Forged in Desire

by Brenda Jackson

  “Talk to me, Striker. Share your thoughts.” Margo had a feeling she was asking him to do something he didn’t do on a regular basis.

  “I went home,” he finally said.

  “To Little Rock?”

  “Yes. I haven’t been back since I left. There was no need. Wade and Mom were gone and my mom’s only sister, Aunt Gussie, died while I was locked up. I stayed away because I wanted to start a new life. Have a new beginning. I found that here in Charlottesville. I had everything I thought I needed. The only people in my life were those I wanted, and I didn’t need anyone else.”

  He paused before saying, “And then...”

  She’d been hanging on his every word. “And then what?”

  “And then I met you.”

  Elation swelled Margo’s heart. “I hope meeting me was a good thing.”

  He chuckled. “I didn’t think so at first.”

  She could accept that. “But now?”

  His hold on her hand tightened. “And now I can’t imagine my life without you. But I had to come to terms with some things. I hadn’t buried the past as deep as I thought. Not as deep as I should have. That’s why I returned home, and I’m glad I did.”

  He paused again and then said, “Going home, visiting with people like my high school coach, who’s still there, and walking the neighborhood and seeing the changes, good changes—all that made me appreciate how that town shaped me, molded me. Gave me values. I also went to visit the man who fathered me. He had a stroke a few years back and is in a nursing home. After seeing the condition he’s in, I could no longer hate him for how shabbily he treated me and my mother. I even apologized to him for hating him so much.”

  He didn’t say anything for a minute. “Whoever said you can’t go back home didn’t know what they were talking about. For me it was important to go back before I could move forward. I can do that now. And I want to do that. With you.”

  Margo swallowed. “You’re sure of that? That you want to move forward...with me?”

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  He shifted so they were facing each other. “I love you, Margo. I knew I loved you when I left here that day, but I felt I’d failed you. And the thought of how close you’d come to dying—of how close I’d come to losing you—shook me up a bit. That’s why I had to come to terms with some things. I’ve done that, and more than anything, I want you in my life.”

  “Oh, Striker.”

  Striker pulled Margo into his arms and held her tight. Close to his heart. “But I want us to do this like normal people and not rush things. I want us to date, have fun, enjoy things together as a couple, and then when we’re ready for that next step, we’ll take it. Together. We won’t be using anybody’s timeline but our own. Okay?”

  She smiled at him, fighting back tears of joy. “I wouldn’t want things any other way.”

  Striker captured her mouth in a kiss that held so much love and promise. He didn’t know that he could love a woman this much. At first the thought had been scary. Now it was wonderful.

  When he released her mouth, he whispered against her wet lips, “I love you so much, Margo.”

  “And I love you.”

  He smiled before sweeping her into his arms and standing. “Now for your bath.”

  “Will you join me?”

  “That’s my plan,” he said, heading up the stairs. “I don’t intend to let you out of my sight for a while.”

  She smiled, tightening her arms around his neck. “Trust me, I have no problem with that. Like I said earlier, I want you for my forever-protector.”

  “Baby, you got me.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  DR. RANDI FULLER glanced up at the knock on her door. “Come in.”

  She smiled when Detective Ingram walked in. She was still baffled at the vibes she got whenever she was around the detective. She’d gotten the same vibes that night when she’d met Margo Connelly. For some reason that she didn’t quite understand, her subconscious was saying that over the span of their lives the three of them would become the best of friends. She definitely couldn’t understand the logic in that.

  First of all, she’d met Margo Connelly that one time and didn’t expect to ever see her again. And second, unless she returned to Charlottesville to work on another case, there was no reason her path would cross with Detective Ingram’s either. Besides, as a rule, she’d made it a point not to have close female friends due to an incident that had happened while she was in college. Her older sister, Haywood, was all she needed. Randi considered Haywood her best friend and confidante. And then there was her mom, Jenna. She and her mother had always had a close relationship. In fact, she was close to both her parents. Very few people knew she was the daughter of world-renowned defense attorney Randolph Fuller.

  “I was hoping to see you before you left, Dr. Fuller. It’s been quite a day and one of the cases I worked involved Margo Connelly again.”

  “What happened?”

  Detective Ingram spent the next ten minutes telling her what had gone down at Margo Connelly’s home. “I’m glad Ms. Connelly is okay,” Dr. Fuller said.

  “So am I. It’s bad enough to have one person out to get you, but to have two others at the same time is crazy. I think she might need a full-time bodyguard.”

  “It certainly sounds like it.”

  “And I guess you heard about the medical examiner’s report regarding Erickson’s death,” Detective Ingram said.

  Randi nodded. “Yes. According to the coroner, Erickson had been dead a good two hours before Small’s visit.”

  “Yes. So that means Small wasn’t the one who killed him.”

  “Any leads as to who did?” Randi asked.

