Tamed by Love (Agent Lovers Series Book 2) (4 page)

“I’d like to know how to stop that!” Gray said and turned off the TV. Then he hung his head and sighed.

“We didn’t make out so bad.”

Surprised, the men turned around. Liz stood behind them, looking around. Obviously she had calmed down.

“You don’t know the trouble you’ve caused, Liz! If Townsend sees that—I really hope he hasn’t seen it—he’ll give me and Chris a lot of hell.”

“Why you two? You weren’t even part of it.”

“Because we’re married to you. Townsend thinks it’s our responsibility to keep you two out of trouble. You apparently can’t do it yourselves.”

“I’m old enough to take care of myself.”

“Apparently not, otherwise you wouldn’t keep getting into trouble.”

“Remember, Gray; this is what I warned you about earlier! But you didn’t want to listen,” she said and looked at him with raised eyebrows, her arms crossed. She ignored Jeff’s and Terence’s curious glances.

“You already know my answer to that. Is it possible you just like to test my limits? Every now and then I have this suspicion…,” he pointed to the TV, “…that you do this deliberately!”

“Well, that just takes the cake!” She put her hands on her hips. “We couldn’t help it that they were fighting!”

“But you insulted the police. You can’t deny that. They wouldn’t have arrested you if you hadn’t gone off on them. And what exactly did you and Jennifer say to them?”

With her head down, Liz picked at some imaginary lint on her clean T-shirt and said, “I can’t remember now. Something about brainless, bossy dick-heads, who should swallow a family pack of donuts rather than question us … and a couple other niceties too.”

Jeff roared with laughter when he looked at Gray’s shocked expression. Gray silenced him with a threatening stare. Jeff jumped up and quickly disappeared into the kitchen, followed by Terence, where the two men’s laughter could still be heard.

“That’s called insulting an officer!”

“Really?” she acted innocently. “Do you think that’s any interest to me?”

“Can it be, that they were on the receiving end of something you would rather have said to me?” said Gray as he stood up. He slowly walked over and stopped in front of Liz, looking down at her.

It took a while before she answered him. “Definitely a possibility,” she said. She started to smile and Gray had to grin. He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her to him and rested his chin against the crown of her head. Then he sighed and affectionately rubbed her back.

“If you’re mad at me, then yell at me and not at a clueless policeman who doesn’t know what’s happening. Or throw the alarm clock against the wall.”

“Already did.”

“If I remember correctly, you called me some vulgar names before the alarm clock bit the dust,” he said. Then he leaned back a little and looked down at her. “We have to work on your vocabulary, sweetheart. And not just that.”

“Hm… You didn’t hear the
macho ass
then?” asked Liz with a grin. Then she avoided his gaze and stared at his broad chest. She ran her hand over his shirt, hoping he wouldn’t talk about his feelings again.

“Don’t try to get us off the real topic!”

“I’m not!” she lied.

“Yes you are! Talk to me. Yell at me for all I care—of course, without those “nice” nicknames you like to give me. But don’t run away! Never run away! We can’t solve any of our problems like that.”

“I don’t have any problems,” she said softly, but vehemently, while she kept her gaze trained on his chest. Liz didn’t want to look him in the eye. She simply couldn’t. The fear of what she would see in them was too great. These feelings he showed her were scary to her. She didn’t want to deal with them and felt she wasn’t in a position to deal with them. Jesus this was a shitty situation!

“Yes! Yes, you do. And at the moment, I’m your biggest problem…” said Gray almost to himself, “…me and my love for you.”

When Liz tried to pull away, he held her tightly.

“Listen, Gray! I don’t want to hear that,” she whispered desperately.

“Sorry, sweetheart, but this time I’m not going to let you hide in the bathroom. Even if you don’t want to hear it, I love you, Liz,” he whispered in her ear and then he kissed her. She stiffened briefly and tried to push him away. But a moment later, she responded to his kiss, wrapped her arms around his neck and nestled her body against his. She just couldn’t help it…

Reluctantly Gray pulled his lips from hers and lifted his head as Jeff made his presence known with several loud coughs. He held up the telephone and pointed to it, mouthing
Townsend
.

