The Stranger in Her Bed
Janet Chapman
Pocket Star Books
New York • London • Toronto • Sydney
"I'm thinking you're in trouble, boss lady. Recognize that guy in the middle?"
Anna Segee stood stock-still as Ethan Knight walked through the gate.
As of one hour ago, he'd become her boss. He'd been waiting for this moment for weeks, and he grinned to himself.
Anna's hard hat was tucked under her arm, and her hair hung down in a braid as thick as a man's wrist. It was light brown, with highlights that Ethan knew hadn't come from a bottle. Several strands had worked free, framing her face. She'd washed her jacket, and her boots had been polished.
Ethan's grin broadened. She'd obviously put her best foot forward for the new owners of Loon Cove Lumber. Would she have been so eager, if she had known who that was?
And did she realize whom she had agreed to rent her cabin to?
Lord, this was going to be fun.
Praise for Janet Chapman
and her passionate novels
ONLY WITH A HIGHLANDER
"An excellent addition to her entertaining Highlander series."
— Booklist
"A mystical, magical book if there ever was one, Only With a Highlander has the power to enchant, to rouse deep feelings, and to make one ponder the place of love in the universe. A perfect 10!"
— Romance Reviews Today
"A powerful entry in a fine romantic fantasy series."
— The Best Reviews
CHARMING THE HIGHLANDER
"Splendid. We can expect great things from Janet Chapman."
— The Oakland Press
"Time travel, tragedy, temptation, along with desire, destiny, devotion, and, of course, true love, are all woven into Janet Chapman's romance."
— Bangor Daily News
"Terrific…. A real gem of a story!"
— Romantic Times
"Dazzling… one of the best books you will ever read. Charming the Highlander is just magnificent."
— ReaderToReader.com
LOVING THE HIGHLANDER
"Janet Chapman has hit another home run with Loving the Highlander. It's a fresh take on time travel, with both humor and drama. She's a keeper."
— Linda Howard
WEDDING THE HIGHLANDER
"Her most emotional, touching, and powerful novel to date."
— Romantic Times
"Exciting… Janet Chapman writes a refreshingly entertaining novel."
— TheBestReviews.com
TEMPTING THE HIGHLANDER
"A wonderful addition to Chapman's Highlander trilogy."
— Booklist
"Chapman breathes such life and warmth into her characters, each story is impossible to put down."
— Romantic Times
THE SEDUCTIVE IMPOSTOR
"One of the best books I've read in a long time…. A fun, sexy read!"
— Old Book Barn Gazette
"Janet Chapman has created magnificent characters that sizzle."
— ReaderToReader.com
"Engaging romantic suspense… surprising twists… Janet Chapman seduces her audience."
— TheBestReviews.com
Also by Janet Chapman
The Seduction of His Wife
Only with a Highlander
The Dangerous Protector
Tempting the Highlander
The Seductive Impostor
Wedding the Highlander
Loving the Highlander
Charming the Highlander
Available from Pocket Books
An Original Publication of POCKET BOOKS
A Pocket Star Book published by
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2007 by Janet Chapman
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
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ISBN: 1-4165-3824-0
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To Paul Michael Byram,
We know you're enjoying heaven, dear brother,
because we hear the angels laughing at your jokes.
Chapter One
The man appeared out of nowhere, walking directly into the path of the loader Anna Segee was driving. She jerked the wheel to the right and hit the lever that lowered the forks, to drop her center of gravity, but she couldn't stop the heavy load of logs from shifting. Tires screeched for purchase on the frozen ground as the loader skidded into the ditch, causing her cargo to scatter like giant toothpicks.
Anna barely had time to cover her head as she was tossed against the side of the cab, then down to the floor as the massive machine rolled onto its side with a jarring thud. A log crashed through the windshield, raining crystals of glass over her like hail as several more logs slammed into the cab with deafening bangs, drowning Anna's scream in the chaos.
Then everything went suddenly still but for the rapping knock of the huge diesel engine. Anna cautiously lowered her arms. She was alive, apparently, and except for the throbbing pain in her right shoulder, she didn't seem to be hurt. She reached over and turned the key in the ignition to put the beast out of its misery, hearing it cough once before it fell eerily silent. Anna closed her eyes, but couldn't block out the image of the man's horror when he had realized he was about to be crushed by several tons of logs and machinery.
Lord, that had been close.
