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Prologue
Chapter 1 R afe Diaz’s long stride took him swiftly across the grassy, tree-shaded area that formed the center of Oklahoma City’s Reunion Square. He was a tall man, nearly six foot three, with a rangy disciplined build he’d honed to pure muscle during the years that others had control over his life. His slacks were black, his white dress shirt starched, the collar open. He’d bought his functional gray sports coat off the rack. He strode past several boutiques, an antique shop and a bakery before halting on the sidewalk outside a wide display window that glinted in the morning sun. While he watched through the glass, the hot wind raked through his black hair like wild fingers. Rafe didn’t notice. Not with his attention focused on the woman inside Silk & Secrets. Allie Wentworth Fielding, heiress, socialite and party girl. Former centerfold model. College graduate. She was as stunning as he remembered, in a slim yellow business suit that managed to look both professional and feminine. Th
Chapter 1
Chapter 2 “D ammit, I don’t care if Allie Fielding saw me at the condo. I didn’t kill Mercedes!” Rafe studied his client across the real estate developer’s expansive desk. In his late fifties, Hank Bishop was powerfully built with black hair going gray at the temples and a strongly carved face with prominent planes. The stress of a murder charge hanging over him made those planes look glass-sharp. “Miss Fielding didn’t see you,” Rafe said levelly. “She saw your car’s taillights when you drove off.” Bishop dragged in a breath. “That should add muscle to my claim that I’m not the person who clubbed Allie in the head.” Bishop’s comment shoved her image into Rafe’s mind. Despite his best efforts not to, he pictured how she’d looked sitting on that pink love seat, her temple bruised, her cheeks colorless. He’d left the shop hours ago and he was still fighting to shake off the awareness that had jolted through him when he pressed his palm against Allie’s spine and nudged her forward. She’d b
Chapter 2
Chapter 3 T he Friends Foundation’s annual silent auction was held in whatever location seemed the most lavish, the most luxurious, the place best suited for over-the-top elegance. This year, a luxury downtown hotel had offered the use of its refurbished ballrooms for free, and the foundation’s board jumped at the gift. Although Allie had established the foundation, provided its initial funding and sat on the board of directors, she designated the members of the fund-raising committee to man the receiving line. That left her free to mingle and deal with any last-minute problems that might arise. Tonight there were masses of people, delicious food on the buffet, ice sculptures, fountains flowing with chilled champagne and soft music overhead. She moved from group to group to exchange pecks on the cheek and gripping handshakes. Some of the guests were friends, some customers of her shop, and all had made donations to the foundation in the past. Her goal tonight was to make sure they open
Chapter 3
Chapter 4 A llie hovered in the hallway just outside the ballroom where the auction items were on display. To her relief, bids had been placed on all paintings, sculptures, trips and antiques. Even the monstrous Art Nouveau lamp that an eccentric matron willed to the foundation had snagged a bid. Not from Rafe Diaz, she noted cynically. And the pièce de résistance—the bejeweled, beaded shoes that had been on display in Silk & Secret’s window for a month—fetched a dollar amount far higher than anticipated. In all, a great night for the Friends Foundation, Allie thought, smiling. Then there was her annual pledge to match the auction proceeds. Tonight’s receipts would buy several fixer-upper houses. After renovation, each would become a safe haven for a victim of violent crime. For an instant, she allowed her mind to wander. She imagined if her father were still alive, he would be in attendance tonight. Not to show he was proud of her role in the foundation’s success. As much as he had di
Chapter 4
Chapter 5 T he ringing phone dragged Allie out of a restless sleep. Rafe, she thought as she fought to free her legs from the twisted sheet. She’d been dreaming about Rafe. A hot, lusty dream. One that seemed so real that finding herself in an empty bed sent a river of hot, frustrated need rippling through her. The phone trilled again, jerking her fully awake. A weak, muffled roll of thunder sounded in the distance as she leaned toward the nightstand. The storm that had set in while she drove home from the silent auction was moving on. She snatched up the receiver at the same time she caught a glimpse of the glowing red numbers on her alarm clock. Who the hell was calling at 3:04 a.m.? “Hello?” she muttered, dropping her head back onto her pillow. “Is this Allie Fielding?” She struggled to place the deep male voice. “Yes. Who’s this?” “Detective Young. Ma’am, I’m calling about your warehouse. There’s been a break-in.” “Oh, no!” Allie closed her eyes. All of the shop’s extra stock was s
Chapter 5
Chapter 6 S tunned by the blast, Allie gingerly sat up. Her ears rang. Her spine felt as if some giant hand had smashed into it, then flung her forward like a rag doll. Her palms stung from her crash-landing on the gritty pavement. Her right knee throbbed. Glass crunched under Rafe’s feet as he crouched beside her. “Are you okay?” She looked up, trying to focus on his face through eyes stinging from the fire’s acrid black smoke. “I…think so. You?” “Fine.” Gripping her arms, he helped her to her feet. “He’s not,” he said flatly, looking at the man lying in the street. “He’s dead. Probably was before we pulled him out of the car.” Allie struggled to make out the man’s features in the orange glare of the flames, which was hard to do because blood covered the entire right side of his head. His open eyes had the same dead stare she’d witnessed when she found Mercedes McKenzie. The reminder tightened her stomach. “Do you know him?” Rafe asked. The question jerked her head around. “Shouldn’t
Chapter 6
Chapter 7 R afe Diaz kissed like a fallen angel, coaxing and enticing and unrelenting. He didn’t let up; didn’t allow Allie to breathe. He just kissed her, slow and sure and endlessly, until she began to feel faint from the uneasy, exhilarating awareness that no man had ever kissed her this way. There was nothing soft about him; not the magnificent shoulders her fingers clenched, not his hands that cupped her face, not his lips or tongue. Nothing. She wanted, as she had never wanted before. Never dreamed of wanting. The ache was so huge it left no room for reason. The rightness of it was so clear that it left no room for doubt. There was only this moment. This man. A whimpering moan rose in the back of her throat. It wasn’t due to protest or pain, but of no-holds-barred desire. For Rafe, the sound that seemed to claw up from her throat was every bit as primitive as the need that raged through him. He’d known desire before, but not this gnawing, tearing desperation. His hands slid from
