“We have a full service housekeeping staff available to assist you with laundry. If I can help with anything else, let me know. The library’s next to the conference room. There’s a wine reception here in the lobby at six. And don’t hesitate to let me know if you require anything else.” She slid their room keys into a small envelope.
“Darling.” Lucy did her best to be the dutiful wife. She rubbed her hand up his arm for effect, channeling Marilyn Monroe even if the word came out sounding like a disjointed Lucille Ball. “I don’t think I want to go to a wine reception tonight. I’d rather drink alone.” Moths had clearly taken up residence in her brain. “Alone. But with you.”
Right.
She bit her lower lip and winked at him for good measure. Peacocking. That’s what she was doing, and not well.
Time for the big guns.
The five second flirt: smile your biggest smile for a full five seconds and watch the magic happen. Men turned to putty. Or so Katie had told her. Personally, she’d never tried it before.
Anyway.
Lips tilted up. Appear delighted.
Happy.
Pleased.
Amused.
Dash of tenderness.
And… The edges of William’s lips twitched. He wasn’t putty. He was laughing.
Right. Improv flirting. Not her thing. Good to know. Look at that, she’d already learned new things about herself on her first hidden camera honeymoon.
Oh God.
He was wearing the damn glasses, so it was on camera. He swallowed hard and put the back of his hand against her cheek as if checking for fever, but he did it so cavalier, it must have appeared endearing to their desk clerk audience. “You okay, Luce?”
Nerves purring, moths flying in her brain…and he called herLuce. Now who was putty?
“Great.” The word came out high-pitched and a teensy bit screechy. She should stop now, get the nerves and the moths under control, and smuggle herself back to Confluence.
But his hand brushed the apple of her cheek, and her knees turned to apricot jelly.
“I’ll just…go peek at the brochures,” she muttered.
Something a normal bride would do even if for her it meant tucking her outrageous tail feathers and running.
The desk clerk stood with her head tilted to the side. “Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you, Mrs. Monroe.”
Lucy backed away and did her best not to fall on her face on the way to the wall of brochures about…fly-fishing.
No, thank you. She didn’t care for large bodies of water. She browsed a flyer for a local bar instead.
“Hey.” William’s warm whisper teased the hairs at her neck. He rested his palm on her shoulder which, thanks to the mud situation, meant his hand settled mostly on naked skin and a tiny bit of satin.
Which, of course, meantputty.
“All checked in. Did you find anything interesting,darling?” He drawled that last part too long, his eyes bright with clear amusement.
He totally had her number when he smiled at her. For a full five seconds.
She wasn’t putty anymore. Nope, she was pretty much a goopy mess of Lucy.
He raised his eyebrow and nodded to the brochures she held. “What’d ya find?”