Trembling with delayed shock and no small amount of anger, Anna twisted around the heavy log wedged in her seat and pushed at the door of the cab. It wouldn't budge. Feeling the cold February air on her face, and realizing the side window had blown out as well, she banged her hard hat against the metal casing as she popped her head out and looked toward the loading ramp. The man she'd barely avoided was just picking himself off the ground, brushing a mixture of dirt, snow, and bark off his pants.
Anna grabbed the tire iron wedged behind the seat. A lumber mill was no place for idiots, and the stupid fool had nearly killed them both with his inattention. Using the tire iron to knock away what was left of the glass, Anna scrambled out the window and climbed to the ground. She waved away several men running toward her and stalked toward the idiot gaping at her, still hefting the tire iron. He took a step back as she advanced, held up his hands in supplication, and sheepishly grinned.
A log suddenly fell behind her. Anna turned just in time to see it roll off the loader, taking the headlights with it and forcing two men to jump out of the way to avoid being crushed. What a mess. The expensive loader was sitting on its side in the ditch, its cargo strewn around it like scattered bowling pins. And to her experienced eye, there were several thousand dollars' worth of damage to the big rig.
She repositioned her grip on the tire iron with a growl of disgust, turned back to the man, and stepped straight into his oncoming fist. Anna's brain rattled inside her hard hat again as her head exploded in pain, lights flashing in the back of her eyes as she crumpled to the ground amid angry shouts.
"Aw, shit! Dammit. I didn't know she was a woman!" she heard above her, the voice backing away. "She was coming after me with that tire iron. Dammit, I didn't know!"
> Anna wanted to stay right where she was, motionless and curled up in a ball; the less she moved, the less it would hurt. But as much as she'd like to see the idiot taught a lesson, that lesson might turn into murder if she didn't get up. So she rolled to her side and pushed herself up on her hands and knees, then stood, finally opening her eyes to see four men from her crew backing her attacker against the saw shed. Two other men rushed to her side to hold her up, but she shrugged them off. "Leave him alone," she said through the pain in her jaw. She stepped up to the four men just as one of them drove his fist into the idiot's belly. "Dammit. Back off!" she snapped as she shoved them away.
Anna pointed at the hunched, gasping man. "This is a sawmill, not Disneyland. You can't walk around here with your head in the clouds. Do you know what happens to a body when twelve tons of timber and steel run over it?"
"Yes, ma'am," he acknowledged with a gasped cough.
And there it was again. That grin. Was it a nervous reaction, or was he really an idiot?
"Look," he said, stepping toward her. "I wouldn't have hit you if I'd known you were a woman."
Anna took a step back and pointed at the mangled loader. "That piece of equipment costs more than you can earn in two years, but I had to ditch it so your heirs couldn't sue us right out of business. Now who the hell are you, and what are you doing walking around my mill yard?"
"I'm Ethan. I work here."
"Not anymore, you don't. You're fired."
"What!"
Anna reached down for her tire iron before she looked back at him. "We don't pay people to be stupid. You're a walking accident, and next time someone could be killed."
"I hired Ethan this morning," Tom Bishop said as he hustled over. Her aging boss wrapped one arm around her, moved her hand so he could examine her jaw, then gave her shoulder a fatherly squeeze. Anna stifled a wince as pain shot across her back and down her arm.
Tom Bishop owned Loon Cove Lumber, and he had the right to hire and fire anyone he wanted. But as his foreman, Anna was annoyed that Tom hadn't told her he was adding to her crew.
"I'm sorry, Tom. I didn't know she was a woman," Ethan said. "And she was coming at me with that tire iron," he added in his own defense, pointing at her right hand.
Tom took the heavy tool from her and gave it to one of the men. "Haven't I told you that piece of hardware would get you in trouble?" he said, sounding more like her father than her boss.
Anna gaped at him. "The man just wrecked your loader and struck one of your crew, and you're scolding me?" She stepped out of his grip. "I'm firing him, Tom," she said with all the grit she could muster. She turned to Ethan. "I want you off this property in sixty seconds."
It was the idiot's turn to gape. He looked at Tom. "She can't fire me," he said.
"Now, Anna," Tom said, looking as shocked as Ethan. "Don't be rash. Maybe you can give him another chance. It was an accident."
"You know my rules. There's no second chances when it comes to safety. I run a tight yard."
"But, Anna," Tom entreated, darting a worried glance at the man in question.
Anna cupped her swelling jaw. She had to get some snow on it soon or she wouldn't be able to open her mouth tomorrow. "It's either him or me, Tom. Your call."
"But Ethan's worked in the woods all of his life," Tom told her. "The Knights own a logging operation on the other side of the lake. He knows his way around machinery."
