The ceremony didn’t take long and twenty minutes after walking in the house, Alex was a married man. The ceremony over and the paperwork signed, Alex thanked John and offered him a drink. His friend refused, using the excuse that he had to drive and he needed to get back soon. Alex hadn’t realized how inconvenient his favor had been to the other man. He made a mental note to send him a gift for his time, but that was something for later. After John left, Alex turned back to the house, relived that it was done. Now his brother would get off his back, or he would after he heard. Wanting nothing more than to go hide in his office to sit behind his bank of computers and get lost in the underworld where he liked to escape his reality, he went back inside. At the door he found his bride watching him, her face blank but her eyes lost and bewildered.

This he hadn’t counted on.

“Let me show you around.” He showed her the main floor, starting with the front room, or as some would call it the parlor, where they’d been married. And working his way around the huge space, showing her everything of interest except what he called his security room. The locked room off the main office where everything having to do with his work was kept. It was a secure room, not just because the door was locked, but because it was basically a safe room, nearly impenetrable. He said nearly because it was supposed to be impenetrable, but he didn’t know how well it might stand up to a missile attack.

The last thing he showed her was the library. Even her awed looks as he showed her through the house left him unprepared for the sheer wonder and shock on her face as he pushed the doors open to the library. It was across the entry way from where they’d been married. He wasn’t sure why the doors had been closed.

Janie stood in the middle of the room, slowly spinning as she looked at all the shelves filled with books of all colors and sizes.

“Have you read them all?” Her voice had gone soft and he couldn’t help but smile.

“A good number of them.”

“What kind are they?”

“What do you mean?” He frowned, not sure what she meant.

“Mystery, western, sci-fi, what kind are they?”

“Oh. A little bit of everything. I’m not picky. When it comes to books I’ll read pretty much anything, fiction, non-fiction, history, thriller, even romance.”

“Romance?” She looked at him now with her mouth hanging slightly open.

It made him want to kiss her and see what she tasted like. Where the hell had that thought come from? He couldn’t give in to impulses like that if he was going to keep this temporary.

“Yeah,” he shrugged, “when you’re in the field and desperate for something new to read, all that’s available is a romance, so you read what you got. I learned that most of them aren’t half bad, if a little sappy. And sometimes at least they have good sex.”

Her face turned pink. It was cute. “In the field?”

“Yeah, I spent time in the middle and far east.”

Janie frowned a moment. “Oh. Were you in the military?”

“Yeah, that’s how I got this.” He motioned to his right side, but didn’t say more. He didn’t want to go into it. She seemed to get that and instead turned back toward the floor to ceiling shelves.

“Can I read them?”

“Sure, help yourself.”

“All of them?” The hesitancy in her voice made him wonder who had kept her from doing what she wanted before.

“Anything here you want. If you find something you want that’s not here, we can order it.”

“Are you sure?” Happiness filled her eyes at the prospect. He liked that. He wanted to see it more.

“I am.” He paused a moment then asked. “You ready to check out upstairs?”

She looked at him and fear clouded her eyes for a second before it disappeared again.

“Sure, why not.”