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“Where have you been?”
The cold look Kelly gave him would have frozen a lesser man.
“Downstairs.” He closed the door behind him. The last thing he needed was an argument; his head was pounding already. “Before you start on me, let me tell you I’m not too happy about all of this either. So take it easy.” He strode into the room and headed for the telephone. “The coffee’s cold by now. I’m sure we’ll both feel better after we have some breakfast.” He picked up the phone, dialed room service and ordered a fresh pot of coffee.
“How can you think of food when we have something more important to resolve?”
He didn’t know how to answer that question either, but at least having breakfast was something to do. “I think better on a full stomach. It’s been a long time since I had anything decent to eat. Hors d’oeuvres and champagne punch last night doesn’t cut it.”
Kelly sniffed her disdain. “Go ahead and eat if you want to, but we have to talk. I intend to put this foolishness about our being married to rest right now. I’ll say this again. We are not married!”
In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Max had to smile at Kelly. The angrier she got, the more attractive she became. He started to reply, when a tattoo of sharp knocks on the door interrupted him.
“Not again,” Kelly said, marching to the door. “This had better be good!” she shouted as she flung it open. “Didn’t you see the sign on the door?”
A teenage boy barreled into the room. “Kelly! Quick, hide! Dad and Damon are on their way up! They’re on the warpath!”
“Sean? What are you doing here?” Kelly’s face was a study in surprise as she craned her neck to look over the boy’s shoulder.
“I…came…to warn you!” he gasped as soon as he could catch his breath. “I overheard Dad say he saw you on TV last night. He said you got married.” A grin broke over his face. “I think it’s cool, but Dad’s sure mad. Did you really get hitched?”
“No,” Kelly answered. She glared at Max.
“Yes,” Max answered. “That is, I think so. We were just—”
“I’ll tell you later,” Kelly interrupted with another urgent look over Sean’s shoulder. “Come on in before Dad sees you.”
Sean almost fell into the room. “Boy, is he going to be fried if he finds me here. Maybe I’d better go back home before he gets here.”
Max stared at the boy who, in spite of his darker complexion, resembled Kelly. Her brother?
“No, you don’t,” a stern voice broke in. A uniformed officer of the Las Vegas Police Department filled the doorway.
Max thought rapidly. Had he broken some local law last night? If the law was after him this afternoon, things must be worse than he thought.
“Patrick? Not you, too,” Kelly squeaked.
Max took a closer look at the officer as the man grabbed Sean by a shoulder and hauled him into the room. He was a sturdy version of Kelly with the same hair color. Somehow, Max didn’t care for the piercing look in his hazel eyes.
“Yeah, Patrick,” the man agreed. “Your brother, remember?” He kept a grip on Sean who was trying to squirm out of his grasp. “As for you, kid, since you made it this far on your own, you might as well stay.”
He scowled at Kelly. “For your information, the department’s entire night shift congratulated me when I showed up for work this morning. Told me you got married on TV last night. Too bad you didn’t let your own family in on your plans.”
“Things aren’t what they seem to be, honest,” Kelly protested. “If you give me a minute, I can explain.”
“What’s to explain? From what I understand, you got married, period. Since I didn’t even know you were seeing someone, let alone planning to marry him, I figured I’d better stop by and find out what’s going on.” He turned his solid gaze on Max. “You the groom?”
Momentarily overcome by the invasion of O’Rourkes, Max could only nod.
“I don’t remember seeing you around,” Patrick mused as he gave Max a thorough once-over. “New in town?”
Max shook his head and exchanged a dismayed glance with Kelly. How many brothers did she have anyway? And what were they going to say if they knew the true state of affairs?
Kelly put her hands on her hips and glared at her brothers. “Max, these are two of my brothers, Sean and Patrick. Patrick is with the Las Vegas Police Department,” she added as if it weren’t obvious to Max. “He’s the suspicious type. Sean’s the youngest member of the family—he’s fifteen.”
Max had to give Kelly credit for keeping her cool under fire. Faced with the same situation, his sister would have probably fainted. He put down the telephone receiver and held out his hand. “The name is Maxwell Taylor. Er…I’m pleased to meet you.”
“So, you’re Kelly’s husband.” Patrick’s features were impassive as he shook Max’s hand, but his eyes spoke volumes. He was definitely not pleased.
