Page 54 of Kiss an Angel

Feeling uneasy, he dressed hurriedly, then made his way back over to the big top. A flash of red sequins near the marquee in the front caught his attention, and he saw his wife surrounded by three good-looking townies. They were all behaving courteously toward her, and she certainly wasn’t in any danger, but he still wanted to smash his fist right through their smug, young faces.

One of them said something and she laughed, the sound a bubble of music floating on the night air. He cursed under his breath.

“What are you so pissed off about?”

As Brady came up behind him, Alex forced himself to relax. “What makes you think I’m pissed off?”

Brady popped a toothpick into the corner of his mouth. “The way you’re looking at those townies.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I can’t figure you, Alex. I didn’t think you cared anything about her.”

“Lay off.”

“Matter of fact, I’d just about decided to talk to you about her.” He transferred the toothpick from one corner of his mouth to the other. “I figure, even though she’s a thief and you seem to hate her guts, you don’t have the right to work a pregnant woman so hard.”

“Who told you she was pregnant?”

“We all just figured. The night of the surprise party, you didn’t exactly look like a happy bridegroom.”

Alex clenched his jaw. “She’s not pregnant.”

The toothpick drooped in Brady’s mouth. “Then why the hell did you marry her?”

“None of your damn business.” He stalked away.

It was a little before midnight when they were done working. As usual, when he entered the trailer, Daisy was asleep, but instead of being tucked away in a nest of rumpled sheets as she normally was, she lay on the couch in her costume, almost as if she had sat down for a few minutes and dozed off without planning to. He decided it was one thing to toughen her up, but it was another to drive her to the end of her strength, and at that moment he knew he couldn’t keep working her so hard. As far as he was concerned, she’d paid her debt to society, and it was time to ease up.

Her dark hair fell onto the couch pillow in silky streamers, and her lips were slightly parted. She slept on her stomach, and his mouth went dry as he saw that sweet little ass sticking up, covered only by the diamond-patterned web of her black fishnet stockings. The narrow ribbon of sequins at the center made the sight that much more alluring. Forcing himself to look away, he stripped off his clothes, stalked into the bathroom, and plunged into an ice-cold shower.

The noise of the running water must have awakened her because, when he came out wrapped in a towel, she stood at the sink with his blue terry cloth robe tossed on over her costume. Although she’d turned up the sleeves, her small hands barely peeked out from beneath the cuffs as she opened a loaf of rye bread.

“Would you like me to fix you a sandwich?” She sounded more chipper than she had in days. “I fell asleep before I could eat, and now I’m hungry.”

His robe parted, showing the curves of her breasts beneath the sequin flames on her costume. He dragged his eyes away and instead of thanking her for the offer, snapped at her. “If Sheba catches you lying around in one of her costumes, she’ll have your hide.”

“Then I’ll just have to make sure she doesn’t catch me.”

The renewed spirit in her voice lifted his own mood. “I guess, you can’t be expected to learn everything at once.”

She turned, but whatever she had been about to say seemed to die on her lips. Her gaze trailed down over his chest to the pale yellow bath towel looped low on his hips.

He wanted to yell at her, to tell her not to look at him like that unless she wanted to find herself on her back. His flagging self-control slipped another notch.

“Would you—uh—like your robe back?” she asked.

He nodded.

She tugged on the sash, slipped out of it, and passed it over to him.

He let it fall to the floor.

She stared at him. “I thought you wanted it.”

“I wanted it off you.”

She licked her lips, and he watched her struggle for a response. Even as he called himself every kind of fool, he knew he couldn’t stay away from her for another night.

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