His Temporary Wife (The Brides of Sunflower Falls #2)

Chapter 1

one

Sneaking around was not in Tony Caputo’s wheelhouse. Even with the restrictions currently placed around him, he couldn’t help but find ways to make connections and be in the spotlight.

At least a little bit.

The one thing about spending his time in a small town like Sunflower Falls meant he was frequently in the spotlight. Especially as he had been here for months now, and everyone knew he wasn’t planning on becoming a permanent resident.

Being here with his friend Zach Troy, the hometown bad boy who’d made good by going off to the Marines, meant there was even more attention. The second week they were here, he’d had at least five people come up to him and ask what was going on because Zach hadn’t spent more than a weekend in Sunflower Falls since he’d left for the Marines a week before high school graduation.

The answer they’d agreed on—after the second time he’d been cornered and asked—was that he’d had enough of the Hollywood life for now and wanted to see what life in a small town was like while he figured out his next moves. And since his good friend Zach had grown up in a small town, here they were.

But as he approached Melody Keller’s door for a night of adult fun, he felt like he should be looking around for paparazzi. Sunflower Falls was barely big enough to have a weekly newspaper—forget paparazzi.

Hell, he knew production companies back in Hollywood with HR departments that might as well employ former paps for some of the stuff they got on your back about.

Rarely the right stuff?—

Before he could complete the thought, Melody opened her door. Her dark hair was pulled up into a messy bun and earrings marched up the shells of both ears. She must have changed after coming home from work as she wore a worn tank shirt featuring a band he’d done some promotional work with back in the day and leggings instead of her usual work uniform of heavy duty pants and shirts branded with the logo of the construction company she ran with her brother Eric.

Her puppy Button was wriggling in her arms, a ball of fluffy energy.

He grinned. “Hey, lady.”

Melody grinned back at him. “Get in here before any of the neighbors see you.”

And there it was. He’d been fully prepared to ask her to keep things quiet when they hooked up, but she’d been the one to insist no one find out about them.

“I’ve got a reputation in this town to maintain.”

“What? Ball buster?”

“Always. No. It’s no one’s business what I do or who I do it with. I don’t intend to be gossip item number one.”

“I’m going to marry you. ”

“Why would I want to marry someone who’s delusional?”

When he’d tried to dig around, she’d closed up and changed topics. Which was fair since he still hadn’t told her why he was hanging out in Sunflower Falls. Couldn’t tell her.

But, he hoped, maybe soon. The last call he’d had with the district attorney seemed promising. Robert’s attorney was making noises that he wanted to cut a deal, but that depended on Robert actually having something of worth and Robert not being a complete and total dick.

As Robert being a complete and total dick was the main reason Tony had his ass planted in this town that could maybe staff an independent production, that wasn’t much to count on.

Tony shook off the morbid thoughts and bent down to kiss Melody as she closed the door behind him.

“Hello. Marry me.”

She laughed a little against his lips. “As always, no. Give me a couple minutes. I need to take her out back.”

“I can.”

“No. Mr. Higgins is out back working on his tomatoes.”

“What is it with the people around here and gardening? Zach’s dad’s into roses. Mr. Higgins has his tomatoes and whatever other green stuff he eats.”

“County fair’s coming up. Generations of Higginses and Troys have won the blue ribbons at the fair. Zach’s lucky the Marines picked him up. Otherwise he’d be right there making sure they’ve got the best American Beauty in bloom in time.”

Tony laughed. “Good to know. Want to show me what a county fair’s like?”

Her step hitched as she walked to the back door. “Think you’ll still be around in October? ”

He crossed his arms as he studied her back. She didn’t even really give him a chance to answer before she was out the back door.

Some people might wonder why he’d gone and fallen in love with probably the most emotionally closed off woman he’d ever met, but it was the moments where she let herself be free that had reeled him in.

The first time he’d gone to the Sunflower Falls Diner with Zach, they’d ended up with platters of food coating them thanks to one of the servers, Melody’s best friend Ana, getting distracted and tripping over her own feet while carrying an order-filled tray. Thankfully, no one had been hurt and the diner owner had everything sorted within minutes.

