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“Go back to your reading,but read out loud,” Alex said. He closed his eyes as he settled deeper into the mattress with another sigh. “I like your voice.” Sarah would have enjoyed the compliment if she hadn’t been so horrified by the thought of reading the scene he had just interrupted. She couldn’t possibly continue from where she’d left off. Rachel and Kee had been doing it. “I—ah—I’ll just read you the first chapter, since I only started this book this evening,” she said, marking her page and quickly leafing back to chapter one. “What kind of book is it?” “A…it’s sort of a mystery,” she whispered. “Written by a woman who lives right here in Maine. It’s set on the coast. There’s a bit of romance in it, too.” His mouth slashed into a grin, and his eyes opened when he lifted an eyebrow. “Any good stuff? Any heavy breathing and groping?”
Chapter One A lex Knight fought the fatigue weighing on his eyelids and brushed an unsteady hand through his hair in an attempt to wipe the fog from his brain. He needed to stay focused on the road ahead, to avoid the final irony of cheating death in the jungles of Brazil only to die in a car wreck less than ten miles from home. He rolled down the window of the rented sedan and sucked in the crisp November air, hoping the scent of fir and spruce and pine would perk him up. Not three days ago, he’d thought the rotting jungle would be the last thing he smelled and screaming monkeys the last thing he heard. But he was home now, thanks to a healthy amount of luck and the determination not to die in that stinking jungle at the hands of some crazy rebel bastards. Well, luck and the thought of his father and brothers who needed him, and his two would-be orphaned children who needed him even more. Alex came fully awake the moment he turned onto the Knights’ private logging road, anticipation q
Chapter One
Chapter Two T alk about good deeds coming back to bite her! Holy smokes, she had a husband! A very-much-alive husband, who apparently wasn’t any happier to find himself married than she was. Sarah ran down the forest path as if the demons of hell were nipping at her heels, then picked her way along the lakeshore until she came to her thinking rock. Trembling uncontrollably, she climbed up the huge boulder and sat down in the deep bowl sculpted into its side facing the lake. Only then, once she was settled in her private little hidey-hole, with her knees pulled up to her chest and her face buried in her hands, did she finally break into gut-wrenching sobs. A husband. What in the world was she supposed to do with a towering, broad-shouldered, blue-eyed husband? Alex Knight was even taller than his equally imposing brother Ethan and as forebodingly scary as Paul was boyishly charming. This was Grady’s fault, dammit, for talking her into marrying his dead son. What had looked like a perfec
Chapter Two
Chapter Three T he jerk! Sarah took a long swig of her whiskey-laced lemonade and glared at the closed door. The arrogant jerk—implying she’d spent the last four hours buttering him up because she was afraid of being fired! Alex might be the heir apparent, but Grady had given Sarah his word that she would have a home here on Knight land for as long as she wanted. Sarah took an angry swipe at the moisture suddenly welling in her eyes. Grady had even called her daughter last week and given her a fatherly hug when they’d come out of Judge Rogers’s chambers. Ethan and Paul had hugged her, too, and they had called her sister. Just because Alex Knight had the nerve to be alive didn’t mean she would be sent packing. She was not some disposable pawn, just because she was no longer needed to protect the children. And she sure as heck would never lower herself to groveling to keep her position. Sarah took another swig of her drink. She’d spent twelve miserable years indebted to Martha Banks and
Chapter Three
Chapter Four “D o you remember what I told you in our workout room, right after you kissed me?” Keenan asked, reaching behind her and gently lifting her braid, pulling it over her shoulder. “I—” Rachel swallowed and tried again. “I don’t remem—what did you say?” she asked hoarsely, trying to see his face through the shadows. She couldn’t see a damn thing, so she looked down—and could only watch, mesmerized, as he deftly opened the clasp, pocketed her barrette, and then slowly twined the freed ends of her hair around his fingers. “I told you the next time we reached this point, that I intended to finish it.” “And we…we’re at that point now?” Slowly, and with such gentle precision that Rachel tingled all the way down to her toes, Kee began undoing her braid. “We’re past that point, Rachel.” Her skin tightened in awareness. The braid slowly unfurled, and his hand moved higher. Breathing became difficult. And when his fingers finally reached the nape of her neck, he cupped her head, leaned
