Undercover Daddy by Delores Fossen Page B

with it, either. “Especially if this person already knew that I didn’t have a husband.”
    “You bet.” He opened the door and faced her. Not naked this time. He wore jeans and black long-sleeve pullover. Both items of clothing hugged his body. “That means we need to find out who T is because he or she might do something stupid to get those modifications.”
    “Modifications I don’t have,” Elaina mumbled. But she wouldn’t stand much of a chance of convincing T’s hired guns of that. And then she thought of something else.
    “What about this criminal you mentioned—George Devereux? The one you think had something to do with your wife’s death. Do you still think he might have something to do with the two jailed men?”
    “It’s possible,” Luke said. “I’d planned to visit Devereux tomorrow. He’s in a federal prison not too far from here. But that visit’s probably not going to happen. With any luck, I’ll be doing the two interrogations at the local jail instead of seeing Devereux.”
    Yes, that. It suddenly seemed like too much to do, and all of it was important, if not critical. Elaina groaned and scrubbed her hands over her face. “So, we have Gary, Carrie, Brenda, George Devereux and heaven knows who else who might do something dangerous and crazy to get their hands on Kevin’s final project?”
    He lifted his shoulder. “And as you pointed out, it might not even be related to Kevin.”
    She’d known that, of course. But it was not knowing which was the truth that was getting to her.
    “What I worry about most is Christopher,” Elaina continued. “Greedy, desperate people often do greedy, desperate things, and I don’t want there to be any possibility for Christopher to be hurt.”
    “Trust me.” Luke eased down next to her on the bed. “I want the same thing.”
    “But how do we make sure it happens?” Her voice broke on the last word, and she thought for a moment that she might break, too. “There’s so much coming at me. I’m not weak, I swear. But it scares me that I might not be able to protect him.”
    Her voice did more than break that time. It was a mess of quiver and nerves. Exactly the way she felt.
    “My emotions are all over the place,” Elaina admitted. “Like I have a nasty mix of ADD, PMS and adrenaline.” She wouldn’t mention the lustful urges, but they were there. It was like there was an alley-cat war going on inside her body.
    Luke gave a heavy sigh. One with undertones of frustration and perhaps even disbelief at what he was about to do. He slipped his arm around Elaina and pulled her to him.
    Elaina wanted to reject the gesture. She wanted to move away to regain her composure. But she didn’t. She stayed put and took everything he was offering.
    It felt like heaven.
    It’d been so long since Elaina had relied on or trusted anyone other than herself. So long since she’d felt anything but lots of fear. But this wasn’t fear. Luke was warm, solid, strong, and, if only for a few seconds, he made her believe that all was right with the world.
    “I’m not weak,” she repeated.
    He chuckled. It was husky and low. Very manly. “You’re not weak,” he agreed. “Actually, you’ve handled this far better than most people would have.”
    Alarms went off in her head. Big ones. Elaina pulled back and met Luke’s gaze. “That sounds, um, friendly and compassionate.”
    He looked a little puzzled. “It was meant to be.”
    “Then, this isn’t good.” Elaina groaned.
    “Probably not,” he readily agreed. “This won’t be a good idea, either.”
    “ This ?” she questioned.
    He lowered his head. Slipped his hand around the back of her neck. And hauled her to him.
    Luke kissed her.
    His mouth was solid and warm, like the rest of him. That was her first thought. Her second, was that he was very good at this. He was at least a thirty on a scale of one to ten. He pressed his mouth against hers. Moving. Just a little. Touching the seam of her lips