Holy Scoundrel (36 page)

What he needed was to splash his face with cold water, because he wasn't quite as calm as he'd insisted. If he were, he wouldn't have found himself looking for the Cruz woman…

And there she was, in the foyer, standing with her back to him as she put on a tan leather jacket.

Did she somehow sense his presence? She must have, because she went still. Then, slowly, she swung around and looked at him.

Her eyes widened.

Just for an instant, she looked wary.

Then she clutched the edges of her lapels. Her chin rose, her gaze zeroed in on his. It was a combative stance, and she erased any doubt when she flashed him a smile filled with contempt.

He could almost feel his blood pressure climb for the sky.

To hell with this, he thought grimly, and started toward her.

It was sheer pleasure to see that look of contempt change to one of fear. She was a woman with foolish opinions, he thought grimly, but she was not a fool.

She swung away from him, went quickly to the massive front door, opened it, and stepped out into the night.

Khan followed her.

She was heading for a red Honda parked in the gravel driveway. By now, she was damn near running but he was bigger, stronger and faster.

It was no contest.

He reached the Honda with seconds to spare.

"You were right," he said in a low, dangerous voice.

"Get out of my way!"

"Don't you want to know what you were right about?"

She reached in her pocket, took out her keys, started to point them at the car. Khan plucked them from her hand.

"You said I always get what I want. Then you called me a barbarian."

She started past him, back toward the house. He grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Let go of me," she gasped. "Let go, damn you, or I'll—"

"And what I want right now," he said, "is this."

Laurel read what he was going to do in his eyes, in the way his muscles tensed, in the way he looked at her mouth.

Then he lowered his head to hers.

Terror sent her heart racing.

"No!"

He laughed. She pushed against his chest, tried to twist her face away, but it was useless. He thrust one hand into her hair, cupped the back of her head, and it was all over.

The best she could do was steel herself for his kiss, meant to punish. To subdue. To reinforce what she already knew about men like him, that he didn't give a damn for anyone but himself and the few exalted souls he considered his equals.

She tensed, waited for his mouth to assault hers.

Wrong.

He brushed his lips over hers, did it again, then settled his mouth against hers in a kiss that was gentle and soft.

He slid his hand down her spine, drew her against him, lifted her into him. And he went on kissing her, kissing her until a breathless little sound escaped her throat, until she felt her lips soften, mold against his, part under his…

That was when he put her from him.

She blinked. And found herself staring up into eyes the frigid green of a winter sea.

"Possessed by a barbarian," he said in a low voice. "What a hell of a fate to suffer."

She wanted to say something witty or, at least, insulting. She couldn't. Her mind was a blank. All she could do was watch the Prince of Altara stride past her, get behind the wheel of a black Land Rover, and gun the engine to life.

The Rover sped off, leaving a spray of gravel in its wake.

Bluegrass State of Mind

Kathleen Brooks

A Bluegrass Series Novel

Her bare feet pounded down the concrete stairs. Her panty hose were ripped from snagging the cold metal strips on the edge of each stair. Her feet stung with every step she took. She heard the door above her open. She pushed herself faster. She couldn’t let him catch her.

She jumped the last stair on the sixth floor, the impact of the jump reverberating up her body.
She felt as though she had stopped breathing two floors ago. Her lungs burned as she forced her legs to move faster. Her hand was sliding along the railing to brace herself as she raced down the stairs at breakneck speed.

She heard him yell her name. She turned around to see he was now just one floor away. The look cost her dearly as she missed a step and had to slow down to steady herself.

Her heart beat in turn with each slap of her foot. Faster. Louder. She just had to make it to the garage. He would kill her if she didn’t. He called her name again as if she were a disobedient child. He was taunting her, triggering her fear. Her heart felt as if it would explode as she ran faster and faster down the stairs.

She didn’t feel the cuts causing her feet to bleed. She didn’t feel the pain running up her legs. All she knew was she had a couple more flights to go. She tried to suck in a breath of air but could only manage a small gasp. He was closer now.
She could feel him right behind her.

The door to the garage was so close. She could see it now. She had to reach it. He closed in on her. She could hear him breathing. She willed her legs to move faster.
He reached out his arm to grab her….

McKenna looked around and saw nothing but black, four-plank fences and green grass for as far as she could see. Daffodils were playing peek-a-boo with the bright morning sun.
She looked down at the GPS in her cherry red BMW M6. Only five more miles until her destination. Bringing her eyes back up to the narrow country road, Kenna gasped and hit her brakes as hard as she could.

The stabilization in her car kicked in and kept it from fishtailing off the road. She fought for control of the car as her brakes locked. A massive horse was standing in the middle of the road, calmly watching her scrambling for control over her car. She rested her head against the steering wheel and let out a shaky breath when she stopped the car in the opposite lane. Hearing tires squealing, she lifted her head and saw an old pick-up truck heading straight for her, fishtailing out of control.
Kenna shifted into reverse and floored it. The truck skidded by her, narrowly missing her car. The truck came to a sudden stop in the grass ditch off the side of the road.

Kenna watched a jeans-clad woman wearing a stylish, black, long-sleeve shirt and bright pink scarf belt jump out of the truck. The woman with beautiful, shiny, shoulder-length brown hair was the polar opposite of what McKenna expected to see. Instead of being concerned about her truck, the woman slowly approached the horse with her hand out. Kenna saw her mouth moving as she talked to him. Ever so slowly, she placed her hand on his head and gave him a smile. Sliding her hand down, she grasped the halter and scratched his nose.

