Sandra had stopped asking questions about Mark, because Justine always evaded them. Now, after last weekend, she would have liked to talk about him, to find out what Sandra knew about him, but she didn’t quite know how to approach the topic without having to tell yet another lie.
“Steven will give you the details,” Sandra said, her voice evasive. “He is in his office.”
“Tell him I’ll be there in a second.”
Sandra nodded and retreated. Justine stacked the papers on her desk and rose. A knot of fear tightened in her gut. She knew she was a hard worker and a reliable employee, but she had no formal training in public relations. She had got her first job because she was engaged to the boss and her second job on the strength of her first job. Chandler Developments was expanding. Perhaps Steven had decided the time had come to employ someone with proper qualifications for the job.
Justine strolled over to his big corner office, trying to relax. Her latest projects had gone well, the press coverage had been favorable, and she had managed to prevent a demonstration at a redevelopment site in South Philadelphia by inviting the protestors to participate in a public question and answer panel. Her only failing since her trip to the county fair last weekend had been her lack of concentration as she held her breath for Mark to call.
He hadn’t.
On Sunday morning, he had taken her for a long hike in the woods. They had lunched in the only diner in town, with a constant flow of interruptions from people who wanted to congratulate them over the tug-of-war victory. Most of them had gallantly credited her with making the tiny difference that had defeated the fire department.
Mark’s goodbye when she got in her car had been subdued, void of any mention of the future. He hadn’t even said he’d call her, or that there would be a next time for them to get together. Every implication had been that the task was done, and they could get on with their lives. It seemed such a contradiction to the night at his house, when she had felt that something had taken root and started to grow between them.
Justine sighed as she gave a quick rap on Steven’s door and entered. It must have all been in her imagination. Wishful thinking, something that every unattached woman in search of a man occasionally succumbed to.
“Sandra said you wanted to see me.” Justine came to a halt inside the door.
Steven cleared his throat and pointed to the chair in front of his chrome and glass desk. Behind them, the early afternoon sun gilded the Philadelphia skyline. “It really is two different things, but it’s all connected.”
“Yes.” Justine gave him a nod, her voice calm and professional despite the fear that pulsed through her.
“I hope you know that I’ve been pleased with your work.”
“Thank you.” She crossed her legs and adjusted her skirt, recalling the freedom of jeans and sneakers during the tug-of-war and missing it.
“I don’t really want to let you go, but—”
A knock at the door interrupted him, but Justine had heard enough to make her heart sink. Before Steven had a chance to call out a reply, the door inched open and Sandra poked her head through. “I’d like to be part of this, Steven,” she said, looking earnestly at her husband.
He nodded at her, and Sandra crossed the floor to perch on the edge of his desk. She reached out to take Steven’s hand and held it between both of hers. “I’m going to have a baby,” she said, turning to look at Justine.
“Congratulations,” Justine said, ashamed that her fear over her own future dulled her enthusiasm for the good news. “But what does that have to do with you firing me?”
“We are not firing you,” Sandra said.
“Well, not exactly,” Steven added.
“Hush,” Sandra said. “Let me do this.” She contemplated Justine, her expression full of hope. “We’re moving to Eagle Mountain. Steven has found a wonderful farmhouse with a barn that can be converted into offices.”
“Eagle Mountain,” Justine stammered. “Why?” She switched her focus to Steven. “It’s too far to commute. Are you selling the business?”
“I want to be closer to my family when the baby comes,” Sandra said. “But not in Elkhorn. Not right on the doorstep. Eagle Mountain is bigger, and it has a good elementary school.”
“I’m not getting out of the business.” Steven reached his arm around Sandra’s waist and pulled her into his lap. “I’m refocusing,” he said from behind her blond ponytail. “It’s getting too hard to find good sites in the city, and I’m fed up with all the politics that go with urban regeneration.” He grinned at Justine. “Do you remember those land parcels for the holiday villages?”
She nodded, her heart leaping up from her stomach and lodging in her throat. “I’m going to bid on all three of them. From now on, I’ll be evicting badgers and squirrels instead of old ladies.”
“What about public relations?” Justine said. “Why are you firing me?”
“I’m not firing you,” Steven said. “I’m just accepting the fact that you’d never move away from the city.”
“Why don’t you go home early and think about it?” Sandra piped up from the circle of Steven’s arms. “You can leave the room now so that I can kiss my husband to thank him to giving me everything I want.” She didn’t wait for Justine to close the door, but bent down t nuzzle Steven’s neck with shameless adoration.
