Yesterday's Sins (41 page)

"I told you I didn't need that." She glanced at the tin in his hand.

Ignoring her protest, he laid it on the table and flicked it open. The glossy green contrasted sharply with the scarred wood. "Two pairs of hands are better than one."

His good natured comment had Jenna grinding her teeth in frustration.
Boy, does this guy love himself—or what?

He produced a penlight and shone it on the cut. The splinter glittered in the pinpoint beam. This did as little to soothe her temper as his satisfied smile.

Who the heck
was
he? His air of casual elegance exuded wealth and privilege. Those charcoal slacks and cream shirt never came off any ready-to-wear peg.

At five three, her head barely reached his shoulder. A quick glance at him through her lashes had her inhaling a shaken breath. The heady spice of pine, sea and warm, healthy male stirred an instinctive feminine appreciation.

A reaction as annoying as it was unexpected.

Inhaling a shaken breath, she squashed it flat.

Never again would she allow a good looking guy, no matter how hot, to derail her plans.

Once, she'd allowed a life-long friendship and loneliness to blind her to the obvious—and now she was a single mother of twins.

"Doesn't that make it easier to see?" The deep rumble of the stranger's voice added to her unsettled irritation
.

"Some." On that grudging admission, she caught the splinter with the tweezers and deftly removed it.

Zach wriggled and curled his toes, whimpering, "Ouchie."

"Mama kiss it better." She lifted his foot and kissed it. "Hush, sweetheart. Finish your raisins."

"Is that all of it? Does it need stitches?"

Jenna stopped swabbing the cut and gaped up at him.
Was he for real?
"It's a splinter for cripes sake, not a cut artery."

"Any injury to a child is serious."

She selected a plaster from the packet in the first aid box and covered the tiny cut on Zach's foot, lifted him down from the table and watched as he ran to join his sister not even favouring the foot. "I take it you have a dozen kids?"

A dull flush crept up under his tan. "Since when has being concerned for a child's safety been a crime?"

Anger had her sucking in a sharp breath. "Who the heck do you think are you?"

Her unwelcome visitor put his hands in his trouser pockets, pulled out a cell phone and two shotgun cartridges.

Suddenly wary, Jenna's gaze winged upwards. Apprehension spiked as she saw his lips thin to a grim line. His grey eyes were as hard as polished steel.

"Gabriel Callahan. And by rights I should call the cops, have you arrested and hauled off to jail."

Ashlyn's Bodyguard
 
The Mulleins of Katherine Bay

© Shirley Wine 2012
 
http://amzn.com/B008V4JPKI

The second book In the Mulleins of Katherine Bay

An attempt to thwart thieves goes horribly wrong and Ashlyn Pritchard is forced to flee. Cast off by her wealthy high-achieving family, and with an international criminal on her trail, she accepts Jace Mullein’s offer of protection, but it comes with strings. He'll be her bodyguard, twenty-four-seven—if she marries him.

As the danger escalates, Ashlyn learns to trust Jace. Then she discovers the truth about his past. It's too late to retreat, but she needs to question everything about the man she has come to love. Does she mean anything to him at all, or is Jace using her only to exact revenge for past slights?

Excerpt

A shaft of light splintered the darkness of the alley behind the museum. Light where there should be none.

Jace Mullein almost choked on his last swallow of soda.

His fist clenched and the can crumpled with the force. He swore under his breath when he glimpsed the woman momentarily illuminated in the bright beam.

Was that the curator? Did the freaking woman have a death wish?

Shoving the empty in a pocket he tensed, every sense alert. As she ran towards him a flicker of torchlight captured her panicked flight, pale face rigid with terror.

And Jace reacted.

If Santos caught her she would die, horribly.

As she came abreast, he caught her around the waist and plastered a hand over her mouth to silence the scream he could feel bubbling in her throat. She bucked and came alive in his arms in a demented frenzy. Arms, legs, elbows, every body part of hers became a weapon. It took all his strength to immobilize her limbs, protect his family jewels and maintain the pressure on her mouth.

"Quiet," he breathed in her ear. "You want to get us both killed?"

He held her so close he could smell her fear, some sort of light floral scent and a warm, womanly musk.

Her struggles eased as she shook her head.

"I'm with Ace Security. I won't hurt you, okay? If I move my hand will you be quiet?"

She nodded, but the way she trembled left him far from reassured.

Working with police, his firm was staking out the Katherine Bay Gallery trying to nab a gang of artefact thieves. Intel pointed to an imminent raid on the current exhibition. The one person Jace never expected to catch was the acting curator. Had she tipped off the raiders?

