Free In the Dead of the Night by Terry Spear Page A

memories. Then if she wanted to marry him—as a matter of keeping her safe—he would oblige.
    “Jenny —”
    “Hmm ?” Her hand drifted from his chest to his waistband.
    He took her hand in his and raised it to his lips. After kissing it, he said, “Do you remember Wilson? I mean, Thurman Wilson?”
    “Who?” She sounded groggy, half asleep.
    “Thurman?”
    She shook her head slowly back and forth against his chest. Her curls tickled him. He breathed in the scent of the sweet floral shampoo she’d used on her hair.
    Placing her meandering fingers on his chest, he traced the fine bones in her fingers. “Thurman Wilson.”
    She sighed deeply. “Who’s he?”
    “You were going to marry him.” The Agency assumed Wilson had pressured her to get married. He had to marry her to get to her money.
    “Oh.”
    Was she too sleepy to understand?
    He ran his fingers down her arm, the satiny skin a tactile delight to his sense of touch. “Do you remember your girlfriend, Roxie Adams?”
    “No,” she said, sleepily.
    “Do you remember why you quit your job?”
    “To have babies?”
    He tightened his hold on her. There was no way he wanted to go there. “No, there was some other reason.”
    “Don’t you know?”
    “I’m trying to help you to remember.”
    “Oh.” She snuggled closer. “Make love to me, and it’ll all come back.”
    Yeah, right. If she had memories of lovemaking, it wouldn’t have been with him. On the other hand, if it brought back her memory…damn, memories of her time spent with Wilson.
    Jeez, now that’s a sour thought . Allan’s blood ran cold with the notion.
    The Agency didn’t want her to return to her home, but he kept thinking what if she visited it? Maybe she would remember what happened then. But he had to get headquarters’ approval. Right now, they wouldn’t allow her to leave the island. For the moment, she was safe, well, at least from Wilson and his men. But what about from Allan? Who would protect her from the feelings he had, raging out of control for her?
    Her breathing had grown shallow , and he imagined she’d fallen asleep. His own mind settled some. She felt just right against his body, too. Yet any relationship had to be based on honesty, didn’t it? Theirs certainly fell far short of that.
    A noise in the living room caught his attention. He carefully unwrapped Jenny from his arms and climbed out of bed slowly so as not to disturb her. Then he stuck his hand between the mattress and box springs and pulled a gun out.
    Stalking toward the bedroom door, he readied his gun. When he pulled the door open, Dale smiled at him from the entryway. “Just me.”
    He glanced at Allan’s boxers. “I hadn’t thought of making the bet for earlier in the evening.”
    “I thought you were staying downstairs.”
    “We were going to have a pizza, but this freezer was the only one that had any left. Sorry to disturb you.”
    “She’s sleeping.”
    “That medicine will really do it.” Dale grinned. “So what’s with the state of undress?”
    “She insisted.”
    Dale laughed as he headed into the kitchen. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
    Allan knew his partner was teasing in part, but he also figured Dale was dying to hear a further explanation.
    When Dale returned to the living area with the pizza, he asked, “So have you decided about her?”
    “I didn’t realize that this job would involve coercion of its agents.”
    “It looks like the lady is doing a pretty good job coercing you, too.” Dale waved his hand at the kitchen. “There’s another pizza in the freezer for you and Jenny if you feel like it later.”
    “Any word about Wilson?” Allan hated that he was being kept out of the loop on this one. He had to act the loving husband on vacation while the others took all of the calls about business.
    “The word is he ’s having his contacts search vigorously for her.”
    “Great. And no sign of him, I suppose?”
    “Nope. As usual, he’s gone