Melody had been at the next table, and the absurdity of the moment had her laughing. It had been so bright and sparkly, like the earrings she wore.

As he and Zach had explored Sunflower Falls since their arrival, he’d spotted her helping around town. From small things like repairing a broken birdhouse for some little kids to coming over to the house next to where he and Zach were staying and spending some time with the elderly man who lived there while she ostensibly was there to check on a report of fallen roof shingles from another neighbor.

He knew for a fact that was a lie as she hadn’t ended up on the roof any of the five times she’d pulled that excuse despite being with the older man for at least an hour each visit.

Melody claimed to be a ball buster, but he knew that she’d planted her heart here in Sunflower Falls and did her best to care for its residents.

Even Mrs. Smith who, if this was a screenplay, Tony would cast her as a retired spy with the amount of gossip she had on the residents of Sunflower Falls—despite being a relatively new transplant herself—as well as the world at large. He’d caught Melody hanging out with Mrs. Smith more than a handful of mornings at the counter service seats of the diner.

At first, the fact Melody wanted nothing from him had been refreshing. He’d spent his entire life being used for access. As a kid, it had been people wanting to be close to his parents. So much so that “play date” meant “my mom wants to be cast in your dad’s next movie.” In his early 20s, he’d gotten it from all sides with people wanting access to fame and clubs and power players wanting that fame to bump up their own. These days, he was mostly out of the spotlight, but in Hollywood, almost every relationship was transactional.

People wanting to take advantage of his access to celebrities was how he’d ended up in the mess with Robert. Extortion and organized crime went hand-in-hand, but Robert decided to be enterprising and expand the scheme into getting access to celebrities and their dirt from the production side of the business.

Tony had been duped into partnering with Robert for his first test of the scheme thanks to a request from Robert’s godmother who’d been a long-time friend of his father’s. Kind of hard not to feel salty about everything when his choices to do the right thing after finding out what was going on had landed him in his own, unofficial, version of witness protection.

He rubbed his chest. There was that twinge again. Doing the right thing was to tell Melody who he really was. He’d come close to telling her several times. But every time, he remembered the murder-board connections map he’d been shown with Robert off in his own little hub of the spiderweb. Melody didn’t deserve to be brought into that mess, so it was on him to fix what he could before telling her.

For now, he’d focus on learning everything he needed to know to be allowed into the walls that surrounded her heart. Even if that meant hiding their relationship in plain sight.

She didn’t want the neighbors to know about him, but they met at her house. The house he was staying at was a non-starter with Zach being there. So was the town’s motel as her mom was the manager. According to town gossip the Sunflower Falls Motel was the host for numerous town indiscretions that everyone knew about, but pretended they didn’t.

Secrets were hard to keep in Sunflower Falls.

The only reason he’d been able to keep his was wholly because of Zach and his closed mouth nature.

His friend—and bodyguard—knew the value of when to keep things under wraps and when to put it on blast.

The fact Tony had been hooking up with Melody for over a month now—since just after the town’s street party back in June—was something Zach had not been happy about. But he hadn’t breathed a word to anyone.

That first time had almost been accidental. Zach had left them at the house Tony had just bought and planned to rip down to run some errands. Tony was sure Zach thought there wasn’t anything that could happen while discussing lakefront views and load-bearing walls.

But throw in some good-natured bickering, a woman who was hot as hell when explaining town ordinances and building materials, him proposing and getting turned down yet again, and next thing he knew they were going at it in the kitchen. Mainly because it was the only place not covered in the ugliest carpet known to the planet—including the bathroom.

He shuddered at the memory. That bathroom still haunted his nightmares.

The island counter probably hadn’t been the most sanitary either, but since neither of them had been carrying a condom with them, they’d only gotten undressed enough to get each other off.

Zach had sensed something when he came back to pick Tony up, but he had said nothing until Tony had gotten a text inviting him out to look at flooring options. By himself.

At that point, Zach had talked to him about safety while going out in more public spaces without him.

