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Chapter One
Kitt Maxwell opened the door to an insistent pounding and a man fell into her arms. Looking down at a shaved head lodged between her breasts, her heart pounded wildly. An escaped convict? A murderer? Or maybe a rapist. She’d come to Summerville in search of a criminal but hadn’t expected one to come looking for her.
The guy hung onto the doorframe supporting part of his weight but made no effort to move his nose from the middle of her cleavage. In fact, if she wasn’t mistaken, the bum was burrowing a little deeper. He could easily turn his head and by raising it just the slightest bit latch onto one of her nipples. Her pulse quickened and perspiration beaded its way between her breasts. Could he feel it through the thin cloth of her blouse? Would he think she was hot for him if he did?
“Thanks for the soft landing,” he said, chuckling.
That clinched it. He was incarcerated for a sex crime. Most likely rape. And she might be next. “You pervert,” she sputtered. Pulse racing, she shoved the heels of her hands into his chest and he slid to the ground.
“Whoops,” he said, grinning up at her. “I think I might have had one teensy whisky too many.”
“One…?”
He flashed twin dimples and she caught a glint of gold from a front tooth.
“Oh my God.” Heat flooded Kitt’s body and she clasped a hand to the spot where his face had recently rested. “Rob? Rob Harrison?”
His chuckle trailed off into a faint snore. Of course it was him, but she didn’t expect an answer since her one-time heartthrob was passed out on the threshold. One-time heartthrob? Who was she kidding? She’d been mad for him but he wouldn’t give her what she wanted. No one would believe her if she said Rob refused to take her cherry. But he had refused, after she’d done everything she could to make him lust after her body.
She leant forward and touched his bare head. What happened to his thick, blond hair? She loved the way it waved so tightly it felt crisp to her touch. Had he just been released from prison? Or worse, escaped? Kitt’s heart pounded and she again pressed a hand to her chest. Feeling faint, she leaned close and shouted, “Rob? Why is your head shaved?” She shook him by his shoulder. “Answer me.”
He didn’t even blink. The lower half of his body lay on the front porch, the upper part in the entryway, and he reeked of liquor. One whisky too many, indeed. One bottle, maybe. But then he hadn’t said ‘one drink’.
She stood, hands on hips, and pushed the toe of her sneaker into his ribs. He rolled over onto his side. Grinning, he blinked and his eyes lolled shut again. He wasn’t a heavy drinker as far as she knew, so why had he tied one on tonight?
She shouldn’t even try to figure it out. Nothing Rob Harrison did should surprise her, and yet, it always did. The real shock this time was that he’d shown up at Aunt Sugar’s the day after Kitt arrived for a visit. She hadn’t seen him in twelve years and had almost given up hope she ever would again. She shouldn’t want to, but she couldn’t forget Rob and the way he made her feel.
Now, here he was, close enough to touch. If he were awake and sober, she’d gladly lay down beside him. Better yet, she’d throw herself on top of him, her body against his. She used to press against him to feel his hard-on when they stood close to one another but as much as she aroused him, he’d always resisted her.
Rob Harrison was the thorn in Kitt’s side, the nightmare that woke her, and the love song that made her cry.
“Who’s that, Kitt?” her aunt called from the den where she was stretched out on the daybed, per Kitt’s instructions to rest.
Outside, a huge moon lit the sky. Shining through the open door, it cast gentle fingers of light across Rob’s wonderful face. Recalling the brilliant blue of his eyes, she wished he’d open them wide, but when he did, they’d have to talk and she didn’t know what she’d say. Nor what he’d have to tell her.
“Rob?” she said, gently. Damn, he was sexy, even in this sad state.
She’d always believed he was a good person inside but what if she’d been wrong? What if he was on the lam, either from the law or another woman he’d put under his spell? There had always been girls chasing him in high school and she was sure he’d left a trail of beautiful, heartbroken women wherever he’d been since.
Kitt ran her eyes over him. Broad shoulders, bulging abs, narrow hips. She fastened her gaze on the fly of his pants and wished she could see what lay beneath it. She’d longed to see him naked but the most he’d ever exposed to her was his muscled chest with a sprinkling of blond hair. She’d touched that soft mat but he’d always brushed away her hand before she could rub his nipples the way she intended.
Rob was tanned and she suspected he’d spent a lot of time outdoors. Doing what? she wondered. Riding horses, or playing them? He’d once wanted to join the rodeo circuit. But Rob wanted to do a lot of things, all of them play-related. When she’d said none of them involved work or counted as a real job, he laughed and told her if that’s what she thought, he might as well become a gigolo. It wouldn’t surprise her if he had.
“Good luck in finding a woman who’ll support you,” she’d said, but her sarcasm fell flat because they both knew he could find a dozen with a wink of an eye or a snap of his fingers. Or one of those devil-may-care dimpled grins that always made Kitt go weak inside.
Thick, sun-tipped lashes fringed his eyes and she remembered his sexy wink, but there was something new—fine lines radiated from their corners. Had he actually worried about something? He was thirty now, the same
as her, but thirty was young.
“Are you going to let the man lie there all night, Kitt?” Sugar snapped from her sitting room doorway.
“You’re supposed to be lying down,” Kitt said, taking in her aunt’s appearance and hoping she looked that good when she was supposedly half-dead.
Silver-streaked black hair emanated from a widow’s peak and curled softly to the tips of her ears. At sixty-seven, she was still slim and her grey, oval-shaped eyes remained bright. Lines gently crossed her cheeks, but she looked like an aging seductress in her gold-embroidered, red satin robe.
“Is that who I think it is?” She edged closer and looked down at Rob.
Before Kitt could assure her it was, he opened one eye and gave her aunt that impudent grin of his. “How ya doin’, Toots?”
