Her face paled. “You can’t be serious.”
Taking pity on her, he gently placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “I’m only teasing. I’ll sleep on the floor.”
Lincoln felt her relax under his touch.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
He wanted to remain close to her, but he knew it wasn’t his right. He lowered his hand and stepped back. “Shall we?” he asked as he offered his arm.
As they entered the hotel, he saw an older woman with silver hair behind a counter in the entry hall. She smiled at them. “What a lovely couple you two make.”
Lincoln felt Amey tense for a brief moment before she murmured, “Thank you.”
“Can I get you a room for the evening?” the woman asked, opening a book in front of her.
“Yes, but we’ll most likely be here for a few days,” Lincoln said.
The woman picked up a pen. “That’s wonderful news,” she replied kindly. “May I get your names?”
“Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln Hoyt.”
The woman wrote down their names in the book as she introduced herself. “My name is Mrs. Willow. I own the hotel.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Willow,” Lincoln responded.
Mrs. Willow glanced between them. “How long have you two been married?”
“We were married just a few hours ago,” he informed her.
Mrs. Willow gasped. “You’re newlyweds!” she exclaimed. “How delightful.”
“That we are.” Lincoln wrapped his arm around his wife’s waist and pulled her closer to him. “I must admit that I feel like the luckiest man alive since my sweet Amey agreed to marry me.”
Amey smiled up at him. “I feel the same way,” she replied with an undercurrent of terseness in her tone.
Unable to resist, he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, his lips lingering. “That’s kind of you to say, darling,” he murmured as he leaned back.
Mrs. Willow watched their interaction with a broad smile on her face. “I’ve decided that I’m going to give you the suite on the second floor,” she said. “It’s slightly larger than the other rooms and even has a sofa to relax on.”
Lincoln smiled at the proprietress. “We appreciate that, ma’am.”
Mrs. Willow closed the book. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to your room.” She came out from behind the counter and pointed toward a door off the main entry hall. “This is the dining room. We’ll begin serving dinner any moment now.”
She continued walking toward a narrow flight of stairs. “Your room is tucked away in the corner, which will grant you some much needed privacy.”
Lincoln hadn’t removed his arm from around Amey’s waist as he followed behind the proprietress. She shot him annoyed looks, but he kept his gaze straight ahead. He knew they needed to appear smitten with one another for their cover’s sake.
Mrs. Willow stopped outside of a closed door and removed a key from the apron of her dress. She unlocked the door, opened it, and stepped into the room.
“This is the honeymoon suite,” she announced, her gesture encompassing the entire room.
Lincoln stepped into the room with Amey and immediately noticed the spaciousness of it. A bed was pressed up against the wall, and a sofa was next to a large window. There was a changing partition in the corner and a nightstand next to the bed.
“This will do nicely,” he said, dropping his wife’s carpetbag on the ground.
Mrs. Willow smiled approvingly. “I thought so,” she said, extending him the key. “I hope to see you two at dinner.”
Amey returned the woman’s smile. “We’ll be there.”
Once Mrs. Willow had stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her, Amey stepped out of his arms and opened her mouth to no doubt start yelling at him.
He immediately put his finger up to his lips. “Don’t say anything yet,” he urged.
Crossing her arms over her chest, Amey started tapping her foot on the carpet.
Lincoln walked over to the door and opened it, confirming that no one was in the hallway. He closed it and walked over to sit on the bed.
“Do you need to change dresses before dinner?” he asked.
Amey narrowed her eyes. “How dare you kiss me on my cheek!”
“We were acting the part of newlyweds,” he replied. “Newlyweds are affectionate around each other.”
“I believe holding me so tightly against you was sufficient!” she declared.
He shrugged nonchalantly. “I decided to improvise.”
“The next time you try to kiss me, I will shoot you,” she warned in a tone that implied she meant it.
He tsked. “You would kill your own husband?”
“Yes, gladly.”
Lincoln grinned. “Duly noted,” he replied. “Are you ready for dinner? I’m famished.”
Later that evening, Amey sat on the bed with the case file in front of her, but her thoughts were on anything but the case. She’d gone over the papers in the files so many times that she practically had them memorized. Instead, she was thinking of her partner… er… her husband.
She snuck a peek at him as he sat on the sofa cleaning his revolver. He was so ridiculously handsome that she found herself staring at him at the most inopportune times. It was not good for her to pine after her partner, especially given the circumstances.
Once this case was over, they would seek an annulment and go their separate ways. And that is exactly what she wanted. She didn’t want a husband. Even if she did, she didn’t want someone like Lincoln Hoyt. He may be handsome enough, but he was rude, cocky, and went out of his way to tease her.
Lincoln’s voice broke her out of her musings. “Why are you reviewing the case file again?”
She closed the file. “I just wanted to ensure that we’re prepared for the meeting with Mr. Tiner tomorrow.”
Lincoln reached behind him and tucked his pistol into the back of his trousers. “There isn’t much in the case files. We won’t know more until we meet with Tiner.”
“I agree.”
Lincoln rose from the sofa and walked over to the bed.
As he sat down, she asked, “What do you think you’re doing?”
He smirked.