Eagle Mountain. Justine stood outside the door, her heart beating hard enough to break out of her chest. What would Mark think? Would he give her the cold shoulder, imagining that she was stalking him? Perhaps, if she kept a careful distance, never even stopping to talk when she bumped into him in town, he would gradually accept that she was only anxious to hold on to her job, just like he had been eager to protect his.
She needed to tell him.
Back in her office, Justine stared at the telephone on her desk, gathering courage, composing a nonchalant way of explaining the situation. When the phone burst into a ring, she almost rocketed out of her seat.
“I just wanted to let you know that we are in the clear,” Mark said after a brief greeting. “Mrs. Harper has withdrawn her complaint.”
“That’s a relief,” Justine blurted out.
“I’d like to come down next weekend,” he said. “There are some things I’d like to talk to you about.”
She didn’t reply, and the silence rose like a barrier between them. “I have something to tell you too,” Justine said at long last.
“Fire away.” Mark’s voice tightened, as though he expected some kind of a betrayal.
“I only just heard ten minutes ago.” Justine took a deep breath. “Steven is moving the office to Eagle Mountain. I’m going to be living in your neighborhood.”
“You are moving here?” There was absolutely no emotion in his voice, no anger, no disbelief.
“Yes,” she said. “Does that bother you?”
“And you’ll be able to keep your job, have your own life?”
She frowned into the phone. “Of course I’ll have my own life.”
“You’ll need a four wheel drive.”
“Mark, I just found out ten minutes ago,” Justine said in exasperation at his lack of reaction. “I expect I’ll need a lot of things, starting from somewhere to live.”
“No,” he said bluntly.
“What?” Justine slumped in the seat. She had expected that he might find things awkward, but trying to order her to turn down the move was simply too much. “Since when do you think you have the right to boss me around?”
“Since now,” he told her firmly. “I need to widen the clearing in front of the house to make room for a second car, and the kitchen is a little basic. When you come up next, I’ll get someone to quote for a refit.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked as her heart threatened to leap into her mouth and cut off her air.
“I’m talking about the good news that you are moving up here. I can now withdraw my application to join the Philadelphia Police Department. I would h
ave hated it in the city.” A noise broke out behind him. “Sorry,” he said hastily. “Got to go. Call me when you know what time you’ll come up on Friday night. Everybody I know wants to invite us to dinner.”
The line clicked dead. Justine sat clutching the receiver to her chest. Every muscle in her body went numb while the meaning of Mark’s words slowly penetrated her mind. Then she stirred back to life. She dialed Rob Thornton’s guesthouse in Eagle Mountain and got the address.
Her next call was to a florist. “A dozen red roses,” Justine said. “A simple card which says ‘Thank you.’ No other message. The name is Mrs. Harper. H-A-R-P-E-R.”
She dropped the phone in the cradle and sat still in the chair as happiness settled over her, like a burst of spring sunshine that thaws the frozen ground after a long dark winter.
About the Author
Tatiana March learned to read at four, and no other pastime has matched the thrill of being transported to other worlds. She took up fiction writing six years ago while taking a break from her job as a senior director in a large international corporation.
Tatiana lives in the UK near the river Thames. She loves to travel and has lived in several European countries, as well as spending time in the US. One of her favorite destinations is Arizona, the setting of her historical romance Circle Star.
When Tatiana is not reading or writing, she enjoys hiking, camping, and watching old movies on the TV. She is hopeless at housework and can barely cook enough to keep from starvation. She used to like clothes, and fuss about her hair, but the older she gets the more she has realized that looks matter less than a kind heart.
Circle Star was her first full-length novel accepted for publication. She is working on several other manuscripts, both historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense.
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Additional titles by
Romance Author Tatiana March
available from Resplendence Publishing
Project Seduction
Project Manager: Georgina Coleman, VP at Pacific Bank, 28 years old. Brilliant and determined, but lacking in social skills.
Project background: Transfer from London to San Diego allows Georgina to shed her dowdy image and get a life.
Project objective: Seduce a man and lose her virginity.
Timeline: Seven weeks, starting from the completion of Project Flowchart.
Target: Georgina’s downstairs neighbor, a surly cop named Rick Matisse.
Complication: Rick’s 12-year-old daughter Angelina, who thinks Georgina would be the perfect girlfriend to keep Dad on his toes.
Distraction: Money laundering investigation which requires Georgina to mingle with a bunch of Colombian thugs who believe that every woman should be owned by a man.
Project evaluation: A project can go wrong despite successful completion, if Project Manager fails to plan for how to deal with the Target after project closure.
