Carter felt his lunch in his throat. Thank God, Lisa wasn’t there. Did she know all of these details? She couldn’t, he decided, or she would have run with the first threat of her safety. No wonder Dean and Jim were so persistent about placing her in a bunker.

“Where is your wife, son?”

“Packing.”

Neil stood and started to pace. “There are two secret service guards on her twenty-four-seven, and I have another private man on the house.”

“Do we know if Sanchez still runs his business from the inside?”

“I’m working on that now. He still has contact with his wife and kids.”

“How f**king fair is that?” Carter exploded. “He destroys Eliza’s life and then goes on with his own?”

Blake clasped his shoulder. “We won’t let him get to her.”

“I knew it would be bad, but this? Dammit, Blake.”

“It’s okay. Eliza is fine, guarded.”

Carter’s skin boiled and his blood threatened to blow like the top of a volcano. Eliza was fine…but for how long?

****

Eliza ran out of words explaining her honeymoon and everything “Carter” to Sam and Gwen. Miss Prim-and-Proper fanned herself with a magazine, and Sam sat forward, leaning over her knees with her chin in her palm.

“You look happy,” Sam said.

Eliza’s cheeks ached from smiling. “I am.”

Gwen patted her knee and stood. “We might want to begin packing. I’m certain Carter will be worried if we delay.”

Eliza glanced around the living room, her home for the past couple of years and sighed. Deep in her heart, she knew she wouldn’t be returning to this small Tarzana home. Even if the day came when she and Carter separated, the chances of her living there would be slim.

The three of them filed into her bedroom and moved in separate directions to pack her personal things. “This shouldn’t take long,” she told the women. “Carter’s home is filled with furniture. Besides, most of this is yours anyway, Sam.”

Sam pushed at her unruly red curls until they were tucked into a band and out of her face. “It seems like yesterday that Blake and I were here packing my clothes. Maybe the bed is blessed and those who sleep in it are marriage bound.”

Gwen tilted her head and considered the mattress with renewed interest. “If that’s the case, perhaps I should move in here.” She placed both palms on the covers and gave it a tiny shove.

“You want to get married?”

“I’ve wanted to marry for years, but the men I’ve dated simply didn’t suit me for the long term.”

Eliza laughed. “You might have to give them more than a week of your time.” During several of their late night conversations Eliza had discovered a lot about Gwen’s dating life. As a daughter of a wealthy duke, her family expected her to have a very discreet private life. That translated into boring dates and forgetful sex. Many of the royals who’d lost their money, but not their titles, didn’t fall into the public eye. The Harrisons were different. Their faces were splattered among the British tabloids, as often as any starlet in Hollywood would be in the States.

“It’s not my fault the men I’ve met bore me to tears. There needs to be interest inside the bedroom and out, wouldn’t you agree?”

“You’re talking to two women who married their husbands before they slept with them. I don’t think you have the right audience for that argument.”

Gwen’s eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped. “I can’t imagine. What if Carter made love like a wet fish?”

“I think you’re selling yourself short, Gwen. If a man warms your blood before your first kiss, the chances of that kiss being cold are slim. Carter can make me blush from across the room. And don’t you dare tell him I said that.” Eliza didn’t want all her secrets revealed to her husband. Not yet anyway.

“I knew Blake would be a fantastic lover the first time he touched my hand.” Samantha licked her lips as she spoke.

“Truly?”

“Call it chemistry, energy, desire… I knew. If you had told me a year before we married that I wouldn’t sleep with my husband before the wedding day I would have reacted like you.”

Gwen leaned on one arm as she listened. “You met my brother only days before you married.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Details, details.”

“You can’t say that about me and Carter.”

“No, I guess not. Surly there was some contact before the wedding… Wasn’t there?”

The memory of their encounter in the kitchen surfaced in Eliza’s mind. Her face grew hot and Gwen and Samantha started laughing.

“Busted.”

“We didn’t have sex. Heavy petting and hot, sultry kissing.”

Gwen tossed a pillow in Eliza’s direction.

They all laughed until their sides hurt.

“I’ll miss this terribly. I’ve never had girlfriends as close as the two of you,” Gwen said.

“I’m moving out, not away,” Eliza reminded her.

“We should initiate a “girl’s night out” once a month…maybe twice.”

“That sounds delightful.” Gwen scurried off the bed and picked up a box from the floor.

“No talk of work. Just girl talk.”

“Sex talk.”

“You’ll have to find a boyfriend if you’re going to entertain us,” Eliza chided.

“I might just do that.”

Sam turned toward her sister-in-law. “Have anyone in mind?”

Gwen hesitated and then shook her head. “No.”

“Liar.”

Gwen’s jaw dropped. “I’m not lying.”

Eliza folded her arms over her chest. “Are you telling me there isn’t anyone who makes your insides boil…that makes you spark just thinking about him?”

Again, she hesitated. “No.”

Sam shook her head. “Liar.”

Gwen let a tiny smile cover her face as she turned away. “Believe what you must.”

Sam glanced up at Eliza with a questioning stare.

They both watched as Gwen looked into the lens of the camera mounted in the doorway.

Gwen was keeping secrets from those who monitored the house.

Probably Neil.

It took every effort of control for Eliza not to call Gwen out.

The doorbell rang and distracted them away from the conversation. Eliza moved from the room waving a finger in Gwen’s direction. “This isn’t over with, Miss Prim-and-Proper.”