The Marine Meets His Match

The storm promised by the threatening thunder earlier in the day had skirted them without raining. Which meant Serena would have to water the store’s window boxes today after all. She grabbed the plastic watering can and filled it with water from the washroom in the back. On Thursdays like today, she closed early, at five-thirty.

The bell on the door signaled her departure into the steamy heat outside. The petunias looked as wilted as she felt. Think positive. Find the silver lining. Get chocolate…Hmm, she did have a secret stash in the storeroom….

Turning, she bumped into a broad chest. “Sorry…” Her voice trailed off as she saw who was steadying her. Rad. Her pulse surged into overdrive, proving the point that her intense reaction to him the other day had not been a fluke. He wasn’t even wearing his impressive dress blues uniform today. His blue jeans fit him to perfection as did the dark blue polo shirt he wore. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you.”

“This isn’t the time.” She stepped away from him and held the watering can in front of her, as if it could protect her from the sex appeal he radiated. “I’m expecting someone any moment regarding an important business matter.”

“I know. You’re expecting me.”

Jeez, the man was arrogant. “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.” He followed her inside.

“I’m expecting the new owner of this building.”

“That’s right. That’s me.”

“But you’re a Marine.”

“Affirmative. A Marine with money. Not usual, I know. But I inherited a great deal of the green stuff from a Texas oil baron grandfather I barely knew.”

She tried to make sense of what he was saying. “Why did you buy this building?”

“Because it’s a good investment. And because I need your help.”

“You bought the building because you need my help?”

“Affirmative. But then I always have been the radical one in my family.”

Okay, clearly she needed to close early today. She flipped the sign from Open to Closed even though it was only five twenty-five and the store normally stayed open that night until five-thirty. This wasn’t a conversation she could have in front of any customers. Luckily the store was empty and her assistant had already left for the day.

Serena got right to the point. “What about my lease?”

“I’ll be glad to renew it at the present terms…if you help me out.”

“If I do what you want, you mean?”

He nodded. “You help me and I’ll help you.”

Serena could see where this was going. “Well, you can forget it. I will not have sex with you!”

“Sex? Who said anything about sex? I don’t want a lover, I want a fiancée. Or more accurately, someone who’ll pretend to be my fiancée.”

The mental light bulb finally went on. Serena had heard about the military’s position about sexual orientation—don’t ask, don’t tell. She nodded understandingly. “I get it. You’re gay.”

“Gay?” Rad repeated incredulously. “I am not gay!” he growled before tugging her into his arms. The heat of his body permeated through the Indian cotton dress Serena wore. She was so close to him she could see the sherry-colored flecks in his brown eyes. Lowering his lips to just above hers, he whispered, “Want me to prove it to you?”

Chapter Two

Somehow Serena found the willpower to resist the temptation Rad presented. Hastily stepping away from him, she tried to keep her expression calm. “No, I don’t want you to prove you’re not gay. I’ll take your word for it.”

“What made you think I was?”

“You said you didn’t want a lover, you wanted a fiancée.”

“And that made you think I was gay?”

“It was a logical assumption.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

She was about to argue with him over that fact when she realized that that’s probably what he wanted. “Why don’t you tell me exactly what it is you’re proposing? Then I won’t have to jump to conclusions.”

“I’m not proposing.”

“That was a figure of speech.”

“Just so we’re clear. What I need is a make-believe fiancée. Not the real thing.”

“Why do you want someone to pose as your fiancée?”

“Because I’m having some trouble with the general’s daughter Heidi.”

“What did you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything. I smiled at her when I met her. That’s about it.”

“What’s she done to you?”

“Made my life miserable. She’s convinced she’s fallen in love with me at first sight, which is ridiculous.”

“It certainly is!”

Her instant and emphatic agreement shouldn’t have irritated him, but it did. “You don’t think a woman could fall for me?”

“I didn’t say that. I said that falling in love with someone you don’t know is ridiculous. She must not realize how arrogant and bossy you can be.”

