“Did Pris adapt to small-town life as well?”
“Pris spent her days attaining what she described as the very best tan of her entire life, then devoted her evenings to worrying about what her dermatologist would have to say about it. I think she might best be described as a conflicted personality. She could make split-second decisions about almost anything. Then she spent the rest of the time questioning herself. It was fascinating.”
“I’ll bet,” Luke said, clearly bemused by her descriptions. “And you’ve stayed in touch with the two of them?”
“Absolutely. They’re dying to come back later this summer.” She glanced at him pointedly. “Of course, now there’s no place to put them.”
“That’s easily solved. I’ll just move in...”
Katie saw exactly where he was heading. Given the lack of seductive intent evidenced in his honeymoon arrangements, she thought he had one hell of a nerve suggesting they sleep together when they returned home.
“Don’t even think about it,” she warned. “And speaking of sleeping arrangements, I hope you’ve booked us into a suite with a very large sofa. Or will we be staying at the house you shared with your last wife?”
Luke flinched at the direct hit. “I sold that house before I left Atlanta,” he said tersely. “I never liked it.”
“I trust you got a good price.”
He ignored the sarcasm once more. “Naturally since it’s our honeymoon, I have booked us into the honeymoon suite. It has a very large bed.” There was a wicked, challenging glint in his eyes as he said it.
“I’m sure I’ll be very comfortable then,” Katie said with satisfaction. “But you’d better check on that sofa.”
“Katie...”
“I think I’ll take a little nap,” she said cheerfully. “Wake me when we get to Atlanta. I want to call Cee-Cee and Pris right away. Oh, and you might want to do something about those tin cans. They’re giving me a headache.”
She decided it was to Luke’s credit that he didn’t declare that he wouldn’t mind if her whole stubborn head fell off. If he was irritated with her, though, it was too damned bad. She figured it made them just about even. She was flat-out furious with him.
* * *
Atlanta had been a very bad idea, Luke decided as he glanced over at his sound-asleep bride. Her light brown hair, which had been curled more than usual for the wedding ceremony, brushed her cheeks in wayward wisps. The light dusting of makeup she had endured for the occasion hadn’t covered the faint smattering of freckles across her nose. Her mouth, still pink with a shade of lipstick more delectable than any he could ever recall her wearing, invited kissing. The scent of roses, either from a perfume or from the flowers that had filled Peg’s house, clung to her. She looked fresh and innocent...and furious, he admitted ruefully.
Katie was cranky as the dickens and rightfully so, he conceded. No woman, even one entering into a marriage with few illusions, wanted to hear that her honeymoon had been tacked on to a business trip. It was a tactical blunder on his part if ever there was one.
He reminded himself irritably that he was supposed to be cementing this marriage into some facsimile of the real thing. If he couldn’t show a court that he and Katie were the ideal couple, who knew what some wayward judge might do about Robby’s custody. Tommy was no prize, but he was the boy’s natural father, albeit a single one. Luke had figured this marriage, along with Betty Sue’s support, was going to give him a comfortable edge in the custody dispute. That could hardly work if he and Katie were glaring daggers at each other or, worse, not even speaking. And Tommy knew exactly how to wield that particular weapon in court. As he’d already threatened, he wouldn’t hesitate to use it.
Beyond all of that, in the past few weeks, ever since Katie had declared her bed off-limits, Luke had been ridiculously obsessed with getting her into it. He couldn’t even look at her without desire slamming through him. Aside from the pure frustration, it was getting to be damned uncomfortable. And wanting Katie this badly wasn’t a complication he’d considered when he’d selected her for this marriage scheme of his. It suggested she held more power over him than he’d ever wanted any woman to have.
The obvious answer to that was to seduce her quickly and sate this hunger that had been building in him since the first instant he’d laid eyes on her again. He was widely regarded as being incredibly persuasive, a talented negotiator. Surely he could talk one normally sweet-tempered, affectionate woman into his arms. He knew she was attracted to him. The kind of passion they’d once shared couldn’t possibly die, even from lack of nurturing. There were times even now when he caught her looking at him with a hint of blazing desire in her eyes.
So, he decided, it was all a matter of getting around her mule-headed decision to get even with him for proposing a marriage of convenience in the first place. A few dozen roses, a couple of boxes of expensive chocolates interspersed with several well-timed, bone-melting kisses, and she’d abandon this crazy stance she’d taken. If he couldn’t pull it off in Atlanta—and the odds were definitely against that at the moment, he conceded with some regret—then he would just have to wait until they got home.
At his request Mrs. Jeffers was already surreptitiously interviewing prospective new tenants for the boarding house. Surely she would find someone suitable by the first of the week, when he and Katie returned home. And then, because there would be no way to avoid it without revealing to everyone that their marriage was a sham, Katie would have to welcome him into her bedroom.
It was a sneaky, underhanded thing to do, Luke admitted to himself. But every once in a
