The Marcelli Bride

13

Darcy sat propped up on her bed, several sketches scattered around her. She had a meeting in the morning with Grandpa Lorenzo and Brenna to finalize their choices for the wine labels, and she wanted to be able to offer them a variety of options.

Excitement made it difficult to concentrate on the designs. She wanted to dance around the room and scream her delight. Brenna had called earlier to say she was thrilled to finally have new label designs. Which meant Darcy had her first ever paying job.

Okay-she wasn’t going to be able to make a career out of this one client, but at least she finally felt legitimate in her chosen profession.

As she worked, or tried to work, she hummed. She felt good all over. She loved this place, and she loved the Marcellis. Would they be willing to adopt her?

She grinned at the thought. Probably not a good idea, what with her and Joe having had sex. Not that they knew, but if she was adopted it would create, as Mia had said, a pretty serious ick factor.

Someone knocked on her closed bedroom door. Grandma Tessa to do a little more reconnaissance? “Come in.”

The door opened, and Joe stepped into her room and closed the door behind him. Darcy instantly straightened. Her stomach tightened, her thighs heated, and she desperately wanted to pat the bed in invitation.

He was so gorgeous, she thought as she took in his tall, muscular build and the faint smile. Good enough to be both main course and dessert.

“Stop it,” he said conversationally.

She blinked at him. “Stop what?”

“Whatever it is you’re thinking. I can’t help wanting you, and you’re not making it any easier to say no.”

He wanted her! Her emotions did a little soft-shoe. “Maybe you don’t have to say no.”

He groaned. “Yeah, I do.”

“But it was so good.” Perfect even.

He narrowed his gaze. “Darcy, I’m not kidding. There’s a problem.”

She refused to let go of her good mood. “You’re not going to get weird on me, are you?”

“Not in the way you think. They know.”

The last two words didn’t quite make it to her brain. “They know.” Huh. Who knew what? Who could possibly know…

She collapsed onto her pillows. “Oh God. Your family?”

“That would be them.”

Panic filled her. “No. They can’t. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t even hint.” She stared at him. “I know you didn’t say anything. You wouldn’t even under threat of torture.”

“I wouldn’t even with actual torture.” He crossed to the bed and sat down next to her. “We were in the storage room,” he said.

“I actually know that. Did someone see us?”

“No, they heard. There’s an intercom system.”

She felt herself blush. “Who was it?” she asked, not sure who would be worse.

“Brenna, Grandma Tessa, and my mother.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it. What exactly was she supposed to say?

Brenna she could handle, but… “Your mother and Grandma Tessa?” The blush turned fiery.

“They spread the news to the rest of the family. Marco pulled me aside about an hour ago and tried to have the sex talk with me. It was humiliating.”

“I’ll bet.” She covered her face with her hands. “They know. I can’t believe it. I always thought the ongoing humiliation of my life was because I’m in the public eye, but I guess not. Maybe it’s just me.”

Joe reached for her hands and pulled them away. “Don’t worry. No one’s going to say anything.”

“Not to my face, but they’ll be talking about it. They know.” She wanted to crawl under the bed and never come out. Then she thought of something. “Did they tell Paige or Alex? Alex really wouldn’t like us doing that, and he might try to get you in trouble. You have your career to think about.”

“I know. But the Marcellis are good at closing ranks. No one on the Secret Service team knows.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded. “If Alex had a clue, he’d rip me a new one. Trust me.” He leaned close and gently kissed her. “Want to take it back?”

She didn’t have to think about that. “Not even for a second.”

“Me, either.”

They stared at each other before Joe straightened and said he should get out of her room before there were even more rumors. Darcy nodded but couldn’t speak. She couldn’t do anything but stare at him. Because in that short period of time, somewhere between the light kiss and his walking out of her room, she felt a definite sort of tugging in the vicinity of her heart.

She wasn’t sure what it meant, but she knew it couldn’t be good. Not when her stay here was temporary, her track record with men was worse than dismal, and Joe was the kind of guy who didn’t do relationships.

Paige hung up the phone and finished writing her notes. When Alex walked into the kitchen, she pushed the paper toward him.

“They’ve arrested two of the kidnappers,” she said. “They have leads on the rest of them. I’m going to tell Darcy when I see her. She’ll be thrilled.”

Alex looked over the paper. “At least if the rest of them are on the run, they won’t have time to plan another kidnapping.”

“That should make our job easier,” she said.

“I don’t need my job easier.”

Of course not, she thought. But he did need a sense of humor.

He walked to the refrigerator, opened it, and stared inside. Then he closed it and turned to her. “Would you have married me?”

Paige stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“If I’d asked. Before. Would you have married me?”

She had no idea what he was thinking or why he’d brought this up now. It didn’t make sense.

“Alex, I don’t understand why-”

“Yes or no,” he said sharply. “It’s a simple question.”

“Not for me.” Nothing about this was simple.

Would she have married him? She stared at his eyes. There’d been a time when she’d wanted to get lost in those eyes. When being with him had been so important.

“I don’t know,” she said after a while. “I don’t believe you would have asked. And if you had and I’d said yes, then one of us would have had to leave the Secret Service. You would have expected me to be the one to leave.”

He frowned. “Right.”

She smiled. How typical of him. “Then no,” she said gently. “I wouldn’t have married you.”

He folded his arms over his chest. “Why? Because I wasn’t willing to give up my career for you? This is what I’ve always wanted.”