So much for hoping the lieutenant general would have more important things to do than watch the local news. With a nod, he took the phone and kept Liz pressed tightly against him.

“Blackwood?” A loud and exasperated voice came over the phone.

“Yes, Sir?”

“I watched the local news this evening, and do you know who I saw?
Your wife
! In the middle of a brawl! What was she doing there? Two of my agents in the middle of a street fight! She’s your wife! You should have seen to it that she didn’t get into any trouble! And what did they arrest them for?”

“We had a small disagreement earlier, Sir. It happens in a marriage. When she got into it with the policeman, she just overreacted. She was still upset with me.”

“Which is why she shouldn’t have even participated in a street fight.”

“It won’t happen again, Sir!”

“I hope not!” Townsend huffed, then he abruptly changed the topic. “By the way, on Saturday there is a formal gathering and I would like you there. While a large portion of the guests belong more or less to the military, dress uniform is not required. The affair is simply to cultivate contacts. I’ll expect you and your wife to participate. This way I can personally confirm that she actually tolerates being married to you. Your crazy brother and Terence Garber already know the score.” Townsend was quiet for a moment as if he were thinking. “Maybe we should turn the gathering into a garden party, since some of the guests are already at your house.”

Gray laughed and shook his head. “Better not.”

“Put your wife on!” he said and Gray passed the receiver to Liz.

“Sir?”

“See to it that you come to the gathering Saturday, Mrs. Blackwood! Let your husband buy you an evening gown. Come wearing it. I don’t want any torn jeans, cheap T-shirts, physical assaults or insults. Do you understand me?”

“Yes. Understood, Sir.” She sighed and handed the receiver back to Gray who had heard every word and grinned broadly.

“We’ll be there.”

“I hope so. And no more incidents of any kind!”

“Of course not!” They hung up and Gray put his arms around Liz. “So an evening gown is required?”

“I guess!” She rubbed her forehead and said, “Now I have to get a new dress. It was hard enough to squeeze into a dress for my wedding.”

“Should I help you look for an evening gown?” Gray offered with a smile and swept a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

“No. I’ll ask Jenny to help. After all, she has to get one of these things, too.” She smiled seductively at Gray, stroked his mouth with her fingertips, stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. “But for that, you’ll have to give me back my keys.”

“Not a chance, sweetheart. This time you can take Chris’s car.”

“Too bad,” she said and pouted.

As if on cue, the phone rang again. It was Chris. They made arrangements for a game of poker at Gray’s house the next day while the women went on the hunt for suitable evening gowns.

“What do you think of this one?” Liz held up a short, black leather dress from a famous designer and looked at Jennifer for approval. But Jennifer shook her head, unhappy with the studs.

“Definitely not! That looks horrendous. We’re going to a ball, not to a rock concert. Have you forgotten already?”

“Too bad!” Rolling her eyes, Liz hung the dress back on the rack and kept looking. They had already been in the small shop for almost thirty minutes and still hadn’t found anything appropriate.

The sales clerk scrutinized them. Was it because of the way Liz rifled through the delicate gowns or because of their “simple” clothes? The clientele she usually waited on certainly didn’t wear faded jeans, T-shirts and old leather jackets.

“I just can’t find anything, Jenny.” Suddenly Liz grinned from ear to ear; an idea had come to mind. “I could just pretend I was sick. Women constantly claim migraines when they don’t want to have sex. In some ways, this isn’t any different.” She nodded, believing this was the way to get out of Townsend’s gathering. With a sigh, Liz rubbed her temple, slumped over and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Gray! But this headache is unbearable. I need to lie down for a while. I’m really sorry you’ll have to go by yourself. I was looking forward to going with you.”

Jennifer crossed her arms and shook her head. “Do you think he’s stupid enough to fall for that? He’d never buy it!”

“It’s worth a try. If it works, then I won’t have to put up with this charade.”

“But you’re forgetting that our husbands will take that into account. Chris has already warned me not to even try getting out of it. If I have to suffer, then you have to suffer with me!”

“Forget it!” Liz said. She glanced at her watch and rolled her eyes. “We’ve already been here forty minutes and still haven’t found anything.”

