The Bachelor's Bed (8 page)

His eyes were like the sea, black and fathomless. “Are you really up for this?”

He was talking about
them.
About what they
would have to do to pull it off. “I'm ready if you are.”

A rare laugh escaped him. “Oh, I'm ready,” he assured her. “But not for my project.”

“No? What then?” Was that her voice, all breathless?

“The supply of condoms I bought. They're waiting upstairs by my bed.”

“How many is a supply?”

He laughed again, a wondrous sound. “I got the huge economy box, thinking even that couldn't possibly be enough for the two full weeks.”

Heat spiraled through her. “Oh.”

“Are you sure, Lani?” His voice was low, thrilling. He came close, but didn't touch her. “Because if you're not, you'd better tell me now so I can come up with some reason why we'd be sleeping in two separate beds. I thought I could lie next to you and sleep, but I was fooling myself. We're like fire together, one touch from you and I'll go up in flames.”

His voice alone was turning her on, making her tremble. “Colin, you're making my head spin.”

“Well, you should see what you're doing to me.”

She looked, then blushed furiously. “Oh, my.”

“I've been like this since your nightmare.”

Oh, my.
She lifted her hands in a helpless gesture. “I haven't a clue what to do with you.”

“Well that makes two of us.”

 

L
ANI MET
Aunt Bessie and Aunt Lola and was immediately charmed by their nosy, meddling, sweet, imposing ways. They were funny, wild, brutally honest and impossibly curious about the woman who had agreed to marry the nephew they all thought of as their own.

They ate together, and immediately afterward, Irene invited Colin to leave so he could go and work.

He hesitated, clearly torn between his unwillingness to leave Lani alone in their clutches, and the wonderful draw of his work.

But Lani knew he felt hopelessly behind on the project, so she took mercy on him and waved him off.

Besides, how was she going to learn more about him from his family while he listened to every word?

Irene, Bessie and Lola obliged her curiosity, regaling her with hysterical and interesting tales of Colin's youth.

And yet she found her attention wandering.

Would he really make love to her tonight? She wondered, glancing up the stairs in a state of high anticipation.

Oh, she hoped so.

They sat in the air-conditioned living room, a room that definitely needed a homey touch, Lani thought. There was elegant, expensive furniture, but just the bare minimum. A couch, a lamp, two chairs
that looked sophisticated but uncomfortable. Not a comfy touch in sight.

She could easily fix that, with just a few plants, a nice rug, a couple of pictures.

“So you've snagged our Colin.” Aunt Bessie—a four-foot-ten dynamo with the soft sweet voice of an angel and the ferocity of a protective momma bear—smiled, drawing Lani out of her reverie. “We're so thankful, darling, really we are.” She leaned forward conspiratorially. “But do you think you could tell us
why?
”

“Why?” Lani blinked. Had she missed something?

“Why you want him.”

Eager, Lola and Irene leaned forward, too. “He's such a pain in the tushie,” Lola commented, her voice full of exasperated love. “We just want to know how you bullied him into it again.”

It took her a moment to switch gears from putting warm, soft touches on the house to…
“Again?”
Lani straightened, her full attention focused now. “I'm sorry. Did you say, again?”

“Why, yes.” Lola didn't move. She was the tallest at five foot two, and skinny as a rail. Her voice was husky, deep and loud. “We're dying to know how you convinced him to try again, when for five years we've been so unsuccessful.”

“I see.” Lani nodded calmly while her head spun. “He's been married before.”

“Uh-oh.” Bessie sat back and bit her meddling lip. “Oh, dear. Dear, dear, dear. Irene…?”

Irene glared at both her sisters. “Now you've done it.” She turned to Lani with a worried smile. “Lani—”

“He's been married before,” she repeated like a parrot. All the signs had been there, of course. His reluctance to share himself. His fear of being hurt. Still, devastation rocked her.

“Damn!” Lola cried. “We blew it!”

“We?”
Irene demanded, sitting upright with dignity. “I am not going down for this. No way. I should have left the two of you in New York!”

“Well how was I supposed to know she didn't know?” Lola asked. “Somebody tell me that.”

“We should have known,” Bessie decided. “Colin always has been so closed-mouthed. It's natural that he wouldn't tell her about his single-most devastating failure.”

“Wait a minute.” Lani tried again to soak this all in. “Give me a minute here. Colin's been…
married.
” She looked at them, feeling weak. “How could I not have figured that out by now?”

But the argument between the sisters was in full swing.

“I knew better than to bring the two of you with me,” said Irene. She glared at her sisters. “I told you,
let me handle it. Let me check out the fiancée for myself,
but no, you both had to come. You had to interfere. Now look what you've done!”

“No offense, Sissy,” Bessie interrupted stiffly. “But I was more Colin's mother than you ever were, so I had the right to meet Lani first.”

