Christyne Butler - His Destiny Bride

Even in the dimly lit room, her long red hair stood out against the smoothness of her skin and the white sheet she held against her body. Her wig was long gone and so too her mask.

Yes, the woman he’d spent some pretty memorable hours with was indeed Katie.

His Katie.

Their Katie.

Nolan dropped to a chair across from the bed and stared at her for a long moment before he shut his eyes. Memories of holding her, touching and kissing her and her doing the same to him came rushing back.

His chin to his chest, he opened his eyes again, his gaze on the boots held tightly in his hand.

Put them on. Get the hell out of here.

His gut clenched. Running away wasn’t going to fix this. Nothing was. How could he have not known—

She mumbled something, and his head jerked up.

He ignored the intense pain the action created and waited. She remained silent, eyes closed. The air rushed past his lips in a low whoosh as he sat there, taking in the beauty that was Katie.

He’d never seen her like this.

At the office she was always poised and polished, from the top of her perfectly styled hair to her feet, usually encased in high heels, even in the middle of a Wyoming winter. And then there were the times they saw each other on the weekends, somewhere in town or at a family gathering. She was always so pulled together, even casually dressed in jeans.

Now, her curls were a mess and even with traces of the white makeup that had covered the lower half of her face still on her cheeks, she looked...

Hell, younger than her age, which was a full ten years junior to his. Another reason, besides the fact she was his employee, that kept him from acting on—

Dammit, from crawling right back in that bed.

He had to get out of here.

For both their sakes.

He didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize her working for his family. Okay, anything more. He had to forget this night ever happened, and if Katie woke up thinking the guy she’d hooked up with was a louse who’d walked out on her, all the better.

Especially because it’d be true.

Yanking on his boots, he hunted around for the belt, sword, hat, wig and jacket. He turned for the door, his hand almost on the knob when her soft words stopped him.

“Hmm, I hope you’re heading out to grab some morning java.”

Nolan closed his eyes.

“I’d like a large,” she went on. “Decaf. Minimum four sugars to make it tolerable.”

All information he was well aware of.

He took a deep breath and turned back. “Yeah, I know how you like your coffee, but no, I—”

“Wait...what?” She shot up in bed, those red waves bouncing around her shoulders as she clutched the sheet to her chest. “How do you—why are you—oh my god, Nolan! What are you doing here?”

He stayed silent, watching as she processed the night’s events. Her gaze went to the rumpled sheets and empty spot beside her, to him, and back to the bed again. “Oh, no, that was you? That was us? But how—did we—”

We did. Three times. Something else he hadn’t done since his college days.

He offered a silent prayer of thanks for the trio of condoms he’d had in his wallet. “Yeah, evidence seems to indicate that was us.”

“But you...you were on a business trip.”

“I got back early.”

“And decided to go to the party? Alone?” She covered her face with her hand. “Please, tell me you weren’t there with—”

“No.” He cut her off, clearing up that assumption right away. His time with the high school vice principal had ended after a few weeks and, yeah, he could blame Katie for that, too, but there was no way he was telling her that.

Not now. Not ever.

“I was at the Blue Creek alone...until I ran into you.”

Her hand fell away. “You mean until I ran into you. Literally.”

He nodded again, the stupid beads in his whiskers knocking against his chin. What he’d give for a razor. “Yeah. I had no idea who you were.”

“I had no idea who you were,” she cried. “How could we not know? We’ve worked together nearly every day for the last five years. I’ve been to your house. Your family’s home. Family events. Geesh, we’re practically—”

“I can’t explain.” Nolan cut her off before she said the F word one more time. “Great costumes on both our parts—impressive accent, by the way—and what I can assure you on my end was a lot of booze.”

“Mine, too, but that’s no excuse. Oh, this is all my fault.” Katie shook her head in disbelief. Her fingers churned, gathering the sheets and exposing those long legs of hers. “I thought I was ready. I thought I needed—I should’ve... I can’t believe—”

“This is not your fault.” Nolan started toward her but halted when her wide eyes latched onto him again. “I was there—here—too. I could’ve walked away at any time last night.”

“When? When I pushed you onto the dance floor?” She grabbed a pillow and crushed it to her chest. “Or dragged you out of the bar? Across the parking lot until I had you alone in this room?”

“We were trying to get away from those goons.”

“That was my fault, too.”

“Hey, I kissed you first.”

And he wanted to do it again.

Right here. Right now.

In fact, the need to go to her, to pull her into his arms, was so strong he had to take a step back or else he might do just that.

Her beautiful green eyes sought out his, and silence stretched between them again.

He wondered what was going on in that pretty head of hers, especially when her gaze traveled the length of him, taking in his wrinkled clothes.

Was she remembering last night?

How she’d easily rid him of the belt and sword before moving on to the buttons of his shirt. How he’d fumbled with the strings on her top while laying kisses against the sweetest-smelling skin—

“Do you want me to turn in my resignation?”

Her question shocked him. How could she think he’d want that? “What? No, of course not.”

“If you don’t want me to quit, what do you suggest we do about last night?”

“Nothing.” The answer came so fast, despite the enticing images racing through his head, it had to be the right one. The only one. “We keep this—to ourselves. Tell no one and just go back...to, well, back to normal.”

“Normal? As in we pretend—” she waved a hand at the empty spot in the bed where he’d lain next to her “—this never happened?”

Her question burned, an acid-filled sting that raced across his chest, but he nodded anyway. “Exactly. The fewer people who know the better.”

“Half of Destiny was at the bar last night.” She sighed and rested her chin on the edge of the pillow. “Didn’t you run into people you know? I did. Quite a few.”

“None when we were together. And we left in such a hurry I doubt anyone paid attention. Besides, I wasn’t the only guy dressed like this last night.”

Meaning if someone remembered her in her unique Harley Quinn costume getting up close and personal with a pirate, it could’ve been any number of men.

And didn’t that thought sit like a rock in his gut.

“What about your brothers?” she asked, her voice soft now. “Do any of them know you went to the party last night?”

“No, but that’ll change soon enough.”

“Why?”

“My kids were the ones who insisted I needed to get out. Have some fun. And you know my fam—ah, they’ll find out.”

“Well, everyone knew I was going. I talked about my costume all week.”

Nolan dragged his hand through his hair. Damn, this was too complicated to think about, especially when he was hungover and in desperate need of the coffee Katie had mentioned earlier. “We don’t have to pretend like we never saw each other.”