“Kelly O’Rourke!” a new voice thundered. A tall man in an air force officer’s uniform marched through the door. The man’s crew-cut dark copper hair was fading into gray at the temples and his hazel eyes were grim. Max realized the newcomer had to be Kelly’s father. He guessed trouble really did come in threes.
Behind Mr. O’Rourke was a younger man, also dressed in an air force uniform. Another brother? Max changed his opinion. Trouble came in as many numbers as there were O’Rourke men.
Surrounded by the power of the law and the military, Max’s civilian heart took a dive. He tried to hide behind a smile.
“Dad, Damon?” Kelly pulled her robe more closely around her. “What in heaven’s name are all of you doing here at once?”
“A better question, Kelly O’Rourke,” her father roared, “is what are you doing here!” Her father’s bushy eyebrows rose in rebuke. “I understood you were going to be the maid of honor in DeeDee’s wedding, but I didn’t expect you to go so far as to get yourself married, too.”
“I’m not—That is, I am, but—” Kelly caught herself and managed a feeble smile. “That is, it was sort of a surprise to me, too.” She sent a quick, pleading glance at Max.
“Is this your young man?”
Max felt he was about to undergo an interrogation. Too bad he had no ready answers. He couldn’t tell the unvarnished truth, not with the silent appeal in Kelly’s eyes. He held out his hand to have it grasped in a firm handshake he was going to feel for a week. “Maxwell Taylor, sir.”
“Michael O’Rourke. Glad to meet you, my boy,” Kelly’s father answered with a final shake. He regarded Max through narrowed eyes. “Not that I’m all too happy over my daughter’s elopement, you understand. But considering her impulsive nature, I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised.” He gazed reprovingly at Sean. “This young one here seems to have the same knack for doing the unexpected, but I think I have time to cure that.”
Kelly gasped. “Dad, how can you say such things?”
“The proof is standing next to you,” her father answered, gesturing to Max. “So, what do the two of you have to say for yourselves?”
Max took a quick inventory of his chances with this audience and shot Kelly a warning glance.
Damon, an air force officer like his father. Patrick, a local Las Vegas lawman. All three highly trained with instincts and senses honed to a razor’s edge. All sharp and unlikely to be fooled easily. On the other hand, there was Sean. From the boy’s sheepish grin, Max sensed Sean was a maverick like his sister.
At least there was one friendly male member of the O’Rourke clan.
Max caught Patrick’s frown as he stared at Kelly, almost as if he were on a criminal case. Max’s own gaze followed Patrick’s to the hand Kelly used to clutch the robe to her throat. To his mind the answer to Patrick’s frown was clear. Kelly, ostensibly a newly married woman, wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.
Max stirred himself. The moment of truth was at hand. Husband or not, for Kelly’s sake, if not his own, he owed her his support. “Here, sweetheart, let me help you with that,” he said. On the pretext of helping her close the bathrobe more closely around her neck, he managed to slip his class ring off his finger and onto Kelly’s wedding-ring finger. With a warning look into her startled eyes, he turned back to the O’Rourkes. Just in time to glimpse a shadow cross Patrick’s face. Moments later, he saw Patrick’s gaze settle on the bridal bouquet and the wedding veil on the coffee table.
Max responded to the stunned look on Kelly’s face. He had to do something to break the tension before Patrick started asking questions for which he and Kelly had no answers. The sooner the better. “Sweetheart, why don’t you go in and get dressed?”
She nodded reluctantly. “Okay. I’ll be back in a minute, Dad. Max, can I see you in the other room for a moment?”
“Sure,” Max answered. Before he followed Kelly, he noticed the envious look in Sean’s eyes as the boy studied the untouched champagne breakfast. “Sean, why don’t you help yourself to some breakfast? No use letting it go to waste.”
Kelly pulled Max into the bedroom and pushed the folding doors together. She pointed to the open slats on the doors, then dragged him into the bathroom and carefully closed the door behind her. Soft, romantic music filtered through the room. “What in heaven’s name are we going to do now?”
“Good question.” Max gazed at the exotic surroundings that were obviously designed to stir a man’s senses. Even with trouble waiting for him in the other room, his thoughts turned to putting the scented oils to good use. He blinked. Of all the fool times to think sensuous thoughts, this was probably the worst.
“Brazen it out, I guess,” he answered, firmly turning his thoughts to the more serious issue at hand. “We’ll just pretend everything is okay until they leave. Then, if it turns out we actually were married last night, we can talk about an annulment.”