Muffled thuds and harsh whispers suggested she had. A hasty footstep, the scrape of metal on stone and a startled yelp were far too close.

Jace pushed her face into the cove of his neck. Blood thundered in his ears. His heart pounded a kettle-drum beat against his ribs. He yanked off his black beanie, dragged it over her head and scooped up the fall of hair shimmering like a beacon in the dark.

The footsteps were now distinct.

"See her?"

The sandpaper rough voice was so close Jace daren't risk using his two-way radio to alert his team. His grip on the woman tightened when she shuddered.

Would she betray them both?

"Nah. Let's split."

The second man's cool, precise tones made Jace even more aware of their danger. Was this Santos's head honcho, a man whose ruthless reputation preceded him?

"You shoulda cut her off."

"The broad decked 'arry. She can't get far. Carl's at the other end. You go up the lane, I'll go down here." Torch light flickered again. "Turn it off you fool."

"No need to get snotty. Santos will be mad if she gets away."

"He gets right nasty missin' his fun you mean?"

Jace's captive shuddered and moved closer as she tried to crawl inside his skin.

Still bickering in low voices, the two men moved away.

Jace loosened his hold, opened a door leading to a courtyard. As he pushed her through the opening, he hurled the empty can down the alley. It hit trash cans, the clatter echoed by a shout as their pursuers headed in that direction.

"Quick." Jace caught her wrist, hauled her at breakneck speed across the courtyard through a second door and down another alley. He knew these alleys blindfold. In the past they were among his favourite places to hang out and tonight that knowledge came in handy. "We've given them the slip, but we have to move."

"Let me go," she panted, trying to wrench her hand free.

"Lady, Santos's victims don't die easy. You want to be next?

If smooth voice caught them—the thought increased Jace's speed even as he cursed the laws preventing them carrying firearms. What he wouldn't give for the security of a pistol right about now.

She shuddered and stopped struggling, catching his urgency.

He hauled her behind the dumpster where he'd stashed his motorbike earlier that day. The sound of running footsteps sounded behind them, far too close.

Without breaking stride he boosted her as she jumped astride the bike and he leaped on in front of her. "Hang on lady. We need to get out of here. Fast."

He kicked up the stand as the roar of the powerful engine split the silence. The beam from the headlight picked out two men in stark relief. Jace reacted with well-honed skill, gunned the engine and aimed the bike at their pursers. They dived, one to each side of the alley, cursing obscenities.

Once past them, he weaved from side to side. Infuriated shouts faded amid the whine of bullets, his passenger clinging to him like a limpet to a rock.

Return to Totara Park

© Shirley Wine 2012
 
http://amzn.com/B0076I1HGA

Winsome Grainger left Totara Park with a terrible secret in her heart and a darker secret in her past vowing never to return. A vow shattered when she and her estranged husband, Jared each inherit a half share in Totara Park, the Grainger Dynasty’s Estate.

Under the terms of Jared’s father’s Will, he and Winsome must live on Totara Park together for two years or the Estate will be sold. Unable to live with the knowledge that, through her, Jared stands to lose his heritage, Winsome reluctantly returns with their four year old daughter Lacey.

Unsure of her husband’s support, she suffers the guilt of the damned. Never possessing the courage to confide these dark secrets in Jared, Winsome has time to regret never telling him why she walked out on their marriage, why she left him, or why she left Totara Park.

Now these secrets threaten not only her shaky marriage and her love for Jared, they threaten her precious child’s life, her own life…Filled with foreboding, she discovers she’s a mere pawn in a dark and deadly game. A game whose rules she doesn’t know…

Review by Love Romance

Rating: 4.5 Hearts

This book was deftly written. The story has it all - mystery, intrigue, betrayal and romance. It has well developed characters…who leave an indelible impression on the reader. This was a very enjoyable read and I look forward to the next book by the author. © Love Romances, 2001-2003. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpt

W
insome Grainger struggled to remain calm.

One glance at her estranged husband made that almost impossible. Although no longer the shy, insecure girl who'd come to Totara Park as Jared's bride, she feared the impending meeting. It hung over her head like the sword of Damocles.

Up ahead was Gaelen's house nestled in its grove of oaks.

The last leaves of autumn clung to the trees. Fallen leaves lay in mouldering heaps against the railings and beneath the sod, bulbs waited for spring.

As did the malevolent secrets of Totara Park.

Winsome shivered, suddenly very afraid.

Suffocating tension tortured every cell of her body as Jared parked in the driveway behind Gaelen's car and switched off the engine. Between them, unspoken, lay the past, with all its grief and anger. Jared's parting ultimatum a tangible barrier.