Anna Marie Sorenson's Secret Affair (4 page)

really like it,” Pepper said brightly.

Dallas’s voice was flat. “It has its moments.

“I understand that you are the one who goes on the most dangerous missions.”

“I pretty much go where my superiors tell me to go.”

“Your job takes you to all these exotic countries. That must be exciting.”

“It can be.”

“With all the danger and traveling, it sounds as if you don’t have much time for a social life.”

“It can be that way.”

Pepper cast a bleary eye in Dallas’s direction. Her face set with dogged determination, she tried again. “Cam tells me that you’re not married.”

“No.”

“Do you have someone special in your life?”

“No.”

Pepper blew out a breath and gave up. She turned her back to him and concentrated on her filets.

A cell phone rang. It was Dallas’s. He flipped it open. “Excuse me. I need to take this call.” He left the kitchen.

Pepper swung around to her husband, who was trying not to smile. “Does your brother

have something against civilized conversation, or is that a sign of a defective gene that I should be worried about because it might have been passed down to our kids?”

“Dal has never been one to talk a great deal,” Cam said ruefully.

Secret Affair 21

Whether it was deliberate or not, Dallas did not return to the kitchen. Instead, Cam went to go and find him and keep him company. For Anna Marie, she was heartedly glad of the reprieve. She found Cam’s brother much too disturbing, which was only exacerbated by her heightened awareness of him. She was so relieved that she didn’t even mind when Pepper again launched into one of her favorite subject, which was her sister’s lack of what she considered a meaningful life.

Close to an hour later, Pepper ordered everyone to the table as she and Cameron set the food. She ordered Cam to pour the wine. Dallas had taken off his jacket, looking not so trussed up in his white dress pants and shirt. All four sat down at the table.

“Cam, remember that you need to pick up Toby on Friday at two o’clock for his dentist appointment,” Pepper said. “And we must find a new dry cleaner. A button is missing on my coral silk shirt. The time before that, my lavender cashmere sweater came back with a spot on the sleeve that I know was not there when I took it to them.”

Anna Marie lowered her head to hide a smile. She thought she saw a twinkle in Cam’s

eyes. It was obvious that having had such a dismal success in engaging her brother-in-law in a normal social dialogue, Pepper dropped all efforts of civility towards him, and had decided to patently ignore him for rest of the evening.

“My publisher wants me to go to New York about the new book sometime next month,”

Pepper said, busily scooping mushroom risotto onto her plate. “I thought perhaps we could make a small family trip. The kids will have a Friday off next month. I don’t think it would do any harm to take the Thursday before, and we fly to New York. Do you think you can take off those two days, Cam?”

Her husband nodded. “I’ll have to look at the calendar at work, but no immediate case is coming to mind, so I probably can take off then.”

Anna Marie herself was not much of a conversationalist so that most of the talk was

between her sister and Cam. Cam himself was the quiet, thinking type, as well, who tended to listen more than talk, which was perfect for his wife who talked much more than she listened. As Pepper gabbled away from one topic to the next without a break, he nodded every once in while to show either agreement or that he was listening. Sometimes, Anna Marie would see his eyes take on a distant look, and she wondered if he were thinking about one of his cases.

Secret Affair 22

Anna Marie barely heard any of her sister’s chattering, because she was so painfully aware of the big, dark haired man in white sitting across the table from her. She had no beginning idea of how to sort out this reaction that she was having to him. She had never felt this way towards any man before, reacting so uncontrollably by just looking at him, all that danger and controlled wildness that was emanating from him blindsiding her. And being so near his tall, leanly muscled presence was creating enormous havoc to her orientation, leaving her feeling confused and not quite rooted to the present. She was appalled to find her breath coming in small rapid breaths. She felt as if she were engulfed in suffocating heat one minute and the next breaking out into a cold sweat. She was terrified that she would get a panic attack any minute.

Her nerves were being stretched dangerously thin so that she dropped almost everything she picked up, earning her repeated annoyed glances from her sister.

