****
Half memory, half dream, Samantha’s sleep-filled brain filtered images of her walking through campus, a backpack slung over her shoulder.
Someone followed behind her. She’d seen him before, but couldn’t place his face. The panic in her blood started after she’d revealed her deepest thoughts to her business professor.
In the back of Samantha’s mind, she knew she was dreaming. Knew where the dream was headed and tried desperately to stop it.
A picture of her childhood bedroom flashed in her mind. A candid conversation with a trusted friend. Her mother, alive, telling her to mind her mouth.
Jordan, just into her training bra, laughing at something their dog, Buster, was doing.
All these images mixed and coiled tight in Samantha’s chest.
Two men wearing dark suits and holding a badge removed her from her classroom and questioned her. Only instead of asking about where her father was, what he was doing, they asked about Blake.
“What he’s doing is illegal, Samantha. Thousands of people suffer because of him.”
No! She fought the dream, willing the images to change.
They pressed forward and fear gripped her heart.
Samantha shot up in bed, her breathing rapid and her heart rate soaring. In a flash, Blake pushed out of the chair he’d been sleeping in and rushed to her side.
“Sam, are you okay?” His hands captured her arms to steady her.
Forcing her breath to slow, she nodded. “Bad dream.”
“You’re shaking.” The words left his mouth and his arms circled around her and pulled her into his chest.
She probably should have pushed away, but couldn’t find the energy. She sucked in the deep pine scent of masculinity that always followed Blake around. This close it was more potent, powerful. Samantha leaned into him and closed her eyes.
He ran his hands over her back, and smoothed her hair. “It’s okay,” he whispered.
The force of her dream left an imprint on her heart. The memories of her mother alive, her sister whole. All gone.
It was her fault.
Blake held her for what felt like forever. When she lifted her head from his chest, she noticed for the first time he still wore a dress shirt and slacks. His jaw held a day’s worth of stubble and his eyes were heavy with concern. Always sinfully handsome, he still looked tired.
“I’m okay now,” she told him.
Even though he moved back, he didn’t let go. His hands traced the outer edges of her arms before grasping her fingers to his.
A strong sense of being anchored, of belonging, washed over her. Blake’s eyes rounded over her face as if searching for physical signs of abuse. His worry for her caught in her throat and the attraction she’d felt for him swelled inside. As vulnerable as she felt, she knew better than to flirt with him or bring to his attention that she was in his bed and wearing only a light nightgown.
Breaking eye contact, Samantha glanced across the room. “You were sleeping in the chair?”
“I only meant to check on you. I must have drifted off.”
But his shoes had been kicked off by the chair, his coat folded over the back of it.
“What are we going to do? Someone is taking desperate measures to catch us in this lie.”
“They took it too far.” His hand tightened on hers.
She squeezed back. “So what do we do now? Leaving the house will only push whoever is behind this away for so long. The Fed’s cased our house for over a year while building their case. We’ve no way of knowing if someone is watching, listening, all the time.” The thought of dodging cameras and bugs on phones for a year gave her a headache.
“I’ll find out who did this. It’s still illegal to penetrate someone’s home and record them.”
“It might be illegal, but it won’t stop them. We need to convince them they’re wasting their time. Otherwise, somewhere, somehow, one of us is going to mess up and reveal just how temporary this marriage is. Then you’ll lose everything you stand to gain and it will somehow be my fault.”
His eyes narrowed and he tilted his head in question. “Why your fault? We both said ‘I do’ for the wrong reasons.”
Afraid he’d see her past sins in her eyes, Samantha removed her hands from his and pulled her knees into her chest. Staring at the opposite side of the room, she said, “Maybe it won’t be all my fault…”
Blake shifted into her line of sight and placed a hand on her knee. The heat of his palm radiated up her leg and snapped her attention to the man sitting beside her. “Now that we know how dirty we’re being played, we need to win on their terms. We’ll use their cameras to show them how wrong they are about us.”
“How do you suggest we do that?”
A tilt of his lips hid a grin. The worry in his eyes started to fade. “You and I’ll go to your house and pack your things. Before we get there I’ll send over a team to find any other cameras that might be hiding.”
“Won’t that be obvious?”
“Was it obvious when whoever planted them did it?”
She’d wondered about that all night. The phone repair guys were the only ones in her house since she and Blake married. “No.”
“We’ll find the cameras and play to them.”
Her pulse picked up speed. “Play to them?”
Blake reached out and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. The feel of his fingers on her skin sizzled. He felt the current too; she could see it in his beautiful grey eyes. “Would it be so hard to kiss me again? For the camera?”