Holding Out For A Hero (Men of Hawaii) by Dimon HelenKay

Author:Dimon, HelenKay [Dimon, HelenKay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp
Published: 2009-09-10T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

The next morning Deana sat at her breakfast table and looked across at Brad Nohea’s shiny bald head. He wore a short-sleeve dress shirt and thin tie clipped tight enough to choke him. Maybe that explained his flushed red face.

Deana was more concerned about the vicious excitement that bounced off him and soured the mood in the room. After fifteen minutes of listening to the guy spout off a list of Josh’s supposed faults and past crimes she regretted her decade-old decision to stop drinking. Also vowed never to answer her doorbell again. Clearly nothing good came of unwanted guests, especially if those guests wore badges. She had no idea how Josh worked at the DEA for this idiot for all those years.

Josh. Now there was trouble. Not the kind Brad kept whining about but the type that promised to take her life, turn it upside down, and then shake hard until something important fell out. Like her common sense.

He had stayed with her for hours the evening before. Touching turned to a sort of peaceful calm. They sat together and watched television, ate, and talked about every careful subject that popped into her head. When he finally retired to his own house across the lawn he didn’t even try to steal a good-night kiss. Nothing sexual, but very safe.

She now hated safe.

She had played her life within the rules and without any room for mistakes for years, thinking that would remove the stain from her past and redeem her actions in her family’s eyes. While she was busy polishing her martyrdom crown she lost almost everyone she cared about. Now she wondered what else she had missed.

When a man like Josh walked into your life and showed an interest, did you run? Her answer up until two weeks ago would have been yes. Hell, yes. Not only did you run, you packed a bag and found the first fast-moving vehicle out of town. A man with his reputation, a man so strong and self-assured, could bring only turmoil.

But what she felt last night in those quiet moments between the rush of sexual excitement and the pathetic need to chatter to make him stay with her longer struck her as something worth exploring. And that scared the hell out of her.

“Ms. Armstrong?” Brad’s angry voice boomed through the glassed-in breakfast nook.

Deana looked up and studied the man’s pinched frown. She wondered how much of the conversation she’d missed. She doubted any of it really mattered. “Sorry?”

“I’m trying to make you understand the gravity of the situation.”

She guessed “situation” was another way of saying Josh. “Go on.”

The lines around Brad’s mouth eased a little. Deana guessed he was trying to stay calm despite whatever raged inside him.

“I happen to like Josh,” Brad said, his tone sounding the exact opposite of his words.

Yeah, sure he did. That’s why Brad showed up today to belittle Josh. A severe case of like. Right.

“I can see where women find him charming.” Brad’s laserlike stare bored right into her as if willing her to agree with him.

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