Page 3 of Dangerous Lover

The whole family was there. Mr. Lake, a big-shot businessman, tall, blond, looking like the king of the world. Mrs. Lake, impossiblybeautiful and elegant. Toby, Caroline’s seven-year old brother. There was another person in the room, a handsome young man. He was elegantly dressed, his dark blond hair combed straight back. His fingers were beating time with the carol on the piano top. When Caroline stopped playing, he leaned down and gave her a kiss on the mouth.

Caroline’s parents laughed and Toby did a somersault on the big rug.

Caroline smiled up at the handsome young man and said something that made him laugh. He bent to kiss her hair.

Ben watched, his heart nearly stopping.

This was Caroline’s boyfriend. Of course. They shared a look—blond, poised, privileged. Good-looking, rich, educated. They belonged to the same species. They were meant to be together, it was so clear. How could he ever have thought she was for him?

His heart slowed in his chest. For the first time, he felt the danger from the cold. He felt its icy fingers reaching out to him to drag him down to where his father had gone.

Maybe he should just let it take him.

There was nothing for him here, in this lovely candlelit room. He would never be a part of this world. He belonged to the darkness and the cold.

Ben dropped back down on his heels, backing slowly away from the glowing window until the yellow light of the window was lost in the sleet and mist. He was shaking with the cold as he trudged back down the driveway, the wet snow seeping through the holes in his shoes to soak his feet.

Half an hour later, he came to the interstate junction and stopped, swaying on his feet.

The human in him wanted to sink to the ground, curl up in a ball and wait for despair and then death to take him, as they had taken his father. It wouldn’t take long.

But the animal in him was strong and wanted, fiercely, to live.

To the right, the road stretched northward, right up into Canada. To the left, it went south.

If he went north, he would die. It was as simple as that.

Turning left, Ben shuffled forward, head low, into the icy wind.

Chapter One

Summerville, Washington

Christmas Eve

Twelve years later

She was here.

He could feel her, he couldsmellher.

Walking into the small bookshop with the old-fashioned bell over the door, the man now known as Jack Prescott knew he’d found her.

He was exhausted, having traveled for 48 hours straight, on a pirogue from Obuja to Freetown, via Air Afrique from Lungi Airport to Paris, Air France from Paris to Atlanta, Delta from Atlanta to Seattle, then a rickety puddle-jumper he could have flown better himself to Summerville.

Even through his exhaustion, though, his senses were keen. Twelve years later, he could still recognize hertouches. The candles on the window-sill, the gentle harp music faintly in the background, a smell of cinnamon, vanilla, roses andher.Unmistakable, unforgettable.

Coming in from the airport, the news that she was still in Summerville and, astonishingly, still single had blown him away. He hadn’t been expecting that. He hadn’t been expecting anything but difficulty and frustration in tracking her down.

Colonel Eugene Prescott’s death had freed him from bonds of loyalty and love. The day after the Colonel’s death, flown to Sierra Leone to take care of the last of his responsibility to the man who’d become his father.

It had cost gunfire and bloodshed, pain and violence, but he’d taken care of the mess as his father had asked on his deathbed. Jack had done what had to be done, salvaged his father’s reputation, punished the fuckers who’d mounted a rogue operation, sold the company and his house and was finally, finally free from all responsibility for the first time in twelve years. Free to follow his heart.

He’d turned straight around and flown as fast as modern aviation could take him from Africa to Summerville.

It was crazy, he knew it was crazy to look for her here,twelve years later. Why would Caroline stay in Summerville? She was beautiful, talented, smart, rich. She’d end up where all beautiful, smart, talented, rich women go—some big city on a coast. Maybe even abroad.

And no way could she be single, not someone who looked like Caroline. She’d be married with kids. Any man in his right mind would snatch her right up and keep her pregnant to be sure she stayed.

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