Tony’d gestured to his face. “I’ve got the beard now. No one has recognized me. Besides, everyone around here just accepts that I’m a friend of yours from Hollywood visiting for the summer. Not that I’m here because you’re my bodyguard and I’m in hiding.”

Back in the present, his thoughts were interrupted as Melody yanked open her back door. “Sorry about that, Mr. Higgins.”

Tony wondered what had happened as Button was wriggling around in Melody’s arms and yipping.

“Everything okay?”

She didn’t reply right away, just closed and locked the door before she set Button down on the floor. Button yipped at the door a couple times before turning around and puppy running over to Tony.

She stopped a couple times as her paws and legs seemed to lose connection with each other. But after a moment, she got right back up and continued running to him. She went up on her hind legs, pawing at his leg. He bent down and picked her up. “How are you settling in, little lady?”

Melody snorted. “That little lady just attacked one of Mr. Higgins’s squashes he’s growing for the county fair. She’s lucky she’s so damn cute as he only laughed.”

Tony cradled her like the baby she was and scratched her soft belly. “You are a cute one, aren’t you? Take it from me, looks can only get you so far. You need to work on developing your smarts while you can.”

“Looks can only get you so far? I’m amazed. Deep philosophy from you.”

He held his arm up so that Button’s face was next to his, and batted his lashes. “Am I not book boyfriend material?” He winked. “I know your tricks, Melody Keller. When you sound like you’re trying to insult me, you only want me in your bed.”

She walked over, wrapped her hand around his neck, and pulled his head down. “What do you think you’re doing over here?” She kissed him, and like every other time, she took his breath away.

He’d never been so fixated on how one woman tasted before her. Every time felt like a new experience and he had to keep uncovering the secrets she kept.

They only stopped because Button began wriggling and nipped his biceps. “Ouch.”

Melody took Button from him. “Okay, that’s enough biting from you tonight. We’ll need to work on that.”

Tony followed them upstairs, but headed to Melody’s bedroom while she went into the spare bedroom where she kept Button’s crate.

A few minutes and two closed doors later, he and Melody picked up where they’d left off. He was kissing his way back up her legs after stripping off her leggings when her doorbell rang.

He looked up at her. “Do you need to get that?”

With glazed eyes, she shook her head. “What? No.”

He was about to place a kiss at the juncture of her thighs when the doorbell rang again.

“Damn it. Whoever’s there, I’m going to kill them.”

Tony sat back on his haunches, watching as Melody grabbed a robe from her closet. She threw it around her body before heading downstairs.

He was tempted to follow her down and scare off whoever had interrupted their time together, but it would be him she killed if he did that.

When Melody didn’t come back right away, Tony opened her bedroom door and stuck his head out. He heard voices. Melody’s of course and… He listened to the deeper tones. Eric. What the hell was Eric doing here?

Melody’s brother had been moping around town while his girlfriend Libby had gone back to New York to deal with her dad who had done some very fucked up legal shit. Even the weekly Sunflower Falls Gazetteer had covered the story.

Tony stepped out into the hall so he could better hear what was going on. Only minutes later, Melody came back up the stairs. She looked at him and started undoing the belt of her robe. “Where were we?”

He moved to her and stayed her hand. “Was that Eric?”

“Talking about my brother won’t get me back into the mood.”

He bent his head and kissed her jaw below her ear. “If you need to go do something with him, it’s fine. I can stay here with Button. Or I can go?”

Melody pulled back. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. But it’s not every night that your brother comes over here, right? So something’s up.”

“He wanted to let me know that he’s headed down to the city to be with Libby. I’ll take lead on the Sullivan project until he gets back.”

“That’s it?”

She wove her fingers through his hair and pulled him down. “That is it. Can we forget my brother now?”

Their lips met, and he let himself get lost in the kiss. The nagging thought that she never wanted him to focus on anything outside of their sex life or work life together was buried in the heat that was never far away when they were together. They moved back into the bedroom.

He bent down, wrapping his arms around the back of her ass, and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his hips, and he walked them to the bed.

