Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (2 page)

BOOK: Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters)
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 “So, you’re the
motorcycle-ridin’ knight in chafed leather that rescued my little sister from a
hell of a fall last night, huh?  I’ve been hearing an awful lot from my sister,
Patience, about the leather-wearing stud that stumbled into Paradise a few weeks
ago.  Now, my other sister Faith is singing your praises, too, after saving her
the way you did last night.  I told them both that I needed to meet the guy
willing to go to bat for two women he didn’t even know.”  Harmony spoke softly,
her soft cornflower blue eyes meeting his own with a steady gaze.

“I’m not so sure
about that,” he scoffed, shaking his head slowly while he silently cursed the
purity and innocence shining in her eyes.  It was going to be a damn shame when
he watched that light get extinguished by the disaster heading in her
direction.  “I’m sure that pretty head of hers had to have at least a couple of
stitches.  A real knight would have made sure the damsels came out of the fray
unscathed, wouldn’t he?”

“Trust me, Faith’s
got a hard head and Patience went to sleep in her bed last night instead of a
jail cell.  Better still, they both came out of that fray breathin’ and whole,”
Harmony replied firmly.  “I’m gonna count it as a win all the way around and so
will the rest of our clan.  We have you to thank for that, Mister…,” she
trailed off, realizing that she didn’t know his last name.

“Name’s Jacob
Stone, ma’am,” he supplied, offering her his much larger hand over the worn
wooden table.

“Nice name.” She
grinned as she slowly took his hand in hers.  “I think I’ll just call you
Jake,” she declared with a wink as he felt a current of electricity skitter
through their connected palms.

Never in his
life had he allowed anybody to call him Jake.  He’d always thought it sounded
juvenile, but the way it rolled off her pretty lips sent a surge straight
through his groin.  “You could call me Mud and I’d answer, darlin’,” he replied
truthfully.

She rewarded him
with a giggle…an honest to God, straight-from-the-heart giggle.  And it had
made his night.  “I think I’ll stick with Jake.”

“And what should
I call you, Pretty Lady?” Jacob asked, doing a bang-up job at playing
completely clueless as he charmed her.  Watching a rosy blush fill her cheeks,
he waited for her to answer.

“H-harmony,” she
replied softly, stuttering a bit as she tripped over her name and looked at him
through her lowered lashes.  “Harmony McKinnon.”

“A pretty name
for a pretty woman.  It fits you, darlin’,” he returned quietly as her blush
deepened.  Surprisingly, he meant his words.  He’d been alive a long time and could
honestly say that he’d never seen a woman half as beautiful as she was.  It
wasn’t that she was movie star gorgeous.  No, her beauty was more understated
than that.  It was like she had some bright inner light burning at her core,
drawing him toward her and making him wish for things he had no business
wanting.

Like a home.  A
family.  A future.

He’d wondered
what the fuck was happening to him. 

It was like she
was a witch that had cast a spell over him… one that he had no desire to try
and break. 

Jesus, he was
turning into a dickless sap.

It was clear
that his compliment had stunned her and he wondered just what kind of men she’d
been hanging around if she could be so easily tongue tied by a little light
flirting.  He couldn’t possibly be telling her anything a hundred men before
him hadn’t shared. 

Maybe she was a
prude, he had reasoned to himself.  The problem was that she didn’t seem like
one.  He’d met prudes.  Usually, they were uptight, holier-than-thou types that
seemed like they had a stick firmly implanted up their asses.  He could already
tell that wasn’t Harmony’s gig.  She’d been open and friendly when she’d
greeted him.  Nope, this seemed like more of an ingrained and deeply seated
shyness.

Shyness, he
could work with…

“Thank you. 
I’ve always thought it was corny the way my parents named me and my sisters.  
There are four of us.  You know Patience and Faith by now.  Then, there are me
and Honor.  I always wondered what Momma was thinking when she christened us. 
Unfortunately, I never got around to askin’ her before she passed away.”  She
shook her head sadly, looking almost forlorn, before blinking quickly several
times and lifting her gaze back to his.  “Listen to me babblin’ on like a
fool,” she sputtered as more color flooded her cheeks, embarrassed.

