by AE Rought
“I hate him, Chris. I honest to God hate him. Am I a bad person for hating him for everything he’s done to me?”
Chris took her mug and set it on a coaster on the table. He moved closer to her and put his arm around her and pulled her head to his chest. Kate could hear the steady rhythm of his heart. He was real. He was a man with needs, and she now realized she was a woman with needs. He stroked her hair and murmured into her ear. “You’re gonna do fine, baby. You’re going to do fine.”
Kate tilted her head and looked into his eyes. Eyes that were filled with compassion and understanding. “I hope your attorney’s a good one because I’m gonna fight Scott with everything I’ve got. I want sole custody of Megan and Molly, and I don’t want them knowing what’s going on. I don’t want their lives ruined because of the whim of some woman Scott’s marrying. I hope she knows he’s going to cheat on her. He’s going to, Chris. I can guarantee it. The marriage won’t last, and I don’t want to put Megan and Molly through that again.” A tear trickled down her cheek, and Chris wiped it away.
“Would you mind if I kissed you?” he asked softly. “I just have this overwhelming need to hold you and kiss you.”
“Kiss me, Chris. Kiss me.” She closed her eyes and felt his lips against hers. They were warm and soft and it felt good to feel like a woman loved. She knew it was too early for it to be love, but she needed this. She needed this contact more than she’d ever needed anything before.
Chris deepened the kiss and groaned. “Oh God, lady, the things you do to me. You know, I’ve been dying to do this since the first night of the picnic.”
Kate smiled against his lips. “Me, too.”
Chris kissed her again. It was tender and sweet and filled with promise. Promise of a love sure to grow. Kate loved how she felt in Chris’s arms. It had been a long two years without a man to hold her. She’d put everything into raising Megan and Molly, then her work. It’s what kept her going. But now God had given her this incredible man, and he was making her feel all sorts of things she hadn’t felt—ever.
She realized now what she’d shared with Scott was surface. She thought she loved him. She was in love with being in love. She was younger and a lot more naive. If there was one thing she didn’t doubt, it was that Chris wasn’t the kind of man to run around on her. Again, she remembered how he told Megan at the pizza party that he hadn’t had a girlfriend for a long time. She hoped with all her heart he considered her a girlfriend. His only girlfriend. Because every day that passed made her more sure of one thing—she cared deeply. Too deeply, too fast. She only hoped her neediness wouldn’t scare Chris away. She needed tonight more than he knew. Once again, she thanked God for sending Chris to her stand the night of the picnic.
Chris, on the other hand, was going through some pretty strong emotions. Love was one of them. He didn’t know what was in the cards for him, but he prayed with all his might it included Kate. Kissing her. Kissing her! He was actually in her living room with her in his arms and he was kissing her. The Kate he dreamed about kissing for the past few nights. Now he had something more than his work—he had a beautiful woman whom he hoped would become a permanent part of his life and he had two little girls he adored.
He couldn’t wait to bring her to the party next week. He wanted his brothers and sisters to know Kate and the girls because if he had his way, she’d be at every family function from now on, no matter what. He knew it was going to be overwhelming for Kate to meet so many new people in one night. But he’d help her through it. There was a lot of love in his family. Enough to go around and include a divorced woman with two young daughters who needed a lot of tender loving care.
Again he thought back to how his sisters talked about love at first sight and how he didn’t really believe in it. When he was with Maureen it had been after getting to know her in algebra. He spent his entire sophomore year just getting to know her. Then, he asked her to the semi-formal. From there, love grew slowly and steadily. They were inseparable. But it was never love at first sight. At least not for him.
Kate curled up closer to him and sighed. His heart beat faster. This is what he wanted to come home to every night. Not some empty apartment done by an interior decorator. He wanted to spend his nights with Kate and the girls. It was perfect. A ready-made family. And maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t matter to Kate that he couldn’t give her those tiny feet and laughter she had talked about wanting in her life. He could give her and Megan and Molly a stable family situation. He couldn’t believe he was thinking along those lines. If someone told him last week he’d be feeling what he was feeling for this special lady, he would have thought him or her nuts. But, it was true. He knew deep down he was in love with Kate. Just holding her felt so right. The kiss…well that was just icing on the cake.