Chapter Four
Chapter Five I t was the water that woke him. Cold November water straight from the lake, Alex knew as he sat up with a roar; Grady’s weapon of choice whenever he was mad at one of his sons. This morning his father was in a full rage, judging by the looks of him. Well, what Alex could see. His eyes felt as if they were filled with sand, and the bright morning sunlight made it difficult to focus. The sledgehammer pounding in his head wasn’t helping much, either. “Nice to see you, too, Dad,” Alex croaked, his throat begging for some of the water dripping in his eyes. “What in hell have you done?” Grady shouted. “I talked to you not ten hours ago, and you promised me everything was fine and that you’d be on your best behavior with Sarah.” He pointed his finger at Alex. “Where is she? And what in hell are you doing in her bed?” Alex raised one eyebrow. “I’m alive and well.” “I can see that,” Grady snapped. “Where’s Sarah?” Alex raised his other brow. “My wife, you mean?” “Yes, your wife, y
Chapter Five
Chapter Six A ll Sarah wanted to do was stand under a hot shower for three hours, crawl into her bed, and stay there for the next three months. But she had six very ecstatic people to feed, six mattresses covered with lavender buds to vacuum and make up, and probably a hundred dirty dishes to wash and put away after dinner. She stood in the middle of her bedroom in a dazed stupor, staring at her wet bed as she listened to the shouts and squeals coming from down at the dock. The wet bed she understood; she’d had to dry out Paul’s mattress last month when Grady had abruptly awakened his youngest son the morning after Paul had fired one of their crew without discussing it with anyone. Sarah suddenly smiled at the realization that Alex had gotten the same treatment this morning. Good. She hoped he had come awake with a pounding headache that throbbed as much as hers still did. Sarah finally forced herself to move. She pulled off the wet sheets, dug around in her closet for the fan she had
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven S arah woke up at nine and quickly dressed to make everyone breakfast, but she found only an empty house. A note on the table said that Grady and Alex and Delaney and Tucker had gone to Greenville, which was thirty miles past Oak Grove, and Ethan and Paul were out at the cutting, checking on their crew. The note also said not to expect any of them home until late afternoon. So Sarah ate cold cereal and spent the rest of the morning convincing herself that she’d made the right decision to stay. Just the thought of leaving made her heart ache, she loved Delaney and Tucker so much. And she still wasn’t ready to give up her dream of opening the sporting camps, despite knowing that whether it was three miles separating them or three hundred miles, she would never be able to get Alex Knight out of her head. When she had thrown her sheets into the washer, she had blushed the whole time, unable to forget the feel of his mouth on her breasts. How was she going to survive living un
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight O n Tuesday morning, the first day of December, Sarah found herself standing in front of a monster. The darn thing actually had a ladder built into it for climbing up into the cab, and it was such an ugly green that it looked like a seasick monster. Heck, even the tires were taller than she was. But what truly alarmed Sarah was that Alex was smiling at her with the same expectant smile she often saw on Tucker whenever there was trouble brewing. What was Mr. Alex Knight up to now? He had pulled her aside after breakfast this morning and asked if she would like to come to the cutting with them today, adding that maybe he would even let her drive his skidder. Surprised by his offer, though admittedly more curious than anything else, Sarah had said yes without even stopping to wonder why he was offering. Besides, if Delaney and Tucker could drive a skidder, she wanted to learn how. Which was why she was standing in a logging yard full of downed timber, suddenly uncertain as s
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine S arah forced herself to walk calmly across the massive front lawn until she reached the safety of the shadows. Then she started running, not slowing down until she reached the edge of the dooryard, where she finally stopped with her hand over her racing heart. Alex Knight wanted her! Well, he wasn’t getting her, dammit. She’d been railroaded into one marriage without realizing the implications; she was not letting herself get seduced into thinking this one would turn out any better. Sarah stood outside the reach of the porch light and stared through the kitchen windows at Delaney and Paul as they did the dishes. Alex hadn’t said anything about keeping their marriage permanent; he’d only admitted to wanting her. Sarah shoved her fists into her pockets and silently shook her head. She was throwing every damn romance novel she owned into the trash tomorrow, and she was never buying another one of those foolish dream weavers. They were turning her mind to mush, spinning fairy
