"I didn't know you would be waiting. How did you get in here?"
"I know a little bit about locks. And you need a better security system. In fact, I can think of a lot of things you need."
"Anything in particular—or should I say anyone?"
"Me," he replied with a grin.
"What about you? What do you need?"
"You, Paige."
"I want a long-term commitment."
"How long term?" he asked warily.
"Marriage, children, pets, a house of my own, furniture I choose, a garden."
"Whoa. Time out."
"What's the matter? Scared?"
"Terrified," he admitted.
"Okay, then, we'll start out slow. How about a real date involving dinner, maybe a little dancing, some champagne, rose petals on satin sheets?"
"Now you're talking. When can we go?"
"Any time you want."
"Paige," he said more seriously, "I don't know if I have it in me to be the kind of man you want and deserve. I don't want to disappoint you."
"You couldn't do that, Riley. And while I do hope for everything I said before, what I really want is you, on whatever terms you can give me. The truth is I'd rather have a few days with you than a lifetime with someone else. You've set me free, brought out a side of me I didn't know I had. I'll never be the same again."
"You've done the same thing for me." He pulled her hand to his heart. "I thought this had broken a long time ago. But you brought it back to life."
"I'm glad. We ended up on the same side after all," she said.
"Yes. Both our grandfathers were thieves. And Alyssa's, too. So much for protecting our families' names."
"Let's just hope our generation can turn things around."
"We will.” He paused. "Are we going to have to wait for our romantic date to... you know?"
"I think so. You should have to work for it this time."
"Paige," he groaned, "you're going to kill me.”
"You better believe it. Starting now," she said with a wicked smile.
"I thought you just said—"
"It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind. Besides, we haven't made love in this bed yet." She leaned over to kiss him, but he put a finger against her lips.
"Uh, Paige."
"What now?"
"I just remembered. I don't have my wallet."
"You have to start driving with your driver's license, Riley."
"I don't suppose you have another copy of the Odyssey laying around?" he asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately, no, and I hate to admit it, but this bed has seen about as much action as the one in my parents' house. I haven't brought a guy here in a long time. I don't think I have anything."
"That's all right. We have the rest of our lives to make love to each other."
"I like the sound of that."
"So do I," he admitted.
"Do you trust me, Riley, really trust me?"
"Yes, I do. Let me show you how much." He tossed her back on the pillows, his hands slipping under her sweater.
"This feels more like lust," she teased.
"Now it's your turn to trust me. There are a lot of things we can do without a condom."
"Show me."
"I intend to.” He paused, gazing into her eyes. "You're an amazing woman."
"And you're an amazing man. By the way, when we get married—and I know we will," she added with a smile of her own, "I'm taking your name. I think I'm going to be a better McAllister than a Hathaway."
"I just want you, Paige. I don't care what your name is."
"I love you, Riley."
"I love you, too," he whispered, sealing his words with a lingering kiss.
# # #
Next up is Don’t Say A Word…
Don’t Say A Word
Don’t Say A Word - Blurb
Everything she's been told about her past is a lie ...
Julie De Marco is planning a perfect San Francisco wedding when she comes face-to-face with a famous photograph, the startling image of a little girl behind the iron gate of a foreign orphanage—a girl who looks exactly like her. But Julia isn't an orphan. She isn't adopted. And she's never been out of the country. She knows who she is—or does she?
Haunted by uncertainty, Julia sets off on a dangerous search for her true identity—her only clues a swan necklace and an old Russian doll, her only ally daring, sexy photographer Alex Manning.
Suddenly nothing is as it seems. The people Julia loved and trusted become suspicious strangers. The only person she can trust is Alex, but he has secrets of his own. Each step brings her closer to a mysterious past that began a world away—a past that still has the power to threaten her life…and change her future forever.
DON’T SAY A WORD
© Copyright 2011 Barbara Freethy
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Vellum)
ISBN: 9780983651727
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This 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, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Prologue
25 years earlier…
She took her bow with the other dancers, tears pressing against her lids, but she couldn't let those tears slip down her cheeks. No one could know that this night was different from any other. Too many people were watching her.
As the curtain came down one last time, she ran off the stage into the arms of her husband, her lover, the man with whom she would take the greatest risk of her life.
He met the question in her eyes with a reassuring smile.
She wanted to ask if it was all arranged, if the plan was in motion, but she knew it would be unwise to speak. She would end this evening as she had ended all those before it. She went into her dressing room and changed out of her costume. When she was dressed, she said good night to some of the other dancers as she walked toward the exit, careful to keep her voice casual, as if she had not a care in the world. When she and her husband got into their automobile, they remained silent, knowing that the car might be bugged.
It was a short drive to their home. She would miss her house, the garden in the back, the bedroom where she'd made love to her husband, and the nursery, where she'd rocked...