  Detective Ingram shook her head. “Not a one. The FBI will have their hands full trying to figure this one out. Even the security cameras where Erickson’s cell was located had been tampered with. We know it was an inside job, but by whom? Rumor has it that the mob replaced Erickson and it was decided that he would never leave prison alive.”

  Randi nodded again. “That doesn’t surprise me. Erickson knew too much about the mob’s business.”

  “I wonder who’s in control now.”

  Randi smiled. “I hope you don’t think that I know. And in case you’re wondering, I also don’t have a clue as to who killed Erickson. Usually victims come back to me wanting justice, but I doubt Erickson will. We didn’t hit it off, and I warned him he would die before me.”

  “You did?”

  “Yes. It was after he made a few veiled threats during our one-on-one meeting,” Randi said, “although, at the time, I had no idea his life would end so soon.”

  “And now the mystery of Erickson’s death is another murder to be solved.”

  “And it will be.”

  Detective Ingram glanced around. “Need help with anything?”

  “No. I’m just packing up a few things. I wasn’t here that long.”

  “But you were effective, and we appreciate it. So, you’re headed back to Richmond?”

  Randi had shared that much with the detective. “Yes, I leave in the morning. I’ll be home only for a day or two and then I’m leaving again. To come back here, I canceled plans for a short visit to an island off of South Carolina. I plan to finally go there and spend at least two weeks doing nothing.”

  “What will you be doing later tonight? A gentleman friend of mine and I are grabbing a few beers and chips after work if you want to join us.”

  “Stonewall Courson?”

  Surprise lit Detective Ingram’s eyes and then she smiled. “Yes. How did you know?”

  Randi chuckled. “I don’t need psychic powers to figure that out. I saw your reaction at the cabin when you saw him race into the burning cabin to help save his friend.”

&nb
sp; Detective Ingram ran a few fingers through her hair, and Randi found the gesture telling. “Due to both our jobs, we’ve only had time to talk on the phone, text and meet to grab a few beers. We have our first official date this weekend.”

  “Good for you and thanks for the invite, but I’ll bow out. I need to get back to the hotel and start packing if I want to be on the road first thing in the morning to avoid any rush-hour traffic.”

  “Okay, I understand. It was nice meeting you, Dr. Fuller, and you’ve made a believer out of me regarding a number of things,” Detective Ingram said sincerely. “If you ever visit Charlottesville again, please look me up.”

  A huge smile touched Randi’s lips. “I will, but only on one condition.”

  “And what condition is that?”

  “That, from here on out, I’m Randi and you’re Joy.”

  “Okay, Randi. That’s a deal.”

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed Striker and Margo’s story, don’t miss the next book in the PROTECTORS series, featuring Quasar and Randi, SEIZED BY SEDUCTION

  Coming soon from New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson and HQN Books!

  SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM

  HARLEQUIN® DESIRE

  Desperate to escape her sheltered life, Hayley Thompson quits her job as church secretary to become personal assistant to bad-tempered, reclusive, way-too-sexy Jonathan Bear. But his kiss is more temptation than she bargained for!

  Read on for a sneak peek of SEDUCE ME, COWBOY, the latest in New York Times bestselling author Maisey Yates’s COPPER RIDGE series!

  If you loved Forged in Desire by New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson, then don’t miss the next explosive tale in the Protectors series!

  Seized by Seduction

  One glance is all it takes...

  From the moment his eyes meet hers across the crime-scene tape, ex-con turned bodyguard Quasar Patterson knows he has to see mysterious Dr. Randi Fuller again. She’s a renowned psychic investigator who can foresee danger for others, but not for herself. That makes Quasar doubly determined to watch over her—the closer, the better—as she’s drawn into a dangerous gang rivalry.

  Both her psychic gift and their blinding chemistry tell Randi that she and Quasar are fated to be entwined. Even as they surrender to the heat between them, there’s no guarantee of a happily-ever-after now that an enemy has her in his sights. And claiming a future will take more than his strength and skill. If he can’t risk the heart he’s always held in check, they’ll both lose for good...

  Order your copy today!

  Can’t get enough? Be sure to keep an eye out for the next book in this series!

  Locked in Temptation

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  Seduce Me, Cowboy

  by Maisey Yates

  One

  Hayley Thompson was a good girl. In all the ways that phrase applied. The kind of girl every mother wished her son would bring home for Sunday dinner.

  Of course, the mothers of Copper Ridge were much more enthusiastic about Hayley than their sons were, but that had never been a problem. She had never really tried dating, anyway. Dates were the least of her problems.

  She was more worried about the constant feeling that she was under a microscope. That she was a trained seal, sitting behind the desk in the church office exactly as one might expect from a small-town pastor’s daughter—who also happened to be the church secretary.

  And what did she have to show for being so good? Absolutely nothing.

