GAGE BUTLER'S RECKONING by Justine Davis

Author:Justine Davis [Davis, Justine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-12-24T00:40:41.901000+00:00

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Chapter 11

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"This is not," Laurey said emphatically, "how I'd planned to spend my vacation."

Gage sighed. She'd been pacing since she'd awakened this afternoon, when Kit had arrived with her belongings, packed up from her hotel room. And she showed no sign of slowing any time soon. He thought of telling her to stop and sit, relax, but he had a feeling he knew exactly what kind of answer he would get.

They'd both fallen into bed, exhausted, just as the sun was coming up, Laurey in the larger master bedroom at the back of the house, Gage in a smaller one closer to the front door. He'd been grateful then for how tired he'd been; it had kept him from lying awake thinking about things he shouldn't be thinking about. Like whatever had possessed him to kiss Laurey Templeton.

He knew all about adrenaline. He'd lived with it for years, and occasionally run on it for days on end; sometimes it had been all that had kept him going. He knew about the crash afterward, and how it sometimes affected your thinking.

He knew all about brushes with death, too. Knew more than he cared to know, and had known for longer than he cared to remember. He knew how crazily people sometimes acted as a result, even those to whom it was, if not usual, at least not uncommon.

Either one would be a nice, tidy explanation.

If he believed either one.

As it was, he didn't know what he believed. Right now, what he didn't know far outweighed what he did. Like why he kept on in this crazy job. Why he kept trying when it seemed like such a hopeless battle. But most especially, why Laurey hadn't slapped him for that kiss.

Unless, of course, one of those nicely logical and convenient explanations did apply in her case. Which made, he told himself, a lot more sense than thinking she hadn't slapped him because she had enjoyed it.

He nearly laughed aloud at that idea. She'd been caught off guard, that was all, and she'd been too scared to think of anything other than the fact that she was still alive. How many times had he heard or read about such instances? How many times had he actually been involved in them? He remembered more than once when a frightened but grateful female citizen he'd saved in one way or another had thrown her arms around him and kissed him. Hell, he'd had rough, tough, grown men hug him, crying on his shoulder.

But never, ever, had he been the instigator. It was a line he knew you didn't cross, and he never had.

Until now.

And he'd done it with a woman who just days ago had attacked him at first sight. If that alone wasn't a sign that something was out of whack, he didn't know what was.

True, she had apologized for that. And rather nicely, too. And while holding a grudge this long was a bit silly, he couldn't deny she'd

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