Unforeseen Danger by Michelle Perry Page A

her head, pulling her to him.   Nikki snuggled up against him and pressed her face into his hard chest, breathing in the warm, masculine scent of him.   He cradled her in his arms and she wondered how many times that they had lain in bed, just like this.   Jake stroked her hair and placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head.   The tenderness he showed her touched Nikki, even though it plainly scared him to death to be close to her.   She dared to think that they might save their marriage.
    ***
    November 5
    “Wow,” Nikki said.   “We live here?”
    She turned a slow circle in the foyer, taking in her surroundings.   Jake thought she was lovely, even with her bruised face and choppy hair, and she seemed so excited to be home.   He couldn’t help but be pleased with her newfound admiration for the place.   He gave her the grand tour, enjoying her childlike wonder over the things that she had once dismissed so casually.
    “You’re so young and I don’t work, so I figured that we lived in some cozy little newlywed cottage.   I never imagined it would be this big!”
    “I’m glad you like it.”
    “Everything’s so beautiful.”   She trailed her fingers on the ornately carved stair rail.
    “Well, it was put together by a beautiful decorator,” Jake said with a wink.
    “I did this?”
    “Yes, ma’am,” he grinned.   “You picked out every piece of furniture, every picture.”
    By now they had made it upstairs.   Jake pushed open a door and announced that this was her bedroom.
    “Mine?”   Her smile faded.   “Not ours?”
    “Mine is down here.”   Jake guided her down the hall to the small guest room he had taken over.   “We haven’t shared a bed in weeks,” he admitted.
    “Why?” she asked bleakly.
    Jake grimaced.   He saw no reason to keep it from her any longer.
    “Because I found out you had a lover.”
    ***
    A pair of socks.
    Jake never dreamed that his marriage would be destroyed by a pair of socks, but it had.   He and Nikki had been arguing some, but he never would’ve believed there was someone else until he found the socks.  
    They had been on their way to one of Sara’s political dinners, and Jake had dropped a cufflink.   It bounced under the bed and, as he peered under there to locate it, he spied something dark in the corner.   He reached to see what it was and found a crumpled pair of men’s navy dress socks.   He had none like them, but still might not have thought anything if Nikki hadn’t come into the bedroom at that moment.
    Jokingly, he held them up while still feeling for the cufflink.
    “Hey, babe.   Looks like some guy had to leave in a hurry.”  
    He didn’t look up, expecting some smart little retort, but she was silent.   He glanced at her, and was shocked by what he saw written on her face.
    Nikki had gone dead white.  
    In his worst dreams and in his most desperate moments, Jake Hawthorne had never been so profoundly frightened.   Suddenly, he wished more than anything that he could rewind the last few moments and never look under that bed.   Looking at her guilt-ridden face, he had known that the life he knew, the life he loved, was over.   Nikki had betrayed him, and the proof wasn’t in his hand, but in her eyes.
    ***
    “Oh, Jake!” the post-Nikki cupped her hand to her mouth in misery.   “I’m so sorry.”
    She reached for him, but, caught up in the searing memory of that moment, Jake couldn’t bear for her to touch him.   He jerked away from her and backed down the hall.
    “Don’t!” he said, sharper than he intended.   “Please…just don’t.”
    He retreated into his room and slammed the door behind him, leaving her standing there, convicted and condemned for a crime she couldn’t remember committing.

Chapter 5
    Jake found her a little while later in the kitchen and had no idea what to say.   Her eyes were red, but she managed a smile as she said, “So, what do you have to eat in this joint?”
    He admired her