“No fuckin’ way!” he shouted again.
Lynn jerked her gaze from the computer screen to Nolan, watching his anger grow. A rush of mixed emotions hit her. We can’t be married. Her stomach plummeted as the heat of his anger scored through her. This really was a sham… all just sex and nothing more.
“Well, at least it’s not consummated. Right?” Nancy said, her gaze hopeful.
Nolan’s face turned to stone and his head slowly turned to Lynn still sitting next to him. She opened her mouth, but no words came forth.
“Oh, my God. You two slept together!” Nancy cried out. “Mom and I always thought you two would be good together!”
Lynn heard her, but her gaze was locked onto his face, no longer able to read his thoughts. Icy fingers crept over her and she shivered. She slowly shook her head back and forth, still lacking the ability to voice the tumultuous thoughts running through her mind.
“You. You did this.”
His voice was a deep, rumbling thunder of words. He was still staring at her, indicating the ‘you’ he was referring to was her. He cocked his head toward the computer screen and continued. “I should’ve known you were involved when my sister concocted this ridiculous scheme. You’ve been hot for me since you were a teenager.”
“You’ve got to be kidding! Jesus, that was almost twelve years ago! I assure you that I have not been sitting around pining for you all this time!” Lifting her hand where the wedding ring nestled at the base of her finger, she shook it in front of his face. “You can’t possibly think I did this on purpose! I wasn’t even going to go through with this! You were the one who agreed to her scheme before I even came on board! This is not on me!”
“Nolan, Lynn, stop this.” They swung their gaze back to the computer screen. Rita’s lips were tight as she shook her head. “You both need to step back and take a breath. We can figure this all out, but you two getting angry with each other is not going to help.”
“I can’t believe you.” As Lynn spoke, her voice was soft but shaky as Nolan pierced her with his gaze again. “I had no ulterior motive when I agreed to this scheme to get information. I had no idea her simple plan was going to have to change. And I certainly had no idea that we would spend time together as we have in the last couple of days. I knew it was only for now. I knew it was only temporary. But I thought we’d gotten to know each other well enough that you’d know that I would never stoop so low as to try to trick anyone into marrying me! How you can even accuse me of that, I cannot imagine.”
He leaped to his feet and paced. Finally, he whirled around, snatched the key card from the coffee table, and stalked toward the door. With his hand on the knob, he looked over his shoulder and growled, “Right now, I don’t know anything other than I need to figure out how to get out of this mess.” With that, he left the room, his heavy footsteps disappearing down the hall.
Forgetting Nancy, Rita, or the conference call, she stared at the closed door for a long moment, her stomach clenching as she blinked back the tears.
“Lynn?” Nancy’s soft voice called out.
Jerking her head back to the screen, she stared in stunned silence at Nancy and Rita’s sympathetic expressions.
“Oh, honey,” Rita said. “I am so sorry about all this. It’s true that I always thought you and Nolan would be so perfect together, and I got a special thrill out of writing up your marriage license, assuming it was never going to be used. But honey, the look on your face right now… you love him, don’t you?”
Her teeth landed on her bottom lip, biting hard to stop the quiver of her chin. Swallowing several times, she gained control and battled the tears away. “I never expected the last couple of days to turn out the way they did, and the idea that a future down the road might be possible. It would be stupid to try to say that I don’t have feelings for Nolan, but right now? Wanting to be with someone who thinks so little of me while he also suspects so much of me? No. I deserve better.” Her body shaking, all she wanted to do was get away. “I’ll see you when I get back.”
Nancy was crying out, “Please don’t do anything hasty—” when Lynn disconnected the call. Closing her laptop, she sat for a moment with her hands clasped tightly together in her lap. A single tear slid down her cheek, and she lifted her hand to dash it away. No! I’ll not waste any tears on him!
She hurried into the bedroom and grabbed her overnight bag. Stuffing her belongings inside, she gave no heed to the jumbled mess of wadded clothes. Inside the bathroom, she did the same with her toiletries. Hurrying back into the living area, she shoved her computer into her slim case. Grabbing the complimentary pad of paper lying on the desk, her heart sunk as she wrote a note. Dropping it onto the coffee table, she scanned the room one last time, started toward the door, then halted.
With her feet cast in lead, she walked back to the coffee table and stood for a moment, looking at her left hand. Slowly, she pulled the wedding band from her finger. It was never real, and yet, my finger now feels bare. She leaned over and placed it next to the note. Not looking back, she left the room.
18
Nolan sat at the bar nursing his second whiskey. The first he’d downed quickly, hoping the fire of the peaty alcohol would help burn off some of his irritation. He had been at the bar for over an hour, each minute seeming to click by slowly while his emotions raced.
The dim lights in the bar occasionally flashed across his hand, dragging his gaze to the wide ring on his finger. When his mother first proclaimed that he and Lynn were married for real, all he felt was disbelief, but that was quickly followed by the choking emotion of being out of control. SEALs are trained to control a situation, and the last thing they want is entrapment. They guard each other’s back, work as a team, and never leave a man behind.
I’m fucking sick of not being in control! Throwing back more of the whiskey, he thought of the last month. Out of commission with emergency surgery. Prolonged recuperation with an infection. His team’s need to continue without him until he could return.
Resting his hands on the bar, his attention was once again snagged by the ring sitting at the base of his finger. He remembered the moment she slid the ring on his finger two days ago. Her hands were shaking and her eyes round with uncertainty. There was no contrivance in her manner, just fear. The ring had felt strange at first, the cold metal against his skin. But somehow, in the past forty-eight hours, it had appeared natural whenever he looked at it.
The bartender caught his eye, but Nolan shook his head. The last thing he needed was more alcohol. That was another thing he was known for with his team—always keeping a cool head.
When on a mission with his SEAL team, intel was not always correct, information was shifting, and they adapted together. He was good at that and others relied on his ability to adapt quickly.
Isn’t that what Lynn and I did? As he replayed their time in the wedding chapel over in his mind, he knew it had not been her suggestion that they go through with the ceremony.
She didn’t trap me… she’s right, I agreed to this plan before she did. The flaming hot sex they had enjoyed in the past two days was as much his idea as hers. Throwing her teenage emotions and actions into her face had been a low blow. And hurtful, by the look on her face. The image of Lynn’s expression just before he walked out was now branded on his brain. He scrubbed his hand over his face and shook his head slightly.