Chapter 7
Chapter 8 R afe caught a whiff of Allie’s alluring scent as he followed the security guard’s directions along the warehouse’s second-floor hallway. By the time he stepped through the door to the workroom and saw her, every muscle in his body was tight. She stood before a long worktable, which held several hot pink garment bags. One of the bags was open, displaying a rainbow of pastel-colored silks. Sometime after he’d left her shop, she had changed out of the red top and torn-at-the-knee jeans. Now she wore a sleeveless turquoise shell, black capris and black strappy sandals. Her hair was brushed back from her face in a long, waving stream of golden blond. Her lightly tanned skin looked spa-perfect. When she looked up and met his gaze, the rush of emotion that sparked in her blue eyes was too scattered for him to interpret. Was she thinking about the kiss that had knocked him for a loop? Regretting it had happened? Wishing she’d pushed him away? Was she wondering—like he was—if she’d e
Chapter 8
Chapter 9 N ever in a million years would Allie have thought there could be anything sensual about watching a man load a dishwasher. But there was something about the way Rafe’s impressive muscles rippled beneath his short-sleeved polo shirt while he slid plates into the bottom rack. The limber motion of his hips in nicely fitting slacks, his overall economy of motion had her thinking of a really good golf swing. Or other physically skillful activities. She took a sip of the ice water she’d switched to after she and Rafe left the other two couples lingering over after-dinner coffee in the rooftop garden. The cool liquid did nothing to soothe the tightness in Allie’s throat. How could it when she was certain the dynamics between her and Rafe had changed? The fact she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what that change was—or why it had come about—had her tangled nerves feeling tight beneath her skin. “It was nice of you to volunteer for kitchen duty,” she said while drying one of the wi
Chapter 9
Chapter 10 “I can’t stop thinking about him dragging me into that van. It’s like I can feel his hands on me all over again.” Listening to the caller’s distressed voice through the phone’s headset, Allie sat in her home office, inputting the woman’s pain-filled words into her computer. This was the victim’s first call to the Friends Foundation’s hotline. If she phoned again, the volunteer who answered could access the foundation’s computer system and see the background information Allie was currently compiling. “Olivia, what you’re going through is understandable.” The training Allie had received to work with victims of violent crime was so ingrained she no longer had to consciously remind herself to keep her voice calm. Unemotional. “It’s going to take time for you to figure out how to deal with what happened to you.” “How much time?” The words came in a trembling rush. “It’s been three months since he grabbed me in that dark parking lot. My boyfriend says I should stop thinking about
Chapter 10
Chapter 11 T he dream jolted Rafe awake. In his mind, it hadn’t been the walls of Allie’s bedroom closing in on him but the iron bars of his prison cell. Black, cloying memories twisted his insides into knots. His fingers curled into the sheet. He felt the nausea roll in his stomach, the familiar cold sweat break out on his skin, and the unfamiliar sensation of a woman wrapped around him. “Are you okay?” she murmured, her voice foggy with sleep. He bit back a strangled curse that he’d woken her. The last thing he wanted was for her to witness him battling the demon from his past. “I’m fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “Be back in a minute.” He wasn’t fine. He’d had the dream often enough to know that trying to reason with the panic that tightened his throat and made his lungs strain was wasted effort. The monster clawing at his insides wasn’t going to stop until he got outside where the air was clean and there were no walls caging him in. Her palm moved against his chest. “Your hea
Chapter 11
Chapter 12 “H old it steady while I get my side secured on the hanger,” Rafe said. “Will do.” Gripping the opposite end of the medicine cabinet, Allie willed her heart rate to steady, which was wasted effort because only two inches separated her from bulging biceps and muscles rippling beneath tight olive skin. Oh, my. “So what brings you here today?” he asked, keeping his attention focused on his task. She scrambled to think past the sudden discovery that male sweat could, indeed, be an aphrodisiac. “It wasn’t on my schedule. But I found out the mom and her kids who are going to live here are coming by later to see the house for the first time. Before they get here, I want to touch up a few places where the wall paint went on too thin.” “I planned to drop by your shop.” Rafe tested his side of the cabinet, then moved to hers. “To update you on Dena.” Allie’s nerves went on point. Like an invisible splinter beneath her skin, thoughts of the woman and her young son had worried her since
Chapter 12
Chapter 13 S he needed girl-talk, Allie decided while snipping a stray thread off the ivory satin basque Katie Jones was scheduled to try on in the morning. The clock on the long-legged design table tucked into a corner of Silk & Secret’s plush fitting room showed it was one minute to closing time. Claire would be at her antique shop next door and Liz was due off her shift in an hour. Allie had stocked the shop’s small kitchen area with several bottles of good wine. Dinner could be ordered in. And it was a sure bet Claire had a quart of the chocolate cherry ice cream she kept on hand in case of girlfriend emergencies. Allie figured the ache in her heart qualified as one. She closed her eyes on a wave of pain. Dammit, hours had passed since the melt-your-skin-off-your-bones encounter with Rafe, but she could still feel the imprint of his mouth, his hands on her. She could still taste him. “Not for long,” she muttered. She might not be able to do anything about the bruising her heart had
Chapter 13
Epilogue
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