No. She couldn't think of that. It was too painful. She had to concentrate on the future when they could finally be free. Her house, her life, everything that she possessed came with strings that were tightening around her neck like a noose, suffocating her with each passing day. It wasn't herself she feared for the most, but her family, her husband, who even now was being forced to do unconscionable things. They could no longer live a life of secrets.
Her husband took her hand as they walked up to the front door. He slipped his key into the lock and the door swung open. She heard a small click, and horror registered in her mind. She saw the shocked recognition in her husband's eyes, but it was too late. They were about to die, and they both knew it. Someone had betrayed them.
She prayed for the safety of those she had left behind as an explosion of fire lit up the night, consuming all their dreams with one powerful roar.
Chapter One
Present Day...
Julia DeMarco felt a shiver run down her spine as she stood high on a bluff overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful, sunny day in early September, and with the Pacific Ocean on one side of the bridge and the San Francisco Bay on the other, the view was breathtaking. She felt like she was on the verge of something exciting and wonderful, just the way every bride should feel. But as she took a deep breath of the fresh, somewhat salty air, her eyes began to water. She told herself the tears had more to do with the afternoon wind than the sadness she'd been wrestling with since her moth
er had passed away six months ago. This was supposed to be a happy time, a day for looking ahead, not behind. She just wished she felt confident instead of... uncertain.
A pair of arms came around her waist, and she leaned back against the solid chest of her fiancé, Michael Graffino. It seemed as if she'd done nothing but lean on Michael the past year. Most men wouldn't have stuck around, but he had. Now it was time to give him what he wanted, a wedding date. She didn't know why she was hesitating, except that so many things were changing in her life. Since Michael had proposed to her a year ago, her mother had died, her stepfather had put the family home up for sale, and her younger sister had moved in with her. A part of her just wanted to stop, take a few breaths, and think for a while instead of rushing headlong into another life-changing event. But Michael was pushing for a date, and she was grateful to him for sticking by her, so how could she say no? And why would she want to?
Michael was a good man. Her mother had adored him. Julia could still remember the night she'd told her mom about the engagement. Sarah DeMarco hadn't been out of bed in days, and she hadn't smiled in many weeks, but that night she'd beamed from ear to ear. The knowledge that her oldest daughter was settling down with the son of one of her best friends had made her last days so much easier.
"We should go, Julia. It's time to meet the event coordinator."
She turned to face him, thinking again what a nice-looking man he was with his light brown hair, brown eyes, and a warm, ready smile. The olive skin of his Italian heritage and the fact that he spent most of his days out on the water, running a charter boat service off Fisherman's Wharf, kept his skin a dark, sunburned red.
"What's wrong?" he asked, a curious glint in his eye. "You're staring at me."
"Was I? I'm sorry."
"Don't be." He paused, then said, "It's been a while since you've really looked at me."
"I don't think that's true. I look at you all the time. So do half the women in San Francisco," she added.
"Yeah, right," he muttered. "Let's go."
Julia cast one last look at the view, then followed Michael to the museum. The Palace of the Legion of Honor had been built as a replica of the Palais de la Legion d'Honneur in Paris. In the front courtyard, known as the Court of Honor, was one of Rodin's most famous sculptures, The Thinker. Julia would have liked to stop and ponder the statue as well as the rest of her life, but Michael was a man on a mission, and he urged her toward the front doors.
As they entered the museum, her step faltered. In a few moments, they would sit down with Monica Harvey, the museum's event coordinator, and Julia would have to pick her wedding date. She shouldn't be nervous. It wasn't as if she were a young girl; she was twenty-eight years old. It was time to get married, have a family.
"Liz was right. This place is cool," Michael said.
Julia nodded in agreement. Her younger sister Liz had been the one to suggest the museum. It was a pricey location, but Julia had inherited some money from her mother that would pay for most of the wedding.
"The offices are downstairs," Michael added. "Let's go."
Julia drew in a deep breath as the moment of truth came rushing toward her. "I need to stop in the restroom. Why don't you go ahead? I'll be right there."
When Michael left, Julia walked over to get a drink of water from a nearby fountain. She was sweating and her heart was practically jumping out of her chest. What on earth was the matter with her? She'd never felt so panicky in her life.
It was all the changes, she told herself again. Her emotions were too close to the surface. But she could do this. They were only picking a date. She wasn't going to say "I do" this afternoon. That would be months from now, when she was ready, really ready.
Feeling better, she headed downstairs, passing by several intriguing exhibits along the way. Maybe they could stop and take a look on the way out.
"Mrs. Harvey is finishing up another appointment," Michael told her as she joined him. "She'll be about ten minutes. I need to make a call. Can you hold down the fort?"