“Darlin’, I
could listen to you babble all day long,” Jacob replied, shocked to recognize
that he was telling her the truth.  Before he consciously realized he’d moved,
he had settled one of his large hands over hers where it rested on the scarred
table and squeezed gently, trying to convey his silent support.  He tried not
to let it sting when she withdrew her hand quickly and took a step back.  She
wasn’t the first woman that he’d made uncomfortable with his size and demeanor. 
The fact that he looked like a thug with his tattooed arm and overgrown hair
hadn’t escaped his notice; he’d just hoped she’d see past it.  Strangely, he
found himself wanting to comfort her though.  She looked lost.  And sad.  And
he didn’t like seeing the unhappiness shining in her eyes.  Not one bit. 

“So, you’ve
brought me a reward for my good deed, huh?” he asked, trying to put her at ease
again by distracting her from her thoughts.

“What?” Harmony
questioned blankly, wincing when Jacob merely nodded down at the saucer she’d
placed in front of him a few minutes ago.  “Oh!  Yes!” She agreed with a quick
smile.  “It’s the least we could do.  Honor made that fresh this morning
especially for you.  It’s one of her signature desserts.  Lucky Lemon Lush. 
She only makes it on special occasions and for special people.  You really
endeared yourself to us last night and that there,” she said with a nod at the
airy looking dessert, “is Honor’s way of saying how much she appreciates what
you did.  We all do.  You, sir, just got the McKinnon family seal of approval
whether you wanted it or not.”

Oh, he had
wanted it.  Desperately.  Their approval, or more specifically Harmony’s
approval, was vital to his endgame.

“I’d say that
seal is a valuable thing to have in this town.  You ladies are pretty well
known around these parts,” he noted easily.

“Well, our place
is the only joint you can get a decent meal that doesn’t come out of a paper
bag or down a cold one after a long hard day at work.  I think our popularity
has more to do with the food and drink than with us personally.”

“I think you’re
underestimating yourself, but be that as it may, a man can never have too many
friends… especially the pretty kind.”

There went the
blush again.  He grinned as he watched the color spread.  “So, will you join me
for a bite, Miss McKinnon?” he asked, gesturing to the bench across from him. 
“I’d love your company.”

“I wish I
could,” Harmony denied with true regret shining in her expressive eyes, “but, I
need to pick up my daughter from daycare.”

“You have a
little girl?” he asked innocently, tilting his head, that information already
part of his dossier.

Harmony laughed
again as she nodded.  “Yes, she just turned four, but some days I feel like
it’s four going on forty with some of the things that come out of her mouth.”

“Maybe tomorrow
then,” he suggested, keeping his deep voice friendly and inviting.  “I’d love to
pick the mind of a native about the town.  I’m thinking of opening a business
in the area and wouldn’t mind knowing who the good realtors and so on are in
the area,” he offered, telling a half-truth.  He did fully intend on starting
his own business once he retired from the DEA, although he hadn’t given much
thought to where it would be.  Paradise was as good a place to start looking as
anywhere else at the moment, though.  It wasn’t like he was going anywhere
until the job was done.  And he did enjoy the scenery, he admitted silently as
he watched Harmony tuck a strand of her shoulder length ash blonde hair behind
her small ear.

“Oh.  What
business are you in?” she inquired curiously.

“Security,” he
fibbed, the untruth rolling smoothly off his tongue.  Not a complete lie, but
not the truth either.  Besides, being an excellent liar was practically a job
requirement for an undercover agent, and he was an excellent agent.

“That’s…
interesting,” she murmured, a tiny frown line appearing between her eyebrows.  She
got distracted at that point as raised voices at the front of the bar had drawn
their attention.

“I’m telling
you, it’s unconstitutional!” Patience McKinnon yelled from behind the bar as
she waved what looked like a yellow ticket underneath some poor guy’s nose.  “I
pay my taxes, and as such, MY money helped pay for those city streets.  Nobody
should be double-charged like that, Abel Turner!”