Irene stood, then, quivering with indignation. “Now, just a minute—”

Bessie stood, too, glaring. “Yes?”

Good Lord, the three of them, these elegant socialites, were going to brawl. “Ladies…”

“You might think Colin belongs to you, but he's mine.
Mine,
” Irene emphasized. “That means Lani is mine, too!”

“Okay, that's it.
Stop.
” Lani stood up from the circular sofa, where they were perched in front of the lovely fireplace she'd had such high hopes for. “It's true then, he's really already been…married?”

Silence fell while all three older women shifted uncomfortably.

“It's really a very simple question,” Lani said calmly as if her heart hadn't just cracked. She had a terrible feeling she now had the answer to the secret anguish swimming in Colin's eyes.

Was he pining away for a woman who'd left him?

Had the ex broken his heart, causing him never to trust another?

And how in the world could Lani compete with such a memory? The answer was simple. She couldn't. “Please tell me.”

Irene sighed but looked right at Lani. “Yes, Colin was married before. I'm sorry you didn't know. Even sorrier that you had to find out like this, from us.”

It took Lani a minute to collect herself; she felt such sorrow, both for her and for Colin. But she wasn't a selfish person by nature, and after the first fling of self-pity had passed, she hurt only for Colin. To know how much he must have loved his ex-wife, so much that he couldn't allow himself to have a real home or family now, was unbearably sad.

Somehow she managed to excuse herself.

They let her go, their eyes sad and worried, but she couldn't reassure them. Not yet.

She went straight to Colin's office upstairs, planning on opening her arms and her heart, wanting to tell him how sorry she was about his past. She wanted to share whatever comfort she could. Surely she could help, now that she understood.

But he was gone.

She assumed he had gone to his other office, the one in town. Disappointed, she climbed the stairs, walked into his bedroom and got ready for bed. She'd wait.

Feeling a little bit like Goldilocks, she climbed into his huge, soft, welcoming bed.

And waited.

The sheets smelled like him. The room looked like him. She felt him all around her. She daydreamed
about what would happen, how she'd help heal him and, in return, he'd take her to ecstasy.

Sighing, imagining his body, his hands, his mouth, all on her, she sank down into the covers and waited some more.

And waited. And waited.

Only, Colin never came, and finally, exhausted, Lani fell asleep, his pillow hugged tight to her body.

G
ETTING LOST
in his work was the last thing Colin had expected to do, especially with thoughts of Lani dancing through his head, but by the time his thoughts switched from work to life, it was 2:00 a.m. How had that happened? Hours had passed.

Lani would be waiting for him.

She'd be warm and inviting,
he imagined,
smiling as she lifted her arms to welcome him.

Wrong.

It was the middle of the night. She'd be asleep, and if she wasn't, she'd be mad as hell. Rightly so.

Racing home, he found her pretty much as his wildest fantasies had dictated, sprawled on the bed. There was one difference however. She wasn't hot and bothered, instead she was fast asleep with her arms squeezing his pillow close to her heart.

Damn, he'd really blown it. He had to have hurt her feelings again, and he hated that. Much as he loved his work, right then and there he experienced a first—a spurt of genuine anger at how it consumed him body and soul, to the point of such forgetfulness.

He had to make it up to her, had to at least apologize. “Lani?”

It didn't help that the sheets and blanket had become tangled in her legs, below her hips. She wore a tiny white camisole that looked soft and silky, and even tinier panties. Her skin was pale and creamy and glowed in the faint moonlight.

She took his breath away.

Helplessly drawn to where she lay, he kneeled on the mattress. “Lani?”

In her sleep, she frowned, and from deep in her throat came a low sound of irritation.

Still Colin leaned over her, hand outstretched, hoping to wake her, planning on starting with sweet, sexy promises.

But then he was stopped cold, frozen by the tracks of dried tears on her cheeks.

 

T
HE NEXT MORNING
Colin was back in his office downtown, unable to concentrate on a damn thing except Lani and how she'd looked in his bed.

As if she belonged there.

The long restless night on his floor, listening to Lani's soft, deep breathing, hadn't improved his disposition.

“Line one's for you.” From the door, Claudia thrust her chin at his phone. “The Institute.”

“Great,” he said, meaning anything but. He had
nothing new to report. He still wasn't finished and wasn't sure when he would be. “Claudia?”

She'd turned away and was halfway out the door when he said her name. She stiffened, but didn't look at him. “Yeah?”

“Next time you want to scare off a woman for me, can you check and make sure it's one I want scared off?”

“God.” She winced and turned back to face him, her expression full of guilt. “I'm so sorry! I'm so used to trying to chase off everyone your mother sets you up with, I didn't realize she was the real thing.”

