Undercover Daddy by Delores Fossen

his best feature. He was handsome with the stone face, but with that smile, he was in whole different category of handsome.
    Okay, he was hot.
    Elaina hated that she had to admit that, especially since she was doing her best to forget anything remotely positive about him. But it didn’t matter. In the grand scheme of things, good looks meant nothing.
    “Elaina?” she heard Gary say.
    She forced her attention away from Luke. “I’m fine,” she answering, trying to smile. It didn’t come as easily for her as it did Luke.
    “Are you sure, because you—”
    “She’s fine,” Luke interrupted. He leaned in and brushed that smiling mouth over hers.
    It was a simple gesture. An act. But Elaina felt herself go all tingly and warm. Heck, she even felt it all the way to her toes. Furious at her reaction, she dismissed it as fatigue and fear. Or at least that’s what she tried to do, but Luke didn’t take his mouth from hers. The tingling and warmth soon began to skyrocket.
    She pinched his back and would have pinched herself if she hadn’t thought it would make Gary even more wary.
    Luke reacted to the pinch. He pulled away and stared down at her. He looked stunned. Or something. And he shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened. Maybe that’s because he might have experienced it, too.
    “I’m fine,” Elaina repeated to Gary. “Really. Couldn’t be better.” And she put an unspoken “goodbye” at the end of that.
    “Good. That’s good.” Gary nodded awkwardly. He obviously didn’t catch the goodbye part because he continued. “I heard about the protestors. The sheriff’s holding them for questioning or something. There’s also a federal agent of some kind down at the jail, but the sheriff sure isn’t saying anything about why he’s there.”
    Well, it’d taken less than an hour for that information to make it to Gary, which meant it was all over town. Hopefully, it would keep most folks from visiting because they’d probably think she wanted to spend some time alone with her husband. Being alone with Luke was no piece of cake. Her body couldn’t take much more of this.
    Elaina decided to go for the direct approach. “I’ll see you soon,” she said to Gary. She waited until he issued an unenthusiastic goodbye before she shut the door.
    Luke didn’t let go of her.
    She didn’t let go of him.
    They just stood there with his arm still curved around her waist.
    “This is a lot harder than I thought it’d be,” Luke mumbled.
    “Welcome to the club.”
    She paused, trying to figure out how to say what she needed to say. Elaina finally decided to heck with it. This was something that had to be said. But Elaina didn’t continue until she stepped from his embrace and put some distance between them. “We dislike each other. But you’re still a man, and I’m a woman. Our bodies aren’t reacting as if we’re enemies.”
    He nodded. “Our bodies were reacting to the adrenaline.”
    Elaina toyed with that explanation and figured it was a good one. She only wished she’d thought of it first.
    Even more, she wished it were totally true.
    “Just in case it’s a little more than that,” she added, “I’m going to suggest no more kisses.”
    His eyebrow came up. “You’re probably right. Besides, we have enough to deal with without adding adrenaline reactions to the mix.”
    Elaina had no trouble agreeing with that.
    Luke reached over and reactivated the security system. Since he pressed in the correct code, he must have watched her before she opened the door for Gary.
    “Do you think your neighbor is suspicious that I’m not your husband?” Luke asked.
    “No. He’s jealous. I don’t think anyone in town suspects that you aren’t Daniel Allen. If they did, we would have already heard about it.”
    “Good. Let’s keep it that way.” He propped his hands on his hips and glanced around the room. “We need to make sure all the windows and doors are locked. And close