The Elliotts: Bedroom Secrets: Under Deepest Cover

“You?”

“I lived up to her worst fears.” And that was all Lucy would say on that subject. “Can we really eat cake in bed?”

“Your mother wouldn’t approve.”

“My mother would be on her knees for a week, praying for my salvation, if she knew I’d colored my hair. Eating cake in bed with a man would be beyond her comprehension.”

“Then I guess we won’t worry about what Mom would think.”

Lucy took a deep breath and realized, for the first time in a long time, that she didn’t feel guilty for enjoying herself, for having fun. Maybe she was making progress.

She nodded toward the stairs. The last of Bryan’s anger left his face. He grinned, left the cake in the kitchen, took one of Lucy’s plates and her hand and led her upstairs.

“Here’s the thing about eating cake in bed, though,” he said with mock gravity. “There are rules.”

“Such as?”

“You have to do it naked.”

“I can do that.” She smiled wickedly, set the plates down on the king-size bed and took off her clothes. In less than a minute they were both naked and in bed, feeding each other the decadent dessert without benefit of forks, which they’d forgotten.

“This cake is fabulous. You just made this up tonight?”

Bryan made a production of licking whipped cream off her fingers. “You inspired me. I needed something so decadent it would distract me from you. I’m going to put it on the menu, and I’m going to call it Lucy’s Cake.”

“Don’t you mean Lindsay’s Cake? Everyone would wonder who the heck Lucy was.”

“Once we catch our embezzler—and find Stungun—you can go back to using your real name.”

“Right.” Lucy didn’t add that once that happened, there would be no more need for his girlfriend ruse. No more need for her to remain in New York.

Bryan set the two empty plates on the nightstand and slid more deeply under the covers, pulling her with him. “We need to work off a few calories, you know,” he said.

“I’m all sticky. Maybe I should take a shower.”

“I like you all sticky.” To prove his point, he kissed all around her mouth and started doing crazy things with his hands, rubbing her belly and thighs, petting her as if she were a cat.

Lucy wondered if he’d noticed that her belly wasn’t quite as flat and firm as it ought to be. Also, anyone who looked closely would see her faint stretch marks.

She reached over and turned off the lamp. Maybe someday she would tell Bryan the truth about her past. But not tonight.

Bryan woke before dawn, and it took him a few seconds to reason why there was a warm female body snuggled up to him. When he remembered, he smiled. He and Lucy had gone completely crazy last night. He’d never have guessed that a mild-mannered little bank employee in a shapeless suit would be such a wildcat in bed. She wasn’t just responsive, she was imaginative. He’d believed himself to be fairly experienced and uninhibited, but she’d shown him a few things that had driven him completely wild.

He should have felt guilty for taking Lucy into his bed. She was a witness, a civilian cooperating to bring down a terrorist sympathizer. She’d done everything he’d asked of her, and he’d promised his protection.

But he couldn’t muster much guilt. He didn’t feel as if he’d taken advantage of her. Though he’d been the one to initiate their first kiss two days before, she’d been the aggressor last night. He’d gone out of his way not to seduce her. She’d come to him with her eyes wide open, knowing he was not cut out for a committed relationship.

As for compromising her ability to be a good witness, he didn’t see it. As far as anyone would know, she was posing as his girlfriend so he could protect her. No one ever needed to know that the fiction had become reality. He could keep a secret—and apparently Lucy could, too. There were definitely parts of her past she hadn’t revealed.

She was entitled to her privacy. Whatever her secrets, he didn’t imagine they had any bearing on the case. But he wanted her to trust him.

“You awake?” she whispered.

“Mmm-hmm.”

She snuggled closer. “Why? It’s not even light out.”

“Just thinking. Lucy, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want, but I’m just curious. I dug around in your past pretty thoroughly, and I didn’t find any boyfriends in the past couple of years.”

“No, I didn’t date anyone after I moved to Virginia.”

“Why do you have the implant, then?”

“I’m optimistic?”

“You weren’t acting like a woman on the hunt for a lover.”

“But I found one. By accident. And isn’t it a good thing I’m protected?”

“Yes, of course.” He wasn’t quite sure why he was so bothered by this scenario. He supposed it was because he was trained to notice inconsistencies. And women with no immediate prospects for sex didn’t usually worry about birth control.

“All right, I’ll explain it to you,” she said. “It’s not a pretty episode in my past, and you’ll probably be repulsed, but I want to be honest. Your background check missed a few relevant facts about me.”

“Those two missing years?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t just working for In Tight. I was sort of a … well, a groupie.”

“You?”

“I started out just wanting to do my job. I was content to be a very small part of In Tight. I was starstruck, and being close to a rock band was like heaven, especially after my conservative upbringing. Most of the guys knew my name, and they actually talked to me occasionally—usually when they wanted to get paid—and that was fine with me. Then came Cruz Tabor.”

“He’s in the group, isn’t he?”

“The drummer. He started coming on to me—bigtime. I was just this nerdy accountant from Kansas, and he made me feel special. We started … well, I guess you wouldn’t call it dating. We started sleeping together.”

That bastard! Then Bryan tempered his first thought. After all, wasn’t he guilty of the same thing? That Tabor guy had fallen victim to Lucy’s winsome charms, and who could blame him?

“He treated me pretty well at first,” Lucy continued. “We were a couple. I even got my picture in a tabloid once, though I wasn’t identified. When the band went on tour, he let me ride with him in first class—they didn’t have their own private jet back then.”

Bryan wondered how he could have missed all this when he’d dug into Lucy’s past. But it sounded as if her activities with In Tight wouldn’t have left a paper trail, and he hadn’t gone so far as to interview her family or friends. The check had been more routine than that. He’d mostly been concerned with whether she had a criminal record or mental illness.

He lightly rubbed her arm, urging her to continue.

“Things were pretty good, until I got pregnant.”

Bryan grew very still. Lucy had been pregnant?

“Cruz had said he loved me, that he wanted to marry me as soon as the band got better established. I thought he’d be happy about the baby. Instead he was horrified. No, that’s not the right word. Disgusted. He blamed me for not being more careful, and he told me to … to g-get rid of it.” Her voice cracked, and Bryan pulled her more closely against him.