“How could I hear anything with all that racket?”
She could still hear the dogs, but their handler had moved them out of sight. She nudged the door open a little farther, not wanting him or his hostile buddies to think she had anything to hide.
“Maybe the rotten thieves who stole my gas were trying to steal something from your camp.”
“Thieves?” he snapped, his expression going grimmer. “What thieves? You never mentioned ‘em to me.”
“I filled my car at the station when I came up, but someone emptied my tank that same night.”
“Did you call your dad or report it to anyone?”
She nodded, almost dislodging her towel. Holding it steady, she replied. “Dwayne stopped the next morning and gave me enough to get back down the mountain. If the thief or thieves are hiding out in the woods, I hope you track ‘em down and feed ‘em to the dogs.”
“If they’re still out here, we’ll find ‘em,” he promised in his tough-guy tone. “I’ll leave a sentry here tonight to keep watch over you.”
“Forget the sentry,” she snapped, glancing at the cold, expressionless faces of his pals. They weren’t even breathing hard. She gave them each a warning glare. “If I see any strange men lurking around the cabin, I’ll shoot them myself and ask questions later.”
“Okay, okay, don’t get all fired up. We probably scared off the intruders. Just lock your doors and be watchful.”
Keri managed a smile for him. “Thanks, Russ. I appreciate you looking out for me, but I’m not stupid or careless. I’ve had caution drilled into me since my toddler years.”
He bobbed his head. “I reckon you have.”
“Now I really want to finish getting ready for bed.”
“Sure, you have a good night,” he said, taking a step back from the door.
“Good night.”
She closed the door, threw the deadbolt into place and switched off the lights. Taking a step toward the bedroom, she nudged aside the curtain and watched out the window until they’d all moved from sight.
“Damn, you’re good.” The whispered praise reached her ears seconds before a strong arm nudged her back against the wall. Lamanto pressed his body close to hers. The heat radiating from their bodies fused them together. One of his hands slipped beneath the opening of the robe and clasped her waist. His hot touch sent fire coursing through her.
Keri lifted her hands to his chest and felt the mad pounding of his heart. Her heart beat a matching rhythm as she tipped her head back to look into his eyes. Relief made her giddy. Her response came out low and husky.
“You don’t know the half of it, Detective.”
He dipped his head low until his mouth just brushed hers. “Ever consider a career in undercover?”
“Undercover as in police work or undercover as in bed?”
Her sexual innuendo drew a pained sound from him. His guttural moan deepened her smile. He pressed himself closer and started to spread kisses over her face. The cleansing cream had him spitting and backing off.
“What the hell?”
Keri giggled. She’d never been the giddy type, but once she started giggling, she couldn’t stop. The sounds kept slipping past her throat, one after another after another. He made a low sound of warning, but it just tickled her more. She slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound, but the feel of the stinky cream on her face stirred another round of the giggles. Using the sleeves of the bathrobe, she swiped at her cheeks as tears ran down her face.
He locked his good arm around her waist and practically dragged her to the bed. Her body shook with laughter verging on hysteria. He shoved her down on the mattress and followed. She continued to laugh until he draped his body across hers and squished the breath out of her.
When she gazed into his eyes and saw the concern on his face, it made her giggle again.
When his frown deepened, she asked, “What’s wrong, Copper? Didn’t they teach you how to deal with hysterical women in cop school?”
In response, he dropped his mouth onto hers, kissing her hard and deep. His tongue invaded and swiftly conquered. Within seconds all her emotional tension found a new release in his kisses. Keri welcomed the hot, passionate invasion with fervor.
She put her arms around his waist and gripped him tightly, sliding her hands under his clothes to reach warm, damp flesh. The feel of him reassured, comforted and inflamed her. So many conflicting emotions whirled through her, with the joy of being safe in his arms superseding the others.
They finally broke off the kiss and stared at each other in the dim light. Lamanto supported most of his weight with his good arm, with his injured one resting on the bed. Keri knew the position had to be uncomfortable for him. She rolled sideways, easing him with her. When they lay face-to-face, they continued to search each other’s features.
“At the risk of another giggle fest, I have to tell you that you really stink, lady. What’s all that sour-smelling stuff on your face and the sickening-sweet stuff on the rest of you?”
She grinned. “Menthol cleanser on the face. Talcum powder on the rest of me. I had to do something to disguise the BO.”
“You succeeded. No wonder the dogs went berserk.”
She shuddered. “They did track my scent. I wonder how crazy they acted in the woods.”
“I heard ‘em racing around the propane tank shortly after I locked myself in. I figured they’d start digging at the trap door, but they moved on.”
“No trouble in the tunnel?”
“Pitch-black, but it’s tight enough to find your way.”
“How badly is your arm aching?”
“Like a sonofabitch.”
Keri reached over and touched his shoulder. She couldn’t tell if the dampness stemmed from sweat or if he’d pulled his stitches. “I’ll have to check it as soon as we’ve cleaned up. By the way, you do not smell like roses yourself.”