The real thing.
His stomach hurt. “Has word gotten around?”

She smiled. “Oh, yeah. Women from all over the county are having a wake in honor of your lost single status. You're the talk of the town. So is Lani.” A slight frown marred her face. “She's really wonderful, you know.”

He was beginning to realize that. “I know.”

“Loyal, dedicated. Sweet, too, and very kind.”

“But?” Colin pushed away his work. It held little appeal at the moment. “I'm sure I heard one at the end of that sentence.”

“Well…” Claudia sent him an apologetic look to soften her words. “Truth is, I think she's
too
wonderful for you. She'll want more than you'll give her, Colin.”

“And what would that be?” he said, amused now.
“I have more money than I know what to do with, a huge house with every amenity she could ever want. There's nothing missing. I can give her whatever she needs.”

Claudia's look turned pitying. “See? That's
exactly
what I mean. You don't have a clue as to how to keep a woman like that.” She gave him a long look that made him squirm. “Or maybe you do, and you just don't want to see it.”

“I have a call,” he said, conveniently remembering. He picked up the phone, almost forgetting that this whole thing was just a sham. That he didn't have to justify anything to his secretary. That it didn't really matter what anyone thought because what he had with Lani was just temporary.

Temporary.

But before he pressed in the phone line, he watched Claudia shake her head in disgust, watched her leave…and knew she spoke the truth.

He didn't have a clue as to how to keep a woman like Lani.
Any
woman.

And he had an ex-wife to prove it.

 

C
OLIN GLARED
at his office phone. He hadn't been able to reach Lani all day, either at the house or at her office.

Had she bolted, tired of the charade?

He couldn't blame her, but hoped not, and not because he'd have nothing to tell his interfering mother
and aunts. He just couldn't leave things between them as they were now.

It was only three in the afternoon, an hour of the day he rarely saw because he usually had his head buried in work, but he actually got up and left his office. At the moment, he couldn't have buried himself in his work to save his sorry life, and he had Lani's huge, expressive eyes to thank.

He couldn't get them out of his mind. How was she feeling about last night?

All he'd ever wanted was peace and quiet. He'd never wanted to hurt anyone; not his family and certainly not Lani.

How he had managed to get himself in such trouble was beyond him.

He drove up to her apartment, once again struck by the differences in their life-styles. He walked up the cracked, crumbling driveway, wishing he could get Lani a better place to live. But he knew she'd never accept such help from him.

She worked so hard. It didn't seem fair that this was all she had to show for it.

“She's not here.”

He turned and was surprised to see an old woman speaking to him. She was tiny, at least eighty years old, and dressed in hot-pink-and-red spandex. “Excuse me?” he said politely.

“Lani. She's who you're looking for, isn't she? Your…fiancée?”

“You know Lani?”

That made her laugh until her rust-colored curls bounced. Well, actually
cackle
would be a better word for what she did. She bent at the waist, slapped her knees and let loose. Finally, sniffing, she straightened. Still grinning, she nodded. “Yep, I know her.” Grabbing a rake, she leaned against the fence of the small garden.

For the first time, Colin realized that while the apartment building itself looked as though it had seen better days, the garden was full and lush and well tended.

“The question is,” the woman asked. “Do
you
know Lani?”

She was missing some marbles, Colin decided. “I'm sorry. You're…?”

“Ah, no doubt you're right. Where are my manners? We've not been introduced. Strange, wouldn't you say, since I'm Lani's great-aunt Jennie?” She eyed him shrewdly, acknowledging his surprise with a lift of a gray eyebrow.

Lani had a crazy woman for an aunt?

“I raised your soon-to-be-wife,” she told him. “But, of course, you knew that, since you're engaged to her. You know everything about her. Right?”

Somehow he'd managed to step into an episode of the “X-Files.”

Great-Aunt Jennie winked, then leaned close and
whispered conspiratorially, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Pretend Fiancé.”

She knew.

Unperturbed by his silence, Great-Aunt Jennie made herself comfortable on a wooden bench and tapped the spot next to her.

Colin sat.

The old woman smiled, her pink-and-red workout suit glittering in the relentless sun. “Next to you, I'm all Lani has,” she confided. “But you knew that already, too, right?”

He should have.
That message came loud and clear.

“She loves flowers, did you know that?” Jennie asked. “She also loves loud music, kids and has a serious weak spot for kittens. And Lord, does that girl have a sweet tooth. It's amazing how good a figure she has, given what she eats. Did you know she has a particular thing for white chocolate?”

A real fiancé would know these things, and more, about the woman he loved.

He would also know where to find her on any given day.

“And I don't have to tell you her dislikes, namely vegetables and exercise,” Jennie said easily. “Or that she fears violent thunderstorms because her parents died in one.”