Circle Star
After thirteen years in the East, Susanna Talbot stands to inherit the Arizona ranch she grew up on, but only provided she marry Connor McGregor, the young drifter who once forged a bond with her father. Susanna will do whatever it takes to claim her right to land—even seek a union with a man who believes she ruined his life.
But first she must find him.
Connor McGregor rode into the desert without a backward glance thirteen years ago, believing Susanna had banished him from Circle Star. Now a man of twenty-eight, he has no interest in coming to her aid. Will he bury his bitterness, or leave Susanna on the mercy of the ruthless neighbor Burt Hartman, who covets the ranch and will stop at nothing—including rape and murder.
Handcuffs and Lace
Resplendence Publishing’s Erotic Romance Line of Law Enforcement Themed Stories
What the Cuff? By Celia Kyle
God really should have reconsidered making werewolves. That, or Lyssa needed to get better taste in men and stay away from those with wandering eyes—and other things. Drunk as a wolf, she stumbles to her best friend’s house to sleep off her whiskey induced haze and wakes to…cuffs?
Caleb sees his chance and takes it. His buddies on the force ribbed him but good for buying silver plated cuffs. But with a werewolf in his bed, the woman he’s yearned for since they were teens, he wasn’t taking any chances. Lyssa was his. She just didn’t know it yet.
Ticket Me More by Tia Fanning
Hailed by the bridal flower world as an artistic genius, Meli works long nights making bouquets for women lucky enough to find love, while she herself lives a life of solitude. She yearns to share her heart and body with someone other than Bob, her Battery Operated Boyfriend, but acute shyness keeps her from engaging the “living” world.
However, Meli’s quiet and predictable existence takes an unexpected turn when she is pulled over and ticketed by the most gorgeous cop she has ever encountered—Officer Michael Johnson. Though he doesn’t seem to notice her as anything more than a traffic violation, Meli makes plans to overcome her timid nature and seize the police officer’s attention…using any speed necessary.
Handcuffs and Lies by Bronwyn Green
Sometimes promises to friends are the hardest to keep. Undercover police officer, Michael Tanner, promised his dying partner that he’d take care of the man’s little sister. Trouble is, after her brother’s death, Doctor Tori Spinelli wants nothing to do with Michael—or any other cop for that matter.
Tori has always fought against overprotective men and deception. Forced into protective custody with Michael, she’s now faced with both in the same package. Despite their differences, Tori falls in love with him, but how can she trust a man who lies for a living?
Search Me Baby, One More Time by Melinda Barron
Wren Thornberry’s life isn’t going according to plan. She let her father talk her out of marrying Bryan Stockard, the man she loves, and moved halfway around the world. Now she’s back home in Texas, babysitting her grandmother while grandma and her boy-toy work through their list of sexual exploits, making themselves the talk of the town.
But what Wren doesn’t know is that things in her hometown are about to heat up even more, and it will have nothing to do with her grandmother. It seems that Bryan Stockard is still around, he wants to get back into Wren’s life—by any means necessary, and now he has just the tools to do it: A police uniform, handcuffs, and the authority to make Wren assume the position.
Cuff Me Lacy by Demi Alex
Three months is way too long to wait for some simple, low-down, straight forward sex. It’s not like Officer Chrissie Hansen is asking for prince charming to offer her the love of a lifetime. All she wants is a good orgasm that she doesn’t have to work for alone.
At least with “The Bull” she knows what to expect. But when Patrick MacKlick returns to her life and tempts her with new options, she discovers that lace can imprison a heart better than handcuffs can.
Going Commando by Catherine Chernow
Boun
ty hunter Shyra Lawrence listens to her favorite radio station one morning where the DJ’s are discussing “going commando” —a.k.a wearing no undies. Captivated by their conversation, she decides to shed her panties in favor of the freedom that wearing no underwear brings.
Enthusiastic, Shyra sends an email to her best friend, Donna, detailing the delights of panty-freedom, but unbeknownst to Shyra, she’s hit the send key...to the wrong email addy!
When Derek Grayson opens his emails that morning, he discovers that his #1 employee and top bounty hunter has sent him an erotic, enticing message about going commando. Derek has always been polite, professional, and so damned attracted to Shyra that it’s almost painful. Working day in and day out with voluptuous woman has sent Derek’s hormones into overdrive on more than one occasion.
Now, Shyra’s shed her panties and Derek’s got all he can do to contain his lust when she announces that she’s... GOING COMMANDO.
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Trouble with the Law Page 8