“An annulment? After last night?” Her startled expression got through to Max. She was right. Married or not, they had shared an intimate night together. An annulment was probably out.
“Okay, maybe not an annulment,” he answered. “Maybe a divorce.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Kelly muttered angrily. “In the first place, I keep telling you we’re not married. In the second, O’Rourkes don’t get divorced! That’s why neither of my older brothers are married—they’re waiting for the right woman. As for my getting a divorce, it’s out of the question. I’d be breaking Dad’s heart!”
“Keep it down,” Max cautioned. “This is what I think we ought to do. For now, we’ll tell your family we’re going on a honeymoon. We can settle all this later when we’re alone.”
“Honeymoon?” Looking outraged, Kelly demanded, “Honeymoon? Who said anything about a honeymoon?”
“Take it easy, Kelly,” he soothed, with one eye on the bathroom door. If they didn’t come to some sort of agreement soon, he expected an O’Rourke to be pounding on the door in minutes. “It’ll only be a pretend honeymoon. Just long enough to get your family off our backs.”
“Maybe.” She didn’t look mollified, but she finally agreed. “But don’t let Patrick fool you. Damon, either. If you knew them as well as I do, you’d know they’re up to something.”
“Now you’re being paranoid,” Max answered, his nerves shot. “You’re their sister. It’s natural to worry about you.”
“That’s the problem. They think they have to keep an eye on me. It drives me crazy. There were times when I was a kid that I used to think my thoughts were engraved on my forehead.” She rubbed her forehead. “I sure hope this isn’t one of those times.”
With a last regretful glance at the Jacuzzi, Max turned Kelly toward the mirror. “Take a look. There’s nothing written on your forehead. Besides, as a married woman, you don’t have to account to your brothers.”
Instead of continuing to argue, Kelly looked into the mirror. Max’s hands held her by the shoulders, his chin rested on her hair. He was right. Except for a frown, her forehead was clear. But, to her chagrin, there was definitely an awareness of Max reflected in her eyes. As her gaze met his in the mirror, she read the same awareness in his. The strange excitement she remembered beginning with the garter ceremony began to fill her again.
“We aren’t really married, you know,” she murmured. She was strangely unwilling to break the sensual tension between them, but the truth was the truth.
“Why don’t we wait and see,” he said softly as he drew a damp tendril from her forehead. “In the meantime, we’re in this together.”
“Thank you,” she answered gratefully. “But I’m not sure we’ll hear the last of this. Even if Dad’s convinced we’re married, I know he’s disappointed. He would have preferred a traditional Irish church wedding with all the O’Rourkes in attendance.” She worried her bottom lip. “We’ll have to be careful. In the meantime, please go along with whatever my dad says until we’re alone. Okay?”
Max had a gut feeling she was right. He felt guilty, although he wasn’t quite sure why. Having too much punch? Becoming attracted to Kelly and marrying her on impulse? Consummating their wedding night? Any or all of the above?
He couldn’t afford to dwell on the possibilities, not now. Not when judgment day waited for him as near as the next room.
What further complicated the situation in his mind was that they were obviously on Kelly’s home territory, or her father and brothers wouldn’t have shown up so soon. With his own home and his family in the East, he had little to lose. He also had a plane ticket to Hawaii in his suitcase for a few days from now. He’d intended to spend some time in Vegas and enjoy the nightlife, then fly on to Hawaii for a much-needed vacation with Lian. Left behind, Kelly, for all her bravado, was the vulnerable one. The least he could do for her was to find out what really happened last night and to make sure she wouldn’t get hurt. Not by himself, or anyone else. And that went for her father and her brothers, too.
“Why don’t you get dressed?” he said. “We’ll work something out when you come back in. Okay?”
One thing he was sure of, Max resolved as he left Kelly to dress, for her sake there couldn’t be any talk of an annulment or divorce with her family around. Pretending he was a loving new groom when he had to keep his distance from the most attractive woman he’d ever met was going to be a hell of a way to spend his vacation.
Sean was deep in croissants and jam when Max walked back into the living room. To Max’s further dismay, Damon was gazing at the bridal bouquet with a frown on his face. Patrick, involved in conversation with his father, looked up when Max walked in.
“Kelly?” Patrick asked.