Kenna opened her door and got out on shaky legs. She could hear the woman talking on the cell phone as she walked toward the scene. “Yeah, Bets, I'm out here on Route 178, and it looks like one of your stallions is loose. Another woman and I almost hit him. Yes, we’re okay. No, I have him now. You better have one of the boys bring a trailer. Okay. Bye.”

“Hi. Are you okay?” Kenna asked after the woman put away the cell phone.

“Yes. Thanks. Looks like you made it out okay. I’m Paige Davies. Do you mind helping me for a sec?”

“McKenna Mason. What do you need?”

“Here, hold this.” Paige walked the massive stallion over to her and indicated where she was to hold him. “I need to see if my truck is able to run or if I need to call a tow. Thanks!”

Kenna took a hold of the halter and stared at the horse. She hadn’t been around a horse in decades. She held on for dear life, even though the horse seemed content to just stand off to the side of the road and watch the world go by.

Paige’s truck roared to life. She drove it out of the ditch and parked next to Kenna’s M6. What a sight: a brand new M6 next to a rusted, blue, Chevy pickup that had to be fifteen years old. Paige gracefully jumped down from the cab and walked over to her.

“Thanks. Now we have room for the little guy to be picked up. I wonder how he got out?”

“I'm just glad we didn’t hit him.”

“This is part of the Ashton Farm, and unfortunately they've been having a lot of problems recently.”

“Ashton, as in Will Ashton?” Kenna couldn’t believe it. She hadn’t even pulled into town and she had just found the person she was looking for.

“Yes. The family owns and runs it. You know Will?”

“I used to. I haven’t seen him in seventeen years.”

“Are you here to visit them?”

“No, I'm here to interview with Tom Burns for the assistant district attorney job.”

“That’s great.” Paige was so excited for her that Kenna couldn’t help but smile. She stepped forward and scratched the forehead of the large horse.

“Actually, I'm glad I ran into someone from the town. Can you tell me a good place to stay? I couldn’t find any hotels online.”

“That’s because there aren’t any. You’ll want to go see Miss Lily Rae Rose. She has a bed and breakfast. Just continue straight and make a left at the first stop light you come to. She’s in the big white Victorian. And, if you’re looking for a good place to eat, Miss Lily has two sisters, Miss Daisy Mae Rose and Miss Violet Fae Rose, who run the Blossom Cafe. Great place to eat some chocolate after a close call like this!” Paige laughed and Kenna couldn’t help but like her. This was a woman after her own heart!

“Thanks a lot. I'm guessing you're from Keeneston. What do you do there?”

"I have a store on Main Street named Southern Charms. I have all local made products. Everything from statues, paintings, jewelry, clothes, painted wine glasses, to cookbooks.”

“Sounds amazing. I'll have to stop by.”

“We should have lunch together. I can be the official welcoming party!” They both turned to the sounds of a diesel engine and saw a massive truck with a horse trailer come around the corner from the direction Paige had come. “Ah, good. Now we can get this boy home.”

Kenna stood back as three men jumped down from the truck and with an apple helped convince the horse to get in the trailer.

“Thanks for the help with him. I look forward to our lunch. It was great meeting you and welcome to Keeneston,” Paige said as she and Kenna walked to their cars.

Kenna’s legs had finally stopped shaking when she slid into her car. Pulling out after Paige, she headed into town, wondering what her new home would be like.

*

"Just shoot me now," Kenna thought as she squeezed her eyes closed. She slowly opened them, hoping against all odds the scene before her had changed, but to her utter despair, it was the same scene she had just driven upon. Kenna had pulled her M6 to the side of the road and stared at the town before her with a critical eye. She was sitting on the edge of Main Street and could see the other end of what she guessed to be downtown just two stop lights away. The town was straight out of Mayberry, she thought. She couldn’t help but start whistling the theme song to the Andy Griffith Show as she looked around her new hometown: perfect trees lining both sides of Main Street, American flags waving from every light post, and the people wandering down the sidewalk seemed to know each other since they were tipping their hats and smiling to each person they passed by.

Kenna had spent the last eleven years in the Big City. So when she took a deep breath that lacked pollution and listened to the honking of cars that were strangely not honks of anger, but honks of greeting as they passed someone they knew, she felt out of her element. Not for the first time, Kenna wondered how she ended up here. Just a month ago, she was at the hottest nightclub in New York City with her best friend Danielle, celebrating her twenty-ninth birthday with all her friends from Greendale, Thompson and Hitchem, the largest law firm in New York. Kenna sighed wistfully as she thought about the six figure salary, the hot clubs and a condo in the Upper East Side of Manhattan that she had left behind in a hurry.

With her eyes closed and her mind firmly set in what might have been, Kenna thought about how she had dined with professional athletes and actors at the best restaurants on the company dime since they were clients. Standing only five foot four, but blessed with what she called womanly curves, Kenna had not only wined and dined famous people, but had dated and been pursued by some as well. Kenna’s auburn hair, milky skin and dark green eyes that hid an intelligence and sharp wit had made her sought after inside and outside of the courtroom.

Kenna continued her trip down memory lane by giving herself a moment to gloat. She had just made junior partner, one of the youngest associates to have ever done so and the only woman to ever do so.

She cringed as she remembered the night it all changed. The night she fled from her six figure salary and left her amazing condo. She had fled from New York City with her ex-boyfriend hot in pursuit of her. Kenna fought a shiver as she remembered Chad trying to find her to prevent her from leaving not only the city but most likely her beautiful condo ever again. It was in the early morning hours of the city that never sleeps that Kenna found herself running for her life and looking for a place to hide. She had sat in her car and thought about what always made her feel better - chocolate. She had suffered a chocolate craving to end all other chocolate cravings that night.