His Destiny Bride. Christyne Butler

a louse who’d walked out on her, all the better.

      Especially because it’d be true.

      Yanking on his boots, he hunted around for the belt, sword, hat, wig and jacket. He turned for the door, his hand almost on the knob when her soft words stopped him.

      “Hmm, I hope you’re heading out to grab some morning java.”

      Nolan closed his eyes.

      “I’d like a large,” she went on. “Decaf. Minimum four sugars to make it tolerable.”

      All information he was well aware of.

      He took a deep breath and turned back. “Yeah, I know how you like your coffee, but no, I—”

      “Wait...what?” She shot up in bed, those red waves bouncing around her shoulders as she clutched the sheet to her chest. “How do you—why are you—oh my god, Nolan! What are you doing here?”

      He stayed silent, watching as she processed the night’s events. Her gaze went to the rumpled sheets and empty spot beside her, to him, and back to the bed again. “Oh, no, that was you? That was us? But how—did we—”

      We did. Three times. Something else he hadn’t done since his college days.

      He offered a silent prayer of thanks for the trio of condoms he’d had in his wallet. “Yeah, evidence seems to indicate that was us.”

      “But you...you were on a business trip.”

      “I got back early.”

      “And decided to go to the party? Alone?” She covered her face with her hand. “Please, tell me you weren’t there with—”

      “No.” He cut her off, clearing up that assumption right away. His time with the high school vice principal had ended after a few weeks and, yeah, he could blame Katie for that, too, but there was no way he was telling her that.

      Not now. Not ever.

      “I was at the Blue Creek alone...until I ran into you.”

      Her hand fell away. “You mean until I ran into you. Literally.”

      He nodded again, the stupid beads in his whiskers knocking against his chin. What he’d give for a razor. “Yeah. I had no idea who you were.”

      “I had no idea who you were,” she cried. “How could we not know? We’ve worked together nearly every day for the last five years. I’ve been to your house. Your family’s home. Family events. Geesh, we’re practically—”

      “I can’t explain.” Nolan cut her off before she said the F word one more time. “Great costumes on both our parts—impressive accent, by the way—and what I can assure you on my end was a lot of booze.”

      “Mine, too, but that’s no excuse. Oh, this is all my fault.” Katie shook her head in disbelief. Her fingers churned, gathering the sheets and exposing those long legs of hers. “I thought I was ready. I thought I needed—I should’ve... I can’t believe—”

      “This is not your fault.” Nolan started toward her but halted when her wide eyes latched onto him again. “I was there—here—too. I could’ve walked away at any time last night.”

      “When? When I pushed you onto the dance floor?” She grabbed a pillow and crushed it to her chest. “Or dragged you out of the bar? Across the parking lot until I had you alone in this room?”

      “We were trying to get away from those goons.”

      “That was my fault, too.”

      “Hey, I kissed you first.”

      And he wanted to do it again.

      Right here. Right now.

      In fact, the need to go to her, to pull her into his arms, was so strong he had to take a step back or else he might do just that.

      Her beautiful green eyes sought out his, and silence stretched between them again.

      He wondered what was going on in that pretty head of hers, especially when her gaze traveled the length of him, taking in his wrinkled clothes.

      Was she remembering last night?

      How she’d easily rid him of the belt and sword before moving on to the buttons of his shirt. How he’d fumbled with the strings on her top while laying kisses against the sweetest-smelling skin—

      “Do you want me to turn in my resignation?”

      Her question shocked him. How could she think he’d want that? “What? No, of course not.”

      “If you don’t want me to quit, what do you suggest we do about last night?”

      “Nothing.” The answer came so fast, despite the enticing images racing through his head, it had to be the right one. The only one. “We keep this—to ourselves. Tell no one and just go back...to, well, back to normal.”

      “Normal? As in we pretend—” she waved a hand at the empty spot in the bed where he’d lain next to her “—this never happened?”

      Her question burned, an acid-filled sting that raced across his chest, but he nodded anyway. “Exactly. The fewer people who know the better.”

      “Half of Destiny was at the bar last night.” She sighed and rested her chin on the edge of the pillow. “Didn’t you run into people you know? I did. Quite a few.”

      “None when we were together. And we left in such a hurry I doubt anyone paid attention. Besides, I wasn’t the only guy dressed like this last night.”

      Meaning if someone remembered her in her unique Harley Quinn costume getting up close and personal with a pirate, it could’ve been any number of men.

      And didn’t that thought sit like a rock in his gut.

      “What about your brothers?” she asked, her voice soft now. “Do any of them know you went to the party last night?”

      “No, but that’ll change soon enough.”

      “Why?”

      “My kids were the ones who insisted I needed to get out. Have some fun. And you know my fam—ah, they’ll find out.”

      “Well, everyone knew I was going. I talked about my costume all week.”

      Nolan dragged his hand through his hair. Damn, this was too complicated to think about, especially when he was hungover and in desperate need of the coffee Katie had mentioned earlier. “We don’t have to pretend like we never saw each other.”

      “Just that we never ended up...you know.”

      Yeah, he knew.

      He also knew that unless they put a screeching halt to whatever this was, or could be, they’d only be asking for trouble.

      A lot of trouble.

      There was enough upheaval at the headquarters as it was. Add the fact that he and his daughter were barely speaking. And Katie’s breakup with that jerk at the end of the summer still had to be hurting—

      Whoa, wait a minute. Is that what last night was about? Looking for someone—

      Nolan pushed away that thought before it could fully form, chalking up the vile taste in the back of his throat to the amount of booze still in his system. “We don’t want to screw things up—to change anything. It wouldn’t do any good if we—”

      Damn, this was coming out all wrong. His frustration spilled out in a growl. “I’m trying to do what’s best for both of us. Keeping what happened last night just between us is the right thing to do. Agreed?”

      She opened her mouth, the tip of her tongue darting out to lick at her lips. The simple action had the blood rushing from his pounding head southward.

      He shifted the heavy overcoat in front of him. He needed