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten C ornering Grady was like trying to catch fish without bait. He’d slipped out of the house the last three mornings before Sarah had even gotten out of bed, and in the evenings he locked himself away in the office right after dinner, then headed straight to bed from there. Avoiding Alex, however, was even harder than cornering Grady. The man wouldn’t leave her alone. Having told her he wanted her and being told he’d have to get in line seemed to have turned the Knight family darling into the family pest. Sarah had thought she was merely being honest but now realized she’d become a challenge. It seemed the more she was around Alex, the dumber she got. Like this morning, when he’d suggested she spend a few minutes sitting in one of the pickups to get familiar with it, so that when he popped home for lunch, she’d be ready for a driving lesson. Sarah had planned to head up the lake and start cleaning one of the cabins to live in and had told Alex she didn’t have time today, but
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven S arah put her plans to move up the lake on hold, to take care of Alex for the next several days. She sat in the great room with him for hours each day. Sometimes they’d watch her how-to shows together, sometimes she would read to him, but sometimes they’d simply sit and talk—mostly about her, since that seemed to appease his growing restlessness. She didn’t know how it happened, but Sarah found herself telling Alex all about her life growing up on Crag Island, about her parents, and about the twelve years the Bankses had plagued her. She, however, was only able to get bits and pieces of Alex’s life, since every time she asked about his childhood, he always managed to turn the conversation back to her. The man should have been a CIA agent instead of an engineer. Alex was initially an amiable patient, although he grumbled whenever he limped to the bathroom. He entertained his kids after school by checking their homework and planning their approaching Christmas vacation, j
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve H e was going to have to make some modifications to Sarah’s Christmas present, Alex realized as he turned onto the newly built logging road. Continuing the driving lesson, he explained to Sarah that he was shifting the truck into four-wheel drive because of the five inches of unplowed snow. Though she’d done fairly well today, she was a long way from mastering the gas pedal. She would start out well enough, determined to get the tachometer exactly on 1500 rpm, but the moment she looked out through the windshield, she would start pressing harder and harder on the gas, as if she were trying to catch up with something. Life, maybe? Did Sarah feel she had to rush headlong at life before it left her behind? From what she’d told him of her childhood growing up on Crag Island, Alex could well understand Sarah’s addiction to satellite TV. Almost everything she knew about the real world she had apparently learned from watching television and reading. It rather alarmed Alex to thi
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen I f the ride home was filled with tension so strong it hummed, the rest of the day proved even more intense. Grady had been home when Sarah and Alex returned at noon, and he had told them someone had broken the windows out of their equipment at the cutting and slashed all the hydraulic hoses. He’d been on the phone since ten, calling for parts to repair them, and Paul had gone looking for Ethan. Everyone, including Ethan, sat down to dinner that evening and attempted to keep the conversation light for Delaney and Tucker’s sake. Even though the kids knew what had happened, the men suspected it was likely a bunch of bored teenagers causing trouble again, which had been the case three years ago, Sarah learned. “Delaney has decided to join our fishing challenge,” Sarah told Alex, attempting to keep the mood light. “She said she would love an evening of dining and dancing with her father when we catch more fish than you.” Alex smiled at his daughter, then turned his piercin
