Time Out of Mind by Barbara Raffin

Author:Barbara Raffin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, suspense, wolves, love story, woman in jeopardy, american indian
Publisher: Barbara Raffin

Chapter 10

The end plank of the dock creaked beneath Samantha’s shifting weight as she cast out the fishing line. After Archer had deposited her in the front room, she’d needed to distance herself from the place where he rolled up electric extension cords, raked up wood chips, and swept away saw dust. She needed distance from him.

So, she’d retreated to the far end of the house. And when that wasn’t enough because she could still hear him, she took her father’s fishing rod off its mounts above the fireplace mantel in his bedroom and headed down to the lake.

Samantha cranked the handle of the reel. The lure at the end of the line spun toward her, a bright flash in the dark water as its spoon shape rotated beneath the surface, catching the afternoon sunlight. Archer was like that lure, dazzling in her otherwise monochromatic world.

But fishing lures also had barbed hooks. Did Archer?

He’d done his best to convince her that he did. He’d warned her. He’d threatened her. He’d manhandled her.

He’d also kissed her with infinite tenderness and left her bed when he’d strained with need of her. What dark secrets did Michael Archer harbor that made him believe himself a danger to her? Had she come close to guessing what drove the man to his mad claims before he’d carried her in his arms into the house and placed her out of his reach? A fatal attraction. Or, as Archer had pointed out, attractions.

That rather implied the obsession was his.

If he was telling her the truth. He had admitted his ability to tell a falsehood. But, everybody lied a little about one thing or another. And he’d had motive.

He’d wanted to scare her off. He’d made no secret of it. The fatal attractions confession could be no more than a stepped-up version of his earlier warnings.

The lure snagged among the bulrushes. With steady pressure, she eased it free the way her father had taught her.

Why then did the possibility that he wasn’t lying needle her?

She flicked her wrist and sent lure and line hurtling out across the water as she had repeatedly through the afternoon hours. The silver lure twirled through the air, a beautiful but deadly projectile splashing into the water. Fishing line snaked down across the surface of the lake, a thin thread deceptively strong...like the webbing of a spider’s lair.

Snags or flash, it no longer mattered which Michael Archer was. He refused to stay. He’d probably already left.

And that likelihood made her as angry as he’d appeared to be when he’d bodily removed her from his presence.

****

With the palm of his hand, Archer forced the swollen frame of the screen into the window opening over the kitchen sink. He flicked the wing nuts over the edges of the frames, locking them in place just in case the dampness ever receded enough for the wood to shrink. They really should be scraped and repainted.

But he wasn’t going to stick around long enough for that kind of job.

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.