storm.

She stopped a moment to listen, almost sure she’d heard footsteps out in the hallway again. As she drew the covers up around her shoulders, she assured herself the house didn’t feel exceptionally imposing or hostile and that all those grunts and groans, creaks and crackings were just from the storm outside. This was Chase’s doing. Him and his “you and your baby aren’t safe here.”

Only silence came from the adjoining room. Chase had no doubt gone to bed and was sound asleep by now. So much for his guilty conscience keeping him awake.

She’d really believed that once she had him alone, she could get him to admit his part in Elise’s pregnancy. At least she would have accomplished that much. Not that he planned to do anything about it. But instead, he wouldn’t even consider she might be part of his lost memory. If indeed he suffered from such a convenient affliction.

Marni squeezed her eyes closed and searched for sleep, wishing she’d grabbed a book from the library. Nothing could distract her mind faster than a book.

Her stomach growled. How could she be hungry when she’d devoured such a large meal just hours ago?

She tried to ignore the hunger pangs and the mental picture that kept flashing in her brain. Cake. A moist white cake, rich with buttery frosting.

Her stomach rumbled loudly. She opened her eyes. It would be incredibly rude to raid the refrigerator. Not for a woman who was eating for two, she argued, as she slid her legs over the side of the bed.

The embers had burned down in the fireplace and the storm’s icy chill settled in along with Chase’s warning. He didn’t know her very well if he thought he could scare her that easily.

She reminded herself that he didn’t know her at all. He knew Elise. And the truth was, Elise probably wouldn’t have budged from her bed until morning.

Marni opened her bedroom door cautiously and peered out. The hallway was empty. And dark except for a light at the far end beyond the stairs. The house seemed to hunker in silence as if waiting for something. For her, the voice of reason warned. But a piece of cake, rich with frosting, was calling. The cake won. She stepped out and, quietly closing the door behind her, tiptoed down the hall.

A cold draft crawled over her bare feet. She pulled Chase’s robe around her. The robe was thick and warm and like the shirt, smelled faintly of its owner, a scent that was both disarming and comforting.

When Marni reached the stairs, she trod down them carefully, her near accident still too fresh in her memory for comfort.

Someone had left a light on and Marni wondered if she was the only one up raiding the fridge. The thought of running into Vanessa almost changed her mind. Marni tiptoed across the foyer, peeked into the dining room, then headed for what she figured would be the kitchen.

The kitchen was spacious like the house. But unlike the house, it had a warm, almost homey feel to it. Marni guessed it was probably because Vanessa never set foot in it It was the first room that Marni could say she actually liked. And it was blessedly empty.

She found the cake without having to raid the fridge, cut herself a large slice and sat down at the table. The cake was delicious. She licked the frosting from her lips as she eyed another piece. Oh, what would it hurt?

As she was scraping her plate to get the last of the crumbs, she marveled at her increased appetite. Was it just nerves? Or was her body somehow kidding itself into believing she really was eating for two?

Whatever it was, she had to quit or she’d gain a ton.

A short while later, she made her way toward the library. The house groaned and moaned around her. Snow piled up at the windows and cold crept along the bare wooden floors like snow snakes.

Marni had started down the hall when she heard something that made her freeze in midstep.

Crying. At first she thought it was the baby again. Then realized it wasn’t the same sound she’d heard earlier coming up through the heat vent. The heart-wrenching sobs pulled at her and she found herself trailing the sound past the library toward the back of the house.

A faint light shone from a far corner of what appeared to be the living room. The thick, dark curtains along the bank of windows were open to the night. The darkness outside blurred in a thick lattice of falling snow.

Lilly Calloway sat slumped in a large log rocker, in a golden circle of light from a floor lamp beside the chair. She clutched something in her arms and rocked, Marni noticed with a start. Beside the rocker on the floor sat a half-empty wine bottle. The room smelled faintly of gardenias.

Marni reminded herself again that this was none of her business. She should backtrack and go up to bed. But the woman’s wail tore at her heart.

“Lilly?” she asked softly, half expecting the woman to rebuff any attempts to console her. After all, Marni was a stranger. And no one in this house had been what she would call friendly.

Neither the crying nor the rocking stopped.

Marni stepped around in front of the woman. “’Lilly?”

Lilly slowly raised her head, her rocking motion slowed. The storm outside lit her pale heart-shaped face and Marni saw what the woman clutched in her arms. A rag doll, its face worn and grayed, its yarn hair matted with age. Lilly glanced down at the doll crushed in her arms. For a moment, she made no sound. Then her eyes swam with tears and great, huge sobs racked her body.

Marni knelt and opened her arms to the woman. The rag doll tumbled to the floor as Lilly fell into Marni’s embrace. ‘There, there,”’ Marni whispered, sympathizing with the woman’s pain. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like losing a child. “It’s all right.”

As the crying subsided, Marni heard the scrape of a boot sole on the wooden floor. She looked up with a start, not sure who she expected to see.

Even in shadow and even if he hadn’t had the crutches, she would have known Chase Calloway. He filled a doorway. Not only with his body but with his anger.