Four Weddings and a Fiasco: The Wedding Caper (15 page)

"You . . . you were like this getting here? All the way from—”

“Only from the Rose Chalet.”

“You walked from the Rose Chalet naked under your coat? When Myrna answered the door?" He would have expected her to parade naked across the Golden Gate before he would have believed she would wear nothing under a coat. Talk about out of uniform.

"Worse," she muttered.

“Worse? Myrna knows. I guarantee it. She’s spooky about things like that. She will use it to blackmail you. For the rest of your life.”

Another button loosened its hold on the opposite button hole, and revealed a larger swath of what was underneath.

K.D.

K.D. was underneath. The curves and creamy skin.

“Myrna only blackmails you.”

He saw something else, too. The V of K.D.'s skin ran deep — was that the swirl of her belly button? — but to either side of it were slinky black scraps of material.

"The teddy. You're wearing that teddy from the shop."

"You, uh, seemed to admire it, so I thought . . . ."

His eyes snapped up to her face. The red in her cheeks looked painful and her lips were clamped hard on misery. But her eyes held a measure of hope.

"I admire
you
, K.D. In that teddy, in your uniform, in nothing — I admire you. Maybe especially in nothing," he added because he knew honesty was important to her.

Her teeth eased on her lips and they flickered, as if they wanted to smile.

“Eric, I was wrong. I knew it when I met with Gail Bledsoe. Oh. I know who the mole is. From things Bledsoe said, things I only said to one person. So it has to be Ms. Smiley. Lily. Remember her?”

“Yeah. And I’m sure that all makes sense. I might even want to hear it all someday. But right now, I don’t care. Get back to where you were realizing you were wrong.”

“That was because Bledsoe said things — things about you, about us, all the things I feared — and I wanted to hurt her. Seriously hurt her. I almost rushed it, almost blew the whole thing. My big break and I almost blew it.”

He frowned. Did they have to go back undercover? That wouldn’t be so bad. He could handle—

She smiled. Easy and sure. He’d never seen anything more beautiful.

“I almost blew it, and I could have lived with that. Because I couldn’t wait any longer to tell you that I was wrong.”

It was starting to sink in. He needed to be sure. “Wrong about?”

“I love you, Eric Larkin. And I want to make a life with you.”

“Does that mean we can skip the dating?”

She laughed. “Not all of it.” She held out her hand. “Definitely not going to skip all of it.”

“Y
ou really think Myrna knows?” K.D. asked, nestled against his shoulder on the wide seat of the leather couch in his office.

There’d been a few moments when he had hated that teddy. But now that it was out of the way, flung across the coffee table, he felt a nostalgic fondness for it.

“You were wearing a coat when it's this hot out. Had it buttoned up even though you were sweating . . . . Yeah, I think she knows."

"Oh, God. What is she going to think?"

"That I'm one lucky guy."

That led to more non-verbal communication. But just before it reached its most interesting point, she pushed herself away from him.

“If Myrna knows, other people could know, too. How am I going to get out of here? My clothes are at the Rose Chalet.”

“That’s not a problem, because I’m never going to let you go.”

That answer appeared to satisfy her, because she settled back against him to their mutual and complete pleasure.

I was delighted to be invited to explore the Rose Chalet world and characters created by Lucy Kevin in Four Weddings and a Fiasco. I hope you enjoyed Eric and K.D.'s story. And I hope you might enjoy some of my other stories. I write contemporary romance, a mystery series called "Caught Dead in Wyoming," and historical romance. For more information about my books, visit my website at
www.PatriciaMcLinn.com
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USA Today bestselling author Patricia McLinn’s novels -- cited by reviewers for warmth, wit and vivid characterization – have won numerous regional and national awards and been on national bestseller lists.

In addition to her romance and women’s fiction books, Patricia is the author of the “Caught Dead in Wyoming” mystery series, which adds a touch of humor and romance to figuring out whodunit.

Patricia received BA and MSJ degrees from Northwestern University. She was a sports writer (Rockford, Ill.), assistant sports editor (Charlotte, N.C.) and — for 20-plus years — an editor at the Washington Post. She has spoken about writing from Honolulu to Washington, D.C., including being a guest-speaker at the Smithsonian Institute.

She is now living in Northern Kentucky, and writing full-time. Patricia loves to hear from readers through her website, Facebook and Twitter.