He held Kate for the next hour. Neither one of them said much. They didn’t have to—their bodies said it for them. Chris knew it was time to leave, but he didn’t want to go. If she didn’t have Megan and Molly, he would suggest his spending the night. He would be glad to just hold her in his arms all night long. But there were Megan and Molly. And he realized he had to take things slow and let them get used to having him around for a while. He was sure Kate would feel the same way.
“Hey, you’re not falling asleep on me? Am I that boring a date?”
Kate looked up into his face, her eyes a bit droopy. “Is that what this is? A date? If it is, I don’t want it to end.”
Chris kissed her on the forehead. “Want me to walk you to your room?”
“No, because I might ask you to stay, and I can’t do that.”
“I’ll be in touch tomorrow with my attorney’s number.”
At night, she comes alive…but a madman’s fantasies could kill her.
Fantasy Girl
© 2008 Candice Gilmer
By day, Lynn Broadmore leads a boring life as a mild-mannered bookkeeper, enduring one blind date after another. But by night, she’s “Hush,” webmistress extraordinaire, writing naughty stories for her adoring legion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan fiction minions.
Now that there’s a new guy working in the next cubicle, though, real life is getting interesting. All Jack has to do is smile, and her insides turn to goo. To her complete surprise, she might even stand a chance against the office bimbo.
Undercover FBI agent Jack Edwards is on the hunt for a serial killer who trolls the Internet for victims. The trail has led to Lynn’s virtual doorstep, and he’s ready to do whatever is necessary to bring the killer down—including using two secret identities to gain her trust. Things get complicated, however, as the goofy fan fiction writer gets under his skin and starts staining his brain—and his heart.
Distractions are something he can’t afford right now…not if he’s going to keep her from getting hurt in what she thinks is a safe, on-line hideaway. Because between the pixels lurks a murderer.
And he’s chosen Hush, his fantasy girl, as his next target.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Fantasy Girl:
“You have got to be kidding me,” I cried out as I kicked my rear driver’s-side tire. The thing was flatter than a pancake. A slew of cuss words slipped out of my mouth, rivaling the best sailors.
“Lynn?” came a voice from behind me.
I spun around. “What?” I snapped, realizing I was spinning around to glare at the one and only Jack Edwards.
Damn my luck. And didn’t it beat all, that a week after meeting him, I was still getting all gooey inside just looking at him.
I seriously needed some help. Professional help.
“Uh, need some help?” he asked with a brow raised, framing his rather amused expression.
“No, thank you,” I snapped, glaring down at the terrible tire. Anything to keep from looking at Jack. “I am perfectly capable of changing my own tire.” I opened the trunk and tried to pull my tire out. Which really, it wasn’t that heavy. It was a spare…
And it landed with a thud, flat as well.
/> “Shit.”
Jack hid a smirk behind his hand. “Sure you don’t need anything?”
“I’m fine,” I said a bit too loudly.
“Sure you are,” Jack replied. He sashayed up next to me, and yes, it was a sashay, he was far too damn smug for his good looks. Damn me for getting all girly inside at the sight of him coming over to rescue my damsel in distress.
Then he became the ultimate man.
He picked up the flat spare, looked at it, and said, “Yep, it’s flat.”
“What are you, a rocket scientist in your spare time?” I muttered.
“Only on the weekends,” Jack said with a grin.
I stuck my tongue out at him. Yep, I’m mature. Really.
Then Jack started rooting around in my trunk, pulling out the jack.
“What are you doing? I can’t put that flat spare on.” I put my hands on my hips and glared at him.
Jack positioned the lift under my car and started raising the poor old Mazda that I drove. “But I can take you to get this tire fixed,” he said as he popped off the hubcap and started on the bolts.