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen T hey’d gotten another eight inches of snow, and the New Year arrived with enough sunshine to bring the temperature up to thirty degrees. Perfect for fishing and riding a baby snowmobile on Frost Lake, Grady had declared at breakfast. Sarah’s determined smile caught Alex’s eye, because he had no idea what the crazy woman had to smile about. She had come out of the lodge with five of the most pathetic-looking fishing traps he had ever seen, and Paul had taken to a fit of laughing when he recognized them as white elephants that Mary had been trying to sell for years. But Alex had quickly ended Paul’s amusement with one well-placed snowball, which started a storm of frozen missiles flying at everyone. Except for Sarah. She was already on the lake, carrying her woebegone traps under her arm, a bait pail and ice scoop in one hand and a chisel in the other. Alex groaned. She was going to be one of those serious fishermen, he could tell from her no-nonsense walk. He headed ou
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen T he meeting began at eight-thirty. Tucker and Delaney were already sound asleep after a full day of fresh air and sun, fish battling, snowmobiling, and kite chasing. Sarah had the table set, and the aroma of fresh coffee and apple crisp filled the kitchen. She poured the coffee, dished out the crisp, and headed for the great room to watch TV. “Sit down, Sarah,” Alex said, pushing out the chair beside him. “You’re involved in what’s been going on around here as much as we are, so you might as well give us your input.” “About what?” Sarah returned and sat down beside Alex. “I really don’t have anything to say.” “Oh, I think you have something to say to Grady.” “I do?” she asked, glancing at Grady, who was giving his oldest son a questioning look. Alex pulled a large red binder from his lap and set it in front of his father. “I imagine you want to remind Grady that he has yet to tell us about your plans to reopen the sporting camps.” The silence lasted exactly two seconds
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen S arah sat motionless behind the wheel of her SUV, little clouds of condensation filling the cab as she stared out the windshield at the imprint of her backside on the right front fender. Understand it’s not me you’re running from, but yourself, Alex had told her last night, his words echoing long after she’d run to her bedroom. She hadn’t even bothered to clear the table from their meeting, she’d been so flustered. And after a restless night’s sleep with Alex’s warning repeatedly whispering through her dreams, she’d gotten up early and cleaned the kitchen before making breakfast. Sarah had thought breakfast would never end. The kids didn’t want to go back to school, the two younger Knight brothers were still trying to come to terms with being mill owners, and Alex had been so silently there that every nerve in Sarah’s body had hummed in awareness. Even Grady had been subdued, his mind on the few parts they still hadn’t been able to get for their vandalized machinery. A
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen S till reeling from the news that she was five weeks pregnant, Sarah absently picked at the bandage on her right hand. Though she wasn’t quite ready to admit it to Alex, she was ecstatic to be having a baby. She didn’t care if it was a boy or a girl, as long as it was as happy and healthy as Delaney and Tucker. Sarah’s only regret was that her baby would be born right in the middle of a crazy, mixed-up mess of circumstances. But Alex was a good man as well as a great father, and she didn’t doubt for a minute that he would do the right thing for their baby. But what exactly was the right thing? Would he insist they stay married for real now? Or would he pay child support when they divorced and settle for visitation rights? Being a single mom wasn’t quite how Sarah had envisioned her future, but then, not much in her life had gone as planned since she’d turned fourteen. “Have your eyes stopped hurting?” “Yes.” “And your hand?” Alex asked, his own covering hers to make h
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen S arah woke up to someone softly snoring in bed beside her and remembered after a moment Delaney was sleeping with her. But when she couldn’t figure out why it was so solidly dark in her bedroom, it took a full minute before she remembered her eyes were bandaged. She carefully tested her right knee and found that it hurt to bend it, but most of her muscles were so stiff she didn’t even want to think about moving. Lord, she was pathetic. She couldn’t even drive five miles down a private road without smashing into the one vehicle she met. Her only saving grace was that she’d hit a pickup and not a loaded logging truck; she doubted she’d be waking up at all if she had. Sarah decided she needed a five-minute pity party before she began the seemingly insurmountable task of facing the day ahead. She must have slept on her injured hand, because her fingers were throbbing like the devil. Her right knee felt as bloated as a watermelon, and her eyes were watering again, though s