Anna shot her gaze to Ethan on an indrawn breath. Good God, this hard-punching, devil-handsome, grinning idiot was Ethan Knight? Her Ethan Knight? It took all of her willpower to merely raise a brow at the man who stood as tall as a mountain and looked to be made of steel.
He also looked like he couldn't believe his fate rested in the hands of Tom Bishop's female foreman. "He's probably here because he stepped in front of a skidder at home," she told Tom. "It's him or me," she repeated.
Tom looked around at the gathered men waiting to hear which worker he chose, but Anna spoke first. "Davis," she said. "Escort Mr. Knight to the gate, and make sure he doesn't destroy anything else on his way out." She turned toward the wreckage. "Come on, people. We have a mess to clean up."
There was a heartbeat of silence before a dozen or more men suddenly scrambled to follow her orders.
"Jeeze Louise," Keith said as he fell into step beside her. "You've got balls, lady."
Anna kept walking, not looking at Keith. "Tom needs me more than he needs to worry about some accident-prone idiot. I know it, and he knows it."
She suddenly stopped and bent at the waist, propping her hands on her knees and taking deep breaths. The throbbing in her head was only slightly worse than the throbbing in her shoulder, and she felt like she was going to pass out.
"Jeeze, boss lady. We can take care of the loader. Go home," Keith told her, putting an arm around her waist, obviously afraid she was going to fall flat on her face— which was fast becoming a possibility.
Anna closed her eyes and tried taking shallow breaths to see if that wouldn't work better. "Is Knight headed for the gate?" she asked, not looking up, not daring to move her head.
"Yeah. He's leaving. And if looks could kill, you'd be one dead foreman right now."
"I'm just going to sit here a minute," she whispered, sidling over to a low stack of lumber and letting Keith help her sit down. "And I think I will go home. See what you can do about righting that loader."
"Are you okay to drive?"
Anna looked up and attempted to smile. "I'll be fine, thanks. I just need a minute."
Keith examined her with a critical eye. "That was a mean punch he threw. Your jaw's already turning purple."
Anna touched her jaw as she looked over to see Ethan Knight spinning out of the parking lot. She also saw Tom Bishop, his face a mask of concern, headed her way. Damn. She didn't want his coddling. Ethan may have caused the accident, but she'd been as much of an idiot to go after him with a tire iron.
"Just look at you, girl," Tom said, the worry evident in his voice. "Come on. I'm taking you to see a doctor."
"No, I'm going home." She motioned for Keith to get to work on the loader. "I'm fine, Tom. Really. I just need an ice pack and some of Grampy's tea."
Tom frowned. "Samuel's tea could skin the hide off a beaver. Don't tell me there's still some of that old rotgut hanging around."
She nodded. "I seem to have inherited a whole case of it along with Fox Run Mill."
Tom rolled his eyes. "Sam must have figured you'd need it, if you intended to keep that ghost camp."
Anna lifted her swollen chin. "I'm keeping it."
"But it's no place for a woman alone, Anna. And don't think I didn't try to talk him out of leaving it to you."
"It's my heritage."
"It's falling down around your feet."
"The main house is sound."
"Which is why the animals have taken it over," he shot back. He took hold of her shoulders to help her stand and held her facing him. "Sell the place, Anna. Save out a couple of acres on the lake if you're determined to stay here, but sell the rest."
Anna stepped back and tucked her balled fists in her jacket pockets. "We've had this conversation before, Tom. My grandfather left Fox Run to me, and I'm keeping it."
Tom put his hands in his pockets with a tired sigh. "It was Samuel's dream you'd come back here someday and restore Fox Run Mill," he admitted. "But you were eleven when he made out his will, and no one was planning to build a resort next door back then. Samuel talked to me just a few months before he died, and said he was reconsidering putting you in the middle of this mess. They're going to keep up the pressure, you know. You can't fight big business."
"Sure I can. By refusing to sign on the dotted line."
"You think that will stop them from putting up their condos? Anna, they'll just build around you."
"Then let them. I have enough land that I won't even see the resort."
"But they need your mile of lake frontage, too. How about the historical soci
ety? Couldn't you work out a deal with them, to protect yourself from the developers?"
She shook her head, then immediately regretted it, wincing in pain.
"Then at least get a dog to scare away your ghost."
Anna walked over and picked up her hard hat. "I have a dog," she reminded Tom.
He snorted. "The most Bear could scare off is himself, if he looked in a mirror."
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