When they were together like this, all he could think of was how best to worship her. Tony had lived his life as far from monkhood as possible. But for the last five years, he’d felt restless, not as engaged with the women he met.

It felt like all the fascinating-for-more-than-a-couple-dates ones were already in relationships. But Melody?

Every one of his senses had woken up in her presence. He needed to be firing on all cylinders to keep up with her.

In some ways, he felt like he’d met his soul mate. But he doubted because wouldn’t his soul mate want to be with him? Openly.

Before his thoughts could spiral out further, Melody yanked him to her. “What’s going through your head?”

Falling back on habit, he grinned at her. “Just figuring out the best way to make you come. At least twice.”

Melody settled back onto the bed, her arms raised above her so that her breasts were on delicious display. “I bet you can’t make me come three times before you need attention.”

He won the bet.

After they’d both caught their breath, he settled down next to her. “Want me to get Button?”

“Why? She needs to learn to sleep in her crate. I’ll spoil her in other ways.” She was quiet for a few minutes. “You should go.”

He heard the reluctance in her tone, but also the resolution. “I’m beginning to feel you only want me for my body.”

She pushed up on her elbows. He couldn’t help but admire the view of her breasts as she didn’t have any false modesty. The woman was fit as fuck.

“Eyes up here, buddy.”

Dragging his gaze upward, he cocked an eyebrow. “Want to deny it?”

She cocked an eyebrow right back at him. “No. I told you I have a reputation in town to maintain. No overnights. We’ve both had our fun, so it’s time for you to go.”

He let the hurt wash through him, but tried one more time. “What if I promise some more fun later? I’m not an eighteen-year-old, but I’ve still got moves.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Ew. Eighteen-year-olds are babies. Time for you to go.”

He let out a sigh. “Fine. But one of these days, I’m going to wear you out until neither of us are coherent until morning so I can sleep over by default.”

“You can try. Get going.”

He climbed out of bed. As he didn’t have any false modesty either, he didn’t rush to cover himself up. “Give me a kiss goodbye?”

This time he could tell that her put-upon groan was her sarcastic side showing through. “Fine, since you’re being so needy.”

She climbed out of bed and wrapped her arms around his neck. Their kiss went from teasing to hot in moments. He was trying to figure out how to best get her back into bed when she broke the kiss by shoving at his shoulders. “Get going.”

He groaned, but rested his forehead against hers. “Just so you know, I consider this cruel and unusual punishment.”

“But you keep coming back.”

He heard a note of wonder in her tone, and he pulled back so he could see her eyes. But in the dim light of the room, all he found was a screen hiding whatever emotions she’d let seep through.

Melody was a hedgehog. Prickly on the outside, but a soft underbelly that she protected at every opportunity. Not that he’d ever tell her that because she might decide for punishment to bring back the carpet he’d been assured had been trucked to a landfill.

The only time he felt she let that soft underbelly show was with Button, and he’d bet Melody would say that was because no one could resist cute puppies. He vowed to himself again that he’d find a way to make her feel safe enough that she could reveal it to him.

He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Always. Whenever. Wherever.”

She blew out a breath. “Stop being so sappy. Get out of here. With Eric gone, I’ve got to get up early tomorrow, anyway.”

Tony got himself together and headed out after one more kiss.

Melody didn’t watch him leave. The front door closed right behind him, and he would have sworn he’d have felt her gaze on him if she had watched.

Fighting off the frustration in favor of the enjoyment of the evening together, he walked back to the house he shared with Zach. Luckily, he didn’t run across anyone during the trip.

Zach was still waiting up, watching some cooking show, when he got back. Tony leaned against the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. “I thought you’d have gone to bed.”

“Since I’m not going to sit in Melody’s living room or outside like a pervert while the two of you are having sex, this is the best I can do. You in for the night?”

“Yeah.”

Nodding, Zach turned off the TV and headed toward his bedroom. “Good. See you in the morning.”

Once he was in his bed, Tony worked to shut off his mind so he could fall asleep. But he couldn’t help but think again about the tone he’d heard in Melody’s voice when she noted him coming back. For her? He’d come back until the end of his days.