What an arrogant ass! What am I? Incapable of taking care of myself? I mean I can very easily change a tire. It’s not like it’s hard. ’Course, truth be told, I would call my dad, and have him come do it for me, because, well, he’s my dad, and he lives for this stuff.
“What if I don’t want you to? I’m perfectly capable,” I started to argue, but with amazing pit crew speed, Jack had the flat tire off my car before I could finish my sentence. I threw my arms up in the air in frustration.
“What?” Jack asked. “You know where there’s a place that can fix this?”
I shrugged. “There’s a Pep Boys or something like that around the corner,” I said letting out a sigh.
’Course, I really couldn’t help the part of me that was excited that the new guy was helping me get my tire fixed. He led me to a huge black Chevy Tahoe, immaculate inside and out. I couldn’t help whistling at the perfection of it and feeling like crap that Jack had to see my Mazda that seriously needed to be traded in for something else.
The stars must have aligned just right, because as Jack and I were climbing in, Tina Smith and several of her minions were leaving the building. Instantly her gaze locked on mine, and she shot daggers at me.
It took all my strength not to stick my tongue out at her.
Pep Boys wasn’t horribly busy, and they managed to get me right in to fix my tire. While I was waiting, Jack and I roamed the aisles to see if there was anything that we couldn’t live without.
’Course, they don’t sell whole new cars at Pep Boys, so I was out of luck there.
I stared at some of the racks of cleaning wipes for the dashboard. And sprays. And rags. My God, did people really need all this stuff to keep their car clean?
“It’s no wonder my car’s a mess,” I muttered.
“Why?” Jack asked.
“If I knew I had to buy all this stuff,” I said gesturing to the shelves, “I might have given up on buying a car in the first place.”
Jack grinned, flashing a bright mouth full of pearly white teeth at me.
Be still my beating heart.
I spied one of my favorite car accessories. “Oh, look, air fresheners,” I said, darting down the aisle.
Nope, not one single one with Buffy on it. Darn it.
Jack smirked and came after me. “So who do you want to be when you grow up, Lynn?” he asked as we sniffed the different fresheners. He grimaced at a fruity one and hung it back up.
“I am grown up. I just don’t have to act like it,” I said. “Who do you want to be?”
“I want to save the world,” Jack said.
I raised my eyebrow. “Like a superhero or something?”
“Sure,” he said hanging up another one, straightening the row out as he did. “Why not?”
“Because you’re going to have to be better on the computer to be Super Jack—the Accountant.”
Jack laughed.
They called my name over the intercom and Jack and I headed up to the front. The guy behind the counter, smelling of grease rags and motor oil, stood there waiting for us. A smear of black goo covered part of his name patch, concealing the “J” in John.
“We got it fixed,” John said. “Looks almost like your tire got stabbed.”
“Stabbed?” I asked staring at him. “You’ve gotta be kidding.”
“Well, usually, if something’s been driven over, there’s a nail or what have you stuck in the tire. You didn’t have anything like that.”
I glanced at Jack. “Has that been going on lately?”
The guy shrugged. “Sometimes kids do it. You live somewhere around here?”
“I work down the way,” I said pointing over my shoulder toward the office.
“Probably just kids. I wouldn’t worry about it much,” said John. He handed me the bill, and Jack promptly yanked it from my hand.
“Hey,” I said, “I was going to pay for that.”
Jack shrugged. “I’ll pay, and you can buy dinner.”
I crossed my hands over my chest. “Oh, so you just assume that I’ll buy you dinner now?” Presumptuous ass.
“I’m fixing your tire, you should,” Jack said.
John couldn’t help adding his thoughts. “Sounds only fair to me,” he replied.
I gritted my teeth. Great, now I have to buy dinner for Jack.
Then my brain kicked in. Whoa, this would kinda count as a date, wouldn’t it? Dinner with Jack? Even if I just get Burger King?
Oh the possibilities.
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