“Then we’ll have to just ask for help.” Jennifer walked up to the sales clerk who had just finished speaking with a customer and asked her for help. It only took a few minutes for her to find a dress for Jennifer: a full-length, dark green silk gown, it’s back held together by thin crossed ribbons. The neckline was cut so low that it showed an abundance of cleavage. Too low, too much and too bold. Jennifer was clearly uncomfortable. She kept trying to pull the material over her breasts.

“What’s the matter? You show a lot more than that in a bikini.”

“But I’m not going swimming; this is a formal event.”

“Well, I like it. And Chris would definitely be excited.” Liz smiled. “You probably wouldn’t even make it to the front door because Chris would carry you off like a cave man.”

The young sales clerk laughed.

“You’re impossible.” Jennifer glared at Liz in the mirror and shook her head. “Sometimes I wonder how I manage to survive with you as my friend.”

“I’ll tell you how. Because you love me like the little sister you never had and always wanted.” Liz crossed her arms and smiled. Jennifer rolled her eyes and turned back to the mirror. She tugged at the sheer material one last time before she finally gave up.

“All right! What if we make a little deal?”

“What do you suggest?”

“You have to pick out a dress that shows just as much skin. Then I’ll buy this one.”

“Deal!”

Not even ten minutes later, Liz stood in front of the mirror twirling back and forth. “Jennifer,
please
! Something like this belongs in the bedroom, not in public! You can’t be serious.”

“Oh, yes! Either you take it, or I won’t take the green one. That was the deal.”

“Apart from the fact that this dress is totally inappropriate. And did you see how much it costs?”

“That’s just an excuse. You know you can afford it, Liz. You could buy ten closets full of them.”

“But I can’t wear anything under it!”

“We can still wear panties. But a bra is definitely out of the question,” Jennifer said and pursed her lips.

“Should we keep looking?”

“No. We have a deal, right? And if you don’t take this dress, I’m not buying mine. Besides, we’ve been here for over an hour and still have to find shoes to go with them.”

Liz sighed. With the dress she would create a lot more buzz than she would in her faded jeans and T-shirt. Shaking her head, she disappeared into the dressing room and changed clothes. She felt more at home in her jeans than in delicate dresses that cost more than most families earned in a month.

After they had paid for the dresses, they went looking for a shoe store and didn’t need nearly as much time to make a decision. Exhausted after the shopping, they went to a diner and ordered two strong cups of coffee.

Jennifer’s cellphone rang.

“Where are you? We’ve been waiting for you for hours so we could start the barbecue. It can’t be that difficult to buy
one
simple dress,” said Chris with a laugh.

“It is hard! Don’t ever ask me to do that again!”

“Almost three hours for
two
dresses? Gray and I would have been much faster.” In the background Jennifer could hear the men laughing; she looked at Liz and rolled her eyes. Liz snatched the cellphone and demanded to speak with Gray.

“Listen up, dudes! If you’re going to make fun of us, we’ll take the dresses back. Think of a good excuse for our absence at the get together! Townsend definitely wouldn’t like that.”

“Was it so bad?” Gray asked.

“Worse! On top of it all, Jennifer forced me to buy a dress that cost almost as much as my motorcycle.”

“That’s okay, darling! How about next time I go with you and help out?”

“There isn’t going to be a next time! Today was pure torture. A root canal is more fun than this!” Liz joked, causing Gray to laugh.

“When will you be here?” he asked.

“In about an hour.”

“Expect a delicious barbecue as compensation for your ‘torture.’ So long, sweetheart!” They hung up and Liz gave Jennifer her cellphone. Jennifer looked at Liz who had fallen silent and was pushing the mug of coffee back and forth between her hands.

“What’s wrong, Liz?”

“What do you think?” she asked and continued staring into her mug.

“Something’s not right. You’re unusually quiet.” Liz shrugged and kept a straight face. “Did you have a fight with Gray?”

“No.”

“But it has something to do with him?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t make me drag it out of you! What happened?”

“He loves me,” she said softly. There was no mistaking the despair in her voice.

“I guessed as much. Did you come over yesterday to talk about it?”

“Yes.”

“Are you afraid he’ll try to control you if you admit you love him, too?”