Colin remembered Lani's fear well. Terrified, she'd clutched at him every time thunder had hit. “I didn't know that,” he admitted.

“You should have.”

“Yes.” He most definitely should have.

Sadness was etched in Jennie's every movement as she stood and dragged the rake across a few fallen leaves. “I'm sorry. I love her and I'm upset. I'm taking it out on you, and that's very unkind of me. Inexcusable actually. Please forgive me. It's not you I'm mad at, but my darling, huge-hearted, idiot niece.”

“Lani's parents—”

“Died when she was six.” She lifted her head and met his gaze with her own steady one. “I'm her mother and her father now and her best friend. I'm certain you're not good for her, but one of these days, I'll learn to let her make her own mistakes.”

Colin could not dispel the image of Lani as a child, frightened and alone, facing her parents' death at such a young age.

“And don't bother to ask me anything else. I won't tell you.” She lifted a stubborn chin, sharing a strong resemblance to Colin's equally stubborn fiancée. “Whatever you want to know, you'll have to ask her yourself.”

“I will.” Soon as he could find her. He stood, intending to do just that.

“Lani told me about you.” When he pivoted back around, startled, Jennie set the rake aside and pierced him with sharp blue eyes. “She told me you were smart and compassionate and wonderful.”

Colin blinked in surprise, but Jennie only nodded. “She's a very generous soul, my Lani.”

Pride tasted like hell, but Colin swallowed it anyway. “Do you know where I could find her?”

“Depends why you want her.”

Because I miss her.
But because that was a ridiculous thought, he shook his head to clear it. “I'd like to talk to her.”

Jennie just looked at him, smiling. Silent. Smug.

Dammit. “Okay, I hurt her feelings. I have to see her, try to talk to her about it.”

She was silent for so long, Colin thought she'd fallen asleep leaning on her rake.

“She's working,” she said at last. “Too hard, if you ask me.”

Again, another message. But Jennie didn't understand how complicated this was. Under their present terms, Lani would never allow him to help her financially, no matter how much he'd like to. “I called her office already,” he said. “She wasn't there.”

“Of course not.” Jennie's expression made it clear that she thought
he
was the crazy one. “She doesn't spend all day sitting behind a desk, Mr. Pretend Fiancé. Not like other people. No, she's out there working her fingers to the raw bone, cleaning
rich
people's places because they don't want to do it themselves.”

Well he had to hand it to the woman. In the space
of the few minutes that he'd been there, she'd made him feel ridiculous, selfish, greedy and now guilty.

But Lani liked her work, didn't she? God, he didn't know, he'd never even asked. “I just want to talk to her. We have a lot to work out. Most of which is a direct result of my own stupidity, if you must know.”

Jennie laughed loudly. “Nice to see a man admit it.”

“Can you tell me where to find her? Please?”

Jennie hesitated a long moment, and Colin knew he was being seriously measured. He had no idea what Lani had told Jennie about him. Hell, up until now, he'd had no idea who made up Lani's family.

How could he not have known that? How could he not have asked?

“She'll be cleaning Dr. Morrow's offices today,” Jennie said finally. “On Main Street.”

“Thank you,” he said sincerely, but something had him hesitating, and it took him a second to realize he wanted this woman's approval. For Lani's sake.
For his.
The feeling was so alien, he didn't know what to do with it, but he found himself saying, “I won't hurt her.”

“Of course you will.” Her smile was sad, and she suddenly looked much older than she had before.

When he opened his mouth to protest, she lifted a hand with a sharp shake of her head. “Don't make
promises you can't keep, Colin. I know this engagement isn't real, at least not to you.”

She didn't have to tell Colin what she thought of that, it was all over her face.

“Lani has talked herself into believing she's helping you,” she said. “And maybe she is, but believe me, she'll get hurt. I'm not happy with you for that.”

She walked back into her house, leaving Colin to his own miserable thoughts.

 

C
OLIN HAD NO TROUBLE
finding Dr. Morrow's offices on Main Street. He had no trouble parking, no trouble at all walking into the building, the one with a brightly colored sign announcing that today was Dr. Morrow's day at the local hospital.

What Colin did have trouble with was figuring out what the hell he was going to say to Lani.

Or what the hell he wanted from her.

He entered the empty waiting room, figuring he'd find Lani on her hands and knees, slaving away in shapeless clothes that hardly fit her. Or maybe she'd be up on a ladder brushing away at dust bunnies, her face streaked with sweat and dirt, her hands worked red and raw.

Certainly she'd be solemn and upset over the night before.

Whatever he'd expected, it certainly wasn't to find her rosy and screaming with laughter, pointing a squirt bottle filled with water at his aunt Bessie, who
was squealing in response, also wielding a water bottle like a weapon.