“She’s a general’s daughter. Her father is ten times bossier than I am. Clearly that’s not a problem for her.”

“It would be for me.”

“Your father’s not a general or something is he?” Rad demanded, his expression suddenly suspicious.

“No, my father has been out of the military for some time. He’s in construction now.”

“Is he the reason you have this thing against what you mistakenly perceive to be bossiness?”

There was no way she was confessing anything about her past to Rad. The less he knew about that part of her life the better. “Why don’t we get back to your reasons for needing a fictional fiancée?”

“Fine. As I was saying, Heidi has been chasing me for several weeks now. When I didn’t ask her out, she asked me. When I refused, politely of course, she warned me she was going to make my life difficult.”

“What did she do?”

“For one thing, she got her father to give me that stupid assignment speaking at the middle school’s Career Day.”

His dismissal of the event irritated her greatly. “There was nothing stupid about the event. The only indication of a lack of judgment came when you spoke to the kids as if they were a bunch of recruits instead of children.”

“At least they paid attention to me.”

“And you’re a man accustomed to being paid attention to.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Go ahead. The general’s daughter is making your life difficult.”

“You don’t understand. I can’t afford to risk my military career by upsetting the spoiled daughter of a powerful general. So I came up with the idea of a fiancée. I figured that if I said I was engaged, then Heidi would back off.”

“Why me?”

“Because Heidi caught me by surprise and your name slipped out.”

“Slipped out?”

Rad nodded. “When she asked me for my fiancée’s name. She cornered me as soon as I returned to the base after meeting you the other day. What are you smiling at?”

“The idea of a female cornering a big Marine like you. How old is this Heidi?”

“Eighteen. Why does that matter?”

“I was just curious, that’s all.”

“You’ll probably get to meet her yourself pretty soon. It’s only a matter of time before she comes here to check you out.”

“So let me get this straight. You want me to pretend to be your fiancée to discourage Heidi from chasing you? For how long?”

“A few weeks. Until she loses interest.”

“What if she doesn’t?”

“She will.”

“I don’t know…. She sounds the determined type.”

“Okay, then a few months. In return I’ll cut your rent in half for the next year.”

“Say that again?”

“You heard me.”

“I’d need that to be in writing.”

“I figured you would. So I had my attorney draw up a contract.” He pulled it out of his back pocket.

The folded paper was still warm from his body heat. She tried to ignore that fact and focused on the legal terminology. While the length of the mock engagement had been left vague, the drop in her rent was right there in black and white, along with the reminder that she was aware this was not a real engagement and did not constitute a promise of marriage.

Clearly he’d thought ahead somewhat, despite the fact that buying the building in the first place was a radical idea. Not to mention faking an engagement.

Had anyone said to her this morning that she’d even remotely be considering going along with Rad’s plan, she would have said they’d lost touch with reality. Rad was everything she wanted to avoid in life. He was big and bossy and arrogant and powerful.

Sure, he had that Adrian Paul thing going for him, with his dark hair and brooding eyes, and that slash of a smile that changed his entire face. But she’d never been a sucker for the dark, brooding type before. She preferred intellectual, sensitive types who shared her love of books.

But in the end, the offer was too good for Serena to pass up. She’d been struggling to make ends meet since she’d opened her bookstore a year ago. She was no longer a child unable to defend herself from a commanding personality. She could handle Rad.

“So what do you say?” he prompted her.

“Okay.” Her voice was deliberately brisk.

“You’ll do it?”

“Yes. But I have to warn you that things may get more complicated than you anticipate.”

“Why? Is there some guy in your life who will be upset that you’re engaged?”

Serena shook her head. She hadn’t had the time or energy to date much since opening the store. The few men she had gone out with hadn’t impressed her enough to see them for more than a few dates.

“Lies have a way of coming back to haunt you,” Serena told him. She should know. There were things in her past that she feared would one day catch up with her.