"Sure." Julia sat down on the couch, wishing Michael hadn't left. She really needed a distraction from her nerves. As the minutes passed, she became aware of the faint sound of music coming from down the hall. The melody was lovely but sad, filled with unanswered dreams, regrets. It reminded her of a piece played on the balalaika in one of her music classes in college, and it called to her in a way she couldn't resist. Music had always been her passion. Just a quick peek, she told herself, as she got to her feet and moved into the corridor.
The sounds of the strings grew louder as she entered the room at the end of the hall. It was a tape, she realized, playing in the background, intended no doubt to complement the equally haunting historic photographs on display. Within seconds she was caught up in a journey through time. She couldn't look away. And she didn't want to look away—especially when she came to the picture of the little girl.
Captioned The Coldest War of All, the black-and-white photograph showed a girl of no more than three or four years old, standing behind the gate of an orphanage in Moscow. The photo had been taken by someone named Charles Manning, the same man who appeared to have taken many of the pictures in the exhibit.
Julia studied the picture in detail. She wasn't as interested in the Russian scene as she was in the girl. The child wore a heavy dark coat, pale thick stockings, and a black woolen cap over her curly blond hair. The expression in her eyes begged for someone—whoever was taking the picture, perhaps—to let her out, to set her free, to help her.
An uneasy feeling crept down Julia's spine. The girl's features, the oval shape of her face, the tiny freckle at the corner of her eyebrow, the slope of her small, upturned nose, seemed familiar. She noticed how the child's pudgy fingers clung to the bars of the gate. It was odd, but she could almost feel that cold steel beneath her own fingers. Her breath quickened. She'd seen this picture before, but where? A vague memory danced just out of reach.
Her gaze moved to the silver chain hanging around the girl's neck and the small charm dangling from it. It looked like a swan, a white swan, just like the one her mother had given to her when she was a little girl. Her heart thudded in her chest, and the panicky feeling she'd experienced earlier returned.
"Julia?"
She jumped at the sound of Michael's booming voice. She'd forgotten about him.
"Mrs. Harvey is waiting for us," he said as he crossed the room. "What are you doing in here?"
"Looking at the photos."
"We don't have time for that. Come on."
"Just a second." She pointed at the photograph. "Does this girl seem familiar to you?"
Michael gave the photo a quick glance. "I don't think so. Why?"
"I have a necklace just like the one that little girl is wearing," she added. "Isn't that odd?"
"Why would it be odd? It doesn't look unusual to me.
Of course it didn't. There were probably a million girls who had that same necklace. "You're right. Let's go." But as she turned to follow Michael out of the room, she couldn't help taking one last look at the picture. The girl's eyes called out to her—eyes that looked so much like her own. But that little girl in the photograph didn't have anything to do with her—did she?
* * *
"It cost me a fortune to get you out of jail," Joe Carmichael said.
Alex Manning leaned back in his chair and kicked his booted feet up onto the edge of Joe's desk. Joe, a balding man in his late thirties, was one of his best friends, not to mention the West Coast editor of World News Magazine, a publication that bought eighty percent of Alex's photographs. They'd been working together for over ten years now. Some days Alex couldn't believe it had been more than a decade since he'd begun his work as a photojournalist right after graduating from Northwestern University. Other days—like today—it felt more like a hundred years.
"You told me to get those pictures at any cost, and I did," Alex replied.
"I didn't tell you to upset the local police
while you were doing it. You look like shit, by the way. Who beat you up?"
"They didn't give me their business cards. And it comes with the territory. You know that."
"What I know is that the magazine wants me to rein you in."
"If you don't want my photographs, I'll sell them somewhere else."
Joe hastily put up his hands. "I didn't say that. But you're taking too many chances, Alex. You're going to end up dead or in some prison I can't get you out of."
"You worry too much."
"And you don't worry enough—which is what makes you good. It also makes you dangerous and expensive. Although I have to admit that this is some of your best work," Joe added somewhat reluctantly as he studied the pile of photographs on his desk.
"Damn right it is."
"Then it's a good time for a vacation. Why don't you take a break? You've been on the road the past six months. Slow down."
Slowing down was not part of Alex's nature. Venturing into unknown territory, taking the photograph no one else could get, that was what he lived for. But Alex had to admit he was bone tired, exhausted from shooting photographs across South America for the past six weeks, and his little stint in jail had left him with a cracked rib and a black eye. It probably wouldn't hurt to take a few days off.
"You know what your weakness is?" Joe continued.
"I'm sure you're going to tell me."
"You're reckless. You forget that a good photographer stays on the right side of the lens." Joe reached behind his desk and grabbed a newspaper. "This was on the front page of the Examiner last week."
Alex winced at the picture of himself being hustled into a police car in Colombia. "Damn that Cameron. He's the one who took that photo. I thought I saw that slimy weasel slinking in the shadows."
Summer Reads Box Set: Volume 1 Page 67