Free A Question of Honor by Mary Anne Wilson Page B

with me. You look horrified by the prospect of a simple dance.”
    She was upset that she wanted to dance with him, to have him hold her and move with her. “I was just trying to think, that’s all,” she said. It was the best answer she could come up with right then.
    He stood silently, watching her. Finally, he said, “So?”
    “So what?”
    He flashed that dimpled smile, and the needle on her danger meter went crazy. “The dance? Could you manage to endure it?”
    She started to say she wasn’t feeling well, that she had to go. She would have done that and gotten away if the doors hadn’t parted again with a low whooshing sound. The action was followed by music spilling into the space, the lights and noise of the party flashing everywhere in the dimly lit barn. One look at the man who had come in froze Faith to the spot.
    Could things get any worse? Adam was far too close to her, and unless she was hallucinating, the policeman who had stopped her for speeding on the road to Wolf Lake was now blocking her escape. Instead of his jacket and uniform, the policeman was in a red-and-green plaid shirt with a bolo tie and jeans. For a moment, she prayed she was seeing things, but when he spoke, he shattered any particle of hope that maybe she’d been mistaken.
    “Well, hello,” he said. “You got here safely, I see.”
    He didn’t give her a chance to respond, but she doubted she could have anyway. He turned to Adam. “I was starting to think you’d skipped out on the party, and then Louie told me he saw you in here.” He glanced at Faith. “Although, he didn’t mention you weren’t alone.”
    She felt the air by her move as Adam came closer. “John, this is Faith. You’ve already met her. She’s visiting around here.”
    The man’s warm smile never faltered. “Of course I remember her,” he said. “Welcome to Wolf Lake. I hope you enjoy your stay.”
    “Thank you,” she said.
    The cop looked relaxed, as if he was there for a good time and nothing else. But she wasn’t relaxing, she couldn’t relax, not with Adam so near that she could literally feel his body heat. John motioned toward Adam without looking away from Faith. “Has he taken you out to see our lake yet?”
    “Oh, no,” she said. “I’m leaving tomorrow. I’ll miss the lake, I guess.”
    “Too bad,” he said with a teasing gleam in his eyes that she didn’t quite understand. “But have fun tonight, and have a very Merry Christmas.”
    “Thanks,” she said. The officer headed back into the main part of the barn.
    She stood very still while watching him go, then Adam’s breath touched her cheek as he spoke close to her ear. “Have you reconsidered that dance?”
    She closed her eyes, shutting out the image of John, the lawman. Dance? She opened her eyes and the security guard was there, crossing in front of the still-open doors. He waved at Adam and her, then kept going, but not before he eyed Faith longer than she thought was a casual gesture.
    Maybe if she went with Adam to the dance floor and had one dance with him they’d all think she belonged here, and then she could slip away without drawing any more attention to herself. “Sounds good,” she replied, “but just one dance.”
    “Great,” he said and led her to the dance floor, then she turned slightly and looked up into his eyes. The darkness in them seemed penetrating, as if the man could see past her feeble facade and was close to seeing the real her. Right then, she knew her mistakes were piling up. Her judgment was so flawed when Adam was around.
    She was ready to get the dance over with, when he touched her arm. Even through the silk, she felt his heat, the tips of his fingers barely there, yet the world seemed centered on their connection.
    “I was wondering something.” Adam raised his voice to be heard over the party noise.
    She steeled herself. “What?”
    “Where are you staying?”
    She hedged and thought she did a good job. “In the area, with a