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen S arah woke up to the soft, rhythmic voice of someone reading out loud. But even as she tried to surface through the ethereal fog of confusion, she became lost in the scene painted by words. She was sitting in a pub in Puffin Harbor, trying to explain to Rachel Foster that the sexual drought she was experiencing was making her desperate enough to start soliciting dates on the steps of the state capitol. But she didn’t have a sister named Rachel. And her name wasn’t Willow Foster, and she couldn’t remember ever waking up in Duncan Ross’s bed. Sarah snapped open her eyes to solid blackness, gasping at the pain ripping through her right hand when she tried to use it to sit up. The reading stopped. “Easy, Sarah. You’re okay,” Alex said, his voice moving closer. “You’re on the floor of your sporting lodge, on a mattress in front of the fireplace. Don’t make any more sudden moves,” he continued gently, his strong hands on her shoulders laying her back down. “You’ve been slee
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty “W ho the hell is seducing whom?” Alex muttered as he stomped through the snow to his truck. Sarah had actually kissed him. And it hadn’t been one of those shy, tentative kisses, either, but a full-blown kiss that women gave men when they wanted to make love. He’d very nearly obliged her, too, but that would have ruined his carefully orchestrated plans. Or else he was dumber than dirt for not accepting her unwitting invitation. Alex jerked open the truck door, slid into the seat, and stared at the solid wall of snow covering the windshield. Unwitting was the key word here. Sarah couldn’t possibly have realized the signals she’d been sending him; she was too damn naive. She might know what her smile did to a guy, but she sure as hell didn’t realize the power of her kisses. And it hadn’t been all that experienced a kiss, either. But when a woman spent most of her time fighting off men’s kisses, she probably didn’t have much of a chance to practice giving them. He suddenly
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one S arah decided she wasn’t taking any more pain pills, not even a quarter of one. She was sorely tired of waking up to a solid wall of blackness, her mind stuffed with cotton and her muscles feeling like lead. And then there was the fact that someone was sleeping beside her again. Actually, he was surrounding her, more than lying beside her. “Good morning,” Alex whispered next to her ear, his arm tightening around her waist. “It is not morning. We just had lunch.” “Oh, that’s right.” The hand attached to that imprisoning arm slid up her belly. “But then, you can’t see, so you really can’t tell what time it is, can you?” Sarah halted his hand by covering it with her own, though his fingers continued to caress her ribs. “Your real name is Frankenstein, isn’t it? I shudder at the thought of Delaney and Tucker enduring your doctoring for two weeks.” He used his lightly stubbled cheek to move her hair so his lips could touch her ear when he spoke. “Careful, Sunshine, or yo
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two “H ow much will new engines cost?” Sarah asked, sitting in front of the crackling fire, eating God knew what for breakfast. She couldn’t tell by taste or smell whether Alex was trying to cure her or kill her. “We’re insured against vandalism, which this certainly is,” he said from someplace near the reception counter. “But it’ll probably cost more for the new engines than all our equipment is worth. Two of the skidders and the delimber are old, the harvester’s considered ancient, and insurance only covers their actual value.” She heard him walking across the room. “At least our newest skidder escaped the tainted fuel. It’s been in the shop waiting for a part to repair it.” “So how much will you have to pay out of pocket?” “All total? Probably sixty, seventy thousand dollars for the trucks, delimber, and skidders,” he said, this time from the woodstove. “And another two hundred and fifty thousand for a new harvester, since we might as well replace it instead of repair
