Free Marriage by Mistake by Alyssa Kress

perfidy in selecting a mate other than her perfect
self, but Troy couldn't say it would be more...entertaining.
    Troy's eyes closed and he smiled.
Entertaining, yes. He'd dearly love to be a fly on the wall.
    All of Felicia's commendable and upstanding
expectations    trashed. She, the high and mighty, would
be brought down low. She'd be so low she might even fall down to
Troy's level. Oh, yes, if she ever did find out Dean was
married...
    To a Las Vegas dancer!
    Still wearing both the smile and his pants,
Troy fell asleep.
    ###
    An hour after the rescue in the forest, Kelly
was still alone in the morning room. She leaned her head on one
hand and tapped her fingers on the polished sheen of the dining
table. She'd long since consumed a plate of scrambled eggs,
buttered toast, and hash browns    all complete no-no's
in her usual diet    and then washed the whole criminal
feast down with some excellent Colombian coffee.
    Discipline, at least for her diet, was
usually strong, but she'd gotten thrown way off balance. Had she or
hadn't she seen 'her' Dean out there in the woods? One minute she'd
been so sure, the next she had to wonder if she hadn't made the
whole thing up. Yes, made it up out of a pathetic wish that she could have seen him.
    Because, darn it, she missed 'her' Dean.
    At the table, Kelly sighed. Who wouldn't miss
that slow smile, that easy drawl    and okay, she'd be
honest    the great sex? More than anything, though, she
missed how he'd liked her.
    And for an instant there, a brief blink of
time coming out of the tree house, she'd thought she'd seen
him.
    Kelly's fingers abruptly halted their dance
on the table top. She turned.
    Dean stood in the archway to the hall. He
looked showered, freshly shaved, and was wearing a different
Italian suit from the one he'd worn on the plane.
    Kelly's heart staggered. He was that
handsome. Admittedly, he was handsome in a vastly different way
from the man she'd married. The fellow who stood before her was
cool, collected, and quietly powerful. 'Her' Dean was definitely
not looking out of this man's eyes. His gaze was as cold and remote
as the North Pole.
    He nodded toward the empty dishes on the
table. "I trust your breakfast was satisfactory?"
    Kelly cleared her throat. "Uh, yeah. It was
great."
    "Good. You'll find lunch in this room as
well, but dinner is in the dining room. We dress."
    "Oh, hey, I'm very glad to hear it."
    He shot her a sharp look. Kelly didn't know
whether to be amused or insulted that it seemed to take him a full
minute to realize she was joking. "Yes, well." He smoothed his tie.
"In any event, I came to say goodbye, and to tell you that if you
need anything, ask Maggie. She's the housekeeper."
    "Goodbye?" Kelly startled upright. "You're
leaving?" But of course he was leaving. He was all dressed up in a
suit and tie and there was a building in downtown Boston with his
name at the top of it. She shook her head. "Sorry. I suppose you've
got a million things to do."
    "Yes, well, perhaps not a million, but my
presence is required."
    Kelly nodded, wondering why she felt let
down. Surely she hadn't expected, or wanted, him to dance
attendance on her.
    "So." Dean inclined his head. "If you'll
excuse me?"
    Kelly bit her lower lip. Yes, he had to
leave, but on the other hand, they needed to get the
getting-to-know-him business out of the way. And there was one
thing she very much wanted to know. "You have time for one
question?"
    Dean halted his retreat in progress. Turning
halfway around, he raised his eyebrows.
    "Uh...how did a nine-year-old boy manage to
hypnotize you?"
    Dean went very still. "He told you."
    Kelly huffed. "What do you think we were
discussing in the tree house, the weather? So, how did it
happen?"
    Dean tapped a thumb against his thigh. "It
was an accident, as I already explained to you."
    "An accident ?"
    Dean's thumb kept tapping. "Robby was doing a
science project, to make up for missing school. I didn't want to
discourage his