"What do you mean?"
"It's perfectly obvious that, until things got serious tonight, this business of chasing down the lost alien artifact was just another excuse to hire me. You haven't really needed my services at all in any of your cases. At least not until tonight when those two men jumped us."
"That's not true."
"Don't lie to me, Stonebraker. Now, when it's obvious you've got a real case that may take talent-focus teamwork, the first thing you want to do is fire me."
"I just think it would be a whole lot safer for you if you got out of this before it gets any rougher."
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on. I think, after what I've been through tonight, I've got a right to know. Why did you insist on hiring me so frequently this past week?"
He closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. What the hell could he say to her? He had run out of glib excuses. "You've got a point. Maybe it's time I put my cards on the table."
"Past time."
He opened his eyes and looked at her. "Okay, the fact is, I need a wife, or at least a fiancée, in less than two months. Synergistic Connections doesn't seem to be able to come up with a suitable candidate, so I decided to go hunt—uh, looking for one on my own."
"A wife?" Her voice was a mere squeak of sound but her eyes were huge.
"I knew that, among other things, I wanted a full-spectrum prism who wouldn't faint when she discovered that I'm an off-the-chart strat-talent. So I went out and hired a lot of full-spectrums until I met you."
Orchid shook her head in disbelief. "This is a joke, right?"
"Believe me," he put his brandy glass down very deliberately, "whatever else it is, it's no joke."
She stared at him. "You just decided to try out a lot of full-spectrum prisms until you found one you thought might work out as a wife?"
"I'm a little desperate at the moment."
"How very flattering. Lovely to know that you've been driven to checking me out as a potential wife because you're a little desperate."
Rafe began to feel cornered. "Well, it's not as if you've got a dozen potential husbands beating a path to your door, either. You told me yourself that Affinity Associates hasn't turned up a single candidate the whole time you've been registered. Why shouldn't we take a second look at each other? There doesn't seem to be anyone else around for either of us."
"You said you've got two months to produce a wife or a fiancée?"
He gripped the arms of his chair and shoved himself to his feet. He stalked to the fireplace. "That's right."
"Mind if I ask why?"
"It's a family thing." The ever-popular, all-purpose, unarguable, excuse on St. Helens. A family thing.
Orchid glared at him. "You're serious, aren't you?"
"Very."
"Good grief." She shook her head in stunned amazement. "This is like that old ice-fairy tale, the one in which Prince Charming takes a glass slipper around the kingdom until he finds a woman whose foot fits into it."
"I don't exactly envision myself as Prince Charming."
"Neither," she said, "do I."
He winced. "This is probably not a good time to discuss this."
She gave him a steely smile. "I can tell you right now, there won't be a better time. Is there anything else about this bizarre situation that I should know?"
He rubbed his jaw. "No, that's pretty much the whole of it."
"Tell me, please, I can't leave without knowing. How in five hells did I make the cut? Out of all the full-spectrum prisms you must have hired from all the focus firms in New Seattle, why me?"
"I don't know." That sounded weak. He sought for a more logical response. "Why not you?"
"You're right. Prince Charming, you're not."
Rafe spun around to face her. "Look, I'm trying to be honest here."
"Oh, great. No wonder Synergistic Connections is having a hard time finding a match for you. That kind of honesty probably has an extremely limited appeal."
"Yeah? Well, what about you? Your appeal must be somewhat limited, too, if Affinity Associates can't come up with a match after all this time."
She leaped to her feet. "I don't care if they never find me a match."
"Well, I'm not real keen on the idea of being saddled with a deadline for finding a wife."
"I can certainly understand that. Talk about pressure. Well, I wouldn't want you to waste any more of your valuable time on me." She whirled and started toward the door.
She was leaving. Desperation rolled over him in a wave.
"Orchid. Please. Don't go."
Something in his voice must have pierced her outrage. She stopped but she did not turn around. She reached out to grip the door jamb with one hand. Her spine was an elegant, unyielding line.
"I don't think it would be a good idea for me to stay," she said starkly.
"I've made a hash of this. I'm sorry." He took a breath. "But I was under the impression that you're at least mildly attracted to me."
"So?"
"So I'm more than mildly attracted to you. A lot more."
"That," she said brusquely, "is not a good enough reason for marriage, especially marriage without a confirming match from a proper marriage agency."
"I know." He hesitated. "But it's a good enough reason for an affair, isn't it?"
Her hand tightened visibly on the door jamb. Her knuckles went white. "You don't have time to waste on an affair. You need a wife."
"Tonight I need you."
She turned slowly around to face him. Her eyes were shadowy pools that veiled a thousand secrets. "Do you?"
"Yes." This was a fine time to get the shakes. He had not felt this unsteady after the brawl in Theo Willis's front yard, he reflected. "But it's no good if you don't want me, too."
"As you said earlier, we're a good team when it comes to some things."
"Is this one of those things?"
"Yes," she said slowly. "I think it is."
A joyous relief that he had no business feeling at that moment swept away every other sensation except desire.
Rafe covered the short distance that separated him from Orchid in three long strides. He lifted her up into his arms and carried her through the doorway and down the hall.
She smiled tremulously and put one arm around his neck as he started up the broad staircase that led to the darkened floor above. "I could walk, you know."
"Somehow I get the feeling that none of your heroes would allow your heroines to walk up the stairs to the bedroom before they made love for the first time."
"You really did read one of my books, didn't you?"
"Yes."
Rafe reached the landing and paused long enough to kiss her again. Hunger surged through him. He hoped he was not actually panting with lust. So very primitive.
He carried her down the hall to the shadowed doorway at the far end.
"Oh, my," Orchid whispered when he walked into the room with her in his arms. "You said you had a window in the ceiling. This is incredible."
He smiled as she tilted her head back to gaze in wonder at the glass dome above the bed. The fog that blanketed the city had not climbed this hillside. Overhead their private night sky was clear. Stars glittered in the velvety darkness.
The bed had come with the house. It was a massive circular creation with an elaborately carved base of gold-enleaf wood. Rafe stepped up onto the dais with a sense of impending destiny. He set Orchid down on the spider-frog silk quilt.
For a few seconds he simply stared at her, adjusting to the reality of having her here in his bedroom.
"Something wrong?" she asked.
"No."
"Are you having second thoughts?"
"I can't think at all at the moment," he said.
A troubled expression passed across her face. "We're not doing this because of that adrenaline rush we got during the fight with those two men at Theo's house are we?"