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three S arah spent the next eight days worrying about which was going to give out first, her sanity or the clothes washer. The Knights were running a marathon of engine replacement and retrofitting, and she’d been trying to feed them and keep them clean with the use of only one hand. The men came into supper each night covered in grease from head to toe, their fingers wrapped in Band-Aids, and their eyelids drooping with fatigue. Even Tucker helped, heading out to the machine shed immediately after school to hand them tools. Delaney, bless her heart, was a great help to Sarah, especially when it came to moving Sarah’s stuff up to Alex’s bedroom. The girl had been positively beaming as she’d lugged clothes and toiletries upstairs. The only point Sarah had won in the last eight days was a promise from all the men that they wouldn’t tell the kids about the new baby. She wasn’t even seven weeks pregnant, and things could still go wrong in the first trimester. “You and Daddy
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four T wo hours later, the snow had stopped, but the wind continued to howl down from the threatening sky. The house felt unusually empty, and Sarah felt unusually edgy, to the point that she hadn’t answered the phone both times it had rung. Worried about Alex, she was in no mood to talk to anyone, much less deal with brokers trying to find the last skidder engine and truck motor. There wasn’t anything worth watching on all one hundred and fifty satellite channels, and every country-western video that came on was too damn maudlin. Sarah finally sat down on the couch with her sewing scissors and started snipping off the bandage on her right hand. Surely she could remove most of the gauze around the two metal splints in a way that would let her use her fingers for more than propping up stuff. The phone rang again, but Sarah ignored it and kept snipping, again letting the answering machine pick up. She heard Grady’s message, silence, a click, and then the dial tone, just li
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five S arah twisted and squirmed until she could face Alex and grab the front of his jacket. “It’s the smugglers!” she told him. “They burned our house and are headed up to the caves where somebody named Spencer is waiting for them. We have to get out of here!” she cried, tugging harder when Alex didn’t even acknowledge he’d heard her. “Come on!” But he still wouldn’t budge or say anything; he just mutely lowered his gaze to hers, his face ashen gray and his dark navy eyes haunted. Sarah smacked his chest. “There’s three of them, Alex. We have to get out of here!” He finally moved, only to grab her shoulders and violently shake her before crushing her against him, his arms locking around her like a vise. “Alex,” she yelped into his jacket, squirming to get free. “Will you listen to me? I smashed their snowmobiles down at the stream, but they’re going to come after us. And they have guns!” His arms only tightened more, and Sarah was forced to quit struggling because she c
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six S arah couldn’ t seem to get comfortable in the lumpy old chair; she couldn’t stop fidgeting, needing to get up and do something. But after the sixth time Alex had threatened to tie her down, with Grady and Paul backing him up, she had decided to let the men deal with the results of living in a town full of generous people. The growing piles of donations included not only enough food to feed a small nation but also mattresses, bedding, personal items, and clothing. At the rate stuff was accumulating, the Knight household was going to have more possessions than it had before. Most of it was stacked in the huge main room of the sporting lodge, spilling over into the kitchen while they waited for the electricity to be turned on and the whole lodge to be made livable. The rooms upstairs needed to be cleaned; many of the old mattresses were filled with more mouse nests than stuffing, the windows were so dirty even light couldn’t get through, and there were enough cobwebs
Chapter Twenty-six
Letter from Lake Watch Dear Readers, Not long after I met my husband—more years ago than I care to acknowledge—I found myself wondering what mysterious force could make a man sit on an ice-covered lake in below-freezing temperatures, and spend hours patiently waiting for a flag to signal that a fish had just taken the bait. Summer fishing I could understand; who wouldn’t enjoy spending a sunny day in a boat on a beautiful lake, having nothing to do but read, snooze, snack, and jump in the water to cool off? But when my future husband grabbed his ice-fishing traps and bait pail, and offered to take me with him one surprisingly bright winter morning, sheer curiosity had me trudging beside him onto the frozen lake. And that was the day I not only became hooked on winter fishing, but saw the entire world through new eyes. The magic began with the sound of a gasoline-powered ice auger as it bore through the frozen shroud of ice to suddenly well up a gusher of slush-laden water. I distinctly
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