  Meanwhile, her older brother had gone out into the world and done whatever he wanted. He’d broken every rule. Run away from home. Gotten married, gotten divorced. Come back home and opened a bar in the same town where his father preached sermons. All while Hayley had stayed and behaved herself. Done everything that was expected of her.

  Ace was the prodigal son. He hadn’t just received forgiveness for his transgressions. He’d been rewarded. He had so many things well-behaved Hayley wanted and didn’t have.

  He’d found love again in his wife, Sierra. They had children. The doting attention of Hayley’s parents—a side effect of being the first to supply grandchildren, she felt—while Hayley had...

  Well, nothing.

  Nothing but a future as a very well-behaved spinster.

  That was why she was here now. Clutching a newspaper in her hand until it was wrinkled tight. She hadn’t even known people still put ads in the paper for job listings, but while she’d been sitting in The Grind yesterday on Copper Ridge’s main street, watching people go by and feeling a strange sense of being untethered, she’d grabbed the local paper.

  That had led her to the job listings. And seeing as she was unemployed for the first time since she was sixteen years old, she’d read them.

  Every single one of them had been submitted by people she knew. Businesses she’d grown up patronizing, or businesses owned by people she knew from her dad’s congregation. And if she got a job somewhere like that, she might as well have stayed on at the church.

  Except for one listing. Assistant to Jonathan Bear, owner of Gray Bear Construction. The job was for him personally, but would also entail clerical work for his company and some work around his home.

  She didn’t know anything about the company. She’d never had a house built, after all. Neither had her mother and father. And she’d never heard his name before, and was reasonably sure she’d never seen him at church.

  She wanted that distance.

  Familiar, nagging guilt gnawed at the edges of her heart. Her parents were good people. They loved her very much. And she loved them. But she felt like a beloved goldfish. With people watching her every move and tapping on the glass. Plus, the bowl was restricting, when she was well aware there was an entire ocean out there.

  Step one in her plan for independence had been to acquire her own apartment. Cassie Caldwell, owner of The Grind, and her husband, Jake, had moved out of the space above the coffee shop a while ago. Happily, it had been vacant and ready to rent, and Hayley had taken advantage of that. So, with the money she’d saved up, she’d moved into that place. And then, after hoarding a few months’ worth of rent, she had finally worked up the courage to quit.

  Her father had been... She wouldn’t go so far as to say he’d been disappointed. John Thompson never had a harsh word for anyone. He was all kind eyes and deep conviction. The type of goodness Hayley could only marvel at, that made her feel as though she could never quite measure up.

  But she could tell her father had been confused. And she hadn’t been able to explain herself, not fully. Because she didn’t want either of her parents to know that ultimately, this little journey of independence would lead straight out of Copper Ridge.

  She had to get out of the fishbowl. She needed people to stop tapping on her glass.

  Virtue wasn’t its own reward. For years she’d believed it would be. But then...suddenly, watching Ace at the dinner table at her parents’ house, with his family, she’d realized the strange knot in her stomach wasn’t anger over his abandonment, over the way he’d embarrassed their parents with his behavior.

  It was envy.

  Envy of all he had, of his freedom. Well, this was her chance to
have some of that for herself, and she couldn’t do it with everyone watching.

  She took a deep breath and regarded the house in front of her. If she didn’t know it was the home and office of the owner of Gray Bear Construction, she would be tempted to assume it was some kind of resort.

  The expansive front porch was made entirely out of logs, stained with a glossy, honey-colored sheen that caught the light and made the place look like it was glowing. The green metal roof was designed to withstand harsh weather—which down in town by the beach wasn’t much of an issue. But a few miles inland, here in the mountains, she could imagine there was snow in winter.

  She wondered if she would need chains for her car. But she supposed she’d cross that bridge when she came to it. It was early spring, and she didn’t even have the job yet.

  Getting the job, and keeping it through winter, was only a pipe dream at this point.

  She took a deep breath and started up the path, the bark-laden ground soft beneath her feet. She inhaled deeply, the sharp scent of pine filling her lungs. It was cool beneath the trees, and she wrapped her arms around herself as she walked up the steps and made her way to the front door.

  She knocked before she had a chance to rethink her actions, and then she waited.

  She was just about to knock again when she heard footsteps. She quickly put her hand down at her side. Then lifted it again, brushing her hair out of her face. Then she clasped her hands in front of her, then put them back at her sides again. Then she decided to hold them in front of her again.

  She had just settled on that position when the door jerked open.

  She had rehearsed her opening remarks. Had practiced making a natural smile in the mirror—which was easy after so many years manning the front desk of a church—but all that disappeared completely when she looked at the man standing in front of her.

  He was... Well, he was nothing like she’d expected, which left her grappling for what exactly she had been expecting. Somebody older. Certainly not somebody who towered over her like a redwood.