Watching the way she nervously nibbled on her bottom lip made Rad wonder two things. First, what personal knowledge did she have about lies in her past? Second, how would her lips feel beneath his? Okay, so maybe he thought about that first, but he did take a moment to think about what she’d said before getting caught up in a fantasy about her mouth.

He’d noticed her lush lips the moment he’d first met her. And her legs. He couldn’t see much of them today, as she was wearing a dress that swirled around her ankles. The thin material did have a nice way of clinging to her curves, however.

As for lying, well…Rad looked on this operation as more of a dark ops mission. Subterfuge and deception were requirements for a successful outcome, which in this case meant getting Heidi off his back.

Rad was confident that he could handle things. His sexual attraction to Serena was an added bonus. Not that he was looking to settle down and get married at this point in his life. That might be fine for his two older brothers but not for him. He valued his freedom.

But there was something to be said for hanging out with a gorgeous blond bookseller. Not that she was the kind of female who flaunted her good looks. No, she seemed to take care to keep them under wraps, like that ankle-length dress of hers. Which just made him want to unwrap her all the more.

She intrigued him. Made him want to learn more about her. Because there was a lot going on beneath her cool surface. When he’d touched her, the heat had been immediate. He’d always been good at intel and recon work. He looked forward to doing a little of both on her.

That wasn’t all he wanted to do with her. He wanted to know if her lips tasted as lush as they looked. He wanted to feel her long legs wrapped around his bare hips….

Chill out, he ordered his throbbing body. She’s just a female. Enjoy the moment, but don’t go looking for complications here.

He got out his PDA and got to work. “There are a few details we should get straight. Like how we met, how long we’ve known each other, that sort of thing. Then there’s the ring. What’s your ring size?”

“Seven. You’re not going to buy a ring, are you?”

“You have something else in mind?”

“I could pick up something inexpensive, a CZ, at one of the discount stores.”

“CZ?”

“Cubic Zirconia. Only a jeweler would be able to tell it’s not real, if I get something realistic carat-wise.”

“Okay. I’ll leave the ring to you. But I’ll pay for it.”

“Under fifty dollars. I don’t want to be worrying about losing it or anything.”

“How would you lose it? I thought you were supposed to wear an engagement ring all the time and not take it off.”

“That’s in a real engagement, which this isn’t.”

“Okay…But spend at least a hundred. I don’t want people thinking I’m cheap.” He used the stylus to change screens. “I made a checklist….”

“If you’re that prepared, I would have thought you’d have come up with a better cover story for your fiancée than saying the name of the first woman that came to mind. What did you tell her about me?”

“That you were a bookseller.”

“That’s all?”

“I may have said that you used to be a swimsuit model,” Rad couldn’t resist teasing her.

“You what?”

“Just kidding.”

“I should hope so. No one would believe I was a swimsuit model.”

“Why not?”

“Because real women have curves and I’m a real woman.”

His eyes strolled over her from head to toe. “I had noticed that.”

“I have hips.” She pointed to them as if he needed help locating them.

“Yeah, you do.” He nodded approvingly.

“Swimsuit models never have real hips.”

“I like females with hips. And long legs. And long blond hair and green eyes. In fact, there are a lot of things I like about you.”

His comment made her feel as if she’d swallowed a goldfish. Not that she’d ever done that, but still…

She had this strange fluttery feeling of what…anticipation? Is that what this was? She anticipated the next Harry Potter book, but it didn’t make her all funny inside.

Great. Now she knew what this was. It had just been a while since she’d experienced it, and never to this extreme. This was sexual attraction. This was her hormones leaping up and yelling yes, yes, yes, come to momma.

This was her inner-female responding to all that yummy male testosterone wrapped up in Rad’s six-foot-plus body.

Serena firmly ordered her hormones to shut up. She could not afford to be ruled by sex here. She needed to be a savvy businesswoman. To be practical. To be Serena Serious. “You don’t know me at all.” There, that was a practical, factual statement, even if she had delivered it in a too-breathy voice. Since when had she started sounding like Marilyn Monroe at Kennedy’s birthday party?