One time, Anna Marie cautiously raised her eyes, intending to sneak a peak at Dallas, and found, to her horror, his green eyes on her. Her face flushed unbecomingly, and she felt as if she had been caught red-handed, and quickly looked down. She took the risotto that Pepper held out to her. Not paying attention to what she was doing, she kept scooping the risotto onto her plate.

“Anna, really, leave some for the rest of us,” Pepper admonished.

“Wha…” She looked down and saw that she had filled her entire plate with risotto and had nearly emptied the bowl. “Oh, gosh, I’m sorry.” She hurriedly scooped it back into the bowl.

Determined to keep her eyes from straying for rest of the evening, Anna Marie forked some of the roasted asparagus to her plate. Spearing a steaming stalk with her fork, without thinking, she popped it in her mouth, and scalded her tongue. Immediately, she spat it out onto her plate, and then started guiltily when her sister said with sharp reprimand, “Anna! Honestly, you’re no better than the kids at the table.”

“Sorry,” Anna Marie muttered. “I didn’t realize it was so hot.”

She caught Dallas’s eyes on her again, seeing the hint of amusement in the green depths.

She flushed and quickly lowered her eyes.

Pepper continued to rant, about the kids and their devilish delight in playing her up, complaining of what she felt was the incompetence of the staff at her restaurants and studio, her publisher’s and agent’s greediness on her next show and books, and the insipid letters from her thousands of fans that her agent forced her to respond to on her show. As Pepper continued to run on, Anna Marie usual tolerance began to wear thin. Like her brother-in-law, she could most Secret Affair 23

of the time tune in and tune out. But tonight, Pepper’s non-stop tirade was driving her up the wall, and she began to feel impatience for her sister’s deep-seated self-centeredness.

The next hour was tortuous on Anna Marie’s nerves. She could actually feel them

stretching with each second that seemed to languorously tick by. Every time she discreetly looked down at her watch she would see that only a few minutes had passed. She was desperate for dinner to be over with so that she could make her escape to the safety of her small condominium and bury her head in the current book she was reading, where she would be far removed, hopefully forever, from the nerve-racking presence of a Navy SEAL.

With her stomach tied up in nerves, Anna Marie could barely force any of the food down, leaving most of her plate untouched. To settle some of her nerves, she drank more wine than usual, ignoring her sister’s look of disapproval when she poured her third glass of wine.

Pepper’s energetic monologue left little room for any other conversation. It didn’t at all occur to her that it would have been considerate to let her husband engage his brother so that they could get reacquainted, since Dallas’s visits were so rare. But Cam didn’t seem to mind, nor, for that matter, did his brother, Anna Marie noticed. Perhaps the two men had brought each other up to date and had gone over old times on their drive from the airport. Or, perhaps, Cam’s brother was just not one of those people who had much to say at all, she thought, no matter how long an absence. She carefully examined his face from beneath lowered lids. And she suppressed a shiver as she saw again the chilling detachment on his striking face and the flatness of his shuttered eyes. Whatever was in his thoughts, though, he was unfailing in giving the appearance of attention to his hostess, maintaining his eyes on her as she talked away about things that he could have no possible interest in. It was obvious that, like his brother, the Navy SEAL was much more of a listener than a talker. And he watched, she noticed. Everything and everyone.

Anna Marie imagined him perched on some rooftop in the dead of night, camouflaged in black, waiting with the infinite patience of a cat.

Were all Navy SEALs like him, she wondered, not revealing anything about themselves

but letting the other spill out their whole life story? If Dallas had been like most men, he would have been regaling his dinner audience with tales of his military prowess. But he wasn’t just in the military. He was in an elite force, the best of the best. He was trained not to talk about his career. Ever. To do so, would have meant death or dismissal.

“Anna. Anna. ANNA!”

Secret Affair 24

Pepper’s sharp, impatient voice snapped her sister out of her thoughts. When her eyes cleared, it was Dallas’s cool greens that she met. She realized that she had been caught staring at him again.

“Stop your daydreaming for once,” Pepper said imperiously. “Didn’t you hear Cam

repeatedly asking you to pass the salad?”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Anna Marie handed the bowl to Cam who gave her an understanding

wink.

After dinner, Pepper served chocolate flan with caramel sauce. She was so pleased with her desert that she decided that she should at least make another effort at politeness to her brother-in-law.