“She’ll be out in a few minutes.” Before Max could say anything more, a knock on the door sounded a reprieve.
With a wry shrug, Max opened the door. “Your coffee, Mr. Taylor.” The room-service waiter rolled in a small cart. “Anything else?”
A miracle. “No thanks, that’ll be all.” He reached into his pocket for his wallet. “It’s on the house, Mr. Taylor,” the waiter said, smiling and backing out the door. “Comes with the bridal suite. Congratulations.”
Max’s heart sank. He’d never be able to talk his way out of this mess. Not with strangers congratulating him on a marriage he could scarcely remember.
Kelly’s father took the cup of coffee Max offered. The questions Max expected came as swiftly as a hail of bullets. “Since I’ve not seen you around here, I was wondering where you come from. What do you do for a living? And how and where you met Kelly? Have you known each other long?”
Michael O’Rourke was obviously no fool, but a quick glance at the expression on Patrick’s face was all Max needed to realize where the questions had come from. He’d been around the law often enough to recognize official questions when he heard them.
“Long enough to know I wanted Kelly for my wife,” Max answered briskly. “I live in Boston. I have my own business of fitness centers. As for when I met Kelly, I saw her a few times when I visited Troy, and she and DeeDee came over. Anything else?”
“Not at the moment. But let me tell you that I would have expected you to have taken the time to ask me for my daughter’s hand before you decided to get married. Or at least invited her family to the wedding.”
“I suppose you could say it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, Mr. O’Rourke,” Max answered truthfully. “We couldn’t seem to help ourselves.”
“‘Mr. O’Rourke?’ What’s the matter with calling me Dad now that you’ve married my daughter?” Kelly’s father sighed. “I suppose times have changed from when I was a young man and asked for my Moira’s hand.” He sighed again. “Naturally, I would have preferred to give my only daughter away at a proper church wedding with her family in attendance.” He gazed reprovingly at Max. “I hate to think of what her sainted mother would say about all of this.” His eyes narrowed. “Still, if we do this properly, it may not be too late.”
Cold shivers danced on Max’s spine at the realization that the marriage game was becoming more complicated as the minutes flew by.
“You both will have to come home with me for a few days,” his new father-in-law announced. “You can meet Kelly’s extended family and give them all a chance to get to know you.”
Before Max could protest, Kelly appeared in the doorway wearing her crumpled maid-of-honor gown and holding a hairbrush in her hand. “We’ll have to do what?”
“Come home and let your husband meet the rest of the family,” her father repeated. “As I told him, it’s not too late.”
“Too late for what?” Kelly demanded. Eye to eye, toe to toe, green eyes blazing, she challenged her father.
“A proper church wedding!”
From the tone in his voice, Max could tell Michael O’Rourke wasn’t used to being challenged, not from anyone, least of all his daughter. When the man’s eyebrows rose to new heights, Max could feel big trouble brewing.
Kelly’s face became as flushed as her father’s. “We’re already married, Dad!” She gestured to the festive gown she wore. “You said yourself you saw us getting married on television last night.”
Max snapped to attention. She’d spent the last few hours protesting he was crazy, insisting they weren’t married. Now she was changing her mind?
“True, but there’s still a matter of a proper wedding,” her father answered firmly. In the background, Damon and Patrick murmured their agreement. Sean grinned his sympathy and shrugged his shoulders. Max sensed the kid had wisely elected to keep his opinions to himself.
“Max, say something!” Kelly’s voice drew Max back into the argument.
“Maybe a visit can wait for later on,” Max answered. He took Kelly’s hand in his and squeezed it gently in a silent warning. “To tell the truth, Mr. O’Rourke, I’m on a short vacation. Time for our honeymoon is limited.”
“Maybe so,” Kelly’s father answered, “but there’s still the family to consider and your future plans to discuss. In any case, I still expect you both to spend a day or two under my roof so everyone can meet you. We’ll use the base dining hall and have a big party. The military is like an extended family, so we’ll invite them too. For Kelly’s sake, since she works there,” he added meaningfully.
“But, Dad—”
“No buts, Kelly O’Rourke! My mind is made up. I’ll expect both of you tonight!”
Max put his arm around a protesting Kelly and, under the pretext of kissing her ear, whispered, “Agree with him. We’ll think of something later on.”
“You have no idea what you’re letting yourself in for,” Kelly whispered, matching her father’s glare over Max’s shoulder.
