The Donovans by Lowell Elizabeth

Author:Lowell, Elizabeth [Elizabeth, Lowell,]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-12-24T00:04:16.950000+00:00

“Just a moment,” Hannah said.

Her voice was too hoarse, too strained, but it was the best she could do. She felt like a doll stuffed with sand, and now the sand was running out at every seam. She fumbled with the holt as she opened the door.

And then she could only stare. She had forgotten Archer’s dark male beauty, the intelligence in his light, changeable eyes, his height and physical power, the sensual promise of his mouth. Her husband had been a wild blond Viking. Archer was a dark angel who made a woman want… everything.

Unnerved, she stepped back and said, “Come in.”

When Archer walked forward, other memories knifed through her. The controlled way he moved, the bleak clarity of his gray eyes beneath the sharp black arch of his eyebrows, the quickness of his hands as he shut the door – all of it reminded her too vividly of the night seven years ago when Len had almost died.

And now Len was dead anyway.

Slowly the rest of Archer’s appearance registered on Hannah; the fine lines at the corner of his eyes, the shadows brought by lack of sleep, the worn jeans, the slate-gray dress shirt with the cuffs rolled to his elbows, and what looked like coffee splattered across the front and forgotten.

“You must be exhausted,” she said. “Coffee? A drink? Food?”

Archer raked his fingers through his hair in a remembered gesture that sent odd echoes through Hannah. The beard was new, as were the scattered strands of brilliant silver that gleamed in his thick black hair. But his mouth was the same, thin and contained, always on guard against… everything.

“Coffee sounds good,” he said. “Food, too. Whatever you would normally have now.”

“But it’s not lunchtime where you came from.” She tried to think across time zones and the international date line. She couldn’t. “Is it?”

White teeth gleamed in something less than a smile. “No, but don’t worry. I’ve learned to live wherever and whenever I am. Lunch is fine.”

Hannah walked to the kitchen, aware every step of the way that a man was following her. A big, quiet-moving man with quick hands and cold eyes. She wondered if Archer ever really smiled. If he did, it never had happened when she was watching. But then, she had seen him only twice before. He hadn’t smiled the first time, at her wedding – she wouldn’t have, either, if she had known what lay ahead. Nor had he smiled when he had arrived at her door covered in blood and ordered her to pack.

No smiles, yet he had been everything she needed to survive.

Her hands fumbled as she reached into the refrigerator for fresh fruit and cheese and the roast beef Christian Flynn had brought to her. Every movement was an effort. She was caught between the nightmare of the past and the one in the present. But she wasn’t terrified anymore. Smiling or not, Archer was here, bringing with him a sense of safety that was dizzying.

A chunk of cheddar banged against one of the metal racks and thumped to the floor.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.