“What about what I wanted? You’d have asked me to give up the one thing you wouldn’t. It doesn’t seem fair or a very healthy way to start a marriage. One criterion of a successful relationship is love makes each party stronger, giving them more of what they want. Love isn’t supposed to take your dreams away.”

“There was no way for us to win.”

She considered the statement. “I guess not. Some relationships are like that.”

“I don’t accept that.”

What was it about stubborn men? “You not accepting it doesn’t change the truth.”

He stared at her for another couple of seconds, then turned and walked out of the room.

Paige had no idea what all that had been about. She respected Alex a lot. She thought he was totally hot, and his being in the next room made some nights long and difficult. But there were times when his mind was a complete mystery to her.

She gathered her paperwork, but before she could stand up, he stalked back into the room, walked over to the table, bent down, and kissed her.

He cupped her face in his large hands and pressed his mouth to hers. The action was so unexpected, she didn’t know what to think, and then she couldn’t think because her brain had shut down in order to let her feel everything.

He held her gently. His lips rediscovered hers in a soft caress that took her breath away. She parted before he even asked, wanting him to claim her the way men had been claiming women since the beginning of time.

He swept into her mouth and circled her tongue with his. Then as quickly as it had begun, the kiss was over. He straightened, then walked away without saying a single word.

“I’ll fix you a nice cuppa,” Grammy M said to Joe as he walked into the kitchen the next morning.

He squinted at the time and saw it was barely after six. “You’re here early.”

“I like to start my day with the sun,” she said cheerfully.

Tessa walked into the kitchen and scowled. “It’s all that sinning. It keeps you from sleeping.”

Grammy M glared at her. “You’re very concerned about the state of my soul. All this talk of sinning. Could it be because your own man isn’t making you happy in the bedroom?”

Joe winced and headed for the door. No way did he want to get in the middle of this.

Tessa might be elderly, but she was fast, spry, and she had that killer grip. She got him by the arm and steered him to the table.

“Sit,” she ordered, and he sat.

“I’ll make that tea,” Grammy M said, smiling at him.

Tessa narrowed her gaze. “Joseph doesn’t drink tea. He’s a man. He drinks coffee.”

Grammy M turned to him. “Didn’t you say you’d be wantin’ tea?”

“I, ah…”

Tessa speared him with a look that could stop a tank. “Joseph, you always have coffee.”

“I, ah…”

They ignored him as they both raced to the stove. Joe figured he was about to get both and he’d better drink them equally. Maybe they could just pour them into a big mug and he could choke them down together.

“I’ll fix you an omelet,” Tessa announced.

“I have fresh scones to go with that,” Grammy M said.

“Fruit,” Tessa added.

Grammy M sniffed. “And some bacon. Maybe sausage.”

“I’ll be using the stove,” Tessa told her.

“Oh, I see. And you’ll be needin’ all of the burners for your omelet. Last time I made one, I only needed the one pan. But you were never very good in the-”

“Stop,” Joe yelled. “I beg you. It’s too early for this.”

The Grands stared at him, at each other, then turned their backs and went to work.

Coffee arrived first. Joe sipped it until Grammy M plopped a cup of tea in front of him. Then he alternated. The women worked in silence, carefully stepping around each other, not getting too close.

He looked away as he remembered how it had been his first couple of visits. Before Grammy M had moved in with Gabriel and the old ladies had had a falling-out. He remembered their elegant dance in the kitchen, a rhythm honed from years of practice and working together. He’d never heard a harsh word exchanged.

“Will you be seein’ Darcy later today?” Grammy M asked.

Joe held in a groan. So the news had been passed on to her, had it? No doubt Colleen had told her. Which meant Mia and the other sisters knew, too.

“She lives here,” he said. “Hard to avoid her.”

“Not that you want to,” Tessa said with a wink. “She’s a pretty girl.”

“Not my type.”

Tessa smacked him on the back of the head. “You say that now?”

Okay, poor strategy, he thought as he rubbed where she’d nailed him. “I mean she’s not…” He closed his mouth and reached for the coffee. It would be better to endure whatever they had in mind, then make his escape.

“It’s past time you were married,” Grammy M said as she put bacon into a pan. “You’re not getting any younger.”

He nodded and reached for the tea.

“A man shouldn’t be alone,” Tessa said. “It’s not good. What will happen when you’re old, eh? You’ll be living above the garage with a dog. What kind of life is that?”

“Is that my only option?” he asked before he could stop himself.

“What will become of you?” Grammy M wanted to know.

The only bright spot in this conversation was that they were finally on the same side of an argument.

“You need love in your life,” Tessa said. “You need to love a woman and let her love you.”

After getting smacked for saying Darcy wasn’t his type, he didn’t want to think about what would happen if he said he didn’t love her.

Grammy M put a plate of scones in front of him. Tessa slid an omelet onto a plate and set it on the table. Bacon and fruit quickly followed.

“The president’s daughter, Joseph,” Grammy M said, her voice scolding. “You can’t have your way with her then turn your back on her. You’re a better man than that.”

“She’s right,” Tessa said, looking as if she’d smelled something disgusting.

Joe felt the walls closing in. These were thicker and harder to climb.

“You don’t have to live here, in this house,” Tessa said. “You could build something else. Close by. On the land.”

Joe stared at the food, then at the Grands. He believed what Darcy had told him-that for these old women food was love. But right now he couldn’t take any more. He stood, backed away, and when he was clear of the house, he turned and escaped.