She tilted her head and studied Dana, then turned to question Jake. “Do you know if your sister, Imogene, could break away from that gorgeous new husband of her’s tonight? She’s forgotten more about clothes and makeup than most women will ever know.”
Dana’s head was spinning. The names of family members were running around in her brain. And the idea of being anyone’s fiancée, even just for pretend, was making her sweat.
Then Marc reached under the table and squeezed her hand, and everything changed.
Six
On the way back to his farm, Marc wasn’t sure of what to say to her. He’d wanted to apologize for subjecting her to his family, particularly his father. But on the other hand, this kind of thing was probably in Dana’s job description.
Anyway, not knowing what to say kept him quiet on the long drive home. Dana seemed to be off in her own world, and the silence between them apparently didn’t bother her at all.
Tomorrow morning, during Abraham’s press conference, the papers would be notified of their upcoming marriage. The idea was to make the cartel believe he was so unconcerned about his arrest that he’d chosen this time to become engaged.
One possible outcome would be for Escalante to believe the ruse and start pushing Marc and Ian all the harder. Another possibility was Escalante would not believe it, and instead would believe that Marc was running scared—hopefully leading the cartel into thinking that they had the upper hand and should relax their guard.
Either way, the cartel might make a mistake. That looked like his best shot at the moment. But a pretend engagement, especially to someone as spectacular as Dana, left Marc depressed and shaken. His last engagement turned out to be such a monumental disaster that the very mention of it embarrassed him no end.
When he drove up to the chain-link fence surrounding his farm and stopped, Marc glanced quickly over to the sexy FBI agent who was about to become his pretend fiancée. “I’ll get the gate.”
“No,” Dana snapped back. “Don’t exit the vehicle until I can cover you. I’ll take care of the gate. Drive on through when it’s open and I’ll lock up.”
A few minutes later they were dragging the mountain of clothes and boxes of makeup that Imogene had lent to Dana out of the back of the SUV. “Jeez,” he said as he hefted one of the boxes into the house. You’re too beautiful to need makeup at all. What’s all this junk for, anyway?”
She didn’t answer him until they were safely inside. “I need it for…” she stuttered, then stopped and stared at him. “Do you really think I’m beautiful?”
“Sure.” It took a minute for her question to register as he helped her hang the clothes in the guest closet. Didn’t she realize how truly gorgeous she was?
“Dana, hold on a minute.” Taking her hand, he made her stop unpacking clothes and focus on his face. “You’re a very unique woman, Special Agent Aldrich. There aren’t many as strong, competent and intelligent at their jobs as you are. But…you’re so much more. You can also be soft and gentle when needed. You light up any room just by your presence. And…you are one of the sexiest women I’ve ever met.”
As he ran a finger across her cheek, her eyes opened to the size of two full moons. Marc tried to find the words to make her see herself as he saw her. “Your big brown eyes hold every mystery ever kept by womankind. Your skin is pure pleasure to touch. And your hair…”
He grabbed a handful of her deep ebony ringlets and totally lost his train of thought. Leaning toward her, he hovered between agony and ecstasy. All he could see was her pale soft lips, just inches from his own. But he wasn’t sure she wanted the same thing.
Close enough to smell a slight scent of musk, he bent forward and pressed his lips to hers. She whimpered with an erotic sound that fired his blood. She was all woman now.
Marc deepened the kiss, needing to consume her before the ground gave way under his feet. “I want you,” he whispered into her mouth.
Suddenly, he felt an angry shove against his mid-section. Slightly dazed, he lifted his head and gazed down into her face.
“Nice try, counselor.” She grinned as she stepped away from him. “That’s quite a line you’ve got going there. But I told you last night that sharing kisses is a mistake. I’m here to protect you and find evidence against the cartel. If we can locate Escalante, all the better. I’m not here to jump into your bed.”
She walked over to the bedroom door and held it open, indicating she was ready for him to leave. “It’s late. We’ll be going to your office in the morning, just as you usually would. You’d better get some rest.”
Reluctantly, he shuffled out the door. But before she could close it against him, he turned back.
“The heat is there between us, sugar,” he told her. “You can’t make it go away just because you don’t want it. Sooner or later that heat will bubble over. Neither of us can stop it.”
She laughed and raised her eyebrows. “I have a lot more control than that…sugar. Now go to bed. I’ll keep an eye on things tonight. You get a good night’s sleep.”
He pressed his lips together and stepped back enough so that she could close the door in his face. Lord, this was going to be a tough night.
Muttering under his breath, Marc went down the hall and prepared himself for bed—alone. But he was absolutely positive he wasn’t going to get a wink of sleep.
He was a brilliant corporate attorney. That’s what everyone told Dana the next morning at the Danforth offices. Everyone said so, including Marc’s secretary and all three of his junior assistants, two of whom were women.
But none of the women in the place had so much as hinted that Marc ever made a move on them. And Dana definitely tried to leave the way open for them to share the gossip. She wasn’t sure how knowing about his private life would help her with the job, but she still wanted to know.
At the office she felt totally out of her comfort zone, dressed in the black Donna Karan suit and designer high heels that Imogene had made her promise to wear. However, she didn’t seem to be out of place there. A few of the women complimented her on the suit, but they were all dressed very much the same way.
By mid-afternoon, her feet were killing her and she was beginning to believe that Marc Danforth was a saint. She sat down in the conference room he’d taken over for their use. Kicking off her shoes under the table and rubbing her nylon-clad feet together, Dana figured the man had better be everything he’d claimed to be. Otherwise, she would be forced to kill him when this was all over—if for no other reason than she’d actually had to put on these crazy high heels for him.
She couldn’t wait for the work day to be done so she could get back into her jeans and running shoes. But in the meantime, she worked on setting up the computer Marc’s secretary had provided. Dana entered her password into the Bureau’s covert Web site and was immediately allowed into the FBI files they’d begun compiling on the cartel.
“Hi. How’s it going?” Marc sauntered in a little while later, followed by a very sophisticated dark-skinned woman dressed in a soft aqua pants suit. “Dana, I want you to meet Jasmine Carmody Brooks. She’s brought us her files on the cartel.”
Dana took Jasmine’s outstretched hand and the two of them immediately understood each other. By her firm no-nonsense handshake and the clearly determined look in her big brown eyes, Dana knew Jasmine was just as much of a competitive go-getter as she was.
Jasmine seemed to be sizing her up, as well. “There’ll be a small article in tomorrow’s paper, announcing Marc’s engagement to the daughter of one of Abraham’s old navy buddies from Louisiana—a Miss Dana Dele-croix. I spoke to your superior, Steve Simon, and he said