“It was worth some sweat and pain to get a look at that compound. I would’ve liked to get inside the fence, but an outside look confirmed my suspicions.”
“Not your typical backwoods militia camp,” she said on a sad sigh.
“No.”
“What’s happening over there?”
“A terrorist camp with a dangerous agenda.”
“What’s your connection to all this? Your coming to Thornsbury can’t be a coincidence.”
She stiffened when he hesitated too long. After all they’d been through in the past few days, she deserved more respect and his trust.
Available June 2012
Three Weddings and a Murder
By Tessa Dare, Leigh LaValle, Courtney Milan
and Carey Baldwin
Four friends who care have each contributed their own story to bring you this very special anthology. You’ll enjoy three historical romances and one romantic thriller—four distinct voices united for one cause. All profits from the purchase of the anthology will be donated to the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. Funds will be used to support research to find a cure or prevention for breast cancer and for outreach programs with an emphasis on assisting low-income, elderly and minority individuals. Find out more at www.CareyBaldwin.com
Note from Carey:
Whether you love humor, heart, or thrills there’s something for you in this anthology. And guess who wrote the murder! My story, Solomon’s Wisdom, is a friends-to-lovers tale with a deadly twist. I’m delighted to share the page with these three extraordinarily talented authors and to be a part of the wonderful community of romance readers and writers. Please help us make a difference and get yourself a rockin’ good read in the process.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Solomon’s Wisdom:
Anna Kincaid was the turned-down page-corner in the book of Charlie Drexler’s life. With a placeholder like Anna, he had to question his decision to skip ahead in the first place. But firefly nights of long ago and not-so-forgotten memories aside, the sight of Anna picking her way across the summer grass, precariously balanc
ing a tray of, yes sir, those were deviled eggs all right, would still have knocked the wind out of him.
Dream girl walking.
The corn-silk hair she’d crimped as a teen whipped long and naturally straight behind her, maybe because straight hair was the current fashion, but he rather hoped it was because she’d finally realized she was goddamn beautiful in her own right. A white cotton dress with spaghetti straps slipping off bronzed shoulders conjured sensuality from innocence, and the curve of her hips backlit by a setting sun shamelessly reminded him he was a man who’d been buried in the books for far too long. His heartbeat hesitated, and then kicked up with the wind that carried the familiar scent of her vanilla soap.
Eschewing the vanity of perfume, Anna had always opted for natural scents and handmade soaps. To his way of thinking, her fancy soaps might be a natural, organic vanity, but they were a vanity all the same. Yet year after year he’d bitten back the urge to point out the flaw in her reasoning simply because he flat out loved the way she smelled.
The way she smelled.
The way she shook back her hair when she laughed.
The way she moved.
And unlike times past, today he wasn’t the only one taking notice of Anna. An overfed blue jay pecking the corncob bait on the railing of the Carlisle front porch paused to crane its neck and jabber a compliment as, with downcast eyes, Anna sideways-climbed the tricky steps. On second thought, maybe it wasn’t the steps that were tricky, maybe it was balancing those eggs in high heels. High heels that showed off a pair of amazing gastrocnemius muscles. All he really knew was that he wanted Anna to look up. And when she saw him, he wanted her to smile.
Raking a hand through his hair, he waited for the moment of truth. Anna reached the top, stepped onto the porch, looked up, and stopped dead in her tracks. Helpless to contain the excitement welling inside him, he grinned—quite possibly beamed—at her. Anna’s mouth, on the other hand, didn’t roll out of its peppermint-pink bow. Her ridiculously blue eyes didn’t crinkle at the edges, and she didn’t offer so much as a glimmer of the smile that had hounded him for more than ten years. If she had, he might’ve never recovered the breath to speak. “Hello, Peaches.”
“Charlie.”
His worst fear had been that the Anna of his boyhood would tromp up the steps and rage at him, and he’d prepared himself for the worst. Or so he’d thought. What he hadn’t prepared himself for was this. This neutral look on her face. This indifferent demeanor. It was as if Anna simply didn’t care one way or another that he’d returned to her with an open mind, determined to find out what he’d missed. It was as if the girl who’d looked up to him, who’d, let’s face it, worshipped him, didn’t care one way or another that he’d come home.
His chest deflated…briefly. But he was never one to stay down for the count. “Care to dance?” He grabbed her by the hand, pulled it high above her head and twirled her beneath his arm.
“Damn it, Charlie,” she muttered as they both lunged for the plate of deviled eggs.
Triumphantly he held out the rescued eggs. “No harm done.”
“To the eggs.” She arched a matter-of-fact brow and made a quick survey of each high heel.
He set down the plate on the porch swing and moved in close. One hand found her hip and the other grazed her palm, and magically her arm rose with his. Her body canted forward until he could feel the brush of her warm breasts against his chest. Her knees buckled every so slightly as he pulled her against him. She was trembling at first, but then she steadied. Her heart beat against him, keeping time with his own, and their breathing synchronized—as if their bodies knew how to talk to each other even if they didn’t.
He swallowed hard. Man up, Charlie.