“It’s too bad that you’ll only be in town for one night,” she said. “Where will you be staying?”

“He’s staying here, of course,” Cam said.

Pepper at first looked appalled, then tried to look pleased and welcoming. “Oh, how

nice.”

“No, I won’t be staying here,” Dallas said. “I’ve a room at the Hilton.”

“That’s totally unnecessary when we have plenty of room here, Dal,” Cam protested.

“I have to leave for the airport at six o’clock tomorrow morning. I don’t want to wake up your household and, plus, it would be much more convenient for me since I can catch a shuttle to the airport from there.”

Infinitely relieved, Pepper smiled brightly. “That’s too bad that you can’t stay longer, Dal. We could have taken you out on the town, such as go to San Francisco and walk the Golden Gate Bridge, and take you on a wine tour up here,” she said, totally forgetting that he grew up in the area.

Dallas’s eyes flickered to her. “Perhaps next time,” he said with faint irony. He looked at his watch. “I think I better get to my hotel since I’m going to have an early morning.”

“I’ll drive you,” Cam said, getting out of his chair.

“No. That won’t be necessary. I’ll call for a cab.” He turned to Pepper. “That was an excellent dinner. One of the best I’ve had. Now, I see why you’re restaurants, show, and books are such successes. You are a very good and extremely talented chef.”

Secret Affair 25

His words took Pepper by surprise. The lavish compliment went a long way to mollify

her from the earlier unfavorable impression of him. He might be defective in normal social interchanges but he obviously knew how to be gracious. She smiled with apparent self-satisfaction and with all the egotism of a driven artist. “Yes, I know. I dare say you won’t find better prepared dishes for hundreds of miles, thousands, I should think.”

Gratefully, Anna Marie grabbed the opportunity that Dallas’s leaving provided to take hers. “I need to get home, too. I have a busy day at the library tomorrow.”

Pepper suggested, apparently completely unaware of any undercurrent tension between

them. “Why don’t you drive Dallas to his hotel on your way?”

Secret Affair 26

Chapter 3

With his face completely expressionless, Dallas watched Anna Marie as her face turned white, her eyes looking stark in their horror against the paleness.

“I’m not quite sure…” Anna Marie choked.

“That really isn’t necessary,” Dallas said smoothly. There was faint humorless light in his eyes when he saw relief sweeping across her face.

“Of course it is,” Pepper said dismissively. “It’s ridiculous of you to go through all that trouble and expense in calling a taxi when Anna here is perfectly capable of driving you.” Anna Marie opened her mouth then shut it again. There was really nothing she could do or say to get out of it, because her driving Cam’s brother to his hotel made perfect sense, and it would have been extremely ungracious and rude of her to force him to get a taxi.

“Alright,” she said faintly. Good heavens, she thought, with both of them lousy at small talk, what in the world were they going to say to each other?

“You’re sure I won’t be putting you out of your way?” Dallas asked with mocking

politeness.

Secret Affair 27

Anna Marie knew that he did not really care that he was putting her out of her way and found her discomfiture amusing. He was laughing at her, but that wasn’t what bothered her.

“No, of course not,” Anna Marie said in a strained voice.

Five minutes later, she was sitting behind the wheel of her twenty-year old Honda

Accord, both of her hands clutching at the steering wheel like a lifeline, keeping her eyes straight ahead, her mind frantically thinking up a way to casually start a conversation, one that would not sound contrived or desperate, or both. She had to think of something, anything to ease this screaming tension inside her. She was so aware of Dallas’s big, tall body sitting so near her. She could even feel his body heat emanating from him, detecting the faint scent of his male muskiness. He was so big and hard and muscled, barely fitting in his bucket seat. He seem to take up more than half the space of the front of the car, making Anna Marie feel claustrophobic.

For the hundredth time, she was asking herself why she was reacting this way to this man. Surely there was no reason for it, no reason for her stomach to be doing belly flops from the moment she saw him, or no reason for this gnawing need to jump out of her skin. He was just another attractive man. A very attractive man. But why shouldn’t she still be able to handle being in the presence of an attractive man? She had before with other men, including Cameron.