“But I want to get to know you,” Rad murmured. “And I need to if we’re going to pull this off. Tell me what I should know.”

“That I don’t think this is going to work,” she muttered. Not if leaping hormones got in the way.

“Of course it will work. We just need to do some prep work. Winning any battle is predicated on good recon and accurate intel ahead of time. I know you’re a bookseller, and the Realtor told me you’ve been here a year. That’s all I know.”

“I’ll write you a brief bio tonight then you can enter it in your PDA.”

He shut the hi-tech device down and turned his full attention to her. “Some things are unforgettable. Forget writing the bio. Have dinner with me instead and we can work out the details while we eat. I know a good seafood place down on the beach. Unless you have other plans?”

“I suppose it would be a good idea to get our stories straight.” That was her practical side speaking.

“Affirmative.”

There, that was his military voice. Not his bossy military voice, just the crisp tones. Crisp was good. She could handle crisp. She could even do crisp herself. “Okay, then.”

It wasn’t okay when she nearly tripped over the long skirt of her dress when he handed her into his car a few minutes later. You’d think she’d never gotten into a silver gray Corvette before.

And you’d be right. She’d never gotten into a Corvette of any color before. The men she tended to date drove sensible cars like four-door sedans. Buicks or Oldsmobiles. Not low-slung race cars.

She was surprised and pleased to discover that Rad didn’t drive as if he were trying out for the Indy 500. He showed no sign of road rage when a car filled with teenagers cut him off or when an older driver pulled in front of him and barely went the speed limit.

Twenty minutes later, Serena was seated at a table with an ocean view and a huge plate loaded with fresh steamed shrimp. The place wasn’t fancy. The tablecloths were red-checked oilcloth instead of white linen. But the food smelled heavenly and the view was great. White-topped waves tossed their frothy manes as they landed upon the smooth beach with rhythmic regularity.

“This is nice.”

Rad nodded. “You’ve never been here before?”

Serena shook her head.

“You’re not originally from around here, are you? No accent,” he added.

“I’m from all over. Mostly east coast although we lived in Indianapolis for a year when I was eight.”

“Are you an army brat? You said your dad had been out of the military for a while now.”

“He left the army when I was ten.” Her crisp tone of voice made it clear that she didn’t welcome any further discussion on that topic.

“What made you decide to settle here?”

“My best friend lives here. We were college roommates our freshman year at UNCW, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. I came to visit her for her wedding several years ago and liked the area. I’m an ocean person, so I like being on the coast.”

“I know what you mean. My older brother Striker has a beach house out on Pirate’s Cove. It’s a little island off the coast. I get over there as often as I can when he’s not using the place. Since he’s moved to San Antonio, it’s vacant a lot of the time.”

“Is he a Marine as well?”

“He’s in the reserves. Most of his time these days is spent running King Oil and chasing after his baby son. He’s as smart as a tree full of owls, to quote my Texan brother.”

“Did you grow up in Texas?”

“No, although I did spend a summer or two there. Like you I grew up all over. My dad was a Marine, he’s retired now. All my other brothers are Marines.”

“All? How many are there?”

“My momma had five sons. The youngest two are twins.”

“Are you the second oldest?”

“No, that honor goes to my brother Ben. I’m the middle child.”

“Which means, if I remember my birth order character traits correctly, that you’re the peacemaker in the family.”

“Negative. That role falls to Ben. What about you? Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No. I’m an only child.”

“Which means you’re a high achiever and expect a lot from life.” At her surprised look, Rad added, “Hey, I’ve read some of that birth order stuff, too. As an adult, only children tend to have high self-esteem.”

She laughed and shook her head. “Not me.”

“Why not?”

“My dad didn’t want me getting a big head.” Her tone was mocking but she could feel the muscles in her neck tensing up.

“Sounds like he gave you a hard time.”

“You could say that.”

“Did he hit you? Beat you?”

Not with his fists but with his words. But she couldn’t say that because her throat closed and her mouth went dry.