“And I’m telling
YOU,” the man in a well-fit business suit shouted back at her, “You have no
CASE!”  He illustrated his bellowed remark by holding his expensive looking
leather briefcase above his head and shaking it. 

“Oh, crap,”
Harmony murmured, her eyes widening on the pair of combatants as Patience
loudly threatened to come over the bar.  “I promised Honor no bloodshed today. 
Swore on a Bible and everything,” she almost whimpered, biting her lower lip as
Patience’s hands both slammed down on the bar and rattled two unsuspecting
diner’s glasses.

“This happen a
lot?” Jacob asked with an amused nod toward a furious Patience and the sneering
man standing opposite her.

“Oh, once a week
or so.  Tensions have been escalatin’ between the two for a few months now,”
Harmony explained, watching the two enemies as they seemed to pause and size
each other up.  “Last week, a bar stool, a serving tray and a perfectly
innocent blackberry cobbler were casualties of their ongoing war.  I better go
break them up before somebody loses more than their dessert today.”

Jacob couldn’t
help his chuckle as he heard Patience goad the man in front of her with, “Yeah,
well, if you weren’t such a lousy lawyer, Abel, you’d find a way to MAKE a case
for me!”

“Yeah, I think
you better go intercede,” he agreed with Harmony quickly when he saw Patience
reach for an empty glass pitcher with a malicious gleam in her eye.

Nodding, Harmony
flashed him a quick smile.  “I have appointments until 10 tomorrow and work
from 11 until 3.  If you want, I can get Honor to pick up my little girl,
Heaven, from daycare tomorrow and help you tomorrow afternoon.”

“It’s a date.”
His grin quickly fell away as her face paled at his statement.

“No, it’s not,”
she returned quickly with a stiff shake of her head.  “I don’t date.”

“You don’t? 
Ever?”

“I don’t. 
Ever.”  Her statement was both insistent and emphatic.

Damn, she was
serious, he thought to himself as he listened to that grave little voice of
hers.  It was becoming real clear that the ex-husband he’d read about in her
file had done a serious number on her. 

“Okay, then,” he
said carefully.  “Not a date. How about a friendly afternoon snack between two
new friends?” he amended calmly, watching as she swallowed hard.

“Okay, that
would work,” she relented, almost reluctantly.  Then, she tried to smile at
him, but it was half-hearted at best.  “Sorry.  I just didn’t want you to get
the wrong idea.  It’s not you, Jake.  You seem like a nice guy.  It’s most
definitely me.”

“I sense there’s
a story here that you’re not quite ready to share with me,” he surmised
astutely, keeping his gaze steady as he met her eyes.

“Something like
that,” she acknowledged softly.

“Maybe someday
you’ll feel like you can tell me.”

“Maybe,” Harmony
murmured uncomfortably just before Patience shrieked a demand for Abel Turner
to vacate the premises as she held the empty glass pitcher above her head. 
Looking over her shoulder, Harmony groaned.  “Sorry, Jake, but I gotta go,” she
apologized before hurrying toward her sister.

He laughed as he
watched Harmony quickly disarm her sister and mediate a truce at the bar.  He
barely made out what her soft voice was saying, but he watched as her body had
slowly relaxed as she diffused the tension between her sister and the lousy
attorney.  After she made sure that the last angry embers of their altercation
were extinguished, he saw her quickly gather her jacket and purse from beneath
the long counter and press a kiss to Patience’s cheek.

With a cheery
wave at him and smile, she left.

He sat in that
booth a long time, replaying their conversation in his head and slowly drawing
more than one conclusion about Harmony McKinnon.

First, that
woman was no criminal.  Over the years, he’d gotten damn good at reading a
person’s eyes and seeing what kind of individual he was dealing with. When he’d
stared into her gaze, he’d seen nothing but a woman that had both known pain
and survived it without allowing it to taint all that was good in her.  There
was no deceit… no subterfuge.  Just the crystal clear blue eyes of a woman that
a man like him did NOT deserve to share air with, let alone her company.

BOOK: Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters)
6.64Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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