She shifted positions, bringing her hips in line with his, and by now, at least one part of him needed an admonishment to man down. “About that dance.”
Sliding out of his arms, she quick-stepped back, almost tumbling off the steps in the process. She skirted him, retrieved the platter off the porch swing and stuck it in his hands. “Welcome home, Charlie. The eggs are for you.”
“You remembered.”
Her nose scrunched up. “What?”
“Deviled eggs are my favorite.”
“Are they?”
“C’mon Peaches, don’t be mad.”
“Stop calling me Peaches. Mad about what?”
He squinted at her. She squinted back with no trace of animosity. Surely she wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily. He refused to accept this display of equanimity as truth. She was either mad and covering it up by playing it cool, or she had amnesia, and amnesia was the least parsimonious explanation for her behavior he could think of. “Look, Anna, can we go somewhere private and talk?”
Shaking her head emphatically, she said, “No way.”
“Why not?”
“First, it would be rude to disappear from your welcome home party. Simone and Nate have gone to a lot of trouble over this affair, and second it was Simone who asked me to bring the eggs, and third—”
She might’ve disabled his hands by sticking him with the platter of eggs, but he was far from disarmed. After all, he was carrying a backup weapon. In less than a heartbeat he’d loaded up the trusty charm gun. “Hey, girl.” He aimed a smoky look her way, one that could have felled hundreds, maybe thousands of librarians in a single shot.
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Are you supposed to be Ryan Gosling in this scenario? Since when do you follow librarian humor?”
“Since I saw your facebook page.”
“You checked out my facebook?” Her lips transformed into a defiant pink pucker.
“You’re not the girl next door anymore, Anna. You’re the hot librarian.”
Her eyes flashed with determination, but her mouth signaled his impending victory. Anna’s you-cannot-make-me-smile pucker was a sure sign he could.
He cocked the charm gun. “Hey, girl. When’s amnesty day at the library?”
He pulled the trigger. “‘Cause I need to turn in an apology, and it’s ten years overdue.”
Her pink pucker twitched at the edges. Wait for it…ha! Like a field of prickly poppies answering the call of the morning sun, her expression opened and transformed into a thing of beauty—the best smile he’d seen since the day he’d left Tangleheart, Texas.
“Twelve years if you want to be accurate.” The smile crept into her voice too.
“So you did miss me.”
Her face flushed, and her mouth flat-lined. “I’m just pointing out the facts, Charlie. No apology is necessary, and I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I think the past belongs in the past.”
“Then let’s go someplace private and talk about the future.”
“You’ve got more nerve than sense, Charlie.”
“And you’ve got great legs.”
“I run.”
His gaze crawled unapologetically from her well-turned calves, up up up and around her curves, climbing higher and higher until at last it reached her big-old baby-blue eyes. “It shows.”
“Guess running’s my own form of therapy, so I won’t be needing your apology or your psychiatric services, Charlie. I’m over it.”
Blinking hard, he forced his attention away from her knock-out body and onto her words. And when those words sank in, he said, “I’m not a psychiatrist.”
“I heard—”
“You heard wrong. I’m a Pediatrician.”
“But you don’t even like kids.”
“You sure about that?” He’d always liked kids. Just wasn’t the kind of thing a guy wanted front and center on his high-school yearbook page.
Charlie “Drex” Drexler—student body president, captain of the football team, voted man most likely to appear on The Bachelor and fail to propose in the end, really likes small fry.
Nope. Never would’ve worked.
Anna tilted her head, surveying him. “You’ve changed.”
Finally, they were getting somewher
e. Because he had, in fact, changed a great deal. And he was smart enough to realize he was going to have to prove to her that he was a different man. She wasn’t about to let him take her home with him, or anywhere else for that matter, anytime soon if he didn’t. He didn’t know much about what Anna Kincaid had been up to all these years, but one thing was certain, fantasizing about getting Charlie Drexler naked wasn’t it.
First Do No Evil
Carey Baldwin
One killer is in her blood. The other is in her house.
Blood Secrets, Book 1
There’s a killer lurking in Dr. Skylar Novak’s family tree: the gene for breast cancer. That’s why her brilliant brother invented the Bella vaccine. But even if the miracle drug protects her from the cancer that took her mother’s life, it can’t save Sky from the flesh and bone evil stalking her in secret.
When the killer strikes, detective Daniel Benson finds himself in the wrong place at the right time. The bold detective manages to save Sky’s life…just in time for her to return the favor. Survival leads to seduction, and Danny risks everything—his career, even his life, to keep Sky safe. But will the buried sins they uncover cost him her heart?
Danny’s strong arms may hold her close, but only Sky can stop the terror that’s coming next…
Warning: Contents include: One heart-melting hero—good luck getting this delicious detective out of your head. One reluctant heroine—wielding a Glock was never on her to-do list. One crazed villain—an entire flock of baa baa black sheep won’t be enough to put you to sleep. And a lifesaving vaccine with one deadly side effect—murder.
eBooks are not transferable.
They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
First Do No Evil: Blood Secrets, Book 1 Page 30