She reached for her iced tea. The condensed moisture made the glass slippery and she almost lost her hold on it. The ice cubes clattering against the sides sounded unnaturally loud in the sudden silence.

“Steady there.” Rad reached over to straighten the glass and set it back on the table. His fingers brushed against hers.

Had he tried to capture her hand in his, she would have snatched it away. Instead he gently rubbed his thumb against the back of her hand.

Serena frantically tried to come up with something sophisticated and funny to say, but was so distracted by her awareness of him and her turbulent emotions that all she could come up with was, “I don’t like talking about my childhood.”

Right. That was an understatement. Brilliant, Serena. She pulled her hand away, exiling it to her lap where her fingertips continued to hum from his touch.

“Then we’ll talk about something else. Like how we met.”

She frowned. “We met at the school two days ago.”

“Where you were madder than a rained-on rooster.”

She lifted an eyebrow at him. “Another of your Texan brother’s quotes?”

“Actually that was one of my grandfather’s.”

“Yes, well, if I was aggravated with you, I had good reason.”

“So you told me at the time. But we obviously can’t use the truth in this case about how we met, so we need to come up with something else. How about you saw me and fell instantly in love with me?”

“How about you saw me and fell instantly in love with me,” she instantly countered.

His slow smile was worth the wait. “That’ll work too.”

Okay, there went her hormones again. Time to haul out the common sense practical stuff. “I think we should just go with something vague, like we met through a mutual friend.”

“That sounds boring.”

“Boring is good.” Hormones are bad. Bad hormones. Behave.

“Marines are not into boring.”

“Fine,” she retorted. “Then you think of something.”

“Hmmm…”

She noticed the outer corner of Rad’s eyes got all crinkly when he was thinking.

“My brother Striker met his wife when they had to work together,” he continued. “And my brother Ben met his wife through her brother.”

“Neither scenario would work in our case. I’m telling you, we should go with mutual friends. It’s the simplest thing.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

Did he really have to sound so doubtful when he said that? “And how did you romantically propose to me?” she asked. “Did you get down on bended knee?”

“How about the beach?” He nodded at the view out the window where the surf washed in. “I proposed to you on the beach at sunset.”

“Only one problem with that. From here, the sun rises over the Atlantic ocean, it doesn’t set over it. See, it’s details like those that are going to get us in trouble.”

He raised a dark eyebrow. “You’d rather I proposed to you at sunrise?”

“No.” She refused to allow her heart to beat a little faster at the thought of him really proposing. She’d regained control of her wild inner-female self and she planned on keeping her locked up indefinitely. Serena Serious was in charge now. “We’ll stick to your proposing on the beach. We don’t have to say when.”

“Heidi is gonna want to know the juicy details.”

“Who says we have to tell her?”

“I do. Or she’ll get suspicious. So here’s the story. We met through mutual friends and I proposed on the beach here on Topsail Island while the sun set over the sound, not the ocean. You’re an only child, you went to UNCW and got your degree in…?”

“Business administration,” Serena replied.

“Before opening your own bookstore, you worked at…?”

“Various jobs, including the district manager of a large bookstore chain.”

“You moved here to coastal North Carolina…?”

“Two years ago. Before that I lived in Raleigh, and before that I was in the Boston area, and Virginia Beach before that.”

Rad continued his questions through dessert and the drive home. It wasn’t until Serena walked into her apartment later that evening that she realized that while she’d practically supplied him with her résumé, and even confessed her love of dark Belgian chocolate, Rad hadn’t told her anything about what he did in the Marine Corps. Other than the little he’d told her about his family, he hadn’t said much about himself at all.

That’s when she remembered another trait of middle children. They can be secretive.

Chapter Three

“You what!”

Serena winced at her best friend’s shriek and held the phone away from her ear for a second. Needing someone to talk to, Serena had curled up on her couch and called Lucy as soon as she’d stepped inside her apartment. She returned the receiver to her ear in time to hear Lucy say, “Start over again.”